First Flurries

Cardinal in First Flurries – Photo: L. Weikel

Yup, it’s definitely starting to feel like winter, even though we’ve not technically arrived there yet. Here in eastern Pennsylvania we experienced our first flurries and snow coating of the season.

I hope I never get so old that I don’t feel the joy of ‘first flakes’ fluttering in my heart as they come cascading out of the sky. I know, I know. There are personal safety issues that arise with the arrival of the slippery stuff. I’m not talking about the stresses that might accompany having to walk or drive anywhere essential in the snow. I simply never want to have my first reaction to seeing snow be anything other than a touch of childlike glee.

Critter Reactions

I’ll admit it; I had to laugh at the birds falling all over themselves at the feeders. I should’ve taken more photos of the house finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, and cardinals crowding and dive bombing each other at the feeder just outside my living room window. You’d think it was the equivalent of avian Black Friday.

But I did manage to get a lovely photo of a mama cardinal that looks almost staged. I only wish I could activate the ‘live’ feature of the photo within this post because when I hold my finger down on the photo in my phone, you can’t miss the curtain of flurries falling from the sky as she turns and winks at me.

Squirrel Squatter – Photo: L. Weikel

Squirrel Squatter

While I was making my morning coffee, I had to laugh at the unexpected sighting of a squirrel balancing on a metal hanger for a floral basket. I cannot imagine that its tiny little peds aren’t freezing. I hope they didn’t stick to the metal when s/he went to move. They probably didn’t, although I was surprised at how long it hung out there. It did not look like the most comfortable perch.

Luckily, the temperature was just under freezing. I think that tongue-sticking-to-a-metal-pole type of reaction only happens when everything is in a deep, deep freeze.

Slugs

And then there were the spoiled creatures that live in our home. Cletus and Spartacus were not venturing far away from the fire. They much preferred watching the flakes from the window or the door. Or even better, from the vantage point of inside their dreaming eyes.