The Mallards are coming in for their morning feed. As soon as the garage door starts to rise on the other side of the house, they murmur quietly and file one by one ashore for breakfast. I fill a coffee can with cracked corn and swish it noisily as I walk around the front of the house. The murmur is louder and a bit more urgent. It's been a long, cold night. When they leave the water, some of the ducks hunker down on the snow to keep their legs warm. Hard to believe but the water is warmer than the air. So they sit, then walk a few steps, then sit again. Once they get to the grain they eat quickly and quietly, savoring the corn.
In the meantime, the Anna's hummingbird is impatiently buzzing the rhodies near his feeder. The sugar water has frozen during the night and the hummer knows that I will switch the feeder out for a warm, liquid one. I'm just not moving fast enough! Quite a lot of dashing to and fro around me, perching, then more looping. Imagine how in need of nourishment that tiny body must be after so many hours of cold. Hummingbirds go into 'torpor' at night which means that their metabolism drops to almost nothing. They can be found sitting in protected places after dark with little caps of snow on their heads. One would think "Well, there's no hope for this one..." but when daylight comes, slowly, slowly they begin to move, fluff feathers, toss off snow, and take off for another day of foraging for bugs, since few flowers are yet in bloom.
So the day has begun in the best possible way. Being around birds, hearing their conversations, seeing that the lame mallard hen is still looking good and eating her share. The rest of the day will be punctuated by birds. The sparrows that ground-feed in the side yard, the crows that try to bully away the mallards, it's like a big wonderful soap opera. I hope I can interest you in tuning in.
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