Pennsylvania Game News - November 2019 - 62

On our back porch, six gray squirrels
competed for birdseed with American
goldfinches, house finches, dark-eyed
juncos, mourning doves, blue jays,
black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, Carolina wrens, white-breasted
nuthatches and white-throated sparrows.
My husband Bruce and I looked
in vain throughout the day for rare or
unusual visitors, such as the eight pine
siskins and female purple finch we had
seen the previous week. But only the
usual suspects flew in and out.
Once again, I headed for Alan's
Bench, but with the trail broken and
followed by other deer, it was easier.
A few songbirds were out and about
near the exclosure's bottom, but none
were in the spruce grove, not even the
juncos. I assumed they had discovered
our feeding area.
The spruces still were snow-covered
and occasional beams of sunlight
escaped the clouds. Many of the oak
trees still held what looked to be an
almost full complement of their colorful leaves.
On still another dull, overcast and
barely-above-freezing day, birds and
squirrels, unable to dig down through
the frozen snow, mobbed the feeder
area - six house finches, a dozen or
more goldfinches, several blue jays,
two white-throated sparrows and many
juncos.
And, finally, a handsome fox sparrow
on its way south for the winter stopped
to feed on the fallen seeds - a gift for me
on that dull Sunday morning.
I walked down our mile-and-a-half
entrance road through the forest that parallels our stream, which was noisy and
full. A few birds were out - a red-bellied
woodpecker, downy woodpecker, a
couple northern cardinals, goldfinches,
62

juncos, titmice and a Carolina wren.
After four more days of mist and
fog, with the temperature stuck at 34
degrees, night and day, the snow pack
on Thanksgiving morning was down to
a couple frozen, crunchy inches.
It was 16 degrees at dawn, but the sun
soon was shining at last.
I was thankful for the gorgeous day,
but not for the nine gray squirrels in the
feeder area dominating three blue jays
for all the birdseed on the ground. Ten
house finches occupied both feeders,
although the goldfinches pushed in,
too. White-breasted nuthatches, titmice
and chickadees waited for a break in the
finch blockade to dart in and grab a seed.
One chickadee even landed on the
back kitchen door and peered in as if
asking for help.
I crunched my way easily to Coyote
Bench on the Far Field Road and was
relieved to sit there and soak in the
silence of the holiday with only an
occasional train whistle or jet plane
breaking the peace. The snow was filled
with the icy tracks of deer going in all
directions, especially along the Far Field
Road, where it had melted through to
the frozen leaves in a couple places.
Once, I heard the pik, pik of a downy
woodpecker.
The vernal ponds that had remained
full all that wet year were frozen and
smooth as an ice rink, and I regretted I
had long ago given up ice-skating. As I
sat on the Vernal Pond Bench, a common
raven perched nearby and called.
It was even colder the following
morning - 14 degrees. I took another
crunchy walk to Far Field under an azure
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2019

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