It is extremely cold and continues to be extremely cold. We have a weather system arriving that will give us milder temperatures, at least around minus-6 degrees for the high, accompanied by snow events, not that we don't already have ample snow cushioning the landscape.

And with thoughts of the difficulties facing the birds and small animals in our area, with diminished foraging opportunities and winter conditions offering fewer nutritional options, we've fully committed to helping in our own small way. Apart from our daily peanut depots cached in our nearby ravine, we've amassed a wild-bird pantry full of all manner of seeds and tiny peanuts in an excellent mix that includes black oiled sunflower seeds.

My husband bought a large bird feeder, and a collection of suet balls to hang in the front gardens. The suet has been up for over a week and we've never really seen any birds taking to it, but it's probably mostly woodpeckers that would, and they don't seem to leave the confines of the wooded ravine, though we see the Pileated often, not so often the much smaller hairy and downy woodpeckers. At our daughter's home in the countryside her various birdfeeders and suet balls are always crowded with birds, from red polls to oriels, chickadees and juncos.

We've had chickadees aplenty and juncos as well, though not yet any nuthatches, to the feeder. Still, it seems as though all of the birds prefer our original offering place, the wide top rail of our front porch, to the bird feeder, let alone the suet.

And the squirrels, red, black and grey, find the seeds and the peanuts irresistible in this time of seasonal deprivation. We're happy to see them all, taking advantage of whatever they can find to allow them to weather the long cold winter days and nights.

We were surprised and happy, in a way, to see the rabbit that has been chomping on our backyard shrubs out on the porch again, this time in broad daylight, yesterday afternoon, nibbling away on the seeds and nuts the more careless feeders fling from the porch rail to the floor of the porch. Concerned that he was revealing himself in the light of day, since its habit is to come out nocturnally, the dark offering shelter from potential predators.

We'll just have to trust to nature's benevolence allowing some of her creatures to escape the feeding cycle. We don't usually see hawks and owls beyond the ravine and into the more urbanized streets, but there are predatory neighbourhood cats always on the prowl. Their presence disconcerting, particularly when on occasion we come across the sad carcass of one of their kills.

But the extreme cold and high humidity combined with wind, also seems to work to diminish the enthusiasm of household cats for roaming about in these icy months, giving the existential upper hand, albeit temporarily, to the small wild creatures that frequent our feeding stations.