A week ago when we had a few days of sporadic milder weather the creek had melted in the ravine and we saw a small flock of about eight over-wintering robins flying about close to the water, dipping now and again toward it, some perching on fallen logs nearby before moving on to other places at the creek. The cold has returned and with it the ice firmly covering the creek, even where the rapids are, and yesterday we saw one lone robin flitting about there, a forlorn spectacle.

The relatively new phenomenon of birds that traditionally migrated south for the winter months, like robins, deciding to wait out the winter here instead, must have transitioned through winters becoming relatively milder, but even if the temperatures average out less frigid than we have normally experienced in the past, we still have days on end of extremely icy weather, accompanied by fierce winds and snowstorms, none of which can be congenial to the life expectancy of over-wintering species.

Our area newspaper's weekly bird column reports that some people's bird feeders have hosted a few exotic travellers who would not normally be in this extremely cold winter place. A Summer Tanager, seen at a feeder was taken to the Wild Bird Care Centre but severe frostbite shortened its life. A Gyrfalcon was spotted and so were Horned Larks. It's a cruel time for birds to navigate their way here anticipating spring. March came in like the proverbial lion and it seems stuck in lion mode.

Our feeder has seen the occasional visit by woodpeckers, not at the feeder but at the nearby suetball. We've seen the frequent visits of bluejays, crows, juncos, goldfinches, house finches, doves, nuthatches, chickadees and cardinals, and a few others we've spotted fleetingly and had problems identifying, and they're all welcome. We hate to think of their plight in really miserable weather, most somehow managing to survive and others just not managing to.

Of all our visitors of the avian persuasion, it's the doves that manifest their presence most trustingly and appealingly. They will roost for hours on the lower roof of the house over the garage, or on the porch, seeking comfort in serenity and basking in the sun when it shines. They don't mind the presence of the squirrels who share space with them.

Squirrels for their part, seem oblivious to the presence of birds, but not to one another's competititve presence, and if there are any disagreements manifesting, they are between the squirrels themselves, chasing one another away from preferred feeding spots, leaving some to wait patiently until the more aggressive among them are sated to have their own opportunity.

Jackie watching a squirrel out a dining room window