Jarbidge to the Oregon Trail

There are several versions of this song, but Dean Martin tops them all (because he’s, well, Dean Martin. I was in love with Dean when I was very very young. Well, I kind of liked him when I was much older and wiser, but by then it was because he kept Lipizzans and I love Lipizzans).

Of course, the bit about Dean has absolutely nothing to do with my post, other than, Baby – It’s COLD outside!

I love this weather. My co-workers huddle inside for lunch and I go out to my car where the sun is shining in through the windshield and it’s toasty warm under my fuzzy blanket. They think I’m nuts. I think they are nuts: the rain will return, and with it – long, grey days with no natural Vitamin D source! Give me these frigid days with windchill and sunshine over long, grey days of rain and cloud cover anytime.

However, the weather is not usual for here and the winter birds are hurting a bit. We have hummingbirds that over-winter in the Willamette Valley, and sub-freezing temps are not hummingbird weather. My bird feeders have been extra busy with hungry birds.

I actually put the peanuts out to entice the squirrels out of the sunflower feeder, but it didn’t work. What happened instead, was the peanuts attracted the birds in the corvidae family. There have been as many as four Steller’s Jays around that old jelly roll pan. Did you know that a Steller’s Jay and swallow a peanut in the shell – whole – and then pick up another peanut in the shell? Yes, they can. they made off with two peanuts at a time while the other birds did not!

But it the Steller’s were able to pick up two at a time, the Scrub Jays were bullies. I only saw two of them, but everyone else got out of their way. So maybe they had an advantage over the Steller’s, after all.

I even attracted a pair of American Crows, but they decided they didn’t like peanuts. This one was more interested in scrying that eating (that photo was taken before the big freeze – the bird bath has been solid ice for several days now. We’ve been trying to put out fresh water for the birds in a plastic container, but it freezes so quickly when the temps never reach 32 degrees Farenheit ( 0 Celcius – the easiest conversion ever).

The cold brought in one of my favorite winter visitors: the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

The pretty Varied Thrush made an appearance as well, and the elusive Spotted Towhee (sorry – no pic of him this time around).

I have four hummingbird feeders going. Two in the house, thawing out and two outside. The Anna’s Hummingbirds meet me at 7:oo AM every day when I put the first feeders out. By 9:00, that feeder is frozen and the second and third ones go out.

By the time one of those two is frozen, the first one has thawed. I put out the fourth one then. By the time the next one is thawed, there’s another frozen one outside.

Apparently, I wasn’t keeping up on the fresh water today.

Innovation. That’s what Black-capped Chickadees are great at. No water? Steal some nectar from the hummers!

Twenty minutes later, this was that feeder.

Baby, it’s cold outside!