It has been very cold again today with a low reading of 21 this morning at seven and high reading of 31 at three this afternoon. It has been sleeting most of the afternoon and evening and the ground is covered. So, of course, there have been worlds of birds in the garden to feed and drink.

 

There were six cardinals off and on all day and the females would chase each other, then the males would chase each other, then the males would chase the females. It seems very early for them to start their courting but I can’t account for their behavior otherwise. There have been innumerable white throated sparrows, Juncos, Song Sparrows, Myrtle Warblers, a few chickadees, and some more of the little sparrows I can’t identify. The Mockingbird, of course was at the ligustrum berries with only a few minutes in between feedings when he would go to the big pool to get water. It was not frozen around the edges and most of the birds drank from it instead of out of the bird bath. I decided that the reason was that even though I filled it with warm water three times today, an icy crust would form around the sloping edges and it was hard for them to get a safe foothold. I even saw the cardinal fly down on the ice in the center of the pool and drink from a hole in the ice.

 

Tonight an interesting thing happened. I was watching the hedge through the field glasses to see what kind of bird would emerge, as the hedge had been moving, and two robins flew out and crossed the garden and went into the cedar by the gate. The two more came out and did the same thing. They kept this up by ones and twos and threes until the cedar tree was full and they could only land on the outside limbs of it, so they began going into the hedge right at its side. It’s the first time there have ever been so many together at any time of year in my garden. There were at least fifteen or twenty if not two dozen. I was very much thrilled and so was Florence.