Your attention to detail and creativity coupled with good old-fashioned common sense is staggering! Making your own "custom" mittens, no less! Yes indeed! Where there's a Karen will there's a Karen way! Brava! :-)
Just gorgeous, Karen. Love your prose and photos. We mostly get Western Bluebirds here in winter, but this morning a rare (for me), single Eastern Bluebird topped my neighbor's walnut tree. Nice to have both species in the yard!
Love knowing how you have devised your way to keep your hands warm and still useful. Thanks for sharing it! And thanks for the pics of the amazing crowns of the golden-crowned kinglets!!! I knew nothing of any bird being able to display a crown like this!! Oh how funny it would be if we humans had anything resembling that capacity for the visual Big Head!! Can you imagine what it would look like when Congress is in session?! :-)
I just read the story about that albatross - that's so crazy that they've been tracking her since the Eisenhower administration. She's one year younger than my mom 🤯 And as always, beautiful photos!
Beautiful images Karen and I really like that Golden-crowned Kinglet with their crown at peak annoyance! Haha.
As to your question - I have adapted myself to really enjoying Winter once again. I used to dread the cold and greyness, but the past few years I have adapted to the season and look forward to Winter like when I was a child. These days, Winter is about hiking, snowshoeing, and simply enjoying Nature.
Thank you Neil. I love that you've adapted to winter again - I feel the same. Funny story, when I was in my late 20s/early 30s I worked for Canadian companies in Vancouver. People there would work overtime in summer but don't dare ask them in winter when there's snow on the hills! Many times they wanted me to go skiing and I always said nope, I'm a summer person. My how times can change!
Your perseverance and creativity and drive to capture enthralling images always amazes me, Karen! Regarding how birds adapt to severe cold (I may have shared this with you already and if so you have my humble apology), a recent post by another SubStack birder described how a diminutive chickadee withstands freezing nights. They make no attempt to keep warm but rather let their body temperature plummet. Then at sunup, they thrash and flap their wings to stimulate blood flow and raise their body temperatures back to normal. 105 to 108°F. I was astonished. Would that I were so adaptable to changing circumstances! You seemed to have voiced astonishment that much of today’s post was on mittens, not birds. I read your post with adapting to certain circumstances clearly in mind. Brava!
Thank you for this beautiful post. I have been visiting my parents for the last several days and temperatures have barely broken freezing. And as we love to sit and watch the backyard birds together, I have been wondering the same.
I also often wonder how the small birds adapt to the cold. Very cool seeing all these birds, we don’t have many of them here in Wisconsin—where it gets much colder!
Great mitten system you have👍❤️😍and I love your art work❤️😍🥰👍👏
Thank you Sharon!
And into the sunset. The bird flys off ❤️
They do. Thank you Michael!
Your attention to detail and creativity coupled with good old-fashioned common sense is staggering! Making your own "custom" mittens, no less! Yes indeed! Where there's a Karen will there's a Karen way! Brava! :-)
Lol, I definitely have a strong will! Sometimes even I'm like, "really, this is what we are doing?" Thank you Lauren!
Love the heart on the red leaf! Beautiful!!
Thank you Sue!
Go Wisdom! And mittens! And my goodness Cedar waxwing is the most gorgeous photo!!!
Thank you Lani!
Just gorgeous, Karen. Love your prose and photos. We mostly get Western Bluebirds here in winter, but this morning a rare (for me), single Eastern Bluebird topped my neighbor's walnut tree. Nice to have both species in the yard!
That’s amazing! Thank you Ken!
Love knowing how you have devised your way to keep your hands warm and still useful. Thanks for sharing it! And thanks for the pics of the amazing crowns of the golden-crowned kinglets!!! I knew nothing of any bird being able to display a crown like this!! Oh how funny it would be if we humans had anything resembling that capacity for the visual Big Head!! Can you imagine what it would look like when Congress is in session?! :-)
LOL - now that's an image! I'd kind of love it if I could puff up a beautiful crown on my head when I'm annoyed. Thank you Sandy!
I just read the story about that albatross - that's so crazy that they've been tracking her since the Eisenhower administration. She's one year younger than my mom 🤯 And as always, beautiful photos!
Wisdom is so amazing! Thank you Rachel!
I love the details of your mitten system. Where there's a will, there's a way
Thank you Cali! I tend to have a strong will, lol. It serves me well!
Beautiful images Karen and I really like that Golden-crowned Kinglet with their crown at peak annoyance! Haha.
As to your question - I have adapted myself to really enjoying Winter once again. I used to dread the cold and greyness, but the past few years I have adapted to the season and look forward to Winter like when I was a child. These days, Winter is about hiking, snowshoeing, and simply enjoying Nature.
Thank you Neil. I love that you've adapted to winter again - I feel the same. Funny story, when I was in my late 20s/early 30s I worked for Canadian companies in Vancouver. People there would work overtime in summer but don't dare ask them in winter when there's snow on the hills! Many times they wanted me to go skiing and I always said nope, I'm a summer person. My how times can change!
Your perseverance and creativity and drive to capture enthralling images always amazes me, Karen! Regarding how birds adapt to severe cold (I may have shared this with you already and if so you have my humble apology), a recent post by another SubStack birder described how a diminutive chickadee withstands freezing nights. They make no attempt to keep warm but rather let their body temperature plummet. Then at sunup, they thrash and flap their wings to stimulate blood flow and raise their body temperatures back to normal. 105 to 108°F. I was astonished. Would that I were so adaptable to changing circumstances! You seemed to have voiced astonishment that much of today’s post was on mittens, not birds. I read your post with adapting to certain circumstances clearly in mind. Brava!
That's so amazing! I never would have guessed! Yes, our bodies don't do that so well. Thank you Gary!
All the birdies are so fat-looking. Either they have extra-thick feathers/down, or the eating near you is pretty good. It's good to see it.
Everyone is puffed up when it's cold! They do seem to be eating pretty well too.
Thank you for this beautiful post. I have been visiting my parents for the last several days and temperatures have barely broken freezing. And as we love to sit and watch the backyard birds together, I have been wondering the same.
Thank you Scot!
I also often wonder how the small birds adapt to the cold. Very cool seeing all these birds, we don’t have many of them here in Wisconsin—where it gets much colder!
Thank you Bodhi!