January freeze

It's January and the nights are long. We awoke this morning to seven inches of snow in the driveway. Today I filled the bird feeders and fed the rest of the uneaten Christmas mincemeat pies to the birds. Although I never seen them before, I have pigeons at my larder. I suspect they are the poor cousins to my mourning doves, just visiting for the holidays. I set out a crumb feeder, because my seed is expensive and they'll be just as happy with old banana bread. As for the gray squirrels, I'll pick up some corn-cobs next week. They spend a lot of time digging for the kernels and that gives the songbirds a chance at the sunflower seeds. I see deer tracks under the apple trees I use as a feeding station. They are after the fallen apples. They come right into the backyard and dig up each one from under the snow. We never see them, just their tracks. If I knew what time of night they come, I'd get up and look for them out the window. For now, they elude me, like wood sprites you only catch out of the corner of your eye. It's a delight, in a way to know the deer are coming to the yard. We are sitting on the north border of a small common, a triangle of a park with corners marked by the Depot General Store, the Police and Fire Station and our 1876 house. It's next to a deep forested area where they can run raids for apples and then retreat back into the wood. It's a very sleepy bedroom community. The biggest excitement is the horn that sounds when the firetrucks leave the station. I can't see that they have much interest in the birdseed, although it would likely give them some nutrition, if they ate it. The weather has been frigid, the result of an unusual arctic air mass that has stretched its icy veil down to Florida, no doubt sending the orange growers into a panic as they burn fires to keep the trees alive. The winter started early this year, has hit hard and been mighty cold. I'm setting out a little extra for those birds.