Spring is Springing, at least I can pretend it is today :)

Living next to a 1000 acre Nature Preserve is such a wonderful thing :) We are used to all sorts of critters wandering into our front yard...they stay out of the back as the 3 Sibes have claimed all that area for themselves!

Since the snowfall started on December 26th we have been seeing fewer and fewer critters here. No deer, no coyotes, no foxes, no possums, no chipmunks, no squirrels, no birds....nothing.....with such a HUGE snowcover the animals are finding it VERY difficult to find food. Early last week, I put out 3 pans of birdseed hoping to feed the birds and the squirrels until some ground is actually showing....still nothing......

Then this morning, lo and behold, I looked out the window and the front yard was COVERED with birds and squirrels all sharing the buffet of bird seed that I had thrown onto the snow!

This little fellow got a little nervous when he heard my camera click and we stood there and stared at each other for a little while before he trusted me enough to run to the buffet on the lawn :)

I threw out some more birdseed as there was a frozen solid block of birdseed that this little guy seemed to think was just for him :)

Never have I seen so many Blue Jays at one time as I did this morning! Usually you get one really bossy one and he drives the others away.

I think that the mutual desire for food, which has been scarce, provided all the reasons that they needed to share branch space :)




And the Cardinals.....I love the Cardinals with their bright red coats!

They were not scared off by the Blue Jays, but did take a little while to work up the courage to swoop down to the waiting buffet on the snow!

Once they discovered the yummy treats on the ground, they quickly hopped around gobbling up their favorites things in the birdseed :)


Before too long, we had Blue Jays and Cardinals side by side happily eating their treats :)

I have absolutely no idea if today meant that Spring is Springing or not, but it sure made me happy to see our critter friends return from where ever it is that they have been hunkered down for all the storms.....it might not be a sign of Spring, but I can sure pretend :)