Brrrrr! It’s cold out there. Freezing, in fact. This is when local Austinites discover whether it was a good idea to push the zones on what they should or shouldn’t plant. Right now I’m worried about my precious young Anacua trees, southern delicates that they are.
Winter has found us here in Central Texas at last — the northern chill has arrived! Add to that the moisture soon to be drawn up from the Gulf, and we might even get a little snow. I’ve been looking at pictures of the mighty blizzard covering northern states in white — I think I’ll stick with our chance of snow than a full on-slaught blizzard, thank you very much.
The birds have been up early and out late, feeding constantly in order to maintain their body temperature. If you visit Beautiful Wildlife Garden today, you’ll see my post about how birds deal with cold. Please take a look!
My cats are glued to the windows, watching the constant traffic of birds at the feeders and ground-foragers on the ground. The squirrels are busy, too — they’ve mostly been working the acorn-route, but they’ll still sneak some birdseed from to time.
The birds themselves have been frisky and a little pushy at the feeders. They’ve also been chirping up a storm.
The freezing temperatures have made beautiful icicles out of the flowing water in our ponds, and icy patterns glaze the surface of much of the water. I wonder about the plants under the ice, but I’m confident that at least most of them will be fine.
Since the birdbaths have all frozen into mini skating rinks, the birds have been visiting our pond waterfalls for drinks. But I’ve been bringing out containers of water that I can refill periodically — the birds have drinking like crazy.
This old dog bowl might be ugly, but it’s easy to refill throughout the day. It needs a rock in it for wildlife safety, but there aren’t any birds taking a bath today, that’s for sure. I’ll grab one from out in the yard next time I go out.
The veggies are in trouble. I could kick myself for not getting my beautiful broccoli out of the garden before the freeze. It sure is pretty, though.
This little birdie did some foraging in the spinach beds — I felt lucky to capture a picture. So cute.
The Turk’s Cap and many other plants are showing the effects of the prolonged cold. There are several that might not survive, especially because I just didn’t have it in me to pull out the protective covers this year (mainly because I’m swamped). I guess I’m doing a survival-of-the-fittest experiment this year — I’m determined that this garden be low-maintenance.
Some sad news — the northern winds from a couple of days ago made our pet vulture take flight. Unfortunately, being made of metal, he then plummeted. He’ll need some welding repair, poor guy.
There’s a chance for snow tonight — time to get out and run those last errands before it gets here! Stay warm, everyone!
It appears Old Man Winter is blanketing the entire country. Your bird pictures are fabulous and squirrels are just cheeky no matter where they are! I love Turks Cap but unfortunately it doesn’t grow well here in Georgia. Yours looks a bit under the weather but hopefully will bounce back. Stay warm & safe!
I’m so sorry about your vulture! I really enjoyed your post at Beautiful Wildlife Garden today, and I love the photos you have here of your birds. Your doves look funny because they’re puffed up to about twice their normal size 🙂
You captured some amazing wildlife shots! I thoroughly enjoyed this post. You can almost imagine the personalities of the animals in your garden.
Hi! You do go all out for the birds even though it is cold outside.
It is snowing in Plano, Texas. Thought it may be close to Austin. My hubby just showed me through Skype. Roofs and cars are all covered with snow.
I had to really look at the spinach photo to find the bird. Very cute. Who would have guessed that broccoli would make for such a beautiful photo. Sorry about your freezing weather. I suppose the Packers and Steelers brought it along with them.
donna
I, too, neglected to cut my broccoli. So now I’m hoping to remember to go out there before it thaws, I figure if it stays frozen, I should still be able to chop it and add it to something…maybe…
Also, one of the captchas is Heaven. Which I find kinda funny since this is Austin and there’s snow on the ground.
Love the post title! Your bird photos are adorable and I’m sorry for the vulture’s difficult flight. I can understand about survival of the fittest… I’ve been so busy that unfortunately I’m having to do it to my 12 seed trays.
I picked my broccoli and am eating it anyway (even if it is a little, um, soft). It can’t be any worse than frozen broccoli from the grocery store! Happy snow day.
Great images. In San Diego, we have much more latitude in pushing the zone we’re native to. It’s mid February, and we have a Black Beauty Zucchini plant still hanging on from our summer garden, still producing a few zucchini every two weeks.
Our trouble comes mostly in the hot hot heat of August, where any missed days caring for the plants results in wilted and often unrecoverable edibles.