We had no snow this week, but the temperatures were appropriate for January with the thermometer reading in the single digits. Add wind to this, and it was quite cold outside. Nevertheless, I didn't see much difference in the yard. If something was going to die in the cold, it was already gone. And if something was going to be evergreen, it stayed green.
I am continuing to find bone fragments in the yard. (Maybe if I collected them all, I could eventually build an interesting creature.) This week, I found a leg bone, among several large black feathers. The first story I made up was that a fox and a big bird had an encounter and the bird won. However, when I saw a chicken leg bone later from a piece of chicken that Ward was eating, I had second thoughts. The bones were of a similar size and weight. Maybe, it was the bird (I vote for crow because we have so many around) that had the unfortunate demise. Definitely, there's not enough evidence with my limited knowledge to really know what happened.
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| Moss |
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| Rhododendron bud waiting out the winter. |
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| This squirrel and cardinal are scavenging for seeds that have dropped below the feeder. |
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| This is a newly broken branch from a sweet gum tree. |
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| Azalea bud also waiting out winter. |
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| Wasp nest that fell down from the eave above. |
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| Several large black feathers were found near this bone. Notice that this group of feathers still has the quills attached to each other. |
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| Left-Bone found in yard near feathers. Right--Rotisserie chicken leg bone |
The squirrel and cardinal photo would be my favorite this week. I love watching animals of different species get along or at least ignore each other when in close proximity, if gives me hope human will learn from them.
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