Adaptations

I have noticed a phenomenon of 'hardening off' for people, animals, and plants during the cold winter months. I know many of our plants were severely damaged by our early, heavy, wet snow storm at the end of October - the plants had not had the opportunity to harden off yet to prepare for the snow. We have many broken limbs and bushes smashed by the weight of the snow caught in the leaves that had not fallen off yet - they just were not ready.

People get used to the cold as well and 'harden off' - we had a warm spell and most people were in shirt sleeves, no coats and shorts in temperatures that would have required a warm jacket on people who are not used to our often-bitter cold. Even now, I find we walk outside without a coat to tend to things that do not require a long time outside, but during the bitter temps we always put a coat on. By way of explanation, current air temperatures are now in the 30's during the day - much easier to handle than the 'teens and below that we have just lived through. We are hardened off. No guarantee the temperatures will not drop again, as snow is again predicted later this week. After all, the stupid groundhog did not see his shadow!

Birds get used to the cold somewhat, but when we have a break in the weather, they go crazy! Nice to walk outside and hear all that type of noise though. Some of the birds we have here have made adaptations that are very puzzling. We have a woodpecker who every year for the past two has tried to build a nest on our old, unused TV antennae. The antennae is, of course, a heavy aluminum type and has probably been attached to our chimney for 50 years. We have not taken it down because it is 'up there' and not hurting anything, and it is so well tethered in place with wires attached to adjacent buildings and other poles that we are afraid of starting a house-of-cards effect. So the woodpecker still tries to build a nest for a potential mate each spring and clangs his head on the metal trying to bore a hole in that thing. Annoying noise, but we admire his tenacity.

Another bird we had last year, and I hope comes back this year, provides moments of amusement for our cats (if you know about cats, moments of anything is an accomplishment - they get bored easily!) This bird is a bit of a clown, trying to sit on one of the guide wires for the power pole in our yard. The wire is attached to the ground at a 45 degree angle, but he still tries to perch on it, sliding down, getting back up, over and over again. On top of that, he is insisting that it is his right and this is his territory and swoops at anything that comes close to him. I am not afraid of him, but I do tend to wait until he flies away before I go outside. I just have these visions of the bird pecking me - I think it is Alfred Hitchcock damage. So I have adapted to him.