Winter Robins Holly Feast

 

Remember the flock of robins that was drinking melting snow water on my roof last week? They came back to eat holly berries. Click to enlarge. 

This time there were about 100 robins. Look at them all! The whole tree was packed like this. 

I heard a sound I had never heard before, of hundreds of robin wings brushing against holly leaves. They chirped, darted and flapped. It was a spectacle. 

They ate and flew away, then retuned throughout the day until all the berries were gone. 

A welcome splash of red in this cold gray February. 

Winter Robins Get a Break

 

A flock of about 50 robins visited my place last week. Here are some of them, testifying that robins don't all fly away from our area for the winter and return in spring. Some of them fly further south, and we get the idea they are all gone when they disappear from lawns as the worms and insects become scarce. But most of them stay, switching to a diet of dry fruits and berries. And they may form foraging flocks. This flock was feeding on the berries of a nearby holly tree. Click to enlarge. 

It was that one day last week when, after several straight weeks of below-freezing temperatures, we had a brief mini-thaw. It's hard for wildlife to find water when it is as cold as it has been. The whole flock landed on the roof of my house to drink water from snow melting there. When I went inside to get my camera most of them flew away, but here is the last lingering pair. I bet they are looking forward as I am to the coming carefree unfrozen days of spring. 

Frost on the Windows

"

This week, the cold kept me inside long enough to notice and photograph frost on my windows. Behold! 

John Greenleaf Whittier once asked: "What miracle of weird transforming is this wild work of frost and light, this glimpse of glory infinite?"

 

I think I see winter trees beside a path in this one. Click to enlarge. 

 

Thomas Hood wrote: "Frost is the greatest artist in our clime — he paints in nature and describes in rime."

 

From Percy Bysshe Shelly: "I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost." And Robert Louis Stevenson: “…tree and house, and hill and lake, are frosted like a wedding cake." 

 

Robert Frost wrote the poem Wind and Window Flower — “She a window flower, and he a winter breeze.” I imagine him, like me, examining frosty windows on a cold winter day. Click here for a link to that poem

 

Winter Shore Trip

 

There was one day last week that was not too cold for an outing, so I headed toward the seashore. First stop was an animal refuge called Popcorn Park in Forked River, NJ. This lovely rescued silver fox is one of the residents. 

There's an appaloosa horse, too. It looks like its temporary outdoor shelter was tailored exactly to fit. Click to enlarge. 

There are lots of goats there, with nice personalities and great faces. 

One of the pleasures of Popcorn Park was feeding popcorn to the animals. It's been paused because of bird flu. Everyone is looking forward to its return. 

It's a short hop from Popcorn Park to the ocean. The first town you come to on the barrier island over the causeway is Seaside Heights -- the very town featured in the television show Jersey Shore. 

It looks very different in winter. The boardwalk was empty. 

Atmospheric, though.  

And a few stores stay open to provide essentials. 

Further south, after several shore towns, is Island Beach State Park. It's a 10-mile-long strip of barrier island, bay on one side, ocean on the other, and narrow enough to walk across. It's famous for a resident population of wild foxes and for scrub-covered dunes. 

A path to the ocean. 

A brief cold look at the water. 

Then a walk to this nice old bird blind on the bay side. 

Where a flock of cedar waxwings came by and posed. It was a very welcome day outside just before the big snowstorm and polar vortex. 

Italian Wall Lizard

 

This is an Italian wall lizard, also called a ruin lizard — the kind you typically see basking on ancient stone ruins around the Mediterranean. This one, however, was sunning itself on the base of a flagpole in front of an office building in Mount Laurel, NJ. I took the photo last October. Click to enlarge. 

It was about 10 inches long, colorful, and resplendent in the sun. And… in New Jersey. I found out later that they were introduced to Burlington County around 2010 and are becoming established. The wall lizard is apparently well‑known for its adaptability. It's using it now to develop cold tolerance to survive our winters. In their native southern European range, they deal with cold temperatures by reducing activity, becoming dormant but waking to drink or if temperatures temporarily warm up. It’s similar to mammalian hibernation, but the reptile version is called brumation. I hope this one has tucked itself into a comfortable spot for the next couple of days at least, because cold is coming. It's time to curl up and dream about summer on the Isle of Capri. 

January

 

This January already seems long to me. But it is pretty at times, like above on the Rancocas Creek in South Jersey. Seems a perfect time for some poetry from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Here is the January stanza from his work The Poet's Calendar. Click to enlarge.

                                                    January

"Janus am I; oldest of potentates; 

Forward I look, and backward, and below 
I count, as god of avenues and gates, 
The years that through my portals come and go. 
I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow; 
I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen; 
My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow, 
My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men."

Creature of the Year Award

 

The competition was stiff for the 2025 Urban Wildlife Guide Creature of the Year Award. From a stellar group of contenders, the judges chose ... tree swallows! Congratulations, and great work this year, swallows! Click here for one of the 2025 tree swallow blogs. Click here for the baby tree swallows of the year. 

In the event that tree swallows are unable to fulfill the duties of Creature of the Year, the first runner-up -- the ever-charming goldfinch -- will step in. Well done, goldfinch, and please continue your excellent service as the official state bird of New Jersey. Click on the photos to enlarge. 

An honorable mention goes to the Indian pipes in recognition of an unprecedented number of write-in votes. (Possibly the result of a coordinated campaign by the plant lobby.) Click here to visit the 2025 Indian pipes blog.