Winter visitor to the garden
This winter has been tough on New England, and no matter where you live, even New Yorkers are seeing daily news about Boston and their winter. They have to deal with us all summer and now all winter also… 🙂
But I haven’t seen any coverage on how the wildlife of New England is handling one of the snowiest and coldest winters on record.
Today I found a young doe chewing on some ever greens in the garden and I know this is a sign of a lack of food because evergreens are the last thing they want to eat.
Back in November I saw a 4 point buck at the edge of the woods chewing on some evergreen bushes and I assumed that the coyotes in the woods were moving him out of his territory so he had to take what he could get.
That was before the snow, now we have 3 feet of snow and drifts from 5-10+ feet. The local wildlife is dealing day by day, as are all the people along the eastern seaboard.
We all learn to cope with a hard winter in our own way. Day by day, we survive the winter and we welcome the spring.
Jeff “Foliage” Folger
Jeff “Foliage” Folger is a New England-based photographer specializing in autumn colors and scenic landscapes. You can find his work on Fine Art America or follow his latest adventures on Bluesky and Instagram..You can also find him on Facebook
And the birds as well, Jeff. I have two suet-cake cages on a tree outside my door, and in addition to trying to keep them stocked (I think a squirrel also hastens the disappearance of the food) I also scatter some seed on the ground around the tree. I get bird varieties I don’t see at other times of the year — three different woodpecker types at one time the other day, a Carolina wren, etc., etc. Not to sound like a hero, but I hate to think how many of those birds wouldn’t have made it without my trips to the stores to get bird food.
I’ve got suet out and two feeders and a few handfuls of sunflower seeds and a niger seed bag for goldfinch… so many mouths to feed… 🙂