January Cold

A dusting of snow reminds us that winter is here.

The last day of January 2013:  we've seen several cold days and hard freezes this month.  My poor geraniums suffered frostbite.  But after getting some tender loving care and encouragement from a warm sun, they are again sending up spicy-scented, light green leaves.   If mild weather persists, they will once again glow with bright pink blooms.

I've continued my Feeder Watch project, adding an Audubon's warbler, pyrrhuloxia, mockingbird, and rufous-winged sparrow to my growing list of backyard visitors.   The Say's phoebe continues to roost at night on our front porch light, and the Costa's and Anna's hummingbirds vie for nectar with the verdin and Gila woodpeckers.  A week ago I caught a roadrunner with a house sparrow.  The cuckoo hid beneath some Wright's bee brush and ambushed the unwary, old world Passeridae.  I had never seen a roadrunner with a small bird before;  they have seemed to prefer lizards and insects.  I suppose the cold drove many of those such creatures underground and prey targets are fewer and far between.

January teased us with a handful of lovely warm days with temperatures rising into the low 70's.  This weekend promises spring-like weather; early February will flirt with the high 60's.  Nature has blessed us with much needed rain and even--gasp!--snow.  Late last week, Keith and I rose to a sugary dusting which quickly melted away with the aging day.  The mountain peaks around us, however, are still flaunting snow caps.

I long for spring and warm weather.  I just do not seem to tolerate the cold like I used to.  I've been spoiled now after four years of warmth in the Sonoran desert.  Still, it is nice to see the changing of the seasons, as long as winter's visit is brief and uneventful.   Late February usually heralds the advent of early spring and the weather evens out a bit to a more predictable warmth.  I look so forward to it!