Some winter wildlife

The deer were nervous and approached the edge of the woods carefully. I could see several more back in the shadows of the tree line. I counted six. They were all focused on something to my right. I called Ginger over, "Look at these deer." She was in the kitchen and walked over to the back door where I was standing. The deer were at the edge of our back yard, about 70 yards away.

I had spread shelled corn at the edge of the woods earlier that afternoon. The squirrels and red birds had started working on it right away. I've never seen so many squirrels gather in one place. In only a few minutes, there were at least a dozen gray squirrels out there sitting on their haunches eating those golden kernels. They looked like little, fat Buddhas with their shiny white bellies glowing in the soft afternoon sunshine.

Red birds and blue jays swooped in to grab a few kernels, then flew out to vanish in the timber. The deer were earlier than normal. They usually wait until the sun is down and the shadows have darkened the woods. But this day they had come to the corn while the sun was still slanting toward the western horizon. On clear days, the golden glow bathes the hardwoods behind our house in a beautiful light.

The deer stood in a group watching the neighbor's house and munching on our corn. They would look over at Ginger and I standing at the back door occasionally but weren't too concerned. When someone walked outside from the house next door, the deer all bolted down the hill into the darkening woods. But they stopped and watched, then started back to the corn. We watched them until the shadows swallowed their forms in the night.

The birds are our constant delight. We have feeders in our little garden, just outside the kitchen window. Two tube feeders, two tray feeders, two house-type feeders and a miniature garden swing with two feeding trays. We keep bird seed in them year 'round. We can see the feeders from the kitchen and through our back door, from the den.

In the winter, we get cardinals, towhees, chickadees, sparrows, blackbirds, tufted titmice, blue jays, thrashers, mourning doves, red-bellied woodpeckers, house finches and a few others. We've even had wild turkeys come to our feeders. Of course, they just pick up the seed that the other birds drop on the ground. The blue jays, thrashers and woodpeckers like the fruit and nut mix that we put in the tray feeders. It's amazing to see so many different birds in our little garden at one time.

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting in the den one afternoon, reading and watching TV. A loud bang at the back door startled us. Our door was open, but the clear storm door was closed. I got up and walked over expecting to see a dazed bird on the ground below. Instead, there was a sharp-shinned hawk at the foot of the steps holding a male cardinal in its claws. The hawk looked up at me with an air of indifference, then flew toward the woods, clutching the dead red bird. There were little red feathers stuck on the door. I guessed that when the hawk swooped in, the red bird flew up in a panic and hit the storm door, then fell back to the ground. An easy catch for the little hawk.

Predators in the wild are a fact of life. Hawks aren't a problem at our feeders, but we do get some other pests. Stray cats are a problem sometimes. Occasionally, I set out a small live trap by the back door, and I've caught raccoons, opossums and even an armadillo. They are all released unharmed.

One final thing about birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening Feb. 15-18. Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes, or longer, on one or more days of the event. It's free, fun and easy to do. Last year more than 160,000 people submitted counts online, creating the largest snapshot of bird populations ever recorded. Visit the official website at birdcount.org for more information.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.