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Tag Archives: bees

The Birds and Bees of Winter

Lots of birds have enjoyed our feeders this winter. The feeders are set up so we can see them from our main windows throughout the day. A tiny Northern Pygmy-Owl has been terrorizing the even tinier Common Redpolls. Red Crossbills (yes, their bills are crossed) show up most every day and there is, occasionally an American Goldfinch. Most years we have lots of goldfinches and House Finches but not this year.

On days when the temperature gets up to freezing and the sun is shining the honeybees will work at cleaning out their hives. It seems so strange to see dead bees in the snow. It’s supposed to be a good thing – an indicator that the live bees are keeping things tidy in there.

We had a tree-climbing expert come in and install a new nest box from Nice Nests, high up in our biggest dead ponderosa pine tree. Hopefully the kestrel that was here earlier in the winter will return and raise some young birds in it next summer.

American Kestrel nest box
White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Redpoll
American Goldfinch
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbills
Common Redpolls and Pine Siskin
House Finches
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Red Crossbills

Emerging from the Snow

These are the remains of winter on our hillside.

 

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The anemone-like leaves of the bitterroot. It won’t bloom for months and by then the leaves will have disappeared.

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Lichen on a piece of thin bark

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A tiny buckwheat next to an immense ponderosa pine cone

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More lichen. They are bright and fresh this time of year.

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Maybe from a woodpecker

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Lots of little piles of fertilizer

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Does it seem like there was an especially good ponderosa pine cone crop? The White-winged and Red Crossbills have been busy opening them.

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Just one of the deer that didn’t make it through the winter

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Remains of an earlier time

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This was probably from one of last year’s fawns

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Sprouts!

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More subtle lichens on a rock

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One of last fall’s mushrooms survived the winter.

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These tiny flowers seem to be growing out of moss

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Back at home, the bees were flying again.

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Harvest Time

Putting away food for the cold months is a major preoccupation these days. Like bees gathering nectar for honey, we are freezing, drying, canning and just generally squirreling away food for winter. We have a deer in the freezer and lots of fish already (it’s not even steelhead season yet). From our neighbors, we have some rabbit, a new meat for us. And from the garden I’ve dried onions and garlic for storage, made pesto from our basil and also from our kale to store in our freezer. Beans are frozen as well as corn from the Columbia Basin. I’ve dried nectarines from a roadside stand and tomorrow I need to make some jam from the really ripe ones. There are lots of potatoes to dig. We hope to get some honey from Ken’s bees however they have recently been attacked by ‘robber bees’ from someone else’s hive. He’s covered most of the entrances but still these robber bees are all around and they are not only aggresive to Ken’s bees but to us and the dogs too.

 

These are the ‘robber bees’ trying to steal Ken’s bees’ honey

 

Various kinds of garlic to get us through the winter

Yellow Onions. I am not so good at growing onions as I am at growing garlic

 

Dried nectarines for skiing and hiking outings! What a treat.

 

Little tomatoes. These would be good dried.

 

Big tomatoes for fresh eating or sauce

 

Still some bees getting nectar and pollen from the tall sunflowers