Childhood's treasured places for fantasy, wonder, and dreaming spark pleasure and awakening at any age. Join a child for a visit here each month for thoughts and ideas about creating special places and experiences in the garden.

How can the tiny chickadees wintering in your yard live through the nights when the wind roars through the trees like a sharp knife?  HOW DO THEY DO IT?

Within the small feathered body of a chickadee weighing LESS than an ounce, a small furnace with a tiny heart for a pump and a maze of blood vessels to carry heat keeps its body aglow with a warmth that will keep the bird alive at 30 and 40 degrees BELOW ZERO!

This tiny furnace, like that of your body, or the furnace in your house, needs
fuel.  Fuel for a bird or any living creature is food.  If they have eaten well late in the day, or just before going to bed, and they are able to find an evergreen thicket, or other sheltered nook in which to sleep, then their own body heat carries them through very cold winter nights.

Be sure your bird feeder is full late in the day.  If you have no evergreen trees, plant some in the spring.  Even small trees can help the birds.

Snowflakes

Did you know that snow is not really white?  Snow crystals are transparent, and as they lie by the millions on the ground, they reflect light in all directions, creating the white appearance of the snow.

Very large snowflakes descend at about three-and-a-half miles an hour--roughly six times slower than a raindrop.

Snow experts estimate that it takes more than one million snow crystals to cover a two-square-foot area with 10 inches of snow.

Information Sources:
National Wildlife's December Treasury and Songbirds in Your Garden by John K. Terres