Yesterday the yard was full of birds. Even with the trees bare, they were all over the feeders, bouncing from branch to branch and keeping the place busy. Winter doesn't slow them down much when the weather is calm. I could almost hear them from inside the house. The fluttering, the little scolding sounds when one got too close. It seemed alive out there.
Today was totally different.
It snowed last night. Not a big storm, just enough to cover the ground and sit on the tree branches. The kind of snow that reminded me winter is here. So this morning, crickets. One or two birds at most. The rest were gone. Like they had vanished.
I stood there at the window longer than I realized, coffee in hand, of course, looking at the feeder that had been busy less than a day earlier. I knew there was still seed there. The houses were still there. Same fence, same trees. Everything was the same, just no birds. No darting shapes, no quick arguments over space. Just quiet.
One day it's full of movement. The next it looks like everything packed up and left without saying a word. You start to wonder where they disappear to.
I know they don't migrate overnight. Chickadees, cardinals, and titmice spend the winter here. They know how to make it through a Maryland winter a whole lot better than I ever will.
But they also know how to disappear, it seems.
Maybe they tuck themselves deeper into the evergreens along the back fence. Maybe they slip into brush piles or tree cavities I've walked past a hundred times without thinking. Maybe they simply stay put somewhere low and quiet until things settle down.
Whatever they're doing, it seems to work.
The yard feels different on mornings like this. Without the fluttering and constant movement at the feeder, you realize how much those little birds bring to the place.
I caught myself scanning the trees like I had misplaced something. As if they owed me their presence. That's when it hit me that I'd gotten used to them showing up on my schedule.
But they always come back.
Usually, by afternoon, the feeder starts getting busy again. The chickadees are arguing over space like they always do. A cardinal lands on the fence, and everything seems back to normal.
Funny how I can spend half the morning wondering where they went, only to have them show up again like nothing happened.