Winter warblers

Kirstin said she wondered if birds stuck around in the cold weather. Some not only stick around, they seem to thrive. Today I have seen several varieties of woodpeckers, cardinals, finches, bluejays, chickadees, tufted titmice, juncos and nuthatches.

Most surprising to me were the parrots (monk parakeets, to be technical) that we had year-round in Chicago, green and about the size of a lovebird. The alley behind St. Thomas Parish where we went to Mass had lots of nests -- they like the transformers because it kept them warm in the Midwestern winter, I guess. It was cool to have them around, although it would have been better had they been more colorful and less squawky. We always said they were imitating traffic noise.

There are a number of colonies of monk parakeets (usually called parrots because of their size) around the United States, most likely resulting from birds escaping from owners or pet stores or during shipment. Here is a picture of some of the ones in Brooklyn, sharing a snowy meal with pigeons and such.

We don't have anything that exotic around here. Not in our backyard, that is. There are a few domesticated peacocks in the area, another bird I would not have expected to see in the Wisconsin countryside.

Not exotic but impressive are the wild turkeys, which do show up in significant numbers in the back yard from time to time. I recall counting thirty of them at once as they circled around from the front to the back of the house. Ever since I saw Jurassic Park,  wild turkeys make me think of dinosaurs. Because of their size and the way they move, they are a bit creepy.