It’s not my imagination that the weather has felt more like Seattle than southern Wisconsin this year. On Tuesday night a local meteorologist shared that our area had just enjoyed its 8th day in a row with no rain. The surprising part is that the last time we had an 8-day streak without any precipitation was 243 days ago–in mid-February!
In 2012 we prayed and prayed that the sky would squeeze any amount of rain onto our parched lawns and gardens, yet this year I only had to water my flowerbeds once since the growing season began in April. I’ve lived here 26 years and that’s never happened before.
The storm the ended our latest dry streak was no slouch. We received 2.6 inches of rain—most of it falling overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning. Except for the platform feeder, I’d taken down all of my birdfeeders and stored them in the garage overnight because I didn’t want that pricey birdseed to get all wet.
Early Wednesday morning it was still raining steadily, and scores of birds were congregating on the lone feeder. After roosting in the rain all night they were cold and hungry. I watched drenched little bird after bird land on the feeder poles and look around bewildered. Where did all the other birdfeeders go? Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I dragged my raincoat out of the closet and tromped through the squishy grass to put them all back.
Every feeder was swarming with birds before I even got back inside the house. It wasn’t long before a hawk was drawn to all the activity. I didn’t see him but it was obvious because every bird in my yard disappeared in an instant except one tardy White-breasted Nuthatch that I discovered clinging to the side of the platform feeder like a giant insect. He sat motionless, other than blinking, for about 4 minutes as the raindrops pelted his feathers.
Eventually a squirrel or another bird gave the all clear and he righted himself, grabbed a peanut and flew off into a nearby shrub.