I was filling the birdfeeders after our first snowfall last week, when I noticed an immature female Northern Cardinal sitting calmly in a nearby snowy evergreen shrub. I started to wonder what it must be like for a bird to experience its first snowfall.
Last Saturday evening when first-year birds tucked their heads under their wings for the night, the lawns were still green, and there were even leaves hanging from some trees and shrubs. But in the wee hours before dawn the flakes started flying and by sunrise the greens had already been covered with a blanket of white.
Human babies are usually excited (or shocked) to experience snow for the first time, and some dogs get so wound up and and goofy at the sight and taste of that first snow that they can barely contain themselves.
Do young birds ever play in snow, or is it just business as usual but a little colder and much brighter?
