Weather Predictors in My Trees: Birding is Fun Year Around

Are you hot? Have a seat in the shade with a cool glass of lemonade or iced tea and watch the activity around you.

Bird watching can be as informative as it is fun. In my area of South West Missouri, I can count on these excellent weather predictors. Better than the weatherman, I can trust the busy Nuthatch to warn me of inclement weather. It doesn't matter if it's spring tornadoes, summer drought or heavy winter snows. The little Nuthatch never lets me down.

When inclement weather is on the way, the Nuthatch works at a fast, steady pace gathering seeds. He will fly to the feeder, grab a seed and fly to the nearest tree. He quickly buries the seed into the bark and flies back to the feeder as fast as he can, then back to do it all over again. He never has been wrong in the near twenty years, I've been watching him. I still remember the first time he showed me he knew more than our newscaster. As our local broadcaster announced we would have only a few flurries of snow, I watched the Nuthatch hard at work. That night we had two foot of over-night 'flurries'.

The Nuthatch has other fun qualities too. He often lands on the trunk of the tree and races downward. He is a small bird, only 5-6 inches in length. His shoulders and back are blue-gray. He wears a black cap that comes to a point between his beady black eyes reminiscent of a widows-peak. If he feels brave enough when he's threatened, he will raise his wings outward, scrunch his forehead giving himself the look of a tiny Dracula and rock side to side at his enemy.

Another bird I look forward to year after year is the Junco. My little ones call him the snowbird. I look forward to both his appearance and his departure. On the arrival of the Junco, within days you can plan to dig out your snow boots. When he leaves, he takes the snow with him.

The Junco is another small bird only 5-6 inches in length. Our version is the Slate Junco. True to his name, he is slate colored on his back and his underside is purest white. When he flits away, his tail shows two striking white feathers that give an appearance of scissors slicing. The female Junco is less distinctive and looks more like a sparrow.