Mild Times

We're now 41% of the way into the coldest three months of the year and, well, the birds can't be complaining.  It just hasn't been that cold.  My natural gas heating bill for December was about half of what it was in 2010.  Further, the airport reporting station informs us that we've dropped below freezing all of 14 times this season (of which six were 30F or 31F), that we've never dropped below 19F--and that was the far outlier as #2 was 26F, and that the lowest the daily high has been is 43F.  I don't think I've seen ice in any ponds or creeks.  Now, in contrast, at this point a year ago we'd racked up 35 days with subzero readings, and a fair number below 20F.  We've had winters like this before, but this is the exception not the rule.

So the story for the avians has been a good one.  Lots of fairly warm days (50F+), very little overnights in the danger zone, and likely more insect activity than normal.  Lord only knows if this pattern will dominate the remaining nine weeks of a Carolina winter, but we can surmise that more birds will be alive in mid March than had the conditions been like that of a year ago, both of the young and old variety.  That might lead to more competition for the same resources in the spring.  And then, perhaps, the mild times will yield to some wilder ones.