Ice storm last night. Roof to front porch frozen.

Birds this morning tried to get at the seed I've been tossing about on the roof, and it was great fun watching the little snowbirds peck and slide down the roof. I'd never observed birds on slanted ice before although I had experienced the same pull of gravity in my car on a hillside in Petersburg a couple of weeks ago. But birds? A bird would peck at a seed in a great burst of energy, said seed being ensconced in ice, and in that burst of energy, the bird would begin to slide downward, flapping its wings and going back up to seed level. Since church had been cancelled, I spent nearly an hour watching the determined snowbirds slide down the porch roof, admittedly only a few inches of a slide, but their good luck in finding seed kept them at it for a long while. Their nails did little to act like pitons to brace them on the roof.

A couple of winters ago I watched a dozen or so ducks come in to land on our local pond. The pond was frozen, something the ducks hadn’t realised, and they were a hilarious sight as their legs went from under them and each bundle of feathers and beak went sliding willy-nilly (a little cross-threading here) into a big muddled heap of bewildered birds at the far end of the pond.

Duckimus pluckimus
Simon and Garfunkel’s
Webbed feet land fearlessly:
Ice is no play!

How will they brake in time ~
Experimentally
Bridged over water or
Slip-slide away?


did I done good, ASp? I never tried a duckbill before :)