To use the norms of a great song of the season this is a personal expression for the twelve days before the special Christmas holiday. Perhaps these words could fit into some lyrical presentation, but any attempt to do that would be well beyond my skills, so instead a faux representation will have to suffice. It is discombobulated for sure.
- 12 days before Christmas: 12 dark-eyed juncos foraging because there has been deep snow on the ground.
- 11 days: house finch in flight as seen outside the north window.
- 10 days: Eurasian collared doves in the neighborhood.
- 9 days: American robins foraging in the western tree line.
- 8 days: roaming turkeys foraging on a daily schedule. The birds’ confrontation with a single coyote on the hunt had an obvious result: turkeys 8 and coyote 0.
- 7 days: American Tree Sparrow appreciating bird seed.
- 6 days: white-tailed deer foraging and eating provided seed on a Sunday evening.
- 5 days: coyote pack traversing the land in search of sustenance, led by their supposed mom.
- 4 days: cherry chickadees and vibrant nuthatches going from tree to tree amidst trees of the North Lake Shore Hills.
- 3 days: American crow at the bird seed investigating why so many birds have been congregating.
- 2 days: Northern Flickers foraging on the trees, or maybe the view of the early mornings of this day could be a couple of white-tailed rabbits that scurry to provided food.
- 1 day before: an adult Bald Eagle soaring magnificently in the skyscape well above the pines outside a window.
And with one writer scribing in a padded chair in front of a computer within a Valentine shack. A belated Merry Christmas to all from a spot within such a special place ... the Great American Sandhills.