Happy New Year!! Project Feederwatch Continues/Growing Greens Outside in Winter

Welcome back. Its been awhile since my last post as I have been busy with Christmas and all the festivities. It's hard to believe that 2019 is coming to an end. Happy New Year to all of my readers from across the globe!!

Project FeederWatch, which started on November 9th, is well underway and nearing the half way mark. It runs through April 3rd. I have continued to take photos during the project and will share some below.

So far this season I have observed 16 different species. The most in any one given week was 15. It is interesting to note that the number of birds is weather dependent, which really is not a surprise. The bird counts are normally much higher in snowy and cold weather. This winter the weather has been quite variable, with cold snowy periods followed by warmer temperatures and rain (as can be seen in the photos below). At least thus far,

The birds with the largest average group size at my feeders is the Mourning Dove, followed closely by the Blue Jay. The rarest bird for me thus far this season is the Brown Headed Cowbird, I've only seen one thus far.

Mourning Doves:

Red-Bellied Woodpecker:

Hairy Woodpecker:

American Goldfinch:

Seed Catalogs Arriving

It's that time of year once again and seed catalogs are starting to come in. I have only received a few to date, with more sure to follow. The first one I received was from the The Main Potato Lady. This may seem like an odd catalog, but if you grow potatoes it is a great source of potato sets, plus it also features onion sets, garlic, cover crops and more. I have also received catalogs from Seeds N Such and Jung Seed. I will talk in more detail regarding the catalogs in future posts, including new vegetable varieties each offers.

As promised in the title, I am including a video on growing greens in an unheated hoop house in cold winter temperatures. It's amazing that this works. Although it would take some pre-work to get set up in the fall, it is away to have fresh greens all winter long.

Finally, a recent photo from a frosty morning, looking out of my family room window. Thanks for reading.