If pigs had wing, we would need a bigger birdfeeder and way more birdseed too.  As everyone in Saint Louis already knows and as anyone in the eastern U.S. should suspect, baby, it’s cold outside.  Sunday morning while the winter storm was moving through town, I took pictures of the multitude of birds at our feeders and also of the ones that sit in the snow below the feeders and feed off the droppings (food, not the other type) that the messy eaters above send forth.  The below, stylized photo captures this scene.  

Planning this post, I had planned to riff off of the Frank Loesser duet, Baby, it’s cold outside.  The lyrics in that song were designed to be heard as a conversation between a female and a male, marked as “mouse” and “wolf” on the printed score:   

Mouse – I really can’t stay
Wolf – but baby it’s cold outside
Mouse – I’ve got to go away
Wolf – but baby it’s cold outside

Our birdfeeders are intended to feed the birds, but out neighbor’s cat, the Alpha Predator, views them as his personal birdfeeder too.  I had planned on rewriting Loesser’s lyrics to fit this post’s birding theme and recast Mouse and Wolf as Bird and Cat:

Bird – I really can’t stay
Cat – but birdie it’s cold outside
Bird – I’ve got to go away
Cat – but birdie it’s cold outside

Anyway it was just a thought.  It is still cold outside and now the birdfeeders need to be refilled.  So baby, is it cold outside?

I’ve already supplied enough dribble to fulfill any normal post’s needs, but dear fans I cannot stop until I have shared this with you.  I’m speaking of a confidential communication, no, not some wikileaks about Ahmadinejad or his ilk, but something special from the fourth grade.  Anne intercepted the pictured note above; here is the note’s text:

Should we do notes?
Yes      No
The teacher is knitting

It is a very pretty note, but not very conducive to covert activities.  Anne caught the note on its return run.  The yes was already circled.  Anne is wondering why she didn’t see the first student so creatively color the note’s envelope.