I managed to walk in Riverside the first week and a half of the year, and I’ve been to the Chicago Portage a couple times too, but it’s been generally very quiet and gloomy. But now, I would take a quiet, gloomy walk almost anywhere. In fact, the sun has been shining brightly, but the temperature was -2 degrees F when I started writing this yesterday. It was -13 this morning, warming up to 1 degree this afternoon.

Before this all started, on Friday, my heat stopped working. After trying almost everything and texting back and forth with a repair person, I finally tried replacing the batteries in the thermostat and lo and behold, the heat came back on. Lesson learned. To be on the safe side I bought a copious supply of new AA batteries and I will change them every year in October before the heat comes on, unless I need to do it sooner. Period.

Our choir managed to sing yesterday. The service and the songs we sang were a tribute to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I am going to swim today, and if possible, I will take some photos of the birds in the yard that have been busily emptying the feeders. I was surprised to see my Robin in the yard a couple days ago, until I realized he came back to eat all the hawthorn berries. But I likely will not be walking anywhere until this polar vortex business is over with. It’s just too cold to be out very long.

So here are some photos from a few visits to Riverside, and then of one enterprising Cooper’s Hawk in my backyard.

January 1, I photographed the new osprey platform.

On January 3, there was the Blue Jay at the top of the post.

And Canada Goose 68B made an appearance.

On January 5, there was a Downy Woodpecker.

No large mixed flocks, nothing happening. Then on January 8, I hit the jackpot. I managed to capture a female Belted Kingfisher before she took off, rattling all the way. I usually see a male, so this was special.

There was a female Downy Woodpecker, and a brief view of a Red-bellied Woodpecker as well.

It’s been hard to even find a Dark-eyed Junco that will sit still long enough these days. But this one was happily foraging in the mud. On a gray day, you can’t complain.

But most exciting was seeing 3 Brown Creepers, although I could only photograph one at a time.

I also had a brief visit with a Song Sparrow.

And now, here are some cloudy photos of the Cooper’s Hawk that was in my yard the next morning. It was ripping to shreds its prey, which I could not see well enough to identify – a bird, but from what few little feathers I found later under the tree, but which species I could not tell. At first I started taking photos through the kitchen window.

And then, when I ventured out on the porch later for a better view… the hawk remained for a while to digest.

While the hawk was still in the yard, a Black-capped Chickadee came to check out the feeders, cheerfully making comments. I guess it either knew the hawk was satiated, or maybe it is just too small to be considered a Cooper’s Hawk snack.

Through it all we did not get the predicted accumulation of snow on Friday. It was warm enough to turn into rain in the afternoon. So we were lucky in that regard. As the temperature started to drop we got a little more snow. Now it is too cold to snow. But not too cold to keep on singing.