When I started writing this post nearly a week ago, the sun was shining. It was cold, but pleasant enough outside. And yesterday, after Friday’s first amount of accumulated snow, was a gorgeous, sunny day. But at the beginning of this week, for two days in a row, when I tried to go for a walk I fouind the ice on the pavement prohibitive. We got more snow again this morning. There’s something affirmative about shoveling snow.

I have been out more recently, but these are just some photos from the Chicago Portage and my yard for the first few days of the year. I managed to go swimming on New Year’s Day. Then, at the Portage on January 2 was bright and sunny. I found a Red-tailed Hawk was sitting quietly in a tree. It must have been cold, the hawk was fluffed up pretty good.

I found an American Tree Sparrow on the trail. I have not seen numbers of these birds lately.

Northern Cardinals were generally easy to see.

A Black-capped Chickadee made an enthusiastic appearance.

On January 4, from my backyard, here’s another photo of the Cooper’s Hawk that I saw that morning.

Later that day at the Chicago Portage, there was ice on the water and under the bridge.

I did manage to barely capture a distant Common Goldeneye on the Des Plaines River.

On January 5, back at home, there was an American Crow in my neighbor’s tree over the parkway. Then a very cold-looking Dark-eyed Junco showed up. I have had as many as six Juncos in my backyard under the feeders.

The American Goldfinch invasion is on and continues. I am always happy to see them return for winter sustenance.

It wasn’t easy to take a clear photo of the Red-bellied Woodpecker through the back windows, but she visits regularly. The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers are also fond of this feeder. I did see a female Downy that day.

I also have a White-breasted Nuthatch that shows up frequently. In fact, it was the nuthatch that informed me the upside-down suet feeder was getting empty yesterday morning.

Here are a couple other forms of testimony to the colder weather from my cell phone. The first photo was the ice on the windshield that greeted me on Monday.

The second is a French Onion Panade that I made last Sunday. i put half of it away in the freezer for future consumption. I love to make this once a year since it’s a great way to make use of extra bread. And when I don’t feel like going to much trouble for dinner, this makes a nice meal.

It’s been kind of a mishmash beginning to the new year. Dealing with more layers of clothing seems to be taking more energy than I have left. But we are plunging back into the deep freeze with temperatures in the teens tomorrow and single digits by Wednesday, so I am grateful to have the energy to complain about it.