woodshed to house. I studied them several times and they seemed to be studying
us all the time for every head was turned on us. :

When the buntings were again left without disturbance and had finished the
food supplied, they became more curious of their surroundings. Not a speck was
left uninvestigated. They moved out to the adjacent field a bit more and scurried
around for no apparent reason. It was a bit comical when all of a sudden one
would trip into the dog's footprints, which were always looked over thoroughly
before vacating. (You never knew what kind of morsel might be hidden there.)

Perhaps while driving on occasions you might have noticed small. undulating
flocks of buntings. After a fresh snowfall they frequent roads, where a break
in white vastness might indicate a food source. My husband has watched them
feeding in an old field abundant in dried evening primrose, seed capsules like
fountains sprayed open, offering a thimble full of seeds. Snow buntings perched
on stems eating from offered cups, just as we feed on the cheer they have brought
to our winter.

As spring approaches, and snow recedes to the north, so does the snow
bunting. They return to their breeding territory while snow still covers the
tundra. And we look forward to other species returning from further south as
our harbinger-of-spring. (Surely it will come sometime.) When we spot our first
robin, where and who will feel the exhileration of seeing one?

References:
Bruun, Bertel. 1973. Birds of North America. Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd.
Palmer, B.L. and H.S: Fowler: 1975. Bield Book of Natural History. McGraw Hill.

Wetmore, Alexander. 1964. Song and Garden Birds of North America. National
Geographic Book Service.

Snow Bunting feeding in old field on Evening Primrose seeds

7