Good Monday morning. Congratulations! You survived the Big Chill of 2023.
Holy shit, was it cold. I am glad that’s over.
Here’s something you probably didn’t think that much about while you were huddled under your blankets, around your heater, in front of your fireplace, with your favorite person/animal/book etc., desperate to avoid the sub-zero temperatures outside.
Where do birds go when it’s below freezing? (Those that don’t migrate, that is). Can they survive when it’s THAT cold?
Answer: Yup. Maybe they’re not terribly comfortable – especially their feet – but they either hunker down in a box or a tree crevice, or some other sheltered place, or they flock together for warmth.
In other words, they make do, and they are biologically engineered to do so. It’s really kind of a miracle. They fluff their feathers. They willfully drop their body temperatures. They shiver (to burn calories and generate body heat). And they eat to keep their fat stores and energy up.
This is where people can come in. Feeding the birds in wintertime is a nice way to give our feathered friends a little extra boost through the colder months. High fat foods – like suet, for example, and a variety of seeds are the best way to go, though do be cautious about unwanted munchers like bear, squirrels, and deer.
February just so happens to be National Bird Feeding Month – as good a time as any to get into the habit of feeding our fine feathered friends.
According to Audubon, more than 100 bird species supplement their natural diets with foods from feeders – especially during the winter months, when natural food sources are hard to come by. Some of them also use backyard feeders as refueling stations when they’re migrating into or out of the area in the spring and fall.
Sort of convenience store avian pit stops, if you will.
I think we’ve talked before in this space about how I’m not really a bird person. Most people likely don’t think too much about birds unless they’re:
1) Bird enthusiasts who seek them out and/or draw them near by feeding them (remember, my other half did this during the pandemic for a while, it was a short-lived hobby that involved a lot of long walks in the cold), or
2) Absolutely terrified of birds, perhaps suffering from ornithophobia. (By the way, this doesn’t only necessarily involve fear of live birds, but also fear of taxidermy birds or bird sculptures, fear of photos or movies of birds (Alfred Hitchcock was really onto something), fear of bird feathers, and/or fear of the mere SOUND of birds – like twittering or fluttering wings.
While thinking about this post, I Googled “how many birds are there in the world,” and came up with a mind boggling answer: An estimated 50 BILLION (they reached this figure with some mathematic formula I can’t even begin to comprehend), a fair number of which are sparrows, starlings, and gulls.
That’s about six birds for every single human living on the planet. A veritable shitton of birds.
Of course, now that I know that, I see birds everywhere. And I challenge you not to do the same. I mean, literally, there are birds EVERYWHERE. On telephone wires, unleashing guano excrement bombs on unsuspecting cars. In parking lots, (gulls, in particular, seem to like it there). In bushes and on trees. Stuck in your car grille. In the mouths of neighborhood cats.
So, if you are really deathly afraid of birds, I truly feel sorry for you, because there’s really no way to find a truly bird-free spot, with the exception of your house – if you’re lucky.
I mean, they even end up in airports and at the mall.
Since I have a newfound appreciation for – if not necessarily love of – birds, I am pleased to report that the weather has warmed a smidge, making life probably a fair bit easier for them. We’ll have a few days of 40-something degree weather, which I swear feels like heatwave after what we experienced last week.
There will be clouds this morning, giving way to sun in the afternoon. Get our there and enjoy it, sans multiple layers. Just one decent coat and a sweater should do it. Heck, you might even throw caution to the wind, once it really warms up, and a forego a hat and scarf.
Live dangerously.
In the headlines…
Millions of people in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel were jolted from their beds early this morning after a deadly earthquake hit the region, collapsing buildings and raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis.
At least 360 people were killed. With hundreds injured, the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched the rubble in cities and towns across the area.
The quake, one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years, struck 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the US Geological Survey said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tweeted that the effects were “felt in many parts of our country” and search and rescue teams had been immediately dispatched to areas affected by the earthquake.
President Joe Biden’s decision to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon on Saturday is a blow to a U.S.-China relationship that has been spiraling downward for years. But it is not necessarily a death blow.
Navy divers were searching for debris from the balloon that a U.S. fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina, defense officials said, as the fallout from the dramatic confrontation between the world’s two great powers showed no signs of easing.
Republican lawmakers touring the Sunday talk shows slammed the Biden administration for its response to the Chinese spy balloon, saying its lack of urgency sent the wrong message to China.
Biden said shortly after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese spy balloon that he gave the order to shoot it down last Wednesday but that military officials waited until Saturday to do so.
China previously sent high-altitude surveillance balloons over the U.S. that went undetected until after leaving American airspace, Biden administration officials said.
Beijing criticized the U.S. move to shoot down a suspected surveillance balloon from China, though the initial response suggested it prefers to let the heat seep out of the controversy surrounding the inflatable craft.
China will be an uninvited guest at Biden’s State of the Union address tomorrow night, as he takes credit for a resilient economy, celebrates record-low unemployment, and previews a broader domestic agenda.
At the start of his speech, Biden is apt to proclaim that the state of the union is strong. And by the time he’s done, he’ll have laid out a case that he deserves an ample share of the credit.
Biden is planning to use his second State of the Union address to paint the broad strokes of a likely campaign ahead, contrasting his notion of steady leadership with the newly elected, likely chaotic Republican House.
Four in 10 Americans say they’ve gotten worse off financially since Biden became president, the most in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 37 years.
Biden will visit Wisconsin on Wednesday to discuss his economic policy plans and tout job growth in the U.S.
The Democratic Party on Saturday approved reordering its 2024 presidential primary, replacing Iowa with South Carolina in the leadoff spot as part of a major shake-up meant to empower Black and other minority voters critical to its base of support.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said he doesn’t think former President Donald Trump could beat Biden in a 2024 rematch.
The donor network created by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch is preparing to get involved in the presidential primaries in 2024, with the aim of turning “the page on the past” in a thinly veiled rebuke of Trump.
Trump’s 2016 campaign has settled a years-long legal battle with an ex-staffer over non-disclosure agreements it required employees and volunteers to sign.
Nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Biden or Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, a new poll showed.
U.S. officials have offered to brief congressional leaders on their investigation into the classified documents found at Trump’s Florida residence as well as Biden’s Delaware home and former private office.
As with previous Congresses, the newly empowered House Republicans are engaged in a plethora of probes of Biden and his allies, from border security and the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal to Joe Biden’s classified documents and son Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan unloaded the House GOP’s first subpoenas a month into the new majority, demanding records about certain Biden administration decisions regarding threats against school officials during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The U.S. economy generated 517,000 jobs in January, a surprisingly strong number that underscores the remarkable resilience of the labor market but could stiffen the Federal Reserve’s determination to squeeze the economy to fight 40-year-high inflation.
Biden flew into Syracuse over the weekend for a personal visit and made no public appearances. His brother-in-law, Michael E. Hunter, an Auburn resident, died last week.
A prospective congressional aide has accused Representative George Santos of ethics violations and sexual harassment, according to a letter the man sent to the House Committee on Ethics and posted to Twitter on Friday.
The man, Derek Myers, briefly worked in Santos’s office before his job offer was rescinded earlier this week, according to the letter.
Myers alleges that Santos on January 25 “touched” his groin before the New York congressman allegedly invited him to his home and said his husband was out of town, according to a copy of the House ethics complaint.
Add Broadway producer to the long list of Santos’s fabrications. Santos told potential donors while running for Congress in 2021 that he produced Broadway’s ill-fated Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Santos’ district office was vandalized with graffiti that spelled out a tri-lingual string of vulgarities against the embattled Republican congressman.
State governments are entering 2023 with record-high reserves, which could help the overall economy weather a recession this year.
The number of New York state residents who get government-funded Medicaid health insurance is expected to soar to nearly 8 million this year, data released from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion budget plan shows.
Hochul has found herself in hot water — even from her own party — over her proposal to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products in the Empire State.
Weeks after a state Senate committee rejected her pick to lead New York’s highest court, Hochul is again facing fierce opposition from progressive legislators and unions — this time over her bid to allow more charter schools to open in New York City.
Black and Latino leaders of New York City charter schools are backing a new bill that would allow dozens more of the alternative schools to open — as long as they are run by people of “historically, underrepresented communities.”
Hochul is following the lead of predecessor Andrew Cuomo — siding with the powerful hospital lobby in a fight with health insurers and labor unions over medical billing payments.
Hochul this year won’t be known as “Governor Pothole,” at least according to those in the state’s vast road and bridge building and repair industries.
Hochul is proposing changes to New York’s new concealed carry law that would allow for armed security guards outside houses of worship and exempt retired police officers from the law.
Bail data shows a wide range in how many could be impacted by Hochul’s proposal to consider additional changes to the existing law.
A New York State Police trooper was arrested and charged with issuing over two dozen fake traffic tickets to unsuspecting motorists in 2021 and 2022.
The US should be prioritizing its own homeless population rather than migrants from other countries, former New York Gov. David Paterson said, while claiming that the asylum process is “starting to become an industry.”
Disgruntled migrants fed up with the Big Apple’s crime and grime are taking off to the Great White North — on bus rides paid for by New York taxpayers.
Mayor Eric Adams slept at a migrant facility in Brooklyn on the coldest night of 2023 to promote the new housing option after some migrants recently refused to leave a hotel.
Adams slept on a cot, played video games and laced up his sneakers on Saturday morning.
Adams was joined by state Assembly member Eddie Gibbs and homeless advocate Shams DaBaron at the facility just two weeks after the mayor announced its opening to handle the continuing influx of asylum seekers.
Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park 5, said Friday that he intends to run for a City Council seat in Harlem, challenging Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan.
Lamor Whitehead, a criminally charged Brooklyn pastor who’s friends with Adams, is refusing to furnish federal prosecutors with passwords to 13 electronic devices they’ve seized from him, delaying the discovery process in his case, according to court records.
With attacks against medics surging, the City Council is considering new legislation that would guarantee they have access to body armor vests and yearly self-defense training.
The city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people in the past two decades, or about 9 percent. Now, about one in five residents are non-Hispanic Black, compared with one in four in 2000, according to the latest census data.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer faces a lawsuit from a cooperative board that could upend his plans to build condos on the Upper East Side.
Kyrie Irving is on his way out of Brooklyn after three and a half scandal-filled years in which the Nets fell way short of realizing their aspirations of seriously contending for an N.B.A. championship.
A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco was the subject of an intense rescue effort late Friday after getting loose as a result of vandals having damaged his Central Park Zoo enclosure the night before, parks and zoo officials said.
Flaco — whose name means skinny in Spanish — was perched high in a tree above the park’s Hallet Nature Sanctuary, the Manhattan Bird Alert account tweeted Saturday morning.
David O. Carpenter, the founder and longtime director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the state University at Albany, was quietly placed on “alternate assignment” nine months ago during a pending disciplinary investigation.
Albany, or the greater Capital Region, has a well-known craft brew culture and a history second to none when it comes to beer production.
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center welcomes back its resident companies, New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra, for a summer season of classical canon, contemporary works and SPAC debuts.
On the same day Shelters of Saratoga said it has to again rethink its location for 24-hour center to support the city’s homeless, Mayor Ron Kim promised he will commit himself to finding a solution to safely shelter all.
For the second time, Shelters of Saratoga’s effort to build a 24-hour drop-in center for the homeless has come to a halt.
Alaskan investigators used genetic testing and genealogy to connect a skull found in 1997 to a Clay, N.Y., man who had been missing for decades. Officials believe the man was likely mauled by a bear.
A new record for the coldest wind chill ever recorded, minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit, was set at the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the region’s highest peak, on Friday.
After 88 career nominations, the R&B singer and pop superstar Beyonce won her 32nd Grammy, for best dance/electronic music album, giving her the record for most Grammy victories.
It was Harry Styles who claimed album of the year for his chart-topping “Harry’s House,” while blues rocker Bonnie Raitt won song of the year for “Just Like That” and Lizzo took home record of the year for “About Damn Time.”
Viola Davis joined an exclusive club last night, winning her first Grammy trophy to achieve EGOT status. She’s the 18th person to accomplish the feat, which refers to an artist who’s won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
The Grammy Awards dedicated an extended, centerpiece performance to the forthcoming 50th anniversary of hip-hop, going from Grandmaster Flash to Lil Uzi Vert in about 15 minutes.
