Nature Connection: Treasure The Simple Joys

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and everywhere we turn there are ads begging us to buy all sorts of things, from food to toys to cars. It can feel overwhelming, even sad, depending on how you’re feeling about the season.

Winter is upon us, with shorter daylight hours and longer nighttime darkness each day. With the upcoming winter solstice, that will change, though slowly. We will begin to see more light and less darkness, but for a month or so it will still be cold and dark for most of us.

Cape Cod winters may not have the same amount of snowfall as areas to our west and north, but we never know. Some years we have several blizzards that dump a lot of snow on us and take down snow-laden branches that in turn take down our power lines. Other years we only get a dusting or two.

What we do know is that our landscape offers up a full spectrum of grays and beiges with a few pops of green and blue. If we’re lucky we see a cardinal or two and get a glimpse of red highlights as well. Although some find this color palette dreary, I invite you to look deeper and find the beauty in it.

There’s a softness that the muted grays bring to our world. Some of the grays tend toward pinks while others are so light they look almost white against the dark shadows behind them. Most of our grays are from shrubs and trees bereft of leaves, and some are closer to black or brown when we get closer to them.

This is a great time of year to enjoy the structural elements of our woodlands but also our fields and marshes. Trees jut into the sky, their branches reaching for the clouds. Or not. Some reach sideways or even down toward the ground. If you look closely at the tips of branches, large or small, you will find the buds that promise spring and summer. Some buds are tight and dark while others are fatter and rounder, looking like it won’t take much to burst them open. 

Stop for a moment and consider a bud. Like a seed, it holds the future in its tiny, unobtrusive little self. If you cut a bud open and examine it under a good magnifier, you may see the whorl of leaves and flowers hidden within, all wrapped up together. Buds are full of life even when winter roars in. 

Many animals, including deer and rabbits, eat buds all winter long. The buds may not look like much, but they are bursting with energy, something needed to get these animals through the brutal ups and downs of winter weather. This habit doesn’t endear them to gardeners, but maybe it should. Maybe we should be planting to feed wildlife, not deter it. Just a thought.

On a recent walk I found what I think may be one of the largest wasp nests I’ve ever seen. It was very high up in a tree, and the bottom showed signs of being attacked by birds looking for whatever life may have remained within. Some birds use the pulpy paper layers to line both their nests and winter roosts. These include birds like tufted titmice and black-capped chickadees. By spring, this nest will probably just be a memory with a few random remnants blowing in the breeze.

Bird and squirrel nests are easy to find at this time of year, often in spots we walked by all summer, unaware of the family dramas and comedies unfolding behind the leaves. Bird nests may contain mud, leaves, papers and string as well as twigs, but most birds use either twigs or grasses to weave their nests. Some, like goldfinches, make beautifully woven nests with soft thistle-down linings. Gray catbirds make a looser structure with twigs jutting out all over but with strips of plastic, paper, or fabric woven in. Robins and cardinals make nests with mud and sticks, and blue jays make sturdy nests of sticks with grassy linings. 

High up in trees we may see large nests. Although hawks and crows nest high in trees, check out what the nests are made of. Mostly sticks? Probably a bird nest. Mostly leaves? That will be a squirrel nest, called a drey. Used mostly in warmer seasons, these leafy dreys are occasionally used in winter, especially during mild spells, and often by several squirrels.

All these little things can add up to joy if we are so inclined. Rather than finding our landscape grim at this time of year, I prefer to find the little things now exposed that I can see clearly.

The bare trees mean we are better able to spot owls and hawks. The grassy fields may look dull and empty, but they are full of birds, even if we don’t see them right away. Bluebirds, sparrows, and finches all feed on seeds all winter long. They blend into the background very well, even the bluest of the bluebirds, so look carefully and be patient. You might even spy a little vole running like heck from one spot to the other. Look, too, for egg cases of insects such as praying mantises.

I like to think of all these small wonders as gifts nature is giving me. Every day I find something to enjoy, whether it is a last bright red rugosa rose hip or a wood duck showing off his lovely plumage. 

In a season of overindulgence and commercialism, it is good to remember that not all revolves around money. For some there is joy in a religious celebration, for others it is more secular and involves a jolly man that fills stockings with treats. For all of us, though, there is plenty of opportunity to get outside and appreciate the free gifts all around us every day.