The Greenery Of Winter

As nosotros approach the wintertime solstice, much of the Temperate Zone landscape appears to endure lifeless.  Brown, dry out grasslands, barren deciduous trees too leafless thickets dominate the scene spell the spend upwards of the growing flavor blows across our fields too lawns.  Fortunately, an exception is provided past times the conifers, the evergreen trees too shrubs that adorn our parks, suburbs, farmlands too forests.

Here on our Littleton farm, nosotros convey a mix of conifers, including junipers, pinon pines, Austrian pines too a few spruce trees.  Providing greenery during the wintertime months, they too attract a broad diverseness of birds that utilize their shelter too feast on their berries too nuts.  Among these residents too visitors are red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits, cedar too Bohemian waxwings, pine siskins too other to a greater extent than mutual species.  The presence of these conifers too increases our peril to encounter mount birds that may descend to lower elevations inward winter; these include northern goshawks, Steller's jays, mount chickadees, ruddy crossbills, Cassin's finches and, inward closed to years, eve grosbeaks.

The role of conifers for Christmas trees, wreaths too garlands, stems from the rituals of ancient man, who considered them signs of perpetual life too used them to fuel wintertime solstice bonfires to coax dorsum the life-giving sun.  Even today, when nosotros sympathise the solar cycle, the greenery of conifers offers promise through the dark, frigid months of winter.