The Dead of Winter

The "dead of winter" ----- how much more dead it would be each year without the birds!

Note: The American naturalist, Edwin Way Teale has given us some marvelous prose about birds and winter in his books: A Walk Through the Year, Circle of the Seasons: The Journal of a Naturalist's Year, and Wandering Through Winter: A Naturalist's Record of a 20,000-Mile Journey Through the North American Winter. During World War II, Teale’s son, David, was killed in Germany. Teale and his wife began traveling across the country by automobile. The trips helped them cope with their grief and became an integral part of Teale's writing. Their 1947 journey, covering 17,000 miles in a black Buick and following the unfolding spring, led to Teale's book North with the Spring. Additional road trips lead to more books: Journey Into Summer, Autumn Across America, and Wandering Through Winter. Wandering Through Winter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. Here are some of Teale's thoughts on winter and birds