New visitor on this absolutely frigid day. ~ CookingFood.Org

I took this photo from the window of the mouse-house. It's too far to get a good shot with my camera but at least you can see this guy that visited my feeders yesterday. He is a Pileated Woodpecker. Apparently, they are not all that common to see at your feeders so I was thrilled to see this one. Most of the woodpeckers that visit are either Hairy Woodpeckers or Downy Woodpeckers and they are a lot smaller.
Here's a good read on them.
http://www.wildlifecenteroftexas.org/2011/05/pileated-woodpecker-new-video/

I don't remember it ever being this cold before. I tried to take a few photos at the feeders and just having my glove off for 10 seconds I could feel my skin begin to freeze. I had to cover my face with my scarf and head back in. How on earth do the birds survive in this weather? Or anything else.
I'm tellin' ya...it is survival of the fittest these days. As I drove back from our property I noticed a large amount of crows eating something on the side of the road. As I got closer I saw that they were eating a dead crow. Geez.....
I stopped at Timmy's for a coffee and as I sat in the parking lot a crow flew up beside the car with a leaf of frozen lettuce in it's beak. It must have found it in the garbage can. Oh boy, I'm losin' it but my heart just broke for this bird. I had some cat food in the car and threw a hand-ful outside the window. It dropped that frozen lettuce faster than a cat whips it's tail and devoured the hard food.

Everything is so hungry and food is scarce with so much snow and freezing temperatures.
I don't even want to think of feral cats out there. I just put the food down and leave the rest to God.

Today at the feeders a beautiful male cardinal came by. That was a treat to see. The female showed up shortly after along with a red-poll and numerous blue-jays.

The nuthatch is a regular, too.

Of course, my family of chickadees are always there. They never seem too fazed by the cold; always singing and flitting around. I just adore those birds.