.
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) in snow storm: photo by Steve Byland, 14 December 2013
........Every branch big with it,
........Bent every twig with it;
......Every fork like a white web-foot;
......Every street and pavement mute:
Some flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward, when
Meeting those meandering down they turn and descend again.
....The palings are glued together like a wall,
....And there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall.
........
........A sparrow enters the tree,
........Whereon immediately
......A snow-lump thrice his own slight size
......Descends on him and showers his head and eyes,
..........And overturns him,
..........And near inurns him,
........And lights on a nether twig, when its brush
Starts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush.
........
........The steps are a blanched slope,
........Up which, with feeble hope,
........A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin;
..........And we take him in.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): Snow in the Suburbs, from Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles, 1925
black cat, white snow: photo by wikkanman, 26 January 2013
Song Sparrow in snow, Lost Lagoon, Vancouver, British Columbia: photo by Valerie Sauve, 20 December 2013
Winter Weirder Land: photo by David Cory, 8 January 2011
Winter Weirder Land: photo by David Cory, 8 January 2011
Winter Weirder Land: photo by David Cory, 8 January 2011
Winter Weirder Land: photo by David Cory, 8 January 2011
Tree and snow: photo by David Cory, 2 January 2010
Winter Weirder Land: photo by David Cory, 8 January 2011
White-throated Sparrow in snow: photo by The Nature Nook, 9 March 2009