During a planned house/pet sitting stint in Garland (a suburb of Dallas) we were “lucky” enough to arrive just in time for a winter event seen only about every 30 years in northern Texas. Over a 4 day stretch snow accumulated 5-6 inches and temperatures went into the single digits at night with daytime highs never reaching the 32 degree mark. Unheard of in the area. On the second day I noticed an unusually large flock of birds gathering in the trees around the area.
It soon became apparent that they were intent on a tree in out front yard that had an abundance of small red berries. The rare snow over and cold temperatures had evidently rendered normal food sources nonexistent.
I’ve never seen so many birds at one time. As far as I could tell there were only Robins and Cedar Waxwings with maybe a few finches of some sort.
Soon the tree was completely bare of berries and the birds continued on to what would hopefully be their next food find.
