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Lucky for a kinglet, it does not know the odds stacked against its individual survival. Presumably it could not contemplate its fate, regret about mistakes, or fret over injustice or lost opportunities. It does not worry about the future, or about life and death. Why can we presume this? Because these mental capacities could only compromise, not aid survival. They could not activate the bird to effective action, because there is so little, if anything, it could do to change things in its world where the relevant things—ice storms, a subzero night, winds, food scarcity—are ruled by chance. Undampened enthusiasm and raw drive would matter. I do not and cannot ever know the combination of happiness, hunger, or emotions that energize a bird. But whenever I’ve watched kinglets in their nonstop hopping, hovering, and searching, seen their intimate expressions, and heard their constant chatter of tsees, songs, and various calls, I’ve felt an infectious hyperenthusiasm flow from them, and sensed a grand, boundless zest for life. They could not survive without that in their harsh world. Like us, they are programmed for optimism.

I am gladdened to know that a population of these wraiths of the forest thrives. When I’m in the warmth of my cabin and hear gusts of wind outside that moan through the woods and shake the cabin on wintry nights, I will continue to marvel at and wonder how the little featherpuffs are faring. They defy the odds and the laws of physics, and prove that the fabulous is possible.

REFERENCES

01 FIRE AND ICE

Imbrie J., and K.P. Imbrie, 1979. Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Madigan, M. T., and B. L. Marrs. 1997. Extremophiles. Scientific American 276(4):82–87.

Margulis, L. 1982. Early Life. Boston: Science Books International.

02 SNOW AND THE SUBNIVIAN SPACE

Bentley, W. A., and W. J. Humphreys. 1931. Snow Crystals. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Blanchard, D. C. 1998. The Snowflake Man. Blacksburg, Va.: McDonald and Woodward Publishers.

Borland, Hal. 1971. A lifetime of snowflakes. Audubon 73:59–65.

Burlington Free Press. Bentley’s contribution. Burlington Free Press. December 24, 1931.

Court, G. 1998. Winter grays. Natural History (February): 50–54.

Marchand, P. J. 1993. The underside of winter. Natural History (February): 51–56.

Pruitt, W.O., Jr. 1960. Animals of the North. New York: Harper and Row.

Thaler, E. 1982. Ornithologisches in Schnee. Dic Gefiederte Welt (March): 90–92.

03 A LATE WINTER WALK

Benkman, C.W. 1987. Food profitability and the foraging ecology of crossbills. Ecological Monographs 57(3):251–267.

———. 1989. On the evolution and ecology of island populations of crossbills. Evolution 43:1324–1330.

———. 1990. Intake rates and the timing of crossbill reproduction. Auk 197:376–386.

Bent, A.C. 1968. Life Histories of North American Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Buntings, Towhees, Finches, Sparrows, and Allies. Part I. New York: Dover Publications.

Grinnell, J. 1900. Birds of the Kotzebue Sound region. Pacific Coast Avifauna, No. 1.

Macoun, J. 1909. Catalogue of Canadian Birds, 2nd edition.

Palmer, R. S. 1949. Maine birds. Bull. Mus. Camp. Zool. Vol. 102.

Porter, E. 1966. Summer Island. New York: Balentine Books. P. 78.

Smith, B. E. 1949. White-winged crossbills nesting in Maine. Maine Audubon Soc. Bull. 5:12–13.

Stone, W. 1937. Bird Studies at Old Cape May. Vol. II. New York: Dover Publications.

Tufts, H. F. 1906. Nesting of crossbills in Nova Scotia. Auk 23:339–340.

04 TRACKING A WEASEL

Sandell, M. 1988. Stop-and-go stoats. Natural History (June): 55–64.

Snyder, D. P. 1982. Tamias striatus. In Mammalian Species, No. 168:1–8. The American Society of Mammalogists.

05 NESTS AND DENS

Frazier, A., and V. Nolan. 1959. Communal roosting by the Eastern Bluebird in winter. Bird Banding 30:219–226.

Ghalambor, C. K., and T. E. Martin. 1999. Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis).

In The Birds of North America, edited by A. Poole and F. Gill.