the early worm

This morning while walking in the snow, I saw an earthworm crossing the road.  I've never seen a worm on a snowy day before.  But maybe he knows what he's doing... if he can get undercover before a hungry bird finds him.  The temperature is steadily rising, and as long as you don't mind haphazard hunks of snow falling off branches and onto your head, it's perfect walking and listening weather... snow and slush crunching and crackling underfoot, steady dripping, and the hunks of falling snow kind of sound like the cheery thwumps of a feather pillow fight.  All sorts of birds are trilling, crows are cawing, lots of woodpeckers are drilling for bugs, making the happy echo of hollow wood, and dark little birds are twittering in and out of snowy white thickets.