More spring

My eyes are soaking in the freshness of spring, clean colors, new life pushing through. It's all so beautiful. Crocuses busting out all over.

Shot through a fence, hence diffusion.

Hanging over tall fence.

Yellow belly sap sucker.

Creeper at melting suet.

Nice clean downy.

Oh,... not skittish.... a fox sparrow.

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Spring, for sure

Oh joy, robins. And because the ground is moist... mud!..... the worms are out.

Lunch a la mode.

Eat it! Eat it! (I felt like Michael Jackson.) But....

The robin didn't eat it. I have no idea what makes one worm a delicacy and another worthy of survival. Both worms lived to wiggle another hour.

I knew where the long eared owls are roosting, but I couldn't see any owl. Dense tree. Low light. I walked around and then decided to photograph every bit of bark I could see. I swear I never saw an owl. I saw pine needles and a bit of bark. But the camera saw more than I did. Oh, wow! Just look at that and look at tree bark and owl breast feathers. I didn't see this with my eyes or even through the lens. I saw bark pattern, nothing else. Amazing.

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Peck, peck!

Spring is in the air even though it was intensely cold yesterday.


Lots of regular birds and lots of birders. Someone had thrown out seed for the little birds. I was watching the titmice and they were eyeballing me.

A good part of birding has to do with sound. I heard titmice making a racket and followed the sound. Nothing could have prepared me for this. There were two titmice and they were attacking a raccoon. Perhaps they had wanted this hole for their nest. I don't know. Perhaps there were tasty fleas in the raccoon's fur. I suspect it was a territorial battle. The two titmice were persistent. The raccoon was aware that there was an attack going on. Raccoon shifted position a couple of time.

I couldn't hang around all afternoon. When I left raccoon was happily asleep and titmice had flown off, but not far away. Maybe raccoon would leave hole at night and titmice could reclaim spot.

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An earlier March

March 6, but 2005. This was the first time I saw cedar waxwings gorging.

Too busy eating to worry about a photographer.

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Forgotten in the files

February 7, 2005. It is such fun looking back in wonder. Same old, same old, hand out the food.

There really is a red belly.

Snow beginning to melt. Glorious dead leaves. Housing material. Time to build a nest.

The audience.

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More regulars

Quiet day. One robin resting in bush. Pretty soon it will be worming season.

Delicious chow at feeding station.

It's been a while since I've seen cardinals. I think they know I've got nuts in the fanny pack.

Mrs. Cardinal is also eyeballing me.

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