Snow Bird

Yard Bird # 11 - Dark-eyed junco

These little sparrows show up in our yard every fall and are regular daily visitors until spring, when they head to their northern breeding grounds. At various times of the year, they are found in every state in N. America, and throughout much of Canada.  And whenever it snows, they show up in large numbers at feeders, looking for seeds and cracked corn.  In the Eastern US, they are dark gray on the back and soft white on the breast/belly, as seen here.  In the western states, they are more colorful, although still classified as the same species.  

So, we had about an inch of snow yesterday afternoon/evening.  Enough to dust the ground in white, but not enough to require more than a broom to clear the deck.  It stayed bitter cold today (mid-20's F with a stiff wind, making wind chills at about 10 F) so my trips outside were short and required all sorts of layers of clothes, including hat, gloves and ear muffs.  To get this shot, I was crouched at the food of our stairs, on the patio, trying to get as close to eye-level to the juncos as I could short of laying on the icy cold pavers.  I had to wait what felt like an absurd amount of time to get "the shot"...and even at that, I had to do a bunch of fiddling in LR with this image.  

Hubs and I met some friends of his from his former job for lunch - great fun to meet some people I'd only heard about and much good-humored kidding at the table.  Nice to get out.  

I posted two other shots on Flickr, starting HERE with an unbelievably puffy titmouse.  Probably should have gone with that as my 12th yard bird, but wanted to get a junco in the snow...

Last night we took the cats to the vet for annual check ups and shots - you haven't lived until you've driven 20 minutes in the snow with two screaming cats.  Once we got into the exam room, however, they both became as quiet as mice and suddenly seemed to really like their crates.  Ha.  Vet suggested blood work on Phoebe and she'll go back in six months to monitor her heart murmur.  Charlie is good to go until next year.  Check that off the list!

The amount of money raised for Blipfoto continues to grow, but we are still short of the goal with 48 days to go, so get out there and PLEDGE!

Happy Wednesday people.  And to all of us in the States who've bought lottery tickets, good luck!  (And if I win, I'll make sure we close the gap for the BlipFuture funds!)

TTFN

Note:  Just after I posted this, Hubs spotted 14 wild turkeys making their way into the woods behind our house.  Judging by the tracks, they had just been on the patio, dining on cracked corn...