Fox Sparrow

I was very excited this morning to look outside and see this character scratching and tossing leaves around right in front of the house. It's not the first time I've had a fox sparrow here, but it is pretty much of a rare event.

The extra is a female downy woodpecker on the spent flower stalk of one of our yuccas.

Both of these photos illustrate my lazy gardening technique - which is not without purpose! Leave the leaves and the flower stalks and provide food for the birds in the form of seeds on the old flower stalks and insects that are nestled under the dead leaves.