A good day for birds

It's about 24 degrees (Farenheit, of course) outside and there's about 6 inches of snow on the ground. And there are dozens of birds in my yard.

I went out yesterday, during a rare baby break, and refilled my two feeders. Today I am rewarded with a really good mix of birds.

• Slate-colored Juncos
• Pink-sided Juncos
• Red shafted flickers
• Downy woodpeckers
• Chickadees
  
• Nuthatch of indeterminate variety
• House finches galore

I've decided that I need a better birding book. Mine has training wheels on it and I think I might be ready to graduate to Big Girl's Birding Book. I'm not fabulous at it, since all the females just look like LBBs (Little Brown Birds) to me, regardless of their type. I can only determine the species if I happen to see a male.

Winter is a good time of year to check out the birds in my yard since no foliage gets in the way and hummingbirds aren't around leaving me distracted. In the summer, when the hummers show up, all of the other birds get ignored. I become hummer obsessed. In the winter, though, I provide a good and reliable source of food to the winged set. And I get all crazy about the woodpeckers.

You could say I have seasonal favorites.

My cats, they approve.