Rampant Cuteness

That pretty well describes the scene at the Bird Bistro this afternoon - cuteness all over the place. In fact, I was hard pressed to choose so I posted six alternative shots, starting HERE.

This is one of our winter sparrows, a dark-eyed junco. They show up every fall and stay until spring, when they fly north to breed. They are also sometimes called "snow birds" because they tend to show up in large numbers when there is snow on the ground. I took this crouched down outside, about 10 feet from a tree where I have some feeders. I waited and waited until this fluffed junco finally approached close enough for some good shots. I was very happy with the exposure and detail on this shot, as well as several others in the series. This is cropped, but otherwise untouched.

I finally admitted defeat and called a plumber this morning to come out and thaw our frozen pipe in the bathroom. A pricey venture, but at least we didn't have a broken pipe, which would have been even more $$. It took about 45 minutes to thaw the pipe so there is not way we could have done it ourselves. And, the plumber showed me a trick to hopefully keep it from freezing up again. He also believes that the loss of heat downstairs probably caused the pipes in that part of the house to freeze. Anyway, hopefully the whole mess is behind us now.

The fireplace work has come to a stop until I can get a building inspector to come out and approve the work that's been done so far. I'm hoping for Tuesday, so please send a few good thoughts my way. Until it's done, quite a bit of cold air is able to enter the house, even though they've taped up heavy plastic sheeting over the opening. Just means that our heating system will be working very hard for the near term, especially since our temperatures remain well below freezing.

Snow is forecast for tomorrow, so maybe I can get some good snowy bird pics. At the very least, I can give you cold bird pics! haha

Thanks for the lovely response to yesterday's blue jay - you send him/her to the spotlight page briefly - always a nice surprise! Still trying to catch up...

Happy Friday, people.

Debbi

And if you want a completely contrasting image, check out last year's Roseatte Spoonbill - one of the most exciting birds I've ever seen!