Feathered Friends

I’m a sucker for critters.  No surprise to those of you that know me.  Fur, fins or feathers, makes no matter to me.  Zion wants a bird.  I’d love to have one.  I’d hate to add another habitat to the list of cleaning chores.  I’d hate more for that darn Eva to get her paws on the poor thing and dealing with Zion’s grief if it did happen.  It is a good thing that we have plenty of birds in Washington.  In lieu of a pet bird we have dozens of wild birds that we feed and now that the weather is getting colder our visitors are increasing.  They also make great photography subjects and with my long lens I can get a decent photo without even opening the sliding door (which is good because when I do open it they all dart off).  Recently I bought a field guide for Washington birds, now I actually know what I’m looking at!

The first species we started seeing in the Fall and our most common visitor to the feeder is the Dark Eyed Junco (AKA Oregon Junco).

After that I noticed we have Red-breasted Nuthatches.  They are super cute.

A Nuthatch AND a Junco:

Then on Thanksgiving as we were rushing about trying to get out the door to my sister’s I thought I saw a Chickadee.  I didn’t have time to grab my camera or take a second glance though so I couldn’t be sure.  I’ve been stalking the tree ever since.  Yesterday morning bright and early I was rewarded, finally, with a sighting and he even waited long enough for me to get my camera.  My new little field guide confirms this is a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee.  These little guys are my favorite.  So far anyway.

Yesterday I was at Home Depot buying more seed and a baffler to keep the rain off the feeder and very nearly bought a tree – a whole TREE! just because I thought the birds might like it.  Uh oh.  I may have a problem.