While this winters light, what little there has been, has been mostly the grey variety sometimes the sun does indeed shine. This morning a Townsend’s Solitaire rests quietly in the choke cherry bush illuminated by a wonder filtered light just poking over the Southern horizon.
Always moving, always working and always bringing a smile to our faces.
Well, we can all agree 2021 has been a strange and unordinary year in many respects and one event that has us scratching our heads and has just turned the strange-o-meter up to 11 is the absence of Hatchmo this winter.
As long as we can remember Red-Breasted Nuthatches have been a neighborhood fixture. Not just in winter but all year long. Their honking a constant reminder that someone is out there in the trees and their visits to the feeders in winter are sure to bring a smile to our faces when the sun is low and temperatures are cold. Perhaps they have all gotten together and moved south this year or perhaps they have just moved to the next valley over.
Whatever the reason it has left of scratching your heads, searching the web for explanations and feeling just a little lonely this winter.
So if you see Hatchmo tell them the feeders are full and it’s OK to come home.
A Male Downey Woodpecker brought a quick splash of color to a quiet winter walk.
Watching, listening and right at home this Pelagic Cormorant enjoys a sunny winters afternoon.
Among the cormorants of North America’s Pacific Coast, the Pelagic is a small and slender species that flies with a thin, straight neck often compared to a broomstick. Breeding adults are black with glossy purple-green highlights. They have a coral-red throat patch and neat white patches on the flanks. They nest on coastal cliffs and forage in rocky water, rarely traveling far from shore despite their name.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pelagic_Cormorant/overview
A blanket of snow covers the ground.
All the world settles down.
Listening is in our nature.
On Saturday at mid-morning we spotted this Coopers hawk tidying up a bit on a broken old Cottonwood branch. He looked like he has had a bit of a rough time lately with his feathers looking downright scruffy. After a half hour or so of preening his feathers were back in fine order and he was off again hunting in nearby woods.
An American Goldfinch rests perches between nibbles on last summers coneflower crop. Both dressed smartly in their respective fall colors.
The Woodhouse Scrub Jay is found throughout the drier regions of the southwestern United States in a variety of habitats ranging from scrub oak forests to stands of pinion pines. This day we noticed a persistent rustling in a stand of scrub oak tree and we pleased to find this Woodhouse Scrub jay.
Scrub-jays of the West evolved in two very different habitats: oak woodlands and montane pinyon pine stands. Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays live mainly among pinyon pine trees. They developed relatively thin, pointed bills that are adept at getting at the pine nuts hidden between pine cone scales. California Scrub-Jays live around oak trees and have developed stouter, more hooked bills that help them hammer open acorns.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Woodhouses_Scrub-Jay/overview#
Scrub Oak and Scrub Jay a nice way to start the day.
As the storm whipped up the waves and the rain came down sideways a land-bound and lonely looking Brandt Goose looks longingly out to sea waiting for the storm to clear. This goose looked to be alone and we sure hope they caught up to their flock when the storm finally cleared the next afternoon.
nature has no boss 
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