Purple Finches in the Rain

The birds are singing loudly and pairing up. We are so happy to see so many birds nesting in our woods. This year, for the first time we have Purple Finches. They have been hanging around for quite a while and I am hoping they will nest nearby.

This week brought some welcome rain...more than two inches of gentle rain over two days. I love to watch birds in the rain, especially birds as lovely as the Purple Finches.

A male and a female recently shared lunch in the rain.

The female kept her eyes on me most of the time, but she stayed to eat with her mate anyway. I just love this time of year!

Nuthatches and the Nesting Box

Various bird houses hang from the trees throughout the woods at our house. At the end of the season we clean all the bird houses and leave them in place for the winter. One of the houses apparently got used after we cleaned it. This house is favored by the Chickadees.

On Monday I looked out to see a White-breasted Nuthatch coming and going at the bird house. What a surprise.

She came out of the house with her mouth totally full of nesting material.


She struggled at times to get the big globs through the opening.

She carried them to the tree trunk.

Both of the nuthatches worked. Here they are passing something from one to the other.

The pieces of material were placed on a branch near the tree trunk. Methodically, the two nuthatches flew from the bird house to the tree and back. The gentle wind kept blowing the material from the branches as it accumulated.

This bird stopped what she was doing and looked straight at me and the camera. Then she resumed her work.

After removing quite a bit of material, the nuthatch began tucking the material under the eaves of the bird house.

I watched for a very long time as the nuthatch went about her job. She definitely had a plan.

To our amusement, the nuthatches worked all day long to clean out the bird house. Taking short breaks to eat or drink, they kept on working. At the end of the afternoon, the bird house looked like this:

They left lots of nesting material tucked under the eaves. Then they pulled more material to cover the opening. I've never seen such a sight. On Tuesday morning, one of the nuthatches returned and I looked forward to another fun day of watching. She removed all the material from inside the house. Then she took the stuffing from under the eaves, leaving the bird house totally clean.

Neither of the nuthatches has been seen entering or leaving the bird house since Tuesday. I wonder what they are thinking.

Tracking the Hummingbirds

It won't be long now.

One of my favorite arrivals is that of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Even non-birders talk excitedly about the first hummingbird sighting. In case you didn't know, there is a really great hummingbird migration map. You can use the map to report a sighting or to follow the migration. Once they approach your area, get out those feeders and make your nectar.

Here is the link for the map: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html

-----------My computer seems to have made a Lazarus-like recovery and survived the hard drive crash and other problems. It's back home and working just fine. With a new hard drive and reinstallation of the operating system, it should be good for a while. This is one service contract that more than paid for itself.

FRIENDLY NOTE: Get a portable hard drive and back up any data you wouldn't want to lose for good. While in my case the service crew was able to clone the hard drive, that is not always the case. I felt much better knowing that I had almost everything I needed backed up on a relatively inexpensive portable external hard drive. There is also Internet-based storage available. Oh, if you don't actually use the process to back up data it doesn't do you any good!

Thursday is Golden

The weather pattern (hereafter known as the Great March Snowstorm) left us with more snow than we had seen since we moved away from Wisconsin. My husband took the Golden Girls out to play in the snow and snapped a few photographs of them.

This is the edge of the woods. The branches are heavy with the snow, bending down almost to the ground.

Ellie takes a break from running and sniffing in the snow.

Lucy looks behind her to see where Ellie is.

Lucy did not seem to care much for the snow. She shoveled it with her nose, but did not run around as much as Ellie.

Here they are playing chase. Lucy is the reluctant member and Ellie is having a wonderful time.

I think Ellie is telling Lucy some little secret.

Lucy sits in the snow, her eyes begging to go back inside.

Lucy spent a lot of time trying to get the snow off her paw pads.

Lucy is a dog who detests having anything on her paw pads or tail feathering. Perhaps that is why she didn't care for the snow. Ellie enjoyed every minute, running and playing like a puppy.

----------The reason for the Thursday doggie post is that my laptop STILL is not working properly. After installation of a new hard drive, the computer takes as long as 30 minutes to boot up. So, back to the service department for repairs. I do hope they won't have to keep it long.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND, FILLED WITH FUN AND JOY! AND LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.

Of Cardinals and a Finch

One of the best things about our strange March 1 snow, was watching the birds on the snow-laden branches and at the feeders.

A female Cardinal tunnels under the snow.


She comes up with a beak covered in the white stuff.

A male Cardinal was sitting at a feeder, enjoying himself. Suddenly, a Purple Finch landed beside him on the feeder. The Cardinal doesn't like that very much.

The two birds move around the ring on the feeder. Neither seems inclined to chase the other away. Both of them look a little exasperated, but neither challenges and neither leaves.

Since the feeder seems peaceful enough, a Pine Siskin joins the party.

The Cardinal and the Purple Finch continue moving around the feeder and stuffing themselves.

This was the scene just before the snow. Bright sunshine and warm breezes. Mr. Cardinal likes this weather much better.

Back Online Temporarily

First, a computer update. My laptop "crashed" and service replaced the hard drive with a new one. I picked it up this morning. When I got home and turned it on, I waited...and waited...and waited. It appeared to boot up properly, but I couldn't access any programs! After 30 minutes, the screen saver came on, and I could access everything with no problem. I called service and (of course) will need to take it back in. I'll see how it behaves today and probably take it back in tomorrow. Bummer! This service will likely require re-installing the Windows Operating System, so I will lose any data not backed up. Problem is...my laptop came with Windows already installed, so I will have to obtain a disk from Microsoft in order to make the changes. Ah, cyberspace is a mess sometimes.

Having assured my friend there was no way we would have snow, I awakened Sunday morning to this winter wonderland.



We had planned to spend a lot of time sitting on the deck and watching the birds. Somehow that no longer seemed to be such a good idea.

The birds were there, all right. And just lovely in the snow.

When it started snowing, Al kept right on working with his little wheelbarrow.

Sunday morning, Al was buried under the snow. I gave him some time off.

The heavy snow was indeed beautiful. The branches were heavy and some of them nearly touched the ground. There was furious action at all the birdfeeders.

Fortunately, we did not let the snow bother us. There is no need to complain just because you are stuck on the mountain. We had plenty of food, were warm and comfortable and had a great time.

Not So Golden

First...I had a wonderful visit with my friend despite the very unusual 8-inch snowfall we had. She lives in WI where they have had another horrid winter. It was 64 degrees when she arrived and she really enjoyed the warm sunshine. It started raining and she laughed that it would have been snow back in Wisconsin. I assured her that we definitely would not have any snow here. Well, the snow started on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday evening we had eight inches! More snow than we have seen since we moved to NC. So we laughed and enjoyed each other's company.

I was excited this morning to be able to post some pictures of the Golden Girls playing in the snow. It was a lovely snow, hanging heavy on the branches.

When I booted up my computer, I received an ominous message that it couldn't start because the systems configuration file was missing or corrupted! So I'm using my husband's laptop to let you know that I will be offline and not posting again for a while. Of course, the current photographs are on my computer. I'll be taking my laptop in for diagnosis and treatment (and hopefully for a cure) this afternoon.

I will try to find your blogs and do some reading this weekend to catch up. Thank goodness many of you have a scroll I can use to access other blogs.

Have a wonderful weekend. Stay safe and do something fun!