Valentine's Day

It's only a day after Valentine's Day and the boys aren't wasting any time. This is the first time since last spring that we've seen the toms and hens traveling together. Instead of the large dozen member bachelor tom group that comes by our cabin - this morning for the first time, we saw just 2 toms traveling with the 11 member hen group instead. Things must be heating up.

The toms watched and seemed carefully on guard. They stayed around the perimeter of the ladies group and were in full guy display. The hens seemed much more interested in scratching the wet leaves for grubs however. ~N

We call him “Crash”!

We just had our third snow of the season. More snow than the first time and much less than the second. The birds – Mountain Chickadees, Plain Titmice, Acorn Woodpeckers & Stellar's Jays- show up in the early morning looking for handouts. We provide black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts which they quickly grab, take away to eat and then quickly return for more.

On the railing where we'd piled some seeds in the soft snow, an aggressive, but nervous Stellar's Jay came rushing in to grab some seeds, panicked and lost his footing. ~B

Icy Morning

This is the window above our bed and this was our snowy view when we woke up. All the windows of the cabin get very cold and drafty especially when the mountain winds blow. On cold nights we pull the heavy draperies on all the cabin windows (and that helps) except the one over our bed.

Sometimes it gets so cold we nearly bury our heads and faces with the comforter - but we still don't cover this window because we don't want to miss out on the evening stars or the surprise view in the morning. ~N