we interrupt this accidental blog break to bring you...birds!

I happened to glance out my living room window towards our bird feeder yesterday afternoon, and was startled to see a female cardinal in a nearby tree!

After neglecting to fill the feeder for some weeks, it was looking very abandoned of late, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

Boy1 (who informs me that he'd like his moniker changed to "Rocky Rock Lava") and I were able to watch for about 15 minutes as this pair of cardinals were joined by a few juncos and one woodpecker (sapsucker? flicker? didn't stick around long) joined in the afternoon snack before all of them were startled by the sudden appearance of a pair of binoculars in the window and disappeared.

We were ridiculously excited by the color, song, and activity and as soon as they were gone rushed to our bird books and the internet to make sure our identifications were correct and listen to their songs again. We also confirmed that our feeder was in an ideal location for songbirds, especially now that we are a 2 cat family again (as opposed to 5. oy.). Boy1 was even inspired to copy one of the drawings into his notebook to "help him remember it for next time".

Nature study for the day: complete.