Bird Watching at the Aerie

Considerably warmer this morning when the sun rose. It was a good 20 degrees at 9 AM. And the sun shone for much of the day.

Even so, it was a day to spend indoors as it was time to take the decorations and lights off the Christmas tree and put the living room back in order. The snow that was forecast for this evening has pretty much sent to the north of us. You can see a bank of clouds out in that direction. We might get just a tiny bit of flurries much, much later tonight.

I've been watching the birds out the window: White-winged Crossbills (new to the Aerie), White and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Dark-eyed Juncos, Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Purple Finches, American Tree Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Mourning Doves...all have made an appearance outside today. The Crossbills were actually on the driveway where the car was parked and the gravel/sand is exposed. They didn't come near the feeders.

We've also had two feline visitors in the yard. One was a frequent visitor--a female who appeared to be pregnant this summer and nearly let me pet her as she would drop and roll in the grass a few yards ahead of me. she wouldn't allow me to get near enough to touch her, however. Today she was in the rear of the house near the bird feeders. The other was a long-haired gray cat with tiny little white booties. It suddenly appeared on the deck and jumped up on the tray feeder there. I didn't see it succeed in its hunt but there were lots of Mourning Dove feathers out on the deck--but no carcass or blood--when I went out to try and corral the cat. (No luck as it must have jumped off the edge of the deck near the driveway and disappeared before I got around the corner.)


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