January days

Yesterday, when we were talking cookies, we realized we never did share our Santa cookies. So, as we enjoy our post-Christmas clean-up of the goodies (a dirty job that someone must do) with a homemade latte, we snapped a quick photo just for you. And no, for any of you who are wondering, he's crunchy but not bulletproof.

This January has been a wee bit unusual weather-wise in many parts of Canada and, here in the Kingdom, we're no exception. Lots of birds have found our homemade feeder. We used to have a jim-dandy commercial one but the high winds last April took it out and we've been forced to improvise. In fact though, we think this cranberry juice jug makes a better feeder than most. It doesn't allow the moisture to get inside and freeze up all the seeds. We just remove the cap and pour in the seeds and wait for our feathered friends to show up. We have chickadees, a couple of different kinds of sparrows, 2 different types of woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, bluejays, mourning doves and as of yesterday, this guy......

Could they be goldfinches in their drabber winter wear? or snow buntings? We're not really sure. We only know we never had these birds here at our feeder before yesterday. And that's in 25 years of feeding in the same spot. If anyone has an opinion, please leave it in the comments. We'd appreciate knowing what they're called. We have counted 5 of them at the same time. We do see goldfinches in the summer, but never before through the winter. We're still waiting for the cardinals to make an appearance. They are usually very shy, but we do see them from time to time, mostly at dusk or dawn. For some reason we rarely see a squirrel, maybe because there are supposed to be fishers out and about, but one memorable year, we had RATS!!! at our feeder. That certainly took some of the fun out of our bird feeding activities.

Yesterday, as the sun slipped below the cloud cover and prepared to set, the light changed suddenly and produced the most beautiful colours. We grabbed the camera and raced to capture it. These photos just scream "January!" for us.

"January! January! January!!!!

Best wishes from the Kingdom of Coco!!