Towheeblog

The siskin count in our garden topped a dozen today after a couple weeks of single digits.  They are a tight-knit little group.  Their siskinship makes them confident and even aggressive around other birds. Only a passing squirrel can scare them into fluttering beyond reach. On the patio pavement, siskins are next to House Sparrows; the sparrows comes off as plump and over-stuffed.  Of all our western finches the siskin is both the smallest and carries the tiniest beak.  Better for fine eating.Next to this gargantuan member of the sparrow family, the siskin is a mere slip of a bird.MY TRAY TRESPut lone Black-cap:

Here we get a glint of winter sun.  After days of rain and gray any glint is golden.  This is along the South Yamhill in Joe Dancer.  Later in the morning there were thin slivers of quartz crystal, a-glint in the sky against clouds and pale blue sky.  It was a small flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls, their pale plumage gleaming from the thin shafts of sunlight finding its way through gaps in the cumulus.