End of the Year Bird

Ah, now, THIS is  my final blog post of 2019. And it won't have any bugs in it. I did see a lot of springtails, and I did see a beetle in the woods when I disturbed the leaf litter, but I didn't get any bug pictures. So what am I blogging about? No, I am not doing a retrospective of the year.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 I looked out the window and saw a flock of birds gathered on the driveway, feeding. Most of them were these, which I think are house finches. They are a species you would expect to find in this region, but for some reason they are not a bird I see regularly in my backyard.

 I speculated about what they might be eating, whether there was suddenly an abundance of some kind of seed on the driveway, or perhaps they were eating springtails? However, when we went out later there were seeds on the car from the black birch, so the ones around the driveway must have just released their seeds. Also, I looked up house finches and they are herbivores, eating seeds and fruits. I have on occasion seen them at the bird feeder.

 I think this is male (red head) and female.

 There were a few other birds, too. Female cardinal.

 The bird on the right is a junco, or snowbird.

I know I shouldn't apologize for the quality of the pictures, but I do wish these were better. However, taking pictures through double-paned windows never works out well, especially on such a dark day. I knew, though, that if I went out on the porch to take the pictures the birds would all just fly away, so I did what I could.