Birds of Many Feathers

What a difference a day makes.

Here's one of the avocado skins where the springtails were blithely gliding yesterday afternoon:

 Okay, they weren't really gliding, just sitting, but you get the idea. I had to dig through the snow to find this - I thought maybe it would be full of ice, and wondered what the springtails would have done if it froze, but it was just full of snow.

 Here's where I saw the caterpillar yesterday.

Needless to say, I didn't find any bugs today. However, because it snowed, I filled the bird feeder. I should have filled it before it snowed, but I forgot (I only fill it when it snows), so I had to go out in the 8+ inches of snow to do it. Before I filled it, there were no birds around. Within a few minutes of filling it, there were birds all over the backyard. I have to assume that there actually were birds in the trees somewhere where I did not see them, and once one saw me fill the feeder and came over, other birds were attracted. But it's still kind of amazing to go from an empty yard to one full of birds. How full of birds, you ask?

Well, let's start with the Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Junco, also known as snowbird. I don't know why. They mostly seem to feed on the ground beneath the feeder, where there is always plenty of food from the messier birds. There were quite a few of these around.

Here's a few...

 There were also blue jays.

 The blue jays have their own way of eating from the feeder.

 A female cardinal

 A woodpecker - downy or hairy, I can never remember which is which.

 Different woodpecker.

 Sparrow

 Nuthatch

 Bird, watching.

 Tufted titmouse

I don't know what this one is.

So, you know that common belief that robins are a sign of spring?

 This robin LAUGHS at such a notion.

 There was a whole flock of robins in the backyard today.

 And in case you're wondering, I know that it wasn't just the same robin that I was seeing over and over because I could see a lot of them at a time. Sometimes chasing each other. What was interesting about their appearance today was that they showed up after I filled the feeder, but robins don't eat from the feeder. In fact, neither did the woodpeckers. It's almost as if they were all just there because there were other birds around.

 Following Bird Law that says if someone is trying to take your picture, you have to hide your face.

I heard, but did not see, a crow. I also didn't see a chickadee, which was a little surprising in that they are very common bird feeder visitors, although I have seen very few of them the last few years, and I didn't see any mourning doves, which are also common feeder visitors. I did see about 20 of them the other day, though, feeding on something they were finding in the grass all over the backyard.