Something you don’t see every day: This dark-eyed junco was just one of several that flew up to the feeder for sunflower seeds during yesterday’s winter storm. Frankly, I’ve never seen a junco at the feeder. They prefer to forage on the ground, but the snow-turned-freezing-rain yesterday must have made the seeds on the ground a little too inaccessible for the juncos, forcing them to try new things. Good for them!
While not nearly as spectacular as Dennis’ yellow-bellied sapsucker sighting, this one made an appearance on the maple outside my office. The windows yesterday were a little steamy, putting this guy in a flattering soft focus. Sapsuckers make a call that sounds uncannily like a hawk—a hawk that’s trying to speak quietly in the library, that is. For ages I’d hear this call and look for hawks; it took me a while to put together the “weird coincidence” of always spotting a sapsucker instead.
