A little salad

Every spring the house finches nibble on the blossoms from our cherry trees - an interesting behavior from a bird that is primarily a seed-eater.  I had to do some reading to figure out why they love these flowers so much and what I came to learn is that they are most likely after the sweet nectar that the cherry flowers produce.  Same reason all the bees and spring azure butterflies are all over the trees when they blossom.  Interesting.  This photo is of a female House Finch who was plucking blossoms, working them around a bit (to extract the nectar) and then drop the petals.  The trees are covered with blossoms so I really don't worry about whatever flowers the finches eat - and the flowers are already dropping anyway.  

I will probably squeeze out a few more bird/cherry blossom shots before the weekend is out - my guess is that by Monday or Tuesday the trees will have dropped all their blossoms, so might as well shoot while it lasts, right?  Besides, the flowers and the curved branches make for such nice photos.  Two more pics on Flickr, if you've got the time...

Female house finch with her spouse
Handsome Purple Finch in the blossoms

I brought Charlie home today after visiting with his "other" mom for a while.  I have set up a litter box and food in one of the spare bedrooms and I put one of his cat scratching posts in there so he will, hopefully, feel a bit more at home.  As predicted, he immediately ran under the bed where he is now hiding.  I'm restraining myself from checking on him every 5 minutes - best to just give him some quiet time to adjust and de-stress.  Phoebe planted herself outside his bedroom door for the first hour, but she's now gone off to nap.  I am hoping that I might be able to have a quick introduction of the two tomorrow, but I'll have to see how well Charlie is settling in first.  He's a gorgeous little cat and I can't wait to photograph him ... but patience is called for in this instance...

Hubs arrived late last night at the race track and I expect that he is now doing some last minute work on the car, in between practice laps on the track.  I hope the weekend goes well - he's been so looking forward to this.  

Thank you for the lovely comments, stars and faves on yesterday's cardinal.  They are such splendid looking birds, and he was ever so accommodating by sitting there in the blossoms.  Made my part of it quite easy.  

Happy Friday, people.

Debbi