Rainy Day Finches

I may have mentioned that I love taking photos of birds in the rain - the light is always so interesting and the rain saturates the colors so beautifully.  So, no surprise that I donned my fleece and stood under our gazebo for at least an hour while the rain came down by the buckets, snapping shots.  So many bedraggled birds, including this blue jay who was intent on grabbing big mouthfuls of suet.  

The Red-bellied and downy woodpeckers are definitely feeding nestlings now - both species are taking as much suet as they can fit in their beaks and heading off into the woods.  Should see babies in 2-3 weeks which will be cuteness overload.

Lots of blackbirds in the yard today, including one regular who I've dubbed "Scruffy" since he's missing some feathers on the right side.  You can see a snap of him HERE on Flickr.

As for today's blip ... just a pair of house finches sitting out in the rain like a couple of fools.  This time of year, the male shadows every move the female makes and is always less than a foot from her.  They are monogamous during the breeding season, but apparently he isn't taking any chances!  You can get a pretty good idea of how heavy the rain was in this shot.  

Nice chat with my parents this morning.  They were getting ready to head out and do some geo-caching, and expecting temps in the 90s by the end of the day.  A far cry from my cold, wet day.  

Cheers.
Debbi

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