"Why yes, I am just that adorable."

This little charmer, (the Black-Capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapilla) was the only bird that would go to the sunlit side of the feeder. Actually, it was really too late in the day for sufficient sun, but we made due. I think he looks like he knows just how cute he is...

Lately, I've been wondering why this feeder hasn't had any visitors. Today I went to investigate and found that the sides of the seed shoots were closed and the seeds were trapped behind them. A tiny shift in the sides and we had visitors in about an hour! Funny how they sensed that the feeder was open for business so quickly.

Even more adorable.

The Pileated let me get closer than ever before. If you want to take a peak, you can see him here.

Yesterday, was a sad day as we watch as one of our neighbor's house burn to the ground. Around 2:00pm we saw black smoke in the trees across the lake, that soon turned to flames. It was scary. It took the fire department quite a while to get there. (We live in a rural area and the closest fire department is made up of volunteers. They are the first responders and other counties arrive as soon as possible.)
We have never met the owners of the home and are unclear if it was occupied at the time (several homes on the lake are summer cottages for vacationing, rarely do they have occupants in the winter months.)
It took over 7 hours to get the fire out. In fact, it is still smoldering more than 24 hours later.

We had our own fire last summer. Nothing like this, it was contained to the kitchen. I was able to get it out with a fire extinguisher at the point of the floor, dishwasher and cabinets flaming. (It started in the dishwasher's electrical panel.) The firemen arrived after that and told us that we had minutes before our house would have been lost. In other words, if we had waited for them, it would have been too late. We were SO lucky. We had to evacuate the house for 9 days as a team cleaned the soot, the kitchen was replaced, I had some minor burns and smoke inhalation problems, but that was the worst of it for us. The smoke damage was extensive and a nightmare to live through, but nothing like these folks are dealing with.

I share this to urge all of you to make sure your fire extinguishers are working and up to date. And, in the case of our dishwasher; it was a recalled model, but we never got the notice even though it was registered... You can go to SafeProducts.gov in the US to see if your appliances are on a recall list. I'm not sure what is available in other countries... Had we known, we could have avoided a fire.

We have been trying to find out if can help the folks across the lake (if they need a place to stay or clothes...) but haven't been able to get anywhere. I hope that means that is was unoccupied and that no one is in immediate need...

I think the constant smell out side is bringing back the overwhelmed feeling I had last summer. I just can't imagine losing everything as people do when their whole house goes up in flames.