Ruffled Panties

At first glance, our White-breasted Nuthatches look kind of plain ... until you see their rufous colored "panties."  We have a lot of nuthatches in our woods this winter and I can only hope most of them stick around to breed in the spring.  In the meantime, I am enjoying seeing them zipping in to grab a seed before flying off to stash it in the bark of a tree.  Busy little creatures.

My parents are finally over the worst of the colds they had (over 2 weeks!) and we enjoyed an extra long FT call this morning.  It was nice seeing both of them looking more chipper today - and in just a bit over a month, I will be seeing them in person (yay!)

Most of the snow from the other day has melted although the areas of our back yard near the woods are still covered in a layer of icy snow - very slipper.  Jax loves sniffing around in the snow, though - I think maybe the snow holds the scents of things longer.  And speaking of Jax, I took him for a short walk today and then we did some training.  He has gotten a little sloppy on his "down" and "stay" lately so time for a tune up.  

Dark with almonds today.  

xo
Debbi