Courtship Flight

The house finches started singing several weeks ago - in spite of our freezing temps and heavy snow cover. And here you have Rudy (of recent AOG fame) in hot pursuit of Henny ... this after she rebuffed his attempt to feed her a small morsel of sunflower. Oh, that Henny - she's a hard gal to please. She'll put Rudy through his paces before she accepts him as her provider this year.

Meanwhile, the cardinals have also started singing and today His Royal Redness did his imitation of a speeding red comet - either practicing his moves for the next Alternative event, or getting ready to enchant the Mrs. The European starlings had much to say .. about everything. And they are already practicing for the next AOG as seen here in an AOG-class move. The juncos are already hard at work practicing their next balance beam routine - as you can see, they need more practice. And the blue jays? Well, they are just doing what they do - being dazzling and entertaining.

It's kind of fun using the 28-300 lens. I haven't completely warmed up to it since I bought it last year, but I'm getting some images with it that I'm very happy with, like this one. What I don't like is that its auto-focus seems very slow to me - I got a lot of very blurred shots as a result of it constantly hunting.

I had an appointment with a dental surgeon today - I have a rear molar that I've had two root canals done on and it is still hurting. Looks like one of the roots is cracked so it needs to come out - today was a consult with the surgeon and he agreed with my dentist. So, I've got an appointment on the 13 March to have it pulled - under anesthesia. He said it will probably come out in pieces, so best if I am asleep for that. No arguments from me. Eek.

Hubs is landing in Newark any minute now - he's been in Alabama helping out with some elder-care things for his parents. Not an easy trip, and we will both be glad when he gets home. I've missed him.

More snow in the forecast for tomorrow, but not much accumulation so I expect life as normal.

Cheers, people.

Debbi