Just wanted to share as she honored us with a visit with her very young babies. She is very tolerant of our presence when she is hanging out in our yard. I have been working hard to rewild our property by planting natives and removing the invasive blackberries, ivy and the newest -shiny geranium. King County Conservation plant sale along with our local Land trust plant sales have been invaluable in this endeavor.

trail was nice. left the basement because I'm not afraid of the common cold

Well, my backyard only in a very extended sense, as opposed to, say, Nebraska.  The true identity of this trail is undisclosed since construction of the trailhead is not yet finished.  This report is included for the benefit of those who may already be familiar with this trail.  (Don't give it away just yet!)

The trail itself is in nearly perfect condition, just needing benching on some of the upper sections of trail.  There is just a tiny patch of level snow at the summit.

Paintbrush is starting to bloom, with many more flowers on the way.  Blueberries, too, if it ever gets warm enough for them to ripen.

This trail is almost ready to welcome the masses that will surely be arriving one of these days.  I saw just two parties today: a couple and a group of five.

Inspired by bob and barb’s backyard report last year I decided to capture some birding of my own. I like to feed Nuthatches/Chickadees straight from my hand which is a pretty fun experience. Nuthatches and Chickadees are tamable and it was relatively easy with some patience to get one to land on my hand the first time. I will go through the steps to have a Chickadee/Nuthatch land on your hand. Number one you need to have a bird feeder with sunflower seeds to attract them to your yard or wherever you want to feed them. If you don’t than the chickadees will not stick around your yard and will move on rather than waiting for you to hand feed them again. But if there is a reliable bird feeder that supplies constant food, than they will keep coming back. Number two is that you need to wait for your feeder to empty before attempting to hand feed them because they would rather opt for the feeder rather than your hand. But if the feeder is empty, then they are more likely to land on your hand for food. Once you have your feeder and you have started attracting chickadees and your feeder is out of food, then it’s time to attempt to feed them from your hand. At first you have to be patient, I only had to wait 15 minutes for one to land on my hand. You have to stay absolutely motionless, and you can’t be startled when they land on your hand. Repeat the process of patiently waiting outside until the chickadees become more and more familiar with you. Once the chickadees are comfortable than you can step outside, stretch out your hand, and feed them within a few seconds of walking outside. Soon, nuthatches will observe the chickadees on your hand and they too will land on your hand.

We have been enjoying the beauty of the snow from our home and neighborhood as our fairly steep driveway and short street are covered with snow and ice. Our exospikes have been very useful in preventing a fall. We have a nice variety of birds which adds to our entertainment while having to stay home. For the past 2 1/2 weeks we have been enjoying our hummingbird crowd of up to 16 at a time! There is almost constant activity at our feeders! Several years ago Bob made a heater to keep the nectar thawed when the temperature goes below freezing and the hummingbirds enjoy the light and heat.