Our snow birds are happy...

...because we have snow! What a perfect way to start the new year. It seems the persimmon seeds we cracked open this autumn were right...

A Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) in the snow...the first bird of 2013!

I took these photos a few days ago when the snow first fell, but they fit perfectly with today's post because a Dark-eyed Junco was the first bird Rick and I saw this morning. Three little junkies were hopping on the deck, eating seeds I scattered last night.

A male Dark-eyed Junco sitting in a young mulberry tree as snow falls softly.

A female Dark-eyed Junco with a bill full of snow!

...a snow bird on a snowy day.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

...and all the best for 2013!

...for past First Bird of the Year posts, click here.

First Bird of 2012--Baeolophus bicolor!

This morning when I looked out the kitchen window to see what my first bird of the year would be, I saw nothing! Not a bird in sight, but within a second or two, a Tufted Titmouse flew up, nabbed a peanut from the mesh peanut holder, and looked up at me almost with a wink! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect bird to start the New Year...

Painting 1. Baeolophus bicolor Grabs a Peanut

(watercolor - just a few pencil lines and broad brush strokes, a quick sketch)

Painting 2. A Tufted Titmouse on New Year's Day

(watercolor heightened with colored pencil, another quick sketch)

...a pencil sketch of a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolphus bicolor) from my sketchbook.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year...with lots of peanuts!

Did you catch the rainbow yesterday?

...it was one of the brightest, largest, and most defined rainbows Rick and I have ever seen. Rain was falling gently, the sun was shining, and dramatically dark clouds were behind us. To top it off, it was late in the afternoon and the sun was low on the horizon. Perfect rainbow conditions...

...must be a huge pot 'o gold at the end of this rainbow!

...nothing like a dramatic sky to add to a rainbow's beauty.

(...and what a perfect way to ring out 2011 and welcome 2012--Happy New Year!)

532. The Rainbow
William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.