A Winter Wonderland in Nevada City

Well, here we are and it is SO beautiful! Today we spread bird seed over about twenty feet of snow and we were then treated to visits from 5 stellar jays, 4 blue jays, 3 junkos, 2 robins, 1 rufus-sided towhee, and more than a dozen black-capped chickadees. It was very entertaining for us as well as for our cat, who sat in the window and watched what we call, "kitty tv."

I found a great website where a person can create their own field guide to birds and here is what they wrote about our little friends:

"The song of the Black-capped Chickadee is one of the most complex vocalizations of all animals, acting as a contact call, an alarm call, to identify an individual, or to indicate recognition of a particular flock.

They may cache food in hundreds of different sites, recalling those locations and retrieving food up to 28 days later.

It is the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts.

A group of chickadees are collectively known as a "banditry" and a "dissimulation" of chickadees."

This evening we drove over to Mom's and brought her back for dinner and visiting. We startled two deer in the front yard who were after the remains of today's bird seed. I have always wished to be like Dickon (wait, is that his name?) in "The Secret Garden," who befriended every animal and made them his pets...