Drippy day

We have officially passed the freezing point of water, rising.  Today's precip is supposed to come in the form of rain.  Which presents its own problems, but does not have to be shoveled or chipped.  Still, no ski runs in the immediate future.

Also drippy, Sister has pronounced a cold.  If she persists in bringing plague and pestilence into the house, she is going to find herself uninvited in future years.

Had two pairs of cardinals disputing ownership of the spilled sunflower seeds this morning.  They aren't flexible enough to perch on the tube feeders and still poke beak into the holes, so are dependent on discards from the finches and chickadees.  This is the first time I've seen two complete pairs, although we've had multiple males and multiple females before.  Cardinals aren't supposed to come this far north at all, much less winter-over here.  Them, and the mockingbirds, and the tufted titmice.  Global warming.

Oh, and an addendum.  TLOS/Delta still doesn't know where that baggage went.  You'd think the minion at their ticket counter would have entered hand-over into the system somehow, if only to prevent a claim.  Just can't find good minions these days.

Finch storm

Ten or fifteen house finches squabbling over the sunflower seed, nobody interested in the thistle.  As far as they're concerned, we have our priorities screwed up -- tube feeder for sunflower has four perches, while the thistle has eight.  And house finches don't seem to have the little flying-saucer feeder figured out, mostly a chickadee hangout.

The funny-face finch participated, doesn't seem to have lost any status in the literal pecking-order of the flock.