Buds

I went down to the bottom end of the yard this afternoon and I noticed a load of the bushes have buds forming. Well it was 50f but still lots of winter to come yet.

One of my favorite Winter visitors is the Dark-eyed Junco which is a reasonably descriptive name for them. My preferred name for the species is the Snowbird. I've heard a couple of explanations of why they are called the Snowbird. One is that they arrive in this area in the winter with the Snow. The other is that they are grey above and white below like a snowy day. I prefer the former explanation as they tend to appear in the yard in late October and head North to their breeding grounds in late April. This is the Slate-colored Junco.

Slate-colored Junco

Black-capped Chickadee