Home, Sweet... Snowy, Home

I hope you enjoyed my birding reports from my travels to Colombia, South America.  In case you missed any of those posts, here are the links:

Intro to the trip:  To Bogota and Beyond, and Back Home
A visit to the Bogota Botanical Garden: Jardin Botanico de Bogota
Of Toucans and Woodpeckers  (obviously, about toucans and woodpeckers!)
Hummingbirds of Colombia: A Question for God
And, finally, a round-up of different birds of Colombia, and my methods for IDing them:
Name that Bird

I don't usually list links to my posts, but I put a lot of time and effort into writing those (it was definitely a learning experience for me to bird in Colombia!), so I don't want you to miss any!

Now, a little catching up with what's been happening here at home.  

Basically, it's been cold and snowy.  Still, there's no place like home and I'm glad (mostly, anyway) to be back!

The snow is hanging in there.

The dogs don't seem to mind.

No, you are not seeing double... we have a new grand-dog!

Norad (on the right) arrived just before we went to Colombia, and already he's become a regular part of the family.

Mac and Norad even share the tennis ball when they come to play with Grammy.  

Ruby still comes on Thursdays.  The snow is deeper than Ruby's legs are long, which keeps her mainly in the pathways.

Spring is coming though... my geranium is flowering nicely in the sunroom.  At least it was, until I trimmed it back to make cuttings to start new plants.  Spring IS coming!

See the geranium flowers in the window?

Ruby's mom and I enjoyed a day trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show.  Funny how one of the things we enjoyed most was the GREEN GRASS!

There was a lot of other color, too... like in the orchid aisle:

Although I typically prefer plants with non-variegated leaves, Laura took my photo with this variegated geranium because she was surprised I said I liked it!

Thanks to Laura for the flower show photos!

And you can see I picked up a feeder-bird poster from the Subaru-Cornell display.  Plants and birds... made a great day!

The bird feeders at home have been VERY active.  We have a huge flock of goldfinches, and along with them-- a bunch of Pine Siskins (it's an irruption year for them) and a few Common Redpolls have been coming since mid-January.

Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches

Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls, and Goldfinches

Even though the Goldfinches, Siskins, and Redpolls spend a lot of time squabbling, they still empty the feeders fast!  

Lately, some of the other birds actually seem to be getting along better... maybe springtime romance is in the air?

Male and female Downy Woodpeckers eating suet at the same time.

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

Female Red-bellied says, "We don't share the feeder, but I'm keeping my eye on him!"

We only added 4 new birds to our property list during the month of February.  They were: Common Raven, Starling, Wild Turkey, and House Sparrow (# 30).  

I would probably have thought the Starling was a beautiful bird if I had seen it in Colombia, but here it's an alien and mostly an unwanted bird.  Look at those colors though!

I'm ready for some new faces.  Hopefully some of our migrant birds will brave the weather soon and rejoin us.  I guess for now, I'll have to be content with these faces.... they look like they love each other don't they?

Norad and Mac