Dining al fresco

December already! And it looks like winter outside; skimpy snow, melted, refrozen, melted, refrozen; the pavement is treacherous, the garden unhappy, the bird bath solid ice with a fluff of snow on top.

I've been feeding the birds my hulled sunflower seeds and whole-grain bread crumbs for the ones that like tiny stuff; I wasn't prepared with small seeds. My bad.

Before the snow, the birds at my door were chickadees and a few juncos. This week a pair of nuthatches joined the queue at the sunflower seed bowl. And there's a handful of fox sparrows, one with a damaged foot, a few towhees, and more juncos; these mostly stay on the ground, and like their seeds broken up.

I've been trying to get photos, through the double-paned door (and I really should wash that window again), and with the bird camera on the ground. The photos aren't good, but the critters are fun.

Sparrow with a beak full of seed. From the BirdCam.

Caught with flash by the BirdCam. Chickadee coming in for a landing just before his bedtime. 7:30 PM.

Towhee, through the window. He likes the tiny crumbs.

And the black squirrel comes several times every day and eats everything still there, so I have to replenish the seed after he's left. But I've never seen this baby squirrel; the BirdCam caught him, a few inches from the camera.

I'll have to keep an eye out for this one.