Hello, all, from Randolph Center,
This year is definitely the year of the common redpoll, as we are  
hosting over three dozen daily for meals.  But today a lone feisty  
Pine Siskin joined them au table, a first here for a couple of years.

Another treat was a wonderful Barred owl, sitting calmly for over 20  
minutes on the crossbar of our bird feeding system, just a few feet  
from our breakfast room window.  Probably the same guy who found the  
ermine for breakfast here a few weeks ago.

And, though this pales with your collective  and frequent news in the  
lake area of mobs of robins, we had one chirping in a large barberry  
bush up by the barn last Saturday.  It was, btw, in the single digits  
and we still have about a foot of snow on the ground.  A jarring  
sight.  It is only January.
Janet Watton