I love being on vacation! It’s been cold and windy in the mornings, which tends to put a damper on early morning photo shoots (well, the wind does, because it keeps the birds from posing. The cold doesn’t bother me as much. Stay tuned for more on that!) But the cold mornings turn into nice sunny afternoons, and yesterday I spent the afternoon sitting out in my backyard watching “my” birds. The American Goldfinches got used to me very quickly. There’s a coral porterweed just under their feeder with nice long branches for the goldfinches to sit on while they wait for their turn at the feeder. The porterweed is great because it lets me get feeder-less shots of one of my favorite winter birds.

The Painted Buntings were out as well. I could hear them calling to each other in the viburnum hedge “fence” that surrounds our backyard. They were a little more hestitant to come to their feeder with me in the backyard, but they eventually decided to trust me. They’ve been coming to our backyard for a year now and it still feels unreal! I wish they were a little less skittish and would let me get better images of them.