A Couple of Hours in the Yard

Saturday was supposed to be a good weather day but things started deteriorating in the afternoon.  I sat outside for a couple of hours and in the end got too cold, but I did have a lot of bird observations and obtained some nice photos. 

My first discovery was of our first confirmed Rufous hummingbird, and here's a photo for confirmation.  I had thought I had seen a male just earlier but if I did it didn't return and I didn't get a photo of it. 

We still have both a male and female Anna's hummingbirds in the area and today I obtained my best photo of a male.  I've tried unsuccessfully over many of the winter months to get a photo of the light reflecting off of the male's gorget and finally succeeded today... in a grand fashion! 

We've had a pair of Hairy woodpeckers with us all winter... here's the male apparently finishing an insect...

After having a rather sparse early winter for Pine siskins they seem to be back with us again.  They're now probably our most frequent visitors to our water feature. 

And finally, we still have a pair of Varied thrushes with us.  They usually come down from the mountains with the first snow and stay for several weeks.  Once here they seem to enjoy eating the hulled sunflower seed that falls from our feeder.  These are beautiful birds and we enjoy them for as long as we have them each winter.