"sweetheart" has got to be the best term of endearment of all time. YOU think MY heart is sweet??? that thing I've been carrying around like a rusty, barnacle-covered anchor my whole life???? you think it's sweet????? you can see and know my heart enough to think it's sweet????????

Anyone read a really good book lately?

I have always liked to see these Eastern Bluebirds, even before I got into any form of birding. They're always so vibrant and pretty and they hang out in my yard and at my family's lake cottage. But around the time I got into birding, I decided to be more purposeful about keeping them around and happy. It's been middling success. They would hang out near my car for a couple days and then I wouldn't see them again. Until this group, last year. I have a mostly decorative birdhouse that looks like a watering can that I put up in my front yard in the spring. Nothing has ever come of it, besides it looks cute. EXCEPT in 2025 I saw a bluebird fly into it when I was on my way out the door to drop off my nephew at school. Now, my nephew is 9. He's rambunctious. Not really careful of the delicate movements you should take around birds. So, I shut my mouth and pretended to see nothing. Dropped him off at school and came running back. I still had an hour until I had to sign in to anything so I grabbed a coffee, a camera, and a beach chair and sat in my driveway. Sure enough, two Eastern Bluebirds were flying in and out, they'd built a nest! It was wonderful.

I took this photo of a hawk in my backyard on December 14th around 10am. It was snowing, kind of the big first snow of the year. I had just finished filling up my bird feeders. Usually there's a little break when I replenish and all the birds come back within an hour or two. But this time, a bunch of Dark-eyed junkos and Black Capped Chickadees came fling in immediately. So, I was hanging out a little ways away so as not to bother them, and took some pictures. It was cold, but not so bad that I felt the need to rush inside. Suddenly all the birds disappeared, which I thought was a little odd. Them seemed comfortable. But you know, not like unbelievably odd. Sometimes Blue Jays will scare them away or someone who lives behind me (it's like a small slope) will shut a car door and scare them. I looked around though, trying to see the cause, and there was tis Cooper's Hawk. The hawk let me get real close and I got some really great photos of him with my camera. I moved closer and ended up next to my brick feeder. the gap between the block of the food and the top of the feeder had a small Carolina Wren hiding from the hawk in it. Got great shots of that little buddy too, and thankfully the hawk flew away without taking any of my backyard buddies with them.