Visitors

I'm, at best, a lazy birder. I don't get up at 5am to go out birding or anything. But sometimes I get lucky. I put out some seed starting last month, for the birds who overwinter, and for spring early arrivals.

I'm pretty sure this is a Common Redpoll. It looks like the pictures I found up at the Cornell site, and like the pictures from my book.

I had gotten my camera out earlier, when I first saw them, and then went out for a bit (after dropping a bit of seed on the deck which still has a layer of ice). And when I got back, these two were snacking on the deck. I was able to lie down just inside the sliding door window without bothering them much, and took a lot of pictures, trying to hold my hands steady enough to use the strongest lens setting.

The bird on top is the female (I think), and the one here, the male. But look at that weird thing beneath his beak. Some kind of tumor?