Its a bird, it's a plane, its... no, it really is a bird.

This weekend, we worked outside in this crisp pre-autumn weather, cleaning up the yard and tending to the birdfeeders. There were a couple of feeders that haven't been getting used very well. We moved those around. Then, we hung a corn feeder for those goofy squirrels. We haven't seen any squirrels on that feeder, but almost immediately after we rearranged things, we started seeing birds that neither Heather nor I have ever seen before. I did some research on the Internet. The result is that the birds are listed on all the rare bird sighting lists in Minnesota, but are rarely seen here. The last sighting in Minnesota that was reported was in 2005. Apparently, the birds are not native to Minnesota, which makes it more interesting. Not that this is that exciting to the average person, I suppose, but also, not to built too much suspense here... We have three pairs of black-headed grosbeaks that have been at our feeders for three days, and still are feeding here today. I tried to take a few clear pictures of them so that I can forward the photos to the rare bird lists. Hey... our bird feeding efforts paid off in that way: we have birds here that do not live in Minnesota, and the birds have hung out with us for a few days. I see the grosbeaks are still on the feeders this morning. I hope that they stay awhile... at least until that four-letter word is reality: SNOW. But that isn't a profane word around here. We love winter and we love snow. Bring it on, but not until we are done gardening!


With the cool weather, our gardening will be done soon, but I hope that it lasts a few more weeks. We still have some sweet bell peppers that aren't quite ready, but one can't control the weather. Duty calls... gotta go to work. Phooey. But that's life.