Backyard bird action heats up as Spring approaches

January was particulary mild this year, and the weather for past two weekends have been beautifully warm and clear -- one would almost thing winter was over. Yesterday's high was 56, but the backyard thermometer registered nearly 70. And with the lovely weather comes bird activity. Regulars to the feeder include:

Yellow rumped warblers
House finches
Dark-eyed juncos
House sparrows
Chestnut-backed chickadees
Pine siskins
Lesser goldfinches

A Townsend warbler (male) has made an occasional appearance. Robins regularly visit the yard but only perch in the trees.

Flyovers include Canada geese, Aleutian geese and snow geese (a nice surprise) along with the resident ravens, crows, starlings. Yesterday, several unidentified seagulls anticipating today's inclement weather were cruising around also.

Where are the hummingbirds?

What do you mean, the flowers have to be outside?

Earlobe calibration needed

The instructions for making udon noodles said to knead the dough until it was as firm as your earlobe. I thought the dough was firm enough, but after it rested all day it was far too soft and stretchy. It resulted in tasty but unattractive noodles.

On day two, I kneaded a little more flour into the leftover dough. The second batch was not nearly as stretchy and ugly. Must calibrate my earlobes.

Blogucation

I began a blog last year on another site (hollix.xanga.com) to stay in touch with a friend who also uses xanga. It's an easy-to-use site, but after using Blogger to create a site for my graphics class (nrpi253.blogspot.com) I found that Xanga's limitations were, well, limiting. I'm abandoning Xanga for Blogger and duplicating those posts here to keep some semblance of continuity.

So much to say, so little time to write.

Birdwatching for Dummies