Temperatures are mild this morning and it’s even a little sunny. The birds out back are very active. Lately we’ve seen lots of chickadees and nuthatches and juncos, but this morning there were goldfinches, house sparrows, mourning doves and house finches.

The goldfinches lose their bright yellow colour in the winter and that process seems to be happening now. Some of the goldfinches I watched this morning still had some bright yellow, but others had hardly any yellow showing.

When I see the house finches, I recall a description of them I read somewhere – suggesting they look like a bird that has had raspberry jam poured over its head.

Groups of mourning doves perch in the old apple tree for hours some days.

It isn’t nesting time, but the house sparrows occupy some of the bird houses this time of year.