here is one of our winter vistors! it's getting quite busy around the feeders this year. goldfinches, house finches, and our beloved hawks! the goldfinches are temporary visitors and will be leaving soon. the house finches are straggling in and are they ever bright red this year. they will dull after mating season is over. we've had a coopers hawk as a frequent visitor. he comes flying in, landing on the wisteria arbor and trying to impress everyone with his power. the rest of the birds don't go far, just sit off waiting for him to give up and go elsewhere. we've also enjoyed the red tailed hawk that comes once in awhile. we have a new feeder for niger seed, it has 2 socks and boy do the finches love it. now we buy big bags of niger seed. we hope we aren't feeding them too much, hard to know how much so we fill the feeders once a day. our 'children' the blue jays are a continuous joy, they are so raucous and obnoxious. i keep telling carole they are saying thank you for the peanuts in their language but they are loud!
it's set, we are going to mammoth 2nd week in april. jean has continued therapy on her leg and feels ready to tackle the mountain once again. we are looking forward to dropping her off at the lodge and going out to take pictures and read. we are staying in the same cabin we were in 2 years ago, nice to have 2 bedrooms and off street parking.
hopefully before summer is over the house will have new carpeting. we've decided that hardwood floors would be nice but something warmer would be better. we are slowly changing a few things, making the house ours. trust us, mom will always be recognizable here tho.
we are hoping all of you are surviving winter and looking forward to spring and summer.

meet 'coop'

this is one of our 'kids' in the back yard. his name is 'coop'. he's a coopers hawk and is gorgeous. his tail doesn't show here but it's striped horizontally. don't think he gets much, the rest of the birds are very fast when he's around. we may be in denial here tho. he checks in almost daily.

our annual trip to mammoth lakes, ca will be in early april this year. jean has decided it's time to try skiing again. her leg has gotten most of it's strength back due to continued therapy on her part. hopefully going in april will give us sunny days like we've enjoyed in the past. snow every day gets old very fast.

we are looking forward to august and our trip to british columbia. we have decided to bite the bullet and drive. we want maximum freedom and that only comes with driving. southern resident orcas will be our goal, along with humpbacks and other marine mammals. we will finally put faces with the wonderful people we've met thru orca-lab.org and the community page. paul and helena spong have been wonderful to us and left the community page up. it's a treasure trove of environmental and wildlife information.