Last nights Pine Siskin

These two are the images that would not post last night. I had to lighten these up to make the wee birds noticeable as day was done the birds blended into the dusk. It does not help clarity that I am shooting through double-pane glass either, but its to darn cold out there for me.

 Woke to icy windows again so its still darn cold out. As I sit by my window sipping coffee this surprise visitor  briefly flew in then out again. Its a Boreal Chickadee; they have a brown skull cap rather than a black cap. This fellow seems to be travelling with a small group of Juncos.

 Above is a female house sparrow and below is a male house sparrow. Images are dark as they were taken early this morning

 This wee bird is the size of the Pine Siskin yet has a beak the shape of a finch. I have no clue as to what it is? Do you?

 Two Pine Siskin enjoying the catch basket of seeds, they blend so well with the black-oil sunflower seeds don't they. These two are a lot whiter and have very subtle yellow which is hardly noticeable on their wings. The Siskin below is very pretty in yellow.

Red-brested Nuthatch was out early. The white-breasted one is about now also as are the black-capped chickadees which are presently dee-dee-deeing in the morning sunshine.

You Know it Cold When

 You know its really cold when red-breasted nuthatches and

White-breasted Nuthatches snuggle tree trunks.

You know its really cold when finches look like round christmas ornaments.

 Female finch.

Male finch all fluffed up.

 Even Junco's are sheltering from the cold in the evergreen trees 

and puffing up in the shrubbery gathering early morning sun-rays.

Black-cap Chickadee fluff-ball ornaments.

 Most of all you know its real darn cold when the berries freeze to your beak!

Fluffy male House Sparrow. These are illegals, european immigrants which were imported and released onto the continent mid 1850 and are now wide-spread much to the detriment of natural songbird species.

 Cold cold morning sunshine, I never bothered to check the temperature till mid afternoon, by then it was up to a balmy -20 Celsius.

Finches decorating the neighbours tree mid-afternoon.

Last year we put out a pop-bottle seed feeder which worked wonderfully except greedy female finches clashed beaks like crazy attempting to keep other females from the feeder. This summer Gerald scored a brand-new 3 level seed-feeder at a garage sale for $5.00. Now many more finches can get to the seeds without major clash-on-wing brawls happening which is good as the cold snap has brought a multitude of varied birds to the feeder as you can see by the photos.

My last wee sweet little guests dropped by as the light was waning. Which I believe to be Pine siskins.

I will have to post them tomorrow as the server keeps rejecting my last few images.

May warm hugs keep the frosty cold at bay.