I confess, I didn’t get up at the crack of dawn to welcome my First Bird of 2013…but I filled the feeders and the birdbaths last night and hope that was welcome enough. As it turned out, it was a beautiful day: bright sunshine, hardly any wind. Cold, but clear. As much as we need precipitation, I cannot complain about the year starting out sunny.

I did finally manage to get through the rest of my Brazil pictures on flickr anyway and edit them so they have the correct date taken. Of course doing this pulled me back into South America and its birds and renewed my resolve to spend time on the rest of the identification challenges that remain.

In keeping with the Brazilian theme, I celebrated the new year by making farofa to have with my New Year’s dinner. I am pleased with the results and looking forward to further experimentation.

Around two this afternoon, after playing Bach for the birds, I donned long underwear and warm outerwear and went out in the yard to wait for birds to come back to the feeders. Two in the afternoon is not prime time, but I wanted to have the sun behind me since my yard faces west.

Black-Capped Chickadee

The Black-Capped Chickadees were the first to return. I’m always happy to see them, and Dark-Eyed Juncos…

Dark-Eyed Junco

Perhaps best of all was to witness two White-Breasted Nuthatches in the yard simultaneously. I wasn’t sure until today that there were still two, since I never see more than one at a time hanging on the peanut feeder…

White-Breasted Nuthatch

on the peanut feeder

…unlike the House Sparrows.

The House Finches were more challenging to capture today.

Female House Finch

Male House Finch

And it was definitely the wrong time of day to see either the Cardinals or the Downy Woodpeckers: they tend to show up early and late.

But here’s a photo of the male Northern Cardinal through the window last weekend.

Northern Cardinal

Back inside, I was happy to read in The New York Times “Science Times” section that researchers have discovered birds react emotionally to music like we do. This is something I observed from the very beginning when I started playing music for birds: I was most attracted to them because they seemed to be listening to music much like I do, and that is where our conversation began. Now we have scientific proof. Always a good idea.

It has been a deliciously lazy day and it will be hard to go back to work tomorrow.