I've been watching the birds. Particularly the past couple days when I was home sick and therefore was around more during the day.

I have a little tube-shaped feeder right outside my living room window, hanging up in a large privet that I decided to let live (because of the shade it provides). Because the new windows have fairly dense screens, the birds cannot see me, and I can get good close-up views of them.

I've been using a sunflower mix, though most recently I bought a spendy "colorful birds mix" that has sunflower, plus some of the "little" seeds (that I thought birds always rejected), plus nyjer thistle, plus some dried fruit.

I've gotten titmice and chickadees, though most recently mainly house finches (or are they purple finches? I have a hard time telling the two apart) and goldfinches have been visiting the feeder these past couple days.

The goldfinches are interesting. At first, several weeks ago, they were totally in winter plumage and I was wondering (at first) what they were (then I remembered what goldfinch winter plumage looked like). Now, the males are starting to "yellow up" a little around their heads so it's very clear what they are. (I wonder how long they will stick around in the spring...IIRC, they are a species that breeds later because of their use of thistledown in nests).

One male goldfinch, yesterday, in particular, was amusing to watch. The tube feeder has four perches with ports: two midway down the tube, two at the bottom. But the attachment point for the hanger up at the top also looks kind of like a perch. So this bird was hanging upside down from that top bit - and he kept pecking at the tube. I guess he could SEE the seed inside it, and having no experience with clear plastic, he assumed that the seed should be accessible, since he could see it. But he kept pecking...even after several minutes' worth of lack-of-success.

I actually felt kind of bad for him, but at one point said aloud, "Bless your heart, you're just not very BRIGHT, are you?" (I think he eventually figured it out and went down to the usual seed port).

I've also seen a couple migratory species: there were a couple of cedar waxwings (the might have been Bohemian waxwings, I didn't get that good a look at them, but cedar waxwings are a lot more likely here) eating the berries off my yaupon holly. And I've been seeing yellow-rumped warblers - what I originally learned as the (I think) more-poetically named Myrtle warbler (until they were rolled into one species with the similar western species Audubon's warbler).

My yard is not manicured - in fact, I have a big ugly brush pile in the back yard - and I think that's partly what brings the birds. (I get brown thrashers every year; they like hunting around the brush pile).

The seed is a little expensive - but then again, a $15 bag of it will last for several weeks. And the birds provide a lot of entertainment.