It’s been a very warm and sunny weekend—until today. (Which is why I haven’t been blogging; all my spare time has been being spent in the garden). With the cold wet weather today, several migrating birds are hunkering down where they can—we saw the usual suspects in the yard this morning (chickadees, house finches, robins et al) as well as white-crowned sparrow, least flycatcher and the absolute highlight, western tanagers! These birds spend most of the year in the tropics, making the long journey north for the breeding season. And they are not common backyard birds at all, but we’ve been working hard over the past year or so to create a bird- and wildlife-friendly habitat. Here’s some pics—aren’t they gorgeous? (And cold and wet!)