Small dark birds

 

First major snowfall in two years

 

Mrs Cardinal

 Shortly after the departure of Mr Cardinal, Mrs Cardinal arrived.

Mr Cardinal

My ZOOM studio looks out over the wilds of suburbia.  I have the cameras ready for wildlife visits.  We recently decided to encourage them, hoping to see more of this kind of visitor.

So we got bird seed.  And of course the first visitors were not those we wanted.

 But the cardinals did come, and did get seeds.

The best shots caught the brief interactions between the two visitors.  It was a dark day, and the wing motions are blurred as the cardinal zoomed in rapidly and then retreated.

Cooper's Hawk in the old Apricot Tree

 

Spanish New Year, 2019 and 2020

Last year we spent New Year's Eve in Madrid.  We went through Puerta del Sol  towards sunset, and it was packed, with a joyous atmosphere.

At midnight we were in the restaurant on the hotel (Posada del Dragon), after a festive dinner, watching the New Year's Eve festivities.

The party pack from dinner, which included the tranditional 12 grapes for the countdown.

This year we counted down the New Year watching the web cam of Puerta del Sol.

We had the traditional 12 grapes (from Peru), cava (actually prosecco), and smoked salmon appetizers. 

One advantage of celebrating remotely at the empty Puerta del Sol was that we did not have to stay up way past normal bedtime.