And just to top off what was already an exceedingly excellent day, I was settling in for a nap and looking out the back window, watching the white-breasted nuthatches hop around the trees, when I spotted a little brown bird going up the tree just like a nuthatch. It had a much longer tail, instead of the nuthatch stub, dark mottled brown back, and a shockingly white belly. I leapt from the couch and was watching it, occasionally shooting desperate glances around the living room for the binoculars. Eventually I found them, dove for them, came back up, and of course the bird was gone.

However, with those traits, it could only be one bird–the Brown Creeper, an inconspicuous little bird that blends very well with the trees. Had they been in full leaf, instead of a few yellow-orange stragglers, I would have been hard pressed to spot it–they may well have been here all along, and just very very hard to see. So that’s a lifer for me.

Life is good.

Leave a Reply