It’s raining out now. Not a pounding rain, but something a step up from a drizzle, a prolonged, penetrating rain that has taken most of the leaves out of the trees and thoughtfully relocated them to the deck.

I would not go out in this weather, and I suppose on some level I assumed that the birds would be similiarly inclined–huddled up under eaves, fluffing little feathers and tucking their beaks to their chests, riding out the damp with the occasional gruff chirrup.

And I would be wrong. Because the backyard is freakin’ deranged with birds. I was trying to take a nap, but I gave up eventually to count birds, It’s lunacy.

In one twenty minute stretch, I have spotted:

Cardinas, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers, bluebirds, male and female house finches, goldfinches, some variety of sparrow, white-breasted and brown-headed nuthatches, slate-sided juncoes, tufted titmice, yellow-rumped warblers, mourning doves, pine warblers, and even a freakin’ ruby-crowned kinglet, which I’ve never seen in the yard before.

My only explanation is that the weather is so wretched, they’re coming to a known concentration of feeders in order to get the foraging over with quickly.