Lots of Spring-ing Today

These lovely violets are blooming everywhere around the front steps of the cabin right now. I have to be careful not to step on them when I step down to the ground. It's even more difficult when I have Dog or Baby Dog with me, as neither one of them could care less about violets.

This morning was the best day for new bird arrivals of the year so far. I've had chestnut-sided warblers, black-and-white warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets and the first catbird of the season. My best sighting, though was one I didn't even leave the cabin to see.

I was working upstairs on the computer, which faces a window. Juneau, one of my Maine Coon cats, was sitting on the computer chattering at the birds. This is her favorite activity. She spends her entire day at one window or another looking for birds. The birds really wind her up, and sometimes I think they are teasing her purpose. The titmice are particularly good at this.

While Juneau is turning herself inside out, the birds are just a few feet away looking at her. Often they will bounce to a twig close enough that I could reach out and touch the twig, if the windows were open. So I'm sitting here typing away, and Juneau is chattering at the birds as usual, and suddenly right in front of the two of us plops a female rose-breasted grosbeak. Juneau starts leaping at the screen over the window, but the bird doesn't fly. It cocks its head and looks at her and looks some more. Naturally, I don't have the camera with me, but I sure wish I had. The bird seemed fascinated by my hysterical cat, and we watched it for a good minute before it flew deeper into the woods and away from the cabin.