A Tale of Two Buntings

It was another one of those days. I took the Prius in for its 10K checkup so it would be ready for our trip to TX although we haven't decided yet which Prius we'll take. I went to Verizon to get setup with a broadband wireless router so we could stay connected and I could keep blogging throughout the trips this year. At home I worked on the species lists so I could post them on my website and have a link to them on this blog. They really looked great until I found out that they weren't being shared. So at least one more hill to climb.
In the early afternoon I decided to go see if the Painted Buntings that were at an office complex near Witchduck Road last year had returned. I sat in the car watching the bird feeders that someone who works in the building keeps full. It took only five minutes for the female to come out of the dense bushes which also held White-throated and Song Sparrows, cardinals, and chickadees. With her green plumage she is unique among American birds. After another fifteen minutes the male popped up. What can be said about the beauty of the male Painted Bunting that hasn't already been said. "How can so much color be packed into such a small bird?" or something to that effect. Because I was there in the afternoon, the sun was directly behind the birds unless you used the building to block out the sun. Morning might be a better time. After drinking in this beauty for a while, I drove to Lake Smith to look for the Common Mergansers. Although there were many waterfowl there including Hooded Mergansers, I didn't find THE mergansers. I'll try again. Total is now 111.