On The Third Day

For the longest time, there were no birds to be seen today in the front yard. I tried to encourage them by standing on the front porch, camera in hand, but they knew I wouldn't be able to stand the cold for long. So I went back indoors and opened the window. Still, they made me wait. But then I spotted what I'd been hoping to see. A tufted titmouse:

Titmice have been such frequent visitors to the feeder all winter that I was surprised it took till January 3rd for them to appear this year. Similarly, most days there's a group of mourning doves under the feeder, but until today, there'd been none in 2013. Today, a solitary dove showed up. The angle from the window to the ground is quite steep so I tried to creep outside to get a picture from a better angle, but it saw me coming and flew off with its typical bleating noise.

Also in attendance today were a chickadee and a white-breasted nuthatch: