Yin yang

First the yin. Yesterday I was admiring the blue-headed birds that have recently discovered our back yard. We've been putting food out for birds for at least five years, and I've never seen these birds before. When I saw the first one about a week ago, I thought it was someone's escaped parrot, but then I noticed a bunch of the same birds in our yard, and yesterday there were hundreds!

If somebody owned all these birds, that person must have had a boatload of bird cages in the house. Seriously, when I looked out the window yesterday all I could see was blue-headed birds on all of the bird feeders and a sea of tiny blue heads on the grass, gobbling up all the seeds.

After doing a little research, I found out these birds are not mini-parrots; they are Lazuli Buntings. I don't know why they suddenly decided to inhabit our back yard, but I'm not complaining. They are gorgeous. And little. They're almost as small as hummingbirds.

And while I am on the subject of flora and fauna, I wanted to mention that our back yard squirrel has "changed." Either he had a stroke over the winter, or he passed the squirrel feeder on to his progeny who are slightly less intelligent, because our current squirrel doesn't seem to understand how the squirrel feeder works. It's pretty obvious that all you need to do to get a peanut is to open the lid and grab one, but this squirrel stares at the lid and bangs against the plastic front of the feeder, presumably hoping a peanut will magically materialize. Also, this squirrel doesn't seem to realize that in exchange for food, he is supposed to face us while he eats. What an ingrate.

And now for the yang part of the story. Last night it snowed and snowed. Evidently this is the latest measurable snow ever recorded at the Salt Lake airport.

Few birds today, and no squirrels. Everyone laid low, waiting for the 95 degree weather, which should start next week. What a weird state we live in.