Here are two winter visitors in our (Jacksonville) back yard soon to depart for the north:

Here’s a male American Goldfinch in our back yard getting its breeding plumage:

Just time enough to take some quick snaps of a few of the birds in the back yard today:

Late this afternoon, the sky dark with rain clouds, it was bathtime for the birds. First an Orange-crowned Warbler showed up, but by the time I’d cracked open a window in the sunroom and trained my camera lens on the bubbler, it had flown off. Then a Hermit Thrush showed up. Here it is in the bath:

While it was taking a bath, a female Northern Cardinal showed up on the retaining wall behind the bubbler. The Hermit Thrush stood on the edge of the bubbler and squawked at her, and she eventually flew off. Then an American Robin showed up, and the Hermit Thrush took off. After the American Robin had its time in the bath, the Hermit Thrush (same one?) came back for a second bath, but it was almost night by then.

A huge flock of American Robins has descended on our neighborhood. Half a dozen at a time take a bath in the bubbler in our back yard. Here’s a three-pack:

Here’s a singleton:

American Goldfinches still abound in numbers.

The American Goldfinches and the Pine Siskins (a rarity in our back yard) vie for the same food source, whether it’s sunflower kernals or tasty treats up in the trees: