Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:44:09 PDT http://www.featheredfriendsboutique.com/index.rss en-us Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:27:49 PDT <p> We moved <a href="http://www.featheredfriendsboutique.com">Feathered Friends Boutique</a> to southern Oregon in December. San Diego was nice for a time but it was too crowded and only getting worse. If that wasn't enough, this New England girl had been missing two things: weather (nothing like a good thunderstorm) and song birds! I'm still not tired of the almost constant winter ad spring rain here in Brookings, and I know I'll never tire of looking at the feeders and birdhouses already dotting our yard to see who has come to visit. </p> <p> The first &quot;exotics&quot; I couldn't help but notice were the pair of Flickers that showed up even before we had anything out there for them. I think they live in a huge pine tree next door and although I've seen Flickers many times before, it was a big deal to realize that these beauties are my neighbors! </p> <p> I've been entertained by a constant stream of various sparrows, finches, starlings, doves and of course seagulls, crows, and hawks in the few months we've been here, but then I noticed a pretty little bird that I didn't recognize at first. A quick scan of my NAS Field Guide confirmed that this visitor is a junco (<i>Junco hyemalis</i>) of one variety or another and given&nbsp; our location, I'd like to believe it's an Oregon Junco but I'm not convinced that the colors are right. It fits this part of the description to a tee: sparrow-sized, ground feeder that gladly munches on the seed I've sprinkled among my daffodils and grape hyacinths, but the color description throws me a bit. The Oregon Junco has a black hood, chestnut mantle, white underparts, and buff sides. On the other hand, the Eastern Slate-colored Junco has a dark slate-gray head, upper breast, flanks, ad underparts, with white lower breast and belly. My birds are definitely not this, but here's where it gets fuzzy ... the book says both forms have a PINK bill. What's up with that?? Even the pictures don't show a pink bill. Will that change with the season and maybe pink up when summer rolls around? </p> <p> Anyone care to comment on Juncos and the color of their bills? </p>