A day with the birds and my husband wants a gun

Yesterday was a good day. I've got birds again. Since we moved in almost two weeks ago, we've heard them and seen a few from afar, but they weren't coming around the house much. I had put bird seed out about 5 days ago hoping to lure them in, but I was beginning to get frustrated by their lack of interest. How could I possibly have fewer birds in the country than at my city feeder?

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of pouring rain - a type of rain that, I would guess, is indigenous to Oregon: heavy, pelting, elongated drops - and the wonderful sound of something else....a huge flock of birds nearby. The chirping and tweeting and singing that was right outside our windows was incredible and it made me so happy!!

I jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and my telephoto lens, and pretty much spent the next two hours just watching them and snapping shots.

I think this was the finch party that was making all the noise when I woke up. I caught one in flight (lower right-hand side of picture):

I think this little guy is called a chestnut-backed chickadee:

Here's a beautiful nuthatch. We didn't get many of these guys in the city because we didn't have any fir trees around us:

More finches:

And then this. Look at the lower right half of the picture below. It looks like our horse got out of the barn and dropped a few on our lawn. Neat thought, but we don't have a horse. Those are mole hills. Now that Jim has his chainsaw, he talks a lot about getting a shotgun. He says he's going to sit in a chair on the back deck and shoot the moles when they come up. Poor little guys. What's happening to my peace-loving, pacifist husband???

We've moved to the country, that's what. :-)