And just to top off what was already an exceedingly excellent day, I was settling in for a nap and looking out the back window, watching the white-breasted nuthatches hop around the trees, when I spotted a little brown bird going up the tree just like a nuthatch. It had a much longer tail, instead of the nuthatch stub, dark mottled brown back, and a shockingly white belly. I leapt from the couch and was watching it, occasionally shooting desperate glances around the living room for the binoculars. Eventually I found them, dove for them, came back up, and of course the bird was gone.

However, with those traits, it could only be one bird--the Brown Creeper, an inconspicuous little bird that blends very well with the trees. Had they been in full leaf, instead of a few yellow-orange stragglers, I would have been hard pressed to spot it--they may well have been here all along, and just very very hard to see. So that's a lifer for me.

Life is good.