It's raining out now. Not a pounding rain, but something a step up from a drizzle, a prolonged, penetrating rain that has taken most of the leaves out of the trees and thoughtfully relocated them to the deck.

I would not go out in this weather, and I suppose on some level I assumed that the birds would be similiarly inclined--huddled up under eaves, fluffing little feathers and tucking their beaks to their chests, riding out the damp with the occasional gruff chirrup.

And I would be wrong. Because the backyard is freakin' deranged with birds. I was trying to take a nap, but I gave up eventually to count birds, It's lunacy.

In one twenty minute stretch, I have spotted:

Cardinas, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers, bluebirds, male and female house finches, goldfinches, some variety of sparrow, white-breasted and brown-headed nuthatches, slate-sided juncoes, tufted titmice, yellow-rumped warblers, mourning doves, pine warblers, and even a freakin' ruby-crowned kinglet, which I've never seen in the yard before.

My only explanation is that the weather is so wretched, they're coming to a known concentration of feeders in order to get the foraging over with quickly.