Snow Day Feeder Watching

It's been a great start to my back to school week.  Monday was snow squalls and no school.  I was back to it on Tuesday and Wednesday (today) was another snow day.  We've had snow  most of the night and had a pretty decent covering this morning.  The roads are a mess.  I should know.  I was driving between farms helping my brother with the morning's barn chores.  I actually enjoyed getting up this morning and going out to the barn just knowing that I didn't have to go to school today. 

Lots of snow outside today!!

The feeders were really active this morning.  That's the way it usually is on these cold winter days.  I put in a good 25 minutes this morning observing the feeders.  I posted an Ebird checklist, but I just post my sightings here too to make it easier.

10:40am on Wednesday January 7th, 2015.
Duration: 25 minutes

2 common redpoll  (haven't had a huge number yet this year so it was great to see these guys)
1 house sparrow
1 house finch
2 american tree sparrow
2 black-capped chickadee
6 blue jay
4 northern cardinal
15 dark-eyed junco (slate coloured race)
30 american goldfinch
1 downy woodpecker
1 hairy woodpecker
1 red-bellied woodpecker
6 mourning dove
1 white breasted nuthatch
2 red breasted nuthatch

The downy munching on suet.

 Cold mourning dove.

Goldfinches perched in the crabapple tree in our yard.

The above two photos of the red-bellied were taken a week or so before we got this snow, but I figured that they were worth posting anyway.

And these pictures too were taken about a week ago, but I thought they were worth posting.  Cardinals are fun to photograph and it was interesting to see the cat's reaction to a visitor that rarely actually comes into the yard.

So, I guess what I'm saying here is that even on those cold winter days, birding can still be amazing.  Birds themselves are amazing.  I noticed that the goldfinches are starting to show just the slightest bit of colour change already.  An early sign of spring I guess.  As we continue to move forward into the new year, there should be more and more to see.  I'm hoping for some passing through visitors like the evening grosbeaks that sometimes show up late winter.  Time will tell. 
Have fun birding!!