I mowed the lawn yesterday and it was teeming with birds today, maybe looking for chopped insect parts. Around lunch, I counted 4 robins, 3 juncos, 2 white-crowned sparrows, a song sparrow, a spotted towhee, and a varied thrush all foraging on the front lawn at the same time.

Most of those birds aren't surprising, but I thought the juncos had all moved on. The varied thrush was the real surprise. Shouldn't he be in the mountains by now? I heard a short, metallic varied thrush-like call this morning, thought "Naw, couldn't be; must be a starling or something," then there it was later today, skulking under the conifers. On the flip side, I *still* haven't seen any flycatchers or swallows around my place.

Kelly Cassidy
South of Pullman