2011 Pleasures

This morning, at daybreak, we were treated to a full lunar eclipse. I love watching these (even when it's very cold out), but I was asleep for this one. I'm surprised to hear that the clouds were in abeyance for part of it, since the sky is oppressively low and gray right now, and we've had morning fog (sometimes with hard frosts) all week. My neighborhood birds don't seem to mind the weather. Even the hummingbird that periodically darts into our yard to check out the garden flora made an appearance yesterday, lighting briefly on a tall stalk of oregano-- only to discover, of course, that the flower had long since dried up. (Though my yard is generally a place of lavish hospitality for the birds, I'm ashamed to say I don't have a hummingbird feeder.) The Northern Flicker is still about, every now and then squabbling with the Steller's jay. I'm hoping to get out to see some wintering ducks in the next few days. (We've been so busy...) Male ducks start to take on their mating plumage at this time of year, sometimes to dazzling effect. 

Just a heads-up: we're about ready to start our 2011 edition of The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening series. I've been reading the pieces as they come in-- and realized that they are one of my reading pleasures of the year.