We got over an inch of rain yesterday! We normally get about 16″ in the whole year, so that’s a lotta water comin’ down. We are expected to get at least that much again today, with some parts of the eastern plains getting more than 2″! That works out to 1/8-1/5 of our total water for the year in two days. We are not used to this much wet.

But the eastern plains especially can use it — they didn’t get as much snow as those of us closer to the mountains did this winter. I wish them joy of the rain.

But what this much water does is bring the birds migrating up to the mountains to our feeders.

This handsome male black-headed grosbeak came down to grab a quick bite on one of our feeders. At first my husband and I thought it was a Bullock’s oriole, because they are slightly more common here. But that beak gave it away.

I was surprised at how scruffy his neck looked. Most birds seem to have very clean lines on their backs, but not this grosbeak.

I was a little annoyed at the streak in the upper right corner of this shot. I thought it was a smudge on my camera lens. No, it was a raindrop.

This fellow selected a peanut from our buffet, and flew off to enjoy it.