Four Of A Kind

Day 50: If you're talking Chickadees instead of poker, two pair beats four of a kind. I probably won't know what I'm actually holding until next spring (and perhaps not then), but I suspect there will be at least one full house if I can find suitable nesting boxes for any of the four dee-dees who were flitting around the feeders today. Four! I knew I had two, so it looks like word has gone around that the black-oil sunflower seed magically appears in the trays shortly after sunrise every day. Dee-dees! It took me almost thirty years to entice them from across the road! And if that wasn't enough for one day, shortly after first light, two grouse ("mouse-mice," "grouse-grice" in Crow-specific argot), one rummaging through the leaves beneath the contorted filbert, the other momentarily confused by having gotten into the center of the tangle without considering possible exit routes. I've never had grice in the yard before. I was unable to see them clearly enough to determine species.