Family Baths

No, I haven't gone completely wacko on you.

The Twists don't bathe together.
Well, at least we adults don't bathe with the kids.

But this appears to be a family group (of Oregon Juncos) taking a (quite territorial) bath together. Check out the sequence I captured using my zoom lens in rapid-fire bird paparazzi mode.

Family members 1 & 2 land and begin to bathe...


Family member 3 lands and stays on the edge for a few minutes, presumably keeping guard...

All eyes turn to the East as...

a fourth bird comes in to check out the action. Family or foe?

You be the judge.

And... back to a few more minutes of peaceful family bathing.


This winter, we have officially added "Birdwatcher" to our list of titles. To date, we have identified 23 different varieties of birds sighted on (or over) our property, with a handful as yet to be named, and all of the Summer birds yet to arrive.