Birdies, etc

We saw what we think is a Northern Harrier (hawk) on one of the big power line towers. Too big to be a Cooper's Hawk, wrong shape for a Red-tail hawk or turkey vulture, but definitely a raptor of some sort. The bird book says that we're well within the winter range (and at the south edge of the year-round range), so it's not too surprising, although this is the first time we've actually noticed one. There was a Northern Flicker tearing at the suet cake a couple of days ago -- she was digging into it really hard while hanging on the bottom of the cage and it was spinning a little. The female red-bellied woodpecker has decided that she really likes the 'bugs' on the platform feeder (sunflower seeds), coming up nearly every day to get a few -- the books say that Red-bellied woodpeckers don't usually eat seeds, but the ones in our yard seem to enjoy them.

The sax ensemble is not going to happen for the march concert - we decided that we weren't even going to audition it. We've had one rehearsal with everyone, and one with people on the right parts. They were not the same rehearsal. :/ We're still going to work on the piece, maybe do it over the summer or something like that, but it wasn't going to be ready for the audition....