Hi one and all, I've not forgotten you but boy have things been in an uproar here. We had a freak snow storm last Saturday that dumped up to 30 inches of snow in some places. The deciduous trees still have their leavs on them so the damage here is unbelievable, broken trees and power poles everywhere. There were more than two million without electricity in the NorthEast US with below freezing temperatures at night. Anyway, here it is Wednesday and we still have not had our power restored since Saturday (thankfully we have a generator and I can connect to the internet on my husband's smart phone) Here is a link to some of the damage in our garden. Our large oak tree lost all the limbs off the top of the tree. What a mess!
http://www.deanneart.com/2011-10-31/
So getting back to this fantastic bird, I'd decided to take a break from the autumn garden chores and went to check out a sighting of a Dickcissel in one of our local parks and what a great stroke of luck that I not only found the bird I was able to get a photo. This is a female Dickcissel and this bird is not supposed to be anywhere around here so a very rare bird indeed.
