Today is a typical Seattle Winter day, weatherwise: temperatures in the mid-40’s, with a steady rain. The kind of weather that made me fall in love with this part of the country in the first place….something that, as a long-time resident of Hawaii, it took a long time for me to admit.

I was outside tending to the hot tub when I noticed a greater-than-usual amount of bird crap on the cover to the tub. Not disturbing, but certainly a little perplexing.

A while later Margaret called me out of my office to witness the explanation: a veritable Air Force of little birds (finches, chickadees, bush tits….an assortment of what we generically refer to as “Tweedlybeeps”) taking shelter from the rain in the Winter-bare vines of the grape arbor that covers our tub. Must have been thirty of the little beggars.

This footage was taken with an el cheapo digital camera so it’s not terribly clear, but you get the general idea. Requires Apple’s free QuickTime Player to play.

Click here to download the video (reduces load time versus embedding it in the page).