Hi everyone! I haven’t had a coffee time post in quite a while, time just seems to be flying by so fast these days. It is a cooler, heavy overcast day here, with rain. It isn’t a real heavy kind of rain, but it’s steady, and it’s a cold feeling rain. It makes for a damp cold that just penetrates through a person. It is just 39F (4C). It’s a great day to stay indoors and drink coffee. Lots of coffee. Or maybe tea. Or hot chocolate.

Maybe I should have a cup of hot chocolate this afternoon. I can’t drink regular hot chocolate anymore, but I found some that I can drink. It’s hot chocolate that has no chocolate, or dairy of any kind, or gluten. But it still tastes like hot chocolate. It’s actually very good. I am going to do a few posts listing some of my favorite things. Like today.

Black-Capped Chickadee on my hand.

This time I will share some photos of a few favorite small birds. This is not a complete list of my favorites, I like all the small birds. And medium birds. And large birds. I just like birds. Even when I was a kid. I used to get up early in late spring and especially in summer, before anyone else. Then if it was a nice morning I would open my bedroom window and listen to the birds singing.

Boreal Chickadee on my hand.

I didn’t know very many birds at the time, but I did enjoy the singing. I could identify robins, and especially mourning doves. I think those doves were my favorites at the time. I loved their mourning call. I thought it sounded so nice. I still do, although we don’t have many mourning doves in our area.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch on my hand.

They were plentiful where we lived further west when I was a kid. I haven’t heard any in this part of town, but they were always around where I lived prior to moving here. Their mournful call can carry for a long distance. I still think it’s very beautiful. However, it’s not one of the small birds, it’s a medium bird.

So I might end up showing it another time. But chickadees, nuthatches, redpolls, pine siskins, goldfinches, those are small birds that I will be showing today. At least some of them anyway. And so many different sparrows. I might show sparrows as a separate list another time too. Lots of possibilities. I don’t really get to see, or hear, many small birds in this area. Even when I go for a walk.

Female Common Redpoll.

My geraniums are slowing down a bit in their blooming now, so I am going to try taking cuttings from them and start some new plants. Hopefully. Lots of people do that. Quite successfully. My mom always did it too. And my grandmother. They never had problems. I am not very successful at it. Terrible really. Okay, it doesn’t usually work for me. I have done it at times.

Pine Siskin.

But 9 times out of 10 it won’t work. That is not a good success rate. I have no trouble growing geraniums. But starting them from cuttings doesn’t work well for me. I can start other plants from cuttings and it works great. But not geraniums. However, I am going to try again. They have grown so big over the winter and they really need to be trimmed anyway.

So, why not use those trimmings to get new plants? I will let you know if I am successful this year or not. Oh well. It’s still raining. Time to vacuum. Then have my hot chocolate. Have a great day everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.