Next Day - Next Gift

I don’t know how many days in a row I can pull this off, but this is the second day with a “gift of the day” being a great photo.  Today’s was actually not a part of the guided bird hike, but occurred after lunch while Jeanette, Buster, and I were going through the campground to let people know of the daily bird hikes.  When we stopped at sight number 36 the man told us about a very small bird with a bright red top that had been attacking the mirror of his pick-up.  In fact it has even stopped briefly on his shoulder. He wondered what kind of bird it was, I was suspecting a House Finch, Jeanette thought Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Just as we were about to leave his site it reappeared and sure enough it was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  The exciting part of this is that it is very unusual to get to see the bright red crown of the male flared up as in this photo,  most of the time the time the feathers are laid down and impossible to see. In this case the male has probably spotted his image in the mirror and is dead set on chasing away what he views as a competing male.