Bird watching

Baby W. has a cute stuffed bird that I noted is clearly a male scarlet tananger: red with black wings. How, odd, I thought, toy animals aren't usually accurate. A visit to the gift shop at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens solved that mystery. The shop had a mixed flock of these toy birds, sold with the Audubon Society name attached. Alas, no purple martin for the nephew.

I had lunch and a walk at Lewis Ginter with Boo, who drew this urban falcons website to my attention. I didn't know that McGuire Woods was in the First National Bank Building. That 19teens skyscraper is one of my favorite Richmond buildings. Too bad it lost its Italianate cornice years ago.

As if that's not enough, let me note the $1 copy of Peterson's field guide I picked up at an estate sale, the flicker I had in my locust tree, and the hairy woodpeckers (I think) building a nest in a tree on Davis Avenue. Next door, sparrows have hatched in the nest on C's porch.

Capital City weather: getting hazy, 90 degrees.
On The Simpsons: Marge works at the power plant; Smithers imagines Mr. Burns flying through the window