This morning about a million birds decided to grace the old maple tree in our front yard, something that always makes me happy to see and hear, and which I encourage by trying to keep the nearby birdbath full when the temperature is above freezing. Almost immediately after I filled it this morning (with the claw-tingling mixture of ice chunks and freezing water that came out of the hose), everyone in the tree descended into it. Mostly they were robins, as you can see (picture taken through the window so as not to disturb them). Some days they are joined by sparrows, catbirds, mourning doves, or an occasional woodpecker or finch, but the robins are pretty feisty about keeping the party a robins-only affair. Their interactions are always fun to watch; today is the first day I've successfully caught this particular one on camera (closeup):

Update 2/18/08: Ok, now I am forced to admit how dumb it was to keep the birdbath outside over the winter. My friend Diane, who has been known to go out and wrap every delicate thing in the yard when frost is forecast, warned me that this was not a good idea, but out of inertia and love of seeing birds in it, I left it out anyway. But after taking the picture above yesterday, I watched the water drain away (the poor robins kept coming back and trying to drink the dregs anyway) and realized there is a big crack in the basin. The birdbath is made of some kind of plastic resin and I'm trying to figure out what to plug the crack with that won't hurt the birds. Caulk has all sorts of gross stuff (phthalate esters, ethylene glycol, etc that are, according to the package "known by the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects"), so that seems like a bad solution, even though I live in Maryland which apparently remains blissfully unaware of these dangers. If anyone has ideas, I'd appreciate hearing them. I'm about to go chew up a pack of gum and stuff that in the cracks for lack of a better idea. Hope they like wintergreen.

Magnum Photos has marvellously combined Flash's multimedia capability with the talent of some incredible photo journalists to present online essays that combine photography, video, captivating voiceover, music and a variety of interactive tools (one small example: while a video is playing, you can mouse over "Who is talking?" to see more about the person currently speaking, and then click to find out a whole bunch more information). The 55 essays currently posted include a very moving report on Guantanamo and an interesting piece on the weird secret life of the Taliban.

It's bill-paying day (ugh-- why do I still have to pay my Washington Post bill by mail, and even find and address an envelope for it?) and as I was looking around for some stamps with the right postage, I found a bunch of those cryptic stamps that say "H" or "G" or "1991 Christmas" and tell you nothing about what the value of the stamp is, so you really don't know what to put with your old 37¢ stamp to get the right postage. So I looked online and found "Quick Service Guide 604a" which tells, wonder of wonders, the value of nondenominated postage. I think this blog entry is mostly for my own future reference.

My favorite time-waster, StumbleUpon, brought up this link to a nicely done page on how to make scrolling links with javascript, so I had to try it out. Like it? I do -- thanks, Steffan Luczyn.

My husband and I returned last week from a fabulous five days in Paris, after dropping off our daughter to stay with a French family on a month-long homestay. I posted a log of our trip, with links that might be useful if you're going. We can't wait to go back next year, or whenever we next save up enough frequent flier miles and vacation time.