Same Old Characters?

Coming home from birding afield can be a let down. Don't they ask how they'll stay on the farm once they've seen Paris? This time, I am all fuss. It didn't help to pick up a case of the flu. Nor that while I was away the BirdCam's batteries failed. And now that I have gone over the photos I do have, even the local birds got a little less interesting. And that is because all of the rarities have been absent. No Pine Siskins. No Purple Finches. Nary a piece of evidence in many days. To be sure my mix is good. I regularly see Bluebirds, and Goldfinches, and the elusive Brown Headed Nuthatch. But without the irruptives, the current winter crowd seems like the same old characters at the bar. Mark it up to a grouchy flu-ridden birdwatcher. I will just have to keep looking out the window and recovering that backyard magic.