I didn't get in much of a trek, but with my granddaughter now enrolled in our local school for her very first day, I had a slender amount of time on a glorious afternoon to hike the very same trail I often walk with my sixth grade classes and at the observation deck section by the Assekonk Swamp, I spotted a tiny sprite working the seed heads of the Cattails. From its almost manic activity and small size, I suspected it was a kind of Kinglet, one of the songbirds that breed in the boreal forests and then often head south to spend the winter in our neighborhood. But which one? It didn't have an obvious yellow crest, so it wasn't a Golden-crowned, which made the ID easy: by default, it was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. These are less common around us, and I have no photographs of them displaying their trademark, and, alas, generally hidden, red crown feathers. This one wasn't going to grace me with a display either, but it showed enough of its other diagnostic characteristics, including that bold eyering and the wingbars, to give me confidence in calling it by its Ruby-crowned name.