The beginning line of yesterday's post—"this is not the picture I wanted"—could easily do for today. But this time, the reason has more to do with image quality than what the shot actually depicted. To be sure, I'm more than well-aware that this isn't a particularly good photograph, but it happens to be the first shot—and the first sighting—of a Brown Creeper this winter, so, decent or not, it's important for documentation purposes. For the past few weeks, I've been wondering where these magical little birds have been, since they certainly haven't put in an appearance at the suet feeder. Maybe I've just missed them, which would be easy, given how much they resemble tree bark, and how little they draw attention to themselves as they ratchet quietly up and down tree trunks whose bark the Creepers are probing with their curved bills for small invertebrates: anything from spiders to springtails. Given global warming, I was beginning to worry that the weather had screwed up their arrival times, and maybe they wouldn't be here at all. Not to worry... while the photo's not the best, it's proof that the Brown Creeper is, perhaps late to the party, perhaps just overlooked, still present and accounted for.