Reds and blues

These photos were all taken over the course of a few days in mid-February 2012, about a week after I returned from that year's trip to Kauai. When I saw this Bluebird, I wondered if the jet lag hadn't hit me a bit harder than I realized—I'd never seen one in our area while there was still snow on the ground before, and I don't believe I have since.

When it was all puffed up, it looked as cold as I felt:

A shot of a Blue Jay snagging some seed:

Ditto a Red-breasted Nuthatch:

Keeping with the color scheme, how about a red squirrel doing a little skiing?

Even with the image cropped, it can take me a moment to spot the squirrel in this shot: 

A male Cardinal hiding in the blue spruce next to my parents' house:

And a female Cardinal, doing the same:

I was lucky enough to catch these two engaging in a bit of courtship behavior:

And finally, one last shot of both red and blue for the road: