I had a northern flicker in the neighborhood this morning that was loud enough to get me out of bed. My alarm clock has a snooze button so I was trying to catch a few extra minutes in the warm covers and then in flew the flicker that started calling away.

The last couple of weeks have been like Christmas, tons of new stuff coming in and my store is almost loaded to the gills. I suspect I am hugely over my inventory budget, but when it comes to shiny new things in birding catalogues, I'm just a girl who can't say "no". Well, that's not entirely true. I've had one incredibly pushy photographer on the east coast trying to get me to carry his cards. Part of my decision not to carry his cards has been how pushy and time consuming he is. The other reason is that most of the samples he sent me were birds not in Minnesota. I love brown pelicans but I don't think my Minnesota clientele wants use one of those guys to convey special thought in a card. When I suggested to the photographer birds that probably would sell in the bird store he got very defensive and said that he doesn't have time to get photos of every bird out there he just takes pictures of interesting looking bird moments. It was kind of odd, kind like a arty guy and a hard core birder all in one. Strange.

I have yet to see a grackle, I wonder where they are?