I interrupt my 2012 "Looking back" series one more time for an actual picture of another "first time" shot. The blizzard that came through last Thursday left us with about a foot of snow on the ground and this brings a lot of birds into our yard here in the woods. A heated bird bath and different bird feeders all around the house are obviously well received by the birdies. Two Fox Sparrows were among them today, a bird species that I have seen only ones before here. At that time I didn't pay much attention and thought they were young robins. Todays photo shoot made it clear, no American Robins, no Hermit Thrushs (looks also very similar) but some nice looking Fox Sparrows were feeing on the ground. This sparrow is larger and almost chubby in comparison to other sparrows and that's why I made my mistake. They spend the summer up in Canada and in the western part of the United States. Here in Iowa they are usually seen only during migration and I wonder if we will have them all winter long here. Except for the last couple nights it has not been really cold and maybe that makes them stay here (beside the good food and drinks ;-) ).