Happy New Year. I wish everyone a joyous and prosperous 2012.

I think a Towhee must have been the inspiration for the game “Angry Birds”. I’ve never played Angry Birds, but I’ve seen ads for it on various web sites, and the Spotted Towhee in the first photo has a similar look to the Angry Birds drawings I’ve seen in the ads.

A House Finch perched on the tip top of our blue spruce in the late afternoon sun, scanned its surroundings with the confidence of a top bird. I took my last walk in the bosque for 2011 as the sun set, and noticed the moon was half full directly above me as I watched some cranes fly over — I couldn’t resist photographing it (600mm, ƒ/5.6, 1/200, ISO 250, hand held, image stabilization on in camera, image cropped).