When I'm looking for "close-up" photos, it's a good bet I'll find a few over on Jean Dessellier's Facebook page. She always has feathered and furry visitors in her backyard, along with a good eye for capturing them with her camera.

Today she shares a Goldfinch that visited her feeder and seems to be looking at her, saying, "Is this my best side?" These little birds are year round visitors and the males change to a bright yellow when spring arrives.

Jean has two different color squirrels that come around, too. She says the Red Squirrel was keeping a "close eye on her" while she was snapping his picture. And then the Black Squirrel seems to be bowing to her, maybe to say thank you for the treats she puts out for her critter friends. Feeding them not only helps them make it through the winters here UP North, but can give you hours of entertainment watching them skitter back and forth for their treats.

Yes...very nice close-ups! The squirrel looks like he's taking a bow for the audience.

Squirrels can be quite gallant at times!

The ones around here have made quite the game of jumping from the top of the fence posts to the bird feeders. While they steal the food meant for the birds, we haven't had the issues some folks have with them getting into the house. So they still rank above the chipmunks!

The goldfinch is cute, as is the cedar waxwing in the review!

I love the picture of the goldfinch. One of my favorite birds. On the other hand rodents of any sort are not my idea of cute and cuddly critters and I have no great liking for any of them. The black squirrel is an interesting critter though, thanks for sharing.

The black squirrel could almost be saying, "I
can't believe I ate the whole thing". My brother
and his wife live at The Villages in Florida where
it's asked not to feed birds due to bird feed
attracts birds and rodents, mice etc. into yards
which attracts snakes and not Garter or Bullsnakes
but the big snakes of Florida. The type of snake
that eats cats and dogs.

A nice little wildlife refuge.

Yes, love the goldfinch! So pretty. And can you
imagine living in Florida and not being able to
feed the birds for fear of those snakes? How
awful! I imagine they don't get to enjoy the birds
the way we do UP here in the north land. I guess
being warm has its drawbacks. I hate snakes!!

We had plenty of birds to watch in Florida. You don't need to feed them because of all the available natural food anyway. When the mangos get ripe and fall off the trees and start to ferment you get the myna birds come to feed. They get drunk off the mangos and forget how to fly. It's very entertaining. They you have the wild parrots. Picture 20 of them in a row on a wire chatting with one of them hanging upside down the whole time. Yeah we had plenty of birds. And no snakes. They exist where the land has been filled in swamp. If you live on that filled swamp land you have trouble weather you feed the birds or not. The critters, weather they are snakes or alligators or panther were there first and they won't move just because somebody decided to build houses where they already live.

...and lets not forget about those drive-bys.

Richard, you apparently do not live in The
Villages in the Orlando area.....

No Janie T. That is all built up swamp land. Most of Florida from Orlando south and inland from the coast is filled swamp and should have never been built up. All of Disney is built on swamp. There are some scattered high patches that have towns on them such as Avon Park, Sebring and Okeechobee. Back in the 50's & 60's and even 70's developers bought up the swamp land and started filling it in. That's the worst thing that could happen. It's a good thing Florida doesn't have earthquakes or all those new towns would sink due to liquefaction. For the stable land available in south and central Florida they have far too many people. Nothing to be done about it now but it is a real disaster waiting to happen.

And that is why my brother and sister in law and
anyone else who live at The Villages Florida are
asked not to feed birds as I stated in my above
post. There is no way I could move away from where
there is no four seasons including Winter.