I think this Tufted Titmouse is getting tired of the snow and cold...

This does not look like a happy face. It looks like a 

“Please make it go away now thank you very much” face.

Today I didn't hear our Tufted Titmouse call out "Peter, Peter, Peter" at all, so I decided he was fed up with the cold and the snow. There was no other explanation. Feeling sorry for the thing, I hopped on the Internet to see if I could learn anything new about them. I found a few interesting tid bits on the WhatBird.com site:

• Most Tufted Titmice live their entire life within a few kilometers of their birthplace.
• They only occur in areas where rainfall is greater than 24 inches per year, and are more common where rainfall exceeds 32 inches per year.
• In Cherokee legend, they are regarded as messengers.
• A group of titmice are collectively known as a "banditry" and a "dissimulation" of titmice.

A banditry? A dissimulation? How can that be?

"What?" he says. "Please check that again." 

It does seem strange to call a group of these little cuties a banditry. In Webster’s a bandit is defined as an outlaw who lives by plunder, especially a member of a band of marauders! ...and dissimulation is even worse. It means to conceal one's true feelings or intentions, but Titmice just don't seem that sneaky to me.

"I think you underestimate my sneakiness."

This fellow doesn't seem to be concealing anything. 

He’s clearly crying out to the heavens “enough 

with the white stuff falling on my face already!”

I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for these 

strange names (and I'm sure someone out there 

knows it!), but I think a group of titmice should 

just be called a Collection of Cuties.

Since titmice and chickadees are in the same family, I wondered if chickadees had the same moniker, and sure enough, they are just a bunch of little marauders sneaking around in the woods too!

Thanks for the photos Larry! They are awesome!