It is a female dark-eyed Junco. Possibly a juvenile female, but juveniles are usually a bit duller. Notice the eyes, the shape of the head, and the color and shape of the beak. Phoebes and flycatchers have dark, narrow beaks.

Saw a house wren digging in a planter this weekend. First one I have seen here.

The starlings and grackles are attacking the suet and nuggets with a vengance. I've tried to keep using them because the woodpeckers and bluebirds like them so well, but I'm gonna have to stop, at least for the time being. If I leave them empty for a few days the starlings go away, but within 2 days of filling them, they are back.

I tried one of those suet feeders in a cage that supposedly larger birds can't get at. Other than the Carolina Wrens, the smaller birds wouldn't go through the wire to get to the suet, and the cage isn't enough distance from the suet cake to keep the starlings and grackles from poking their heads through to get at it. And everybody loves the nugget feeders.

There was a terrible ruckus all morning long as juvenile starlings quarreled among themselves over whose turn it was, with a grackle family occasionally coming along to up the ante. The red-bellied woodpeckers were at the nugget feeder early, but were out-competed by the the others, and went elsewhere for the rest of the day.

Yard full of crows this morning, pecking and digging at something on the ground. Not sure if ants were on the move or if they are going after cicadas that are just starting to emerge from the ground.

The housefinches are outcompeting most other birds at most of my sunflower feeders.