Diminished delight?

Does seeing incredible birds like Roseate Spoonbill and Crested Caracara diminish my delight in watching my regular backyard birds? Heavens, no.

The Bushtits are just as amusing, the hummingbirds just as ornery and the Black Phoebes just as dapper as they were before I attended the festivals in Texas and Florida. Observing the (to my eyes) flamboyant specialty birds of the Rio Grande Valley and the Space Coast provided great fun but in no way reduces the charm and wonder of the birds that stop by my back yard.

I do not tire of watching the dapper black-and-white flycatcher perch on the telephone wires, the apricot tree or the top of the patio umbrella before it swoops over the lawn and snaps its bill on a bug. If that ever happens, then, well, we've got a problem, Houston.