Cold, Wind and Birds - January 24, 2011

I could start off by telling you how cold it's been but you all know that. I could tell you about frozen finger tips but my friend Jerry has already mentioned that. And when you sit out at Pte Mouillee near the water believe me it is cold. But the bird activity is never ending. The birds in the pines near the water really rack up the frequent flier miles - they got to be doing it to stay warm. The ones that fascinate me are the Golden-crowned Kinglets. They move so quickly from this branch to another - jumping from one platform of pine branches just to get what's in the ones above them.

While watching the Kinglets work their way through the trees near the boat ramp another little guy caught my eye. It took a while for it to get on the top of the branches and I could hear it's "jip...jip" (which sounded more like creap...creap) and then suddenly there he was a Winter Wren.

Although for the past three weeks my birding has been done from my vehicle I've been able to get photos of Song Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, House Finches, Northern Flickers, a Downy Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, Black-capped Chickadees, a Purple Finch, a Hermit Thrush and a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

As Jerry mentioned in his blog we did run into each other over the weekend - he was in pursuit of the Rough-legged Hawk - I was in pursuit of the Great Horned Owl that has been frequenting the same tree - same branch - behind the same branches on the back boardwalk at LEMP. I spotted this guy Friday afternoon - and took pictures - unfortunately the dial on my camera got turned to manual and all my photos for the afternoon were overexposed. Sunday's outing was to redeem myself. While out I got a photo of a Gray Catbird that was eating off the sumac and a Yellow-rumped Warbler from the previous day.

I did go down the short path at LEMP to search out the Long-eared Owls that were reported but had no luck. Did find myself surrounded by deer at one point on that trail. They really are someting to watch. The path along the river was full of Mute Swans, Tundras, Canvasbacks, Redheads, Mallards and Canada Geese. It was along this path that I came across a Red Shouldered Hawk just sitting in a tree with no attempt of taking off while I snapped off a few shots.

After being out for about 4 hours I decided it was time to make my way home and try to get rid of the chill that over took my body. It was a good day - til my next post.