A Peaceful Morning with Snow and Birds

A cold mid-week bonus

Unusually, the heavy snow we had at the start of the week has stuck, literally, to the tree branches instead of slipping off as is more common - so lots of “winter wonderland” conditions for a mid-week session of wildlifing.

I must confess that the Waxwing above was not encountered this morning, but actually ten years ago at the same location … I didn’t take a bird camera and lenses today, too cold to be honest, so this fellow is representative of the sixteen bird species that we did enjoy, along with a couple of deer sharing the trail with us. The pictures below were from this morning’s adventure.

I think I have said before - wildlifing and wandering in summer is, other than for mosquitoes, a lot easier and species-rich than at this time of the year in snow and negative double digit temperatures. For all that, however, if I had to choose a time of the year to go out it would be winter. It is a lot more peaceful, no insects (see above), rarely anyone else on the trails and no leaves to get between us and the birds. More of a work out for the body too and at my age that is something I need to be doing daily.

Sixteen species of birds listed below. I should perhaps count the Shrike as the “bird of the day” but I had dismissed it at first glance as a silhouetted leaf-bird perched at the topmost branches of a small tree, and so didn’t get my binoculars on it. Fortunately J has sharper vision and did look before it flew away. The bird I always look for in winter though did its duty - a Common Raven floating by almost without any wing movement and croaking loudly to make sure we had ticked its box.

Birds seen:

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus), Northern Shrike (Lanius borealis), Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), Common Raven (Corvus corax), Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), American Robin (Turdus migratorius), House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)  3

A beautiful morning anyway and worthy of recording here as a bonus mid-week post. There will be the usual newsletter on Sunday.