Sitemeter

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Wintry day

Today was the first day that I can honestly say it felt ‘cold’.  My hands, even in gloves, were getting numb…

Cool day

even thought the temperature is slightly above freezing, we’ve had snow flurries, sometimes heavy, off and on all day and I see we have a snowfall warning in effect for tonight.

Some activity in the distance

could hear a fair bit of Bald Eagle ‘carry on’….and saw there was quite a grouping there in the distance…

A crow in the mix

a zoomed in shot shows a Northwestern Crow  in the mix. 

barren first bay

Yes, I walked past the latest sign to get this picture of the ‘first bay’…didn’t go any further though. 

Some Gadwall

the usual assortment of ducks were there, Mallards, a few Bufflehead, American Wigeon and these Gadwall.  Earlier a Northern Harrier had flown low over the ducks and that set a number of them to flight.  I don’t think Harrier would hunt ducks but any raptor shape flying low over head will elicit a flight response, especially this time of the year when the fish supply is dwindling and the eagles will be starting to hunt.

Red-wing Blackbirds

the Red-wing Blackbird flock was perched in this area of trees.  I’ve heard that massive flocks of Pine Siskin have just shown up in the valley, birds driven south from the Alaska/Yukon area due to a poor seed crop this year….but there was no sign of any Siskin today that I could see.  I know that quite a few Common Redpoll are also being reported in various area Christmas bird counts.  What I did see today for just an instant, was a male House Sparrow.  We very seldom see these somewhat maligned birds up this way, they are usually hanging about in super market parking lots!

No comments:

Post a Comment