My Big Month - Day 7

My visit to Palmer Lake Park today had to be waaay earlier in the day than I would have cared for. But with an 8 to 5 job, and numerous appointments after work, I knew there were going to be days I would have to make adjustments in order to continue on my Big Month. So this morning I found myself at the park around 5:45am. I was kind of looking forward to it after how busy the park was yesterday, but wouldn't you know it, I got "on-your-left-ed" at 5:50 in the morning!!! So I decided to stick to the wood chip trails as much as possible. I wasn't quite prepared for just how dark outside it is yet at this time and though I was seeing plenty of birds, my photos just weren't turning out. I also had to keep up a fairly swift pace in order to get to work on time so I felt a little rushed. However I ended up have a great walk as I got to see both a Mink and a Coyote within just seconds of one another. I scared up both of them right near the railroad tie overlook on the south side and the Coyote ran off into the fog still hanging over the cattails. I got a few half-decent photos that I'll put on my flickr page because I want to keep "My Big Month" about birds only.

My pick for today is a Common Grackle that I saw near the end of my walk. It wasn't quite the most interesting species I saw but honestly it was one of the only bird photos that turned out at all! I've actually been watching Grackles for some time, trying to capture their iridescent colors and I think this one does just that. I like the way it's upper wings appear almost purple. A couple other noteworthy items for the day; I heard (and barely saw) my first Yellow Warbler of the season. And I also spotted my first Baltimore Oriole of the season (better photo's pending!) STILL NO SIGN OF BLUEBIRDS YET!

Total species seen today: Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Cooper's Hawk, Great Blue Heron, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Blue-winged Teal, Wood Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose, Wild Turkey and Baltimore Oriole.

Conditions: 46 degrees and EARLY! (Early morning fog against sunrise was beautiful)