Finally the End of January!

Though I do enjoy getting out and hiking in the Winter, the payoff for the effort isn't quite the same as during other times of the year. So I'm pretty excited to see January out and be one month closer to Spring –ha! The weather today was typical, overcast and dreary again. But if one looks hard enough there are still birds to be seen. And there is always the "Duck Pond" to fall back on if the birding isn't good. So needless to say I've spent a fair amount of time there this winter. I think it's always nice to see the bright green heads and bright orange legs of a Mallard on an otherwise colorless day. Not long after the duck pond I spotted 3 Deer only 15 feet into the woods on the west side. Deer are becoming kind of uncommon as of late so it was neat to see some. I bent down on one knee to get a better view and all of a sudden the three of them spooked and went running off the other direction at top speed. Little did I know but a hiker with an unleashed dog came barreling through the woods straight towards the deer. I'm usually forgiving about unleashed dogs this but this time it really ticked me off as I was having a nice quiet moment with the deer. I actually intended to say something to the hiker but I guess it was not meant to be as instead I bumped into a friend of mine just back from Arizona. Other birds today included the usual suspects; Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, House Finch, Chickadee and Cardinal. There was also a Blue Jay as well, though my efforts to get a good photo pretty much failed. Later I was happy to spot a Barred Owl but it too wasn't gonna make for an easy photo opportunity. After trying numerous angles this is the best view I had of him. I'm so happy to have them back at the park after an absence of some time. And speaking of Owls, I spotted today my first nesting Great Horned Owl in the park! For now that's pretty much all I want to say about it, as the known presence of Owls can attract a LOT of attention. And sometimes that attention is way way more than necessary. Some day I will write a post about that topic and how my views on it have changed dramatically as of late.