Goodbye to February

It's not like it's been a particularly long winter, but I'm always glad to put the months of Jan and Feb behind me. I'm especially looking forward to Spring this year -as we've been teased with tastes of it this whole winter season. Today was a bit warmer than yesterday but without the nice blue sky. I'm starting to see Deer more frequently lately and I spotted this group of 3 or 4 on the southwest side. I wonder if I'll see them in really large groups in early spring like last year. On the west side near the baseball diamonds I spotted my Shrike friend again perched in some shrubby trees just inside the paved trail. I decided to walk into the cattails to get a little closer, trying to stay quieter on the well worn Deer trails. I eventually came out right to the tree where I spotted him only to find that he had moved along. I stumbled upon a plastic Geo-cache container along the way and took a few minutes to inspect it's contents. After closing it up and looking around, I noticed the Shrike had come back to his original perch. I was still pretty close at this point though the lighting was terrible on this overcast day. It was yet another fun Shrike sighting. Now my goal has turned to seeing one capturing or eating it's prey.

Good Sights on a Colder Day

After that little bit of normal winter weather went through yesterday, it turned colder today and I think it was around 18 degrees this morning. I got a later start today not arriving at the park until near 10:30 so it had warmed up slightly by then. I had decided to stay on the outer paved trails today -for more mileage- but on the south side I was persuaded to cut into the wood chip trail when I spotted a nice Red-tailed Hawk perched right over the trail. He stayed right above me and though I got some better pictures of his face, I decided to post this one which really explains why they are called "Red-tailed." Also from this photo I would say that they have nearly the same ability as an Owl does to turn their head completely around! I hadn't seen much else by the time I crossed Shingle Creek on the north side and decided to walk upstream just for some more exercise. Then I backtracked to the north end of the loop where spotted a Northern Shrike perched at the top of an old dead tree. This tree -being dead and rotted- had only thick stubby branches left and was not the typical type of tree I normally look for a Shrike to pick. But in true form, he was indeed sitting on one of the top-most parts of the tree, confirming that it's all about the view for a Shrike. He didn't stay put for long and quickly selected another tall post with a good view. He was in better light now and I was able to catch some halfway decent photos. After all my Shrike sightings this year I still get excited every time I see one. I've even come to recognize them in flight, flying very straight and deliberate with their extra long tail trailing behind.

Nothin' to See

This Friday I got a very early start to work, thus giving me a chance to leave early and get in an afternoon walk. The weather had turned bad -or should I say "normal" for this time of year and was snowing and windy when I arrived at the park. But after about 1/4 of the way around it had moved out already, making the southern sky look ominously dark. There was just nothing to see today. I spotted one Hawk in the middle of the park about a quarter mile away and much too far for a photo. Besides a few random Hairy Woodpeckers that was about it. On the footbridge on the north side I noticed lots of Mallard footprints frozen into the ice that was likely a mushy slush just day or two ago.

Great Backyard Bird Count Day 2

Again I have very few actual bird pictures for this post though I spent the day counting them. I guess I was more focused on writing them down than trying to get photos. If you never participated before in the Great Backyard Bird Count, I highly recommend checking it out. You don't need to be an expert birder, or tag along with experts -although that always helps, and you can do it in your own backyard or local park or wherever! The first thing of interest I spotted today at the park weren't birds but a large group of Deer walking out on the ice near the northern side of the lake. After a bit, they filed one-by-one into a seemingly invisible path through the cattails and disappeared. On the north end of the park I ran into yet another birding enthusiast friend of mine who had set up a scope on his homemade "eggshell bird feeders." We watched the Chickadees land repeatedly and eagerly pull out a seed. It was a bit of a trick, but I was able to catch this photo with my normal camera held up the lens of the scope. As we stood there enjoying the show and the sunny weather, a surprising amount of other birds showed up above including a Cooper's Hawk and 3 Red-tailed. The 3 Red-tails were all visible at the same time which would make for the most interesting sighting of the day. At the end of today, I had only 11 species compared to yesterday's 14, but the number of individuals was generally larger than yesterday.

Great Backyard Bird Count Day 1

This weekend I decided to participate in the "Great Backyard Bird Count" in which anyone can report their own bird sightings between February 17th and 20th. It just so happened that I would run into a lifetime-birder friend from the park thus greatly improving my odds of both spotting and identifying more species. Funny thing is that I have NO bird photos for this post as we spent more time talking and scoping the landscape with binoculars. While passing the lake on the south side we noticed something interesting about the water. Our mild temps have been hovering around the freezing point for so long that the ice had given in to showing the slight "current" that is likely indistinguishable during other times of the year. It clearly moved in "S" pattern across the one body of water towards where the creek empties back out of the lake. We walked for a bit on the ice -along the shoreline- and noticed all the garbage frozen into the ice. Afterward we spent a good while watching a Great Horned Owl perched in the shade of some thick trees, barely noticeable to anyone who was not looking for such a thing. Before making the loop and spotting some more birds, we came upon a remnant of what was likely a fine lunch for a Great Horned Owl. This Pheasant wing and some partially attached pieces was hanging in a tree just a few feet off the ground. I doubt this is where the kill happened and the wing was maybe dropped from a taller tree but I'm not sure. There was certainly no trace of the other wing anywhere. At the end of the day, I had 14 different species on my list, made up of a lot of common winter birds but including a couple interesting ones like the Great Horned Owl and Northern Shrike. I'll be counting again tomorrow.

Another Sunny Day

Upon arrival at the park today I noticed that someone had dumped a large bag of garbage just a few feet away from the parking lot. It had gotten torn open and was blowing around everywhere. It irks me so much to see people dump their crap wherever they want and make it somebody else's problem. Not too long into my walk today I spotted a familiar bird that I've not seen in a long time. There were about 5 or 6 Goldfinches hopping around in the thick shrubby trees along 69th Avenue. Though a permanent resident of the lower half of the state, I've not seen a Goldfinch since last Fall. I barely noticed a hint of yellow on 2 or 3 of them and the others were even more pale in color -probably the females. It made me feel like Spring is just around the corner, especially with this mild winter that just keeps continuing. Later on the south side near what I call the "duck pond," I spotted a few Deer trying to get a drink of water. The water here on the southwest side could also be called "lake #4" being the smallest of the 4 separate but interconnected bodies of water that make up the "Palmer Lake" watershed. This particular water is kept open almost all winter by Mallards who adopt it for shelter against the weather. It must have been tempting to the Deer but as they went down the bank, the ducks would scatter and quack, scaring the young Deer back up onto the bank and down the trail. The Deer tried a few more times with the same result which made me laugh.

A Good Sunny Walk

This Saturday morning was yet another sunny start to the weekend with an above average temperature. It's been easier to count the overcast days this winter as they've been the exception and not the rule -which is not normal. My walk today started off great with a fairly close sighting of a Northern Shrike right off the bat. He was in a place I'd not spotted one before, overlooking a field on the far south side right along 69th Avenue. I actually heard him before I spotted him but by the time I did, I only managed a few shots before he took off in the direction I had just come from. Later as I was coming around the west end of the park, 5 or 6 Deer were walking across the baseball diamonds into the outfield. I stopped to watch and see and sure enough they all filed through the narrow opening in the chain link fence, across the trail and into the woods. It was the largest group of Deer I've seen in weeks. After letting them pass through I moved along and stopped where the trail kind of takes a hard right. In the trees above me there must have been around 300+ Starlings. I thought the last flock was the largest group I had ever seen but this flock was even bigger -and noisier! I just sat right underneath them again listening to all of their odd sounds. I tried to capture a photo of the whole flock to show it's size but I could only ever get 1/3rd of them in one shot. Instead I tried to focus on one or two individuals and try to capture their iridescent plumage -which proved to be difficult when they were more or less directly above me. A lot of them were "puffed out" like this one. Amidst all the noise, I could also hear squawking of Crows somewhere behind the Starlings. As I moved on I realized just how loud the Crows were going at it and decided that they must have cornered a raptor of some kind. So I went back to where I started and found a Deer trail leading into the woods. I followed the sound of the Crows until I could see them circled around a faint lighter colored spot in the trees. I had to look with my binoculars at first to realize it was a Great Horned Owl. He was very light grey in color and possibly the same one I'd seen earlier back in December. I was facing him straight on and I knew he had seen me so it wouldn't be long before he bumped. I snapped just one or two pics before he did and landed further into the woods and perpendicular to me. I tried going in closer for some more shots but they just weren't working with the new angle. Decent Owl shots have really eluded me this winter, making me really appreciate the ones I had gotten last year.

Birds of Prey All in a Day

This morning I arrived at the park around 8:30 am and the temperature was 23 degrees. It was sunny again, meaning it would likely warm up into the 30s by noon time. The first thing of interest I spotted was on the south side -on the other side of 69th Avenue. A mature Bald Eagle was perched high up in the tall Cottonwood where I've spotted Eagle numerous times before. I think they like the view of Shingle Creek from here. I crossed 69th Ave. and leaned up against the park sign post in order to steady my camera, though he was still a long way up in the tree. It's been a while since I've seen an Eagle in plain sight and a good start to my morning walk! The next bird I spotted was also a raptor -and even further away. Along the wood chip trail connecting the 2 paved trails on the southwest side I could see a Great Horned Owl soaking up the morning sun where the woods meets the cattails. He was barely more than a dot on the horizon from this distance but I tried to take some photos non-the-less. I sure wish I could have seen him closer in the nice morning sun. Later on the north side I spotted another Bald Eagle -which I immediately assumed was the same one. Later upon leaving the park, the first Eagle was still perched in his same place from this morning, thus confirming 2 separate birds. But before I finished my walk for the day, a third bird-of-prey would make an appearance. I never expected to see a Northern Shrike on the northwest side of the park but his white breast caught my attention against the clear blue sky. He was pretty far away at first but eventually moved closer to the trail, making me backtrack a bit for a better photo. He was just close enough to make out his hooked upper beak through my binoculars which definitely qualifies as a good Shrike sighting. Only later as I was leaving the park and tallying my sightings did I realize that all 3 birds I'd photographed today were "birds of prey!"

Frosty Coating

There has been a lot of humidity in the air lately and when overnight temperatures dipped into the 20s, it created a frosty coating on every little branch, twig and blade of grass in the park. Everything was thus twice as thick as it should be, making the paths like tunnels through the iced-over woods. Typically these hoar frosts wont even last as long as it takes to walk around the park but this one lasted almost all day for some reason. Just to keep looking at it all, I took a different trail off the north end of the park. There I could hear a rustling in the leaves but could not spot the Squirrel I expected to see. When I looked closer I was surprised to see a fairly large and fat rodent about 6 inches long. It had no obvious eyes or ears and a very short fur-covered tail. I was able to get right up to it for a closer look but then it moved pretty quickly though the leaves and eventually would run into fallen branches where it would sort of half bury it's head thinking it was totally concealed. When it moved I could see it's naked pink hind feet and caught just a glimpse of a pink nose but I never did see it's front feet. Per my field guide on Mammals from Stan Tekiela it is likely either a Northern Short-tailed Shrew, or an Eastern Mole. I think the latter is more likely due to it's larger size and it's time of breeding being in Feb and March. Later on I spotted a few other birds including Downy Woodpeckers, a Red-tailed Hawk, Starlings and a few random Juncos. The only good bird photo I got on this grey and cloudy day was of this Nuthatch who had no problems walking down the side of a tree.