An Overcast Sunday

This Sunday morning was a typical dreary December day with temps somewhere in the 20's. It's funny how quickly the lack of sunshine can really get to a person -at least me anyway. I mean it's kind of neat to have a day like this once in a while but in December it can seem like everyday is like that. Upon arrival at the park I quickly noticed a Bald Eagle flying overhead. He was quite a ways up but I took a photo anyway just to say I saw him. Not too much later I ran into a friend who started telling me that he had just been watching a Northern Shrike who was rather low in some larger Buckthorn trees. When he got closer and the Shrike moved on, he noticed a Deer Mouse hanging in between the branches. Since it looked so fresh, he reached out to touch it and it still felt relatively warm, meaning the Shrike likely just placed it there only moments ago! That was kind of an interesting find and he pointed it out to me. After talking quite a while longer, I moved on and it didn't take much longer before I too spotted the Northern Shrike. In usual fashion he was perched at the top-most portion of this shrubby tree. This year I've been seeing them so often and have had better opportunities to get closer than I have previously. Something I've noticed from this is how they have an interesting sort of tiny "barred" patterning on what I previously thought was just a plain white breast. It's barely visible in this photo but it kind of reminds me of the patterning you see on Cooper's Hawks -just smaller. Oh, I almost forgot but I actually spotted a 2nd Shrike just to my left while viewing this one -making it my first confirmed sighting of two Shrikes at once. I've spoken with other more experienced birders and they think that only two Shrikes call all of Palmer Lake Park their territory. I can't say I disagree -but it would be neat to be able to confirm that for sure. There sure is something they like about PLP as they have been prominent residents for at least the last few winter seasons. Later as I was cutting through the wood chip trail on the west side I spotted one Rooster Pheasant just walking along on the snow. He was maybe 25 feet off into the woods and I had just a split second to pull up my camera and get a shot before he flew off. I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that I'd scared up a group of 5 or 6 Pheasants on the north side. They too seem like a more common sighting in the winter but boy are they tough to get photos of!