My Big Month - Day 3

Being that it is Friday I was slightly more motivated to get out birding today, though I quickly found out how truly nasty the weather was today. Unbelievably, it snowed again all morning long but didn't really accumulate except for on the grass. After noon it turned to rain which melted whatever snow had stuck to the ground or trees. So at only just 33 degrees I was dressed nearly the same as I do in January -only switching out my heavy winter coat for a rain jacket instead! To fully communicate just how foul the conditions were, I did not see a single other person during my entire walk around the park -and I was out there for a good hour and a half! Though I was definitely dressed properly, I was getting discouraged quickly as I had a hard time keeping my camera and my glasses dry and the dark overcast sky was like a bad filter on every photo I took. Gradually things got better as I went, and especially after I got to watch and photograph a Yellow-rumped Warbler up close as he preened his feathers. Actually I was quite please at the number of birds I was able to see in such crummy weather, including a tiny little Wren that I noticed hopping around through the dried up weeds. I can't say if it was a House Wren or maybe a Winter Wren. But for today's photo I'm going with the very first bird I spotted today.

Although I actually don't have it positively identified yet, I have a good suspicion what it might be and it I'm correct it would be a very first sighting of this species for me. As I watched it bounce around in the trees above me, I thought for sure it was a Magnolia Warbler. But when I got home and looked more closely at my photos I realized it was clearly not a Magnolia. I struggled quite a bit in order to get even these poor photos and they are zoomed in quite a bit. When I have a hard time identifying a particular bird, I like to make a little montage showing different angles. As I write this I've posted the same image seen here onto the flickr birdshare group and hopefully I will have a positive ID very soon. And I will be even happier if that matches what my hunch is now!

Total species seen today: Blue-headed Vireo (yeah new species for me!), Mallard, Canada Goose, Red-winged Blackbird, American Coot, Ring-necked Pheasant, American Tree Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Common Grackle, European Starling, Blue Jay, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Wild Turkey, American Robin, Winter Wren, Ring-billed Gull, Black-capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker.

Conditions: 33 degrees, rain and fairly windy (crummy in other words!)