Friday, January 28, 2011

"WARBLURS!"

A Magnolia Warbly thing with a bad case of the "zoomies."

Yes. It is winter...still...AND I'M GOING CRAZY HERE!!! As if you couldn't tell already. I'm not a real big fan of snow. I have an hour drive to work and when it snows, it turns into a winter sport worthy of an Olympic event. It has snowed quite a bit here...and probably where you are as well, unless you are somewhere warm and cozy, like South America, Central America, India, Asia...I could go on, but I'm just getting more depressed.

I WANT WARBLERS AND I WANT THEM NOW! In the meantime, I will sit very close to my computer monitor, turn the heat WAY up(don't tell the Doodles!) and look at my warbly pics.

If you had any doubts about my skills as a "semi-professional" burd butt photographer, these should reinforce them. Thank you.

This would have been a Canada Warbly thing...

What a lovely tree! Too bad this stoopid Black-and-White Warbly thing got in the way!

"I'm a Bay-breasted Warbly and I'm gonna screw up your photo!"
Don't you just hate wise guy birds...

I shall leave you now with my lovely portrait of a Yellow-RUMPED Warbly thing!
Oh, great...you just had to move didn't you...sheesh...

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

RARITY DISCOVERED NESTING AT MAGEE MARSH!

The Great Lake Erie...iced over...not unlike my feet.

What an amazing sight to behold! And not a soul stirring other than your intrepid host and his side kick, the delirious Doodles! We had the boardwalk at Magee Marsh all to ourselves. It was a very cold day with the trail deeply covered in freshly fallen snow. The only signs of life were the tracks left by the squirrels, desperate to eke out a living for their squirrely families...and the occasional Downy Woodpecker, pecking wood as only a woodpecker can.

We walked quickly at first, then we slowed to a crawl as we heard nothing, a nothing like nothing we had never heard before! It was a fluffy quiet that hits your ears like an over cottoned q-tip. We took every step, step by step, being sure not to make any mis-steps that would be mistaken for a step that was not. "Shhhh. Did you not hear that?" The Doodles ear-muffed ears heard a muffled nothing closing in on us. Let's step up our stepping, stepping carefully of course...

The only steps to be seen are the steps of the Doodles stepping carefully around her steps to photograph the steps left by her steps.

The shock and stress caused her to faint and fall as a flake of snow would fall, falling into the snow like snowflakes do!

"OH. MY. GOSH."
Said I. Still in shock while driving after stepping...and picking up the Doodles.

And here it is!
The FIRST photographic evidence of a nesting "Carpodacus Ninguis" or Snowball Finche!


Your intrepid host crept quietly while stepping stealthily to nab a close up of this Snowball Finche upon her nest.
Its obvious from the field marks that this is a female.

Of course I would never think of blogging a blog without the behind of the bird!
It's ventral aspect is astounding!

As you can tell, even the Downy Woodpecker had to stop pecking wood!
A sight to behold, of that I am sure.


I'll be waiting for that call from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology...
or some sort of professional institution...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Dux Delux...redux...

An American Wigeon doing the flappy thing.

Dux Delux...redux...If you've been following this blog for a little while(sorry if you have!) you may remember my posts from last year with lots of dux! This weekend we finally made it out for a little more duck hunting. We were planning on meeting the fine friendly folks from the Wilderness Center and the Greater Mohican Audubon for an outing to Castalia Pond. Due to the fact that I am a dawdler...especially when it's TWO degrees outside, we missed them.

No matter...the ducks were still there.

This pond is spring fed and the water is always open. When Lake Erie freezes, this is a great place to visit to spot many species of duck...just pay attention to which way the wind is blowing. That lovely aroma of rotten eggs from the spring water can alter the location of your breakfast.

Let's see...there's a Northern Pintail, Canada Geese, Mallards, American Black Duck and a Bufflehead.
And that's just at that end...We also saw Redhead, Lesser Scaup and Gadwall!

Did I mention a few Canada Geese?

I heard this Belted Kingfisher calling and couldn't spot him until he was coming right at me!
Don't worry, I'm okay.

Loosey Goosey? Nope, it's more like those Mallards that are the loose ones!
What is your mother going to say?


The Doodles got out of the car to make like a birder...

...and when she realized how cold it was, back into the car she went!
Doodles aren't cold weather birds...

Please note, the ONLY footprints around the pond were mine and one goose.
I would have jumped in, but I can't swim...and I live by a lake.
Go figure.


I don't know about you, but Northern Shovelers give me the willys.
Something about the way they stare at you...


This guy was down right evil looking!

Luckily he just gave me the butt shot!