Happy Saturday to each of you on this fine day! Grab a cup of coffee as we look at our day and browse through some photos. It is another cloudy day, but mild, with a temperature of 17F (-8C). The frost is basically off all the trees now, due to milder temps and wind. There is not much bird activity this morning. I have not even seen the chickadees and nuthatches yet, and they are usually here by 8am.

That is more than an hour late. There were 2 blue jays here briefly, but they left after taking just a couple of peanuts each. Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy bird day, with around 3 dozen Evening Grosbeaks showing up and staying about half the day. That was certainly nice to see. It seems I get one busy day per week with those birds. Very strange winter indeed.

I was kind of hoping for a better winter for birds this year, or at least normal, since this will likely be my last winter for feeding the birds. But things go as they go. I do enjoy the outdoors and walking to the river. I would have gone to the river yesterday again, but I am still recovering from that dog encounter. Hopefully I do not meet her again while walking to the river.

Anyway, I hope to walk down there more often now until it begins to melt in the spring. Then I must stop until all the ice is gone. I enjoy the birds and other wildlife that abound in our area. I still hope to get photos of some mammals that are fairly common in this area, but are still hard to find during the day for a good photo. Animals like wolves, coyotes, lynx, bobcat, snowshoe hare, otter, mink and a few others. I have seen these animals, just have not been able to get a good picture of them.

But perhaps this year I can add some of them to my list. Last year several birds were added to my list that I have been trying to get since I took up this hobby in 2018. Birds like the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole (both male and female), Mourning Dove, Indigo Bunting male (still need the female) and some excellent pictures of the LIncoln’s Sparrow which is a tough bird to get up close since they are a very shy bird and like to stay hidden.

But it is also enjoyable to just get pictures of our more common birds and mammals in different poses. So I am constantly taking photos, always hoping to get one that is a little better than ones that I have already. And there are some common birds, like the flicker, of which I still do not have some good pictures. I have some photos, but they are not very good, too far away. But perhaps this year. There are always new challenges and that is part of the fun in any hobby.

It is exciting every time I get a photo of something new. Or perhaps a different photo of something common, like birds yawning. Those are fun photos and I must get them all put together in one folder so I can find them easily. I am still sorting pics. It takes some time. I have over 85 thousand photos to sort out. I should have been doing it right from the start. Sigh. Always learning. I hope you enjoy the photos today, just a mixed up bunch for today. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.