Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary

One of the major attractions of this area are the wintering Bald Eagles. They are reliably found here, and I don't think I've ever not seen a couple (although this time a lot of the water was frozen over). These two were taken below a dam, where there were many photographers, including some, believe it or not, with even longer lenses.
I had actually just put my camera back in the car when this guy showed up. Fortunately, I was able to get it out in time. I'd still like to go back and get some more shots, though.
There were sparrows all over the place here. Song, Eurasian Tree, American Tree, White-Crowned, and Savannah.
There were also Horned Larks! I really like these birds because they look so funny with their little tufts. There was a big flock of them around the visitor center feeders, and I had to crowl for quite a ways on my belly to get this shot.I've seen a lot of shots like this this winter, and I think it's because of their flight habits. Northern Harriers cruise low over the fields, which lets you get a nice brown background.
http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vg1&ns=1 This is a fun site to look at, because it often has many very nice pictures, including many nicer harrier flight shots.
These guys were in a big flock foraging around the visitors center. Due to an embankment leading up to it, I was able to get many nice eye-level shots. That embankment is hard to describe, but basically the entrance to an office building was below ground level, so I could crouch over a snow drift and be at the birds level.

I'm going to Florida on the 17th, and besides the warm weather, I look forward to Wakadahatchee and Green Cay, and Fishing on lake Osborne. Look up Peacock Bass. Hopefully I'll catch one, and I remember the photography at Wako/Green Cay was amazing, and that was even before I got my new lens!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Just A reminder that this is coming up. I've done it the past couple years, and this year I anticipate being in Florida!

Cold Today!

As you can see, the birds were braving some pretty snowy conditions.

I used a Homemade ground pod (a board with a screw in it!) to get these eye-level pictures.


This Song Sparrow got into a confrontation with a white-throated sparrow, but I was not in a position to get any good pictures of it, since the white-throated sparrow was in front of it. What it did was bend down and spread its tail feathers up in the air.
It was sporadically windy today, so I got several shots of birds with their feathers blowing like this.I like this shot because the eye is fairly distinct from the black around it. I'm especially proud because I purposely overexposed to try to separate the eyes from the black. I think I actually sort of understand how to use this feature now.

Yard Birds

I hadn't posted in a while, so here are some birds from my backyard recently. I was really happy with the Carolina Wren, since they are one of my favorite birds and up until now I didn't have any really good pictures of them. I also really like the feather detail in the Junco. I'll try to post new stuff more frequently from now on!

Yorkshire Dales

First, you might want an idea of what the Dales look like.Just down the road from our cottage was a stream that had many birds around it, including some warblers that were too hard for me to identify.
The warblers there are definitely not the equivalent of ours, except in behavior, since they flit around a lot and are hard to get a picture of. The finches and tits are the really colorful birds, which seems unfair since they're very common and will come to feeders.
This male chaffinch is feeding what I presume is a young one. we were there at the right time for nesting, and I also found this spotted flycatcher nesting under the eaves of a house.
I have to say, I was actually more confident identifying this flycatcher than I am identifying the ones we have here. I just label them "Generic Flycatchers" and then move on.
This is a pied wagtail along a stream near Arncliffe. There was also a bank where you could lie down and look into swallow nests.
The buzzard is, I believe, one of the most common birds of prey in England. This one was floating around a little way up one of the fells.
This is a Dunnock that was in our garden. They look plain, but sing very nicely. The blackbirds also had nice songs. Overall, the common birds there seemed more musical than ours.
These curlews are funny looking birds with their huge curved bills. I think they had just arrived.
When we were first driving into the Dales, we saw some oystercatchers, and I was amazed. It turns out they regularly breed here though. I just wish I had gotten some pictures of the Lapwings, which have an interesting crest.
See how colorful these blue tit are? I would love to have birds like this at my feeders here at home.
You can't complain about our goldfinches, but I like the red faces these guys have!
This little blackbird gave me some of my best shots from the trip. He's also a really fluffy looking little guy! The Yorkshire Dales is one of the most beautiful places I have been, and the birding was excellent, since we had sun for almost the entire time we were there. Look for more summer posts in the future!

Tower Grove Park

Today it was cold, windy, and damp here, but Tower Grove Park still produced some good birds: Red-Tailed Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, White-Throated Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, Winter Wren, Wood Thrush, Hooded Warbler, American Robin, European Starling, Ovenbird, and Northern Cardinal.
You can see the wind here blowing both the tree and the birds feathers!
Here's a wood thrush on the path; the light was bad and I was unable to get good shutter speeds even at ISO 800.
This is the hooded warbler. Just a proof shot, although it's iffy even for that!
This phoebe was hovering just over the ground, I guess looking for insects. It sort of looks like its perched on an invisible branch here! I look forward to getting later into spring, as more migrants arrive. In the meantime, Good Birding!

Florida Pt. 2

On my second day in Florida, we went to Wakodahatchee Wetlands, a boardwalk in a marsh. Within feet of the entrance to the boardwalk we saw black and white-warbler on a tree so close to us that I could almost touch it.
A Purple Gallinule was the next interesting bird we saw. These look like common moorhens, but are more colorful.
The boardwalk also crossed bits of dry land, and these had many palm and yellow-rumped warblers.A yellow rump.
A palm warbler.
A pine warbler, I believe. I thought it was interesting that I was more interested in seeing the warblers that I would see in Missouri in a month anyway than looking at the shorebirds you can only see in Florida.That's all for this part. Check back for part 3!