Day 022: Winter Misfit Robins

My first attempt to find some birds to photograph failed miserably. A long hike in the woods not only yielded no photo opportunities, I did not even see any birds. Something about the extreme cold with 25 to 30 mph winds must have made all the birds bed down deep in the forest.

After a trip back inside to warm up, I realized that one needed to do a better job of thinking like a bird. Find food and water in a wind shelter grove of trees and one should find birds. Saddling up my trusty steed (Subaru Outback) I drove out along the Mississippi River on a small road which I knew had some nice farms plus nice groves of trees. Eureka! I struck paydirt. Birds were all around me in this one grove, including a rare flock of Winter robins that were gorging themselves on some fruit. Given all the worms are under three feet of snow, this was the only meal in town!

Filling up next to a barn
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A busy lunch spot …
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Day 021: Breakfast Downey

This Downy Woodpecker was so intent on eating its breakfast, it let me get very close. If you download the photo and then zoom into the branch, it is just possible to see his beak impaled into the branch. Neat!

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Day 020: Blinking Bird! (White Breasted Nuthatch)

Given I am borrowing a camera till I get a new Canon SX40 to replace the one Lake Superior’s ice claimed yesterday, I decided to not try anything tricky this morning. It is challenging learning settings on someone else’s camera. Thus, I positioned myself under our bird-feeders in the -6F sunny weather and waited. As the birds seem to recognize me as Mr. Food Provider, within a short period of time they obliged my desired to take photos from a few feet away … thus today’s photo … blinking bird. I have to admit I had never seen a nuthatches eyelid before! Burst mode is a great resource. I have included two photos of today’s bird … one eyes open and looking at me, and blinking!

Eyes Open
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Blinking
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