Find the food; find the birds! In the Winter solving this problem makes a HUGE difference if you want to see any of our feathered friends. Long story short, found lots of dead birch and aspen trees in a gully where the birds could hide from the wind while eating at the same time, and suddenly the woods came alive with bird song. In this particular grove I saw over ten Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers.
Back in late January friends told me the location of a Northern Hawk Owl. For about a week I often checked upon this bird, and discovered his favorite pine tree for enjoying some late afternoon sun. However, over the intervening 5+ weeks, I had not returned to check on this bird.
This afternoon I wondered if my owl might still be in the same territory, and hopefully might consider raising some baby hawk owls. Given a bright sunny afternoon, I made an excursion to check on the “favorite tree”. As you can see, he (or she) is still there!
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
