Birds Not Having An Artic Blast

The artic blast hit our area last week. I think this robin’s face sums up our feelings about the weather.

None of us plan to request a transfer to the North Pole anytime soon.

Feel very fortunate to live in an area accustomed to snowstorms. Thought often of those to the south without power in the midst of all this. In this area, most of us simply had a 20-30 minute planned outage and conserved power as requested.

Prior to the storm, I stocked up on birdseed.

If you feed them, they will come.

My regular customers were very happy about it.

(I know it’s not the best picture above but because of the temperature especially, most photos were through the back door).

And I had a new customer as well!

New Friend in the Yard

I spent quite a bit of time chasing this sparrow with the camera, both inside the back door and also, venturing out into the backyard once the temperature hit 21 degrees (that’s still pretty cold by the way!)

I think (90 percent sure but hoping someone confirms it for me) this is a fox sparrow.

Behaves much like my beloved white throated sparrows.

Warming Up

Yesterday, the mercury finally climbed to the 32 degree mark. My youngest son and I ignored the wind chill number (mid 20’s) and set off on a winter hike. While I grabbed my camera, I didn’t plan to do any serious birding. It was more of a get the teenager out of the house outing.

However, he’s my good luck charm when it comes to birding. As we started down the trail near some local lakes, he spotted a little group of trumpeter swans in the one area where the lake wasn’t frozen.

On our way back from the trail, we noticed a lone Canadian goose flying along the skyline.

Happily, we notice some other geese join up as we arrived at our car.

Other Birds Spotted This Week

Before I finish my post, I feel I should share at least one snow bird (dark eyed junco) given the weather.

It’s above freezing and sunny out there today so the birds are a bit happier. My husband even spotted our resident Cooper’s Hawk in a tree early this morning.

Other birds out and around the feeders: cardinals, house finches, the Carolina wren, house sparrows, robins, a few starlings, blue jays, nuthatches, and both the downy and red bellied woodpeckers.

Did you get a chance to do any bird watching this week? What birds did you spot?

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Joining in with the Bird Depot hosted by Anni at I’d Rather B Birdin’