Awesome Winter 2011 Bird Photos

As the winter has drawn to an end, kicking and screaming, I have selected a bunch of photos that I want to publish here. Almost all of these were taken this winter, and all were taken by me, unless noted.

I will be working on this page in the coming days. so be patient.

Pileated Woodpecker

In a lot of ways this is one of my favorite shots. This bird is a spectacular ghost bird for me (not the real ghost bird). I have dwelled in the house of pileated for most of my life. I came across this scene out my living room window at dawn on the first day of spring 2011. I was at my desk when it called just outside my window. It was still very dark. The lights were off in the house. I grabbed the camera, headed for the living room where the big picture window is.  I  barely got my eye around to the corner of the window when it saw me. It immediately started to move behind the tree. I raised the camera up, snapped from across the room through the window. (250/Cannon It was on a white pine tree 100 feet from my house, and I was 10 feet away from the window and shooting through glass. Did I mention it was still dark?

More: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id

Hear: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/sounds

Dark-eyed Junco:

Recently several species of Junco including what was known as “Slate-colored Junco” were found to be one species-Junco hyemalis-Dark-eyed Junco.

The species is highly variable as to exact upper feather coloration ranging from very black or blue, or even reddish/brown, to a much lighter grey.  We had quite a variety of individuals this winter. Females are usually lighter colored. White underneath, pink beak and legs. Curious but cautious. They were winter long regular winter feeder visitors. They stayed low, almost always on the ground, and hid sometimes under the porch. A couple of times in the past 3 winters I have had to rescue Junco’s that got trapped under the porch as the snow-piled up.  I always know to look if we have a big storm.

More:

Cornell

 http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-eyed_Junco/id

Enature

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?allSpecies=&searchText=junco&cmdSubmit.x=0&cmdSubmit.y=0&GroupID=&curGroupID=1&lgfromWhere=&curPageNum=1