Sunday, February 19, 2012

Almost to March...

32 degrees and sunny today at about 8:00 a.m. I was hoping to the the hoodies so I headed towards the river. I could hear a red-bellied woodpecker in the woods near the JCC. The path by the soccer field was filled with chickadees darting back and forth and hanging upside down. I could hear the Peter, Peter, Peter of the titmice and I saw a nuthatch high up in a tree calling sharply as it scoured the bark looking for something good to eat. Lots of geese flying overhead.

House Finch
A few juncos were hanging out in the shrubbery across from the Nature Center where the sun was warming them up. On the dock, I spotted my hoodies (mergansers). There was just one couple - too far away to photograph. As I headed down the path, I eventually came to a mallard couple and decided I need a lot more practice learning about the video on my camera. I still haven't got it down yet so excuse the poor quality.

The upper gardens were dead quiet. I did see raptor flying overhead. It caught my attention because of the shape of the wings. They were much curvier and thinner in flight then the red tail, and I got a decent view of the head. However, I have no idea what it was and coincidentally, as I was leaving the park, a red tail appeared in the sky above my car and it confirmed for me how different the two were.

The lower gardens were quiet too. The robins and starlings were hanging out like last week, each flock filling up a large tree. I finally heard a goldfinch and a cardinal and then discovered a house finch couple in a shrub quietly basking in the sun and eating red berries. It seems a little strange - no blue jays, no song sparrows, no tree sparrows, no white throated sparrows.

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