Evening Grosbeak with hoarfrost on the branches.
31o Fahrenheit. Pah! I snap my fingers at such a relatively mild cool temperature and bundle on several layers of warm clothing, including long underwear. It has dawned clear and sunny and I’m not missing it, I tell you, not after fifty-three days
Fifty-three Days!
of cloud, rain, snow, ice, fog, cloud, rain, snow, ice, fog, cloud, rain…
I’m sure you get the picture.
But this day the picture was different.
View out back window of my apartment, looking northwest. Roofs and ground are all frosty white.
I’ve got this method of checking for sky conditions when it’s both dark and light outside. I look out my bedroom window. Seriously, there’s more to it than just eyeballing the sky. Out my bedroom window, over the top of the roof of the apartment block behind mine, there’s a tall hill with a rotating light beacon on top. If I can see that hill line in the daylight or the beacon when it’s dark then I know the sky is clear.
Here’s that view. The beacon is on the top of the hill behind the roof line, obscured by the tree in mid-foreground. Pardon the terrible quality of the photos, but this is through my bedroom window, which can’t be cleaned on the outside by me since it’s up on the second story. Annnd, since I can’t clean the outside I don’t bother with the inside. Besides, I always have a blackout curtain over the window because I often take mid-morning/afternoon/early evening naps, and need the dark to be able to snooze. Hey, I’m old.
So, you can see that I can’t actually see the beacon. But when it’s dark I can easily make out the beacon’s bright rotating light, shining through the branches of the tree.
Here’s the beacon on top of the hill, photo taken from a much better vantage point for clarity.
Up on the very tippy-top of that big hill to the right. That’s my, heh heh, guiding light.
Yeah, impressive, ain’t it? /snark/ NOT! It’s just a darn tower.
So whatever in the world does looking at a light beacon a whole freakin’ mile away have to do with birds and bird watching? Nearly nothing, really, except that since I almost always wake up for the day before it’s light, by checking out my window to see if I can see the beacon tells me whether it’s more likely to be a pretty and promising clear day or a dreary and depressing cloudy/foggy day. Eh, during the winter that is. Most summer mornings I don’t need to bother to check. It’s going to be sunny.
Like I had said, this morning was different. More like normal, in fact, by my way of reckoning. I’ve lived in this town a lot of years, on and off, and I know that near two months straight of snotty weather every day just ain’t “normal”; I don’t live at the seashore, fer cryin’ out loud.
So I hopped on the bicycle and made my western circuit, having the sun behind me for photography purposes the most part of the way out. Coming back hardly matters, since I should already have my pics.
And I got ‘em o.k. this morning; very rewarding. And I sure hope readers here don’t get too tired of seeing the “same ol’, same ol’” because I don’t. Honestly, I don’t get tired of the scenery and wild denizens of my little patch of Pangaea at all. With all respect to seaside and desert and low elevation grassland, I love my mountains most of all.
This morning out I recorded:
- RT hawk (two of ‘em, to be precise)
- Evening Grosbeak (more than I could count, but two good photos and one “artsy” one will suffice)
- Canada Goose (ditto the EVGR abundance)
- Northern Flicker
- House Finch
- Bald Eagle
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Bufflehead
- Ring-necked Duck
- American Coot
- Mallard
- Belted Kingfisher
And here’s the record in photos, along with some general scenic shots:
Not more than two or three minutes into the ride, my first shot of the morning. RTHA way up on the light pole at the high school baseball field, which is virtually across the street from my apartment.
Out on to the bicycle path, I couldn’t get the photo that had at least a dozen EVGR in the tree at once; that moment lasted only a couple of seconds and they flew directly off. I walked into the Outdoor Classroom area off the bicycle path and waited a few minutes for this smaller congregation.
Here’s my “artsy” EVGR; when the foreground hoarfrost comes in focus and the bird blurs out,”artsy” is what I’m calling it from now on, as if I did it on purpose. Well, *of course* I did. 🤣
Canada Geese form a subject filling for a wintry grass meadow scenic shot.
Still in the Outdoor Classroom, Northern Flicker poses nicely.
On the ground, a well-colored male House Finch stands out against the pebbles.
Evening Grosbeak female with need of napkin.
Ditto “napkin” for this title photo shot of male Evening Grosbeak
Venturing on a good mile from the Outdoor Classroom, as I cross Spanish Creek (Highway 70 bridge in background) I take this scenic shot for posterity and to again show off the beautiful day.
I pedal out the frontage road that goes along Spanish Creek, jog over to the airport taxiway (which taxiway, by the way, has become a very popular walking area for people to drive out with their dogs and give them a spot of exercise) and look over across the wastewater treatment plant to see if I can see a Bald Eagle today. Yup, there it is, but I was only able to spot it by glassing with my binoculars. It was invisible to my naked eye, being about five hundred yards from where I was standing.
About what I could see with the binoculars. My camera is at 1000mm for this shot.
This is cropped from shot taken with camera zoom at 3000mm.
Going back down along the taxiway toward the hangars, I took this scenic shot of the Spanish Peak escarpment out to the west of town; about ten miles line-of-sight from where I’m standing. This escarpment is in the Bucks Lake Wilderness.
As I get back on the frontage road to begin my return to home, I look up at the pines across the creek from me and here’s another gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk up in a tree top. I snap off several frames.
It’s making a decision...
It turns to show me the equivalent of the sole of its shoe...
And magnificently departs.
I’ve been out now for a full hour and a half; a look-in at Dellinger’s Pond to complete my round-the-west-side of the valley circuit...
Hmmm… you’d think this would be just chock full of water fowl, as it has been during past winters. But ever since the big water year of 2022 Dellinger’s Pond has been sparse for large congregations of water fowl. Something, I have no idea what, but something has changed I think. There’s just not abundant food stuffs for the ducks. Or maybe it’s the...
Red-shouldered Hawk? (Look to upper left; small brown spot in the tree)
Here, I’ve circled the hawk for you. And what’s in that other circle?
The Red-shouldered Hawk, zoomed in and cropped.
RSHAs are just so beautiful.
Here’s that other circled item; can you spot it? Hint: it’s not the ducks. Left to right: Ring-necked Duck male, Bufflehead female, American Coot, Ring-necked Duck female, Bufflehead male.
...add in the Mallards. The mystery guest is at upper left.
Yay! Bonus to the photo; unseen when I took the photo. Belted Kingfisher.
That was the close for Saturday morning. Sunday afternoon, the day being again clear, calm, and cold, I went east.
What’s this? Why, it’s the partial newly-constructed covered parking structure at the high school softball field. I took the shot only to mention that this will be roofed with solar energy electricity panels when completed. Now that it’s reached this stage I’ll be checking more often and taking progress shots. Note the concrete base pillars; they’ve been in place for months. It was only in the past few days that the steel arrived and has been erected. It goes fast from here.
Directly opposite the parking structure on the other side of the road, the view out to the north/northeast across American Valley. Mt. Hough range in the far background.
Twenty yards further down the road I caught this Red-tailed Hawk in old Willow; it bolted just a couple of seconds after I snapped the still.
Out on Quincy Junction Road, another Red-tailed gives me a few pose variations.
Another half-mile or so, and it’s a Goosey triplet out in the field. Heat shimmer distortion, but still worth the noting. Greater White-fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Canada Goose.
Following turn-around, I’m nearly all the way back home and I spot these last two pretty birds. Nice wrap.
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Tacking on the Greater White-fronted Goose, Snow Goose, American Kestrel and Black Phoebe to Saturday’s captures, I have sixteen species recorded. This discounts all the Steller’s Jays, European Starlings, Song Sparrows, American Robins et. al. that are always to be seen this time of year.
It all still remains forever an awe and wonder.
Thanks for reading. What’s up in your birdy world?
