Finally got out today and am still trying to figure out winter birding... apparently there really are birds out there, but I'm not seeing much! My strategy at the reservoir area was to look for open water, which there was astonishingly little of! The ice in the deepest pond looked easily 6 inches thick :eek!: It has been awfully cold here for a while, but this was the end of a three day warming trend (highs above freezing at least two days). Well, my only reward was seeing one Grey-headed Woodpecker down drinking in a small open area - my strategy had a little success |=)| but not as much as hoped.
I also kept my eye on the leaf litter (what wasn't covered in snow) for buntings, but no sign. There were still tree sparrows around (and magpies galore, of course), so there was obviously something available for birds to live on there! I confess at the end I heard a few cheeps which I didn't pursue due to both me and hubby being a bit too frozen.
I think I saw a few pheasants fly in the distance, which was a bit exciting because when I saw the first I thought "must be a magpie, right, but?" Thankfully there was a second which gave me a better chance to note that it really was the wrong color and a different flight pattern (and slightly different shape) from a magpie. Ah, slowly, slowly....
The snow is great for footprints. Though I haven't really worked seriously on them for a long time, I could see rabbit tracks -nice but not surprising. However, it also seemed like maybe there were squirrel prints - that would be something, as I find squirrels extremely rare in this country, and have never seen one in QHD before.
Well, not too exciting, but guess there is still some unfrozen wildlife out there
I also kept my eye on the leaf litter (what wasn't covered in snow) for buntings, but no sign. There were still tree sparrows around (and magpies galore, of course), so there was obviously something available for birds to live on there! I confess at the end I heard a few cheeps which I didn't pursue due to both me and hubby being a bit too frozen.
I think I saw a few pheasants fly in the distance, which was a bit exciting because when I saw the first I thought "must be a magpie, right, but?" Thankfully there was a second which gave me a better chance to note that it really was the wrong color and a different flight pattern (and slightly different shape) from a magpie. Ah, slowly, slowly....
The snow is great for footprints. Though I haven't really worked seriously on them for a long time, I could see rabbit tracks -nice but not surprising. However, it also seemed like maybe there were squirrel prints - that would be something, as I find squirrels extremely rare in this country, and have never seen one in QHD before.
Well, not too exciting, but guess there is still some unfrozen wildlife out there