Backyard Birding in Winter

January 24, 2026

Most of the country is now in the midst of a huge winter storm. When I got up this morning, the temperature was -12°F! The wind chill factor yesterday was a whopping 19 degrees below zero!! But, hey, when the sun is shining, it doesn’t seem that cold– especially when you’re inside looking out!

**Male Northern Cardinal on a frigid winter day!**

When it’s this cold, I do love the challenge of trying to stay warm and taking pictures at the same time! I wear multiple layers of clothing, heated socks, clunky over-boots, a warm hat and mittens, and two hand warmers stuffed into my pockets. I don’t venture far from the house on days like this, though. I like to duck inside every once in a while for a warm-up. Besides, everything I need to see is right outside my back door.

To bring the birds in a little closer to where I’m taking pictures, I sprinkle a handful or two of sunflower seeds, mealworms, and peanuts on a nearby tree stump. It’s fun for me to watch how long it takes the birds to find this stash, and to see who finds it first; usually it’s the Dark-eyed Juncos, or the Blue Jays.

**Female Dark-eyed Junco** **waiting patiently for her turn at the seeds**

blue Jay quickly scarfing down peanuts from our backyard tree stump

A little later, the Northern Cardinals show up on the stump, and sometimes the Common Grackles or the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. The Starlings are nearby raiding the peanuts from our platform feeder rather than the stump!

**Common Starling waiting for a turn on our platform feeder**

In the nearby trees, I might also have the joy of finding a Pileated Woodpecker, a Northern Flicker or, on rare occasions, a Red-tailed Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk!

**Sharp-shinned Hawk that landed briefly**

I love standing under the shelter of our second story deck and surveying our backyard for hours on end capturing the rhythm of the day; making mental notes about which birds are most likely to visit, who’s the bravest, what treat they like the best, and who’s the hardest to photograph.

**Female Dark-eyed Junco on an empty stump!**

The most common winter visitor to my tree stump is the Dark-eyed Junco. There are plenty of them around and they are ground feeders. They’re used to looking for food down below rather than up in the feeders overhead where most of the other birds like to go. Juncos also hop around in the snow next to the stump looking for seeds that other birds have dropped or knocked off the edge.

**Male Dark-eyed Junco looking for seeds in the snow**

One of the bravest birds, I think, is the Black-capped Chickadee. It seems fearless to me. On the rare occasions where I’ve tried feeding our backyard birds by hand, only the chickadees have taken me up on the offer. Surprisingly, the bigger birds have been much too wary. When I feed the birds by hand at the Kensington MetroPark in Milford, Michigan, the Chickadees are often the first to take food from my hand as well. Perhaps the bigger birds, like the Cardinals and the Blue Jays see my skinny little hand as too precarious a perch for them even with an offer of food!

**The Black-capped Chickadees love peanuts!**

The favorite food for most of the birds is definitely peanuts. Those disappear quickly, especially when the Blue Jays take over! They’ll grab 7 or 8 peanuts in quick succession and return for more! When they take this many peanuts at a time, most will be stored in their crop, an expandable pouch in the Jay’s esophagus that temporarily holds food. The crop allows Blue Jays to transport a large number of seeds or nuts to other locations and store them for future use. Before taking flight, I often see the Blue Jays carrying two or three additional peanuts in their beaks!

**Blue Jay taking more than his fair share!**

One of the potential ‘stump feeders’ that I love to see but rarely capture is the Carolina Wren. Every winter, except this one, I’ve had one come to the feeders on our deck where I could easily watch it from the comfort of my living room chair. This cute little wren came so regularly that I assumed it was the same bird year after year and I referred to it fondly as my Carolina Wren. I can’t say it ever landed on the stump, but it did occasionally sit nearby.

The most difficult birds for me to photograph have been the Black-capped Chickadees and the Tufted Titmice. They fly in, grab a seed, and disappear! I can barely spot them through the lens of my camera before they’re gone! I have dozens of ‘bird-less’ pictures to show for it! Once they’ve grabbed a seed, off they go to peck it open. If they land on an open branch, one that’s not obstructed by a tangle of other branches, I can sometimes get a decent shot. But these birds are small and quick and blend in perfectly with the trees. It’s so much easier to photograph a cardinal!

**Black-capped Chickadee sitting on a limb that we attached to our deck for photo-ops like this!**

**Tufted Titmouse momentarily resting!**

Most of the time when I’m backyard birding, only the ‘regulars’ show up (sparrows, juncos, jays etc.), but every once in a while, there’s a surprise, like the Sharp-shinned hawk that landed briefly, or the Cedar Waxwing that sat for a while in a nearby honeysuckle bush, or the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that paused momentarily on our aging dogwood tree less than 10 feet from where I was standing! He was so close that I was afraid any movement on my part would scare him away.

**Cedar Waxwing in the Honeysuckle Bush**

**Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on the Dogwood Tree**

I’ve stood outside my back door taking pictures many, many times over the last several years through every season and all kinds of weather. It never ceases to amaze me how many different birds there are right in our own backyard; birds I’d never even heard of before, like White-throated Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, and White-crowned Sparrows!

There are also birds that, early on in my photography life, I didn’t even know were here in the winter like the goldfinches, robins, and bluebirds.

And there are the regular, everyday birds, like the House sparrows, House Finches and White-breasted Nuthatches that come to our yard, or the Downy and the Hairy Woodpeckers that regularly come to the feeders, or the occasional Red-breasted Nuthatch that I rarely ever see!

Once in a while, a few vagrants pass through our yard like this Oregon Junco I photographed in January of 2021, or this rare Orchard Oriole in May of 2021.

**Oregon Dark-eyed Junco** (January 2021)

It never ceases to amaze me that so many different birds come to our backyard! It helps that we’re in a condo association where all of our yards are one big yard, where most of us have feeders hanging from our decks, where there are plenty of trees, and where a lovely little creek passes close by. In the warmer months, that creek is home to Wood Ducks, the occasional Northern Shoveler, and the usual mix of mallards and geese!

Enjoy!

Waiting for Wood Ducks

May 5, 2025

I was standing in muck along the edge of a small marsh, knee deep in tick-laden reeds, hoping the Wood Ducks I had heard earlier would return. It was a chilly spring morning and I had underestimated how cold I might get just standing still. Sometimes, though, the sun would peek through the clouds, giving me a brief illusion of warmth, but the cold breeze still cut through me. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt up over my head, tried not to worry about ticks that might be crawling up my legs, stuffed my hands deep into my pockets, and waited for the Wood Ducks to return.

The marsh was alive with the sound of birds, most noticeable among them were the Red-winged Blackbirds. By belting out their familiar song over and over again, the males were working hard to woo the nearby females. The song of the Red-winged Blackbird is the quintessential sound of spring here in Michigan.

The quiet, less noticeable females were hanging out in the reeds, skulking through the vegetation for food and gathering materials to weave together into their intricate nests.

**Female Red-winged Blackbird with nesting materials in her beak**

A smaller, even less noticeable bird was also flitting among the reeds across from where I was standing. With its subtle coloring of brown, gray, buff, and black, this little bird was well-camouflaged and hard for me to see along the edge of the swamp. I recognized it, though, partly because of its distinctive markings, but mostly from its location. It was a Swamp Sparrow!

While I was watching the little Swamp Sparrow flitting around the marsh, a splash of yellow caught my eye. A tiny bird kept flitting among the reeds so quickly that I had a very hard time bringing it into focus for a picture. The bird in question turned out to be a Common Yellowthroat. Its bright yellow feathers and broad black mask make it one of the most easily recognizable warblers—if you can get it to sit still long enough!

Higher up in the tangle of branches was a barely visible olive gray bird with a white breast. I had no idea what it was so I kept taking pictures, hoping one would be good enough to identify later using one of my birding apps. This one turned out to be a Least Flycatcher.

At this point, it was well past an hour into my vigil, and still no Wood Ducks!

In the distance, I could see a lone Kingbird perched on a reed. With its dark gray back, white chest, and neat white tip on the tail, the Eastern Kingbird looks like it’s wearing a business suit—and this bird is ALL business when it feels threatened! It will readily attack any birds that enter its territory, even if they are much bigger! It’s called a Kingbird for a reason!

About the same time that I spotted the Kingbird, a Great Blue Heron flew overhead!

When I turned my attention back to the marsh in front of me, I saw a pair of Common Grackles perched in another tree not far from the Kingbird. Grackles are stunning birds to observe especially when the sun highlights the iridescent blue feathers on their head. Unfortunately, Grackles are also the number one threat to corn crops. They eat ripening corn as well as corn sprouts, and their habit of foraging in big flocks means they make a multimillion-dollar impact on corn producers.

Another colorful bird that was flitting among the tangled branches and tall reeds was the Palm Warbler. It’s a relatively easy warbler to identify, with its rusty-colored cap, yellow eyebrows, and yellow belly with rusty streaks. These cheerful little birds are migrating through Michigan right now and I love finding them!

I’d been waiting in the muck now for almost two hours and I wasn’t even sure the Wood Ducks would be back before I had to leave. But I had a little more time so I continued to entertain myself watching all the birds going about their daily lives right in front of me mostly oblivious to my presence. At that point, I’d gotten pictures of thirteen of those birds, including a few American Robins, at least one American Redstart, a mewing Catbird, and a few bright yellow American Goldfinches.

Suddenly there was the sound of splashing off to my left! The Wood Ducks were back!! I quickly turned my camera in their direction, hoping my settings were all correct and zoomed in. There were two males and one female and they were already swimming away from me headed for the shelter of the reeds. It wouldn’t be long before they disappeared from view so I started snapping pictures as fast as I could, hoping for one or two good shots. These are such beautiful birds, particularly the males, with their iridescent colors of blue, green, chestnut, and purple; and their contrasting patterns of white around their neck, head and flanks. It would be so disappointing to miss a shot after all this time!

Not only did I have the right settings, the Wood Ducks stayed longer than expected for the photo shoot—AND I never got any ticks! It doesn’t get much better than that!

Waning Days of Color

September 2023

A few days ago, I visited the Paw Paw Prairie Fen Preserve in Mattawan, Michigan, one of our local nature areas. It’s a beautiful preserve with a well-maintained 1.5 mile trail that meanders through wild flowers, trees, ponds, and tall prairie grasses. The land is owned and maintained by The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit organization.

**BOTTLEBRUSH GRASS**
Bottlebrush grass is a perennial grass native to the eastern United States and Canada. Bottlebrush Grass gets its name from the spiky seed heads that look just like the brush used to clean bottles,

“In 2004, this site was slated for a housing development. Topsoil had been removed, road routes had been laid out and neighborhood landscaping was being installed. The Nature Conservancy was alerted to rare wetland communities here and began negotiations to acquire the land. Today The Nature Conservancy owns 106 acres along the east branch of the Paw Paw River, including rare prairie fens, and a beautiful array of prairie plants and wildlife.” (from the descriptive sign at the entrance of the preserve)

**JOE PYE WEED**
This plant was likely named for Joseph Shauquethqueat, a highly-respected Mohican sachem or paramount chief, also known to white neighbors as Joe Pye, who lived in the Mohican community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s. Joe Pye weed has a long history of medicinal use, including as a diuretic, for easing urinary tract issues, joint stiffness, and gout. It is also used to treat reproductive issues and diabetes.

I started my picture walk at 2:30 in the afternoon hoping to eventually catch the late afternoon sun. For the first hour and a half, I saw virtually nothing to photograph, except for a few random plants, and an untold number of autumn meadowhawk dragonflies. I had been hoping for butterflies and birds, and a much wider variety of dragonflies. I had even hoped to find a praying mantis or two. But there were only the meadowhawks, and a few interesting plants to entertain me.

**AUTUMN MEADOWHAWK**
The autumn meadowhawk is a bright red or yellow dragonfly that has yellow legs. It lingers longer through the summer season than most dragonflies.

Autumn meadowhawks, as the name implies, are most active from late summer through fall, and are abundant in open meadows or prairies like the one I was in. They are often the last dragonflies you will see as the colder weather sets in. If there hasn’t been a hard freeze, it’s even possible to find them in November!

**AMERICAN GOLDFINCH**
Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.

At the ninety minute mark, I finally spotted something other than a meadowhawk– a praying mantis! There were probably hundreds of them hidden in the grasses all around me, but praying mantids are particularly well-camouflaged and extremely hard to find! I was thrilled that this one was out in the open and clinging to the underside of a stalk of goldenrod. The most fascinating thing about this insect is its ability to rotate its heads 180 degrees! No other insect can do this, and it’s particularly creepy to zoom in on one and find it staring back at you from over its shoulder!

**PRAYING MANTIS**
The praying mantis is so named because when waiting for prey, it holds its
front legs in an upright position as if they are folded in prayer. Don’t be fooled
by its angelic pose, however, because the mantid is a deadly predator!

While I was watching the praying mantis, a small bird flew across my peripheral field and landed in a distant tree. It wasn’t close enough for a good picture, but I took a few quick shots anyway so that I could identify it later. The bird turned out to be an Eastern Wood-Peewee; an olive-gray bird with dark wings and an off-white belly. It’s bigger than a Black-capped Chickadee but smaller than an Eastern Bluebird.

**EASTERN WOOD PEEWEE**
The Eastern Wood-Pewee’s plaintive song of three sliding notes (*pee-a-weeeee*) is distinctive and easy to learn. (This photo was taken on a different walk.)

Thirty minutes later, I came across my best surprise of the day, a ruby-throated hummingbird! They are usually on the move and hard to capture, but this one landed on a branch and sat for a spell.

**RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD**
The extremely short legs of the ruby-throated hummingbird prevent it from walking or hopping. The best it can do is shuffle along a perch.

Once the hummingbird flew off, I continued down the path and found my first and only monarch for the day perched on a lovely stand of deep purple ironweed—the perfect plant for a monarch photo! Later, a great spangled fritillary came along and landed on the very same plant! Ironweed is an absolute butterfly magnet! The clusters of hairy purple to pink flowers are irresistible to pollinators, especially swallowtails and monarchs.

**MONARCH BUTTERFLY ON IRONWEED**
White spots on monarch butterfly wings may help them fly better during long migration from Canada to Mexico, new research shows. These spots are believed to alter the airflow patterns around the monarch’s wings, enhancing their flight efficiency. Remarkably, monarchs are the only insects known to embark on such an extensive journey.

**GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY ON IRONWEED**
Great spangled fritillaries are relatively large butterflies with a wingspan of 2 to 4 inches and a length of 3.5 to almost 4 inches!

I had a hard time pulling myself away from the butterflies, but there was a small pond nearby and I had noticed cedar waxwings there earlier in my walk. They had been flying back and forth across the pond catching insects. This time of year, cedar waxwings supplement their fruity diet with protein-rich insects like mayflies, dragonflies, and stoneflies, which they often catch on the wing.

**CEDAR WAXWING**
The name “waxwing” comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondaries of some birds. The exact function of these tips is not known, but they may help attract mates.

Three hours into my slow, rambling walk, I was ready to head back to my car, but there was one more surprise waiting for me– a very, very tiny American copper butterfly that only flies about two feet above the ground. The upperside of its forewings are a bright copper color with black spots and a gray border. The hindwings are grayish-brown with a copper border. It’s quite a pretty little butterfly when you can see it close-up.

All through the fen, I kept thinking about the changes that were taking place around me; all the beautiful flowers that were already fading away, all the colorful birds and insects that had already left or would soon be leaving, and all the green, leafy trees that would soon be barren.

**FEMALE EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL**
There was one eastern tiger swallowtail that flew by but it didn’t stop for a picture. This one was taken on a previous picture walk.

It’s not that I dread the changing of the seasons or the coming of winter; I’ll still be traipsing about in the snow looking for a another pretty picture. But I’ll miss the rich variety of birds and insects, and the huge palette of colors that spring and summer throw across the landscape. I always have.

**GRAY CATBIRD**
The catbirds were chattering in the trees around me but never came out for a picture. This picture is from a previous walk.

On the Road Again

June 5, 2023

We just returned from our first real get-away adventure in almost three years. For the better part of the last three years, we had stayed close to home waiting for the pandemic to end. When it was mostly over, and we were ready to travel, our aging dog could no longer go with us or stay in a kennel. She needed a great deal of care. On April 18^th of this year, we had to say our final goodbyes. It was a bittersweet moment in time. After a stressful, isolating pandemic and a heart-wrenching year of doggie hospice, we needed to cut loose.

Our dear, little dog, Brandy who had a long, slow decline.

We headed out to the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. My husband, Mel, had registered to attend a Tenkara fishing get-together/campout near Westby, Wisconsin and I tagged along to take pictures. After three years of home-grown subject matter, I was eager to explore a new environment.

**A beautiful columbine growing along the roadside**

The Driftless area is approximately 8500 square miles of land, mostly in Southwest Wisconsin, that was untouched by glaciers during the last ice age. The term “driftless” indicates a lack of glacial drift, the deposits of silt, gravel, and rock that retreating glaciers leave behind. As a result, the landscape is characterized by steep, limestone-based hills, spring fed waterfalls, deeply carved river valleys, and the largest concentration of cold-water trout streams in the world! It was a perfect place for Mel to go Tenkara fishing.

Tenkara is a method of fly fishing that originated in the mountains of Japan. It uses very long rods with fixed lengths of casting line attached to the rod-tip, and simple, wet flies as lures. This method of fishing was developed to catch trout in free-flowing rivers like the ones found in the Driftless Areas of Wisconsin. I don’t fish, but I was happy enough to go wandering down the back roads near where Mel was fishing to look for birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and flowers; but not GNATS!

Those little buggers came at me with a vengeance! They were in my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. They were on my sweaty skin. They landed wherever they could find moisture! Gnats are drawn to the carbon dioxide we exhale, as well as the sweet, fruity smells of our shampoos and lotions. There’s no way to get away from them! I was just one giant, sweet-smelling moisture buffet!

**Deer on the edge of the road who was curious about my presence**

I hustled back to the car as fast as I could to see if my insect repellent Buff would help. (https://www.buff.com/us/insect-shieldr-neckwear) A Buff is a long tube of thin material that you can pull over your head to cover everything but your eyes. My eyes were protected, at least somewhat, by my glasses. The Buff was a tremendous help; it allowed me take pictures, but it didn’t stop all the gnats who really wanted to get me from crawling into my Buff or going behind my glasses! I did have bug repellent on, but it was no match for these guys! Later, we went to a store and found a repellent that was recommended for gnats and it seemed to work for about an hour before needing to be replenished. It was a welcome relief!

**Me and my Buff fending off the gnats!!**

In spite of the gnats, and the unseasonably hot temperatures, it was good to be on the road again; to engage in our favorite hobbies in a new environment, to sleep outside in our tent and hear the barred owls calling, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?” and to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds filling the air with their joyful noise. It was a welcome respite from the unwelcome ‘noise’ in our everyday lives.

**Dot-tailed White-faced dragonfly in the obelisk position to cool off**

In just a few days, we’ll be on the road again; to the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for a five-day canoe trip with friends.

Can’t wait!

**Great Blue Heron overhead (note the shadow of its head on the lower wing!)**

**A teeny tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird high up on a utility wire!**

**Snapping Turtle feasting on the tadpoles**

Find the Joy

November 21, 2022

“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.” Anonymous

I love this quote– and the snow!

The Carolina Wren sings a very joyful song

It’s hard not to feel a certain child-like wonder when the first big flakes of snow fall from the sky and transform our world into a winter wonderland. I love sitting by the fire with a hot cup of tea in my hands watching the snow pile up outside our window and marveling at the little songbirds as they fluff up their feathers to ward off the cold. I’d like to invite them in for a while to warm up. Instead, I put on three layers of pants, three shirts, a balaclava, a fuzzy hat, a down coat, a neck warmer, mittens, and boots, and join them, camera in hand.

Black-capped Chickadee and a Fox Sparrow fluffed up against the cold!

American Robin on a snowy day enjoying a crabapple tree

For the last several days, the snow has been falling almost non-stop! The birds don’t seem to mind, though, and are flitting about everywhere, enjoying the easy source of food in our feeders and occasionally taking sips of warm water from the birdbath. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of them hoping to find among the mix, one of the ‘vagrants’ –birds who are part of a phenomenon known as an ‘irruption’ which is currently taking place across eastern North America.

An irruption is a sudden change in the population density of an organism. In the lives of our feathered friends, an irruption occurs when the birds who live farther north run out of food, and move farther south to find sustenance. Some of the irruptive species here in Michigan include purple finches, redpolls, evening grosbeaks, red-breasted nuthatches, pine grosbeaks, pine siskins, and bohemian waxwings.

A Common Redpoll and a Red-breasted Nuthatch from a previous winter

These irruptions commonly occur every few years and mostly impact the finches and other species that winter in the boreal forests of Canada and further north. The primary food source for these birds comes from pine cones. When the pine cone crop is poor over the summer, it foreshadows a difficult winter for these birds. The shortage of seeds that the pine cones produce forces these birds to move beyond their normal range in search of food. If multiple types of trees fail to produce a seed crop during the same year, multiple species of birds will move further south.

Eastern Bluebird weathering the elements on a snowy winter’s day

Irruptions vary widely in size, frequency, and duration. Some birds will stay in an area for weeks at a time, while others might only stay for a day. Regardless of the size of the flock or the duration of their visit, it’s an exciting time for birders!

I would love to see any one of these wayward birds on my picture walks, but I have been happy enough with my usual backyard visitors, as well as the interesting mix of migrating birds that visit Kalamazoo this time of year, like the fox sparrows, the white throated sparrows, the American wigeons and, the very peculiar, Wilson’s snipe.

Wilson’s Snipe, a migrating bird at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery

A Fox Sparrow and a White-throated Sparrow, migrating birds that come to our backyard

American Wigeon, a migrating bird that visits a nearby pond

I’ve been out in the snow several times recently looking for the evening grosbeaks, the red-breasted nuthatches, and the other ‘irrupters’ who might be passing through, but I have come up empty handed. On any given picture walk, though, there is always the possibility that something new might come along, and ‘possibility‘ is always a great motivator!

Female Cardinal and a male Hairy Woodpecker

On these beautiful, winter days, I love the challenge of bundling up like a kid to stay warm and trudging through freshly fallen snow to photograph a bird, as I revel in the joy that, at age 75, I can still do this!

Find the joy!

White-tailed deer, one of the other beautiful creatures I often see on my walks

Strange Blessings

September 25, 2022

There are many things I am thankful for in this life; the love of family, our good health, food on the table, a roof over our heads, and a multitude of other blessings. Near the very bottom of that list, but certainly not last, I am thankful that flowers don’t fly! It may seem like a very strange thing to be thankful for, but I am a nature photographer, and things that don’t fly are so much easier to photograph than things that do!

A beautiful Purple Coneflower with a crown of jewels!

Great Willowherb– which happens to be a very tiny flower!

I’m always a bit anxious when I photograph things that fly because there is just the tiniest window of opportunity to get things right before the winged creature disappears! Once I spot the bird, butterfly, or dragonfly, there’s rarely enough time to adjust the focus, let alone change the ISO, the f-stop and the shutter speed before they disappear!

Female Mallard who was gracious enough to let me take her picture and not fly away!

An American Goldfinch and a Cedar Waxwing.

A Great Spangled Fritillary and a tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly

The other difficult thing about winged creatures is, they never let you know when they’re leaving! I remember the first time I was trying to take a picture of a butterfly. It was years ago, but it still comes back to me every time something flies away without a sound. For some reason, I kept thinking that the creatures I was taking pictures of would make some kind of noise when they left, like people do when they shuffle their feet, shut the door, or say goodbye. You definitely know when humans have left. Most of the time, you even know exactly where to find them! But not so much with birds and butterflies! They just silently flutter away without a sound and, most of the time, I have absolutely no idea where they’ve gone. I wish they all wore bells!

A male Slaty Skimmer dragonfly and a female Indigo Bunting

Eastern Carpenter Bee that can also be difficult to capture!

A few bigger birds, like the great blue heron and the little green heron will, on occasion, let you know they’re leaving by blurting out a raspy squawk or two. Sometimes, I can even get a decent picture as they depart. Or, consider the lowly bullfrog, who doesn’t exactly have wings, but will at least let me know when it’s leaving by yelling, “YEEP!” as it jumps into the water. Unfortunately, by the time I hear the “YEEP”, it’s too late for a picture!

A Green Heron and a Narrow-headed Marsh Fly

American Bullfrog that will leap in fright if he notices me coming!

If turtles hear or feel my footfalls, or if they see me coming, they will dive under water as fast as they can!

That’s why I’m thankful for flowers. They don’t fly off and they don’t leap in fright when they hear me coming. I can walk right up and take a picture! I can take a hundred pictures if I like. I can change my settings a million times, take a break for lunch, make a phone call, and come back later. They never fly away!

A Black Gloss Snail and a Chinese Praying Mantis– almost as good as a flower for not moving!

An elm leaf and bottlebrush grass only move in the wind, but don’t fly away!

In a world where everything else disappears without so much as a polite goodbye, it’s a total luxury to photograph flowers –as well as anything else that doesn’t leap, fly, dive, or run away in fright!

Hungry for Spring

February 24, 2022

Young Trumpeter Swan flying through a snow squall

As I sit writing this piece, long before sunrise, on another cold and windy February day, I am contemplating the advisability of even attempting a picture walk. The weather forecast calls for 15 to 25 mile an hour winds with gusts over 40! On the other hand, temperatures might exceed 40 degrees —quite balmy compared to the below zero wind chill conditions I was faced with the other day! Usually, I can put on enough layers to stay warm, even on the coldest of days, but strong winds make for a much bigger challenge.

Blue Jay stirring up snow in a pine tree

Female Northern Cardinal and a Northern Flicker weathering another winter storm

Some Great Blue Herons will stay here throughout the winter, but many more will head south

Most days, I’m up for that challenge but, I must admit, I’m growing weary of it all. These long winter days, where I have to plan for so many weather contingencies, and have to wear so many layers, are weakening my resolve—especially during the past two years of this pandemic where we haven’t been able to venture far from home. The birds in my backyard are quite tired of me begging for a photo shoot.

Two of my backyard birds: A Dark-eyed Junco and a White-throated Sparrow

A Cedar Waxwing and an American Goldfinch add a splash of color to a mostly color-free landscape!

For the next few days, though, my backyard birds can take a break while I babysit my grand-dog on the opposite side of the state. There are lots of new places to explore here and once the sun is up, I expect I’ll venture out in spite of the wind and in spite of the cold! I’d much rather be outside searching for the possibility of something new than sitting here on the couch.

Some people believe that the Robin is a “harbinger of spring”, but large numbers of them stay here all winter feasting on berries.

These two winter visitors were a first for me: a Horned Lark and a Snow Bunting!

After writing those first few paragraphs, I did, indeed venture out– first to a nearby nature center and then to a nearby park.

Black-capped Chickadees are delightful little birds that can be found in Michigan all year round.

White-breasted Nuthatch and a female Northern Cardinal

I found the usual assortment of birds at the nature center—chickadees, finches, cardinals, nuthatches and goldfinches, but it was a brand-new setting! When I arrived at my second destination, I really hit the jackpot! Beaudette Park in Pontiac, Michigan, had a very large pond of open water and it was teeming with a wide variety of waterfowl, some of which I’d never seen before!

Some Sandhill Cranes stay here all year long

This time of year, it’s highly unusual to find open water in Michigan. Most lakes and ponds are frozen over. This particular body of water had the ubiquitous array of mallards, swans and geese, but it also had mergansers, buffleheads, redheads, ring-necked ducks, goldeneyes and canvasbacks!! It was the canvasbacks I’d never seen before. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

Male Canvasback at Beaudette Park in Pontiac, Michigan

Male Hooded Merganser and a Female Common Merganser at Beaudette Park

Days later, I was still sorting through all the hundreds of pictures I took that day!

Pileated Woodpecker and a Downy Woodpecker

Mallard Ducks are everywhere and they offer endless opportunities for interesting photographs!

In spite of all the inherent beauty to be found in a picture of freshly fallen snow and a colorful bird here and there, I am more than ready for the arrival of spring; ready to be free of these bulky winter clothes, grey skies, and frigid temperatures. I’m beyond hungry for the colors to return, for the sweet smell of a newly mowed lawn, and for the sheer delight of a warm patch of sun on my bare skin!

I am more than ready to shed these bulky winter clothes and trade this colorless landscape for green leaves and spring flowers!

Great Backyard Bird Count

February 16, 2021

The 24^th annual, four-day, Great Backyard Bird Count just ended yesterday. I had never participated in this event before and I’m not quite sure why. Maybe I thought it would be too time-consuming or that only experienced birders would be able to do it. Maybe I thought it would be too complicated. Whatever the reasons, none of them proved true. Over the course of four days, I counted most of the birds from the comfort of my easy chair, the rest by standing in our back yard, camera in hand!

**Black-capped Chickadee and a Tufted Titmouse**

“The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations.” www.audubon.org

**American Tree Sparrow and a Song Sparrow**

**Red-breasted Nuthatch and White-breasted Nuthatch**

“The massive international community science project, held over four days every February, collects data that provides scientists with a long-term record of bird distribution and numbers over time, helping to identify trends that might be associated with urbanization or climate change.” https://news.wttw.com/2021/02/12/global-great-backyard-bird-count-underway

“By participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count, community scientists contribute data that we use to protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. In return, studies tell us that pausing to observe birds, their sounds and movements, improve human health. Participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a win-win for birds and people.” https://earthsky.org/earth/register-participate-great-backyard-bird-count

“During the 2020 count, more than 250,000 checklists were submitted from over 100 countries, and a record 6,942 species were counted. That is a large proportion of the estimated 10,000 bird species that live on Earth today.” https://earthsky.org/earth/register-participate-great-backyard-bird-count

The Northern Cardinal nearly always tops the list as the number one bird reported followed by Dark-eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, House Sparrows, House Finches, American Crows, Black-capped Chickadees and Red-bellied Woodpeckers.

With the exception of the Black Crows, all of those birds were on my list but in a different order of frequency. I also found Robins, Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings, Brown Creepers, Northern Flickers, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy Woodpeckers, White-throated Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, and one new addition, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker!

**A beautiful Starling and a charming little Swamp Sparrow**

Even though it’s called a ‘backyard bird count’, you don’t really have to be in your own backyard. You can go for a walk and count the birds along the way or you can go to a park and sit on a bench with a hot cup of tea in your hand. But for this, my first ever Great Backyard Bird Count, I actually counted the birds in my own backyard. In terms of variety, it was probably the very best place for me to be. Over the course of the four day event, I identified eighteen different species of birds!

If you haven’t already participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count, put it on your calendar for February 2022. It’s easy and fun– and an immensely good thing for all our feathered friends!

Happy birding!

Winter Photography

February 1, 2020

I love going out on picture walks. It’s one of my favorite things to do! Even in the dead of winter!

By all accounts, this has been a relatively mild winter here in Michigan, so I had been eagerly waiting for a really big snowfall to come along! We did have a few short bouts of snow in December and January, but it melted quickly. Yesterday, though, on the very last day of January, it finally happened!! We had what I would call “a magnificent snowfall.” Huge, fluffy flakes swirling all around– giving the world that magical snow-globe kind of feeling! It was perfect! I had to get out the door!

Female Northern Cardinal with just a touch of snow

Male Northern Cardinal and an American Goldfinch

Eastern Bluebirds stay here all winter and enjoy berries like these

Getting out the door, though, was the easy part; trying to stay warm and take pictures at the same time, was not —especially when the wind chill was well below freezing. I can easily put on two or three layers of pants, sweaters, socks and hats, but I cannot do the same for my hands –not if I expect to be able to operate any of the tiny buttons and dials on my camera! Over the years, I have tried various combinations of mittens and gloves and hand warmers to solve the problem with varying degrees of success –or lack thereof!

Black-capped Chickadee enjoying the snow!

A beautiful Bluejay waiting for his turn at the peanuts

As the weather got progressively colder this winter, I tried yet another new idea. Instead of gloves, I tried two layers of very thin mittens (along with my usual rechargeable hand warmers). I picked mittens instead of gloves so that my fingers could keep each other warm; and I chose thin ones so that I could still feel the buttons on the camera! The inner mitten was a wool blend and the outer one a wind-proof, water-proof shell. So far, this combination has been working at least as well as most I have tried –but the jury is still out. When I’m not actively engaged in taking pictures, I stuff my hands deep into my pockets and hold on to those toasty hand-warmers.

This lovely, little Fox Sparrow was a new bird for me! He was right in my own back yard!

An American Tree Sparrow and a female House Sparrow

The problem is, most of the birds I encounter are not particularly interested in seeing me with my hands in my pockets standing around doing nothing! As soon as my hands go in the pockets, they start badgering me to take another picture!

“Pick me! Pick me!” they chirp insistently. “I’m the prettiest! Pick me!

How can I resist??

White-breasted Nuthatch with two tiny snowflakes on its beak!

Contrary to popular belief, many Robins stay here all winter.

So I continue to traipse about for hours on end, encumbered by multiple layers of hats, scarves and sweaters in happy pursuit of the ‘prettiest one’– all the while wondering how these tiny little creatures manage to stay warm with their skinny bare feet and tiny feathered bodies, while I, on the other hand, am barely staying warm.

White-throated Sparrow– another little bird that hangs out in our backyard

American Tree Sparrow on one of our snowiest days

It’s just one of the many fascinating mysteries of nature, I guess. Mysteries that keep drawing me in –and sending me back out for more!

Wandering with a Sense of Wonder

December 28, 2020

I came across the phrase, wandering with a sense of wonder, while researching ideas for my previous blog, Photography as Meditation. Alice Donovan Rouse, in her blog titled Photography and Meditation wrote, “I realized that wandering with a sense of wonder embodies the same methodology as yoga—it’s an exercise in focus and acceptance of whatever it is we may encounter along the way.”

**I found this pretty, little Dark-eyed Junco as I wandered through the Blandford Nature Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan on an unusually warm and sunny winter day**

That’s exactly how I envision my ‘picture walks’ –as wandering with a sense of wonder. On most of my ventures, I set out with no particular goal in mind other than to find whatever it is that I think is pretty or interesting– and take a picture. It might be a beautiful bird or butterfly, but it might just as easily be a rock or a fungus. It might even be a single sound that catches my attention and sends me off in a different direction.

**Rocks in a thin layer of ice at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan**

**An interesting looking fungus on a cool winter day in our nearby woods**

About two weeks ago, I was out taking pictures at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan, Michigan, and was mystified by a sound in the distance, a sound I had never heard before. At first, I thought it might be a bird or maybe even an injured animal, but quickly divested myself of that idea when I decided it didn’t sound like any living thing on this planet! It sounded more like something from outer space!

**This strikingly handsome Red-tailed Hawk at the Blandford Nature Center in Grand Rapids, was keeping a close eye on me as I tried to take his picture.**

**A Juvenile Bald Eagle flew overhead as I was taking pictures below at the Fish Hatchery.**

My curiosity was getting the better of me when I spotted two people in the distance bending down close to the ground as if they were examining something quite small. When they stood up, it appeared as if they were throwing these things into the pond— and that’s when the strange noises began! It happened again and again as they threw stuff into the pond. They were far too distant for me to see exactly what they were throwing, but the most likely answer was rocks. All of a sudden, the proverbial light went off in my head! They were throwing stones across an ice-covered pond!! Fascinating!

**A Northern Flicker at the Kalamazoo Nature Center that kept scurrying ahead of me down a path**

Once the couple had moved out of range, I started experimenting for myself. The first rock I found was too small and made a disappointing ‘click-click-click’ sound across the pond. The second stone was too big and crashed unceremoniously through the thin ice. After a dozen or so rocks of various sizes and two small ponds with varying degrees of ice, I decided that a rock that was a little smaller than my fist made the best ‘pew-pew-pew’ sound as it skittered across the ice. Take a listen…

A very short video of one of my successful rock tosses across an icy pond at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery

Once I returned home and could do a little research on the subject, I found an article by Mark Mancini titled, Skipping Stones on Ice Makes Crazy Sci-Fi Sounds, where he describes the sounds of this phenomenon perfectly “Skip a stone across a frozen lake and you might hear a high-pitched sound that’s both familiar and otherworldly. It’s like the chirp of an exotic bird or a laser blast from a galaxy far, far away.”

https://science.howstuffworks.com/skipping-stones-on-ice-makes-crazy-sci-fi-sounds.htm

Male Cardinals certainly brighten up the landscape on these long, colorless winter days.

I also learned that the phenomenon itself is “… a classic example of acoustic dispersion. Sound waves are made up of multiple frequencies, including high ones and low ones. When a sound travels through air, its component frequencies usually travel together at the same rate, so they all reach the human ear more or less simultaneously. But sometimes, when a sound wave passes through a solid medium (like ice), those high and low frequencies get separated. Being faster, the high-frequency wavelengths zip ahead of their low-frequency counterparts. As a result, you may hear a gap between the high notes and the low notes contained within the same sound. That’s acoustic dispersion in a nutshell.” How interesting!

A Blue Jay who landed way too close as he waited for a turn at one of our feeders!

If you ultimately decide that you’d like to try chucking rocks yourself, I’ve read that extra-large expanses of ice lend themselves particularly well to acoustic dispersion, and that you should probably stand a good distance away from the iced-over body of water for the very best effect.

**A beautiful American Goldfinch on Oriental Bittersweet**

If you want to see the ultimate in stone skipping across ice, watch this video by Cory Williams as he tosses rocks onto an ice-covered lake in Alaska. He apparently struck internet gold when he posted this video in 2014. (Fast forward the video to the 3:50 mark if you want to skip the intro and just see him throwing the rocks.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUqEZdtqi4IlzmASqAjHGiHg&v=ZIHF5EoEixc

**One of my very favorite little birds, the Black-capped Chickadee**

If you wander with a sense of wonder, you’ll never be disappointed!