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!

Just Outside My Back Door

We’ve been back to our home state of Michigan for well over a month now after a three-month hiatus in Florida. I haven’t returned to my usual photography routine of taking pictures every day like I did in Florida or like I did through most of the pandemic years when all my regular routines were put on hold and I had time to pursue this hobby full time.

My picture taking days have taken a nose dive since returning to Michigan. It’s not that I’ve lost interest, or sustained an injury, or had a spate of bad weather. It’s pickleball. I’ve been distracted by pickleball.

There are pickleball courts right next to our condo, and there’s a whole community of pickleball enthusiasts nearby who are readily available to play. It’s impossible for me to stay home if I know there’s a pickleball game going on. As a result, I haven’t gone on any ‘field trips’ this spring or gone for many picture walks.

A male Grackle enjoying my peanuts and seeds

Mostly, I’ve been finding an hour or two here and there to stand outside our back door with my camera in hand to take pictures of all the usual suspects: woodchucks, woodpeckers, chipmunks, squirrels, white-tailed deer, and a wide variety of colorful songbirds. They’re all back there carrying on with their busy, productive lives even when I’m not there to document it.

The most interesting critter in our backyard has been the local woodchuck. I was standing outside our back door taking pictures of all the different birds landing in the nearby trees when I noticed movement about 50 feet from where I was standing. When I zoomed in on the mystery creature, I discovered it was a mama woodchuck transporting her little babies, one by one in her mouth from point A to point B. I’m not sure why she was moving them, but it was so much fun to watch! By the way, did you know that those little babies are called chucklings? I loved learning that little bit of trivia!

Mama woodchuck with one of her several babies

Then, the other day a red-headed woodpecker showed up! I rarely ever see them, and I’ve never seen one in our backyard! Getting a picture of a red-headed woodpecker was almost as exciting as getting one of a pileated woodpecker, but the pileateds are regular visitors to our yard, and the red-headed woodpecker was definitely not! So it was a great find!

The cutest little visitors are the chipmunks and the squirrels. They’re everywhere out there eating the fallen birdseed, digging holes everywhere in the grass, and constantly trying to steal birdseed from our second story feeders. But, they’re so darned cute and so photogenic I’m inclined to think of them as entertainment rather than irritating pests.

Among the most stunning creatures in our backyard are the wood ducks, the Baltimore orioles, the white-tailed deer, the yellow warblers and, perhaps, even our resident turkey. In all fairness, though, all the creatures I photograph are beautiful to me.

Wood Duck on Cherry Creek behind our house

I feel quite lucky to have such a wide variety of interesting creatures right outside my back door and I treasure all the opportunities I have to photograph them.

White-tailed Deer wondering what I’m up to

There’s no need to travel far to be amazed.

White-tailed fawn at the edge of the small wooded area behind our row of condos

Winter Morning Musings

December 27, 2022

As I sit here in the early morning darkness on a late December day with a hot cup of tea in my hand and a toasty fire in front of me, I’m thinking back to the warmer, brighter days of summer where I would have already left the house by now; where I would have had my camera slung across my shoulder as I rushed out the door, not wanting to miss that “golden hour” of photography just past sunrise. This time of year, though, there’s absolutely no need to rush. The sun won’t rise for another two hours and the golden hour (if the sun comes out at all), won’t happen for at least three!

Pileated Woodpecker during the ‘golden hour’ just before sunset

Male and female Mallards during the morning ‘golden hour’

Female Ruddy Duck and a male Gadwall during an evening ‘golden hour’

We haven’t seen much of the sun this December. In fact, it’s been “mostly cloudy” or totally overcast every single day. When the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies rather than mostly cloudy, I’m elated! It means there will be at least a few moments of sunshine to enjoy during the day! But then I wondered: if there’s sunshine to be had on a partly cloudy day, what’s the definition of partly sunny day? According to the National Weather Service, they’re exactly the same thing! If I ran the circus, it would always be called a partly sunny day –a much happier outlook than cloudy!

Male Green-winged Teal during a morning ‘golden hour’ and a Northern Flicker during an evening ‘golden hour’

Even on the sunniest of winter days, though, taking pictures is never easy, especially when it’s bitterly cold and the temperatures fall into the single digits, like they did this past week during our “blizzard of the century.” One day it was only 3 degrees above zero with a wind chill of minus 17! I went outside anyway, mostly to see if I could stay warm enough under multiple layers of clothing and still propel myself forward!

Testing the elements: Wind Chill minus 17 degrees!!

On that particularly frigid day, I went for a walk without my camera just to see how it would feel. Surprisingly, I was so hot under all those layers that I worked up a sweat! It wasn’t so much the multiple layers of clothing that made me hot, but the act of walking. If I had been standing still taking pictures, I would not have stayed warm for very long! Luckily, whenever I do get the urge to take pictures on a bitterly cold day, I can just step out our back door, take a few shots, and pop back in as soon as I get cold. There’s plenty of wildlife right outside our door to keep me entertained for hours.

“Eh, what’s up, Doc?” (One of our backyard visitors)

Male and female Northern Cardinals in our backyard

The Red Squirrels provide plenty of entertainment on a daily basis!

Most of the time I can keep my body quite warm, but my fingers eventually freeze. I’ve tried a wide variety of mittens and gloves with varying degrees of success, but any mittens thick enough to keep my fingers from freezing, are too thick to operate the tiny buttons on a camera! It’s a frustrating dilemma that I’ve been trying to solve for quite some time.

I thought these Canada Geese looked beautiful in the late afternoon sun!

Female Dark-eyed Junco and a male House Finch in our yard.

Great Blue Heron on a fishing expedition over the open ponds at a local fish hatchery

A few years ago, I started adding hand warmers to my pockets. They were a really big help initially, but none of them ever stayed warm enough, long enough to keep me happy. So, I went online to research what other outdoor enthusiasts were using and ultimately ordered a pair of Ocoopa Rechargeable Hand Warmers that would reportedly stay hot for 15 hours!! They will arrive just in time for an unseasonably warm break in the weather and a dismal forecast of rain. Perfect timing!

Female Common Goldeneye and a male Hooded Merganser

I love the challenge of winter photography and all the unique picture opportunities it affords, but I really miss all the colors, and all the creatures, and all the different ways that taking pictures in the warmer months is so much easier!!

Another one of the beautiful deer in our backyard

American Tree Sparrow on a very snowy day

Male Northern Pintail and a male Red-breasted Nuthatch

Most of all, I miss the sunshine—and my warm fingers.

Patches of Sunlight

August 25, 2022

As I approached a new hiking trail the other day, I was disappointed to see that I might just be walking through a dark woods all morning. Normally, I love walking through the woods, but not when I’m taking pictures. It’s usually too dark, or the light is too dappled for a good picture. I seriously contemplated going somewhere else, but gave myself a little pep talk instead. Even in the darkest of woods, I reasoned, there are patches of sunlight, and in those patches of sunlight, there could be a deer, or a chipmunk, or a shiny, new spiderweb! There’s always something, I thought. So off I went.

Chipmunk caught in a patch of sunlight, and a beautiful spiderweb highlighted by the sun

This White-tailed deer was grazing in an open meadow just beyond a wooded section of trail

Hedge Bindweed and an Eastern Comma Butterfly in a ray of sunshine

As I ambled along the trail looking for things to photograph, my thoughts kept turning back to my cousin’s young son who had recently been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. I was envisioning the anguish and the heartbreak that comes with such a diagnosis and wishing there was some way to make everything all better. I thought about the dark woods ahead; the one that they were facing, and hoping they would find patches of sunlight along the way that would make their journey less difficult. An unexpected kindness, perhaps, or a hopeful word.

Pileated Woodpecker highlighted by a ray of sunshine

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and an Eastern Amberwing dragonfly

Sometimes, the path I take through a dark woods leads me to an open meadow, or a hill top, or a pond, where the sun washes gently over everything, and the world looks like a brighter, happier place. I love when that happens! Sunshine opens up all sorts of possibilities!

Eastern Pondhawk and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in the sun

I loved the effect of the sunlight on this small pond

And, on one very rare occasion, as I stood quietly at the edge of a pond hidden in the woods, a bald eagle swooped down out of nowhere and captured a fish right in front of me!

Bald Eagle making a surprise catch right in front of me!

Even in the darkest of woods, there are always patches of sunlight, unexpected joys, and sometimes, glimmers of hope.

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!

Photography as Meditation

December 7, 2020

The idea of photography as meditation has been mulling around in my head for quite some time now. The more I go out to take pictures, the more it feels like a form of meditation.

Dark-eyed Junco– Well into the end of November and the beginning of December, we were getting relatively warm, sunny days that were perfect for all-day photography outings

It was so warm (50 degrees or more) in late November that even the Autumn Meadowhawks were still flitting about and the Painted Turtles were still out sunbathing!

Meditation is commonly described as a “practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.”

Black-capped Chickadee– Four days after the warm, sunny pictures of dragonflies and turtles shown above, it snowed!

Male and Female Cardinal during a brief but spectacular snowfall on November 24th.

Whenever I arrive at a woods, a field or a pond to take pictures, a sense of calm washes over me. I quickly become so focused on looking for interesting things to photograph, that there’s absolutely no room in my brain for any of the usual clutter. Three hours later, I emerge from my ‘trance’, relaxed and ready to face the world. It seems a lot like what I think of as a meditative state.

On another unusually warm November day, I watched the Sandhill Cranes float down to the waiting cornfields

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Sandhill Cranes flock to the open cornfields this time of year. They are a sight (and a sound) to behold!

Much has been written about the therapeutic effects of time spent in nature, but I had never seen anything written about the therapeutic effects of nature photography or, more specifically, ‘photography as meditation’. I decided to do a little research to see if anyone else had come up with the same idea. Surprisingly, there were entire books on the subject!

Female Mallard in the early morning light

Male Mallard and a Female Mallard Hybrid going head to head

Trooper Swan– a cross between a Whooper Swan (pronounced ‘hooper’) and a Trumpeter Swan

“For many people, photography serves as a form of meditation; a way to separate themselves from their stressful lives. Meditation and photography have much in common: both are based in the present moment, both require complete focus, and both are most successful when the mind is free from distracting thoughts.” (Photography as Meditation by Torsten Andreas Hoffman)

Male Mallard conducting an orchestra of Trumpeter Swans at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary

Male Mallard with a green head and one with a blue head

Female Mallard, possibly leucistic — Leucism is a partial loss of pigmentation which causes white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticles, but not the eyes.

“Both photography and meditation require an ability to focus steadily on what is happening in order to see more clearly. Whether you are paying mindful attention to the breath as you sit in meditation or whether you are composing an image in a viewfinder, you find yourself hovering before a fleeting, tantalizing reality.” (Stephen Batchelor, Yale University Press, Meditation and Photography)

A well-camouflaged Wilson’s Snipe who was migrating through Michigan

I had tried ‘regular meditation’ once or twice before, where I would sit quietly and calmly for a short period of time and try to focus my attention on only one thing, but I never mastered the art. On a picture walk, though, I can stay focused for hours and there’s absolutely no room in my brain for the worries of the day to intrude— quite a godsend, I’d say, given this horrifying pandemic and the deplorable state of our government.

White-breasted Nuthatch and a Tufted Titmouse

A picture walk continues to be the perfect form of meditation and the perfect antidote to today’s chaos.

Maybe Tomorrow…

March 5, 2020

Mel and I have been to eight different nature preserves in as many days—both with cameras in hand.

Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Pileated Woodpecker

Great Blue Heron with the catch of the day!

One of my favorite new places that we visited was the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida, described as “a journey into the heart of the Everglades ecosystem… a 2.5-mile adventure through pine flatwoods, wet prairie, around a marsh, and finally into the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America.” I had to go!

Female Cardinal, Indigo Bunting (male non-breeding plumage)

Mama Alligator and her babies (look below her for the babies)

I wasn’t particularly interested in finding the usual swamp creatures like alligators and turtles, I’d already seen plenty of them. What I really hoped to find was a painted bunting. They are such incredibly beautiful birds– and I had never seen one before!

White Peacock Butterfly and a Zebra Longwing

Ironically, Mel and I spent 5 hours taking pictures along the boardwalk, but I didn’t get my bunting picture until we were back at the visitor’s center and I saw one hanging out near the bird feeders! (I prefer to get my birdies out ‘in the wild’ rather than by a feeder, but I was not about to pass this one up over a technicality!)

Another new place we visited was the Babcock Ranch Preserve Footprints Trail in Punta Gorda. Unfortunately, the trail had just undergone a controlled burn and several areas near the trail were still smoldering. Even though we had a hard time finding much of anything to photograph, Mel spotted the one thing I had hoped to find the most—a Barred Owl. Everywhere we go, we look up in the trees hoping to spot an owl, but they are usually well camouflaged and hard to find. This one was high up in a tree, but otherwise visible. I zoomed in, took dozens of shots, and left happy. What a treat!

All the other places we visited this past week or so, Celery Fields in Sarasota, Ollie’s Pond in Port Charlotte, Lemon Bay Park in Englewood, and the State College of Florida in Venice were places we had visited before at one time or another. They are all dependable places for finding birds, butterflies, bugs or alligators– and we were not disappointed!

With all the preserves that Mel and I visited, we ended up with thousands of pictures. Not surprisingly, it takes hours and hours to go through them all. So sometimes, like today, we take a ‘picture holiday’ and just go for a walk without our cameras, but it’s really hard for me to do. I always see something that begs to be photographed! Today it was the iguanas and the dolphins that caught my eye. I didn’t get them today. Maybe tomorrow…

Scavenger Hunt

February 11, 2020

Going for a ‘picture walk’ is a lot like a scavenger hunt, I think. It’s not that I have a list of things to find, but every picture I take feels like a little treasure I’ve collected and put in my pocket. When I get home, I empty my pockets of all the things I’ve found and decide what to keep and what to throw away. The nice thing about this kind of treasure is that my pockets are always big enough! And that’s a good thing– because sometimes I have more than 500 treasures to sort through!

Here’s what I’ve collected this past week…