Common Birds Are Great For A Scavenger Hunt

 My birding jaunts this month have been short and almost painful (coooold!). That all changed this weekend as we had sunshine and 40 degree temps on Saturday.I visited Machimoodus Park in East Haddam which has a healthy population of Eastern Bluebirds.

 The habitat has a nice mix so the birding is always good there. I've avoided looking for the more common birds so far knowing that they would be there for me to enjoy and appreciate on a warm sunny day like it was this weekend.

The nice weather made me appreciate birds like the Dark-eyed Junco. It was fun to search for birds like chickadees and titmice that I hadn't added to my year list yet. It felt like a good old-fashioned bird scavenger hunt!

Birds Hanging Out In A Tree Warmed By Sun

 During the winter I look for areas where birds concentrate that I can pull close to in my car.This old tree was near a brushy field in a lighted area. Among the birds that landed in the tree was 18 Red-winged Blackbirds,16 Eastern Bluebirds,......

8 Dark-eyed Juncos...........

and 22 Cedar Waxing!

Ice Jams Along The Connecticut River

With the deep freeze we had followed by warmer days we've had a lot of ice building up along the Connecticut River. They've been sending ice breakers through to open up the water and then the broken hunks of ice pile up at certain areas along the river. This photo was taken from Haddam meadows.

I've had my eyes open looking around for any areas of open water. 

I found a couple of Ring-necked Ducks in a little patch of open water along a stream at roadside.

Too Cold To Press The Shutter Button

 The beginning of January started out with a couple of weeks of really cold weather. It was so cold that the couple of times I did try to get out I didn't even attempt taking any photos. I posted a couple of photos from past Januaries when the weather was probably more agreeable..

I don't mind winter weather but there is a limit and single digit temperatures is definitely my limit, especially when there is wind.  Wind is like my kryponite in the winter. My hands got so cold last Sunday that my fingers hurt when I tried to heat them up in front of my car heater.  

If there is a sunny 30 degree day with no wind I could probably walk around in a long-sleeved shirt with no jacket. As I'm writing this we are finally having a warm-up so I'm looking forward to getting out again.