Birding in the Snow

In the past two days, I have added four new species to my all-time list. Praise God for the snow! Yesterday, after church and lunch with Carrie's parents, we pulled into our driveway on Glenn Avenue in Normal, and I noticed a Rusty Blackbird eating off of the ground beneath one of our feeders. Although this was nothing extraordinary in McLean County, it was the first Rusty I had beheld.

Then on my way to work today, I saw three new species on County Highway 29 running parallel to Route 24 just South of Gridley in McLean County. I had been noticing small flocks of birds feeding on the road and the edges of the road since Saturday. I thought most of them to be House Sparrows, but today, I slowed down and stopped to get a closer look at a couple of these small flocks. Every time a car drove by, they took off into the field, but flew back to a different spot along the road. Surprisingly, however, several of the birds allowed me to get close enough in my car to take some pictures. The first subject was the Horned Lark also shown at the beginning of this post. What a beautiful fat little bird, or at least thus he appeared while pressed against the ground, feeding with his face in the snow. It was difficult to get a glimpse of these Larks with their heads up because they were so hungry. I counted 17 of these little guys this morning.









Next, I saw a couple of Lapland Longspurs in another flock not far from the first. Of course, I had no idea what I was photographing until I later looked at my field guide.


While I was photographing the Longspurs, I noticed a bird of a different sort, mostly white underneath, but with a thin brown crescent beneath its throat. When I looked through my field guide, I learned that I had seen and photographed my first Snow Bunting.





While I was at work at Salem Ranch, I noticed 16 Eurasian Collared Doves and 3 Mourning Doves roosting in the tree outside of my window.

It was interesting to see the Mourning Dove on the right roosting so closely to the Eurasian Collared Dove on the left. Anything to keep warm I suppose. Most of the doves were roosting right next to one, two, or three of the others.

When I took this picture, I accidentally cut off the end of the dove's tail, but I still like the detail on the wings.








A little later, a black bird flew in and perched on the same tree. I was convinced at first that it was a Brewer's Blackbird and very excited, thinking to add for the day another bird not common to this area. Later I came to realize I had not photographed an uncommon Brewer's Blackbird, but rather, a quite common Common Grackle. Still, I was very happy with my quarry for the day.


Some people think all the birds fly away for the winter. Until recently, I had no idea that there were so many species that either arrived for or hung around for the winter. One of my goals for this winter is to photograph a male Ring-necked Pheasant in the snow, for his colors stand out so brightly in the midst of a field of white. I have tried to get such a shot for the last two years, but this year, I have a camera with enough zoom to capture such an image thus I am hopeful. I did not see Pheasants today, but I did see Larks, Longspurs, and a Bunting, which also contrasted nicely with the snow. I'm not sure whether the snow brought them to the edge of the road, but the snow definitely brought them to my attention. As I drove slowly and cautiously, I could not help noticing birds on the road. So praise God for the seasons and for the snow, a beauty in itself, which sheds light upon other hidden beauties of creation.