2009/01/29

The day after snowfall

Yesterday it snowed quite heavily in the morning. But you could hardly tell from today's pictures. I guess I like this kind of condition too - soft snowfall and quick melt.

Nice weather today allowed me to escape out of the house in the afternoon.

I cropped some of the pictures below to emphasize on the subject. So, sorry if the image quality isn't too good. Today, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

What are you looking at? - A Savannah Sparrow, perhaps?

Great Blue Heron

Saw this Northern Flicker perched on top of this tall poplar tree at the golf course. It didn't flew away until I was almost right underneath the tree. It was perched in such a strange position that I had to take some pictures.

As you can see on the ground, there was hardly any snow left. But the Snow Geese are certainly still here. In fact, most of them were feeding on somebody's backyard. I wonder if the house owner knew their property is overtaken by these big white birds.

There were so many that some even spilled onto the roads.

I wonder why the top branches are so straight up in this tree? It's not like they need to compete for sunlight with other trees. Strange.

The red patch is clearly visible in this Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), one of the most abundant birds in North America with 190 million birds in 1974, and probably even more today.

Something spooked the Snow Geese, causing this huge commotion. One of the walkers told me that a Bald Eagle just flew by. Does this mean I get to see a Bald Eagle soon?

At first, a Northern Harrier along the shining horizon.

Then, I saw these two Bald Eagles at the usual hotspot. I guess the best time to see these birds is near sunset. Magnificent birds! But the one in the nest didn't seem to like audiences as it took off to join the one already on a tree before it flew off alone to a tree inside the golf course.

Bald Eagles

If you look closely, all those tiny dots on the sea surface are birds, most likely gulls. And this picture was only a small part of the long coast along Sturgeon Bank. I guess what I want to say is that there are a lot of birds out there!
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2 comments:

Susannah Anderson said...

Good photos! Cropping helps them. So does showing them in the large size (at least, large as Blogger measures them).

Quality is dependent on the light and the camera. In these foggy, grey days, you're doing well to get the shots you do.

I love your shot of the harrier.

PSYL said...

Thank you, Wanderin' Weeta. I like the harrier shot too.

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