Virtual Birding

During the night the wind blew and lots of snow came down, so the first thing I did when I got up was feed the birds.  I was not even back inside the house before they started coming... the chickadees first, then juncos, and so on.

As I watched out my kitchen window, more and more birds came.  Since church was canceled because of the snow, I thought it would be a good day to keep track of all the birds I could see.  Then I thought of a blog I follow called "I Love Shelling". The lady who writes it sometimes takes videos or photos along the beach in Sanibel, Florida and posts them on her blog for people to go "virtual shelling." Well, if you can go virtual shelling, how about virtual birding?

First, here's how it looks from my kitchen window.  You can see the shells that just might have been my inspiration for the 'virtual birding' idea.  Oh, and hey, if you'd rather go shelling on a nice warm beach instead of looking at snowy bird photos, just click here and there's a video near the bottom of the "I Love Shelling" page!

Here's a list of the birds I saw today:
Chickadees, Juncos, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, House Finches, Goldfinches, Tree Sparrows, House Sparrow, Bluebirds, White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Mourning Doves, and Cedar Waxwings.  Now, I must say that there are not photos of every kind on the list.  But see how many you can identify in the following photos:

There are 4 kinds in this photo. 

Here's a close up of the little one in the back of the above photo:

Two kinds here.  The one on the left has some leucistic feathers on his head!

Whoops, time for a short break while the snowblower man comes thru!

And the first two birds back after that were:

Now, let's see what might be happening out the back windows... looks like there are birds in the crab apple tree!

There are three (of one kind) in the photo above.  Here's a closer look in the next photo:

But wait, what's that?  Who's singing, "Gone away are the bluebirds?"  There are some here today!

Can you identify the three birds in the next shot?

There are two fairly easy to see birds next, plus parts of two Blue Jays.... can you find them?

I couldn't leave out this pretty female Cardinal.

Or the handsome Hairy Woodpecker.

How about three more cute chickadees?

It's pretty hard to capture chickadees in a still photo, so here's a short video of them flitting around the feeder.

In the afternoon, I took a hike on my snowshoes to see what I could see away from the house.

I was hoping to see a golden-crowned kinglet in the snow-covered hemlocks.  Even if there had been any around, they probably heard me coming.  The snow had an icy crust on the top that made each of my steps very loud!  I paused to listen once and awhile, but I only saw one nuthatch and one chickadee and....I think, three snow geese.  I was in the woods, looking up-- when three large (goose-sized) birds flew over.  I got my binoculars up in time to see they were all white with black wing-tips, but I didn't get a great look at them because of the trees.  We usually see snow geese in large flocks, up high, during migration. Seemed a little odd to see only 3, and flying lower than they do when migrating.

So, don't feel bad if you can't identify all the birds in my photos -- I quite often am left wondering what it was that I saw!  It was just really neat to see those 3 large white birds.... whatever they were!  I hope you enjoyed your virtual birding with me, too.

Oh, and I also have to share this cute fellow.  Not a bird, but he was at the bird feeders today!