I’ve heard the herons are back out at Kensington, I’ve even seen pictures on Michigan birding Facebook groups of them flying around repairing and remodeling their nests in preparation for this year’s branchers. (Did you know baby herons were called branchers? Me either, I had to look it up!)
Everybody claims their place in the neighborhood.
This morning, feeling restless, I decided to go out to see even though it was spitting snow and ice cold rain. But the forecast says it’s only going to get worse around here in the next week so I decided to just go this morning.
Bringing in additional building material.
I arrived at the nature center around 7:45, it was dark and dreary and there were no other cars, unusual in my experience. Apparently most photographers knew better than to even try. I worried that there wasn’t enough light for my long lens.
Coming in for a landing.
As I was standing on the boardwalk, struggling to capture the comings and goings at the heron rookery, I heard a very loud cry right next to my right elbow.
Hey lady!!!!
This guy was demanding breakfast. It kind of felt like I was still at home with a certain short fuzzy little girl. I stopped what I was doing and offered him a couple peanuts from my pocket. He eagerly jumped into my hand and scarfed them up.
Hurry up lady, I’m starving over here!
I had been wondering, on my drive to the park, whether the female blackbirds had arrived. And yes they have. At least one has. And she was disgruntled to be out there in the snow, so I gave her a few peanuts too.
What’s with the snow, lady? I expected spring would get here before I did!
I took a few more shots of the herons, vowing to come back some sunny morning, then headed into the woods. I was looking for skunk cabbage, a sure sign that it’s spring around here, even though it’s still snowing.
Nobody every gives me anything.
And of course I’d be visiting with my favorite little birds. I’ll share those with you in the next post.
We and our lady friend will wait right here until you come back, lady.
Ah yes. I went out to Kensington nearly a week ago to see if there were red-winged blackbirds singing there. I had one lone male visiting my feeder at home, but I hadn’t heard the early blackbird chorus that announces spring every year here in Southeast Michigan.
Not a blackbird.
But I got distracted, first by the turkeys and then by the redheaded woodpecker. Still….were there red-winged blackbirds here in Michigan, aside from the lonely guy at my feeder?
Can’t get over this guy.
I could hear a few, down another icy trail, and I hoped I didn’t have to go too far to gather proof. They were mostly far away, hiding in the cattails. They weren’t making much noise, and seemed a bit shy, or maybe they were just shell-shocked by the freezing temperatures and snow.
“I’m hungry, but I don’t know if I can trust that lady over there.”
One was walking up the path ahead of me. I thought maybe if I put some peanuts and oilers out I could coax him up into a more photogenic location.
“HEY! Hurry up you guys, she left us SNACKS!”
The longer I stood there the more blackbirds I saw, though none were brave enough to come get the treats I put out.
I’d appreciate a snack too, lady. My feet are cold.
Eventually they came closer, and ate some treats that I tossed near them. They even sang a little, but I know that later in the season they’ll be much happier to see me, once they figure out that the people visiting generally have food for them.
“If I don’t look at you, you’re not there. Right?”
So yes, spring has officially sprung in Southeast Michigan. The red-winged blackbirds are here, let the snow begin to melt!
My purpose, this past Monday, in going out to my favorite park was to see if the red-winged blackbird was back here in southeastern Michigan. I had one visiting my backyard feeder, but I hadn’t heard him or any others singing, my true harbinger of spring.
Everybody’s in a hurry. Why not stop and just enjoy a spot of sunlight?
I knew if they were anywhere, they’d be at Kensington which has large marshy areas and more importantly, people with food for the birds.
Hey lady! I’ll pose for peanuts!
When I arrived I drove past the heron rookery in case the eagle happened to be there, and since he (or she?) was not, I didn’t bother to walk over there after I parked. Instead I considered which trail might be most effective for finding the blackbirds.
I’ll keep watch for you lady! My fee is mere peanuts!
And then I remembered that I have been seeing beautiful images of the illusive (to me anyway) red headed woodpecker taken at this park. And I knew, from those pictures, what area of the trail system he had usually been seen.
I don’t see any red birds over this way. Do you happen to have any peanuts?
So I decided to go check that out before more people showed up. I had only seen one other car in the lot, and I didn’t want a lot of people clomping around scaring off my birds! And speaking of clomping, I was wearing my Yax grippers, and let me tell you, wearing those on ice makes it impossible to sneak up on anything!
The trails were covered in ice, no problem for the big guy.
I arrived at the location I thought I’d find the red headed and there wasn’t a bird to be seen. Nothing. Not a sparrow or a mourning dove. Not a starling or a cardinal. No hawk, no crow. No bird sounds. I stood there a long time. Then I sighed and walked off down the trail, head down, dragging my heavy camera in defeat.
Guy with really big camera charges off into the woods and missed the big show.
And then I heard the little squeak of a nuthatch. He was poking his head up over a slightly hollow stump. Someone had left some millet in the stump and he was poking around eating what he could find
Hey! Don’t suppose you have a peanut for me?
He was adorable. And then there was a second set of squeaking, and I saw a second nuthatch on a nearby tree. Beautiful.
If there are peanuts, I’m in!
I walked over to their stump and put a few peanuts in there, as sort of a reward for posing so nice for me, and then I backed up and waited. Soon enough they were both running around on their stump, and my camera was following them.
She didn’t put very many in here, we better get our share!
And then I heard a bigger squawk. OMG, look what came in for a peanut!
I have arrived!
Well, look at both of them, the red headed and a male downy woodpecker, tucked in lower on the right side of the stump. I could hardly breath as I was shooting.
The little male downy wasn’t sure he was invited.
And even when the red headed flew up into the tree he didn’t go far.
Getting a snack to take up into the trees.
He kept posing for me, up and over branches, in and out of the sun. My arms ached from holding the big heavy lens up toward the sky.
I loved the tree limbs in this one.
But I couldn’t stop smiling.
He looks small here, like a hummingbird, but he’s definitely a good sized woodpecker!
I clicked away until I finally gave up. He wasn’t moving, and I had no idea if I had anything worthwhile.
I’m watching you lady!
Still smiling, I walked away. After all, I had to go find my blackbirds!
Don’t forget about me, lady! I won’t be around here much longer!
A couple weeks back Debbie, of ND Domer’s Mom said, in a comment on my post about snowy owls or barns, that she wouldn’t mind seeing a turkey, and I assured her I’d run across a turkey sooner or later.
Hey lady! It’s early and we’re not camera ready yet! Well, except for Ralph over there, he’s a camera hog.
Well, yesterday turned out to be the day.
And in the early morning light they were beautiful.
Showing off my colors while looking for breakfast.
In a weird sort of way.
A face only a mother could love.
And though they were not the reason I was in their park, they turned out to be a feature of the icy walk.
I’m ready for my photo shoot now.
Why was I there? Well, I was trying to confirm whether red winged blackbirds were indeed back, that my loan male visiting my deck wasn’t an anomaly.
Sunday morning, in preparation for the Super Bowl, I left home with my camera.
Multiple barns make for an efficient shot.
OK. So maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the Super Bowl, maybe it was just me wanting to get out of the house for a little bit. With a camera and nowhere specific to go.
Artsy-fartsy sun on pole. No owl.
A friend had told me about a snowy owl that she’s seen a few times over near Katie’s vet. Lots of open fields and telephone poles out that way so I figured maybe I would finally see a snowy owl if I headed in that direction.
So I did.
Barn with multiple additions.
And I might have seen one. Something kind of large flew directly over the car, while I was still on the freeway. I only caught a glimpse of the underside, the same color as the light grey sky, it blended into the nothingness above me and then disappeared. It might have been a hawk. But it felt more round than a hawk in flight would be.
Starting to snow again.
Anyway, when I got to the town nearest the vet I entered a pretty heavy snow squall. It was hard to see anything, and I was trying to figure out if I should just turn around and go home. How in the world would I see a white owl in a blizzard?
Hard to see a white barn in a blizzard too.
I crept along, passed Katie’s vet and turned south on the next big road, looking for the small rural road she said the owl had been seen on. It seemed sort of far, and figuring I had missed it, I stopped looking at the street signs just about the time I passed the road.
Darn it all.
But sometimes it was sunny.
So I drove on to the next road and a place to turn around. But what was that over there? A very nice barn? Well, might be I should just go over there first and then go back and find that owl road.
White barn, white fence, white snow.
And up there at the next, quite far away, corner, well that looks like a good barn too. And wait, over there, I need to see what’s over there for sure. Good thing the snow let up.
White on white.
And that’s how it went. On my way back to the road that might or might not have an owl I kept finding more barns. And the snow came and went.
Still pretty.
Sometimes on the left would be sunshine and blue sky while on the right a blizzard raged.
Another version of red, white and blue.
I eventually did wander down the road I had originally intended to explore. Never did see an owl of any color. Saw a couple turkeys cross the road, but they didn’t want their pictures taken.
Such a pretty farm.
And then I turned a corner and saw the sweetest little barn with a dormer. Something niggled at me and then I remembered. I’d been by this exact barn about a month ago. I had no idea where I was by then, but I knew if I was repeating barns it was time to head for home.
Why do you look so familiar?
I have to say this adventure was mostly a barn hunt on which I might have seen a snowy owl float overhead for a moment. In fact I think I’ll just say that’s what it was.
Yep. I saw a snowy owl on Sunday, and I got home in time to watch the game too.
Those of you living in warmer climates would probably like to see more snow photos, right? Since my retirement I can attest to the fact that snow is better viewed from behind windows than windshields.
I always think that wet, clingy snow like this shows off patterns we never notice other times of the year.
Similarly I bet snow is better viewed from a beach in, say, Alabama, than from the deck of a home here in Michigan. And since I didn’t want you to miss the exquisit beautify of life here after a snowstorm, I figured I better get to it and post a few more before springs drops on us.
“Do you think they’ll pay us extra to pose for next year’s Christmas card?”
Because this is the time of year that I am fooled, every single year, into believing that spring is right around the corner. Even when I look outside and there’s nothing but snow as far as my eye can see.
“It’s hard to commute back to my nest when my freeway is snow covered.”
We have had sunshine the past two days, which in itself fools a person into thinking winter is almost over. After weeks and weeks of grey skies I felt like I needed to take the camera and go somewhere, anywhere, just to get outside.
Room for everybody at this diner.
But I needed to feed Katie her lunch and then take her outside before I left her for a few hours. And of course on our walk I saw this.
They blended right into the vines as they enjoyed lunch and the sun.
And of course then I had to hurry her back to the house, grab the camera and go back to the robin tree (which is actually a dead tree covered in bittersweet vine) which was shining in early afternoon light.
Nom, nom, nom.
And by the time I got done taking those it was getting sort of late to go on any big adventure, so I settled in to process the robin images, and that ended up being my big photo shoot for the day.
Red, white and blue.
Next week I have meetings and appointments almost every day. And of course who knows if we’ll have sun again any time soon. It’s hard to say if I’ll have another opportunity in the near future to run away for a few hours with the camera.
But since I know it will be spring soon I’m not too worried.
Sometimes there’s only time to run away down your own street.
Yep. Next week or the week after I’m sure I’ll be seeing little green nubs pushing up in my gardens. Though at the moment I can’t actually see my gardens since they’re buried under the snow.
Home sweet home.
But it won’t be long. I just know it.
“You better be right about spring, lady. I’ve about had it with this snow.”
Who knew that one partial day of bird photography could turn into three blog posts? Well. To be honest, I know I take way too many pictures, and then I have no place to share them but here. So you are once again subjected to my interpretation of bird life.
I’m sure the birds don’t mind me sharing their inner most private thoughts.
“No I will not stand still so you can get your focus right.”
As I was leaving the nature center, fingers and toes frozen but happy that I saw the eagle and all the other birds, I noticed a flury of activity centered on a stairway railing.
“Hurry up, we’re calling this meeting to order in a minute!”
Someone had left a pile of seed on a post and the blue jays decided to share the spoiles. Most unusual as they aren’t usually known for sharing anything.
“As Chairman of the Board I reserve the right to the peanut.”
No one else was invited to the feast. They seemed to be an exclusive club, and were definitely showing their true colors.
“This is ours!”
There was much flapping and jeering and jostling for position among them. But when another bird tried to join in, they became a united front. Only jays allowed.
“We can vote on it, but historically resolutions to allow chickadees into our group has never been approved.”
Beautiful bullies, those jays.
And then I was driving home, wishing the eagle had stayed a bit longer, but happy with what I had. And out of the corner of my eye, as I crossed the last bridge before the park exit, I saw this:
Looks like Swan Lake to me.
So I turned around and parked at a lot above the river and walked back down. Because who can resist swans and blue water on a beautiful winter day?
I spent a lot of time watching them come and go, and then I walked over to the other side of the bridge and saw this lovig couple.
“This salad bar is boring, I’ll just freshen up over here.”
Well, actually, he was busy eating and she was thinking that a bit of grooming was in order. Typical. But then he puffed all up.
“Looking bigger and more beautiful, I’ll keep my girl all to myself.”
Was he just showing off for his lovely partner? Or was there a something more suspicious?
“I wouldn’t go down there if I were you, looks like this part of the river is already occupied.”
A flock of swans flies overhead. Could that mean danger? Would he have to defend his sweetheart?
“This looks like a fine place to take a break, plus there’s a cute girl over there!”
Oh no! A brave interloper lands! He must be dealt with swiftly!
“Let me introduce myself. I am the supreme ruler of this part of the river, and you are trespassing!”
With no time to spare the original swan was on the case.
“Not on my watch, buddy!”
The offending swan, uttering his apologies, immediately moved on.
“Sorry, man, I’m outta here!”
Life got back to normal on this little part of the river, and the two love birds lived happily ever after.
“Well, OK then. The nerve of some swans.”
The end.
When I got back to the car a lone bluejay greated me hopefully.
“Thanks for visiting our park, lady! You got anything to eat?”
And I smiled at him, shook my head and waved goodbye for now. I’ll be back. I know they’ll be waiting for me.
“Well. If you don’t have anything to share I’m outta here too.”
Change Is Hard 