Special Sightings

 
 In the past two weeks I have had not one, but two first time bird sightings!  And both times I was lucky enough to get to my camera before these new feathered friends took flight.

My first unusual sighting happened while I was pacing and talking on the phone....I paused by the window and saw a very strange bird that looked like a combination of a dove, a woodpecker, a sparrow, and a starling....I just couldn't figure what I was looking at.  But it was gorgeous and I took pictures and asked questions later.  After my mom and I consulted the bird book and flipped through every page we came to realize that what we saw was indeed a woodpecker, who feeds on insects on the ground, called a Northern Flicker.  My shots were from pretty far away and don't do it nearly enough justice, but like my Barred owl sighing....I am too excited not to share!


 

Check out that golden yellow underneath as he flies!!

The male has some red on his breast

   My second sighting was brought to my attention by my outdoorsy Dad.   Although not raised by wolves, my Dad probably spent most of his childhood and young adulthood outside like one.  So he can ID darn near any indigenous species of bird, mammal, or tree.   But while he could ID this common redpoll, he did NOT know they are an arctic finch.

That's right, these little fellas flock together in large numbers from the arctic and northern Canada and migrate south for winter.  However, seeing them in the US can be unusual unless they are in an irruption year.  Apparently I am not the only Ohioan to have see these guys for the first time at a feeder this winter.  According to this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, every year the redpoll's southern migration is forecast based on their natural food sources etc.

 And this year they got it wrong!  The Winter Finch Forecast said there was plenty of chow in Canada so we would not have any visitors, but there have been many sightings of flocks of redpolls and other boreal forest feeders in Ohio.  YAY!


Any regular reader here knows that one of my favorite subjects that makes me see God's handiwork in his Creation are His marvelous avian critters!  I hope you enjoy these guys as much as I did!  In the words of Steve Irwin, "They're GORGEOUS!"

You can really see his beak shape and color good here

Check out the striping on his side

The female - similar but no red breast

Two pair!

She looks cute but she is scrappy at the feeder!

Orchids in Winter

Well today is the big day when the groundhog will tell us if we can expect more winter or if spring is around the corner.

I got the best of both worlds since temps plummeted this week and today we had steady snowfall all day....but today was also the opening of Fellows Riverside Gardens orchid exhibit!  Last year I accidentally found this exhibit and I was sans camera....so this year I decided to head back and give everyone a lovely taste of spring regardless of what the groundhog might say!

Indoor photography is easier in some ways....no wind, less sun flare....but indoor light is also artificial and can make colors less vibrant.  Luckily Mill Creek Park has a nice set up with plenty of windows and natural light, and with the white snow giving me plenty of reflected fill light....I think I came out of it with plenty to show for this year.  So I didn't post sparingly just so you can see all the variety and really get a good gander at these lovely flowers to take away the winter blues.

The orchid family is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, found in 880 genera.[1][2] Selecting which of the two families is larger is still under debate, as concrete numbers on such enormous families are constantly in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species equals more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.

Most are grown for their beautiful flowers, but the seedpods of the Vanilla orchid provide the popular flavoring. And unlike most plants, they do not grow in soil, but in the air. Their roots attach to trees or rocks where they capture moisture and nutrients that wash over them in the rainforest.

By J.R. Miller:

Paul, in speaking of God, said, "In him we live, and move, and have our being." God is about us as the air is, and we live in him as we live in the atmosphere that surrounds us. It is said that one of the finest orchids in the world is found in England—but, owing to the inclement climate, it grows in dwarfed form, destitute of beauty, and is of no value. Climate is everything for fine plants. Spiritual climate is everything in the growth of heavenly graces. It is a great thing to live and work with the very atmosphere of Christ's love about us, with the very life of Christ for climate.

Can you smell me?

From far away some of these little plants and blooms don't look like much....but as you can see when you get up close,take a nice slow stroll and stop to smell the orchids you will see it is an exotic garden bursting with color and life....all the right things to make the long winter wait for spring that much more enjoyable!

Seeing Red

For anyone who has regularly read this blog, you know of my obsession with the Kentucky Redbird (also known as the Northern Cardinal).  For some reason I relentlessly pursue the perfect photograph of my favorite bird, and while I like a distance snapshot of their vibrant color off on a distant branch....close-ups are what I covet!

 You can imagine then my disappointment as for weeks on end when I would be alerted to a Cardinal being on the kitchen window feeder, time and again I would arrive with my camera to see the Redbird was already gone. But about a little over a week ago I hit the jackpot!  A female was on the feeder, and so I decided to grab some pictures....and when I got to the window with my camera....she had a friend with her! 

Since female cardinals tend to defer to the males when they come to the feeder, she took off after a few moments, but the big guy hung around for a LONG time and I was able to get lots of pictures! 





We were having some very snowy blustery winter weather that day, so I got some unique shots in this series.  I was amazed at how his plumage was blown around by the large gusts of wind.  How do these guys can stay warm in the winter!  God's sustaining hand is truly seen best in songbirds!  (At least that is my thought on the subject!)


 

 

Excerpt from Charles Spurgeon: “The Treasury of David” 

Psalm 143

Verse 5. I meditate on all thy works. Let us look for God in the future more earnestly than we have done in the past,—look for him in vineyards and orchards and harvest fields,—in the bright plumage of birds, and the delicate bloom of fruit, and the sweet gracefulness of flowers,—in the dense foliage of the forest, and the sparse heather of the moor,—in the rich luxuriance of fertile valleys, and the rugged grandeur of the everlasting hills,—in the merry dance of the rivulet, and the majestic tides of the ocean—in the gay colours of the rainbow, and the splendour of the starry heavens,—in the gentle radiance of the moon, and the gorgeous light of setting suns,—in the clear azure sky, and the weird pageantry of clouds,—in the snow mantled wintry landscape, and the brilliant effulgence of a summer's noon,—in the virgin loveliness of spring, and in the pensive fading beauty of autumn,—let us look for him with an earnest, eager, and unwearied gaze, till we see him to be a God of wisdom as well as power, of love as well as sovereignty, of beauty as well as glory.—A. W. Momerie, in "The Origin of Evil, and other Sermons," 1881.

That wind can ruin anyone's hair day!

Feathers are flying but those little feet are clasped tight on the branch!

Last weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count...all my nieces and nephews participate in that birdwatching and counting event every year.  We took a hike in the woods to look for birds, but sometimes the best place to spot them is with a feeder out your window!  Case and point..photo to the right!  Getting close to a cardinal without a feeder is tricky... you half to be SUPER stealth and patient!  That prompted me to pick up a book on my Kindle called "Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding"
so I could find out just exactly how the birds in American were observed, painted, cataloged etc.   (Coincidence there is a cardinal on the cover!) 

Interesting topic...but to me backyard birds are just a nice way of seeing God's glory without having to go very far!

I have a series of shots where he was looking at the ground below the feeder, plotting on how to hop down there and eat.  I like this shot because you can see he became snow covered while sitting there.