Not What I Was Looking For

Though I am sick, I ran over to Great Meadows for a quick photography visit. I hoped to confirm that the Screech Owl remained and to catch him early enough that his eyes would be fully open. Failing that, I was hoping that the Bald Eagle would come visit the Coots clustered in the open water of the impoundments. Final score - Birds:2 Larry:nil

The day wasn't a total wash out. Here's what I did encounter during my cough filled walk.


Downy Woodpecker doing serious construction


Female Bufflehead among the Canada Geese on the river


Did the refuge tile the spillway?


Lotus pods frozen in the ice. Waiting for the thaw and flooding to take it to its new home


Song Sparrow on Cattail


I made one last pass, by the "owl hole" but the owl still wasn't there. While hanging around hoping that maybe he would show, this Red-bellied Woodpecker started working on a dying tree in the background. The sun was making his red head shine.


Redbellied Woodpecker

Off The Market

Based upon Cherrie's report of a Bald Eagle enjoying Coot Tartare for lunch at Great Meadows yesterday, I wandered over to the refuge to see if I could catch it in action. When I arrived, I ran into Will who told me that the eagle had visited the refuge very early this morning.

The refuge was almost totally frozen over, with little obvious animal activity. Thankfully, Will reported that we had a new visitor in the neighborhood. During the Christmas Bird Count, we heard a Screech Owl. During today's census, Will noticed that one had moved back into the hole vacated by the last Screech Owl.






It's a Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl. I did have a little difficulty finding it. I wasn't expecting it to be filling the whole hole! I'll have to try again earlier in the day to catch it with its eyes open.

I continued around the impoundments all the way to Borden's Pond. There really wasn't much activity, a couple of Chickadees, the Canada Geese in the field across the river, a couple of Downy Woodpeckers, and two pairs of Mallards floating with the current.

On the way back to the car, I stopped to enjoy the Coots waling and slipping on the ice, as they foraged for vegetation and congregrated at the few spots of open water.








Of course our strange winter weather is forecast to continue. This weekend there will be a warming trend, providing more water for the coots, encouraging them to the remain for a while longer. I guess that's okay.

Christmas Bird Count

It was o'dark thirty when I woke up Monday morning. I was starting to question the wisdom of agreeing to participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count group counting the East Concord area which includes Great Meadows. Thankfully, it wasn't brutally cold, as I arrived at the refuge at 5:30AM. The sun would not be arising for another 2 hours, but everyone was there to see which owls we could count. With a bit of patience, a Screech Owl was heard near the neighborhood, and a Great Horned Owl in the distance.

At last light was starting to spread over the refuge as we started to venture out into the refuge. We hadn't made it to the kiosk before David spied this mature bald eagle high in the trees at the near end of the Cross Dike trail. When it has visited in the past it has always perched towards the far end of the Upper Impoundment. While we were able to get good looks with binoculars and scopes, it was a bit far for the lens I brought. It eventually moved on (after doing a fly by scaring the coots) and we proceeded.



As we made our way onto the dike there were the usual Canada Geese, Coots, and Sparrows along the way. I was clearly the novice among this group of birders, but it was interesting to watch and listen as they learned from each other. In the early morning light, I took this group photo.


(l-r) Allison, David, Bryan, Scott, Julia, Claudio


"Heavy" coming in for a landing, Expect wake turbulence


Approaching front, about to pass thru


While we were stopped next to one of the trees on the Cross Dike, this Downy flew in to count the Christmas Counters.



At the far end of the Cross Dike trail, the group split and my group covered the Lower Impoundment, Timber Trail, and the Railroad Bed up to the treatment plant. Along the Timber Trail Connector (my new name for the ad hoc trail used by the neighbors to connects the Timber Trail to the Rail Trail) we discovered a new tree down across the path.


I found the pattern of fungi interesting


Proof that man may try to impact things, but slowly and surely nature will have its way in the end


The day was more about birding than photography, so you'll have to be content with these few grab shots. The good news was that when we arrived home from Rochester, my repaired D300 was sitting on the steps. The bad news was that the repair reset all the settings in the camera, so much time during and after the walk was spent getting it set up to function the way I need it, to take the photos you enjoy.