Views From A Window

Well it finally looks like the Ohio Valley is in for a nice warm up this coming week, however with this warm up we usually get some rain. It was during this deep freeze we were experiencing I was only able to go birding a couple of times. For the most lakes and ponds were still frozen over and finding any waterfowl proved to be pretty difficult.

As is the case when it becomes really cold, my feeders were very busy. So I kept my camera close at hand, and whenever the feeders started to draw a lot of birds I would sneak into the dining room and snap a few shots of my visitors.

Nothing unusual, just your normal feeder birds. But it’s so satisfying.

 Eastern Towhee

Northern Cardinal

 

Dark-eyed Junco

White-throated Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse

Blue Jay

Female Northern Cardinal

Eastern Bluebird

Yes, I’m still Alive….Barely

As the title implies it has been a pretty rough 4 weeks for myself. A series of events have kept me sidelined from doing what I enjoy the most. And now that the month has settled down I hope to get back to doing some birding.

First let’s start with the good news. I’m a Grandfather. My daughter delivered a 8 lb 2 oz baby boy named Graham and we’re all very happy. For myself it was kind of bitter sweet since at the time of the delivery I was laid up with walking pneumonia. I felt so bad there was no way for me to make the 4 hour drive to Detroit. So my wife went and kept me up to date. And for the pneumonia, it’s been hanging on now for a little over 3 weeks. Needless to say I’m really tired of it.

On Christmas Eve, still feeling ill from the pneumonia, I had to check out one of our down spouts on the house. I thought it had been clogged with leaves and it really needed to be cleared out. A simple task that should only take a few minutes. I live in a ranch house so I wasn’t up on the ladder very far when the whole thing slid out from under me taking me to the ground, hitting really hard. Fortunately there were no broken bones but I’ve been sore. My left arm is still sore and it’s been a couple weeks since the accident.

Oh, and let’s not forget the holidays. We were real busy as I’m sure everyone was.

So today I told myself I’m going out to do a little birding. Armleder Park is hosting a Snow Bunting and some Lapland Longspurs mixed in with a small flock of Horned Larks.

 Lapland Longspur

Snow Bunting with Lapland Longspur