Saturday, January 24, 2009

On the road chasing waterfowl!


Well it's been a very busy week, and consequently I simply have been remiss in posting any of the images from my forays into the forests and the fields. I've combined my favorites from the past week into this small collage. Once again it's been all about the skies and the birds. The winter skies in Southern Illinois are so much more colorful and vibrant than the burned out flat hazy grey skies we see in the summer. The sun's closer proximity to the horizons in the winter months also produces some spectacular sunrises and sunsets for those brave enough to weather the frigid temps to capture them.
On the bird front, the feeding stations in my yard, a certified backyard wildlife habitat, have been full of the regular winter visitors such as blue jays, cardinals, variety of sparrows and finches, and the occasional Sharp shinned and coopers hawks cruising by looking for a songbird snack.
The waterfowl are still in full swing and this week I was once again treated to the trumpeter swans and the a new influx of migrating pelicans. The rivers, lakes and streams are mostly frozen over, cause large numbers to congregate near the few places that still have open water such as the Baldwin Power Plant, and near the lock and dams on the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers.
It has made for some great bird watching along the iced in areas, especially along the rivers where birds the birds congregate behind the barge cuts in the ice and near the few places with open water.
Lots of migratory waterfowl still keeping us company as well like the lovely specimen of an American Black Duck shown above.



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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you really do get some great bird photos!! I have trouble getting nice ones of our chickens, so catching wild birds would probably be impossible for me right now. LOL I do love your photo's though. Nice sunrise/sunset in there too. I finally managed to go get some of one of our sunsets this winter, usually I'm fixing supper and can't. LOL

It must be a wonderful sight to see the swans, we don't see them here. Lovely photos! :)

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