Winter Sparrow

Yesterday I blipped a dark-eyed junco, one of two sparrow species that spend the winters in our yard; today is the second species, the white-throated sparrow.  They have the most beautiful song of all the North American songbirds, in my opinion - a rich whistled melody that brightens even the gloomiest winter day.  Also, like yesterday's junco, this little guy is perched on one leg, with the other tucked up into his warm feathers.

As you can probably see from the white background, we got the promised snow last night.  In all, only about 3-4 inches but still enough that we had to get shovels and snow-blower out.  Not surprisingly, there have been mobs of birds at the feeders all day and I've been scattering cracked corn every hour or so for the sparrows, doves and cardinals (no signs of the turkeys since I bought the corn, of course).  

The temps were a little kinder today, so after the snow stopped, I went out to get some photos.  I love taking pictures in the snow, although the exposure can be tricky.  I had to lower the highlights in almost all of the shots today, even in spite of heavily overcast skies.  I posted 4 other shots on Flickr, starting HERE with a snowbird.  The last in the series is of two common grackles who were having a show-down over the suet feeder during the snow this morning.  Absolutely hilarious to watch - wish I'd thought to get video.  The first two in the series were shot and processed to give them a hi-key look; I'm happy with the results, but welcome any suggestions.

Funniest thing seen today:  two squirrels having a fearsome chase through the trees, about 30 feet above ground.  Suddenly, one squirrel launched itself at the second, knocking it from the branch.  The second squirrel fell 30 feet down, straight to the ground, hit hard, bounced about 5 feet into the air, jumped up, ran back up the tree and went after the other squirrel.  Utterly amazing and, once I realized that the squirrel hadn't been hurt in the fall, utterly hilarious.  That squirrel was seriously pissed off!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a safe weekend.

xo
Debbi