Wild Wednesday ....

.... solo road trip!!!

Last night Richard read about a rare sighting of a Boreal Chickadee at Merrill Creek Reservoir! 

Well .... having never seen one before I simply had to make the trip to the reservoir to check it out for myself!  Merrill Creek is about 30 minutes from home so it wasn't too long a drive.  I normally don't take road trips like this by myself but I made the exception today. 

Boy, was I glad I did! These wee birds are exceptionally rare here in PA .... most of the time they reside in Canada.  So I was so thrilled to see this lovely chickadee shortly after I arrived at the reservoir.  I'm glad it didn't take long to join all the other birds at the feeder as it was super cold and I didn't dress properly!  No surprise there!

I still wanted to post my usual Wednesday collage but needed to make this special visitor the main focus.  I have added a black-capped chickadee (upper left) so you can see the difference in these two chickadees.  Also featured is a red-bellied woodpecker (top right), dark-eyed junco (middle bottom), a white-throated Sparrow (bottom right) and the boreal chickadee from another view point (center top). 

I think we may have to return over the weekend so Richard has the pleasure of seeing this beautiful little chickadee ... and all the other birds!