For the Birds....

..... we bundled up, brushed the snow off the car, scraped the ice off the windshield and headed down to Lynde Shores Conservation area. Despite it being Sunday and school break, it was not too crowded. The weather had deterred people less motivated than someone in need of a blip!

The snow was coming down quite heavily and starting to pile up in the trees and along the woodland trails, making for lovely winter shots but we were in search of birds, and there were plenty in the marsh near the entrance...so that's where we started...and they saw us coming! 

I had armed my sister with a bag of sunflower seeds and those Canada geese and mallards are no fools..they recognize a food source walking toward them and before she could even open the bag, they had rushed up out of the water and had her surrounded! Much shoving and pushing and scrambling ..and a fun time was had by all...

Then we were off to the woodland trails where my sister stood hand out and up, in the tried and true manner, inviting the chickadees to eat out of her hand.. which they did..but so did a downy woodpecker!  Quel surpris! An unexpected treat! 

Further along the trail, there seemed to be a gathering of cardinals.. flashes of red in the trees and then one after another, and sometimes in pairs, they landed on a tree stump on the edge of the trail, stayed long enough for photos and were then joined by a red-bellied woodpecker .. What more could a blipper wish for? Two for one... and RED....a little tricky to focus with all that snow falling, but there it was...my blip of the day.. 

January 2nd and all is well..