Feathers on Friday

Last Sunday another Northern Shrike visited my feeders, and that time I was able to take many photos of this one.

Preening,

Watching the redpolls,

Feathers on Friday

We had another Spring blizzard yesterday, our second one this week, with lots of cold, snow, and wind. Not the best day for driving, but I had my singing lessons about 25 miles north of our house on a gravel road, and my mom was driving.

I was looking out the windows for birds trying to keep themselves warm in the storm, and as we were passing a yard with lots of spruce trees, I noticed a splash of color and saw it was an American Kestrel.

A very beautiful male American Kestrel,

ABA Bird of the Year: Evening Grosbeak

Last night, Jeff Gordon, president of the American Birding Association, announced the 2012 ABA Bird of the Year: the Evening Grosbeak, a bird I have yet to see. To read more about the Evening Grosbeak visit the ABA Bird of the Year page. The artwork on this month’s cover of “Birding” magazine and on the stickers are from the very talented artist Julie Zickefoose. Here is the cover,

and here is a sticker,

Here is a great video of Mr. Gordon revealing of the Bird of the Year,

This afternoon with my mother’s help (in other words, her credit card) I joined the ABA. I can’t wait for my first issues of “Winging It” and “Birding” magazine with the Evening Grosbeak stickers, which I going to put on my binoculars.

A Spring Poll

To celebrate the Equinox and first day of Spring today, I have a poll!

Vote for your favorite Spring bird by the evening of Thursday, March 29th, and on Friday, March 30th, I’ll have a post with the results. Thank you!

Mammals on Monday

On Saturday, one of our cows gave birth to twins. The one on the right is a bull calf and the one on the left is a heifer calf. I’ve named them Fred and Ginger,

Feathers on Friday

While fixing a myself a snack Wednesday afternoon, I was looking out the kitchen window at the bird feeders with all the redpolls, when I noticed that a Northern Shrike had landed in the tree. All of the redpolls fled, not wishing to be the shrike’s next meal. I quickly ran downstairs to grab my camera, but by the time I got my camera the shrike had left the tree and had flown to a snag across the road, where it sat for a little while. I was able to get some not bad photos of the shrike while in the tree.

The shrike then flew to a fence post,