Apologies for the fuzzy appearance of most of the photos in this post, but it’s been a week of huddling indoors and watching the birds through the screened porch windows. The few times I’ve gone out back to try to capture anything, it’s been cloudy or the birds have been obscured by branches, which is understandably their strategy in this weather. It’s been too cold to go for a walk anywhere else. We are supposed to get a warm up, but with it will come snow and rain, so I may be off the trails for a while yet.
The feeders have been popular.
There was sunshine that day, at least. But I barely captured a few cold-looking House Finches.
The American Goldfinches are back in full force. This is the one time of year I see more of them in the yard.
It’s good to see more of the Black-capped Chickadees too.
I bought a couple new feeders this year to try and confuse the squirrels. The birds are definitely not confused by them. Their favorite is extremely messy, which could be why they like it so much.
This other feeder has only 4 ports, but it hasn’t stopped the House Sparrows from emptying it.
I have been very happy to see some American Tree Sparrows in the yard.
I see one American Robin on occasion.
More feeder action.
I tried going outside a couple times, to no avail.
I went back inside for more fuzzy glimpses.
Then Friday on my way to the pool I decided to take a look at the Des Plaines River, which had been under a flood watch for a couple days, due to an ice jam. The ice was starting to break up.
My last effort was to go outside yesterday in the sunshine to see if I could wait for the birds to come back to the feeders. They weren’t buying it.
I settled for a Gray Squirrel and some Milkweed.
It might be a good time to go back in time to warmer weather photos until things improve around here.
Well the Goldfinches look very happy and I can sense some sunlight in the background. I see that the temps will be rising later this week and there may be a chance to visit the trails at Portage. I am not missing the frigid cold in Chicago. It has been pretty cold out west. I was up at Sandia Crest this morning with log fog and snow covered slippery roads. The weather made picture taking rather challenging. Looks like I will be back in town just as the weather begins to warm up. Yeah!
Glad to hear your travel timing is working out so well. You’re in my favorite part of the country.
Right now the winter weather advisories here are keeping me guessing. Today might be the worst of it. But I’m not letting anything stop me from swimming. And yes, the end of the week looks warmer and, well, cloudy. 🙂
You have a good selection of feeders in your yard.
The newer ones were inspired by the one squirrel who makes it his or her job to figure out how to monopolize any feeder. I don’t know if it’s the cold weather or what but the current arrangement seems to be working for now. Also, the goldfinches are basically attracted to the thistle feeders and the more the merrier.