Remember last week’s stressed out post where I mentioned how I needed to get out and relax? Possibly go bird watching? Well last Sunday I finally took a day to get some air and stare at birds in the Arboretum with my friend, Devan.
The original goal was to find a gorgeous barred owl that’s been spotted in Wild Goose Woods lately:
Unfortunately we didn’t come across it.
This photo was actually taken by a birder in the area, and following the link will take you to the Arboretum’s new Flickr account. Just recently the Arboretum removed their wildlife sightings webpage and has started posting pictures on their Flickr account instead. I’m actually a little disappointed that they’ve done this – only because they’ve removed all their old photos from before July 2011, and I used to be a huge nerd and browse past sightings. At least now I can comment on and favorite pictures I like.
Regardless, we still saw a couple of birds despite the cold weather.
There was an adorable group of chickadees feeding from a pile of sunflower seeds that had been left out in Wild Goose Woods. These little guys are really bold, and it made for some great photos.
We saw several more birds at the feeders including some dark-eyed juncos (a big favorite of mine). There was also a menacing hawk circling overhead for a couple of seconds before it flew off in a different direction. Before we left we managed to spot a group of cedar waxwings hanging out in a tree. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see them active, probably because it was quite cold and windy at that time of day.
