Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Pike Lake Christmas Bird Count

After completing my final Christmas Bird Count this season, and notching up a nice 247 species for 2008, here are some photos from the Pike Lake count.
Our team managed to find 17 species ,in weather conditions that actually made headline news as some of the coldest on record. Minus 55 degrees celsius with the windchill !
And my friends and I were out in it !
Highlights for us were a Northern Shrike , Purple Finch , A Hybrid Red/Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker, Pine Grosbeak and a straggling White-throated Sparrow.
I'm still waiting to see how everyone else did.

Here are some photos :

Bohemian Waxwing



Hybrid Yellow/Red-shafted Northern Flicker





Pine Grosbeak



Purple Finch with Pine Grosbeak



White-throated Sparrow



9 comments:

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

You and your friends deserve an award for being out in those temperatures.The pictures are beautiful.
Blessings,Ruth

Mike said...

Stunning images Nick, great collection.

2sweetnsaxy said...

These are magnificent! No surprise.
;-)

Shelley said...

Nick - I yelled out "wow" when I saw the 1st photo of your waxwing and ended up scaring my cat who was sitting next to me. He ran into the next room.

NCmountainwoman said...

I can tell how cold it was by looking at the little sparrow, so fluffed up to stay warmer. Great photos.

Nick S said...

Thanks everyone :-)

The Birdlady said...

Every one is a winner! I've never seen a bohemian Waxwing - we have cedars....it's so beautiful.

Jayne said...

Wow... that Pine Grosbeak made my jaw drop... Absolutely gorgeous photos Nick!

Kelly said...

Wow! New to the blogger world and first time to your site. Incredibly beautiful photos.