Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Country Drive

This morning I went out for a short drive with a friend, mainly to look for Bluebirds ( of which we found a grand total of 11 in two different locations )
We also found 8 Western Meadowlarks along a dirt road , and a juvenile Golden Eagle soaring high overhead, showing off its buffy under-tail patch in the sun.
There was also a Red-tailed Hawk sat in a field close to the hamlet of Furdale.
Unfortunately the Bluebirds were sitting in the shade and the light not good enough for a decent photo op, the same with the Meadowlarks so I thought I'd wait for a another time.
I did get some photos though today, after the list of birds and mammals...

Gray Partridge - 2
American Tree Sparrow - 1
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Bohemian Waxwing - 20
Common Redpoll - 15
European Starling - 5 (New for 2009)
Mountain Bluebird - 11 (New for 2009)
Western Meadowlark - 8 (New for 2009)
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 6
Common Raven - 2
Black-billed Magpie - 8
American Robin - 2
Horned Lark - 5
Canada Goose - 9
Bald Eagle - 2
Golden Eagle - 1 (New for 2009)
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Black-capped Chickadee - 4
Rock Pigeon - 7
House Sparrow - 10

Common Porcupine - 1
White-tailed Deer - 7
Richardson's Ground Squirrel - 20+ (new for 2009)

Here are some photos :

Common Porcupine




Horned Lark



Canada Goose

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome sightings Nick and a beautiful series as well. I like the Porcupine image for the pose and the details.

Rocky M said...

Lovely images Nick ! I'm not much of a geese or gull guy but you made that Canada Goose shot look beautiful:-)

Kelly said...

...beautiful captures. Horned Larks are such sharp-looking birds. I've never seen a porcupine in the wild. Very cool to see him in the tree. I like the goose, who looks like he had been eating snow!

Kim said...

Great pictures. I love the Horned Lark and goose one in particular.

John Theberge said...

I love the portrait of the goose. The geese around here are starting to move inland now that the rivers are slowly opening up.

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

Amazing photos.I can hardly wait for for some good light conditions to really try my new lens.So far we are having clouds and snow-lots of it.
Blessings,Ruth

BirdingMaine said...

Great images Nick!

Love the porky!

Uncommon Depth said...

Nice pictures. We're still waiting for spring - almost a foot of new snow last night - so I'm living vicariously through other birders!

NCmountainwoman said...

Another productive outing! I love the photograph of the lark.

Nick S said...

Thanks everyone !

holdingmoments said...

Quite a list there Nick.
The Porcupine and Horned Lark I've never seen before, so good to see the shots of them.
Canada Geese are quite numerous at my local, but always good to see them. Such characters.

Anonymous said...

It just occured to me that I have never seen a wild porpucine.

Chris said...

Hi Nick,
Beautiful sighting and I love the lark. I would like to see one one day. I might have to fly once to your geographical regions for that!!!
Well done a great birding day.

Peggy said...

Fantastic shot on that Canada! Love to see a porcupine some day...Awesome! Horned Lark closeup has great colors!

Shelley said...

Loved that porcupine shot - he looked frisky! And your goose looked very alert!

Andor Marton said...

A beautiful series. I like the geese image, it's a perfect composition ... very artistic.