Red-Winged Blackbird

Well, I decided to go back to the park where I accidentally slid down the hill last winter; the same park where I watched a huge tree fall recently. I wanted to go back not because of those incidents, but because of things like all of the turtles I saw, and other things I haven't had a chance to show you yet. And it's the best place to be all alone.

I went back there expecting nothing. In years past I haven't ever really seen a lot of animals there most of the time. It still sometimes has a magical way of bringing the strangest experiences to me just when I forget how much excitement that place can bring. Like the time six raccoons came after me. Really!!

This time it became a day for birds. I go in there most days without ever seeing any birds up close, but this time they seemed to pop out everywhere I went. When I went to the pond in the back, I was greeted by dozens of red-winged blackbirds. They seemed to be everywhere. Some were flying around. Some were perched in trees, watching me.

 I had to take the opportunity to get some pictures of these birds. I've seen them before back here, so I wasn't very surprised. But I've never seen so many at one time. I knew this would be fun. I had my camera and I was ready for them. But there was only one problem. The sky wasn't exactly cooperating.

Clouds had moved in to make it hard to get good pictures, so I thought I was going to have problems. Luckily I was completely wrong about that. I had something that neutralizes bad light. I hope to explain that one better one day soon, but not quite yet. So as you can see, I did okay with my blackbird pictures.

I guess I like these three pictures the most, but I have plenty of others. I'll probably show some of them pretty soon too. But for tomorrow I going to bring you something that was really confounding me. I found a bird that I really couldn't identify. That's why I started with this red-winged blackbird. Trying to identify the other bird had me searching for two hours before I wrote this. The solution came as a complete surprise and accident. You'll find out tomorrow, and maybe even laugh at me.

In other news, I'm beginning to find a little bit of time again, so I can concentrate more on what I like. Hiking, watching baseball, writing this blog, and reading yours. That's what I call relaxing.

And finally, over at Nature Center Magazine today, Emma has a new Nature Site Of The Week article up. This week's featured nature site is a place called The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog. If you haven't heard about bushcraft, or even if you have, go take a look at this; you'll be glad you did. Emma features the best of nature on the internet. You'll like this.