Sparrows

Before I took nature very seriously I always assumed that any birds around an urban area were these little brown birds that I always seemed to see. Whenever I actually noticed a bird it was one of these little brown ones, so I never looked any further. Now I know that there are so many different colors of birds even in a city. All you have to do is pay attention.

But even after learning about all these knew fascinating colorful birds I forgot something. It was those little brown birds that I knew so well. I completely ignored them, thinking they were dull and boring. But a short time ago I began to notice them again. I realized that these little birds were just as much ofa part of nature as any other animal.

I just now learned that these little brown birds are most likely house sparrows. I can't be sure of that yet, because they are many different kinds of sparrows. One kind that looks similar are field sparrows. Sparrows also come in very many colors, but these two are both primarily brown.

One of the differences is that the house sparrows can be found here in Michigan all year round, while field sparrows are known to migrate south when it gets cold. Since it's February I'm guessing the birds in my pictures are indeed house sparrows. The tip off that they are sparrows at all are their short little beaks.

Now I know by now that you're thinking that these aren't really very clear pictures of these birds. The fact is that they were moving around too fast for me to get better ones this time. I'll have some good ones for you soon enough. This last one was sitting right on the roof of my house. That black chin is evidence of a male house sparrow. It was one of a pair that were playing on my porch. I had to take the picture while looking into the sun.

I'm actually finding quite a few birds flying around my house right now. I don't usually take pictures here, because I do most of my nature watching on the hiking trails, but I couldn't resist so many frequent flocks of birds that are coming around. Plus I've been learning to sometimes look a little closer to home from some of you valuable readers.

And finally, yesterday I posted some pictures of a woodpecker. Some of you were wondering what kind it was. The fact that I neglected to fully identify it was a huge mistake on my part. The bird is a downy woodpecker. There is a huge population of them around here. I fully meant to identify the bird yesterday, but my writing got away from me. By the time I was finished with the story I thought I had mentioned the name of the bird.

That's it for today. I've had little time in the past few days, but I hope to have more later today. I'll try to make time to be on here a little more later in the afternoon so I can read your blogs. It always brightens my mood when I'm able to read yours.

Woodpecker In Flight

I finally found it! It's been almost a year since I took this picture. I meant to post it last spring when it was new, but so many things were happened that it got lost in the shuffle. And I really mean lost! When I went back to get it from my archives it was nowhere to be found.

I remember the day I took this very well. It was only the very second time I had ever seen a cormorant. I don't think I posted those pictures either. I had been disturbed by witnessing for the first time a garter snake eating a toad. I was just getting to know squirrels, and one of them startled me by running up to greet me.

And my biggest task was watching a mother goose sitting on her eggs. I wrote a huge series of posts where I monitored that goose from the first time I saw her until she actually hatched the eggs. I then watched those little goslings grow from hatchlings to adulthood. It was one of the greatest series of events I was ever privileged to witness.

So I guess you can understand why this photo, though it really is a good one, got lost in the shuffle. And yes I did say one photo. This photo above is the real one I took that day. The first one was cropped from this one so I could show you these two woodpeckers a little bit better. I personally like this original one. You can click on it to see it better anyway.

Although I am enjoying the winter, this picture is the kind of thing I hope to be showing you two months from now when spring is in full swing. Winter is really a great time if you look in the right places, but most of us enjoy spring much more because the return of green makes things seem so cheerful.

I'm just happy to have any day where I can go out and observe nature in action. I hope I can always do this. Any time of year is fine with me.