Showing posts with label cold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold. Show all posts

2.11.2014

Heading North

Image 140210-033.jpg American Coots take flight

Watching a flock of American Coots take off from Bayou Copasaw in the Terrebonne Parish marsh yesterday made me wonder if the birds were thinking it's time to go north and find their nesting grounds. Those chunky black birds use churning feet and short wings to take off the water like a turbo prop plane on a runway. They need to think twice before flying away, we got another cold snap here, and it's still icy up north!

I had the shivers in the damp cold yesterday even when it peaked to 70 degrees. We were traveling at 30 mph in Steve Uffman’s bay boat over water that was 48 degrees, burrrrr!

1.31.2014

Snow and Goldfinches

Sunshine or snow, the goldfinches and other winter birds love my feeders. The birds have been voracious in this cold and icy weather. These colorful feathered friends are the perfect subject to try out my new GoPro camera with, especially with its Wi-Fi hotspot hooked up to my iPad. Gosh its nice sitting in the kitchen drinking hot tea as the temperature was slowly climbing toward 30 degrees while clicking the shutter remotely.

Image #140126-0029 Goldfinches feed before the snow on 1/26/14

The GoPro camera uses a super wide-angle lens to capture close up action images of surfers, skiers and mountain bikers, so it makes kind of distorted view of my feeders. The new device will have some practical uses in my new book project concerning Louisiana Landscapes and other natural subjects. I will be launching a blog about this project soon.

Image #140130-0400 Goldfinches on a morning of snow 1/30/14

In this cold weather I am having a greater variety of species at the feeders. Some like the blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker and white-throated sparrows rarely come. The last few days they too were hungry for my feeder's seed. When the yard was totally white, seven male cardinals in their bright red coats decorated the white and gray landscape with vibrant colors. I once read that the state of Maine uses more birdseed per person than any other state. I can see why, they need a little color in their long white winters.

Image #140128-0364 Cardinal and sparrows feed in the snow 1/28/14