Jeannette's First Snowy and a Merlin (20130218)

Today started much like the last two heavy overcast and windy, another day that we will struggle to find critters. We were on the road by 12:15, with the hopes of finding some cooperative subjects. The first couple of birds we found were very skittish in the wind. We even tried zipping past them and turning around and getting a good look before even trying to slow down to grab a shot. After the first 3 Snowy's we came up behind this bird sitting on a post, and it held pretty well. I believe being down wind assisted us with our approach.

Shortly after seeing this unit we watch what must have been a couple of thousand of Buntings.  We tried to herd them into position for some close up shots, but no luck. I sat in the ditch for a couple of minutes and only managed a couple of Redpoll shots.

The day started to lighten up. And a couple of the birds began to show a little more tolerance. There were a few that we found that were just sitting in the fields. Here is a shot of our first cooperative bird.  You can see how she is leaning face first into the wind.

A little look at both of her eye's.

Her is our second last bird of the day. The sun was out and sky behind blue, perfect, almost. This picture shows you how far into the wind she has to lean to stay on top of the post. We are pretty certain that this was our second sighting of the day for this bird.

We finished up with "the 8:30" bird to bring our total tally to seven and I dropped Jeannette off at her vehicle at 4:15 p.m., a VERY successful four hour round trip "track"!
Have a great wildlife week.
Turbo