This has been a great few weeks for snow. I even got to take my snow shoes out for a walk in the woods a couple of weeks ago. (Yay, snowy woods!) This week I felt like exploring a different habitat in the snow, so on Friday afternoon I went to Silver Sands State Park to check out the shore. The weather was bright and sunny, and not even all that cold (except when the wind picked up). The marsh especially was all stark and beautiful:
I was curious to see the marsh and beach under knee-deep snow, of course, but what I was really hoping to find on my visit was a Snowy Owl. Ever since I saw that tiny-dot owl through a scope at Milford Point in December, I've been hoping to see another one of these rare arctic visitors (and closer than a half-mile distant) before they all head back north and it's years before they come south again in such numbers as they have this winter. Someone had reported a Snowy Owl at Silver Sands State Park on eBird a few days earlier, and that just reinforced my urge to visit this park. I had vague plans to check out Silver Sands and then hop down the coast to Milford Point to continue my owl search if necessary.
But I didn't need to do any park-hopping after all. Because what's that suspicious white lump on the side of a snow-covered dune right next to the path? It couldn't actually be a...
Snowy Owl! :D
I didn't want to disturb the resting owl, so I veered away from the path and onto the beach as soon as I thought I knew what I was looking at. Here's a wider photo from where I settled down in the snow (very comfortably, in my snow pants!) to hang out with this awesome creature (the owl is the white bump just left of center):
I wasn't too close, but I certainly wasn't very far away! Thank goodness for my zoom lens. The owl knew I was there, but it didn't seem too uncomfortable with my presence. It preened itself, looked around at other birds and the few people on the beach, and occasionally peered at me through slitted eyes:
I've said before that Snowy Owls seem like mystical creatures to me, and this strikes me as especially true in this next picture.... There's something so unusual and beautiful about this creature in profile, like something out of a Miyazaki film:
After a long rest, the owl stood up to get in some more serious preening. A loud (happy) child arrived on the beach a little ways away, and the owl peered around to check him/her out:
Gulls flying overhead attracted its attention, too:
After admiring this bird for just a little longer -- such gorgeous barred wings and tail -- I finally got up and moved away down the beach. Charles Island was looking very pretty in its winter garb:
But who am I kidding, islands and shells and gulls just aren't very exciting when there's a Snowy Owl around. While I was on the beach, two people came walking down the owl's path, and the bird flew off into the marsh. When I saw it again, it seemed much more awake. Wow, those eyes:
The owl flew to another part of the marsh while I was watching, so I got to see those big wings in action:
I'm pretty sure the owl is just landing in this picture, not catching anything, but either way it's a dramatic pose:
I love those super fuzzy feet, and that rusty red vest! Good landing, owl.
Some other creatures did manage to distract me while I was watching the owl from the boardwalk. A Northern Harrier came cruising up over the marsh, showing off its own owl-like face:
The harrier flashed its distinctive white rump patch as it passed:
A trio of Mallards added some spots of brilliant color to the marsh:
My camera didn't quite capture the blinding quality of the male Mallards' green heads. So just trust me, they were very bright in that late afternoon light:
I finally did have to leave the park, since it was getting late and I was getting cold. When I left, the Snowy Owl was still settled in the snow-covered marsh, looking at home in probably the closest thing to arctic tundra we have around here. I still can't believe this creature was/is here, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to spend so much time with it, and so relatively close up. Silver Sands is an awesome place. I wish you good hunting, wonderful owl, and a safe journey back north when the time comes.
A couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers are spending the winter around our yard for the first time this year. This isn't really so unusual for southern Connecticut, but it's an awesome novelty for me to get to see these fancy birds outside our windows every couple of days while the scenery is so cold and gray. So warblers in winter is already super strange for me. Add in the storm we got yesterday and things get really mind-bending: Warblers in snow??
Those yellow patches are especially brilliant (and beautiful) in the middle of a snow storm:
These birds were picking off some of the very last Red Cedar cones, which were apparently easier to find from below, with all that snow gathering on top of the branches:
Oh you gorgeous bird.
American Goldfinches were also adding their own bright yellow to the snowy scene. This is actually the first winter that these birds have hung around our yard as well. (They've discovered our feeders.)
Lovely birds and lovely snow.... Winter definitely brings some cool things!
It's super cold and windy in Connecticut right now, but we had some lovely light snow yesterday, and today was sunny and clear, and I just couldn't stay inside any longer. So I bundled up (so many layers!) and paid a quick visit to Naugatuck State Forest this morning. I can't believe I've been away from this place for so long. The woods and lakes were wonderful, and aside from an early-morning ice fisherman, I was the only person there.
(The panorama option on my iPhone is cool, but the result looks so weird to me. Those paths to the left and right are a straight line in real life.)
The woods were quiet, but there were signs of activity all over. Deer and squirrel prints crossed the people-paths, and I saw these long vole trails pretty much everywhere I walked, left by the little creatures burrowing between snow and ground on their search for food:
And then, while I was admiring a particularly expansive network of vole trails right in the middle of the path, I heard little scritching sounds and saw the snow move.... And there was a vole right there, just burrowing around and nibbling on things and chattering on to him/herself! I've never come across a live vole before, and I have to say, I was totally enchanted by this creature. Here's a video of this little guy. (Listen for the chittering sounds at the end!)
I'm assuming this is a Woodland Vole (Microtus pinetorum) because these woods are the right habitat for this species, but glimpses of a dark wriggly body aren't exactly enough for a definite ID. Whatever the exact species, I can't believe how much this little prey animal just didn't care that I was standing right there, and it certainly wasn't trying to hide itself. I really could have just reached out and plucked it out of the snow. (And if I were an owl or a fox, I definitely would have.)
I used up all the space on my phone with that last video, but the little creature was still running around right at my feet, so I used up the last of my camera's battery (oops, I forgot to charge it!) to get one more quick video:
And then all my technology was used up, and I realized I was getting pretty cold, so I left the little vole to its work. What a cool surprise meeting! Yay, animals and snow. :)
On Friday, with a fresh (thick) layer of snow on the ground and the wind howling, a flock of nearly 100 European Starlings blew into our yard and set to work clearing out the last of the Red Cedar cones in our trees (a bunch of American Robins helped out, too):
And as I looked at these raucous (invasive) birds eating all the food I'd rather save for the little Yellow-rumped Warbler who's been hanging around (and others), my world turned upside down a little, because these birds were beautiful. How is this a starling?
I've had mini-epiphanies about starlings before, but something about the light and these birds' fresh feathers must have made for some sort of ideal combination, because I couldn't stop looking at these birds. Seriously, how amazing are these feathers?
Awesome patterns from every angle:
And of course there was THIS guy, fancier with purple/blue/green iridescence even than the other starlings in the flock:
What's going on??
Wow, I'm actually feeling a bit of sensory overload looking at these birds. Here's a classically handsome robin from the same photo-shoot as a palate cleanser:
Ah, that's better. Lovely robin on a windy day:
In reading some more about starlings, I've learned that they keep these feathers into the summer, but the white tips wear down so that these birds end up with the plain glossy black outfits that I'm more used to seeing. So that's pretty cool.
Well, I've definitely gained a new appreciation for starlings. I still wish they hadn't eaten all the Red Cedar cones, but yes, I'll now admit that they are very pretty birds.
In case you've been wondering where Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers get their name, this young male outside our window today has been kind enough to demonstrate:
This guy has been hanging around (ha ha) for a month or so now and he has just the most outrageously yellow underparts. At least, they're outrageous compared to all the other Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers I've seen, who -- as far as I could tell -- weren't really yellow at all. But now this fellow keeps dangling from our Red Cedar tree, eating berries and flashing us, and I keep thinking someone has colored his feathers with a highlighter. It's pretty cool!
Flash away, bird!
