Thursday, January 13, 2011

Winter's Colorful Blossoms . . .

. . . don't always include flora.

Here in the frigid U.S. mid-west (1 degree F today), having a robin Winter-over is not a common occurrence. It is, however, with "egg on the face" (shamefacedly) I must admit that I missed a Great Photograph today!! I glanced at Barbie's tree this afternoon and noticed its inhabitants. Before I could grab the camera, point and shoot - the other 4 (four!) robins had flown away!


Yep! You heard it - there were a total of Five (5!) robins in the tree today. Now, this is something completely unheard of! I've personally never seen one (1) robin winter-over... but Five (5)??

Perhaps I'll have another chance. If so, you'll be among the first to know about it!! :-)


The rest of today's photos include:
Click on each photo to enlarge slightly.


Purple Finches (male on left, female to the right)

Carolina Wren (yea!)


Cardinal (male)

Cardinal (female)

Purple Finch (male)

At the backyard birdfeeder


And one more glimpse out front.
Yes, it was a happy day! Robin(s) and the return of the Carolina Wren! :-)

8 comments:

One said...

Those are beautiful photos of birds. I've just been to the nature park with lots of migratory birds but didn't even capture any photos half as good.

Darla said...

We have seen some different birds hanging around here this winter too. Love to see the busy feeders, that means the gardener is doing a fantastic job keeping the feeders filled....

Kathleen said...

You've been doing a great job photographing the birds SG. So many varieties and such good photos. It's been cold here too but finally warming up. Funny how warm 40 degrees feels after single digits!
I agree its nice to see Robins during the winter. We saw tons of them the other day on one tree (that looks similar to the tree in your photo) devouring the berries. They make me think of spring, which is good!

Shady Gardener said...

One, after just having visited your site(s), it would be hard to imagine your not taking wonderful photos! :-)

Darla, the challenge was keeping the feeders full while we were on our various "Christmas trips" visiting family! lol I can imagine you see a great variety of birds down your way!

Kathleen, Thanks for the compliments. Do you usually see Rogins during the winter? We really don't, and it's a bit disconcerting. (A local friend commented that perhaps they'd heard about the weather "down south" this year!)

Nutty Gnome said...

Cor Shady, your robins are enormous!!! Native British robins are small - about the size of a house sparrow. I've got several who live permanently in different parts of my garden and come quite close when I'm doing any digging!

I love our robins, but I SO wish we had cardinals!

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Liz! I've seen photos of your robins... they're quite different in coloring, too. I like them! You really would love having our cardinals.

Patrick in Kansas said...

Here in Kansas City I've only seen one carolina wren in the past ten years. It stuck around for about ten minutes and I will savor it always.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Patrick, I was tempted to ask if you ate it, but I won't of course! ;-) You're right. It's a nice surprise!