Snow Day Brings Backyard Birding

Cold, slow, and surprised are the three words I use to describe the past week and a half. Cold and slow where the two things I felt after birding Yates Mill and Mid Pines twice. This winter has been colder than usual for North Carolina with single digits temperatures overnight, and temperatures in the 20's during a few days in the past couple of weeks. However, slow birding does not always mean complete disappointment as the birds were slow enough for me to catch a few videos, like this Sparrow Sparrow, at Yates Mill County Park last Sunday(he catches a bug at the very end):
  Monday and Tuesday did pick up a little bit faster. I was driving to pick up my brother, and saw a Cooper's Hawk fly over the road, then on my evening run I heard a Barred Owl calling it's famous call:"Who cooks for you?" on the greenway by my house. Tuesday, Wake County Public Schools' fear of the snow that never came, opted for another birding opportunity at Mid Pines Road instead of sitting in class. As usual, I met up with the two other members of the "Bird Nerd Herd", Sam and Lucas. Within the first few minutes of shivering in the wind under the foreboding clouds, a drab, robin-sized bird flew overhead chirping. It was an American Pipit, a passerine of open fields thats winters in the south, now it was year bird #142. Wednesday morning I woke up to my yard completely sugar coated. 

I laced up my boots, zipped my jacket, and grabbed my camera for a little stroll with my dog to inspect the new look to my familiar yard.

I soon realized my dog, Castor, playing in the snow was scaring away to many birds.

The birds where going crazy over the feeders, so the majority of the two snow days I spent backyard birding because I wasn't able to drive anywhere to go birding in the places I thought were the best spots. This is the moment where I felt surprised, all the common birds were suddenly more intriguing to watch and photograph than previously out in the other hotspots were new birds were always the target.   The first birds I always noticed are the Dark-eyed Juncos hopping on the ground below feeding on the seeds that fall from the feeder.

Dark-eyed Junco

 Then I turn up to my suet feeders that is always occupied by this one Yellow-rumped Warbler.

 Yellow-rumped Warblers have a better adaptive digestive system than the other warbler species that allow them to winter farther North. They are known to feed on the waxy berries like Wax Myrtle. There sheer numbers seen through out the South in the winter show that these are a tough species of warbler that can stand the cold, compared to the other warbler species that flock to the warmer South America.

The yellow rump.

Then I look the other direction and see all the other visitors at my tube feeder:

Male orange variant House Finch.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are always my favorite bird to see at my feeder. There huge size and loud kiwrr call always make there presence noticeable.

Red-bellied Woodpecker with its bold, zebra-back pattern.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren in a still position from its usual energetic self.

Northern Cardinal and House Finch.

Male Downy Woodpecker saying a hello.

As I was focusing on the feeders, the small Dogwood tree beside me hosted a noisy bunch of Chickadees and Titmice. This one Carolina Chickadee was very curious:

Carolina Chickadee(this is not even cropped!)

Carolina Chickadee

In all, backyard birding was a nice little surprise to have during my snow day. A backyard is a great place to enjoy the common birds that are just overlooked in the field at any time of day. It's your personalized bird habitat to learn about the local birds.