Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis

Dark-eyed Junco

The Dark-eyed Junco for me is the symbol of winter in North-Eastern Illinois. They are at my feeders all winter long. I can't help but almost want them to be gone, because that would mean that spring was well on its way!

I don't really think of Juncos as being in the sparrow family but they are absolutely a part of it. I often hear them twittering away in the undergrowth while walking through the winter woods. The quick diagnostic is the white outer tail feathers. The female is drabber and browner than the male - they are not difficult to tell apart.

We don't commonly get the other sub-species of Dark-eyed Junco but there are a total of six sub-species. We get the 'Slate-colored' form.

Here is a sketch of a photo I took last winter of a male Junco feeding on the ground below my feeders. They will readily feed on the feeders themselves and often stay in the bushes very close to my house.

Sketching or Why you haven't seen photos recently!

Between work and the cold, or more importantly overcast weather, I haven't been out much. So, I have taken advantage of the time to learn a bit about sketching. Its not something I've done before but I thought it was worth a try. I bought a couple of books, a few pencils and some paper and started practicing. The first sketch I did was a couple of months ago. The one you see above I finished this morning.

The neat thing is I have plenty of material to work with: all the photos I've taken over the last few years! This sketch above is a Golden-winged x Blue-winged Warbler I saw in spring 2006. The interesting thing about this bird is that it doesn't match the typical hybrid crosses but is definitely not a full Golden-winged either.

The sketch to the right is a Green Heron I photographed in 2005 at Volo Bog. The pose was perfect for what I wanted to do. I am fairly pleased with both of these sketches and although I have a long way to go, I am happy that I can at least recognize what the birds are and capture something of their posture. As always, your comments and feedback are most welcome!

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Northern Saw-whet Owl

I got a chance to spend some time today with Jeff and Pete. Pete knows the location of several different species of owl and today he showed us four different species including this Northern Saw-whet Owl, which was a life bird for me today!

The other owls were Great Horned, Long-eared and Barred Owl. The Northern Saw-whet, Long-eared and Barred are all rare in Illinois! We had an all-day birding session today netting 51 species, which is pretty good at this time of year. Some of the highlights (aside from the owls) were Tufted Titmouse, Canvasback, Marsh Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

We saw two Barred Owls just after sunset. We saw both flying (separately) and also heard them calling to eachother - a great way to finish the day. I love the expression on the face of the Northern Saw-whet Owl. It seems to be asking "what are you doing down there?". Fortunately this bird allows fairly close approach but as a rule you should never approach wild owls as they may be disturbed enough to leave the area. Today was a great start to the count in 2007!

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

For at least a little while this morning, the sun was shining. Unfortunately it didn't last long but I had not been out for a while between work, the holidays and the weather not cooperating so I had to get out this morning! That accounts for the delay since my last post! My apologies for that - I hope it won't happen again this year!

I spent a couple of hours at Volo Bog. There wasn't a great deal there but there were the ubiquitous chickadees and a very cooperative White-breasted Nuthatch. I first heard this bird and then saw it creeping up and down the branches and trunks of trees. To me, this shot is the 'classic' portrait of the nuthatch. Nuthatches are one of the few birds that feed moving down the trunk instead of up it, like creepers and others.

Their call is substantially different from most other birds - and certainly far less melodic than many. The 'ank ank' is very distinctive, similar only to the Red-breasted Nuthatch, which is more insistent. The White-breasted Nuthatch can be told from the Red-breasted by the lack of color on the flanks and chest and lack of black stripe through the eye. The White-breasted is considerably larger than the Red-breasted but this isn't always immediately obvious unless they're together.