Winter and spring birds

I have been so busy the past few months I have not had time to share my photos.... but I will try to catch up. First, here are some birds from Oklahoma last Feb... this is the white throated sparrow.
Happiness is a purple finch at the feeder!!!
In spite of the storms, I had such a wonderful variety of birds to photograph out the window! This is a song sparrow.

The fox sparrow is my favorite sparrow! A beauty!
This juvenile bald eagle was scoping out Lake Eucha in northeast Oklahoma.
My first belted kingfisher of the year!
Kind of mirror images of each other, the common grackle and the dreadful brown headed cowbird were both at the feeder!
This is the beautiful harris sparrow.
I made a quick trip to Allegany State Park in western NY.
Spring had not started here yet!! The higher up the hill we went, the deeper the snow was!
But it was beautiful nevertheless.
This lovely bluebird was the first sign of spring, at Knox Farms State Park in E. Aurora, NY.
This was a singing eastern meadowlark, who flew off before I could record him in Galveston.
These northern parulas were my first of the year.

This is the beautiful white eyed vireo.
2 weeks ago Galveston was buzzing with these tiny golden crowned kinglets.
The cedar waxwings are only winter visitors here.
Off to Illinois to view the snipes!!!
This Osprey was bringing a fish to his nest on top of a huge light pole.
We found some mute swans at Wolf Lake, Il.
Wolf Lake also had Horned Grebes, and...
...some were in the process of changing to their breeding plumage (thanks, Graham, for helping me id this one!!)
Back to Galveston yesterday, where a White Ibis was on guard.
Yeah for the Indigo Buntings!
I was suprised to find a Carolina Wren singing away in the cove. It was a beautiful 70 windy degrees with no mosquitoes!!
These are blue wing teals, I just liked the picture!
I love the black necked stilts, who look like they have the wrong pair of legs... here it is with a Greater Yellowlegs.
WOW, the tricolored Heron was a brilliant mix of blues... here he is with another blue winged teal.
These cattle egrets were in their breeding plumage.Not a 2-headed monster, but a pair of black bellied whistling ducks.
Can you id all the birds on the posts? Fortunately, ospreys eat FISH, not other birds.



Click here to watch a video of the Greater Prairie Chickens we saw in southern Illinois 2 weeks ago... this is their spring ritual which was amazing to watch.