Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Beautiful and Surreal


Sunday we woke to blowy snowy sleet, choice was stay home and warm or make peppermint tea and biscuits and go out birding.
 A twitching wonderful time in a surreal dreamy misty landscape.

Seems as though all the birds have arrived at once. Migration is in full swing, this was a mixed flock of American Tree Sparrows, Juncos, a few Robins and some small birds I could not identify.
Suddenly quiet, the small birds seemed to vanish in an instant.

The reason why, this Harrier hunting the fence line. The snowfall layered the air in soft gauze; quite dreamy. The Redtail hawks are back and apparently the Harriers never left as winter season was quite warm with food plentiful.

Junco on the bottom left and American Tree Sparrows.

Flights of snowbird delight, I thought Snow Buntings would have headed north by now so this was an aerial treat.
Irruptions of introduced starlings abounded, though no good photos as once they dove into the stubble they resembled dirt clods. Though I love their reflecting rainbow colour it is sad that starlings and house sparrows (another introduced species) tend to push out native birds. If nothing else man sure has been prolific at altering and unbalancing ecosystems.

Gaggles of Geese, look at these silly ones waddling down the road.


 Murder of crows.

We saw fields filled with hundreds of robins, I love their bright yellow-orange spring beaks. 

And who else do we find, one lone beautiful tail wagging Meadow lark.
Such a beautiful day. With wind gusts and sleet which stung the face I had to hide against the lee side of the car to get this shot and it was all worth it.

My textile piece is now in Calgary and will be hung soon, thank you so much Diane for taking it on since we had to cancel our trip south. I love being a member of Emmaus Fine Art Group, even though distance sometimes present a few glitches with getting pieces to Calgary it seems that Creator always places someone in our lives to help out. Life is good and friends are a blessing.
Enjoy the wonders of spring.
Hugs!

5 comments:

john said...

What a delightful post showing such an abundance of migrating birds. The spring migration has'nt quite gotten here yet.
Starlings showed up here several years ago, and now they are quite abundant. All this in just a few years. They are both pests, and a remarkable species. Mankind's alterations to the environment help as many species as thet hurt it seems.
I love the meadowlark photo especially.

Red said...

Looks like you have been having interesting trips watching birds. Spring migration is an interesting time of year. Like the misty snowy pictures.

Carol Blackburn said...

Mornin'Tess, that first shot is truly surreal. It looks like someone picked up the end of the road and shook it like a carpet. Glad you decided to get out and get some wonderful shots.

tess stieben said...

Thank you all, I am pleased you all enjoy the images. Hugs!

nancy neva gagliano said...

this winter, and spring, have been surreal to me...just reading above about your new camera....mine has taken me to such sweet places the last few months.
best to you!