Albino Canada Goose

   I saw this albino Canada Goose on the 24th of December.
It was standing in a baseball field with a flock of Canada Geese.

Bald Eagles

Today I went back to Marine point to look for the eagles. When I first arrived all I saw was the nest, but as I looked closer I saw two small figures and when I looked at them through binoculars, I could tell they were Bald Eagles. I trained my spotting scope on them and used my phone to take a couple of pictures.

Bald Eagle Nest

A Day Out Birding With Ebird

       

       Today I went on a birding adventure. It started at 9:00 a.m. Well, that is when I started to plan for it. We didn't leave until 12:00pm. The first thing I did was go onto ebird and decide where to go. Then, I made a map of all the places we were going to go.




  The first stop on the map was a little place called Hazel Dell Cove. My goal was to become the top ebirder there. I needed to identify two or more species of bird. I identified three. I saw one American Kestrel, seventeen Hooded Mergansers, and four Mallards.




The next stop on the list was a place I call eagle island, but is really called Marine Point (and it's called Hickory Point on ebird). I call it eagle island because there is a little island that has a Bald Eagle Nest on it. My goal was to try to find the Long-tailed duck that was sighted three days ago. Sadly, I didn't see it. I did see ten Common Goldeneye, two Turkey Vultures, twenty one Ring-billed Gulls, one Great Blue Heron, one Herring Gull, four American Crows, ten American Robins, and one Pie Billed Grebe. 



Next, we went exploring. We drove down a little street, past houses and regular things in a neighborhood. The farther we went, the more wild it became. We found a little stream that overflowed its banks because of all the rain we've had and in it we saw a little family of Mallard ducks and a Muskrat.

As we continued down the lane we started to see deer. I saw and took this picture of a mother deer, baby deer, and father deer. I like all the pictures of the mother and the baby, but the father was behind some branches and my camera was only focusing on the branches. By the time I had it focused, he had walked out of view. I only had time to snap one bad picture.

                                                                         Mother

                                                                        Mother

                                                                                  Baby

                                                           

                                                                      Baby

                Father; Can you find him?

The last stop on my adventure was a place called the Beach House. I go there all the time, only because on ebird there are so many cool sightings, but when I go there I see nothing.

That concludes my adventure.

Loons on Lake Springfield, IL

12-26-15

 Today I saw the first of the many amazing birds that migrate through our state.   Lake Springfield in Springfield, IL is a great place to bird watch in the winter! The warblers and other warm weather birds have left and now it is time for the water birds (Loons, Mergansers, Scaups, and Buffle heads). Once, I even saw a White winged Scoter, trapped in the ice. They, like loons, need a long take off area and the one I saw was trapped in a small circle of ice.  This year, thanks to El Nino, we don't have any ice but we still have loons!  I saw one this morning and when I did, I set up my spotting scope and grabbed my phone. I hurried back and took a picture through the lens of the scope.

Bird ID #3

I love trying to identify birds in pictures.  Here's the third of my bird identification challenges.  I'll give you a hint: I saw this bird on Lake Springfield in Springfield, IL.

Raccoon Cam 1

In this video, the raccoon is eating out of a plastic Easter egg. I think the raccoon recognized it as an egg and that is why he/she is try to bite the top off of it.

Congratulations to Madison Wilcox

Congratulations to Madison Wilcox for correctly identifying bird ID #2.
       Thanks for participating.