How Many Days???

Raccoon napping in the crotch of a tree 
photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

It's February and I guess that's a good thing right?  Closer to Spring!!!  I don't mind February so much...its the shortest month of the winter and still looks like winter.  Now March looks like a mixed up month!  Sometimes like winter...sometimes like spring - usually all goofed up and a sloppy mess!

Had a Big old Raccoon in the gate tree this a.m. When Georgie first spotted it, it was rolled up in a ball on a fork in the tree but with the snow turning to a freezing mist it decided to try a nearby hole. The hole it tried hiding in was apparently too small as it kept coming back out to reposition itself...kept hiding when I'd take the camera outside but later showed up napping in another crotch outside.

I know it knows I'm there trying to take its picture, but I just settle for a nap shot and head back inside...hoping it'll stir for the camera yet...

 

Red-tailed Hawk pair hunting in tandem

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

February is a time when many birds of prey begin getting serious...seems early but the Great Horned Owls already have eggs they're sitting on and the Bald Eagles are setting up shop too.  Another local favorite of ours - the Red-tailed Hawks, have been known to set up nesting late in the winter...we had a pair here hunting together behind the barn.  Sometimes one bird would sit and watch while the other dipped around in the pasture trying to stir something up and other times they'd fly together and swoop into the grasses...don't know what they had going there?   Maybe a rabbit sitting tight or a mouse...who knows?

Red-tailed Hawk - close fly-by

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

Its fun watching things begin to stir since the frigid air has left its mark everywhere...kind of has me stirring myself!

How many days till spring??!!!!!

Happy New Year 2013!!!

 Winter in the prairie pasture here!

(photograph © Bruce A. Morrison)

2013!  Time flies when you're having fun!  Winter has finally arrived on the acreage here and it is beautiful and cold!  The photograph at the blog head is of our north pasture just 3 days ago.  Since it was a bit breezy, I took mostly video footage.  The video is embedded here so you can take a short walk, enjoy the sparkling frost and snow covering the prairie plants and grasses - and not even catch a chill! (I'd recommend enlarging the screen or going directly to the You Tube link for a great view!)

If you subscribe to this blog via e-mail, the embedded link may not show.  If that's the case just click on the following link -

http://youtu.be/OPdT8r2aA70

Happy 2013 to you and your loved ones out there, all our best in this New Year!!!

It's Winter...unofficially

Male Downy Woodpecker

Well it may not be the solstice yet but it's now winter. A good old blizzard with lots of snow brought it on fast and has us drifted in today. It usually seems that once we get frigid temps and a good snow covering, we're in it for the long haul.

As I sit in the studio pondering some scheduling changes I have to make because of the weather, I'm distracted in a fun way by the birds outside contending with the new landscape. One familiar favorite is the Downy Woodpecker; they seem to be the most plentiful and tolerant of people approaching them.

Downys look just like Hairy Woodpeckers, except in miniature (about a 3" difference). The only way to delineate the sexes is by the male's splash of red on the backs of their heads (same for Hairys).

Female Downy Woodpecker

I had a male and female pose for me this morning so I'll post them here.

I'm mustering up the will to crank up the snow blower and attack our hillside 200 foot driveway...but think the wind needs to die back some yet before I do. Guess there are sacrifices for living out in the middle of the tallgrass - especially in the winter! But, hey, I think I'll just stay distracted with woodpeckers for the time being!