After recovering from New Year's Day celebrations with visiting relatives, I got out early on the local wetlands and, before sunrise, found an interesting CRITTER, a Wilson's Snipe. It was only January 2, and the snipe also provided a very nice REFLECTION:
Video: Wilson's Snipe (If the frame below is blank, just click on it to see the video):
The next day Mary Lou and I visited the local Bald Eagle nest, which contained at least one eaglet that had hatched out only 2-3 days before. One adult that we believe to be the female was sitting high in the nest. She had a bloody beak so we assume there was prey in the nest and she had been feeding one or more nestlings. Soon the male flew down to the nest and also appeared to be tearing at prey and feeding the young:
On January 4 a Mottled Duck cast another beautiful REFLECTION:
A very unusual CRITTER showed up on January 5. A captive-reared juvenile Whooping Crane, one of two which migrated from Wisconsin on their own, and then wandered away from the flock that normally winters in northern Florida:
The next couple of days were filled with the excitement of tracking the cranes and watching the eagles tend to their eaglets. The cranes occupied a wet prairie just to the north of our birding patch, under a beautiful SKY (January 7):
The pair of cranes on the morning of January 8 before we received a fateful phone call:
Then, another family emergency required us to return to Illinois on January 8. You may recall that we had spent much of November and early December there to help our daughter take care of her husband, who broke both of his legs in a hunting accident. Our daughter called us at about 9:00 AM to say that she was on the floor awaiting arrival of the Fire Department rescue squad. She had fallen down the stairs and badly broken her ankle! We were able to get a flight out and arrived in Illinois about 11:00 PM that night.
Of course we were happy to help out caring for them and their two daughters, but it was quite a shock to suddenly transition from "T-shirt and shorts" to mid-winter in the north. Here the happy couple sport "His & Hers" leg casts:
Our wilderness forays were sharply curtailed as we transported grandchildren to and from school and adults to and from medical visits. However, their back yard provided me (on January 15) with a FENCE shot, along with their two 130 pound Tibetan Mastiffs, golden male Agramonte and black-and-tan female Sagua:
Now, my mission is to find a MACRO--
Well, I've gleaned my photos up to January 19, where I find a magnificent Red-tailed Hawk on a wire near our daughter's home:
Maybe this photo of Agramonte in the back yard will qualify as a MACRO:
On January 20 we are back in Florida, where I processed a panoramic view over our local Florida wetlands, but no MACRO so far:
At our local nest, one eaglet now is visible:
On January 30, did I get close enough to this Belted Kingfisher to qualify for a MACRO shot? I think not:
I've reached the end of the month. On January 31 I found this pair of Egyptian Geese on our back lawn:
OK-- I went back into the archives and found this photo, taken on January 22, 2013, in the kitchen of our daughter's home. For our metric-knowledgeable readers, the outside temperature in NE Illinois was -19 degrees Centigrade:
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa).
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to I Heart Macro by Laura
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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