“You are what you practice most.”
― Richard Carlson
You already know what's going to happen, right? By the time May rolls around, I'm going to get tired of carrying my digiscoping rig when I go birding. Plus, insects. So, yeah―here are some common birds. But always remember that somewhere out there, even common species are rare. Twitchers freak-out in England whenever an American Robin shows up. Anyway, these birds were photographed at Pheasant Branch and Deer Creek. The weather was perfect for spending the day outside just sloshing through the melting snow. The only FOY (first-of-year) bird I observed was a flyover Killdeer. I'm not sure where that puts me for 2021, but certainly not even close to Dane County's most reliable birders.
I seldom ever photograph American Crows, but these ones were unusually cooperative.
There were lots of American Robins around―perhaps more than what over-wintered in the area, so they're probably on the move already. Dark-eyed Juncos were trilling away, but they'll be here for a while yet. Naturally, the nice weather brought out the muggles. You know what muggles are, right? Non-birders. This is stolen directly from the Harry Potter books, the name for non-wizards. A muggle excitedly told me she heard a phoebe. Skeptical, I asked her what it sounded like. "FEE-bee-bee" she emulated. I replied, "Oh, a chickadee!" Another muggle asked if I got any good photographs. "I always get good photographs" I chortled back.
Well, I do. But that's what 25 years of photography will do.
Ya gotta love Cedar Waxwings ...
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell