Hunkered Down!

Much like this puffed-up Dark-eyed Junco on a -13 degree morning, I've been lying low. For now. 

Well, the weather door has largely been slammed shut since my last post. Since December started, it's been a lot of snow, ice, and brutally cold temperatures - with temperatures dropping double digits below zero (Fahrenheit) on multiple occasions. Suffice it to say, I haven't been able to get back on my bike at all this month - ice and snow on road shoulders and bone chilling cold don't make for good biking weather. We did actually have something of a warm spell this week - but I've been sick with the nasty flu virus that's been going around, so anything involving movement was out of the question. I'm better now, thankfully. 

The good (?) news is that other than a nearby Eurasian Tree Sparrow (7 miles each way - easy by bike, but too far to go by foot), there hasn't been anything that would be new for my birds-by-bike list the last month either. Open water is largely gone except for the venerable Blue Lake sewage lagoons, and all that's been seen there of note thus far has been a Long-tailed Duck, which was the bird that put me over the 238 species hump if you recall back in November at good old Spring Lake. 

The frozen lakes are almost walkable now, which means I might be able to try for a Long-eared Owl at the O'Dowd park where I looked for them last winter. That place definitely has potential, and it's an easy walk - when you can cut across the lake. I'm also hopeful (perhaps foolishly so) that a Snowy Owl could show up in the ag fields where I got the Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs earlier, and I could still get Evening Grosbeaks or even Pine Grosbeak at the feeders with some luck. And you never know if an American Goshawk will shoot through the yard at any point! If the roads clear off, I might even be able to take the bike out one last time and try for that sparrow. 

So, while my green birding activity has been wound down by necessity here as of late - I'm not quite done yet! Stay tuned...also, I've started writing up a summary of my year. It's been really fun. I'm still incredulous about breaking the MN Green Birding Record and feel very fortunate to have had this in my life this year. I look forward to sharing it with you! Until next time!