Dark-eyed Junco at Hillside Cemetery in NE Minneapolis. Hennepin County, MN 03/05/24

© All Rights Reserved

The usual suspects. If you ever tire of common winter birds, my advice is to observe them on sunny days when you can see how colorful they really are. Hennepin County, MN 02/15/24

© All Rights Reserved

I got some brief but much needed time outside today. It was healing to see the sunshine, feel the chill of November, and be able to sit on the ground and watch the last sunset of meteorological fall. To my surprise, there was one tree at the cemetery with enough leaves to create an orangish background. I could hardly believe it given all the windy days we've had, and it being the last day of November! I even found a few Bluebirds. So I guess I should take back what I said earlier about them not staying here much longer past Halloween. Hennepin County, MN 11/30/23

© All Rights Reserved

It was fun to have a few Dark-eyed Juncos visiting the seed stump in early November. Juncos are odd in that they show such variation of color, albeit subtle. I like the light "mauve" coloration on this one. Hennepin County, MN 11/02/23

© All Rights Reserved

I'm sure it's been a challenging few days for all birds and other wildlife lately. Here in the Twin Cities, we are currently at our highest temperature in 4 days at 4ºF. Our previous high temp of 1ºF was on Wednesday evening between 6 and 9pm. Add in wind gusts of 40+mph and it is pretty unbearable. I think we are faring better though than northern Minnesota where it's both colder and more windy. Not unusual for January or February, but it does seem early to experience such harsh conditions in December. Dark-eyed Junco. Hennepin County, MN 12/23/22

© All Rights Reserved