I went out looking for birds in the pre-spring season because it was finally nice and sunny out. Perfect lighting for my finnicky zoom lens.
As it turns out I heard the sandhill cranes and their dinosaur noises up in the skies and managed to focus in on a cluster of them.
Chances are they are searching for a nice wetlands area to start their springtime families at. I know one spot where they consistently raise their young. Maybe in a month I'll check it out and see if there are any babies...
The mallards are starting to pair up already. This female has a close follower nearby her at all times.
He has to guard against all the other males looking for a mate.
At a different lake area we run into a problem... These two males are competing for the same gal. I'm not sure she likes either of them lol.
The downy woodpeckers were out making their tapping noises.
They weren't too cooperative with me this time and I couldn't get any nicely posed shots of them.
There were plenty of nuthatches out as well but as usual they were too bouncy for any super clear shots.
I have no idea what kind of small bugs they are looking for this early in the year...
This chickadee shot was probably my best one out of the day's spotting. I also saw cardinals, a red bellied woodpecker but they were deep in the thickets, impossible to get clear photos of them.
There's always time to take a test shot of a squirrel basking in the sun :-) If only the birds were as nice of posers as the squirrels.