January 27, 2010

Colors of January

The first half of January was terribly cold; nightly lows in the teens and daytime highs not getting above freezing. Then we got a lot of rain, and after that bitter wind! Consequently, most of my "Colors of January," were taken through the window, from the comfort of my own home. :)

Our bird garden, as seen when coming around the back of the house.
There's a cardinal in one of the trees. Can you spot it?

Pair of Downy Woodpeckers at the suet.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Male Rufous-sided Towhee

Mourning Dove & female Rufous-sided Towhee

Female Cardinal

Male Cardinal

Blue Jay

American Robins (through the front porch screen).
Almost looks like a painting, doesn't it?
I didn't do anything to the photo though, I promise.

And finally, two different sunsets taken from my front yard...


For more "Colors of January", visit Sue's blog, Life Looms Large.


Colors of January photos & text copyright January 2010 


13 comments:

Annie said...

Lovely colours, Leigh! And so many birds we don't see here. Great photos.

Woolly Bits said...

yes, I agree - I've never seen woodpeckers or cardinals over here:(( and we had to shift the bird feeders to the back of the house - they don't like to be watched by our part-time resident tiger, even if she can't reach them. I'd say for january most of our colour was white, snow and ice-white:)) though we had a lot of brilliant blue skye to boot - and now we're back to the usual 40 (ok, maybe slightly less right now:)) shades of green..... I am so looking forward to end of febr./march - when light yellow primroses and purple violets will flower all over the place....

Mother Moon said...

not bad for january... alot of greens in thre... I love the birds.. I have a couple of flickers myself that I truly love to watch as well as the yellow finches... before long they will be everywhere as spring draws near...

Renee Nefe said...

Great pictures! We don't get such pretty birds here. Some of my neighbors get hummingbirds, but my yard is too hot for them. Hopefully if we get enough trees planted one day we can attract them.

We tried to focus on butterfly attracting and did okay one year with caterpillars too, but haven't seen them come back. I think that the birds that we do have eat them. :(

Benita said...

Now I know where the robins go in the winter. We don't see them here until sometime in March.

You are right, you have a lot more green than we do. Lovely sunsets!

Life Looms Large said...

Great colors shot from inside your house!! I'm impressed with the variety of birds you get. Our setting is more wooded, so we don't get many cardinals. Most evenings, just as the sun sets, a pair of cardinals flies in to feed before dark. It's dark enough that I couldn't photograph them at that point.

Oddly enough there are thousands of robins roosting in our town for the winter. They did that last year as well. Apparently they can eat fruit during the winter, so they fan out throughout the area looking for sumac and crabapples and berries. Then at night they all head to an old Christmas tree farm to roost until morning. It's pretty surprising.

Thanks for showing your colors!!!

Sue

bspinner said...

I am amazed at all the birds. Great photos and lovely colors.

Leigh said...

Annie, thank you! I imagine we have very different birds over here. You need to photograph your birds and put them on your blog.

Bettina, no woodpeckers! So sad, they are among our favorites. Nuthatches too, who are constantly "talking." I'm with you on looking forward to seeing some spring color.

Mother Moon, thank you for the comment! Yes, I do have quite a few evergreen plants around; the pine trees in the background and a green vine near the birdfeeders. I don't know what that one is though.

Renee, I'm planning to focus on both bird and butterfly attracting plants next spring. Do you put out birdfeeders in the winter? I think that's why we have such a crowd every year.

Benita, actually we're just starting to see flocks of robins. I know they sometimes overwinter in this part of the country, but we just haven't had many at our feeders or birdbaths.

Sue, thanks! These are actually the most common birds at my feeder. I must have taken dozens of photos for those few; many didn't turn out. The only birds I got were the frequent visitors! Interesting about your robins. I'm sure food and shelter is the key.

Thank you, Barb! Dan and I love birdwatching and really enjoy the view from our windows.

Sharon said...

Beautiful and so different than my experiences with winter. I am charmed.

charlotte said...

Such a lot of beautiful birds, and beautiful photos! I'm amazed that there is so much green color left where you live, In Northern europe everything is brown and grey in the winter when there is no snow.

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Great colors to support your beautiful pictures. I looked out today and the front yard is full of robins. Yep robins, the first sign of spring! Wacky little birds, we have a major winter storm movin' in. If they have a brain at all..they'll head for the hills!

Ya'll have a marvelously blessed day!!!

Leigh said...

Sharon, I could say the same thing about your winter photos! That's one of the things to love about the Internet, we can share many and varied different experiences.

Charlotte, we're fortunate to have so much green in our yard. In part it's the evergreen pine trees you see in the background. But also previous owners planted evergreen trees, shrubs, and vines around the yard.

Nezzy, your storm is on the way here! Robins amaze me, they leave for the winter but come back before the spring has come. I suppose as long as they can find food ......

janian@eircom.net said...

How interesting to compare seasonal colours in different parts of the world. I must get mine posted for January.
Janet, in Seattle for most of this month