Bird Watching: Daily Bird Pics (and conversation) #454, 3 by pollengarden

pollengarden wrote:
Do we have a Birders Anonymous thread for when things get out of hand?
I went to drop my kid off at school, hadn't intended to go anywhere else, but the State Park entrance is only a few blocks away. I went to see if the River had frozen, it hadn't and I had an Aha! moment: sub-freezing temps + open water = birds. My first clue was the Bald Eagles cruising the River. I hadn't intended to get out of my car but ended up at the east end of the trail hiking upstream so the sun would be behind me. My feet started getting cold in my holey old running shoes so I decided I better get back to the car, and I thought of a way to keep my feet warm in running shoes. So here I am, shortly after dawn in freezing cold weather, jogging through the State Park, looking for Eagles that aren't looking for me.
1 Northern Flicker getting a drink
2 Killdeer, a "shore bird" that ironically I have never seen near water before
3 Mallards. The other water fowl didn't mind joggers, but took flight every time I stopped.
4 Bald Eagle. I got this driving back out of the park - they had circled around behind me.