Hoar Frost & Birds in a winter wonder land.

Great shots Gary! I love2:10:46pm and 2:14:10pm.

A sucessful day of birding, after all. Great shots!

Grasmussen, your photos are truely spectacular. Are you a professional or at least a semi-professional? Are you selling to magazines, either local or national? Because you should be. I really have enjoyed looking at you photographs and love coming back every few days. Thank you for taking the time to load them!

3gs,

Thank you for the boost to my ego. No, I'm not a profession or even a semi-professional photographer. I'm just a retired public employee, caring for a disabled partner. I only wish I could sell a few of my photos, so I could afford better equipment, and maybe travel a little to photographer birds in exotic places.

Gary

Well, what have you got to lose but a couple of stamps? You should definitely send some in. Some you think are best and also some that others find are the best. And to a variety of magazine and publishers. Surely on the photography thread (we have one of those, right?) someone can point you in the right dirrection on this. I'm hoping his takes off for you. You've got talent, in my humble opinion. :-)

I think a lot of folks would buy a calender of your pics... I agree that you have some prize winning ones too.

And Hey! Like 3gardeners said; What have you got to lose but a couple of stamps.

Gary superb shots of the Bohemian Waxwings. I was thinking along the lines as the others, that you have tremendous skill in photography.

Today was a day of surprises. I was trying to photograph Bohemian Waxwings, when a small bird of prey swooped into one side of the tree and landed. The waxwings where exiting the opposite side. Knowing a resident pair of Merlins has nested in the area for several years, I assumed it was one of them. I worked my way around the tree, until I was able to get a shot through the branches. Looking through the viewfinder, I was intent on getting an unobstructed picture.

This is the second surprise. When the pictures popped up on the computer, I was looking at this Sharp-shinned Hawk, a new species added to my photo collection.

That would be a good picture for IDing our birds. Hope you get it posted in bird files, I can clearly see the squared off tail, compare to Copper's.
Congratulation, on your find.

This message was edited Jan 6, 2009 12:01 AM

Sorry burn, but the end of the tail is behind the lower branch, in ever picture I took. Since posting the picture, I have been told there has never been a Sharp-shinned Hawk, counted in the Christmas Bird Count in Anchorage. They normally go south for the winter. We are out of the range for Cooper's Hawk.

Well that's great!

Thanks for pointing that out Gary, I was sure I was seeing the whole tail. Glad you were able, to add it to your collection.
It's very different this year, the Goldfinches are still here. And I've seen a Robin also. They are not known to spend the winter here.

Amazing pictures Gary. The sharp-shin is gorgeous! What a surprise that must have been.

Burn, I watched a group of 5 or so robins Sunday in my yard. I don't remember ever seeing them here in winter. Hmmm. Adaptation? Our winters are definitely less severe than they were 10 years ago.

OP,
You may have missed it, I posted photos, in the daily pictures, a few days ago of Robins here in Anchorage. I know of two flocks each about a dozen birds over wintering here. We have had temperatures dipping into double digits below zero F. As surprising as it may seem, there are normally a few Robins which over winter here in Anchorage. I took this picture on the 1/3/2009. I also to a few shots yesterday, but they were out of focus.

Hi Gary.........I have been feeding huge flocks of pine grosbeaks here for many years and yesterday I observed a color deviation that was a first for me. This particular bird has black spots on its breast. Have you or anyone else seen this anomaly before? I also saw one with the spots that also had a white throat and some white above the eyes. I've been watching for them all day today, but so far, no such luck. I did manage to get a pic of the one with just the black spots....

Ava,
No, I have never seen a Pine Grosbeak with spots, like the one in your picture. It is most likely a simple mutation in a color gene. The second possibility could be some form of a hybrid. But, I don't know what is available to hybridize with a Pine Grosbeak in this area.

Gary

Agree with most likely a colour mutation (melanism, in this case), not a hybrid. The other possibility is some sort of dirt (maybe oil?) stuck to the feathers.

Resin

Gary....Here is a juvy male pine grosbeak that knocked himself silly. He bounced off a window on the porch and I found him 20 feet from the house right out in the open where the hawks could easily swoop down and snatch him, so I went out and picked him up and held him till he recovered enough to fly off on his own. He sat quietly, unrestrained in my hand for about 5 minutes before he decided he was well enough to fly off.

Aww, so glad he was okay! Glad you were there.

Glad to hear the Grosbeak is OK! I had no idea of their size and this sure is a great way to demonstrate that...thanks for posting!

I was surprised too. I was imagining them to be a bit smaller.

Ava, I haven't been on this sight for several days, and just now saw your post. Glad to hear he survived. I thought you had enough stuff in, and around your porch windows to keep the birds from hitting them. Hope we don't get coated with too much volcanic ash if/when Mt. Redoubt blows it top.

Gary,

Keep us posted on Mt. Redoubt. Can you see any of the smoke ? I know its 100 miles southwest of Anchorage but are you in the jet stream ? I was reading how dangerous the particles can be and the plight of a KLM airliner back in 1989. That had to be quite frightening.

Anyway, don;t want to burden you with too many questions but I find it quite interesting.

Linthicum,

We have been coated with up to a 1/4 inch of ash in past eruptions. It depends of the wind direction. An eruption will seriously disrupt aviation over a large area. I was going to give you a link the the AK. Volcano Observatory, but their web site is over loaded. I copied and pasted the following:

ALASKA VOLCANO OBSERVATORY CURRENT STATUS REPORT
Friday, January 30, 2009 12:20 PM (Friday, January 30, 2009 21:20 UTC)


REDOUBT VOLCANO (CAVW #1103-03-)
60°29'7" N 152°44'38" W, Summit Elevation 10197 ft (3108 m)
Current Aviation Color Code: ORANGE
Current Volcano Alert Level: WATCH

Unrest at Redoubt Volcano continues, though no eruption has yet occurred. Seismicity levels have increased since yesterday evening and have also risen markedly over the last hour. Pilot reports, clear AVO webcam views, and satellite and radar views confirm that Redoubt Volcano has not yet erupted at the time of this report. Redoubt remains at Aviation Color Code ORANGE and Volcano Alert Level WATCH.

AVO's website continues to be overwhelmed with traffic today likely due to the extensive local and national news coverage of this activity. A backup, low-bandwidth webserver is operating with limited information.

Staff are currently monitoring the volcano 24 hours a day. We will issue further information as it becomes available.

Hope it doesn't do a St Helens!

There's been no mention of it at all on the news over here, but that'll presumably change the moment it blows its top.

Resin

Thanks for the update, Gary.