Even though the pandemic has overall been an awful experience worldwide, I have tried to find ways to take advantage of the extra time that I have had.

Until The Biggest Week and the Piping Plover project that Black Swamp Bird Observatory had in May, I was going out and photographing quite frequently. Now that things have slowed down (in October), I thought I would take some time to update here.

I got great looks at Snow Buntings most of winter. They are so fun to watch and they’re so beautiful.

I also was fortunate enough to find some Redpolls which was a lifer for me! I was excited to find them because I found them on my own. It wasn’t a species that I hadn’t seen that I got word was somewhere and then went and relocated it.

Not the best photo, but there was a whole flock in a tree!

Another new species I saw (but not until later in the month and NOT when this photo was taken), was a Long-eared Owl. This is the early morning, foggy traffic jam at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge of people looking at the Long-eared Owl.

Then were were old favorites: American Tree Sparrow, Northern Shrike, and the ever growing fat backyard Dark-eyed Juncos.