Some Recent Winter Things:

A walk along Blackwell Trails on a "blue sky" day provided a view of a small group of Cedar Waxwings. The tip of the tail is normally yellow but this tail is tinged with orange. The orange colour is the result of a red pigment picked up from the berries of an introduced species of honeysuckle. If a waxwing eats enough of the berries while it is growing a tail feather, the tip of the feather will be orange. (Cornell Lab, All About Birds.)

The difference in tail colour is evident between these two Cedar Waxwings.

Early one morning, we saw a large flock of Canada Geese resting on the pond ice.

Many gulls can be found at the Point Edward Lighthouse. Binoculars are needed to see many of the birds, but this Glaucous Gull flew right over my head!

"Blue" Ice at the mouth of the St. Clair River.

Deryl captured this photo of a Lapland Longspur on a recent county tour. In the winter we find them mingling with flocks of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings. Lapland Longspurs breed in tundra habitats across the arctic. The name "longspur" refers to its unusually long hind claw. (Cornell Lab, All About Birds)