Cold weather birding in mid-April

On Sunday, with trails of frozen mud and snow falling, I birded the large wooded property of Rouge River Bird Observatory/U of M Dearborn.

I came across this white-tailed deer and thought it odd that he was alone.  Then I saw that he was a member of a herd of seven eating the fresh little sprouts coming up through the leaves.

A spot of red in a sea of gray and brown.

On Easter Sunday I say my first eastern phoebe of the season.  Of course, Easter was sunny and warm and little bugs were in the air.  This past Sunday was a different story.  Five phoebes were huddled in a corner of the lake and doing their best to hunt insects off the top of the water.  The sallied out from prominent perches over the lake, picked something off the lake and flew back to their perch.  Every so often they would squabble if one landed too close to another.  In the photo above there were two phoebes.  My camera caught the blur in the low center of the photo just as the bird flew.  The phoebes were joined by my first two tree swallows and my first rough-winged swallow of the season also feeding over the lake.

For about an hour the snow was falling hard but little actually accumulated.

Huddled against the cold and snow.

This coming weekend we are promised better!