Icy Black Dirt Birding, 12/29/15

With the overnight frozen mix that continued with a steady rain in the morning, I did not think I would get much birding in today, and I certainly was not optimistic about taking photos. Fortunately the roads were fine for driving, so I did a tour of the black dirt in my car. I ran into some good birds close enough to the road for pics, and the icy conditions made for what I think are some interesting photos. I had a total of 33 species for the day; I covered a large territory and I’ve included two species I picked up during a quick stop at Tomahawk Lake at the end of the outing (Common Merganser and N. Mockingbird). I’ve included my species list at the bottom of this post.

Black Dirt Region and Tomahawk Lake, December 29, 2015:

Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Mallard
Common Merganser
Black Vulture
Northern Harrier
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-headed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Blackbird sp.
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow