A Week of Birding and a Very Up-Close Raccoon Experience!

After a busy week of school starting again, we haven't had much time to get out and enjoy the weather. With the past few days having been so nice, it has made it especially hard staying inside. I can speak for all us here when I say we were going a little "stir crazy". But, we eventually got out and took a walk around to enjoy the weather, and of course the wildlife. Here are a few shots from our last few trips out!

 This is an Eastern Kingbird. It just finds a place to perch then flies off and grabs an insect then returns to the same perch. It is really cool to watch. As we drove along the shore of a lake, we came up on him and he was really open to getting his picture taken.

We came up on a group of Least Sandpipers that I have never seen before in this area. They were so cool because they let me get within a few feet of them as they just ate and walked around all calm. These things are tiny standing tall at about 4". This photo shoot was definitely worth the goose crap I got all over my jeans as I crawled around the mucky ground getting these pictures.

After our photo shoot with the Least Sandpipers, we turned the corner and ran into this guy. It's a Solitary Sandpiper! I have attempted several times to get decent pictures of these birds, but they are very nervous when approached. I got closer this time, thanks to some geese and seagulls that were kind of distracting it from focusing on me. Once again, army crawl was necessary otherwise I wouldn't have gotten half this close. But no goose poop on the clothes for this bird, thankfully! 

 

 The next time we got out, we had a few other new birds come really close to the spot we were sitting. The only problem was that they are so small, and fast, that they are extremely hard to get pictures of. But, we did have a few perch in front of us just long enough to focus and get some pictures. Here's what we got.

Cedar Waxwing - Probably one of the coolest looking birds ever!

These aren't the greatest pictures ever, but this is the first Wilson's Warbler I have ever seen. Cool looking and sounding bird. 

This is a Northern Flicker that was chasing around another N. Flicker and just happen to land about 20 feet from me. He stayed there long enough for 3 photos, than took off! Another really cool, and large bird.

Last but not least, another not photo trip of the Yellow Warbler. This bird is so hard to get to come close that it's driving me crazy! 

 

 So lastly I am adding the pictures of our adventure from a family drive out to Kingsbury. As we were leaving the Wildlife area, a raccoon was on the side of the road, so we stopped to take a look. Well when we stopped the car, it looked at us and ran right at our car. I couldn't believe it, so I gave the camera to Kelly and told her to get some pictures. She rolled the window down and took a couple, and it kept coming closer and closer. It finally stopped after putting its paws on the side of Kelly's car door! We were laughing so hard, and we thought for sure that it was going to jump in her window. She would roll it up in fear of it coming in. It was so funny, even the car behind us was stopped and taking pictures of it touching our car! Wow, apparently we were driving through a petting zoo and didn't even know it! Note: The first picture is Kelly trying to get a picture while rolling up her window! LOL