{"id":1076,"date":"2016-01-18T21:30:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T03:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/?p=1076"},"modified":"2016-01-18T21:34:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T03:34:57","slug":"january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/january\/","title":{"rendered":"January"},"content":{"rendered":"

The days are short,
\nThe sun a spark,
\nHung thin between
\nThe dark and dark.<\/em>
\n\u2013John Updike<\/p>\n

Although it’s just mid-January, the days are already noticeably longer. Still, they seem dark, cold, and much too short. The rays of the sun\u2014when the sun chooses to make an appearance\u2014hit our state at such a shallow angle that there isn’t much warmth or light. The backyard has been busy especially with the recent cold and snow. The birds, squirrels, rabbits and voles are taking advantage of the seed and suet I put out as well as the heated birdbath, which is a new addition to the backyard. I’m just glad I’m in here watching from the warmth of the house.<\/p>\n

\"Yeah,<\/a>

Yeah, we don’t want to go out either. We’ll just stay right here on the couch.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Gallery of Yard Birds<\/h4>\n
\"We

We have a bird feeder in the front yard and one in the back. The birds like to sit on (or in) the gutters in the front and fly down to the feeders.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The male Goldfinches are already starting to develop their bright yellow breeding plumage. That means spring isn’t far away, right?<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Most

Most of the time, the Dark-eyed Juncos feed on the ground but this one decided to try the platform feeder. The House Finch to his left was squawking at him.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"White-breasted

White-breasted Nuthatch ready to cache a sunflower seed.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"NEW

NEW Feeder Bird: Common Redpoll. Never had one of these at the feeder before and one or two have been showing up regularly over the last few weeks.<\/p><\/div>\n

Short-Eared Owls<\/h4>\n

On January 4th, Annette and I took a day trip to Paradise Valley State Wildlife Area near Sullivan, Wisconsin. It’s only about an hours drive from here and we had heard that one could view Short-eared owls in the late afternoon as they start waking up and hunting for food. It was an amazing experience. We watched Northern Harriers and Owls silently cruise the marsh while a beautiful winter sun set in the western sky. <\/p>\n

\"Paradise

Paradise Valley State Wildlife Area, Sullivan, WI.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Female

Female Northern Harrier<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Male

Male Northern Harrier<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Short-eared

Short-eared owl begins its evening hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Unique

Unique and distinctive faces on these birds. They do have short ear tufts but you couldn’t really see them when they were in flight. We saw 7-8 owls.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Short-eared

Short-eared owls are mainly winter residents of Wisconsin. They spend their summers in Canada and Alaska.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Few More January Birds<\/h4>\n
\"Barred

Barred Owl, UW Lakeshore Path, Madison<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pied-billed

Pied-billed Grebe, Yahara River, Stoughton,<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Northern

Northern Mockingbird, Madison. A rare bird for Wisconsin. Mostly lives in the in the south and southwest.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Another

Another view of the Northern Mockingbird.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Grumpy

Grumpy American Tree Sparrow<\/p><\/div>\n

\"American

American Tree Sparrow, not grumpy<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A

A very cold morning yesterday. Even the geese were all tucked in.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Common

Common but beautiful.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Horned

Horned Lark, Farm fields south of Stoughton<\/p><\/div>\n

So winter is good. There are still beautiful things to see and enjoy. Get out there and find something that makes you happy.<\/p>\n

\"lakeshore\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The days are short, The sun a spark, Hung thin between The dark and dark. \u2013John Updike Although it’s just mid-January, the days are already noticeably longer. Still, they seem… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3KZin-january","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.firepowerdesign.com\/kp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}