Cold, Rainy, January Drive!

The cabin fever got me good.  My sister and I took off just for a drive in the cold, cloudy, rainy, MLK Holiday.
Our first stop was the City Park.....

It was pretty in the park and the ducks seemed happy.  Some were taking baths in the open part of the ice.
Then I spotted something unusual!!!!

A white tailed squirrel.  He was very fast running away from me and my camera, but I finally got a decent picture of him and his white tail!




Next we decided to check our the eagles nest, to see if there was any action going on.

We spotted both Eagles near their nest.  This isn't very clear as the wind was blowing and I do not have the steadiest hand anymore. I believe this is the female, she was larger than the other one.
So our day was brightening as the skies were darkening....Next stop..Charlie's Pond.

Looked cold and bleak out there.  We saw some American Sparrows and then we saw this orange thing at the end of the road...??? The closer we got the more puzzled we were until....we saw what it was...

An orangutan (stuffed) and a dead skunk with an air freshener at it's head....LOL....was so funny!  Not what you expect to find out in the country while looking for birds. 
Next we headed for Deer Creek.

The water levels are very low, just the creek running threw.

We began to see some birds....

American Tree Sparrow.  They were everywhere, chirping and hopping around.

Song Sparrow.
















This Broad-winged Hawk (I think)

This Rough-legged Hawk (I think)..

Black-faced Vulture.
We saw about 7 of them along the road having a fest of a poor dead deer.
When I stopped to get a picture...they flew off.
Camera shy, I think...

 This Downy Woodpecker and the Red-bellied Woodpecker were in the same area.

This Heron was at Deer Creek.  He looked so cold standing there.

 These two Herons were at Paint Creek.  We saw 4 there.  They were flying around, just having fun.

Dark-eyed Junco.  There was a whole group of them.








Then the most exciting thing happened as we were driving down the road at Deer Creek...

These birds started landing on the road in front of us. At first we thought they were Starlings....

They just kept coming and filled the field on the right.

Then they all flew up into the air and then landed again.

We then realized they were Common Grackles...hundreds of them....

They flew up into the trees and filled them up...Was an amazing site. I turned off the car and we sat and watched and I took pictures.  

At Paint Creek the water levels were way down to.  This is the marina.

The view from the bridge is still beautiful at Paint Creek.  Then we turned for home as the sunlight was fading...We had a wonderful drive today.!