Our Neighborhood – January 2026

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I took a walk around our neighborhood last week…looking for anything of interest in the winter landscape.

It easier to see abandoned bird’s nests in trees, buds on otherwise bare stems, seeds and pinecones in the winter because there is not a lot of other vegetation to distract the eye.

The occasional bright green of moss growing in muddy areas is a pop of color.

Lichens and bark and shelf fungus have color and texture to offer.

The temperature had gotten into the 60s but I didn’t see any turtles. There was a lone pair of mallards on the pond; they have ducklings every spring, but the turtles are too numerous for the young birds to survive. There was a Cooper’s Hawk that swooped over the pond and landed on one of the bridge railings; I think it is a resident of the neighborhood since I’ve seen in it my yard periodically.

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (2)

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While the snow geese dominated the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in terms of numbers, there were other things to see. There were many muskrat mounds, and we saw the animals swimming closer to the wildlife loop road than the snow geese. I only saw one group out of the water on a mound that looked like it was deteriorating. I couldn’t tell whether they were trying to rebuild it or just stopping there for a snack!

We heard many red-winged blackbirds. Some males might have been beginning to claim a territory, but others were still in flocks that would rise up and fly around in a murmuration. My favorite picture shows how long the claw are. It doesn’t look like the bird is gripping the twig as much as it might on a windy day.

A red-winged blackbird nest (probably from last season) was in the reeds.

There were at least two hooded merganser pairs that we saw on our morning visit. The males seemed more likely to startle and fly off…coming back to the female after a few seconds!

I took a picture of one of the bald eagle nests on our afternoon at the refuge….and then in the morning. There appears to be an eagle head visible (not in focus) in the morning picture (click on the image below to get a larger version).

More tomorrow about the other birds we saw….and the plants! There was a lot of see at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge.

Our New Neighborhood – January 2023

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It was warmer than I expected when I walked around our neighborhood pond…a pleasant surprise. I photographed the Lambs ear in our flower bed on the way out…both the mother plant and ‘children’ seem to be weathering the winter.

The dying back of vegetation makes it easier to see nests in the trees and the reeds/grasses at the side of the pond. Was this one built by a red-winged blackbird last spring?

There are many leaves decaying in the pond…and bright green algae. I wondered if there might be some interesting macroinvertebrates in the water. We did see a lot of dragonflies in the summer so their larvae might be in the water. Maybe I will get a small net to see what is hiding in the decaying leaves.

I always stop to look at the weeping willow at the edge of the pond that has grown around a metal stake. The leaves are gone now…but the lichen on the trunk is colorful! I took pictures at various magnifications with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e). I’ll continue to check the lichen on my walks around the neighborhood pond…see how much it changes when the weather is warmer.