Palest of the Pale

Most any bird will peak my interest, but let me see something a little different, and I am like a hound dog on its trail. When this very pale bird with white wings and tail showed up today at Rennie's River, I went into hunter mode.  It took me a long while relocate it and get a good look at it.

When I did, this is what I saw - a leucistic junco.  It was just this morning I said I had only ever seen one such bird and then today, up pops another.

There was no gray on this bird at all.  Due to its pale brown and white overall look, it looked bigger than the juncos it was playing with.  I spent quite a bit of time with this bird and spent the whole morning on Rennie's River and Kent's Pond.

What did I see? Well, an Indigo Bunting feeding at the main feeder in the area; a Mourning Dove moving from yard to yard; a Sharp-shinned Hawk and this junco at Rennie's River.  The killer was the Nashville Warbler flew in while I was there. I saw it fly but I never got my binos or camera on it. What a disappointment! I tried and tried to relocate it to satisfy my desire to see this guy but to no avail.

On my way home I stopped at Kent's Pond where I saw, once again, the Ring-necked Ducks, Tufted Ducks, Scaup, a female Eurasian Wigeon, the odd Lesser Scaup and the Pied-billed Grebe. The sun shining on the heads of the female diving ducks made them  look really red, so I took the time to try to look closely at each one. You just never know what might show up there. Traffic on the trail is down making bird watching much easier.  I also had a Song Sparrow that looked a little different from the usual, run-of-the-mill Song.  I will share the pictures at another time. 

What a great day to be out! It started out pretty cold, but as mid-morning arrived, it got a lot warmer.  We just aren't used to this any more.