An colorful male Ring-necked Pheasant stands out against the snow. As does an alert female Ring-neck.

I can really hear Florida and Texas calling me for a birding escape, along with Colorado and Oregon. And regionally, any time there are a couple sunny days in a row up this way, I’m overdue for another regional trip to my SoDak raptor hotspot. Each day I think about my next birding trip, and this week I’ve been leaning toward another tour of Florida. I even reacted by writing about “Everglades Adventures” in this issue’s Birding Lifestyles article to get a sub-tropical release filled with interesting birds.

Thank goodness for pheasants and owls, or last week would have been quite birdless during my local and regional field trips. There were few birds to be found last week, but when you’re talking about beautiful male and female Ring-necked Pheasants, or exciting Snowy and Great Horned Owls, I’m big fans of all these birds! On Monday I re-found two Snowys I initially found the week before, plus I spied on an adult Golden Eagle standing on distant hilltop. Wednesday’s field trip featured a Snowy Owl, and I found another Thursday. And today, at the end of my extended birding drive, I found three Great Horned Owls, each separated by 8 to 10 miles.

My feeders were graced by a few new birds this week: Two Pine Siskins are feeding on my thistle sock (hooray), and another Red-breasted Nuthatch, which I can identify because its breast is lighter-colored than the original Red-breast, which has a deeper rufous-colored breast. Actually, I’m a bit surprised at the almost continuous activity at my feeding station compared to the sparse action afield.

But hey, it’s mid-January in Dakota. While it’s been relatively warm lately with highs in the 20s and 30s, There will be a cold reality check by the time you read this, so a warm-weather birding break will be something to look forward to. Even so, over and over again I was amazed at the beauty of the landscape during my field trip today. Once again, everything is cloaked in thick hoarfrost and the rolling hills and scattered trees provide beautiful views! And you never know what remarkable bird will materialize next.

Article and photos by Paul Konrad

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