Cardinals - Woodpeckers - Juncos - Heckrodt Wildlife Reserve - M.C. Kinney Photography - Appleton, WI

Okay, yes, it's a little cold outside. Like 1 degrees Fahrenheit with a minus 16 windchill. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be stopped from going outside and photographing some birds. So this morning, I headed out to Heckrodt Wildlife Reserve in Menasha to find a Cardinal, maybe an owl (if I was REALLY lucky) and perhaps a woodpecker or two. And here's what I found:

There was this little cutie, a female Downy Woodpecker just going to town on this tree,

and this female Northern Cardinal waiting to decide if a trip closer to me was worth it to get to the feeders,

this fat Dark-Eyed Junco (male) along with about 10 of his closest and dearest friends eating off the ground;

and my favorite for the day, this very busy Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker that visited many trees trying to get his fill, until finally, he flew away.

So, no owls again (I'm really looking for a Great Horned Owl or a Screech, a Barn or a Barred if you know of any near you). But it was still worth putting up with the cold...