Lincoln Memorial Gardens- Birds, A Snake?, and.. Violets??? (And Yet More Birds)

I've visited Lincoln Memorial Gardens a couple of times as of late, and while the season is slowing down, I've still found plenty of interest.  

We'll start with boring.  Well, sparrows aren't boring to me, but to many, many people, a little brown bird like this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) is worth ignoring. I'm not going to tell you that I find these birds incredibly exciting, but sparrows as a group do interest me.  It gives me great pride to say "Oh, look, it's a juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow!":

My  comeuppance comes a few seconds later when a fellow birder then says, "Y'know, I think that's actually a White-throated Sparrow."  By the way, that happened in the case of this bird, which IS a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)... I think.

I'm just glad I can identify a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum).

At  any rate, I can identify a few flowers, and, as it's November, what is this Violet (Viola sororia) blooming now?  It should be blooming in March/April!  Actually, for whatever reason, in my area this violet species blooms both spring and fall.

This young White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) walked by only about thirty feet from us, and some of our group got even closer than that.  I don't have any idea what's going on with the fur.

Of all songbirds that migrate down to Illinois from Canada, my favorite is this, the Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa).  Bold little birds, they will hop about on branches within five feet of you.   It's hard to see it in this picture, but they have a bright streak of yellow on top of their head.  The reason it's hard to see in this picture is due to the fact that these birds never sit still and thus are extremely hard to photograph well, at least for an amateur like me.

SNAKE ALERT

On a previous trip, I was walking along the lake trail, very close to where I found the Kinglet, and I turned up something rustling in the brush.  It proved to be a very feisty little juvenile Northern Watersnake  (Nerodia sipedon), which gave me my very first snakebite... sort of, since it didn't even break the skin.  I can imagine, however, that a full-sized watersnake could give a decent bite, albeit only if handled.  Northern Watersnakes are usually confused with Cottonmouths, but up here in Central Illinois we only have the watersnakes.  I suspect this is my last watersnake of the year.

Just offshore, unusually close to me, these Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) and Horned Grebes (Podiceps auritus) made for easy viewing.  Horned Grebes, also known as "demon ducks" for their red eyes, lack the tufted feathers in the winter that give them their common name.  Both these bird species are among my favorites.  I still remember a guided hike years back at Lincoln Memorial Gardens where the leader pointed out some specks barely on the horizon and called out "Ruddy Ducks!"  They were almost invisible, far out on the lake on a gray, overcast February day.

Now, I've become that guy.  Woa.

I may have been talking recently about how  unreasonably bored I am when seeing " just" American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).  Looking back on it, I think I was burned out by seeing well over a thousand at once in Chautauqua NWR, back with Jesse and Dan, on one of my favorite trips I've ever gone on, linked here.  When you see a thousand of anything at once, it's hard to appreciate the half-dozen you see later.

Now this is a sighting I will appreciate forever.  It's a Horned Grebe, but it came within eight feet of me before diving.  That's unusually bold for this species, and a fellow birdwatcher of mine, who's been birding longer than I've been... well. to put it bluntly, alive... says that he has never been that close to a Horned Grebe before in his life.  So, of course, I screwed up the shot.

For what might be the best birds of the trips, I spotted the ducks above.  That bill on the duck in the center isn't very dissimilar from a scoter, either White-winged or Surf.  I had initially called this a Ring-billed Duck, but I think I was mistaken.  (Also, I meant to say Ring-necked Duck, even though Ring-billed would be a far better name for that species).  If it is, this might be a new bird species for the gardens!  That being said, I doubt that these can be identified off this photo.

Either way, I know how a Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) looks, and this one was happily hording acorns.  I quite like these bright, loud woodpeckers, who were drumming away as we left.  I will return, woodpecker, and get a better shot of you without so much exposure.

Ebird checklists:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32270443

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32359702