Our long and hard Indiana winter has continued through much of March. Although temperatures have warmed, they have been below average much of the month and signs of spring are few. This Robin was a nice sight in early March, reminding us that spring will come, eventually. See Spring Birds for more pictures of our early spring birds.

A beautiful Canada Goose, of the short-necked tribe graces the waters of the Killbuck Wetlands. For more seasonal water birds, see Water Fowl.

Here is rare sight in any month, but especially in early spring. This is Penelope, our mother Barred Owl. This sight is rare for two reasons: first, she is seldom seen out in the daytime unless she is with or feeding her young owlets. Second, she probably has eggs in the nest and stays with them nearly constantly until the eggs have hatched and the owlets fledged. The eggs should hatch around April 1. We think she was taking a quick break from her eggs when we saw her. More pictures of her, and also "Junior" the father owl may be seen at Barred Owls. For more information about our resident owls, see Barred Owl Family History.

Two pairs of Redhead Ducks swim in a pond in a farm field, formed by recent heavy rains. Note the blue bill with the black tip on the males. These Redheads are migrating through Indiana on their way north. For more birds moving north, see Migrants.

These White Ibis were found at Woodruff NWR in Florida. See White Ibis for more pictures of these beautiful birds.

Screen Savers

This month, Birds of Madison County brings you a high resolution picture. Clicking on the image below will cause the corresponding high resolution image to be downloaded to your browser. You may save this image by dragging it to your desktop or using the "SAVE" command on the File menu. This image is large and may require a little time to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connect. The size of the picture in pixels and of the file in bytes is given for the picture.

AOL Users should use Internet Explorer instead of AOL's browser to download this images.

This image is suitable for use as a screen saver or desktop. It may also be printed in large sizes for personal use.

Junior dozing in the Deep Woods

The father Barred Owl is not easy to see as he sleeps away a late winter day in the deep woods. Can you find him in the middle of this picture?

3000 X 2000 pixels; 1.4 MBytes.

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Award Winning Web Site

We were honored to receive the East Central Indiana Audubon Society's Conservation Education Award for the work done through this web site. We thank the Audubon Society for this recognition and promise to continue our efforts to bring you interesting bird-related pictures.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to us at this address:

Tom and Jean Harbron

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Birds of Madison County thanks the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club for providing the hosting web site.

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