Today, I saw all of this at the pond. I’m going to let the photos show you everything that was before me in about an hour and a half’s time.Pileated Woodpecker
Snow Bunting – note white wing patches
Snow Bunting – see beautiful tail feathers
White-throated Sparrow
Tractor in adjacent field
Spider on leaves
Red berries
Bee in nest(click on photo to enlarge)
Mushrooms on a birch tree
Bittersweet
Going to seed
There were lots of birds – this group of about two hundred (really) causing a cacophony.It made me think of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
Not sure what the bird is but perhaps a reader will know it by this silhouette.
Not much a formation here…a haphazard group!Perhaps another clue to what bird this is.
At least five trees around me were stocked with birds in the quantity shown below. They had been far out of sight – I could only hear them, till I got to within about 200 yards of them. Then they flew out of the woods and filled the trees just above me….eerie…
Below is how I often see birds (in this case a male cardinal) – through a maze of branches. But this is what I like about what I see on my walks. And it is this that inspired the title of this post. What You See Is What You Get when you shoot photos at the pond. There’s no set-up, no lights, no posing, not the enticement of a feeder nor the constraints of fencing. 
Berries gone by…
American goldfinch showing molting fall colors?Or perhaps a tanager molting.
I hope you enjoyed what I saw in a day at the pond.
I hope you enjoyed what I saw in a day at the pond.
SilverLining 
I like the lighting and composition of your milkweed photo.
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Hi Dan,Thanks – I like this photo a lot. That's why I chose it over the others and put it at the top of the post. The pond's water is what is coloring the background. There is such texture (I guess is the word I'd use) in the components of the milkweed – the dried pod skin, the symetry in the brown seeds in the long slender pod and then the fluffy seed that was barely hanging on in the breeze. Plus there are funky angles to the stocks and pods. I'm glad you like it. Thanks.
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I think Common Grackle is your \”Hitchcock bird\” and a winter-plumaged Am Goldfinch. Love the photos, especially the Snow Bunting!
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Hi Anne, Thanks for help with identifying the \”Hitchcock birds!\” I think you are right. I couldn't see the iridescent feathers with the birds so high above and the bright sky making only silhouettes visible. I love the CornellLab site that you linked to in your comment. Isn't it wonderful!? Also, I'm sure you are right about the American Goldfinch. And I suspect the Snow Bunting photos could be little treasures in my blog. The detail is so clear. I marvel that the bird traveled so far to my little pond! (As I took the pictures, I had no idea what the birds were – it was a pair. I thought they were fancy sparrows! I'm totally amateur!) If you are inclined, have a look at my latest post, December 4th – Winter's Coming On. Maybe you can help with the identification of birds shown there! Thanks!!! Mary
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Does anyone know what the \”red berries\” are called above the \”bee in nest\” photo? I've got some growing wild in my yard.
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