Birds Battling the Blizzard

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Josh

Today was one of those days that we knew ahead of time we’d be coming home early from school. A blizzard warning was forecast to begin at 11 AM. Interestingly the skies were crystal clear today, but the 40 MPH winds created a ground blizzard with white-outs and drifting across rural roads. As soon as I was released from school I took a drive out to the house of one of my coworkers who excitedly called me this morning to report she had a Snowy Owl along her 1/2 mile-long driveway. I went to check it out, but the bird was long gone.

So I then picked up Marin and the two of us went on to pick up Evan from school. I walked into school and found a beaming Evan who excitedly dug in his back-pack to pull out the special envelope from the school nurse that contained the tooth he lost that day! It was definitely an exciting moment and fun to listen to the slight change in speech in Evan who now has two holes in his face.

Since we were already in town, I decided we would head out to the city airport because Randy had found a Snowy Owl out there the previous evening. We simply had to check it out. We found the owl no problem as it was right where Randy described it – on top of small knoll by a smashed grain bin out past the runways. The great distance from the road and the blowing snow made it tough to even verify we were looking at a Snowy, but I was able to capture the Snowy’s essence in the photo below.

Snowy Owl at Willmar Municipal Airport

And since we were at the airport, we had to drive by the F-15 that is on display. Evan also had to tell us about the different buildings he toured here with his Cub Scout den a few months ago.

U.S. Navy F-15 at Willmar Municipal Airport

You can see from the flags above just how windy it was today. On the way home we spotted a rooster pheasant right near our home that was fighting this wind with all his might just to find something to eat by the road.

Rooster (male) Ring-necked Pheasant

The kids didn’t see the rooster on the first pass, so I had to turn the car around and go back. Now the rooster was on Evan’s side, so he saw it easily. But Marin, on the opposite side and strapped into a car seat, could not see it and was sure to tell us as much. “Where? I can’t seeeee!” So I had to turn the car around again so it was on her side, but that turkey of a rooster came right up by the car and Marin couldn’t see it when she looked out her window. Finally it ran away from the road giving her a view. I had to drive back and forth on the shoulder several times to jockey for position to give the kids a view and to try to take a picture of this bird struggling with the wind.

Evan was much more excited to see this rooster than the Snowy Owl earlier. I think he was in awe of this bird’s splendor as the sun hit its breast when he exclaimed, “Look at that RED chest!” I never get tired of seeing roosters either. They are one of my favorite birds. It was a nice bonus bird for this unplanned birding outing.

Rooster Ring-necked Pheasant

A Bittersweet Snowy Owl

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Josh

I woke up this morning to an unexpected text message – school was delayed two hours due to heavy fog. Sweet. The extra time allowed for a little more sleep and the chance for me to drop Evan off at his school which was on time today. Doing that allows Evan to get about an hour of extra sleep.

After dropping him off I had gotten no more than a mile away when I got a text from my coworker, Mike, that read “Just spotted a snowy white owl by Litchfield.” Whoa! This has been a major target bird and one that I’ve eagerly awaited during this winter season. We missed on them in Duluth last March, and our latest trip up north did not yield one either. I’ve been carefully monitoring reports of these owls as they have slowly been popping up around the state. In fact, in the northeastern part of the country, Snowy Owls have been invading the coast and have reached as far south as North Carolina and Bermuda! In normal years it is not too common to find them as far south as our area.

Needless to say, I was very excited about this news. But immediately I was hit with a dilemma. Do I go back to Evan’s school and yank him out of class? Do I risk being late to work over this? Do I try to see if they’ll find me a substitute teacher? Ultimately I decided that there was no guarantee that even I’d see this bird. Pulling Evan out of school abruptly and me getting time off on such short notice were bordering on impossibility.

I decided to leave him at school. As it was I had a small cushion of time before I had to be to work – just enough time to drop Marin off at daycare and go check out this location. On the way to the site, I stopped by the house to grab my camera. I double and triple checked that the battery and SD card were loaded and then I was off.

After dropping off Marin, I pulled up to the front doors of my school where Mike was waiting to go with me to show me where the bird was. I hopped out of the driver’s door and had Mike take my place so I could be ready to spot and photograph.

The fog was still extremely dense with a freezing mist, so we could only travel about 45 MPH. We got to the area where he had first seen the bird perched in the ditch and then where he saw it perched on a power pole after he turned around to get a better look. We scanned every pole and looked in every field. Nothing. If it were in a field, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb since we have no snow. We went past the area he had seen it and turned around to head back to school. It was looking like I had missed the owl.

Though I was a little disheartened, I continued to scan every pole and field carefully on our return trip. At one point Mike pointed to a power pole with a large cowboy silhouette leaning against it and said that he saw the owl in the vicinity of the pole. I looked at the pole and gazed up. And there was the Snowy Owl! We had completely missed it the first pass! It was no wonder we didn’t see it as this nearly all-white bird blended into the very white sky in the dense fog.

Luckily the this pole was right by someone’s driveway, so we were able to pull over and observe and photograph it for a few minutes. Had we seen it anywhere else, we would have been risking our lives to view it since this busy road had no shoulders and was clouded in fog. It wasn’t a good day for photography, but it was a treat to even attempt to take a picture of this bird!

Snowy Owl in Meeker County

Can you see how we almost missed this owl hiding in plain sight? Because this Snowy Owl is almost completely white with very faint barring, it is an older male. The young ones and the females can have heavy black barring all over their bodies.

Mike and I made it to work on time with ten minutes to spare. Immediately I went to work posting the location of this owl on MOU-net because Snowy Owls are a big deal and lots of people want to see them. I think only a half dozen or so have been reported so far this winter in Minnesota.

I spent the rest of my day trying to focus on my job while scheming a way to go get Evan to run out and see this bird. Nothing I could think of was working. Finally I asked Melissa if she could run him over to Grove City after school, and we could take a quick look before dark. She hustled him over as soon as she could. There was a sense of urgency to have him see it today because this all-white bird would most definitely be impossible to find after the blizzard that is headed our way tonight. Plus, birds have wings and can take off whenever they please. There’s never a guarantee one will be around.

We drove back to the site and could not relocate the owl. There was a car waiting at the location, so I got out to visit with them. They had come all the way from Minneapolis and hadn’t seen it either. I felt bad for them, but that’s the risk we chasers take.

It was a bummer that Evan wasn’t able to share in this excitement today. But, to Evan’s credit, he was pretty upbeat about it, especially when I told him that we’d chase the next close one and that this year was shaping up to be an invasion year for Snowy Owls. I told him he has a lot of years to see one. Still, having him not see it took a little bit of the excitement out of this incredible find.

198

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Josh

The fun thing about birding is that birders are never not birding. A birder is very in tune with the sights and sounds around him and can easily find a target bird to go after and a place to go birding anywhere he goes. That was the case this weekend as we traveled to the Twin Cities to spend some time with my sister on her last day in the country before she and her family flew home to Nigeria. We stayed at a hotel in Brooklyn Park, which was near a reported location of the Western Kingbird in Ramsey. So, naturally we drove by the spot to see if we could find it. Birding on the busy, divided U.S. Highway 10 was scary. I think I pulled over once to look at a bird, but that was enough. We may have seen it, but we’ll never know. We’ll have to find that bird in a safer location.

Being in the northwest metro also put us near the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. I’ve seen many reports from here, so we decided to drive the Wildlife Tour Loop. I was hoping for an Eastern Towhee and maybe even a Henslow’s Sparrow. It was a beautiful drive in this completely undeveloped land, but we didn’t see any new birds.

We continued our travels home, and I held out hope for a Western Kingbird on Hwy. 10 in a couple different spots where they’d been reported. We still didn’t find any. So much for good incidental birding on this trip. But then I remembered all the poop ponds and flooded ditchs by Paynesville – we might still have a shot at something! I pulled off the highway and got out to look at one of the ponds that looked ripe for shorebirds with its exposed mudflats. I scanned the landscape for anything different. It didn’t take long to pick out some small brown shorebirds that looked promising. I didn’t know what they were, so I took lots of pictures to help with the ID when we got home. I was right that this was a new one for us – the Pectoral Sandpiper!There were about ten of them scurrying about with a couple Killdeer mixed in.

Two birds are all that stand in the way to the monumental 200 for Evan. Keep watching to see what they are and who’s going to win the Kaufman field guide!

Another Lifer in the Bank Despite a Terrible Day

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Josh

One might think from reading this blog that we go birding all the time. While we do like to get out whenever we can, today was not supposed to be a birding day. Instead we were supposed to be packing and getting ready to join my entire immediate family for a reunion vacation in the Apostle Islands off the north shore of Wisconsin. Getting the entire family together is a biennial occurrence since my sister lives in Nigeria and only comes back to the U.S. every other year. The kids were excited to see all their cousins. I was excited to hang out with both my siblings and their families. I was also excited to get another crack at getting the Blue-headed Vireo, maybe photograph a Mourning Warbler, and possibly see the endangered Piping Plover. But we don’t always have control over the circumstances of our lives. Last night Marin’s illness morphed from just a fever into a horrendous case of itchy feet. She writhed all night long and got no more than an hour of sleep. We tried every remedy we could think of to bring relief to her feet. Nothing worked.

The itchiness only intensified in the morning, so I brought her in to the doctor. The conclusion? Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease – a highly contagious viral infection of which there is no topical relief. Only time can alleviate the symptoms of this nasty bug. When I asked the doctor how long Marin had to be away from other children, I was dumbstruck by the response: one week. That was the length of this reunion vacation. I knew then that we would not be joining my family. There wouldn’t be an Apostle Islands birding adventure. It was devastating. Even if Marin did start feeling better, we couldn’t risk spreading the virus to her cousins.

While that news was tough enough to take, Marin’s feet weren’t getting any relief and we were all subject to a day of incessant screaming and crying. Evan became a TV zombie logging in nearly 8 hours on the tube while Melissa and I spent our day trying to somehow help and console someone that couldn’t be helped or consoled. On top of the pain, she was exhausted. She had been awake for well over 36 hours. It was an awful day.

Since Marin was calm in the car when I took her to the doctor, I suggested we take a drive to hopefully get her to relax. After all, she often will easily fall asleep in the car when she won’t nap at home. She needed rest. We needed a reprieve. So we went birding even though we never were supposed to. Today we birded to escape – to escape the disappointment, to escape the screams, to escape the TV and the confines of the house.

My hypothesis about Marin being calm in the car was wrong. She continued to writhe in agony for nearly 45 minutes. Finally, after one scream-fest to end all, her body gave in to sleep. Who cares if we saw a bird; we were finally catching a break. But we were birding, kind of. I took a long route to check Joel’s marked locations for the Wood Thrush and the very rare Henslow’s Sparrow. We birded for the thrush by sight only as Marin was still screaming at that point. Even if I was willing to roll down a window, we wouldn’t have heard a bird.

It was fun to find another Indigo Bunting. I seem to find them each time I go out now. Just a couple months ago I had never seen this cool bird before.

As we neared the location of the Henslow’s Sparrow in our now quiet van, this caught my eye:

I recognized it as being a nesting colony for Bank Swallows. I got my Bank Swallow lifer this spring, but Evan still needed it. The two of us hopped out of the van while the girls slept inside. After watching for just a couple of minutes, we started to see swallows flying around and diving into the holes. I had the camera zoomed to the max, but here you can see three (possibly young) birds, waiting inside one of the cavities. The habitat indicated Bank Swallow, but I wanted my conclusive proof that that’s the bird we were looking at. With much difficulty I finally got the photographs I wanted to help me make that determination. Do you see the dark band across the breast? That’s the signature field mark of the Bank Swallow.

This was a nice find for this birding trip that we wish we weren’t on. We ended up striking out on the Henslow’s Sparrow. Oh well.

Who knows what the coming week will bring. We have several days’ worth of Plan Bs to come up with. I imagine we will try to knock off a few of the lifers that still remain in our part of the state. It definitely won’t be the same as chasing warblers and hunting an endangered species, but we will make the most of it.

A Quick Life Bird Before a Swim at Sibley State Park

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Josh

Having a young family often means that birding takes a back seat to other things or gets rushed when it does happen. This is a busy time of life. Thankfully I’ve got good birder friends who can lead me right to a good bird with minimal effort. Tonight we took advantage of another tip from Joel and got a lifer in a matter of minutes. Joel has taken the time to create a cool Google map pinpointing locations where he’s seen target species of ours.

Today I took advantage of Joel’s map. It was a terribly hot day, and our family just spent the day hanging around inside the house. The heat was part of the reason. The other part was because Marin has been sick. Despite having a fever for a second day, she was mostly herself and insisted she was well enough to go swimming at Sibley State Park – something we had talked about doing on this hot day if she was well. We decided that it wouldn’t hurt her to cool off in the lake for a little bit, so at 7:00 this evening we headed to the lake.

It turns out that just a couple miles north of Sibley State Park is a field that Joel mapped as having numerous Grasshopper Sparrows. This was a bird we needed. I never felt like making a special trip for this LBB, but tonight we were going out there anyway. So before we got to Lake Andrew for a swim, we went to this location indicated by the blue and purple sections on the map above. Because I trusted Joel that there were lots of these birds and because I had a couple kids who were antsy to swim, I was birding at 40 mph, sending a dust cloud high into the sky. Even still, we found our target with no problem. Just as Joel said it would be, this bird was “teed up” on a flower singing away.

With lifer #192 for Evan and #201 for me, it was time to go swimming. It was nice that this bird worked itself into our schedule. Thanks for the help, Joel. #200 for Evan will be here before we know it. Don’t miss your chance to guess the date it will happen and win an awesome field guide. Click here for more details.

Up North – Part 3: Inland

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Josh

Click this link to read Up North – Part 2: Oberg Mountain and the Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Click this link to read Up North – Part 1: Temperance River State Park.

After enjoying the beauty and temps of the shore for a few days, it was time to head inland to the Iron Range to visit our families. Our trip to the North Shore had been a birding success as we hit two of our three targets and picked up a total of four life birds. Even though the weather was nearly 25° hotter inland and we’d seen some cool birds, there was still a lot of fun to be had. The kids could finally do some lake swimming (an impossibility in Lake Superior), go fishing, and see their grandparents and cousins.

We continued our camping trip by staying at a local campground while we visited home. Almost immediately I had one kid begging to swim and another begging to fish. That first night we went swimming because it was so hot.

The adults weren’t the only ones watching what was happening in the water. These two sentries kept a close eye on things too. (Bald Eagle and Osprey)

Birding was definitely not the main focus of this trip as we were here to see family, but we squeezed in a little birding here and there and sometimes had birds appear incidentally. We tried to go birding on my dad’s property, but the heat and bugs forced us to call it off. This property is unique in northern Minnesota because it is largely prairie habitat surrounded by woods. This diversity in habitat creates a wider variety of bird species. In our limited time of birding, we tried to find a singing Le Conte’s Sparrow but could not locate it. It was fun to see quite a few Savannah Sparrows, though.

Our campsite also proved to be a really good birding location. When we first set up camp, I heard a song that was reminiscent of the Black-throated Blue Warbler. But it was just a little different. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I couldn’t get my eyes on the bird. Then a posting came in to MOU-Net where a birder finally identified a bird making an unfamiliar song. He finally determined it was the Cerulean Warbler – a bird that is rare and in decline and can only be found in a small range. Since this bird is a bird on our priority list and was found close to our home, I began studying the song. It seemed to match what I was hearing at the campground! If this were true, it would be big birding news since it would be well out of its established range.

I really wanted to make a great find and get this life bird, so I would go birding right by the campsite in the early morning while my family slept in. I never did get a good look at my mystery bird, but I was thrilled with the birds I did see while I searched.

Here is a male Blackburnian Warbler with either food or nesting material in his beak. I also found the female, so I’m guessing there was a nest nearby.

This next warbler is quite common Up North. If you’ve ever been to the woods, I’m sure you’ve heard the Ovenbird with its very loud, very stacato “Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!” song. It booms in the understory. These birds aren’t often seen, so I was pleased to capture this one with my camera.

I was really excited to locate this next warbler that hangs out in the tops of leafy trees – the Northern Parula. This photo is taken into the morning sun. I tried to get on the other side of the tree so the sun was at my back, but the leaves blocked my view of the bird on that side. So this photo is bad, but had I captured him in all his splendor, you’d be amazed at this baby-blue beauty.

All of these warblers were found when I was standing in one spot hunting for my mystery bird. One morning I returned to the camper to see if people were awake yet. Since they were all still sleeping, I decided to sit in a camp chair outside of the camper so I wouldn’t disturb them. While I was enjoying the quiet campground whose only sounds were those of singing birds, I heard a squawking in the nearby trees. It sounded like Blue Jays. Even though it is a common bird, I pulled out my camera in case one presented itself for a good photo op. All of the sudden, one burst out of the evergreen tree. But it wasn’t a Blue Jay. Instead it was a Gray Jay! This was a life bird. And it wasn’t just one bird. There were several Gray Jays coming out of the woodwork making all kinds of racket and raiding the campsite. They were encroaching on my space from all over while I sat in my chair.

In a voice louder than a whisper I tried to alert Evan without waking the rest of the campground. He wasn’t waking up at all. Melissa woke up and asked what was going on. I told her there was a life bird in our campsite, and then she tried to wake Evan. No luck.

Seeing that the birds were hanging around, I got up off my chair and poked Evan through the screen. He sleepily opened his eyes and listened to me tell him what was happening. He quickly sat up and tried to look out his window to see a bird. However, they were in the woods now but still making a terrible racket. Evan could have got a good look if he came out of the camper, but instead he flopped back down sleeping hard. He’s claiming this life bird anyway since he said he dreamed about it and saw the trees move.

It seems that Gray Jays wouldn’t be the only incidental lifers of the trip. As we headed down Grandma and Grandpa’s dusty road, I spotted this Wilson’s Snipe sitting on a fence post. I had seen one a year ago in my overgrown lot next to my property, but Evan still needed it. So I backed the car up for him to get a good look. There was no worry about this guy fleeing. It was as motionless as a statue.

I really wanted to call up my friend Jeff, who is an up-and-coming birder. He does not believe that a snipe is a real bird. I guess I might be a little skeptical too if I had been taken on a snipe “hunt” only to be abandoned by prankster friends miles from the nearest town in the dark of night. So, they are real, Jeff. But next time, come snipe hunting with me in the daylight.

It was a great Up North trip. Evan tallied six life birds, and I got five. More important than that, it was good to be in the woods again enjoying the sights and the company of family.

Father’s Day: Fargo, Friends, and Felton Prairie IBA

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Josh

Fargo. Not exactly a birding destination. But we weren’t going there for birds. Rather, we headed to the great state of North Dakota this weekend to visit my old college roommate, John, and his wife, Sarah. It had been nearly two years since we’d seen them, so we were excited to make the trip.

Travel always affords the possibility of new birds. However, nothing really jumped out at me as being a Fargo specialty that we couldn’t get back home. I considered subscribing to North Dakota’s rare bird list serve so I could ask ND birders about what we might get close to the city. As I debated whether or not to do this and deal with another state’s worth of bird emails to sift through and delete, the Northwest Minnesota RBA (Rare Bird Alert) came to my inbox. Normally I read through this summary of recent sightings rather quickly since this area of the state is a long way from home. This time, though, I read it carefully and looked at maps to see if anything was close to Fargo.

There was a report from Clay County which is the MN county right next to Fargo. The report mentioned the Loggerhead Shrike which is a threatened Minnesota species that we have never seen. While we want to see all species, this one was on our short-list. This particular bird was found on Co. Rd. 108 at Felton Prairie. Felton Prairie? What was that – a town, a wildlife management area? I Googled it and discovered that the Felton Prairie Complex is a cluster of land tracts that belong to Clay County, the Nature Conservancy, and the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has designated it as an IBA (Important Birding Area). That’s the same classification as the Sax-Zim Bog! I discovered that many rarities can be found here – Chestnut-Collared Longspurs, Greater Prairie Chickens, Loggerhead Shrikes, Swainson’s Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks, Burrowing Owls, and more! The more I read, the more excited I got to go here for some side-trip birding.

I knew Randy would know Felton Prairie, so I hit him up before our trip for advice on how to attack this place. He basically said to just concentrate on the Chestnut-Collared Longspurs as there are only a few that nest in the state, and this is about the only place to find them reliably. He gave me his map and told me what road was the hot zone. Armed with this knowledge and a license to go birding from my wife (it was Father’s Day after all), we were set to go to Fargo.

Fargo was an absolute blast. John and Sarah were great hosts who spoiled and entertained the kids. One of the things we got to do was go to the zoo in Fargo. Evan was able to determine some exotic bird was a crane (from Asia) even before we read the sign, and he was arguing he should get to count the Cattle Egrets we saw even though they were in an exhibit that was covered with a net. I told him life list birds need to be wild ones. Evan and I did determine, however, that we saw the Brewer’s Blackbird which was there on its own free will. It was a shaky ID, but we’ll count it for now and hope for a more definitive one later.

Later that night we were treated to watch a different kind of bird – the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks minor league baseball team. We all had a really fun time at the game. The whole family even made the jumbo-tron! I don’t think we can add “Hawkeye” to our life lists, but the kids were super excited to high-five him and get his autograph. Nice photography, John!

After parting company with our friends today, Melissa and the kids took me to Gander Mountain to pick up my Father’s Day gift – a birding vest! Now Evan and I will match and be set for more adventures afield.

On our way home we finally got out to Felton Prairie. I drove down Co. Rd. 108 to look for the Loggerhead Shrike. As we crept along, a large, loud bird startled us all as it flew right over the road, back and forth. The Marbled Godwit! This was an advertised special of this area, so it was on our radar and made identification easy. It was very nice to get this life bird. There were actually two of them.

We traveled a mile or so to the end of Co. Rd. 108 where the Loggerhead Shrike is known to frequent. Nothing. Nuts. Well, it was time to head to a ranch road running through private land that is nicknamed Longspur Road. We were after the Chestnut-Collared Longspur. It was extremely windy today, so there wasn’t a great deal of birds to be found. We were delighted to see several more Marbled Godwits floating in the air as they flew into this fierce wind.

We got to see lots of Bobolinks and Western Meadowlarks, but none of the other Felton Prairie specialties were showing. It was time to make the long trek home. I couldn’t let the Loggerhead Shrike go, though. They are declining in numbers and are very difficult to find. Co. Rd. 108 has been a known hot-spot for them for years. So, I decided to drive the 5 miles back to that spot and check it one more time.

I made the right decision. I spotted a bird on the telephone wire by the road and saw that it was our target! It quickly flew far, far away. No pictures, but we saw it. We continued down to the end of the road where I found some more birds on the wire. One looked like it could be another Loggerhead Shrike. Sure enough, it was! I parked far away so I didn’t spook it in order to get a quick picture to document this sighting. The quality of the picture was poor, so I tried to inch the vehicle closer to get a better shot. This bird didn’t like that and flew away, far out of sight. Even though we don’t have a good photo, it was still very cool to see not one, but two Loggerhead Shrikes! This was another summer target bird checked off.

It was a great trip and a great day. We saw some good friends, secured a couple of notable lifers, and got to hang out as a family. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Early Birds

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Josh

It was a beautiful morning when I went out to do my dog chores today. I was constantly looking up to check for anything new in the trees. Migration has been pretty slow in our part of the state compared to the metro area, so I keep expecting to see something new at any moment. After my chores I came in the house and looked out at the front feeder. I saw an LBB come in that looked a little different. I pulled up the binoculars to amplify the low light in the early morning and was pleasantly surprised to find the Pine Siskin – a life bird and winter visitor that eluded us these past several months! I spent a lot of time scanning through dozens of redpolls and goldfinches for this bird all winter but was never able to observe one. It should not have been a difficult bird to get, but it was for us. Imagine my surprise to find it now in May when it should be long gone to the north by now.

After confirming my sighting with a photograph, I hustled into Evan’s room where he was still sleeping at 6:10. Evan has always been a bear to wake up. It usually takes both of us several trips into his room to try to wake him. Some days we’ve literally dragged him out of bed. I knew it would be different today. I put my hand on his shoulder and whispered, “Evan, we’ve got the Pine Siskin.” His eyes bulged open, and he flew out of bed. He got to see it and add it to his life list too.

It was a fun way to start the day. We start to get twitchy when we go for more than a day without getting a new life bird. That’s the fun of getting into this sport and being in the midst of spring migration – you never know what you’ll see next, and you usually don’t have to wait long to get a new bird. As much fun as it is to find life birds (I realize that is mostly all I write about), I also appreciate not seeing everything as we experience migration for the first time. Those unseen birds give us something to look forward to for the next season. The hunt and the hope of a new bird is almost as much fun as seeing a new one.

Besides seeing new birds, it is always fun to see familiar birds and appreciate their beauty and behaviors. Tonight I had to travel with Steve for a meeting in Marshall. Of course we had to stop by a marsh right off the highway on the way home to do a little birding. I finally got a picture of the Yellow-headed Blackbird and the Red-winged Blackbird. They splashed the dull marsh with fabulous color.

Blue-winged Teal are also fun to see in the evening light.

Steve also pointed out a life bird for me – the Wilson’s Phalarope. This bird was extremely close but would not sit still for me. I told Evan tonight that I’m going to have to find another one with him so I can get a better picture.

Turkey? Turkey!

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Josh

After getting skunked on turkeys on both Monday and Thursday, Friday was the final day of my season and my last shot at getting my first turkey. I was excited. I had heard gobbling the day before, and the promised temperature of 70° would probably mean the turkeys would be getting into their spring routine of cruising around looking for ladies. On this day I was hunting out of a deer stand. It was a comfortable, enclosed stand that had 8 in. high rectangular windows on each of its four walls. I could see all around me and got to watch all kinds of neat things: a crowing rooster pheasant beating his chest with his wings, two curious raccoons, three deer all within 10 yards, and even some hen turkeys leave their roost and land on the woodland floor beneath me.

One thing I loved about this location was to watch the Mallards and Wood Ducks flying back and forth between the ponds on my friend’s property. I almost wished I were duck hunting instead of turkey hunting. I watched one particular pair of Wood Ducks flying toward my general area. Then I was astonished to watch them land on a tree branch about 20 feet away! I forgot all about turkey hunting. I grabbed the camera and jockeyed around that deer stand to try to get good shots through the branches out those small windows. Here are some of the images I captured. The hen gave me much more clear shots, so there are more of her than the drake.

This hen kept calling with this low call which is pictured below. I finally figured out what they were up to – they were checking out possible nesting sites in the trees. I watched the hen peek into cavities in trees looking for just the right spot. It was so cool to watch them look for an old-school nesting sight. Many Wood Ducks use the nesting boxes that people put out for them, which have been largely responsible for the resurgence of the Wood Duck in the last century.

I wish I would have got the picture of the hen peering into the hole below. It was clear that she was in charge of the decision and that he was just along to say, “Yes, dear.” She decided the hole below wasn’t suitable because they quickly moved to a new branch.

That next branch was merely 6 ft away from me. I was excited because of the proximity and unobstructed views of these handsome ducks.

I was setting up to take more pictures when I heard the hen make her call that said, “Come on, hubby, it’s time to go.” Well, she was looking straight at me when she was making the call. I pressed down the shutter button just as she launched off the branch straight at my head! I – pardon the pun – ducked (and maybe swore). At just the last second she saw me and pulled up, landing on the roof of the deer stand.

Whoa! I think both our hearts were beating a little quicker. Hubby was still on the branch, so I snapped a couple more of him before the two flew off.

It was the coolest duck experience I’ve ever had. The Wood Duck is one of my favorite birds of all time, so this was a special occurrence for me. My hunt was made. I didn’t even need to get a turkey to be satisfied.

I did continue to wait for a turkey, but nothing was happening today. My friend whose land I was on told me to try another deer stand on another property of his. So I did, but I didn’t have any luck. I wasn’t too worried because my day had already been made but also because I had a back-up plan. It turns out that Melissa’s co-worker has several turkeys invading his yard almost daily. He and his neighbor gave me permission to hunt in their somewhat suburban setting in the countryside. So I went out to this new location around noon.

I set up a turkey blind on the wooded edge of their property that borders a field. Do you see it above? I put out a hen decoy and a tom decoy. Normally you just need a hen decoy because the call you make resembles that of a lonely hen and will draw in a tom. Since the toms weren’t responding to calls or decoys, my friend suggested putting out a tom decoy as well to try to arouse the jealousy of a tom.

After I put out the decoys and got back into the blind, I used the turkey call and waited. Fifteen minutes later, I stuck my hands out of the blind with the turkey call and did it again. Immediately I was answered with the other-worldly sound of a gobbling turkey that was close. He was off to my right along the wooded edge. I hadn’t looked there before I stuck my hands out of the blind. Did I blow it by exposing myself? I kept calling, and he kept answering. It started to walk closer and closer. I could tell it was a jake – a one-year-old male turkey. He probably thought this was his opportunity to get an easy lady friend. Toms will push jakes away. He wasn’t fanned out or puffed up. He was very leery. I wanted him to come just a little bit closer, but he eventually turned around and left.

Maybe that was my chance. I regretted putting the tom decoy out. I bet that intimidated him from coming to the hen decoy. I decided to go out and grab it so that wouldn’t happen again. I stepped out of the blind and saw the jake still on the wooded edge! I dove back in. After quite awhile he eventually came back, but he still wasn’t coming close enough. He disappeared again for a long time. This time I went out and removed the tom decoy.

I was frustrated that I hadn’t taken the shot when I had it. Over an hour went by. Repairmen at the house behind me were coming and going, visiting with the homeowner. This jake was gone for sure. There was no way he was sticking around with all that racket. I’d have to hope for a different, unsuspecting turkey. After another hour or so, this turkey again decided to come check out that irresistible hen decoy. And this time he came close. I took the shot.

Unfair Life Birds

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Josh

This past week was my turkey season, so I spent my normal Monday off trying to find a turkey in the Paynseville area. Not having success, I then took personal leave for Thursday and Friday to see if I could fill my tag and cross this item off my bucket list. Though I eventually got my bird (story to come later), it was a slow hunt with not a lot of turkey action. Even the birding was a little slow, but I did happen to catch sight of a new bird while driving about the countryside. I saw this one while cruising down Hwy. 23 at 65 MPH. I knew it was the Western Grebe or the Clark’s Grebe. I circled back to take a look. When I came back it had its head down sleeping which was unfortunate because the distinguishing characteristics between the Western and Clark’s are located on the head. I waited for nearly a half hour to get this shot. It was the Western Grebe – a new life bird for me.

It was fun to see, but it also brought about another dilemma – do I tell Evan? The sighting was good enough that it warranted a posting on MOU-Net. I hadn’t seen any chatter about this bird all spring, so I decided to let other birders know about it. I had at least one other birder follow up on my posting. But I still had reservations about telling Evan. Eventually I did tell him, and he became tearful. I again had to have the talk with him that there will be days that he will see different things than me and vice versa. Little did I know that would be as soon as yesterday.

Melissa and I were at a marriage retreat all day while my parents watched the kids. They’ve been our saviors as they’ve watched Marin all week while her daycare mom was on vacation. I got a voicemail from my dad while Melissa and I were at dinner that 5 male Yellow-headed Blackbirds landed in our birch tree and that Evan got to see them! It was a life bird for him and one that I still needed! I was happy for Evan that he got to see it and get one up on his dad. This was a special visit from these birds because they are typically found in marshy habitat, so it was cool Evan got to experience them and be able to add them to our yard list. Hopefully they come back so that we can get a picture. Evan said he also saw the Brown Thrasher while going to visit Uncle Larry and Aunt Les with my parents earlier in the day. That would make two lifers for him that I don’t have!

Here are some pictures I took throughout the week while birding, turkey hunting, and just being out and about. There are no life birds below, but each was fun to find.

This is the Sharp-shinned Hawk who’s been hunting my feeders. I hope he stays away from our cardinals!