Yesterday our birding plan was to get up and go on a naturalist-led birding walk at Sibley State Park.  We woke up to temps in the high 30s with a mist coming down.  There was no way I wanted to go out in this weather, let alone drag a 6-year-old out there.  So I pulled the plug.  It’s a good thing I did because shortly afterward Evan started throwing up.  No birding this day.  Steve was on the birding walk and reported that there was no bird action at the park.  For once we didn’t miss out.

I later met Steve at the Wild Bird Warehouse which was having an open house that day.  I needed some seed, and since everything was on sale today I headed in to check it out.  I visited with the owner for a bit, and he told me about the sparrow action he had at the feeders outside of his store.  One of them is one we’re after – the Harris’s Sparrow.  This particular sparrow only passes through our area during migration on its way north.  After chatting for a bit with Randy and Steve, I made my way back home.

As the day went on, Evan seemed okay, so I asked if he wanted to take a short car ride and watch the feeders at the bird store from the comfort of the car to find our Harris’s Sparrow.  He didn’t want to.  He must have been really sick.

This morning we woke up with a different kid.  He was healthy, hungry, and full of life again.  Since we had to run errands in town, we decided to do a little birding as a family before doing errands.  We were going to go to the Bergquist Nature Area in Willmar and then go to watch the feeders at the bird store.  Getting two kids out of the house was like trying to move a herd of turtles.  At one point Evan refused to wear a coat because it interfered with his birding vest.  This was a major issue and before long he was in an all-out tantrum.  Melissa and Marin went to town to do the errands.  I stayed home with the screamer.  No birding today.  The anxiety of not finding a new bird for a few days now was growing, especially with increased reports on MOU-Net of all kinds of returning birds.

Evan eventually calmed down and came out of his room, but I was very frustrated.  His actions not only affected him today but me also.  The kid did his time in his room and was happily playing afterward.  I was still miffed – he seemed to be very content to just play.  It appeared I was the one being punished.  So I talked with him and told him that I still wanted to go to these feeders but his behavior caused us to miss out on the Bergquist Nature Area as a family.  Because I wanted to go to the feeders, I had no choice but to bring him with me.  I also told him that we’d stay as long as I wanted and that he should just be happy to still get to do something birding-related today.

With that drama behind us, we headed to the bird store.  We were treated to all kinds of sparrow activity today.  I was searching for the Harris’s Sparrow but was happy to find the Lincoln’s Sparrow, which we weren’t able to photograph a couple days previously.

There were actually about a half dozen of these that we were watching.  Then I saw a much darker sparrow appear, and I quickly shifted to this new subject for my photography.  It was our lifer, the Swamp Sparrow!

We were delighted to see the Song Sparrow shown in the foreground below with the Swamp Sparrow in the background.

It was fun to see the White-throated Sparrow shown below.  We also saw the White-crowned Sparrow, the Fox Sparrow, and the House Sparrow.  It was a 7-sparrow stop!  Hopefully we’ll find the Harris’s soon.  As fun as the Swamp Sparrow was, that bird is a resident in the summer so there was no worry about getting it.  Our window of time is closing for Harris’s, and the anxiety continues to build.  Hopefully we don’t add to that anxiety by our behavior like we did today.

It is said that chance favors the prepared.  Well, today was full of chances at viewing life birds, and I was not prepared.  There is very little I could have done about my first life bird of the day, the Yellow-headed Blackbird.  I was on my way to work, and I was late. I spotted these birds on the shoulder of the busy highway I travel.  There was no way I could stop. It was neat to get this one that Evan got the other day, but as with many other birds, I still needed a picture.  A good picture clinches a life bird.  It is both proof of a sighting and a trophy to behold.

When I got home, Steve had called saying he had a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Orange-crowned Warblers, and Lincoln Sparrows in his yard – all would be life birds.  He also had Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers – two species that we’ve seen but haven’t yet captured with a picture.  It was a bird bonanza at his house.  Evan and I had to go check it out.

We got to his house, and the three of us and Steve’s two dogs crowded around a singular glass door overlooking his back yard trying to identify tiny birds at the tops of trees at the end of his lot.  It’s kind of funny how life can be unpredictable.  If someone had shown me a picture of this scene a year ago and said it was in my future, I would have been really confused.  A year ago I wasn’t chasing birds, I didn’t know Steve, and I would have wondered what the five of us were viewing so intently.  I was relying on my camera to look at birds because they were far out, and I hadn’t brought a pair of binoculars.  We didn’t have to wait long to see what Steve had reported.  I was able to get this picture of the Orange-crowned Warbler, a life bird, just before my camera battery died.

Argh! Not only could I not clinch any more action with photos, but I also couldn’t see anything unless it was close. I had to use my naked eyes to view the swarm of Ruby-crowned Kinglets in the pine tree.  Then we were fortunate to have the Lincoln’s Sparrow come to the feeder right off the patio.  It was awesome for Evan and I to see another life bird.  It killed me to see it in perfect light so close and not do anything about it.  Later on Steve identified the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  It was way out there.  Steve lent me his binoculars, but it was gone by the time I could focus them.  Evan didn’t even see it flitting in the tree.

When we were leaving, Evan said that I got three life birds and that he only got two.  He didn’t want to count the Gnatcatcher.  He has his own integrity for his sightings.  Sound isn’t enough, and he has to see them with his own eyes.  I knew he was bummed about this, so I said I wasn’t really counting it on my list.  I didn’t get a good enough look at it.  I need my photo proof. It was a great day of lifers, regardless; and it was nice of Steve to think of us and invite us over to help us with our life lists.

At least my camera was working for this photo-op of a pair of Blue-winged Teal I saw at the school pond today.

I don’t want to be unprepared again. I’m going to order a second camera battery.  While I’m at it, I better make sure I have another SD card as my first has over 1500 images on it.  Birds have wings – you never know what will show up or how long they’ll stay.  Next time I’ll be ready.

Our daycare provider decided to take a week-long vacation, so that meant we called for reinforcements – Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids have been anxiously awaiting their arrival for days.  In fact, we knew about when they would pull in the driveway tonight, so Evan and Marin watched out the window for a good ten minutes.  As the familiar van rolled down our street, there were two sets of legs jumping up and down on my couch.

My parents came just as we were trying to sit down to eat.  After we finally got the kids back to the table and settled down, we finished supper and let the kids excitedly show and tell their grandparents about anything and everything that’s been happening in their lives. Grandpa had a surprise for Evan – a huge bird book from his college days that has beautifully and correctly painted images of all the birds.  It was pretty cool.

Then it dawned on me – we still had over an hour until dark and Evan’s bedtime.  I asked Evan and Dad if they wanted to go out for a little drive.  It didn’t take much to convince them.  Within minutes we were on a gravel road just seeing what we could see.  We saw a lot of regulars, but one bird held our attention for quite awhile.  We came across this Pied-billed Grebe working so hard to eat this enormous Leopard Frog.  It was quite a scene!  We never did see if it got it down.

As we traveled out toward our familiar field lake, which dried up about a week ago, we stopped to look at a little puddle in a field because there was a pair of mallards on it.  Then we saw that there was a shore bird.  Evan and I are new to the whole shorebird branch of birds, so we have no idea what we are looking at most of the time.  However, I did recognize this to be a Yellowlegs, but there are two Yellowlegs – the Lesser and Greater.  Basically the only difference between them is about 4 inches in size.  It’s easy to tell the difference when they are next to each other.  When they are isolated, it is almost impossible to tell size.  We were able to determine from the photos that this bird had a slight upward turn in the bill – a field mark of a Greater Yellowlegs.  This was good news.  The Greater Yellowlegs was a life bird that I got by myself when I photographed waterfowl the other day.  Evan was  crushed when I got a new one that he didn’t.

The other life bird I got the other day was the Hermit Thrush.  Yesterday Evan went with me to scout my turkey hunting spot, and he picked up the Hermit Thrush (several times) as we walked around.  Whew!  He was all caught up to me.  Another bonus of yesterday’s outing was that he got to see the American Woodcock and add it to his life list.  I already had that one, so now the difference between our life numbers continues to shrink.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.