Sunday Afternoon at Robbins Island

With migration drawing to a close, the pace at which we’re adding new birds has dropped off sharply.  Evan added 26 new birds to his life list last weekend.  Until today, we have not added a single new bird since that monumental weekend. It’s to be expected that we won’t add big numbers to our life lists anymore this season since we have seen a lot of the birds and since migration is ending.  It is now time to become much more intentional in our birding by seeking out our summer residents in their habitats.  We have many of these regulars to chase and add to our lists. I enjoy this type of birding.  It is more like hunting and less like winning the birding lottery.  Both are fun, but going after and finding a specific target is very rewarding.

Not only is it the time to find resident birds, but it is also the time to enjoy those that have chosen our yard to make their home for the summer.  We have now had a pair of Indigo Buntings at our house for eight days.  I think they’re here to stay.

IMG_3604Evan’s doves drop by regularly (Eurasian Collared Doves).  We had a record high of three of them in the yard today.

IMG_3623I’ve really come to enjoy this resident House Sparrow who thinks he’s a finch.

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Though we are shifting into resident birds, migration is still somewhat alive.  We decided to check out Robbins Island today.  It was a family affair. Melissa wanted to do some running in the park, and the kids and I wanted to check out the birds.

IMG_3661 With the trees covered in leaves now, birding has become more challenging than it was a week ago.  The kids and I went down the trails slowly, and Melissa went off running. We saw plenty of birds, but most were high in the trees in bad light.  There were flycatchers all around.  We need to study their sounds so we can identify them correctly.  We still found some warblers.  Like a lot of birders, I really like this family of birds.  They are colorful gems in the woods.  I typically do not keep lists of species I see every time I go out, but I do like to count warbler species.  Today we found lots of Tennessee Warblers, several Yellow Warblers, a couple Blackpoll Warblers, and a few American Redstarts.  We heard the Ovenbird and Chestnut-sided Warbler.  The best warblers that we found, though, were a single Canada Warbler and a single Mourning Warbler.  Eight species of warblers gives me hope for still finding our target, the Black-throated Green Warbler.  Steve and Randy have each had this bird in their yard within the last day.

Birding wasn’t the only thing on the agenda today.  Of course we had to practice skipping rocks.

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Evan finally had success with skipping a rock!  He was pretty proud.

IMG_3647These guys had fun playing with rocks or garbage in Marin’s case.  While they played, I looked at all the swallows, warblers, and flycatchers along the water’s edge.  Birds weren’t the only things moving around today.  There were fishermen, frisbee-golfers, and hikers out in the park.  I would say runners, too, as Melissa was running, but she took a wrong turn in the woods and ended up out of the park running all the way around Foot Lake!  It was much farther than she intended to go.  It turns out that she was on her own birding adventure. There were several Canada Geese with goslings along the trail. When Melissa went by some of them, one put its head down, straightened out its neck and hissed at her!  That’s all the motivation she needed to run fast and get back to the park.  These geese around Foot Lake are nasty.  My friend Joe once had to ride his bike through a huge flock on this path (they refused to move) and ended up running over and killing one!  He was too afraid to go back into the mob of geese to check on it.

Once Melissa was out of harm’s way and had rejoined us, we made our way back to the van.  And then a huge new bird fluttered in the tree above.  It was our lifer, the Great Crested Flycatcher!

IMG_3655I couldn’t have asked for a more patient bird.  It would fly a couple feet away, pose, fly a couple more feet, pose, and so on.  Even so, I couldn’t get on it very well with the camera.  Melissa and Evan patiently kept pointing it out for me.  Although at one point Melissa told me I had to be faster with the camera.  At least Evan is fast at using the index to look up and read about his new bird.

Evan Robbins IslandWe’re hoping to get out and catch a few more migrants before they’ve all headed north. In the meantime, though, we are making plans to hunt down our summer targets.

Birders of a Feather

Today my parents rolled into town on their way home from a trip to Arizona.  It was nice to visit with them even for only a short while.  Evan and I always like to go out birding when Grandpa is around, but I didn’t get home until late this evening as I had to supervise detention. Plus it was rainy anyway.  It wasn’t looking like there would be any birding this visit.  My dad had a successful day of house birding once he got to our place.  He picked up two lifers – the Harris’s Sparrow and one of our three, yes three, Indigo Buntings.

IMG_3560Our yard has been a rainbow of color lately.  Red birds, blue birds, yellow birds, orange birds, black birds, and brown birds.  It is absolutely beautiful. Yesterday I had an Indigo Bunting, Northern Cardinal, and American Goldfinch all in my field of vision while looking at the yard with the binoculars.

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IMG_3333IMG_3476Tonight around the time I should have been getting Evan ready for bed, the sun came out.  With an hour until Evan’s official bed time, the three of us guys decided to do a quick birding walk at Bergquist.  There could still be warblers.

When we pulled up, I saw another car there and someone else who decided to do some birding during the break in the weather.  It was Steve.  We hadn’t planned on meeting up – bird brains just think alike, I guess.  The four of us walked the path checking out every flutter of wings.  Right away I found a male Blackburnian Warbler with his flaming orange head popping in my binoculars.

One bird that Steve has been trying to get for 2013 and that my dad has never seen is the Scarlet Tanager – a bright red bird with black wings.  We found the female at Bergquist over the weekend, and we had a male in our own yard on Saturday.  As we reached the halfway point in our walk, Evan shouted and pointed, “Guys, I see a tanager!”

“A male or a female?” I asked excitedly.

“A male!” My heart beat a little faster.  This is a good bird to see, and two people in our party needed it. I couldn’t see it.  Evan pointed and said, “There it goes!”

The bird landed right above us all giving us incredible views.  Evan nailed the ID, all right. I didn’t get a picture because I was being fussy in my set-up.  I hastily photographed my yard bird over the weekend and got some less-than stellar shots. Well, this bird flew again.  I tried to pull up on it again, but it again flew away.  This time it was out of sight.  Oh, well, it was still a thrill to see and share with the others.  A check mark for Grandpa and a check mark for Steve.  Good eyes, Evan.

Moments after this, another familiar birder came ambling down the path.  It was Randy. We were now a party of five and had plenty of eyes, optics, and experience to catch anything.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much to check out.  Even though the birds weren’t plentiful, Randy and Evan had a good time joking back and forth.  Randy likes to jokingly threaten to take away Evan’s binoculars or poke his eyes out if Evan’s life list starts to catch up to his.

Maybe the birds will be there next time.  The company was great, though, and we did have a couple notable sightings.  I was encouraged by Randy’s report of hearing a Black-throated Green Warbler today at Bergquist.  That is one of my big targets for this spring/summer.  To me, good birding is the thrill of seeing cool, familiar birds and the hope of finding new birds.  Tonight we enjoyed the former, and the latter keeps us going out on more adventures.

Birding in Paradise – Pinch Me

Today the floodgates opened.  As I sit down to write this post and reflect back on this day, I still can hardly believe all the life birds we saw.  Words can hardly do this day justice.  The pictures will tell the story better than I can.  Some are good and others will just have to do.  As you read our story and see our pictures, I hope you will be in awe of what’s out in creation.

Before I tell the story of today, I want to back up to last night.  While we were at our small group Bible study, Steve had called and texted.  I didn’t see this until we got home. When I did see he’d been trying to get ahold of me, I knew something was going on.  I finally connected with him and got the scoop.  Warblers.  Everywhere.  He spent two hours at the small patch where we’ve been birding, known as Bergquist Wildlife Area.  I could not wait until morning.  The alarm was set for 5:30 so Evan and I could do some birding before we had to come back in to take care of Marin at 8:30 while Melissa had a girls’ event today.  I woke up this morning but not to my alarm.  It was 7:10!  I hustled and got Evan out of bed, and we were at Bergquist within a half hour.  Not much time to bird before we had to head back.

Right away we found a life bird for Evan – the Gray Catbird.  I actually saw this one on the feeder at home this morning, but Evan didn’t hear me call to him.  When I took the picture, I got the message on my camera screen that there was no SD card!  I quickly remembered I had a spare.  Whew.

Gray CatbirdShortly after this we found this plain, but pretty bird.  We identified it later as the female Scarlet Tanager – a definite lifer for both of us.  How I wish it had been the male.

IMG_3382The warblers were all around.  We quickly found our lifer, the American Redstart.  These were very abundant this morning.

IMG_3423Then we found the Blackpoll Warbler – another lifer.

IMG_3446There were so many birds in every direction.  We stayed motionless and had new birds coming to us all the time.  Another lifer – a beautiful male Bay-breasted Warbler dropped to a branch 5 feet in front of me, but I wasn’t able to get a picture.  By this time we had to go home, but not before picking up another lifer – the gorgeous Magnolia Warbler!

IMG_3396We went home and decided we’d grab Marin and come right back.  This was an incredible day, and there were more birds to be had.  Steve joined us for round 2.  It was definitely distracting to bird while managing Marin and settling fights between these siblings, but we managed.  It was nice to have Steve along to help point out new birds and ones I was still trying to photograph.  Here is a lifer he found for us – the Wilson’s Warbler.IMG_3418

And then the Golden-winged Warbler.  Excuse the bad photo, but it’s hard to photograph these small, ADD birds!

IMG_3424We found an Eastern Kingbird – another lifer.

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Then we found a Flycatcher that remains unidentified.  There are several Flycatchers, and the best way to tell them apart is by voice.  I guess we’ll have to study our sounds before we can add them to the life list.

IMG_3413Steve picked up a life bird today that is one of my favorite birds of all time.  The Blackburnian Warbler.  I was later able to find one that was close, and we got some good looks at this male.  This wasn’t a life bird for Evan and me, but we never tire of seeing them.

IMG_3428I also spotted but was not able to photograph the beautiful Northern Parula.  This sky-blue bird with a yellow underside was a lifer as well.  How I wish I could have photographed it.

Another non-lifer that we saw several times was the bird that hooked me into this sport – the Chestnut-sided Warbler.   His call is the “Pleased to, pleased to, pleased to meetchya!”  We were pleased to meet him again too.

IMG_3425It was absolutely crazy how many birds there were.  Every direction, every level you looked, you’d find birds.  The diversity was mind-boggling.  If you’ve ever seen the movie, The Big Year, today was reminiscent of that scene where the birders go to Texas to experience the fallout of birds from a massive storm.

Here is another lifer we picked up – the Tennessee Warbler.

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Here’s an LBB lifer that we got – the House Wren.

IMG_3441After spending two hours at Bergquist, the kids had to go to the bathroom.  Evan – no problem.  Marin – problem. We’re potty-training her, so she has difficulty to begin with. Combine that with trying to have a little girl go in the woods, and you have major problems!  Pee filled her water boots, soaked her pants, and sprayed all over my hand. Birding was over.  We hustled home.

We changed clothes, had a bite to eat, and decided to head back to the patch for trip #3.  There was so much going on there that we couldn’t stop.  Earlier when I asked my little birders who wanted to go back, both shouted, “Meeeeeee!”  Look at them making lists already.  I taught Evan the short code for bird names.  He learned quickly and was marking down everything.

IMG_3444On this third trip we encountered our lifer from Thursday – the Northern Waterthrush.

IMG_3376We also got a chance to photograph another lifer from Thursday – the Broad-winged Hawk.

IMG_3451During this outing, Melissa finished up her girls’ outing and stopped by to pick up Marin. Now it was time to do some serious birding.  Here’s my buddy investigating birds? Nope, turtles again.  See the notebook and pencil, though?

IMG_3465We didn’t see much more after Marin left.  We found another lifer – the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

IMG_3457After this bird, we decided to head home.  Then I remembered a tip from one of our readers and decided to check out the fairgrounds.  Wow, were there birds there too! I was able to photograph a lifer for Evan – the Common Yellowthroat.

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We picked up more life birds here that I wasn’t able to photograph – my camera battery died after nearly 8 hours of work today!  Those lifers included the Canada Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Palm Warbler.  We also saw the non-lifer Mourning Warbler.

It was an epic day.  How do you top something like that?  Well, you come home to find the male Scarlet Tanager in your own yard!

IMG_3473It was also fun to see both the front yard and back yard feeders loaded with American Goldfinches.

IMG_3476This was an incredible, exhausting birding day. Here is the re-cap of lifers.  I’m doing this mostly for myself to help me count them:

Gray Catbird (Evan)

American Redstart

Scarlet Tanager

Bay-breasted Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Northern Parula

House Wren

Golden-winged Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Eastern Kingbird

Common Yellowthroat (Evan)

Northern Waterthrush (Thursday and today)

Broad-winged Hawk (Thursday and today)

Eastern Wood Pewee

Tennessee Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Canada Warbler

Yellow-throated Vireo

Palm Warbler

Evan added 18 life birds today (2 of the 20 above were on Thursday).  I added 16 just today.  We saw a total of 20 warblers today (not mentioned were the Yellow, Ovenbird, Orange-crowned, and Black-and-White).  Amazingly we did not see a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and we missed on the Blue-winged and Black-throated Green which were present last night.

What a day.  I don’t know if we’ll ever have another life bird day like this again.  This was absolutely incredible.

A Local Birding Patch – Bergquist Wildlife Area

Even when the blog is silent, the birding goes on and the life birds trickle in.  This past week we’ve had the opportunity to explore Willmar’s Bergquist Wildlife Area twice and have found birding success each time.  This wooded park, hardly bigger than a football field, borders a lake and contains a small pond.  It is a lovely sanctuary for birds (and other wildlife) in the midst of the city.  We took a quick walk there on Mother’s Day.  Here are the highlights:

Spotting the Swainson’s Thrush – a life bird.

IMG_3346Seeing the Yellow-rumped Warbler again (one of several) – a common colorful bird that moves constantly.

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Watching turtles bask in the sun – big brother is always looking out for his sister.IMG_3347Spending time with Mom who puts up with our birding hobby addiction.

IMG_4269Tonight after school, Evan and I went through Bergquist again because we got the daily update from Steve who hikes it during his lunch.  Several birds on Steve’s list were potential life birds for us.  We found two life-birds tonight.  One was the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  This time Evan saw it with his own eyes, and I finally got a good look.  Now we could officially count it.  Sorry, but I couldn’t get a photo of that quick little bugger.  I did capture this lifer – the Black and White Warbler.

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It was fun to watch warblers in the treetops again.  They bring so much life and color to the woods, but they are so difficult to photograph because of their size, constant movement, and propensity for being in the tops of trees.  Watching through the binoculars is a lot more fun and relaxing than watching through the camera while trying to get a shot.  Here is an attempt at photographing a male Yellow Warbler.  I think he was in the center of my frame but moved just as I took the picture.  We’ll see more of these at my parents’ house this summer and hopefully get a better picture then.

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The yard birds have also been fun to watch.  We’ve had Baltimore Orioles coming to eat our oranges and grape jelly for four days now.  We keep hoping an Orchard Oriole will drop by soon. On Mother’s Day we were visited by a life bird for me – the Brown Thrasher.  Evan got his when he went to his Uncle Larry’s a couple weeks ago with my parents.

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I also got a chance this week to photograph a bird we’ve seen sporadically and have nick-named Poop-head, our second leucistic Common Grackle to visit us this spring.

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With migration underway, the local birding can be pretty exciting.  We have dozens and dozens of birds to see that are back in the state already.  We’ll be looking up.

Early Birds

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.IMG_3165

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.IMG_3172

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.

IMG_3180 IMG_3191Blue-winged Teal are also fun to see in the evening light.

IMG_3193Steve 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.

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Angry Birders

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.

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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!

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

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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.

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Photo Proof

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.

IMG_3100Argh! 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.

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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.

 

One Good Tern Deserves Another

Yesterday Evan declined my offer to take him to a marsh in western Minnesota to look for the White-faced Ibis, American Avocet, and Western Grebe.  He was too busy having fun playing outside with the neighbor girl.  Weekend play time is precious for a kid, especially since we are finally enjoying some nice weather.  A one-and-a-half hour trip each way to a marsh would certainly chew into that time.

Later on while Marin napped and Melissa made supper, the rest of us (Evan, Grandma, Grandpa, and me) took a short drive to do a little birding close to home.  We ended up going to the pond at my school.  Almost immediately upon arrival we saw a small gull-like bird dashing about.  Just as I was about to ask what it was, Evan shouted out, “A tern!”  The little bugger was right.  His studying paid off again.  We watched about three of these flying non-stop in the windy conditions.  I knew there were several different terns, so I took many pictures to get as many clues as possible for identification.  I think it would have been easier to photograph a flying golf ball.  We got to hear the tern as well.  With our collection of blurry photos and the sounds we heard, we determined we had the Forster’s Tern!  This was a life bird for at least Evan and me.

IMG_3067The combination of the bird’s speed and shooting into the sun made it tough to get a decent picture.  This one would have been great if the sun were on the other side.  I found the long, forked tail to be a really cool feature on this bird.

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There were other birds on the pond, but we were focused on getting a positive identification on this life bird.  I did manage to take a picture of a lone Trumpeter Swan that stopped by while we were there.

IMG_3053Today Evan’s grandparents did their own migration north to their home.  As we were working around the yard and house tonight and adjusting to two less people in the house, Evan came running to me and said, “Dad, we’ve got the White-crowned Sparrow!” I grabbed the camera and ran out to the deck.  Evan proudly pointed out the bird. I wouldn’t have had to run because it had no fear of us as it scratched in the leaf litter looking for some food.  Evan was a little off on his identification this time as we actually had the White-throated Sparrow.  It is very similar in appearance to the White-crowned Sparrow, so Evan wasn’t too far off.  He knew it was a life bird for us either way and a new yard bird!  Way to go, Evan!   This sparrow is a family favorite even though we’ve never seen one before tonight.  Its song is a northern Minnesota classic and reminds us of home.  It goes something like this: Oh, sweet kimberly-kimberly-kimberly.

IMG_3075Here you can see why the White-throated Sparrow is so-named.

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Usually I’m the one finding and identifying new birds for us.  The last two days Evan has been finding the good ones and pointing them out to me.  Evan has been a birder in his own right for some time now.  It’s been fun to watch him use his eagle eyes and demonstrate his knowledge of birds.   He’s a real asset to the Team.

 

A Delightful Dinner

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.

IMG_2912IMG_2920As 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.

Greater Yellowlegs

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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.

 

Waterfowl Photo Shoot

Melissa was supposed to take today off to watch Marin because our daycare provider is on vacation.  The recent blizzard upended that plan this morning.  My school ended up closing, and Melissa’s school was late, so we flip-flopped.  I stayed home to watch Marin, and Melissa went to work.

I dropped Melissa and Evan off at their schools, and then I wanted to stop by Foot Lake since the sun was out.  It turned out to be a beautiful day!  I was hoping to catch the Redheads in good light. Marin gets tired of “bird hunting,” so I wasn’t going to stay long.  However, she fell asleep in the car and was in need of a nap.  I decided to just watch the activity on the lake while she took a 1.5 hour nap.  Here is what I captured today:

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I spent most of my time photographing the Greater Scaup because it is so hard to find.  I captured a lot of the key field marks that distinguish it from the Lesser Scaup.  Here you can see the rounded head with a greenish tint.  The Lesser is more pointy toward the back and is tinted purple.  The Greater also has a brighter white look.

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Seeing these brings back fond memories of spending time with my dad.  Each spring we would search the shores after ice-out for “bluebill” decoys that had broken free from their anchors the previous fall.  Lesser Scaup and Greater Scaup are commonly known as “bluebills” by duck hunters.  Do you see why?  Scaup hunters typically hunt in the windiest, nastiest weather and set out hundreds of decoys to attract the large rafts of these birds into range.  Therefore it is not uncommon for the decoys to break free.  We picked up dozens over the years.  Each was a treasure.  I got rid of many of these, but I still have a dozen.  No, I probably won’t hunt with them.  They are just a keepsake of some fun times with dad.

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This next photo was my favorite of the Greater Scaup because it captured a “hidden” field mark – the extension of white on the wings.  The Lesser Scaup does not have this amount of white.

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It was also nice to get a cleaner shot of one of the life birds from the other day – the Horned Grebe.

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As I photographed birds, the female Northern Harrier was hunting the American Coots!  It didn’t have success, but it was fun to watch anyhow.

IMG_2890And, I can’t resist the Wood Ducks.

IMG_2900I picked up two life birds for myself today quite by accident.  Finding new birds without Evan isn’t any fun.  That feeling was only compounded when he was in tears that I told him I got a couple new ones.  So, I won’t say what they are.  One is located in these pictures.  I can’t wait for migration to get into full-swing so we can hunt the lifers together.