I was busier than the beaver to the left on the weekend of May 1-3 because I was at the Iowa Ornithologist Union meeting in Carroll, IA. We had a great time and overall 181 species were tallied. The highlight on the weekend came on Friday night. On the way to the meeting my dad and I stopped at a place called Hobb's Pitts. There was a Black-bellied Whistling Duck there the night before which is casual in Iowa and would be a new bird for my life list. My dad and I searched all around the pitts for the duck with no luck. As we headed back to the car I looked to the east and saw the bird flying! I wasn't able to get a photo of it but there was no doubt about what it was. It was life bird 306 for me and a neat one too. The rest of the weekend was great aand we turned up lots of other neat birds. A few highlights included a Surf Scoter, Western Grebe, White-faced Ibis, Piping Plover, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and Blue-headed Vireo. The biggest miss for me was the Western Sandpiper. I missed it by two minutes! I was litterally just hundreds of feet away from it and then it flew off. I can't complain though since I did see some other cool birds.
Here are some pictures I got during the weekend:
I got within 20 ft of this Western Grebe but I couldn't get a decent picture because the sun was behind it.
An American Bittern Playing hide and go seek.
A Double-crested Cormorant
An American White Pelican
A House Wren at my house before we left for the meeting.
I saved the best for last-the WORLD'S LARGEST POPCORN BALL
3 comments:
Is that a giant can of Coke to wash it down?
The list is growing Tucker. Well done. Like the Bittern in it's usually head up pose.
I'm planning a short post on "new generation" wildlife watchers so you may get a few more 'hits'.
Happy birding, Frank
Lynne-I think the pop is for the popcorn ball to drink!
Frank-Thanks for putting my name out there for more birdwatchers to see.
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