Marsh Wren

My mom and I went down to explore Table Marsh one evening when this Marsh Wren came up out of the weeds just feet from our car. I got a nice picture of him proclaiming his territory from the weeds.

Yesterday the local Audubon society went out on a trip to a place called Sandhill Lake where we saw several of these neat birds even closer up. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me! On the lake there were 41 Pied-billed Grebes and most unexpectedly a White-faced Ibis.

At some of the other stops we saw some shorebirds, flycatchers, vireos, and warblers. An Eastern Screech-Owl responded to my imitation of one of it's own kind which was supposed to be bringing in warblers. Right nearby a Green Heron sat on a log looking for food. The day, although dreary, was full of migrants and overall 70+ species were found.

Another Hike Through the Forest

Today I went hiking at the same state park I mentioned in a previous post. The only thing that changed is that it was a friend from boy scouts not my sister that was hiking with me. We are preparing for a high adventure trip through the mountains in New Mexico at a place called Philmont Scout Ranch this year. This scout ranch is the largest in the world and has a couple mountains reaching over 14,000 ft and of course some neat birds.

While hiking around the park in the humid weather we saw a number of birds including one that is fairly rare to our part of the state.

When we got to a place called Turtle Lake I heard the song of a Prothonotary Warbler! This is a pretty rare bird for our area. This past week a birdwatcher found a pair nesting about 45 minutes north from there on the IA-SD border. It is amazing that the area has has a couple sightings of this species in late June. I never did see the bird but maybe I will some other day when I'm out there. I also heard a Northern Parula which was the first one I saw at the park this year.

The valley that the lake is in has a small stream that had a few birds along it like a singing Louisiana Waterthrush and a Summer Tanager. We were able to see the tanager out in the open, which doesn't happen often.

After that we started to hike back. On the way I checked for the Cerulean Warbler that I heard a couple weeks beforehand but we could only find a Louisiana Waterthrush.

Other common forest birds that we saw or heard on the way back included Ovenbird and Scarlet Tanager but not much more.

A Hike Through the Forest

My sister and I took a four mile hike through a local state park a couple weeks ago. During the trip we were able to search many wooded ravines around the park, many of which held some nice birds. The first good bird we came across was a singing Cerulean Warbler. These warblers are somewhat rare to our area but obviously this spring we had a few more than usual. Since he was up in the high treetops were were unable to see him. Not to far down the trail from the warbler we heard a Summer Tanager. Just like the warbler, he was hidden in the treetops. The trail was downhill and as we got to the bottom we began hearing Louisiana Waterthrush. We had four during the whole trip. I was able to actually see one as it walked around near a small stream. Another Summer Tanager was heard but not seen as well.

The non birding highlight of the trip was seeing a baby deer. Luckily my sister had a cell phone with a camera with her so we could get some pictures.

I love to hike in this park and am always finding something new and interesting there, especially when it comes to birds. I am going out there tomorrow and hope to find some more good birds so keep watching for a post on that.

Hooded Warbler on the Road

Another shot of the Hooded Warbler from the last post. He decided to land on the side of the road when we were taking pictures.

Memorial Weekend Birding Part I

Spring migration is coming to an end and I am seeing less and less migrants and more resident birds instead. This past Memorial Weekend I tried desperately to get as many birds as I could to add to my year list and even my life list. We were a bit short on passerines like warblers and vireos. This spring was absolutely HORRIBLE for migrating passerines. I have only seen 12 species of warblers so far this spring compared to the 23 species I saw during spring migration last year. That is a difference of eleven species! Despite the lack of warblers we still had a good weekend.

Although not considered part of Memorial Weekend I am going to include Thursday because it was the first day of summer break and sort of started the weekend for me. To celebrate the first day of summer break my mom and I headed out in search of birds around the county that we call home. We ended up with 98 species, with one of them being a life bird. The first good bird that we found was a Lapland Longspur at a place called the Luton WMA. This was the latest date that anyone had seen one in Iowa by one day. It was neat to see it in it's full breeding plumage. I tried to get a picture of it but my attempts were unsuccessful. In the same general area we had three Blue Grosbeaks (foy) and some Dunlin.

The next two places we stopped at were cattle farms. They produced 31 Snow Geese and two Upland Sandpipers.

Sandhill Lake had some good birds including a Black-bellied Plover which was my 308th life bird! It was on a small pond that had lots of other shorebirds on it. More Snow Geese were there but only four.At a place called Brown's Lake we found a number of birds but none was of much interest except for some Purple Martins that were on a nesting box. Not far from there was New Lake. We found 8 Hudsonian Godwits as well as some Great Egrets. An Osprey was tending it's nest that sits on top of a cell phone tower about a mile away from both New Lake and Brown's Lake.

After a successful time birding the Missouri River Valley we decided to bird some Woodland areas up in the hills. We visited Stone State Park and Bacon Creek Park and found Scarlet Tanagers, Ovenbirds, etc. At Bacon Creek I was lucky enough to see a Cerulean Warbler. The bird was reported to me by a local birder. The directions he gave me were very helpful and I found the bird right where it was said to be. It was singing up a storm and seemed very territorial. I managed to get a few crappy shots of the bird. The lighting was worse here than anywhere else we had previously visited.

We finished the day back in the valley at Owego Wetlands. I needed a few more birds for my day list so we headed down there so I could do some wading. I scared up three Soras and saw a Green Heron fly by. The last new bird of the day if I remember correctly was a Western Kingbird, but I could be wrong. It was a fun day to be out and I was able to add some birds to my lists. Stay tuned for part two of my Memorial Weekend Birding.

Cerulean Warbler and friends

The past week has been hectic as I have been finishing up school and taking tests and on top of that, the computer has been acting up. Finally I got hold of my dad's laptop to give a quick update.
This past weekend I was lucky enough to hear my lifer Cerulean Warbler (307)n Nebraska on a boyscout camping trip. I think there was more than one but it was hard to tell. They are scarce in our area but used to be more common in years gone by. The scout ranch has had these warblers nest there before but they have been hard to find recently. Last year they were not seen or heard. I hope that they stick around this year to nest.
Warblers have been moving through and I have had Black-throated Green-Warbler and Blackpoll Warblers show up in the yard recently. Besides that I have not gotten out much, so hopefully I will get out some in the next few days.