Cattle Farm Birds

Late this afternoon I got a call about a Prairie Falcon that was found at a cattle farm about five miles from my house. My mom and I went down and saw the bird in a field on top of a corn stalk. I got a truly horrible shot of it but it is id-able (I guess?). This is an occasional bird in our area and it is always fun to see one.

Another thing that was worth seeing were the thousands of starlings that were flying around the farm. Sure, birders couldn't care less if they saw starlings or not, most people just ignore them. But when there are as many of them as there was at the cattle farm it is hard to ignore the masses of them flying around.

Cattle Farms are interesting places to bird. Lots of birds use them during migration and we have even found some rarities around them. There is plenty of shelter, water, and food (starlings for falcons) around, so it is no surprise that so many birds use them.

Birding Lately

Sorry for not posting lately, I have been busy lately. A few interesting things have happened since I last posted so here are some things that have gone on. On December 14 I went with another birder to Cherokee, IA for a Christmas Bird Count. We got 30 species during the day despite the cold and wind. I was really surprised to find a Prairie Falcon in pursuit of a flock of Horned Larks. The falcon came out of nowhere and was quickly gone. It only stayed around long enough for us to pick out a few distinguishing field marks. I have not seen one of these rare visitors in Iowa before so it was nice to add such a neat bird to my state list. The second most interesting bird we saw was a Yellow-rumped Warbler. The bird was hanging around a large cedar stand near a creek. These birds are rare in Iowa during the winter so it was a bonus. Other highlights include Rough-legged Hawk, Brown Creeper, Harris's Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, and Pine Siskin. Later in the day we went to Sioux City to help out a bit in their bird count but we didn't see much there.

A relative on mine gave me a hunting blind of his that he couldn't use because it was to small to use when bow hunting. I went outside and put it up near my bird feeders so I could get some close-up bird photos. A few species came in and I got some nice photos of A Hairy Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Junco while I was out there.

The weather here has been brutal in the past few weeks. We have gotten 21 inches of snow this month and one night it got down to -19. It is not the greatest weather to go birding in so I haven't been out much. Despite this I have been watching the feeders from time to time. Pine Siskins have been showing up lately and I am still watching for the Common Redpoll I had as a visitor in November. I don't have anymore to write about so I am done with this post.