Birding in the Rain

Today my mom and I went out birding for a couple hours after a dentist appointment. It was rainy but warm and there were a few birds out and about. Some of the first birds we saw were around 40 Franklin's Gulls that flew over the road.

More gulls were seen shortly after that a cattle farm but they were not Franklin's but Ring-billed instead. We had five of them as well as Snow Geese and Double-crested Cormorants. After that we decided to check for the Snowy Plover at another farm pond but we had no luck finding it or any other shorebird there.

The best birding of the short trip was at Owego Wetlands. I dusted off my waders that have been sitting unused for just under a year now at my house and took off into the wetlands to search for Soras, Virginia Rails, American Bitterns, etc. One of the first "highlight" birds was a foy Marsh Wren that popped out of the cattails to come check me out. After that I saw three more of them as I worked my way through the tangles of weeds. I began to doubt that I was going to see any of my target birds but I was wrong. About halfway through my journey I flushed a foy Sora. On the way back to the car I flushed up two more Soras (heard another) and a foy American Bittern.

On the way back home I stopped by the Luton WMA North and came across Paul. After we talked for a minute he started to head off and as he did a Black-crowned Night-Heron flew into the area and sat at the side of the pond we were overlooking. It was the best look I had ever had of a night-heron and it was another foy. Of course I called Paul and he turned around and saw it as well.

Also seen on the way back was a Canada Goose family with six young ones. The "runt" (the bird with the red circle around it) in the group kept falling behind the rest. His future doesn't seem very bright. I had a nice day of birding and got to go wading which I always enjoy doing. I had four year birds on the trip as well as a foy Swainson's Thrush in my yard the same morning which put my year list up to 159. Almost forgot to add that I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker, the first one I have seen in Iowa this year.

Scouting for Birds

This past weekend I was out camping at a boyscout ranch in Nebraska and saw a few interesting birds. The most exciting of them all was a vocalizing Eastern Phoebe that was there this morning as we were leaving on Sunday morning. Red-headed Woodpeckers were fairly easy to find in some areas. They apparently winter here since I saw them in the same area in January. This is the only place I have found these woodpeckers since last fall. Another bird of interest was a Barred Owl. Actually there were two of them calling in the woods near the creek two nights in a row. I found some fungi out there as well and am waiting for a biologist to id them for me, so I will write more on that later.

Scout Camp Birds

Our local boyscout troop went out camping this past weekend in the cold winter weather. In all honesty the thirty-degree temperatures made it feel like a heat wave! This is about 50 degrees warmer than it was a few days before we went camping so this was an improvement. While we went around camp, I of course payed some attention to the birds in the area. There was plenty of bird activity to keep me occupied. One bird that came as a surprise was a Red-headed Woodpecker. These birds can be found fairly easily in our area during the summer but they are rare in the winter. A Barred Owl was another nice find during the weekend. We were taking a night hike when I heard one call from the distance. I tried to imitate it's call but all it did was make him stop calling. Bald Eagles, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Flicker, American Robin, and Cedar Waxwings as well as the more common birds were also around making for a nice assortment of birds.