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.

Weekend by the Lake

*please check out the poll I added on the right hand side of the page*

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A couple of weeks ago my mom, dad, sister, and I went up to Iowa's great lakes (Spirit Lake/Okoboji Lake area) to go fishing, enjoy the scenery, look for birds, and to top it all off go to a drive in movie.

While I was up there I was hoping to find a Black-headed Gull that had been coming to a certain location on Spirit Lake right on the IA-MN border during the fall for a number of years. Even though it was seen the week before I got there it managed to remain hidden despite constant searching.

Despite the fact I missed the gull I did see some other birds while I was there including a very cooperative juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper (above) that posed nicely for the camera. Many of the birds we saw, including the sandpiper, were seen from or near a fishing dock at Black-headed Gull location. Ring-billed Gulls as well as a few Franklin's Gulls were out and about on the lake all weekend long and were resting near the fishing dock. With a few chips and a little patience I managed to bring some in for photos.

American White Pelicans were in good supply as well. I enjoyed watching them soar overhead. One group had about 52 birds in it.

When I got tired of fishing I took a kite (no, not the bird), tied the string to my fishing line that was still on the fishing pole, and let the kite soar way up high. I had a lot more string than usual so it went much further than usual. I was flying it over a lake so when it fell into the water I just reeled it in. This was good practice for when a Muskie hits my line and I have to try to reel it in(yea, right). The kite appeared to draw in a few curious pelicans which would come and soar near it. One thing I can say that many people can't was that I was flying a kite in Iowa and was standing in Minnesota while doing it, plus the kite was attached to a fishing pole!

Night fishing really is the coolest fishing there is, at least in my opinion. My dad and I were out on the dock at Spirit Lake until 2am one night and heard so many interesting things including a lot of mammals. A group of Coyotes began howling not far from where we were. We howled back (hopefully no one heard us) and they responded. Some Northern Raccoons also began making some noise from some woodlands nearby. I even heard some birds while I was out there. Lots of migrating warblers, although not in view, made very faint calls as they flew overhead making their presence known. We watched the moon rise and fall and saw seven "falling stars" as well. We finally drove back to the campground and saw and almost hit a Northern Raccoon and a Striped Skunk on the way. Talk about a lot of wildlife! We caught a few bullheads that night but that was all. About 10 miles from the fishing dock is West Lake Okoboji. At Pike's Point State Park (which is right on the lake) my dad and I watched the beautiful sunset and got some neat photos with the one below being the best.

Sunrise on Spirit Lake was just as neat as the sunset on West Lake Okoboji, if not more so. There was steam coming off of the lake in the crisp 38 degree farenheit morning air which was amazing.

Gulls were already out and about on the lake. The steam and interesting lighting helped to make some cool photos.

On the way home a stop at Sunken Grove WMA revealed a Northern Waterthrush and a young Pied-billed Grebe (below).

And that concludes my weekend by the lake. Tomorrow I will post more about my New Mexico trip.

Early Fall Migrants

Before I get started on blogging about my New Mexico trip I thought I would post on a few birds I have seen in Iowa lately.

My mom and I went looking for Buff-breasted Sandpipers around the county late this afternoon without any luck. There weren't even any at a sod farm that had over 20 of them last year. Other shorebirds are on the move as evidenced by the nine species I saw. Although the Buff-breasted Sandpipers did not show up we did find nice and unexpected birds including a Least Tern and a White-faced Ibis. Both of these birds although regular in our area are hard to come by sometimes so it was nice to see them. The ibis was located at a place called Table Marsh. While looking at 20 Great Blue Herons, 5 Great Egrets, 1 Green Heron, a few Black Terns, and a couple Snow Geese a dark bird about heron size flew out of the weeds. It then landed and I quickly identified it as an ibis. The marsh has been one of the best place to look for waterbirds recently. All of these birds were joined by a lone SANDHILL CRANE back in July. I was the first to find the crane which one other birder was able to see.

This bird was a thrill to see as this species is rare in migration through our area not to mention mid summer. Fall migration has already begun for some birds so get out and enjoy it!

Black-necked Stilt & More

This past Sunday my dad and I went on a trip up to the Iowa Great Lakes (north central) region to go fishing. It just so happened that just a short distance from where we were going to fish a Black-necked Stilt (a fairly rare but regular bird in Iowa) was seen just the night before at an area slough. When we pulled up to the area we easily found the bird wading out in the shallow water of the slough looking for food. It's legs were very long and really made him stand out. I was having trouble with getting photos of this, my 309th life bird because of the clouds and distance but then the skies opened up and I was finally able to get a decent but distant picture.
As we were watching him my attention turned to a white colored tern that was flying over with a group of Black Terns. It had completely plain gray upper wings and a hint of black on the underside of the primaries, he was smaller, and had an orange-red bill. This turned out to be the first Common Tern that I had seen in Iowa.

After the stop at the slough we went on and spent some time fishing. We caught bullhead and I even snagged a carp but the line got when we tried pulling it up. It was only a couple feet from us when the line gave out. That was the "fish that got away story" of the trip.

When the fishing was done with my dad and I went out and did some more birding before we had to head home. On Grover's Lake on the Iowa/Minnesota border I was pleased to find two breeding plumage Red-necked Grebes along with five Redheads. At Storm Lake, about an hour south of there we came across a group of thee Caspian Terns. I chased them around trying to get photos but they didn't cooperate.

The day ended up being nice and sunny which was nice since the weather has been bad lately. The fish were biting (for a while at least) and the birds were nice too.

Memorial Weekend Birding Part II

On Saturday birding friend Paul came and picked me up and we went out birding around the county like I did on Thursday but we visited some different areas.

The first place we did some birding was on a small dirt road about 3 miles from my house up in the Loess Hills. The bushes along the road had several foy Bell's Vireos as well as Least and Willow Flycatcher. A couple Sedge Wrens and Grasshopper Sparrows were calling from the grasslands that surrounded the area. Bank Swallows were nesting in a cliff that was created when the cut through a hill to put in a road. Paul got a photo of a swallow with my camera for me since they were not on my side.
The sun was shining and the birds were singing all over the place. Bobolinks were found a mile or two down the road and were singing their strange jumbled song. As we moved on we found a few more grassland birds including an Eastern Meadowlark an more Bell's Vireo putting us at 12 for the day.

We headed down to the Missouri River Valley to a place called Table Marsh WMA. We were surprised to find so much water and so many birds there. We knew it was there but didn't think that it was as large as it was. Over fifty American White Pelicans were there resting on a small island. Surrounding them there were tons of shorebirds including American Avocet, Dunlin, and Stilt Sandpiper. Black Terns and a Forster's Tern were cruising the area looking for food. A number of Great Egrets were fairly close to the road. They were a bit shy and flew as soon as we got close enough to get a photo. I did however manage to photograph one.
Waterfowl were also there including a Green-winged Teal (strange to see them this time of year), two Hooded Mergansers, a Gadwall pair, and Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, and Canada Geese. We found a large mud flat with even more shorebirds on it. We found a few Semipalmated Plovers there as well as the other shorebirds previously mentioned and some more common ones. Before we left we checked the large cattail stands for birds and found a Sora, a few Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and a good supply of Marsh Wrens. After that it was time to head home after a nice five hours of birding. Table Marsh really surprised us and appears to have a lot of potential and we will be heading back to do some more birdwatching for sure! One thing I forgot to mention that there is a dike that runs along the west side of the marsh making it easy to observe the birds from above, revealing more birds than we could see from eye level.

That concludes my Memorial Weekend Birding.

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.

More on the Snowy Plover

The Snowy Plover found by my friend Paul was seen again today but not by me. Paul got a photo of the bird which he gave me permission to use on the blog. Thanks Paul!

Snowy Plover!

At 5:30 this afternoon my birding friend called me with great news that a Snowy Plover, an casual bird in Iowa and a first for Woodbury County, was at the Dairy Ponds. I was ecstatic to hear that and I stopped what I was doing right away and my dad and I went down to see it. We were stuck behind a very slow truck going about 20mph for about 2 miles which made me very stressed. As soon as we got to the Dairy Ponds and I saw the plover however, the stress went away and I was back to normal, just more excited than usual. It was life bird 305 for me and a lifer for Paul! I will post pictures and more later on, time permitting.

Up and Down the Big Sioux

Today I went out with Paul, a birder friend on a day long trip up the Big Sioux River Valley on Iowa's northwestern border. We had a great time and found some nice birds and some good places to go birding.

The day started out at eight in the morning. The weather was dreary and some light rain started falling. Even though the weather was bad at first the sun did come out and so did the birds. One of the first stops we made was the Broken Kettle Grasslands. This area has the largest prairie remnants in Iowa making for some interesting birding. We headed up a windy road that went up to the tops of the hills. On the hillside some dams were constructed to make small farm ponds. We found a Great Egret in no time as well as an assortment of the usual birds. We had a singing Swamp Sparrow in the cattails near the ponds which was a year bird for me. The songs of Field Sparrows could also be heard there on the scenic prairie. In some trees near the road we were surprised to find a Brown Creeper making it's way up a tree. Another year bird came in the form of an Eastern Towhee. There were a few of these in the brush on the hillside singing away. One bird we hoped to see was a Black-billed Magpie but there were none there. These are my largest nemesis state bird. I can never seem to find them there even though other people can. Below is a picture of the Black-billed Magpie habitat that is so prevalent there.

On the way to a good magpie site we found a couple shorebirds on a pond including a Wilson's Snipe which was a year bird for both of us.On the way over to the magpie site we heard a Chipping Sparrow (yb). While looking for magpies we heard an Eastern Meadowlark, another year bird.

After we were done at the grasslands we headed to the Higman's Quarry in Westfield, IA and found some intersting birds there. On the way in we found a Loggerhead Shrikethat was hunting from the power lines near the road. He was a challenge to photograph as he kept flushing when we tried to get close enough for a nice picture.The best shot I could manage is below. A Savannah Sparrow was also seen on the way in.When we got into the quarry we didn't see much at first but did eventually find some ducks and four Eared Grebes (year bird) on the ponds there. We moved onward and found some more Eared Grebes which brought our total to 13 of them which is a good number for our area. More ducks were there but not much else so we moved on. We birded a little in some towns in the area but didn't see much. One pond we came across was productive however and had some shovelers and other waterfowl in it.We came across a good birding spot along the river. It was another sand and gravel quarry but the ponds there were bigger and deeper than those at the other one. We saw lots of bird when we got in there including Pied-billed Grebe (yb), Double-crested Cormorant (yb), Bald Eagle, and the more common birds. It appeared to have a lot of potential and we will be back there soon. We went back in a wooded area and flushed a Great Horned Owl there. Unbelievably we found more Eared Grebes putting us at 18 individuals for the day! An American White Pelican posed nicely for a picture at the quarry on the way out.
We headed further north but saw few birds but we kept going. We saw some year bird including Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Vesper Sparrow but there was not much else besides the common birds. Of the few bird species we found far up north this pair of Wood Ducks were one of them.
The count for the day was 71 species with a number of year birds and a lot of fun!

Calm Before the Snowstorm

Today was a great day to be out-55 degrees and sunny. The beautiful weather here is often short lived this time of year as we transition from winter to summer. This latest round of warm and sunny weather is about to come to an end tomorrow as a huge blizzard is going to cover the area with 12+ inches of the white stuff. No this is not some late April Fools joke! I can't believe that we are going to have such a big snowstorm so late in the season. I hope the snow melts quickly!

Anyway, today I went out and did some birding with Paul R, a birding friend of mine through the hill country and saw some nice birds. The most interesting thing of the day were the three Loggerhead Shrikes we saw. We found one pair and then a bird all by itself. We also found a pair of Cooper's Hawks but we couldn't find a nest anywhere in the vicinity of where they were. We did confirm nesting for Belted Kingfisher however, because we saw one go into a hole in a dirt bank near the road. It was neat to see that. Year birds included Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Brewer's Blackbird, and Rusty Blackbird. I must not forget to add Harris's Sparrow for all those out of the Midwest.

We also got a few shorebirds in the Missouri River valley at the dairy farm ponds. Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Baird's Sandpipers were the shorebirds that weren't Killdeer. There were lots of ducks as well but nothing to interesting. The wetlands in the area were full of ducks as well as some FOY American White Pelicans. Two Northern Harriers were also found.

Today was "the calm before the storm" and it was great to be out birding. I might need to get out and look for longspurs on the back roads in our area, so if I am insane enough to head out I will post about my finds then.

Birding 'round the Lake

On Saturday the local Audubon group headed out to Yankton, SD to do some birding. A large reservoir called Lewis and Clark Lake was created along the Missouri River and it is a favorite birding spot of many avid birdwatchers

*FOY=first of the year

On the way there we saw some gulls including my FOY Franklin's Gull. When we got there it didn't take long to find birds. We stopped at a lake below the dam for birds first. Many waterfowl species were on the lake with 21 species present. Highlight birds around the lake included Cackling Goose, FOY Red-breasted Mergansers, FOY Horned Grebe, Great Blue Heron, FOY Bonaparte's Gull, and a Merlin. I got a picture of a not-so-shy Ruddy Duck that was swimming about 30 feet away from me at the time I took the picture.We also birded the river below the dam and saw Ring-billed and Herring Gulls but not much else. Roger, a local birdwatcher, took us out to a spot where there were several species of shorebirds present. Besides the ever annoying Killdeer we found Greater Yellowlegs, a FOY Dunlin, and over 40 FOY Baird's Sandpipers.

After a nice morning of birding we went and had lunch at a large cabin owned by an Audubon member that overlooks the lake. We saw a few birds there on the feeders including some Pine Siskins that posed for some pictures.

After we had a great lunch we headed over to a marina on the Nebraska side of the lake (the SD-NE border runs down the middle of the lake) to see an active Bald Eagle nest. Much to our delight a Bald Eagle was sitting on the nest when we showed up. That was the first time I have seen an active nest.
We saw a number of birds on the way back home. We cut through Nebraska and saw 16 American Kestrels (I saw more kestrels than I have ever seen in a day in the period of 1 1/2 hrs.), a FOY Swainson's Hawk, and a FOY Loggerhead Shrike.

Not a bad day with 74 species seen and a few year birds to put my year list at 118.

From the Hills to the Valley

Today was muggy and warm (it got up to almost 70 degrees F). It was cloudy all day long but there were birds out despite that.
The most interesting thing that I observed was a flight of 20-30 hawks over my house within a 15 minute period. The lighting was terrible and I didn't get my scope out in time to i.d. them all. Most were Red-tailed Hawk although there were probable some others in with them. I saw a kettle of 12 birds moving over at one time. They came in quickly and left quickly, giving me limited time to view them.
Late in the afternoon my dad and I went out and explored the hills south of our house. There weren't many birds, but there were a few interesting ones. I found a group of 18 Ring-necked Ducks in one pond together as well as a Turkey Vulture. The first vulture I saw this year flew over my house the day before spring. Here is a shot I got of it as it headed north.

We didn't see much more on our jaunt in the hills. I did however find a Mourning Cloak butterfly at a county owned nature area which was a pleasant surprise. We decided to head out of the hills and go down to the Missouri River valley. We checked a couple dairy ponds to check for migrant shorebirds and waterfowl. We found four species of shorebirds at the ponds three of which were year birds: Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, and Pectoral Sandpiper. A nice array of waterfowl were also at the ponds including a few Common Mergansers as well as the more common waterfowl. Snow Geese are getting scarce now so seeing one at the ponds was a treat.When we got home we were greeted by our dogs and a nice springtime thunderstorm.