Bird Photo Quiz 3

As you can clearly see this photo quiz has gulls in it. But can you identify them all? Since the picture is small in the post, click on it to make it larger to help you see field marks. It was taken in Iowa in late October. Post a comment to answer. All birds are on the ABA checklist which can be accessed by going to: http://www.aba.org/checklist/abachecklist.pdf

More Robin Photos

I went out and photographed the American Robins again today since they were being so cooperative. Common they may be, but I usually never have a chance to get so close to them and to get photos in good light. Here are the best photos I could get in the couple hours I was out there.This is the same photo as the one above but I cropped it to show some finer details.The lighting in this one was interesting.
These shots turned out nice as well. I was glad to be able to get the eye to show in so many of them.

So, have I bored you with all these robin shots yet?

New Look and Robins!

As you can see Birding with Tucker looks different. I changed it to match the photo at the top of the page, the one of the American Robin just up the page from this post. I got lots of great photos of robins today as the feasted on crab apples in our front yard. Here are some of my favorite picture I got as well as a commentary on each one. Enjoy!

This one says hi.
This one is giving me the "evil eye".
I got this this one eating. And this one is just doing....nothing.

This one says goodbye.

The Blizzard That Wasn't

This past week people all over the Iowa-Nebraska-South Dakota tri state region were preparing for a huge late season blizzard that was going to bring over a foot of snow, and drifts even deeper than that. Everyone got their errands done and stocked up an supplies a day beforehand so that they wouldn't have to go out in the snow and wind. When Saturday night (the night the blizzard was going to be) came people expected the worst-power outages, car wrecks, nuclear warfare, etc. We all watched the weather closely as the storm barreled towards us and waited for the first flakes to fly. When the light of day came the next morning we all emerged from our homes to find the indescribable scene of devastation that you see pictured below (be advised it is graphic). As you can tell there was no snow and no power outages, car wrecks, or nuclear warfare during the night. If fact everything was pretty normal outside, it was just a bit colder and windier than the past few days. Hooray for bad weather forecasts!

April Fool's Caption Contest Winner!

I'm fed up with all these darn chairs these days with uncomfortable backs!

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Congratulations to John G (http://johngarrettbirding.blogspot.com/) for submitting the winning caption. Very funny, I still laugh when I read it! Thank you to all who played, I look foreword to doing this again in the future.

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.

Bird Photo Quiz 2 Answer

Congratulations to Chris W once again for being the first one to identify the bird as a Rough-legged Hawk! Bill Bossman also correctly identified it as well. I got a couple up-close shots of the same bird before it flew away and caught the mouse as it hovered right outside the car. I am not going into details on how to identify this bird since I don't have the time right now so maybe later. This hawk literally hovered right out side the window as we got shots of it from 15 feet away. It didn't come over to my window however, so I had to try to take photos around the driver. In the shot below the "rough legs" which they are named for are very apparent.
Here is a photo of the hawk when he landed to consume the rodent you saw him carrying in the photo quiz.

April Fool's Photo Caption Contest

Since it is April Fool's Day it seemed fitting to put a photo caption contest up. You do get a prize for the best caption-a big congratulations. The deadline is midnight on Sunday, April 5th.

Let the caption contest begin and may the best man (or woman) win!