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

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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.

Only in the Midwest

Crop Duster Video

Gone for Labor Day Weekend

I am going to be gone over Labor Day weekend so do not expect to see any more postings of my New Mexico trip until next Tuesday or Wednesday. I would have posted on it today but I don't have the time right now. I did however put a Blue Grosbeak (my favorite bird) picture of mine on this post that I took on a birding trip in August, not far from my home to make up for it.

Ashfall Fossil Beds

Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historic Park near Royal, NE is an amazing place where you can view fossils of now extinct rhinos, camels, and horses and even elephants that once lived in North America. Many more species of animals have been found preserved here including the Saber-toothed Deer!

Perfectly preserved in ash from a volcanic eruption some 12 million years ago in present day Idaho. It dropped about 1 foot of ash which suffocated the animals when it got into their lungs. The area where they found the fossils was most likely a watering hole where all of these species came to drink. After many years the skeletons became perfectly preserved. The volcanic eruption that caused it all was much larger than the one at Mount Saint Helens (compare them on the map below).
Due to shifting of the earth's crust Yellowstone National Park is now sitting on top of the "hot spot" that formed the volcano which covered Nebraska in a foot of ash.

My mom, dad , and I went out there in mid August to see this place for ourselves. After stopping in at the visitor center we went down to the Hubbard Rhino Barn where most of the well preserved fossils are. Named for the numerous rhino fossils there were also deer and horse fossils as well. The paleontologists uncovered all of the fossils and left them right where they were found. In order to keep them safe they just put a building over it.

Here are some photos of the fossils. They had a number of complete rhino skeletons including the one below.

A rhino head (below)

A small horse skeleton

They also had a couple camels but I couldn't find a photo of a complete skeleton on my camera. Outside of the building they are still finding fossils, but not large skeletons, just bone fragments.

After finding so many fossils it seems that there would be no more, but the excavation continues. They are finding even more rhinos in the barn and they expect to come across many more in the future. Since this is a birding blog I figure I better mention some of the birds that they found there. Exotic birds such as Gray-crowned Cranes, Secretary Bird were found there although I didn't get to see the fossils. To learn more about this site and to see hours and get directions go to: http://ashfall.unl.edu/. Another fossil bed I personally recommend is the Mammoth Site in western South Dakota's Black Hills. It is an amazing place with numerous mammoth tusks and bones displayed in the same manor. It's website is http://www.mammothsite.com/.

New Mexico-July 19-Day 1

My mom, dad, and I got up early in the morning on July 19 to go to my friends house. This wasn't just any old visit, this visit was going to take me 15 hours away from home for three weeks. I loaded all of my stuff into their motorhome and I said goodbye to my parents. They watched as the motor home pulled out of my friends driveway and they tried to hold in their excitement that I was going to be gone for so long!

What was I doing for three weeks at over 15 hours away from my home? I was going all the way down to Albuquerque, NM in a motor home with my two best friends and the parents of one of them. For ten days of the trip I was was going to have my strength tested in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of northeast New Mexico at the Philmont Scout Ranch with eight other boys and two adults from across the country that I had never met before. For 75 long miles through the mountains I endured the heat, the cold, and of course the wildlife all on foot and with a 50 pound pack on my back. Little did I know while traveling across Nebraska on I-80 just how amazing an adventure was awaiting me in the mountains of the southwest. So here my adventure begins.

Traveling across Nebraska on I-80 is very boring. Field after field of corn and soybeans passed by for hours on end until 5:00 that night. Eventually the corn and soybean fields began to be replaced by pastures and the scenery was a bit more interesting. While at a rest stop I photographed a windmill that was out on one of the scenic pastures that covered the hills that rose up out of the Platte River Valley. Not long after taking that picture we headed south on I-76 and made it to Colorado, which was a new state for me.

At the state welcome center I saw more Western Kingbirds than I have ever seen. They seemed to be everywhere, with one (or more!) every way you looked. They nest in my area but not in such large numbers. I looked around the rest area for birds but, as I expected, there was nothing of particular interest just a lot of common birds that I see in my own backyard. After pulling away from the rest area we kept on heading west to Fort Morgan where we stayed for the night. As you can tell the first day was pretty uneventful.

Of course there are many more exciting things ro come so check in to read about the rest on my trip in the upcoming weeks. In tomorrow's post I will see the Rocky Mountains for the first time, travel through Denver, will find a few life birds, see Pike's Peak, and be in New Mexico for the first time.

Crop Duster

A few weeks back a crop duster came to my town to spray the crops with some sort of chemical.

My dad and I went and watched it buzz over the fields. It is amazing the amount of acrobatics it takes for them to do this. Sometimes they would come freakishly close to a house while spraying the chemicals, flying straight at it and at the last second turn skyward and do this over and over again until the field was covered. I got lots of pictures and a video of this one as the pilot was doing his job. The video is not working right now but hopefully I will be able to get it to work within the next couple days. This sure beats the heck out of air shows, plus it's free!