Spring Birding

It's been a long winter so it was satisfying to go for a bit of a bird search Sunday afternoon.

We identified about 47 species, which for Ray and I is a fair day. It used to be a great day but as we learn more birds our lists have gotten longer. Given that we rarely left our vehicle, that there was a bit of a breeze, and that we covered about 170 km in 4 hours, I am pleased with our results. Nonetheless, we think of so many birds we could have seen and didn't.  Where were the Partridges? the Willets? the Buffleheads? and of course, there were dozens of blurs of brown that will remain forever unidentified sparrows.

Here are some of the photographic highlights.
Mallard Ducks:

Horned Grebe

Lesser Yellowlegs (or at least that is my ID)

Savannah Sparrow

I am particularly pleased with this sparrow photo because Ray took it and it is clear. All the sparrow photos that I took on Sunday show a blurry brown shape in front of a clear vision of grass or gravel. And with the same camera.

These three birds along with another Killdeer and a Wilson's Snipe appeared to be waiting for a bus in the parking lot by the pavilion at Gardiner Dam. We watched them for several minutes and they never moved or appeared to notice that we were there. This was just the third White-crowned Sparrow I've seen this year.

Lastly, not only on this post but on our trip, is what I judge to be a Swainson's Hawk. When it comes to identifying birds, I am at my worst when it comes to hawks, but I feel that the dark bib on this fellow along with the white on his face confirm him as Swainson's. A hawk identification book is in my future.

Other notable birds of the day were our first glimpse of a Loggerhead Shrike at the end of our lane. We've had shrikes here for years, so it is exciting to see that at least one has returned. We also saw a single Mountain Bluebird during our travels, another of my favourite birds.