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.

Red Polls at our feeders

The most interesting bird we've had at feeders in the last few weeks have been the Redpolls. Most of them are undoubtedly Common Redpolls. And, at the moment, they are common. I've counted up to 40 at the feeders at one time, but I know they are also in the lilacs on the west side of the house and in the trees in the garden. It would be fun to try to estimate how many are in the yard, but despite the calendar date of April 15, the snow drifts are keeping me from too many forays into the further reaches of our yard.  I am enjoying the birds at the feeder however, even when they scrap with each other, which is most of the time.

The males get the most attention. How can they help it with their bright colours? In the beginning we seemed to have many times more females, but the numbers have been much more even since the beginning of April. I'm wondering if this meant that many of the birds were actually immatures that didn't have their full colour yet, or if the males were eating at someone else's feeder?

  The females are less red, but generally have more striping.

 And then there are the Redpolls that are even less common. I feel this bird is likely a Hoary Redpoll. It has little striping on its sides and the pink is much paler.

 And this bird may well be a female Hoary Redpoll. Compared to the one eating the suet above, she is very light, though she has darker striping than the one above that I assume is a male Hoary.

Now in my list of most common to least common, here is my most favourite of Redpolls. While some are red and some are pink, this male is

 

orange!

Birds on Winter Holidays

It seems we are usually too busy to bird when we are at home, so when we go away it becomes a priority. I would love to see tropical birds, but a lot of what we see in Central Mexico are birds, like us, escaping the cold Saskatchewan winters.

We drove to Herbert last spring to see a White-faced Ibis and were excited to see one from a great distance. Yesterday in Mazatlan, Mexico, we saw one less than 20 feet from us. Colours not quite as pretty as the rust of the breeding bird, it was still a very pleasant find. And much smaller than I had expected.

Beside the same small water body, we also saw an American Bittern. This is a bird I don't think I've ever seen in Saskatchewan, though its voice is more often encountered. For a reportedly shy bird, it stayed in sight long enough for me to take several photos. Of course there were no slough reeds for it to hide in here, though I must say, at one point it tried anyway.

Unusual molting? Hybrids? Obscure species?

I am challenged by many groups of birds. Hawks. Sandpipers, peeps, and assorted small shorebirds. Gulls.

But nonbreeding ducks lead the list.  Seeing these with a flock of Mallard Ducks in Billings, Montana, last week led me to speculate that I was perhaps the discoverer of a whole new species of ducks. Or maybe not. You be the judge. And if you can name any or all of these, please do.

Given the white geese in the above shot, it is possible that there are tame ducks in this waterbody also, but the tame ducks I used to raise were white. Unless they mingled with the Mallards and presented us with these delightful variations.

This last duck does not bear any resemblance to a Mallard, mutated or not, but I still don't know what it is. Quite possibly an ordinary duck wearing its winter colours.

Wild Turkey

We didn't go birding on our short trip to Montana over the weekend, but three Wild Turkeys obligingly came to us so I had no choice but to snap their photos. Thanks to Ray who recognized them as something worth slowing down for soon enough that we didn't just zoom right past.

Looking for Cranes

On her way to the field on Thursday, Cheryl saw something new adjacent to land we farm.

 

She hoped to see Whooping Cranes again, wondering if she would be able to identify them among the other cranes and the Snow Geese when she had neither a camera nor binoculars.

Turns out it wasn't a problem. She phoned me late in the afternoon to say she was watching 2 adult Whooping Cranes. They apparently didn't mind her tractor and landed quite near. After some time they flew off to join a flock of Sandhill Cranes.

On Sunday Ray and I thought we wouldn't mind seeing a couple more Whooping Cranes ourselves, not having seen any for 3 weeks. We drove out about 4:00 p.m.  The Sandhill Cranes were just leaving Luck Lake looking for supper. We drove past the fields where they've been seen the most, noticing 3 yellow signs in the area. No white birds among the grey. We headed toward the lake where we saw the Snow Geese weren't quite ready for supper

then circumnavigated the lake. This is quite a long drive because only on the north side can you get very close to the lake (or by using the dike, but we didn't do that this time.)  Very few of the cranes or geese were looking for grain on the north, east, or west sides of the lake. Back on the south side we did another drive-by. The Snow Geese were on their way off the lake, settling onto the harvested fields nearby.

We didn't see a lot of other birds. Notable were this juvenile Bald Eagle

an injured Sandhill Crane which has probably already become supper to a coyote (They need to eat too, I am reminded by Ray)

 and, of course, the flocks of Sandhill Cranes.

Beautiful warm day for a drive, but the Whooping Cranes were either well hidden or not there.

Maybe next time.

Whooping Cranes

 Though technically not a lifer, these four adult whoopers (only 2 of which are pictured) felt like lifers, because my previous experience was before we were really birding, and at a great distance through someone else's scope. Our views of these today were much better than the photos show. So far I don't know how to take photos through a scope, but maybe I should learn.

 

South of Luck Lake, September 25, 2012