Monday, September 16, 2013
Short birding trip after work
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Birdshare
Just a quick update, folks! Cornell Lab of Ornithology has chosen another one of my pictures (second one to date!) to post on their homepage Click here to see it Sept 12-19th 2013 Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom!
Saturday, September 7, 2013
To be a waterfowl, observe!
Went out to Moraine State Park today, and I got to try out my dad's fishing kayak. We spotted a great egret from the waterfowl observation deck, so I wanted to go in for a closer look.
The lake by the deck was almost completely grown in by lily pads and other water plants, but I managed to slowly maneuver close to where the egret was. As I snuck up on the egret, I noticed some people at the observation deck, observing me! Now I know what it's like to be a waterfowl...kinda sorta?
So after an hour of creeping up on him and getting side tracked taking pictures of other birds, I finally get up pretty close to the egret and get some pictures in..
He didn't stick around very long, (I guess I didn't fool him with my waterfowl act) but I got these other pictures of a dragonfly, a great blue heron in a tree...
All in all, it was a good day. Birding total of the day was: 3 great blue herons, one osprey, one red tailed hawk, one great egret, 4 turkey vultures, 2 belted kingfishers, a bunch of canada geese, and a bunch of mallard ducks.
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| Taken by my dad |
The lake by the deck was almost completely grown in by lily pads and other water plants, but I managed to slowly maneuver close to where the egret was. As I snuck up on the egret, I noticed some people at the observation deck, observing me! Now I know what it's like to be a waterfowl...kinda sorta?
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| A red-tailed hawk flies overhead |
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| Osprey fishing technique (I should try it out someday) |
So after an hour of creeping up on him and getting side tracked taking pictures of other birds, I finally get up pretty close to the egret and get some pictures in..
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| I think he noticed me.... |
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| "What's that?? It doesn't look like a waterfowl! I'd better fly away!" |
He didn't stick around very long, (I guess I didn't fool him with my waterfowl act) but I got these other pictures of a dragonfly, a great blue heron in a tree...
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| I'm not a bird, but here I am posing please take my picture! |
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| "What do you mean, great blue heron?? There's no herons here! Only us tree limbs! Nope, no great blue herons." |
All in all, it was a good day. Birding total of the day was: 3 great blue herons, one osprey, one red tailed hawk, one great egret, 4 turkey vultures, 2 belted kingfishers, a bunch of canada geese, and a bunch of mallard ducks.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
A bad day of birding is still better than a good day at work..
We went out with a good friend and excellent bird photographer, Steve Gosser, to Harrison Hills park in Natrona Heights on Labor Day. We were looking for migrating warblers, as there had recently been a lot of warbler action down there.. but it wasn't a great day for migrating.
It wasn't entirely a bad day, as there were plenty of butterflies to keep us entertained. I'm terrible with my butterflies, but luckily Steve has extensive knowledge of them. He was able to identify everything we spotted that day.
And we saw the butterfly of the day,
We saw a couple red eyed vireos, a magnolia warbler, a blackburnian warbler, two wood peewees, and several chickadees, tufted titmice, and cardinals.
This was only one of those that decided to stop and pose for us, out in the open, at eye level..
Most of the time, however, we were running into spider webs with spiders on them. They had built their webs across the paths in the park, and every 20 feet or so we'd run into one, whoever was in lead at the time (mostly Steve). I'm not sure about my spider species, but they had like a demon head looking abdomen that was triangular but had horns sticking out. We never got a good picture, as we were mostly trying to avoid them.
We also came across two interesting caterpillars:
No idea what either of these are.. they were both fuzzy and I resisted the urge to just pet them with my finger, as they may have been poisonous. But they were both interesting sites of the bird-less day.
It wasn't entirely a bad day, as there were plenty of butterflies to keep us entertained. I'm terrible with my butterflies, but luckily Steve has extensive knowledge of them. He was able to identify everything we spotted that day.
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| This is a Comma.. why is it called that?.... |
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| Because it has a Comma on its wings! |
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| Red spotted purple butterfly (although it looks like orange spotted blue) |
We saw a couple red eyed vireos, a magnolia warbler, a blackburnian warbler, two wood peewees, and several chickadees, tufted titmice, and cardinals.
This was only one of those that decided to stop and pose for us, out in the open, at eye level..
Most of the time, however, we were running into spider webs with spiders on them. They had built their webs across the paths in the park, and every 20 feet or so we'd run into one, whoever was in lead at the time (mostly Steve). I'm not sure about my spider species, but they had like a demon head looking abdomen that was triangular but had horns sticking out. We never got a good picture, as we were mostly trying to avoid them.
We also came across two interesting caterpillars:
No idea what either of these are.. they were both fuzzy and I resisted the urge to just pet them with my finger, as they may have been poisonous. But they were both interesting sites of the bird-less day.
Birding from my bed
I've been working on a post from my birding experience from this past Labor Day weekend, but I did some unexpected birding last night, that was quite interesting, so I'm going to skip ahead for the moment...
Last night at 3:00 am the cat half woke me up when she jumped on the bed. Then I heard this hoo-hoo..
I sat up and grabbed Brian's shoulder "Did you hear that?? Listen! Shh! ..................................... ........................................ I swear I heard an owl! ......................... ..................................... ............. It was a great horned! ........................... ...................................... ................... Maybe I just dreame-" hoo-hoohoo hooo-hooo "Did you hear it?! It IS a great horned owl! Right outside!"
The next words out of his mouth were why I love him so much.. "Do you want to go look for it?"
YES!
So we jumped out of bed, grabbed a flashlight, my phone (it has owl calls on it!), and shoes and ran outside to where the owl was hooting. It was just across the street in a small patch of trees on my neighbor's property. We just stood there in awe as we listened to it sing.
Then we tried to find it, shining the flashlight about where it was, and calling him with my ibird app. We must have startled it, because then I heard him across the next street up on the hill. I knew it wouldn't stick around long anyway, because there are just a few sparse trees around the neighborhood, nothing the size of habitat it needed to survive, so we followed him. We got right up to the patch of trees he was in again, and listened. Then we tried the flashlight again and this time he didn't fly off, but continued hooting. We couldn't find it though. So we circled up around to the other side of the tree patch and as soon as we got within 15 feet of him, he flew off across the road again and farther away, hooted once, and then took off out of hearing range. We never saw him once.
Oh well, I was just happy to have heard an owl, and a great horned owl was a real treat in my town. We went back to the house talking excitedly as we walked "He was RIGHT THERE!" "I can't believe it!" "That's the first time I've heard a great horned owl!" "Too bad we couldn't see him"
We went to bed, but I was too excited to fall back to sleep too quickly and kept an ear open in case he came back. But he didn't.
As I finally started drifting off to sleep I hear this bark-y screech a few times. I turned to Brian "Are you still awake? Do you hear that?" "Yeah, what is it?" "I think it's a screech owl! Or I guess it could be a raccoon or something." then I hear it's distinctive thrill call. "It's definitely a screech owl!!"
This owl was right about the same patch of trees the great horned was in when we heard him the first time. I was surprised, especially since great horneds sometimes will prey on screechys.
We didn't get out of bed, for this one only called a few times then we didn't hear him again. Plus we both had work in the morning.
I wasn't expecting on doing any birding that night, and it's still a bit early for owls to be calling. I can't wait to go looking for them during the day while they're breeding!!
As a quick note, this morning when I dropped Brian off at work, a red tailed hawk called his signature call and flew about 20 feet above us. How cool!!
Below are pictures (not my own) of a great horned owl and a screech owl
Last night at 3:00 am the cat half woke me up when she jumped on the bed. Then I heard this hoo-hoo..
I sat up and grabbed Brian's shoulder "Did you hear that?? Listen! Shh! ..................................... ........................................ I swear I heard an owl! ......................... ..................................... ............. It was a great horned! ........................... ...................................... ................... Maybe I just dreame-" hoo-hoohoo hooo-hooo "Did you hear it?! It IS a great horned owl! Right outside!"
The next words out of his mouth were why I love him so much.. "Do you want to go look for it?"
YES!
So we jumped out of bed, grabbed a flashlight, my phone (it has owl calls on it!), and shoes and ran outside to where the owl was hooting. It was just across the street in a small patch of trees on my neighbor's property. We just stood there in awe as we listened to it sing.
Then we tried to find it, shining the flashlight about where it was, and calling him with my ibird app. We must have startled it, because then I heard him across the next street up on the hill. I knew it wouldn't stick around long anyway, because there are just a few sparse trees around the neighborhood, nothing the size of habitat it needed to survive, so we followed him. We got right up to the patch of trees he was in again, and listened. Then we tried the flashlight again and this time he didn't fly off, but continued hooting. We couldn't find it though. So we circled up around to the other side of the tree patch and as soon as we got within 15 feet of him, he flew off across the road again and farther away, hooted once, and then took off out of hearing range. We never saw him once.
Oh well, I was just happy to have heard an owl, and a great horned owl was a real treat in my town. We went back to the house talking excitedly as we walked "He was RIGHT THERE!" "I can't believe it!" "That's the first time I've heard a great horned owl!" "Too bad we couldn't see him"
We went to bed, but I was too excited to fall back to sleep too quickly and kept an ear open in case he came back. But he didn't.
As I finally started drifting off to sleep I hear this bark-y screech a few times. I turned to Brian "Are you still awake? Do you hear that?" "Yeah, what is it?" "I think it's a screech owl! Or I guess it could be a raccoon or something." then I hear it's distinctive thrill call. "It's definitely a screech owl!!"
This owl was right about the same patch of trees the great horned was in when we heard him the first time. I was surprised, especially since great horneds sometimes will prey on screechys.
We didn't get out of bed, for this one only called a few times then we didn't hear him again. Plus we both had work in the morning.
I wasn't expecting on doing any birding that night, and it's still a bit early for owls to be calling. I can't wait to go looking for them during the day while they're breeding!!
As a quick note, this morning when I dropped Brian off at work, a red tailed hawk called his signature call and flew about 20 feet above us. How cool!!
Below are pictures (not my own) of a great horned owl and a screech owl
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Great Horned Owl image from
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| Eastern Screech Owl image from Wikipedia |
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