American Pipits

Red Admiral Butterfly at Lake Wichita Park.

Sunday was a great birding morning. The weather was nearly perfect, the wind not too bad and there were plenty of birds to see.

I started on the chat trail in Lake Wichita Park, where the cedar waxwings were obviously massing in the willows. There were hundreds of waxwings, as well as good numbers of yellow-rumped warblers. All of them will be gone very soon, heading back to their nesting grounds in the north.

There were still quite a few winter ducks on the barrow pit. Northern shovelers, Bufflehead, Ruddy ducks, Blue-winged teal and American Coots were all on the water.

My best sighting at Lake Wichita Park was an American bittern flying through. I had a chance to watch him for several minutes soaring over the lake.

I was also amused to watch a male red-winged blackbird harass a turkey vulture. The blackbird pushed the vulture several times on his back, enough to cause the vulture to adjust his flight a few times. I wonder why he was so fired up over the vulture--unlike other birds of prey, the vulture isn't likely to bother the blackbirds. Probably testosterone (is it the same hormone in male birds as it is in male humans? Don't know.)

I decided I was having such a great morning, I would check out the Lake Wichita spillway, in case the egrets were back. No luck on egrets, but there was a flock of dozens of American pipit, which made the side trip more than worthwhile. Usually, if I see one pipit, it's a good morning.

My birding list for Sunday included (includes Lake Wichita Park, Lake Wichita Spillway and a couple from the drive between):

American bittern

American coot

American pipit

Barn swallow

Blue jay

Blue-winged teal

Brown-headed cowbird

Bufflehead

Carolina wren

Cedar waxwing

Chimney swift

Cliff swallow

Common grackle

Double-crested cormorant

Eastern phoebe

Eurasian collared dove

European starling

Great blue heron

Great-tailed grackle

House sparrow

Killdeer

Lark sparrow

Mallard

Mockingbird

Mourning dove

Northern cardinal

Northern shoveler

Pied-billed grebe

Red-winged blackbird

Ring-billed gull

Robin

Rock pigeon

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Ruddy duck

Savannah sparrow

Scissor-tailed flycatcher

Song sparrow

Spotted towhee

Turkey vulture

White-crowned sparrow

White pelican

Wilson's snipe

Yellow-rumped warbler

Not bad for an hour and a half. In addition to the birds, I heard some frogs and saw several butterflies and caterpillars.

Good birding!