Winter Waterfowl Coming In

With cooler weather and a little rain, plants are starting to bloom and the insects are coming out. I haven't been bitten by a mosquito but once the entire summer until this past week, and they have been making up for lost time. Fortunately, the cooler mornings do keep the mosquitoes down to tolerable level. The monarch butterflies are migrating through and seem to enjoy the sunflowers.

This morning I saw my first white pelicans on Lake Wichita--two rafts of approximately 50 birds altogether. I also saw some American coots and American wigeon on the barrow pit, in addition to some northern pintails that have been there most of the time for the past couple of weeks. A pied-billed grebe was also grooming itself along the reeds. I am glad to see a little more water in the barrow pit; hopefully that will mean more ducks.

I ran across a small flock of clay-colored sparrows in the weedy area on the south side, between the barrow pit and Lake Wichita. A belted kingfisher flew over my head on the chat trail. Overall a good morning.

Good birding!

The Morning After

Is there anything better than a walk the morning after a big rain? We've had a couple of days of storms--this morning was beautiful at Lake Wichita Park. Everything feels good, smells good and looks good after a good rainstorm. The rain gauge at Wild Bird Rescue this morning showed a little over 1.5 inches.

I took only a short walk along the chat trail down to the barrow pit. The most notable thing was the number of Eastern Phoebe along the trail. It is not uncommon to see/hear one or two, but this morning there were several phoebes along the trail.

The cardinals have also started to gather into their winter flocks. One flock of approximately a dozen birds was moving from tree to tree.

The barrow pit was full of waterfowl--mostly American Coot and American Wigeon, although there were some pied-billed grebes and ruddy ducks as well.

Summer birds still hanging around were scissor-tailed flycatchers and a lone barn swallow.

Other birds noted this morning were: White pelican, robins, blue jay, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, rock pigeon, great-tailed grackle, and starling.

Good birding!

Tough Morning

Photo of yellow warbler, by Dori, Wikimeida Commons

Yesterday I went birding at Lake Wichita Park and the spillway. Saw some decent birds overall, but am still paying for it.

My mother always said she should have called me Grace, since I am a complete klutz. I get focused on something and forget everything else. In this case I was looking at a bird (nothing very special--a great-tailed grackle flying overhead), forgot I was at the edge of the trail, stepped off and went down. Twisted my left ankle and sprained my left foot, knee, hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder and somehow my right shoulder as well. Hurt like a son of a gun. Lost my glasses (didn't realize they came off my head worrying about whether I did any serious damage to my body) and broke my camera (but that's why I buy inexpensive stuff--I do this on occasion.) Fortunately, no damage to my binoculars--that would have been a serious bummer.

Anyway, that cut short my birding trip as I couldn't use my left arm much at all and my right one hurt. Fortunately, one day later I am much improved, although I am not doing much that requires the use of my arms. Another couple of days and I should be 100% again, if I don't take another spill.

But back to the birds. At Lake Wichita Park I saw the following: scissor-tailed flycatcher, northern cardinal, blue jay, eastern phoebe, killdeer, chimney swift, mallard, American coot (this is early), yellow warbler, Mississippi kite, northern mockingbird, red-winged blackbird, American robin, great egret, barn swallow, mourning dove, white-winged dove.

I drove through Rosemont Cemetery on my way to the spillway, but nothing special--house finch, white-winged dove, scissor-tailed flycatcher and American robin.

At the spillway there were dozens of great-tailed grackle, looking rather ratty as they do at the end of the summer. In addition, there were house sparrows, Eurasian collared dove, killdeer, house finch, great egret, rock pigeon, red-tailed hawk, barn swallow, snowy egret, great blue heron and semipalmated sandpiper. The sandpipers always give me fits, but fortunately for me in this case, they were easy to see, a few flew and they were calling, making it easier to be certain of my ID. Thank goodness for Birds of North America (BNA) online--I could listen to recordings of the calls and compare to rule out the western sandpiper and positively ID the semipalmated.

A subscription to BNA isn't too expensive and if you are a member of the Texas Ornithological Society, you get a discount, making it an even better deal.

Good birding!