Just Ducky!

 

Prasan Shrestha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

We've had a couple of decent rains lately so I decided this morning I would go out looking for ducks. With the lack of water, I haven't had much luck recently.

As it turned out, it was a good morning. I have a number of chores that need to get done today, so I didn't take a lot of time. I started at the Lake Wichita spillway. The lake is still far from full, but it is coming up some. There were lots of ruddy ducks, some buffleheads, coots, gadwalls, mallard, Canada geese, and a lone northern shoveler.

Then I went down to the boat ramp and picked up some green-winged teal.

I took a run down W. Rathgeber Rd to get to Crestview cemetery. Although this road is a dump for glass bottles, there are a few small tanks along that road and the largest one had several ring-necked ducks. At Crestview I saw my favorite duck, the northern pintail (see the photo). They are such an elegant looking bird. Unfortunately, there was only the one, but I was happy to see him. That's the first one I have seen this winter.

Then I took a quick swing by Stone Lake. Not much going on there this morning, but I did add pied-billed grebes. Overall, a good morning.

Good birding!

Decent Birding at Lake Arrowhead This Morning

Debra McKee, Mike Cavett and I met at Lake Arrowhead State Park for the monthly bird walk. I initially had great hopes for the walk, thinking we had a good chance for winter ducks. On that score, I was disappointed.

Because birding was a little lackluster, we went off trail to track some small dickey birds in the brush that we would not have gone after on a better day. One of those side excursions paid off with a pair of ladder-backed woodpeckers, some Harris' sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, juncos, a small flock of five ruby-crowned kinglets, a yellow-rumped warbler, a Bewick's wren, a field sparrow, and a very tame mockingbird. That little patch certainly helped our list for the walk.

We didn't have many ducks. There were a large number of American coots on the lake, mixed with a couple of gadwall, a couple of other unidentifiable ducks (too far and too choppy), a couple of white pelicans, several pied-billed grebes, and the ubiquitous Canada geese. We did see some least sandpipers and a greater yellowlegs with the killdeer along the shoreline.

After the walk, I decided to drive around to see if anything was on the Bridwell tank--I discovered coot.

Debra had mentioned seeing about 15 turkey and a few hundred pintail in a flooded area on her way in from Henrietta, so I headed that way. The turkey were not in evidence, but hundreds of northern pintail certainly were. There were at least 300 birds. They are my favorite duck because they look so elegant. There were also some northern shoveler and at least 100 mallards.  The stop also yielded a song sparrow and a loggerhead shrike.

Pair of Northern Pintail. Photo courtesy of JM Garg, Wikimedia Commons

Some roadside birds traveling between stops included red-tailed hawks, kestrel, northern harrier and some eastern bluebirds.

My park list for the morning included: double-crested cormorant, Canada goose, American coot, gadwall, white pelican, pied-billed grebe, ring-billed gull, killdeer, least sandpiper, greater yellowlegs, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, northern harrier, eastern phoebe, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, Harris' sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, junco, house finch, meadowlark, yellow-rumped warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet, American robin, field sparrow, Bewicks' wren, great-tailed grackle, and European starling.

Outside the park, I added northern pintail, northern shoveler, mallard, loggerhead shrike, song sparrow, eastern bluebird, red-tailed hawk, and kestrel.

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 Hawk and the Owl

Saturday morning I decided to see what the chat trail and barrow pit at Lake Wichita Park would turn up with migration underway. The weather was a muggy but bearable mid 80's, ahead of a cold front and cooler weather (hallelujah!)

I was very happy to see a little blue-gray gnatcatcher along the chat trail. I haven't seen a lot of these little guys in town, but when I do come across one, it is almost always along the chat trail. A little further along the trail, seven white-faced ibis flew over my head, calling, on their way to the barrow pit.

The barrow pit still has some pools of water, so there were birds, to include the usual peeps I couldn't positively identify. But as I was watching the white-faced ibis and black-necked stilts, a small flock of 11 American avocets circled the barrow pit and landed. They stayed for all of maybe two minutes before heading out to Lake Wichita. They are very pretty birds that migrate through in the spring and fall. In addition to the mallards, blue-winged teal and the redhead ducks that are usually there, a small group of 8 northen pintails were dabbling in one of the pools. It is a little bit earlier than usual to see these ducks, but not by a lot. They are such an elegant duck--one of my favorites.

Throughout my time in park, I kept hearing a red-tailed hawk in several locations. I didn't see him, but periodically heard him calling. On my way back to my truck I heard him again near the chat trail, so looked into some nearby trees to see if I could locate him. I checked out a tree based upon where it sounded like the call was coming from and saw what sure looked like a great horned owl. I couldn't see the head clearly, but the stocky build of the great horned owl is distinctive and not at all like the sleeker build of the red-tailed hawk. But I could hear the red-tailed hawk cry right in the same area. While I was trying to decide if I was trying to turn a red-tailed hawk into a great horned owl, the owl (seemingly irritated by the constant calling of the red-tail) flushed from the tree. A couple of seconds later, the red-tailed hawk flew in pursuit. All I have to say after being around both is that the red-tailed hawk had better hope the great horned owl didn't turn on him--he'd be toast.

The warblers are coming through with a few black-and-white warblers and several yellow warblers along the chat trail. I was also fortunate to get some good views of a hairy woodpecker (I've always wondered, why "hairy?"). There was also a single purple martin soaring overhead--I haven't seen any purple martins in a couple of weeks.

Before going home, I drove to the other side of Lake Wichita to the spillway to see if there was anything special there. With no water going over the spillway, I didn't expect much and didn't get it. A few snowy egret and a greater yellowlegs was about it, although there was a fairly good bunch of killdeer as well.

When I got back to the house, I was pleased to see some black-chinned hummingbirds at the feeder. I think anyone who has a stocked hummingbird feeder is going to see hummingbirds this fall.

Overall a good morning. I am looking forward to the Labor Day holiday. The weather is supposed to be much cooler with a cold front coming through. Fronts usually bring along a good bunch of migrants, so I plan to be out looking for them.

Good birding!