Yes, You Can Bird Anywhere!

Thursday, a group of gentlemen I work with decided to go golfing, and I was invited along. I don't golf. However, an afternoon outside is always a good thing. So I agreed to go, as long as I didn't have to golf. While they golfed, I heckled and did some birding. The guys aren't birders, but they got into the spirit of the thing and didn't give me too hard of a time. Overall, it wasn't a bad day birding, considering we were on the course in the afternoon (1:00 - 5:15 PM) and it was very windy.

I saw my first green herons of the year and my first snowy egret. My favorite sighting was a flock of chipping sparrows. Here is my list for the Country Club golf course, 18 April:

Mallard
Blue-winged teal
Killdeer
Great blue heron
Snowy egret
Eurasian collared dove
White-winged dove
Rock pigeon
Red-tailed hawk
Turkey vulture
Mourning dove
Northern cardinal
Blue jay
Robin
Cedar waxwing
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Mockingbird
Barn swallow
Cliff swallow
Purple martin
Eastern phoebe
European starling
Red-winged blackbird
Brown-headed cowbird
Great-tailed grackle
House finch
White-crowned sparrow
Chipping sparrow
House sparrow

It just goes to show, you can have a good day birding anywhere, anytime. Just keep those binoculars at hand.

Good birding!

Winter Wonderland

This is the view out my back door to one of my feeders. The birds are swarming all of the feeders and the ground under them this morning. The snow will make it increasingly difficult for the little guys to find food while the temperatures will mean food is more important. Although I feed the birds mostly for my benefit, because I love to watch them, at times like this, I am sure the birds welcome the handout.

Looks like more snow today, and a white Christmas.

Good birding!

A Weekend Outside

It was a hot weekend, but the Master Naturalists had two events--fortunately in the morning. We went out in search of horned lizards in Saturday morning out near Dean. We were skunked on horned lizards, but were able to document a box turtle and took some pictures of a walking stick bug. On Sunday, I had a mussel watch at Lake Wichita and Lake Arrowhead. I did find some mussels at Arrowhead, to include a live yellow sandshell, but it wasn't the best day I've had for mussels.

But as in all outdoor events, there was an opportunity to do a little bit of birding. On Saturday, I thought my best birds were lark sparrows. They have a pretty song and although they are fairly common in the county, I don't see them in town.

On Sunday I saw a lot of birds. There was a belted kingfisher fishing at the Lake Wichita spillway. There was also a small flock of snowy egrets. One of the birds was still in breeding plumage and he was giving all of the others a tough time--chasing them around, jumping on them and squawking. He is a little confused--it's time to start getting ready to leave. Breeding season is over. I was waiting for the others to gang up on him, but they were just trying to stay away from him. My other highlight was a singing Bewick's wren in the bottom of a bush. He was just pouring his heart out. I watched him for several minutes.

Good birding!