Rainy Morning at Lake Arrowhead State Park

Snowy Plover

Well, this morning wasn't the nicest for a bird outing but a couple of us braved the rain to see what we could find for the monthly bird outing at Lake Arrowhead SP. The best bird of the morning was a snowy plover, which is considered a rarity for our area at this time of year. I did get an admittedly poor picture (left). I am sure Debra got a better one.

Like I said, it was raining, windy, and in the low 40's when we started out, so we didn't expect much. However, we had a good walk and saw a fair number of birds. 

In addition to the snowy plover, we saw and/or heard American coot, double-crested cormorant, neotropic cormorant, gadwall, norther shoveler, white pelican, killdeer, ladder-backed woodpecker, mourning dove, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, spotted towhee, Harris' sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, dark-eyed junco, American pipit, western meadowlark (and some others that could have been either eastern or western), red-winged blackbird, and great-tailed grackle.

We need the rain, so no complaints, especially since we saw some good birds. This is a good time of year to bird, so get outside, wherever you are.

Good birding!

Good Saturday Morning Birding

Black and white warbler. Photo by William H. Majoros, Wikimedia Commons.

Well, Saturday was a busy day. I decided to do a quick stop at Lake Wichita Park to check the chat trail and the barrow pit. Thirty minutes, tops. The birding was very good, so I ended up staying a little over an hour and made an extra stop at the mudflats over by Murphy's Mound.

My surprise bird was a black and white warbler. Not generally here in the summer, but if I remember correctly, I had one or two sightings last summer as well. I also saw a brown thrasher. Although known to be in this area year around, I usually only see them in the winter. This one was looking a little rough with molt well underway.

As mentioned in the previous post, I also tried out my newly acquired shorebird identification knowledge on some long-billed dowitchers and a snowy plover. It's hard to believe fall migration is starting, but it is. Seems like we just finished spring migration.

Overall, a good hour with the following birds seen:

Green heron, black-necked stilt, great egret, killdeer, snowy plover, long-billed dowitcher, Mississippi kite, turkey vulture, white-winged dove, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, chimney swift, barn swallow, purple martin, black and white warbler, orchard oriole, robin, cardinal, blue jay, black-crested titmouse, Carolina chickadee, western kingbird, scissor-tailed flycatcher, mockingbird, brown thrasher, great-tailed grackle, brown-headed cowbird, red-winged blackbird, house finch, house sparrow.

Good birding!