Three Mornings in Lake Wichita Park

 

White-faced ibis at Lake Wichita Park

Fall migration is definitely underway. It started several weeks ago with the departure of purple martins, but many birds are moving, or preparing to, now.

I spent a coupe of hours in Lake Wichita Park three mornings this week. I tend to go to Lake Wichita Park more often than other locations because it is close to my house.

The barrow pit is now a mudflat, which does attract shore birds, like the white-faced ibis in the picture to the left. Right now, this nearly dry pond is hosting several species of herons/egrets, as they prepare to move south or pass through on their way. There are several individuals of various species there, forming the groups that will one day, leave together. (Great egrets, snowy egrets, little blue herons, yellow-crowned night herons, black-necked stilts, killdeer). 

I also saw several warblers passing through. I am not the greatest at warbler identification. The birds are tiny and they are usually moving constantly. But I am confident of a yellow warbler and a mourning warbler, but I saw one or two others that I couldn't be sure of in the extremely short time I was able to see them.

I saw some individual Mississippi kites earlier this week, but not this morning. One of my friends said she saw a group of about 15 circling over her house, so they should be gone soon. Usually, these birds head out the end of August/early September.

Between Thursday and today, I saw the following birds: mallard duck, great egret, snowy egret, yellow-crowned night heron, little blue heron, great blue heron. white-faced ibis, black-necked stilt, killdeer, Mississippi kite, turkey vulture, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, mourning doves, downy woodpecker, barn swallow, Northern cardinal, blue jay, Carolina chickadee, northern mockingbird, Carolina wren, yellow warbler, mourning warbler, Baltimore oriole, American pipit, American robin, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, European starling, house sparrow. In addition, I did see some small peeps fly over that I couldn't identify and a couple of other warblers that stumped me.

A runner went by me today and asked what my best bird seen was this morning. For me, it was the little blue heron, although it is tough to beat the black-necked stilt, but I had to make a quick decision, since he was running off.

Many of our summer birds are gone (or I just haven't seen them in the last week or so). I haven't yet seen any of the birds that come in here to stay for the winter, but I am sure they are coming. It does seem like there are more robins than are here in the summer, but it could just be they are starting to form up their winter flocks (more on that behavior in another post soon).

Fall migration is more drawn out than the spring migration, when the birds are rushing to get to their breeding grounds and get the best spots. We should have a few more weeks of prime birding coming up, so get outside.

Good birding!

Ka-Ching!

Sunday is my day to volunteer at Wild Bird Rescue. Now that we have babies in the house, there is no chance to bird on Sundays. I have been doing a lot of early morning babysitting, so just haven't had a chance to get out. The reports of migrants on TEXBIRDS have been making me antsy to get out. When I left the house, there was a small flock of cedar waxwings in the front yard--that decided me. So I decided to delay my arrival at Wild Bird Rescue for a half hour to check out the chat trail at Lake Wichita Park, normally a good place to find migrant warblers.

I wish I had gotten there earlier. I know I missed some good birds--I heard and saw them, but didn't have the time to seek them out. I also saw some sandpipers in flight (my nemesis) and didn't have the time to study them in order to sort them out. However, an eared grebe at the barrow pit (which does have a little water in it now) and several mourning warblers along the chat trail made for a very good morning. I also enjoyed seeing the white-faced ibis where the white face was obvious.

However, in spite of less than an hour on the trail, I did see some excellent birds:

American coot
Eared grebe
Blue-winged teal
Black-necked stilt
Mallard
Ring-necked duck
Northern shoveler
Gadwall
Canada geese
Spotted sandpiper
Lesser yellowlegs
Killdeer
Green heron
White-faced ibis
Turkey vulture
Downy woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Mourning dove
White-winged dove
Eurasian collared dove
Northern mockingbird
Bullock's oriole
Carolina Chickadee
Cardinal
Eastern phoebe
Blue jay
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Barn swallow
Purple martin
Mourning warbler
Song sparrow
Clay-colored sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Spotted towhee
Brown thrasher
American robin
Red-winged blackbird
Great-tailed grackle
Common grackle
House finch

 So, get outside--there are some great birds out there!

Good Birding!

White-faced Ibis at Barrow Pit

White-faced ibis at barrow pit in Lake Wichita Park 06/24/11.


I had such good sightings on Friday, I decided to go back to the barrow pit on Saturday morning. As I was getting out of my truck, I heard a belted kingfisher and was fortunate to be able to watch him fish successfully before he carried off two good sized minnows.

When I arrived at the barrow pit, I saw pretty much the same birds as the day before, which was good. But I didn't see anything different.

I was walking back down the chat trail when I saw a small group of ibis fly over. It appeared they were heading for the barrow pit. I very nearly kept walking to the truck, but convinced myself that if I missed a good look at the birds because I was lazy, it would be a sad day indeed. So I turned around and walked back to the barrow pit. Sure enough, there was a group of 4 white-faced ibis.

I realize you can't really tell which ibis these are from the photo--my little point and shoot camera doesn't zoom in too closely. However, it is easy to see by the shape and color they are ibis. Generally, most of the ibis seen in this area are the white-faced, although I rarely see the distinctive white at the base of the bill that all of the field guides show. I think they touch up the photos.

Overall, a nice morning sighting. The drought does seem to be concentrating the water birds as the ponds dry up. Although the sightings are nice, let's hope for some rain soon.

Good birding!

A Brillant Morning at Lake Wichita

It was a gorgeous morning on Lake Wichita and a great day for birding. I decided to start at the spillway, cross the dam and then bird the chat trail and the barrow pit.

When I got out of the car at the spillway, I knew it was going to be a great morning, even if I didn't see another bird. I heard dozens of clay-colored sparrows as soon as I got out of the car and as soon as I looked into Holliday creek, there were 12 snowy egrets. Things continued to get better with a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds at the top of the dam.

Even a poor day birding is a good day, but some days you remember for a long time. Today was one of those days. The thistle plants were all going to seed along the dam and there were hundreds (and probably thousands) of chipping and clay-colored sparrows rising up all around me as I walked. In fact, sparrows were good all the way around: in addition to chipping and clay-colored sparrow, I saw house sparrow, song sparrow, lark sparrow, savannah sparrow, and white-crowned sparrow.

A couple of first of season birds: yellow-billed cuckoo and male orchard oriole.

Here's my bird list for the two hours this morning (51 species): common grackle, great-tailed grackle, European starling, mourning dove, house sparrow, cliff swallow, killdeer, great egret, red-winged blackbird, snowy egret, great blue heron, Canada goose, eastern meadowlark, scissor-tailed flycatcher, yellow-headed blackbird, white pelican, chipping sparrow, song sparrow, Western kingbird, Savannah sparrow, American coot, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, barn swallow, chimney swift, double-crested cormorant, cedar waxwing, mallard, cardinal, turkey vulture, robin, house finch, blue-winged teal, ruddy duck, brown-headed cowbird, white-crowned sparrow, mockingbird, eared grebe, spotted sandpiper, red-tailed hawk, white-winged dove, blue jay, rock pigeon, American pipit, white-faced ibis, Eurasian collared dove, Carolina wren, orchard oriole, American goldfinch, yellow-billed cuckoo, and lark sparrow.

Good birding!