Pretty Morning on Lake Wichita

This is one of my Saturday's at Wild Bird Rescue. One of the good things about late summer (other than the break in temperatures we're having right now) is that things are begining to slow down at the Rescue. That means I can go outside now and again to check out the birds on Lake Wichita. During the height of the summer season, there just isn't time to do that.

This morning I took about 15 minutes to walk down to the inlet adjacent to Wild Bird Rescue. In just those few minutes, I got to see a couple of immature Mississippi Kites (probably some of our releases), a great egret, great blue heron, great-tailed grackle, red-winged blackbirds, mallards, pigeons, mourning dove, Eurasian collared doves, white-winged dove, house sparrow, black-chinned hummingbird, snowy egret, and both an adult and immature yellow-crowned night-herons. The night-herons were not together. The immature was in the reeds along the shore line and the adult was a flyover.

Not bad for such a short time.

Good birding!

Bird ID Is Tough

Even for those of us who bird regularly, bird identification can be tough. For those with little prior experience, it can be even more difficult. If they don't have experience, binoculars and/or field guides, all people have to rely on is their memory of birds they have seen on TV or in a magazine.

Many times people call, excited that they have found a really unusual bird. Other times they call because they see a bird that "looks like" a very unusual bird, but know that it cannot be what they think it is. Usually, they have found a fairly common bird--just one they haven't seen before and therefore, not one that pops into their minds.

Two examples to illustrate:
- There was a call there were birds that look like penguins building a nest in a tree. The person knew it was very unlikely this is what she had, but the markings looked like a penguin to her. It turned out to be a pair of yellow-crowned night herons. If you know your birds, then the confusion is hard to understand. But if you look at the aspects of the birds (both seem kind of hunched up and stumpy) and you haven't seen night herons, the coloring could lead you to think penguins, especially if the lighting wasn't the best.
- Received a call that there were a couple of bald eagles in a tree in my neighborhood. Well, in June, that is very unlikely, but if I missed a pair of bald eagles because I didn't go look, I would have been upset. I did not see any birds on the tree mentioned, but I did see two Mississippi Kites flying overhead. This is possibly the cause of the confusion. Although to an experienced birder, there is no resemblance between a bald eagle and a Mississippi kite, the fact is they are both raptor type birds and both have a pale head with a darker body. If you have seen both birds, you would recognize immediately the tremendous difference in body size, if nothing else. If you haven't then you might reach for "what hawk-like bird do I know of that has a pale head?" and come up with a bald eagle.

Sometimes, we are not understanding enough when people mis-ID birds. Heck, I have been a birder for most of my life and still make mistakes, even with binoculars, field guides, and a host of other tools. I am just glad that people noticed the birds and were interested enough to try to find out what bird they are seeing. Fortunately, most birders have "been there" and remember what it was like just starting out. The birding list servs are full of requests for ID help, sometimes spurring a lively debate.

So get out there and look for birds and don't worry about making mistakes. Start with a few common birds and work your way to some of the less common. You'll have fun regardless.

Good birding!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Wednesday AM driving to work, I saw a yellow-crowned night heron in a drainage ditch on Allen Road, between two houses. Although these herons are not rare, you don't see them every day, in spite of the fact many nest in the housing areas. Bob Lindsay at Wild Bird Rescue had a humorous blog entry about a call concerning "Two Penguins in a Tree" relating to these birds.

Usually the crown of the bird looks dirty white (white to pale gray) to me, but Wednesday in the morning sun, the reason behind the "yellow-crowned" part of the name was apparent.

Good birding!