Pretty Spring Morning at Lake Wichita

Ruby-crowned kinglet. Photo courtesy of US National Park Service

Spring is definitely here, although I do wish we were getting the "spring showers" spoken of in the little ditty. However, the trees and shrubs are beginning to leaf out. This is the excellent time of year when the birds are singing their heads off and the nascent foliage allows you to get a good look at birds. Judging from the change in my yard from one day to the next, I would say, those good views will be gone in a week, even without rain.


Yesterday was a little overcast and breezy, but it was still a good morning for birds at Lake Wichita. One of my favorite sightings of the day was a ruby-crowned kinglet in one of the live oak trees at the corner or the football field. Although ruby-crowned kinglets are very common over the winter, this little guy was getting ready for mating season. He was singing his heart out, and I got an excellent view of his ruby crown--usually, the crown isn't visible.


I also had a flock of 25 -30 sandpiper-type birds fly over my head. I initially thought Wilson's snipe, but they seemed a little slender. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good look to be certain of their identification, but it was still an awesome site--I don't think they were much more than arm's length above my head.


There were still a number of different types of ducks on the barrow pit, although not large numbers of any particular species. The ducks will be heading back north soon, so I enjoy seeing them while I can. There were still several cinnamon teal on the water.


I then drove past Wild Bird Rescue and was pleased to see a purple martin on the wire--hopefully, they are moving into the popular marting house there.


Sightings Sunday included: American coot, ruddy duck, bufflehead, ring-necked duck, blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal, gadwall, northern pintail, mallard, northern soveler, Canada goose, ring-billed gull, killdeer, turkey vulture, northern harrier, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, rock pigeon, mourning dove, white-winged dove, Eurasian collared dove, tufted titmouse, ruby-crowned kinglet, American goldfinch, cedar waxwing, American robin, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, blue jay, Eastern phoebe, Carolina wren, yellow-rumped warbler, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, brown-headed cowbird, white-crowned sparrow, song sparrow, savannah sparrow.

Good birding!

Great Blue Heron Meal Time

Saturday, I was at Lake Arrowhead State Park for a park clean up with the Friends of Lake Arrowhead State Park and the Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists. After the cleanup, my husband, Bryan, came out to the park to check out the fishing. As we were leaving the boat ramp area, I saw a great blue heron in the shallows and joked to Bryan that the heron had caught a fish. However, when I put my binoculars on him, he had a snake.

My husband isn't much of a birdwatcher, but when he heard the bird had a snake, he had to stop and watch. He hates snakes, so got a charge out of watching the heron kill the snake and swallow it. It was an interesting interlude.

Good birding!

Book Review: The Crossley ID Guide, Eastern Birds

There has been a lot of hype in the birding community about The Crossley ID Guide. Newly published by Princeton University Press, the ID Guide is oversized (even larger than the Sibley guide.)

Obviously, this is not the best choice to take into the field, but the book is an excellent resource to supplement any birder's library. Most of us have several field guides to use when trying to make an identification. All have different photographs or artwork to illustrate field marks, and it seems sometimes I have to pull out 3 or 4 different field guides to find the information to help me make a decision on the bird's identification. The Crossley Guide attempts to overcome this by having several pictures of the birds, with various poses, at varying distances, making it more likely you'll see some clue that fits your observation. The pictures are superimposed on a background of likely habitat. I like the fact that many of the pictures are much larger than the pictures usually seen in field guides--especially now that my eyes are getting a little older. Which leads to the text portion. Because of the size and detail of the pictures, there is little room left on the page for text. Consequently, the text size is smaller than I would like.

A couple of things I particularly liked:
- the 4-letter alpha code for each species. Some birders use these codes when texting from the field as bird names tend to be long.
- the ID tip that highlights a particular tip to identifying the species.

In the introduction, the author indicates he isn't a fan of a lot of verbiage. I personally like a little more background on the birds, but that isn't the primary function of an ID guide, so this is not a major detractor.

There is an online supplement that adds some additional information and apparently, more will be coming to the online site.

The book is a hefty $35, but well worth the investment.

Good birding!

Herons on the Move

Saturday morning I stopped at Wild Bird Rescue and noticed several white pelicans heading into the small cove at the boat ramp. The pelicans seem to like this little cove to herd fish. It is not easy to get close to the pelicans--they are able to see you approach some distance away and take flight. However, I decided to give it a try and to see if I could get a reasonable picture with my little point and shoot camera. As usual, the birds toook flight before I was able to get very close, although I did get a reasonable picture.

What as a surprise was as the pelicans started to get agitated, 10 great blue herons (GBH) also flushed up out of the cove. Although the herons are frequent vsitors to the cove, 1o is a large number for this small an area. There was also a green heron, a frequent visitor to the cove.

I am thinking these are migrating great blue heron. Although the GBH is a year round resident of our area, they do migrate--they ddo leave the northernmost portion of their range in the winter. It has always been a question in my mind whether the birds we have here in the winter are the same birds we have in the summer. Do the birds from up north just shift southward, and then like a set of dominoes, the birds continue to shift south, or do the northern birds just go to the southernmost portion of their range. I don't think anyone has a clear answer to that question.

This morning, I stopped again. In addition to several GBH this morning, there was a small flock of 5 great egrets in the cove. Although I periodically saw a single great egret this winter, this larger group signals the return of our summer herons and egrets.

After checking out the cove, I headed over to the chat trail and the barrow pit. My favorite sighting of the morning was 2 white-throated sparrows. Although they are here in the winter, they tend to be somewhat secretive, you you don't see them much. In addition to these birds, today's sightings included: double-crested cormorant, killdeer, Canada goose, northern pintail, bufflehead, ring-necked duck, mallard, American coot, ruddy duck, Wilson's snipe, Eurasian collared dove, mourning dove, northern mockingbird, yellow-rumped warbler, robin, cedar waxwing, blue jay, cardinal, Carolina chickadee, Eastern phoebe, European starling, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, white-crowned sparrow, dark-eyed sparrow, and song sparrow.

Good birding!

Spring Meetings for Birders

Every state has an ornithological society where birders meet to learn more about birds, take field trips in hopes of seeing new birds, and socialize with people of similar interests.

Both thee Oklahoma and Texas societies have meetings coming up in May.

The Texas Ornithological Society (TOS) has its spring meeting May 5 -7 in Junction, TX. I enjoy the TOS meetings, but this one (again) conflicts with another commitment--I am speaking at a conference in Oklahoma that same weekend. Bummer.

The Oklahoma Ornithological Society (OOS) has its spring meeting May 13 - 15 in Black Mesa, OK. I haven't yet had a chance to attend any of the OOS meetings, but I am sure they are well worth attending.

The state ornithological societies depend upon the help of volunteers and most of the attendees are budget conscious, so you will find you can get a lot of birding done for a reasonable price. Your hotel (and right now, gas) will probably be your biggest expense. I know the organizers do their best to negotiate good rates at decent hotels.

If you can make one of these events, please do and consider joining these organizations if you are able. In addition to these meetings, the organizations support education and conservation programs that benefit the birds. The TOS has several sanctuaries open to their members. It is unfortunate that all of them are on the Texas coast, but you can indeed see some nice birds--I have visited some of these sanctuaries on previous trips. I would be nice to have different ecological areas represented--just takes money and volunteer time.

Good birding!

Winged Migration Program Tonight

"Winged Migration: Mysteries of Bird Migration" is tonight at River Bend Nature Center, 7 - 9 PM. For Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists, this program counts for advanced training credit.

Admission is free for RBNC members; $3 for non-members.

Good birding!

Cinnamon Teal on Lake Wichita Barrow Pit

Cinnamon teal by Dick Daniels, Wikimedia Commons

It was a gorgeous morning at Lake Wichita Park this morning. When I left the house, it was 35 degrees, but sunny with NO WIND.

I decided to take the Chat trail and walk around the barrow pit. It started out an average morning in terms of birds but soon improved.

When I got to the barrow pit, I walked around the perimeter. I was trying to get a better look at some ducks in the center of the pond. When I was on the far side some ducks flushed from the reeds. When they first came up and I saw the wing pattern, I thought "blue winged teal" although the birds seemed a little large. It's good I kept an eye on them as they circled and landed again on the opposite side, as they turned out to be cinnamon teal--much less common in our area and very beautiful ducks.

Overall it turned out to be a very nice walk, with the following birds seen:

Buffledhead, American coot, ring-necked duck, cinnamon teal, mallard, pintail, killdeer, common merganser, pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, ring-billed gull, white pelican, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture, American robin, northern cardinal, blue jay, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, ruby-crowned kinglet, American goldfinch, cedar waxwing, yellow-rumped warbler, mockingbird, Eastern phoebe, red-tailed blackbird, great-tailed grackle, dark-eyed junco, Harris's sparrow, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, and white-crowned sparrow.

Good birding!