After work, I had a brief period of time to do some birding. I decided to head over to Rooks State Fishing Lake and make a few stops on the way to and from. Cormorants continue to dominate the lake, and there is still a good diversity of ducks. I'm still waiting for a Cinnamon Teal to appear among the droves of Blue-winged, but that has yet to happen.
I was hoping that there were be a number of shorebirds present, but alas, there were only two (besides Killdeer). One I could easily identify as a Baird's, but the other escaped my abilities. I'm thinking it was a Least, but I didn't feel confident enough to call it.
The first year bird made its presence known with its rather wimpy crying from the top of a tree. I'm always surprised when I hear an Osprey and then identify it by sight later. It just doesn't seem like a bird like that should make such a wimpy noise. The same goes for Bald Eagles. C'mon guys, you have to be a bit intimidating! Anyways, the Osprey (155) eventually took off from the tree, fish in talons, and landed somewhere out of sight.
There were a lot of swallows at the lake, but I couldn't pull out a Bank. It's the only swallow left that I can reasonably expect although a Violet-green would be lovely.
On my way back I stopped at the creek crossing on K Terrace just west of US-183. This spot has been great for county-firsts for me. It didn't disappoint yesterday as I got my first Rooks (and Kansas for that matter) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (156). I never saw the little buggers, and usually I like to get a visual on "first" birds, but I have no doubt as to what I was hearing. If only I could have found my iPod before I left!
The final year bird showed up in bunches: Chimney Swift (157). There were dozens of them flying over Stockton as I went to the library last night.
The
No comments:
Post a Comment