What Next?

I've met my goal for the year, and it's only in September.  So what do I do now?  Try to find more birds of course!  There are a number of potentials out there, but here are some of the more likely birds:
-Common Loon
-Bonaparte's Gull
-Pine Siskin
-Long-eared Owl
-Short-eared Owl
-Le Conte's Sparrow
-Marsh Wren
-Swamp Sparrow
-Scoters
-Long-tailed Duck
-Sprague's Pipit
Difficult but not out of the realm of possibility:
-Nelson's Sparrow
-Sedge Wren
-McCown's Longspur
-Baird's Sparrow
-Trumpeter Swan
-Tundra Swan
-Purple Finch
-Northern Goshawk
All of these birds are possible.  It be great if I could get above 250 this year, but I'm not going to kill myself doing it.

245!

I reached my goal last Saturday.  With Grandma Kerri coming up to spend time with Tiff and Caid, I was able to get away and do some birding.  The funny thing was, I got my best bird (and only new year bird) in the first half hour of birding.  That's when I was able to track down this little bugger in the canopy and Id it:

So it's not the best photo in the world (which of mine are), but it shows enough to let you know that what you are looking at is a first Fall female Chestnut-sided Warbler.  This bird was on my radar, but I wasn't counting on it.
While driving the country roads later in the day, I saw the White-winged Dove-like flash of white on the wing scapulars on a much smaller bird.  It turned out to be this:

It's my first Lark Bunting for Rooks in 2012.
I also happened to avoid running this awesome guy over:

I first thought that this snake was a Coachwhip (which would have been sweet!).  But I now think that it's an Eastern Racer (still pretty cool, but c'mon...it's called a Coachwhip!).  The scales look very braided, which made me think Coachwhip right away, but the coloring of the snake should be quite a bit different for that particular species.  If you know for sure, please let me know.  But I'm pretty sure it's an Eastern Racer.

Ramblings on Wilson Lake

I jump at the chance to go to Wilson Lake.  It's not so much a birding thing; it's a relaxing thing.  If I get to do some birding there, all the better.  So most of the my last weekend was spent like this: 

Not a bad way to spend a weekend, especially when the weather is awesome!  But I got to take some birding walks as well.  While it didn't pay off in the form of large groups of migrants as I was hoping, it did pay off with a few interesting things.  The first of which is pictured below:

Eastern Collared Lizard

I also picked up a fairly unexpected year bird: Broad-winged Hawk.  I saw this beaut (bute-o?) on the Cedar Trail in Otoe area of Wilson SP.  When I first saw a large bird take off from the tree to the left of the path, I thought it would be an accipiter, but the white bands on the dorsal surface of the tail made that impossible.  The bird landed where I could see it, and the looks I got were of my first Kansas Broad-winged Hawk!

Warbler Migration Capital of the World: Rooks County?

Okay, so maybe the title indicates that I'm getting a little carried away with myself, but seeing how the warbler migration has gotten off to a flying start compared to last Fall and especially this Spring, I'm ecstatic.  The other day I picked up 5 year birds and 3 state birds.  The culprits include Nashville, Black-and-white, and Mourning Warblers.  The Mourning was a tough id because it was a young female, lacking any hood or other typical Mourning Warbler field marks.

The highlight of the past few weeks was definitely the Pine Warbler yesterday, though.  This is NOT, I repeat NOT, a species I expected to get in Kansas any time soon, let alone in Rooks.  But a small group of birders found a few small groups in the area over the weekend.  So it was on my mind as a possibility, albeit a very remote possibility.  But the bird I saw was a pretty typical individual.  I even got great looks at the undertail, which definitively separated it from Blackpoll or Bay-breasted.

Anyways, I now sit at 241 birds for Kansas for the year!  I'm only 4 away from my target!  With the way migration is going right now, I wouldn't be surprised to get it in the next few weeks.