Fall 2019 various birds

Harrier (click photo for bigger view). Much slimmer than a red tail.

Snow bunting

Barred owl

Red-shouldered hawk and Common Tern

It was a bit shady but got the picture. Not a common bird in Lancaster county.

a bit congested scene but the left tern is a common tern. We get terns of all kinds:

A few small black terns. Least tern is the same size.

Earlier the Forster's tern also had a black cap, above is in August.

Shorebirds and terns

We no longer have Conestoga lake mudflats in the spring and fall to look for shorebirds. They are here and there. At Branched Oak lake we found shorebirds in a small mudflat at Area 3 campground.

A killdeer and its smaller offspring. 

A lesser yellowlegs. Aside from weak eye ring, it has longer wing than tail. Solitary sandpiper has them the same length. This is a solitary. Not the best photo, eye ring is blurred.

Pelicans dwarf the terns in front:

Other things to find in August: Bobolinks without any black left.

Magpies and my first year of birding 2003

We were out on a bicycle tour for 200 miles of Western Nebraska. I had my cheaper camera with me, and got pictures of the Magpies at Scott's Bluff.

The first photo shows the limits of that camera.

Magpies are not common out there in Nebraska, and they are not at all in cities like they are in Europe. I did find one more leaving Scott's Bluff going East to Bridgeport.

I had found my first magpies to document in 2003 on a trip we made to Alberta. I had found them in Colorado after that. But only now in Nebraska.

In my early days of birding I have the first 100 or so birds listed, not in very good order. But I had yet to go on Audubon trips locally and had not sought a lot of birds in Missouri. So this list of birds, which are from that trip, is a bit comical, for "lifers." It took me years to see avocets again, in 2009. The first bird on the trip list was actually lifer 43. So that 1 is Lifer 43 and the last from the trip Lifer 68.

1. yellow-bellied sapsucker (June 2003 Manitoba)
2. gray catbird (Alberta)
3. yellow warbler (Manitoba, other birds were MO a year or two later)
4. spotted towhee (Alberta)
5. black-billed magpie (Alberta)
6. ring-billed gull (Alberta)
7. Clark’s nutcracker (Alberta)
8. Gray Jay (Alberta)
9. Common Raven (Alberta)
10. Song sparrow (Alberta)
11. Chipping Sparrow (Alberta)
12. Great horned owl (Alberta, mobbed)
13. American avocet (Saskatchewan)
14. Canvasback (Saskatchewan)
15. double-crested cormorant (Saskatchewan)
16. Lazuli bunting (North Dakota)
17. white-breasted nuthatch (ND)
18. black-capped chickadee (ND)
19. northern flicker (Nebraska)  THEN MISSOURI:
20. ruby-throated hummingbird (Sep 2003)
21. common nighthawk
22. red-breasted nuthatch
23. wood thrush
24. american kestrel
25. carolina wren

Carolina wrens were in my yard! Why did I not bother to write it down before! 

I saw a lazuli bunting on that trip, and it is the only one I have seen so far. I don't have a date for it so it does not appear on my eBird list.

Getting into Summer...only the usual for a few months

Finding new birds in June is rare for me, unless we drive some 400 miles West or more. So we get the usual. Click the photos for a bigger picture.

A few odd female hooded mergansers could be in any pond or lake. They are not nesting.

The last of the sparrows going through.

Spotted sandpipers:

We had a rare pair of Little Blue Herons at Holmes Lake:

Bluebirds nesting

2019 version. Details here:  Bluebird Blog

Just a few days old.

Hungry!

Just a day or two to go and leave nest.

Conestoga Lake

This lake was drained for several years. It is now filling up to a fishing lake again. There is a path now from the North side to walk around the West side. It is not finished. About half a mile is useable for any hikers, the rest of the way to the far jetties is a muddy field which will be a mess in the rain. You cannot get around it, it will be a large mowed grassy field eventually. At the far end you get this:

When the water fills up more, you cannot hike to the South side. It will resemble the North end of wagon train lake. There is a short path on the South side, accessed by gravel road, as well. Looking back to the parking lot, it looks like this:

That will flood as well. Some brush and trees remain on the shore. We will have a bit more access to woodland birds on the trail. I have marked the trail in black. Mudflats are very few.