Slow Down a Little, Won't You?

Wood Ducklings

Aren't you supposed to slow things down when you retire? Somehow, Dick and I have got it reversed, and we seem to be busier than ever since we retired. I couldn't survive without the calendar on my smartphone, and even with it, I fail to write things down and end up promising to be two different places at the same time on more occasions than I care to admit. Sigh.

Mute Swan

So, the last weekend in May was supposed to be spent camping out at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, and we were looking forward to it. Setting up the tent, smoke getting in your eyes, singing around the campfire, looking at the stars. All that good stuff. But Thursday evening, the weather forecast for the weekend was just awful, with high chances of storms, so the camp out was postponed. We were suddenly presented with free, unscheduled time over the weekend. Golly! It's been a long time since that happened, what should we do about it?

Crawdad

 Let's take a walk on the Anchorage Trail. Listened to some birds and posted on eBird - I'm getting better at that. And we found this giant crawdad in the grass. He must have been 6 - 8 inches long, and was quite aggressive as I neared for a close up photo. These are the guys who build big mud volcanoes in peoples' yards. When I looked it up online, I mostly found links to sites with ways to get rid of them. Look at the orange tips on his pincers!

When he decided we weren't looking any more, he moved quickly through the grass, but the creek was behind him, so I don't know where he was actually headed.

Saunders Springs Nature Preserve

Saturday, we actually ran errands, went to the Farmer's Market and worked in the yard. How ordinary, and how we enjoyed it. I cooked a colorful dinner that we ate on the patio with a cold glass of Turtle Run wine. On Sunday, I joined a small group of Beckham Bird Club members driving to Radcliffe, KY, near Fort Knox, for a birding trip to a new location, for me at least, Saunders Spring Nature Preserve. The local tourism department describes it as "a heavily wooded natural area located on steep terrain with interesting historic features...located on the edge of the Karst Plateau in the Highland Rim physiographic region of Kentucky. The area is characterized by many sinkholes, caves and springs which drain a network of underground caverns." 

Louisiana Waterthrush

The streams literally ran out of the steep hillsides, bubbling down the valley. The very first bird we saw, bobbing its tail in the grass, was a Louisiana Waterthrush. We must have seen at least ten of them during the morning hike! Most of the time, we birded by ear, since all the trees were fully leafed out, and combined with the overcast skies, the lighting was just awful. Any birds we did find were usually seen only in silhouette against the gray sky. I've never understood why this bird is called a thrush when it's actually considered to be a warbler. 

Kentucky Warbler

We also heard/saw Hooded Warblers, Kentucky Warblers, and Acadian Flycatchers. The Summer and Scarlet Tanagers sang but could not be enticed to come down for a visit. The path along the creek eventually ended in a meadow created by a drained beaver pond. You could see evidence of their work, but the water was gone, and grass covered the stumps.

Goatsbeard

When the birds were hard to find, we appreciated the signs pointing out various wildflowers and trees along the trail. The ferns were "ferntastic!" In fact, next spring, I plan to return to see all the wildflowers blooming, since we saw so many with seeds on them today. Of course, when it rains, the whole valley must disappear under water, so timing will be important. Maybe I can get there early enough to see the Hepatica.

December...

Well, we went on the last regular bird trip of the year with Beckham Bird Club last Thursday, and here it is Sunday night. If I don't sit down and do this post, it will be after Christmas and too late to mention it, so here goes. Bernheim Forest and Arboretum is always a beautiful place, but when the weather turns cold, it's easy to just stay home instead. We dressed in all our warm clothes and drove on out in the early morning.

Anything that hadn't moved during the night was covered in a heavy layer of frost. The grass and evergreens seemed to have a dusting of snow as we entered the front gate. Fog rose in lazy swirls from the surface of Lake Nevin.

We saw no spectacular or unusual birds, but the Robins and Blue Jays were spectacularly abundant that morning, chowing down on any berries hanging on a tree.

As the sun warmed the air a bit, more birds came out in search of breakfast.

We five birders and the birds at the feeders were the only visitors at the education center...

...but we had had a wonderful time. The Turkey Vultures didn't take to the air until almost 11:30. Guess there weren't any thermals until that late.

I love finding frost flowers in a shady spot. Sap in the stems of some plants will burst through the stem itself, and then freeze in amazing swirls.

The Cedar Waxwings came out just as we planned to return home at the end of the morning, whistling softly above us. This week is the Christmas Bird Count at Otter Creek, and I hope we see more for the count than we did on this day.

Spring Comes Marching In

The Beckham Bird Club had another good outing on Saturday, but all the birds we saw were too far away for a good photo, even to me. We saw a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk soaring across a grassy field into a tree. He bent over and at first we thought he might be eating lunch. Then some one's sharp eye noticed that he was meeting with his sweetie for an early spring tryst, serenaded by the spring peeper chorus. Looks those two will be building a nest in the neighborhood soon!

Disappointed with having no photos, I decided to drive back to Perrin Lake in Jeffersonville, IN, which was closed last week due to the dusting of snow. The weather was wonderful by the time I arrived at the feeding station in this family park. Two girls had five gallon buckets of dog food which they tossed to the ducks and geese by the handfuls. I wonder if these birds get avian diabetes from overeating?

Redheads are diving ducks, of course, and as I tracked one with the camera, it dived just as I clicked the shutter. I have deleted at least a dozen pictures of the water splashing where the duck just went under!

Finally, I decided to get smart and just take a movie of one slipping under the water. The male bounces up like a cork, and what do they do then? Stay on top and start preening, of course! They are beautiful though, and I don't often see Redheads this close.

We have all seen aggressive geese in the spring. We used to take our young children to Cave Hill Cemetery to feed the geese, and one time the kids got chased by the gander when they got a little to close to the nest. With the abundance of food floating in the water, you wonder why these guys chase each other around - unless it's just spring hormones... One small island in the middle of the lake had at least six Wood Duck boxes stuck in the mud around it. I saw a variety of ducks, but only one pair of each, hiding under an overhang, including some Wood Ducks, and these Hooded Mergansers.

I love the iridescent quality of duck feathers. This Mallard looked almost neon in the sun!

Signs of spring are all around this weekend. The call of Sandhill Cranes flying north. Spring Peepers calling from a marshy area. And finally, my neighbor's spring flowers - the first I've seen blooming so far! I'm certainly ready!

Page 76 in the Peterson Guide

I joined the Beckham Bird Club this morning for some late winter birding in Southern Indiana along the Ohio River. We started at the Falls of the Ohio, where a light snow quickly increased, until I started to ask myself what I was doing there instead of sipping a cup of hot coffee in my kitchen! The birds were safely hidden away in whatever shelter they sought, and we didn't see many song birds at all, except the Winter Wren we finally tracked down. A climb up the side of the levee got my heart pumping enough to warm my cold fingertips for a while.

As we headed upstream towards a large industrial park growing in the cornfields by the river, the clouds stopped snowing, although the skies did not lighten up. The leaders for the day identified all the ducks we saw. I still have trouble with Scaup and Goldeneyes, but found a Bufflehead, some Ring Necked Ducks, Redheads and Canvasbacks, and Hooded Mergansers on my own. The leader kept searching the water through his good scope and we saw some beautiful Wood Ducks too. I checked the field guide while reviewing the day's photos, and noticed that we found all the ducks on page 76 of the Peterson field guide. I've never found birds by the pageful before! The Scaups all had their heads tucked beneath their wings and seemed to be sleeping peacefully. But as I watched, I noticed that they were not drifting downstream with the current, but slowing going upstream instead. Guess they can swim with their eyes closed!

This mixed group of birds illustrate peaceful co-existence in waterfowl. The wild birds get along fine with the domestics. In fact, we found Marvin and Mabel at the Falls - a male Mallard with his mixed breed sweetheart who live there full time.

The Ring Billed Gulls sat on a dock on the river, listening to an announcer on the other side. They couldn't believe that people were actually going to swim in the river on a day like this. Even gulls are smart enough to stay dry if they don't have to get wet! The Polar Bear Plunge raises money for Special Olympics every year, and nearly 1,000 people showed up. Brr! I'm glad I was only looking for birds.

These Canvasbacks looked peaceful on their little lake, but spooked and took flight before we got very close.

I was amazed at all the little lakes and fields our leader took us too, and the variety of birds we saw. In addition to the ducks, we had great luck with raptors. There are Bald Eagles wintering on the Ohio River- appropriately, we found them near the Eagle Steele Company in the industrial park. I looked and looked without seeing them, but once I finally found them, I was amazed that it took so long in the first place. Kestrels perched on phone lines, and Coopers Hawks and Red Shouldered Hawks took a peek at us, then flew off in the other direction.

We saw one Red Tailed Hawk with something in its talons. Then it slowed and landed in this nest to add another stick to the structure, while its mate supervised from a nearby tree. I never thought of Red Tails starting to work on nests this early in the year. Pretty exciting stuff for me!

February is almost over, and I hope the long V's of Sandhill Cranes are proof that spring is really coming soon. In the meantime, as I took pictures off my camera, I found these last two from my backyard feeders that I can't resist adding to this post. That Blue Jay was a very persistent fellow, determined to get his share of the sunflower seeds, no matter who he had to share a perch with!

All right, Starling, reach for it!

Raptor Romance

This morning we joined the Beckham Bird Club for a late winter bird walk at the Falls of the Ohio. It seemed to be the time for raptor romance, which is appropriate considering that today is also Valentine's Day. We saw a pair of Red Shouldered Hawks climb and soar through the clear sky, oblivious to anything else. Oblivious, that is, until a much larger Red Tailed Hawk dive bombed them. Not sure what that was all about - territory? Jealousy? Sounds like there might be a soap opera episode in the making here. A littler farther down the levy, we saw a pair of Cooper's Hawks, also enjoying the stiff morning breeze.

The Black Vultures didn't seem to be interested in romance, just finding a good thermal. Every time we saw a large soaring bird, we examined it closely in bins and scope, hoping to see a Bald Eagle or two, but it ended up being a Vulture every time.

When I got home, I was surprised to see a For Rent sign on our big Oak tree. We removed a limb years ago, and now there is a nice big hole, just right for an 0wl to nest in. Someone finally put up a For Rent sign trying to attract an owl. I just hope it works. I've always wanted to have an Owl close by.

You can see that the hole is in move in condition. No remodeling necessary. The backyard plants are showing signs of spring too. The Verbena has nice fuzzy buds, and the Pachysandra buds are swelling. The Red Winged Blackbirds are making an appearance, so spring must be getting closer. Everyone is tired of winter, and I hope that our wishes all come true!

Big Sit at the Falls of the Ohio

The Beckham Bird Club in Louisville, joined The Big Sit sponsored by Bird Watchers Digest yesterday. Our club sat at the Falls of the Ohio, in a circle made from an orange extension cord, (clever, I thought) from 9 am to 6 pm. The Falls are a good place for bird watching in general, since it has shore and water birds along the Ohio River, woodland areas for forest birds, an area with feeders, and the possibility of seeing various raptors. The Falls has resident Peregrine Falcons and Ospreys.

By the time Dick and I arrived at 3 pm, the hot sun (a record 87 degrees) made the water sparkle like millions of diamonds. Very pretty, but also very difficult for birding. I just purchased a new broad brimmed birding hat, and baptized it at the Big Sit. Our group recorded 44 species till then, but no raptors at all. Some watched across the water through scopes, but hikers on the fossil beds scattered the few birds crazy enough to come out in the heat. Others watchers turned towards the woods with binoculars. Hurricane Ike blew the tops out of many trees, and we gazed hopefully at the bare limbs. The only ducks we saw were Mallards (pronounced Ma-llard with a French accent - it makes them feel special.) Even the vultures had gone someplace else. Overall, it was not an encouraging time. We weren't allowed to count the Great Brown-tailed UPS birds (you've seen it - big, silver body, and brown tail) that flew over constantly during the afternoon.

Then, out of the blue, a huge kettle of Black Vultures filled the sky, wheeling and soaring overhead. Of course, we scanned them, hoping to see a not-Vulture in the crowd. I see something white, but it isn't a wingtip. It's a tail. The bird turns a bit more. Now I see what looks like a white head. Let's see, large, dark body, white tail, white head -

omigosh! IT'S A BALD EAGLE!!!

I start to shout and jump around, unable to describe where the bird can be seen, but fortunately the other Beckham people are good birders, and they quickly find it too. Corroboration! Now, I'll admit, I pulled this picture from some older files. I wasn't fast enough yesterday to take a picture of our Eagle on the wing. As it passed behind the Interpretive Center, and reappeared on the other side, we saw another large group of birds in a straggling V formation. Sandhill Cranes! someone shouts. Sorry, not this time. I did not know that Cormorants travel in big Vs, but that's what they were. Later the Cormorants landed on the river for a little snack and to spend the night.

When we packed it up for the day, our total species count was a round 50. Click the link to see what species we spied. We did finally see the Peregrine and a Red Tailed Hawk. The Osprey decided to stay at his favorite fishing grounds downstream apparently. Ah well, there's always next year.