Spring Serenade

Horned Grebe

Today I re-learned a basic fact. In the "Middle of the Lake" means just that. No matter which side of the Long Run Park Lake I stood on this evening, I could not get a closer photo of these Horned Grebe which chose the lake as their night's stopover while migrating north. Sigh. They looked better in the scope, but were busy preening, or just napping as the sun set. This is the first time I've ever seen them with the males in breeding plumage, and it was pretty exciting.

Louisville's newest park is called The Parklands of Floyds Fork, and will eventually connect five parks including hiking and biking trails, playgrounds, and restored wetlands, along many miles of Floyd's Fork. The Fork itself is 62 miles long, not quite enough to be classified as a river, but a wonderful place to canoe and explore. The eastern part of Jefferson County is quickly being overrun by development, and this park will help to save some of it at least.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drop by the Parklands, hoping to hear Woodcocks peenting. Nope, no Woodcocks tonight, but the marshes had plenty of frogs and waterfowl. So close your eyes and just enjoy the sounds of spring!

Meadowlark Morning

A friend went to Long Run Park yesterday, and posted beautiful photos of a Wood Duck pair he found, so this morning Dick and I headed for eastern Jefferson County in the bright spring sunshine to look for Wood Ducks. Although we scanned every inch of shoreline, particularly the small protected coves, we did not find any Wood Ducks. All our hours of listening to bird calls on tape came into good use though, since all the birds were singing loudly!

I love the sound of Meadowlarks, and they were everywhere this morning. One flew across the road before us, so we got out and played their call on my phone app to see if we could get a good look at him. He dashed out of the grass, over our heads, and into a tall tree where he could get a good look around for competitors.

 We casually walked his way, still playing the call from time to time. He eyed us from above, and eventually flew down, circled once, then dropped back into the grass. No fooling this guy! He knew exactly where that sound was coming from. Once he was sure we were no threat he got back down to whatever business was on hand for this morning. It was a real thrill for us to see him gleaming in the sun though!

Lots of other birds were enjoying the sunshine too. We saw more Blue Jays than any other bird I think, both calling "Jay Jay" and chasing each other around. I don't remember seeing so many of them at once, and thought they might be migrating, but the field guide said they are year-round residents in Kentucky. Someone had put a pile of dog food kibble on the ground and both Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers were taking advantage of the gift.

Cardinals chipped back and forth...

...while Grackles gave us the evil eye from overhead...

...and Red-winged Blackbirds called from almost every branch it seemed.

A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks circled each other, calling "Keer Keer", followed by a silent but majestic young Red-tailed Hawk up among the Turkey and Black Vultures.

Then a very unusual bird caught our attention. Instead of a "mottled" duck, this looked like a "model" duck - otherwise known as a model airplane with pontoons. The engine was quiet enough to not disturb the birds and we had fun watching it fly around. Tomorrow the temperatures should drop again, so I'm glad we got out there while the gettin' was good!

March Lions and Lambs

Witchhazel

The word 'March' comes from the Roman 'Martius'. This was originally the first month of the Roman calendar and was named after Mars, the god of war.  March was the beginning of our calendar year. We changed to the 'New Style' or 'Gregorian calendar in 1752, and it is only since then when we the year began on 1st January. The Anglo-Saxons called the month Hlyd monath which means Stormy month, or Hraed monath which means Rugged month.

Song Sparrow

Well, the ancients certainly knew what they were talking about when they named this month, didn't they? On Tuesday, it's sunny and warm, Wednesday morning is blustery, rainy and cold. On Tuesday, Beckham Bird Club has a wonderful hike at Bernheim Forest with our guest, Greg Miller, of "The Big Year" fame. He's a regular guy, very nice, with a rough history. Greg says he now gives speeches about a contest he didn't win, and a book he didn't write, which was made into a movie he didn't star in. He did serve as the avian consultant for the movie though, and got to meet all the cast. The casting director did a great job with Jack Black taking Greg's part. Black nailed Greg's mannerisms right on. He was most touched by a letter from a man who started birding with his son after they watched The Big Year together, because Jack Black was in it.

Eastern Bluebird

By the next morning, winter had returned, and a few of us braved the elements to join Thor Hanson, our evening speaker and author of a terrific book about Feathers:the Evolution of a Natural Miracle. Following feathers from the dinosaurs to ladies' hats, he was a delightful speaker at our annual dinner, and endured the unpleasant weather the next morning in good spirits. If you are interested in birds, I recommend his book.

Red Maple Blossoms

The sunshine gleams so bright and warm,
The sky is blue and clear.
I run outdoors without a coat,
And spring is almost here.
Then before I know it,
Small clouds have blown together,
Till the sun just can't get through them,
And again, it's mitten weather.

Sunrise and sunset are close to twelves hours apart today, and the birds and plants seem to know that spring is here, and willing to take a chance on the weather. The early bloomers are out, and bees are looking for them. I, on the other hand, go out whenever the sun shines, and wrap up in my favorite blanket on days like today, when it is going to rain/sleet/snow once AGAIN! But I'm more than ready to have it be spring every day!

Unusual Birds

Red-necked Grebe

This winter is setting a record, for me at least, when it comes to unusual birds in Kentucky. I've found five life birds (including the Long-tail Duck Ta-Da!) in all this cold weather. Normally I have to travel someplace warm and far away to find new life birds in January and February, but this year they have all been close to home. Today I added the Red-necked Grebe to my list. Birders have been finding them all over Kentucky in the last week or two, and I've never even heard of them before.

Red-necked Grebe and Canada Goose

They are large, compared to other grebes, and here is one posing next to a Canada Goose for comparison. Most of them seem to be in non-breeding plumage, just gray with a little white on the cheek.

Grebe Diving

At least today I didn't have to risk my safety on icy roads. As much as I love my Prius, I found that it does not do well on icy, slippery roads. Today's challenge was simply finding the bird each time it emerge from a dive, and trying no to cuss every time it dove out of sight just as I focused on it. Sigh. 

Red Necked Phalarope

 Somehow the Ohio River is a magnet for lost birds. We have a nice normally unfrozen river easily viewed from any altitude. Last year we had a Red Necked Phalarope...

Western Grebe

...and a Western Grebe show up. When hurricanes blow on the east coast, we keep an eye out for unusual birds, such as a pair of young Black Baked Gulls who landed at the Falls of the Ohio, and refused to move unless a fisherman got within about 3 feet. American Pelicans don't belong here, but several have started stopping in at the Falls each spring and fall. When the river isn't in flood, the Falls provide a safe dry place to land and recuperate from long perilous flights. It's certainly easier and cheaper to just drive to Indiana to see rare birds than to go to the other end of the country!

Happy Duck Dance!

Long-tailed Duck

Are there birders out there who go it absolutely alone? If so, they must be very, very good, or very, very frustrated. If it weren't for my birder friends, and their postings of bird findings on the BirdKY email list, I would have a hard time finding many cool birds. Yesterday, one of them posted about birds at a location I've not been to before, which ends up being about an hour up the Ohio River from Louisville. So this morning, I stopped for coffee, and headed upstream.

Bald Eagle Nest

I ran into him when I arrived, and he was amazed. "Where did all the gulls go?" We did find the Red-necked Grebes, but did not get a good picture of the female which was the only close bird. I stopped at the restaurant to use the Ladies' Room, still wearing my binoculars. A man at the bar asked if I'd seen the Bald Eagle that sometimes perches in a sycamore tree by the marina across the road. I thought that would be a good place for one too, but no, he hadn't shown up today. It's always interesting that binoculars or a spotting scope can prompt complete strangers to start conversations about birds. Even though they usually are not birders themselves, their interactions with birds seem to be important to them. However, as I started back towards Louisville, taking a scenic road along the river west of Carollton, KY, I did see a large blob of sticks in a bare tree. Fortunately, there was no traffic as I slowed to a crawl. OMG! There's a white blob in the dark blob! It's an Eagle nest, and she's sitting on it!  I parked in the middle of the next small road, and carefully ran across to take some photos of her. A quick email to Kentucky's avian biologist in Frankfort confirmed that they know about this nest. It would have been cool though, to find a new one.

Common Merganser

After winding along more rural roads, I finally arrived at Reformatory Lake. The last time I went there, everything was frozen and covered with snow. Hundreds of geese stood on the ice, or swam in the small open pools. Today, very little snow is left, and the geese honked constantly as they grazed in fields on the other side. The Common Mergansers still swam around though. I have seen all three mergansers this winter - Hooded, Red-breasted, and Common. A hat-trick for me!

Common Goldeneye

Back at the Ohio River, and apprehensively watching the traffic standing in line to cross the bridge on I-65, I found my friend, Eddie the Birder. He counted 16-18 Long-tail Ducks waay out in the middle of the river, and again, I shook my head, unable to confidently identify them. This Common Golden-eye was no problem though. Have you noticed how most of the winter ducks, etc., are combinations of black, white and gray?

Eddie advised me to go upstream a bit to the Big Four Bridge. This bridge carried trains for many years, and has recently been converted to a pedestrian bridge, with great success to my surprise. Anyway, Eddie said he's seen some of these much sought after ducks close to the Indiana shore, just under the bridge. OK, I'll give it a try.

Indeed, how could anyone be a birder without the help of other birders? At last, with the help of my friends, I dance the Happy Duck Dance, and publish my photos of this rare (around here anyway) duck. When I got home, an email was waiting from another friend to go see the Woodcocks' mating display. Thank goodness it's tomorrow evening!

Long-tail Ducks

With long-term ice all over the country, it seems, many sea ducks which would normally not come to the Ohio Valley have decided this isn't a bad place to spend the winter after all. At least the river hasn't frozen. It's been a birder's bonanza! The reports started weeks and weeks ago about Long-tail ducks being found on the Ohio River near downtown Louisville. When I realized this was not the brown and white duck I visualized (the Pintail), I started making trips to the river on a regular basis, whenever the sun came out. But, no luck for me. A friend went back in the late afternoon one day and said she saw it clearly.

On Monday morning, my friend Del called to say 8-9 of them had been sighted, so I hopped right in the car, morning toast in hand! Fortunately, I found Brainard when I arrived. He found the ducks as little specks with white heads in the middle of the river. With his assistance, I got some good looks with the spotting scope, but they were way too far away for any photos. I confess to borrowing these nice ones from the Internet.

 

Why would they be so hard to find? We've had a bit of a warm spell the last week or so, and all our snow has melted, along with quite a bit from upstream, apparently. The water levels are very high, and white caps form from wind and current. Most of the dark specks are logs and debris floating downstream. Do you see any ducks in this photo? Look very closely in the lower left, near the tree. You see what we are up against? From this point on the Indiana shore, it is about a mile across to the Kentucky side where the canal for barges comes out.The water is much calmer there, and it's a good place for birding.

The ducks swam along in a line, or rather they floated quickly down towards the dam. One by one, they dove down into the water looking for mussels. The Corps of Engineers only has to keep the navigation channel at nine feet deep, so it's not as deep as you would think here. These Long-tails can dive up to 30 feet. All four gates on the dam are completely out of the water, to keep the logs from jamming up. When the ducks got too close to the dam, they would take flight and go back upstream a bit, to start the process all over. I'll probably keep looking for them, just to see if I can get a photo of my own, but at least I've added them to my Life List!

Whoopin' It Up

There are lots of good reasons for whoopin' it up. The snow last Saturday was absolutely beautiful. Monday it rained and everything turned to ice, but I did NOT fall and break anything - good news. Had a good day birding in Lexington yesterday. We didn't find the Short-eared Owl, but saw plenty of good ducks. The news came in last night that Sandhill Cranes were moving into their regular feeding-resting area in nearby Hardin County.

As I drove slowly down the country road (speeding up a bit when traffic honked at me), I saw clumps of gray Sandhill Cranes in the fields. Since the snow melted, there were plenty of casual ponds and lots of mud. The cranes were delighted, and ranged through the corn stubble poking around for anything edible. Nothing was frozen! Happy Day!

But one big puddle had three WHITE blobs along with the gray ones. OMG! That field has Whooping Cranes!! I pulled into the farmer's drive, and prayed that I wouldn't get stuck in the mud, as I climbed out with my scope. Two birds looked like adults, and the third was a little muddier looking - maybe a juvenile?

I learned some important lessons today though. When my 60x zoom camera is in super ultra zoom mode, it does not focus clearly. When birds are way out in the middle of a field, or a river, the poor little laser that ranges for the focus just can't find the target well. So things are a little fuzzy when zoomed all the way. Sigh. Lesson 2, trying to digiscope with a cell phone is not a good way to get distant photos either. First, I had trouble seeing through the scope lens via the phone's camera, and even then, the focus wasn't as good as it was when just my eye looked through the scope. As well. We must learn and accept these life lessons, mustn't we. Anyway, I was really excited to see Whooping Cranes!

 

I love to hear Sandhills calling as they fly. Doesn't it seem awfully early for these birds to be flying north? It's just a lucky chance that the snow melted, and they can find food today. According to Ky Dept of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the total number of birds around Barren River Lake went from 24K to 1.8K in a week, and there were 11K at Cecilia yesterday. They are on the move today with flocks going north. When they move to the next stop, they might be covered in snow and ice again. Just enjoy the cranes...

 

 

 

Birding with Barbara

Cackling and Canada Geese

My friend Barbara is a really good birder, who knows not only the songs of many, many birds, but their chips and call notes as well, so she's a great resource to have. After the Creasey Mahan GBBC event on Saturday, Barbara and I headed for Reformatory Lake. As you might guess, it is near the state prison. Hundreds of geese keep a good portion of the lake's water open this winter, and we waded through rather deep snow to get as close as possible. The Common Mergansers were beautiful, and the Green-winged Teals looked like little goslings standing close to the large Canada Geese. When several flocks joined the others on the water, we found Cackling Geese, our target for this trip. The newly recognized Cackling Goose is a smaller version of the Canada Goose, and breeds farther northward and westward than does the Canada Goose. Barbara said the trick is not to look at the size of the goose, but the size and shape of the small bill on the Cackling Goose.

Red-breasted Merganser male

Today, the sun was shining, and the urge to bird struck me again, so we headed down I-64 to Lexington, KY, a new spot for me. Reservoir #2 (located with the help of Google) hosted a variety of different waterfowl, including male and female Red-Breasted Mergansers. I love his punk hairdo and red eyes!

Hooded Mergansers, male and female

The tiny Hooded Mergansers didn't have their hoods up today, but quite a few of them swam in the lake. We watched an Eared Grebe come up with a fish, while Great Blue Herons landed on the ice. I think a "murder" of crows were playing hockey on the icy surface, and enjoying themselves immensely!

Mallard male

Mallards stayed close to shore for the most part, except for this fellow who decided to take off for a while...

Ruddy Duck, male

The Ruddy Ducks aren't in breeding colors yet, but we found 10-12 pairs. As soon as you spot one and get the camera focused, it dives under, and there's no predicting where it may surface again. Usually their stubby little tail stands straight up.

Muscovy or hybrid Mallard?

The most obvious character of a Muscovy is the red facial skin.This red skin can be quite bumpy, exaggerated, and frankly, gross, with a knob on top of the bill and lumps all over. Domestic Muscovies can be pure white, all black, or any degree of pied black-and-white. Many hybrid Mallards paddled in Reservoir #4, but I think this one is a Muscovy. I never knew that four good sized lakes could be found within the Lexington city limits. 

Eastern Meadowlark

Many Lexington birders have been taking wonderful photos of a Short-eared Owl at one of the University of KY research farms. I am still on the quest for a good photo of the SEO's face, so for an hour before sunset we drove around the fields of horses, looking for a fence with a dark blob on the top, alas, with no luck. No owls. No harriers. We did find lots of Red-tailed Hawks all day, plus the liquid joy of Eastern Meadowlarks having a song fest. 

 We enjoyed the cotton candy sunset, and treated ourselves to a nice supper, oooing and aahing over our photos and good luck today. There's always another day to look for owls, and we may try our luck for Sandhill Cranes soon, since they are starting to move north - as long as the sun shines!

Great Asian Whatever Goose!

It's funny how accustomed I have become to cold weather this year. Through long practice, of course. If the sun is out, I'm game for another birding trip. Most of the ice from last week's storm has melted away, but the grass at Long Run Park shone in the sun.

Canada Geese are familiar to all birders. They hardly seem to migrate any more, and just live here in Kentucky all year long. Mallard ducks are they same. They are the most common duck you are likely to see, so are often overlooked as "just another Mallard."

Today I had a real thrill though. A friend found American Wigeon at Long Run Park in Eastern Jefferson County, so I drove out this morning to look for it too. The lake is popular with fishermen during the summer, but was frozen today, except for one small circle kept open by the population of Mallards and domestic white ducks swimming around. One bird was different though. My hopes started to rise. Could it possibly be some kind of exotic goose, far, far away from its normal range? After all, there's been a lot of that going on this winter. Could I be the one to find some rare bird for the first time?

Look at its markings...A black vertical bar across the eye. A white forehead, and chinstrap larger than the Canada goose. A big white area in front of the wings. Oh MY! Maybe it's a Great Asian Whatever Goose, blown in from Siberia! I tramp through the crusty snow with scope, binoculars and camera, trying to capture a clear image of it among the ducks snoozing with their heads tucked under their wings. I check the birding apps in my phone. Nothing there resembles this bird, but the apps only carry North American birds, so I'm not too disappointed. I call my friends, and they look up world-wide geese, again finding nothing that looks like mine. "Could it be some kind of hybrid?" they suggest gently. When I get home, I send the photos to Brainard, my authority on everything avian, for confirmation, then start searching in Google for "geese of the world." There doesn't seem to be as many geese species in the world as I expected, and none of them looked like mine. Uh-oh. Maybe the big butt on this one really comes from a domestic goose!

The Jeff Overlook, just across the river, has always been home to hybrid Mallards. I call them Tuxedo ducks, since they usually have black/dark everywhere except on the breast, and look like they are wearing a tux with a white shirt and tie. But here is a nicely mottled black and white one as well.

And this one just merged dark Mallard feathers with white domestic feathers to produce a gray duck! Mallards are very tolerant birds, apparently, and will mate with anything that quacks, at least in this area of the river.

Ah! The latest news is that the adult male Long-tail duck, which actually has a long tail, was sighted at Ashland Park this afternoon. So guess where I'm going tomorrow! Wish me luck!