Another Good Day of Birding

Well this Sunday ended up to be a lot warmer, though when I arrived at the park it was only 30 degrees! This time I was a bit more prepared with gloves and warmer clothes but the sun that was mostly hidden yesterday was out in full force to help things out. Upon arriving at the park I ran into a fellow friend and birder who gave me a tip on where I might catch a glimpse of the supposed Sora that had been reported in the park. He actually had photos of it to show me and after I explained my brief encounter with it yesterday, we determined that I must have seen something else such as a Woodcock or Snipe -but not a Sora. So after much talk about a lot of birds, I found myself nosing around the purported area. Sure enough it was right where my friend said it would be and I quickly realized that indeed this was NOT what I'd seen yesterday! At first it was standing upright in the water facing me, but not exactly the way I would have expected. It's posture was more of with a bent leg -though I'm not sure if this is typical or not. Regardless, it was quite a colorful bird with grey and brown streaking across the head, a distinctly sharp mottled back side and bright yellow bill that more resembled a chicken than anything else. It stayed very closely in and around the cattails but once or twice appeared to swim -though it's possible it was just standing in deeper water. It appeared to be eating the Duckweed off the surface of the water. It was quite an interesting sighting for me and I've read that they are one of those species that are rarely seen versus heard. Again I saw and heard more White-throated Sparrows today but I also spotted a slightly larger looking sparrow that caught my attention. I've only seen a Fox Sparrow just once before but I was lucky enough to see it so closely the first time that I was able to recognize it again the second time. They look a lot like other Sparrows, only their head is mostly solid grey versus patterned like the rest of their body. They're also noticeably larger than say a Song Sparrow or Tree Sparrow. The last bird pictured here is a Yellow-rumped Warbler; something I've been seeing a lot of lately. You might wonder "where is the yellow rump?" and the answer is that it's actually on the top side, not the bottom and is hidden in this particular view from below. I've seen so many of these recently -not all at Palmer Lake Park- but enough to recognized that they are females in "fall plumage." The size, faint hint of a yellow shoulder and the distinct wing bars still give it away even without seeing the yellow rump from behind or above.

A Little Snow and Some Fantastic Birding!

Yes, the Palmer Lake Park Nature Blog is still alive -despite having not posted anything in over a month! Believe me, my desktop is cluttered with great photos from late summer and fall but I've just not had enough time to post them. Being out in nature, shooting photos and learning more birds continues to be the thing I enjoy most, but lately I've been focused more on improving -or "coping" maybe is the right word, with some other parts of my life that I certainly don't enjoy nearly as much. I've not been getting to the park quite as regularly as I'd like, but again, I do intend to go back and post a lot of stuff I've seen over the past month. So if you are a geek about birds in our area, you may want to look back every so often. When I got to the park today I could hear White-throated Sparrows singing all over. These are honestly one of the easiest to remember of all bird songs, once you've heard it once or twice. It's also one of the few that I can imitate to any resemblance of the real thing and I soon found them responding to me and coming in closer. They were everywhere today and not a bird I see all that often at the park. I was really not prepared for how cold it was today. We've undergone a HUGE shift in weather recently. Roughly 3-4 days ago, we'd hit 80º and then today it was nearly like winter and only in the upper 30's! I'd not even brought gloves today and just figured I'd "tough-it-out." Boy was I toughing it out alright. After stopping to talk to a fellow birder friend for a while, I could no longer even feel my hands. But things picked up as I walked along with my hands in my pockets and started seeing one great bird after another. Coming around the corner I spotted a large group of sparrows feeding on the ground up ahead but before proceeding I decided to spot them quick with my binoculars first. There was one bird in the group that clearly did not belong with the others and at first I thought it was a young Robin. Then it as it moved around and kept sticking it's tail high up in the air I realized it was a Towhee! This is only the 2nd Towhee I've ever seen, and the first I've ever seen at Palmer Lake Park! I was too far away for a photo, especially as it was digging in the tall grass up ahead but I approached as closely as I could before it scared up and into a neighboring tree. I tried desperately for a pic as it bounced around quickly and unfortunately this is the best I got. I can see why they're easy to mix up with Robins as the orange color is a perfect match, only there's a very definite line where the orange sides meet the white breast. Next I saw 2 little birds that also didn't seem all that familiar to me as they hopped along the edge of the paved trail ahead of me. They would pick at the edge of the grass, periodically wander off into the grass, and then back onto the trail. I wondered if maybe they were Common Yellowthroats but they seemed a little too large. They were definitely too big for Ruby-crowned Kinglets. I got as close as I could without scaring them off and snapped this photo of the one. I'm not an expert by any means on Warblers, but I'm thinking they were possibly Palm Warblers! Per my field guide it looks a lot like a "Western Palm" in fall plumage. Shortly later I spotted a Brown Creeper. This is only the 2nd Brown Creeper I've seen as well -and the first one was also in the park. He was making his way up a tree and I hurriedly snapped photo after photo before he got up too high. They are the "chubbiest" looking birds, resembling a ball more than the typical shape of a bird. I got to see him actually turn his head and poke his bill into the bark of the tree which made him look slightly more like a regular bird -almost like a nuthatch or woodpecker. Then after this I spotted a first for me anywhere -and quite an exciting species I thought! There was a little bird hopping through all the fallen leaves on the northeast side of the park -more where some of the bigger and older trees are, like the large cottonwoods. When I first spotted the bird I noticed how distinctively "olive green" it was and thought -ooh, this is interesting. I tried my best to follow it as it hopped along through the underbrush and when it would come into view I could also see a distinct white eye-ring as well as a very well defined white white breast with dark spotting or striping. For some reason I knew right off the bat what this bird was -as I must have paged past it numerous times in my field guide to Warblers by Stokes. Indeed it was an Ovenbird! I even saw hints of the yellowish-orange crown on it's head whenever it decided to head directly away from me. This was by far my favorite sighting of the day -even though earlier I'd actually caught a glimpse of a supposed Sora in the area that others had been reporting. I only saw the Sora for a split second though and I got to watch the Ovenbird for quite some time. Still later on the east side as I was coming out of the woods, a group of 6 to 8 Dark-eyed Junco's were ahead on the paved trail. I've seen Juncos already this year about a week ago at a cemetery near my workplace that I've also started birding in. I was shocked to see them last week as it feels so early for Juncos. I think of them as a mid-winter bird that I see in January or February. But I guess with the season changing so quickly they are probably on time. After all, there was actually little snowflakes -or snow pellets- in the air today! OK, I know this is a long post but I saw one more bird of interest today that I was thrilled to see. As I was coming back to my vehicle on the east side of the park, there right in front of me were 2 Bluebirds perched on one of the recently planted pine trees. One was actually right on the very top of the tree and I thought this would make a fantastic photo. As I approached slowly, he took off but landed right back where he was in just a few seconds. I kept getting closer as I took my shots and then even a House Finch came in an landed right below the Bluebird. I got a photo of this too but am posting this one after which I'd gotten a lot closer. I've not seen a Bluebird at Palmer Lake Park for quite some time now, -maybe months. I'm thinking that possibly this bird and many of the birds I saw today were making their way south. In learning so many birds over the past year or so, I've really begun to appreciate both Spring and Fall for the migration periods and the interesting birds you might not see any other time of the year here in Minnesota.

Little Birds and Big Deer

When I arrived at the park this Saturday morning I parked on the south side just to be different. I started my usual clockwise route but noticed a very small little bird hoping around near the ground by the small pond just off the parking lot. The lighting wasn't that great and so all I could make out at first was the silhouette. Though I'm not yet that familiar with them I began to recognize it as a Wren. Wrens don't seem like a common species in this park -to me anyway- as I'd only captured my first photo of one earlier this summer. Surprisingly I was able to inch my way closer and bend on one knee to get a better view without scaring it off. It scurried around quickly from one small log to the next, picking at various things near the surface of the water. I thought I'd never get this close to one again and so I snapped a vast amount of photos, hoping I'd eventually get something worthwhile. It was awesome to watch one this close up and get to see some of the tiny intricate patterning that makes them almost invisible against tree bark and natural textures. I'm not very sure but I would assume the species is a common House Wren. On the north side I was focusing on some more birds when something much bigger caught my eye. Against the tall cattails stood an enormous Buck with an 8-point rack. I'd barely noticed him and I'm sure he noticed me first. Even when it was clear to him that I'd spotted him, he stood as still as a statue not moving an inch. I took a few photos of him with different settings and he still never moved. I didn't noticed any Does around and so it looked as though he was alone. Looks like there will be another set of antlers to be on the lookout for come next spring! Earlier in my walk I'd spotted a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets but was unable to get a decent photo. This species is probably THE toughest to get good photos of as they seriously are changing positions approximately every one second. Most times about all you can do is to point and click wildly over and over trying to keep up with them and then hope somehow you managed to get one in the frame! Kinglets are becoming quite familiar to me now and I know a few things to look for -aside from their characteristically energetic behavior. They can be strikingly olive-green in color, have very obvious wing bars and eye-rings, but most of all it's the time of year that helps me realize what I'm seeing is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. They are active and easy to see in early spring but disappear for most of the summer and now again are quite common in the fall. I would say there are more of them at the park in the fall than in spring but that's just my observation. I was pleased to realize after looking at this photo closer that I'd captured a male -as evident by the tiny bright red patch on the very top of his head.

Mid-September Sights

This Sunday I had an afternoon walk at the park, arriving just after 2:00pm. It was another beautiful day to be outside and I saw just about everything from birds and deer to turtles and butterflies. The first thing I spotted was this young spike Buck on the southeast side of the park. He was foraging around the little drainage pond there right off the paved trail. I snapped a few quick photos and got a good look at his akward little mis-matched antlers. I figured there would be more deer around but he seemed to be by himself and then trotted away after just a minute or so of me watching him. After this I spotted a Bald Eagle, a Grey Catbird and then lastly this interesting bird perched just above water on the southwest side where the little creek connects to the Duck Pond. At first glance it seemed too large and skinny to for an Eastern Phoebe. I was also seeing it only from behind and there seemed to be an almost bluish-grey coloring that i don't typically associate with Phoebes. I started doing some research, thinking maybe it could be some kind of Pewee or Flycatcher. After reading and looking at quite a few photos I can honestly say it would take a more experienced birder to quickly pick up on the subtle differences between Phoebe's, Pewees and Flycatchers. That being said, here are my findings. Eastern Wood Pewees look extremely similar with little-to-no eye ring, yet they differ with a typically orange lower beak or "mandible." Most Flycatchers (with a few exceptions) also have an orange lower mandible AND tend to have a more prominent white eye-ring too boot. Based on this photo showing no eye-ring and a black upper and lower mandible, I would still say it is an Eastern Phoebe. I hope my ID is correct because I just can't say for sure. Later on I had the opportunity to spot and more easily identify a sparrow that is a lot less common than your average House or Song Sparrow. This is a White-throated Sparrow and I believe the very first one I've ever captured a photo of at the park! I've heard their very memorable song before but not had the opportunity to actually see one until now. Their song is worth hearing if you've never heard one before. Click here to listen to one!