Last bit of birding for May 2008

May 26-29, 2008 - Visits to some of our favorite birding spots included Greenlawn Cemetery, Glacier Ridge Metro Park, Hoover Reservoir, and the OSU Wetlands Park.






Flycatchers are back in season. This Least Flycatcher was at Greenlawn Cemetery.










Here's another view of it.












Cedar Waxwings are abundant. They're one of my favorite bird species.











Red-winged blackbird at Glacier Ridge. We saw something very interesting on our walk there. A Great Blue Heron landed in the pond where the blackbirds were probably nesting. The blackbirds mobbed and harassed the heron until it finally flew off. Herons must go after nesting chicks, I guess. I'd never seen this behavior prior to this evening.













We went to Area N to look for Prothonotary Warblers. We heard and saw many of them. The phlox flowers were stunning, also.















Red squirrels were also pretty common here.

















A very large snail in the path - I'm glad I didn't step on it. I hate that gooey crunch beneath my shoe.









This is the path to the prothonotary warbler nesting area. It's a very popular fishing spot, too.










One little boy was dismayed to find this critter near his fishing line. It's a northern water snake.











One very pleasant surprise was a red-headed woodpecker.
















This huge bull frog was basking in the late afternoon sun at the OSU wetlands area. No wonder the herons and egrets like this place.

EEOB birding trip to Magee Marsh

May 18, 2008. Our last birding trip of the academic year was a huge success. I had always heard of warblers dripping off the trees at Magee Marsh during peak migration, but I hadn't expected it to be literally true. Well, it was, and it was truly an amazing site. We had enough participants to fill my minivan, and we met at 5 am to drive up to the shore of Lake Erie.




We arrived at about 8 am, just in time for the visitors center to open. Barn swallows were nesting in the rafters over the entrance.











Purple martins were in the bird condo next to the building. This was a life bird for me - the first of several for the day.









The ubiquitous Canada Goose family.










Cape May warbler











We spent about the first hour just in the parking lot on the edge of the boardwalk entrance. The sun was shining here and the birds were very active picking off insects off the foliage.


Cedar waxwings








A juvenile Bald Eagle . . .










being chased by a Grackle. Cheeky, eh?












Birders were flooding the parking lot and boardwalk. Aside from the occasional thunderstorm, including small hail, it was a perfect birding day.








Magnolia warbler













Rose-breasted Grosbeak. This fellow was seranading us with his beautiful song for quite a long while.















Philadelphia vireo













American Redstart











My favorite lifer for the day - Whip-poor-will. It looks like a burl . . .










American Robin nestlings













Wilson's Warbler











Northern Parula










One of the best sightings of the day, and another life bird for me: Connecticut Warbler. This bird was super cooperative for all the paparazzi flashing it. Dozens and dozens of birders were maneuvering for a look, and everyone was very nice about showing it to newcomers.








We stopped at Ottawa Nature Reserve to go look at the ponds. This Great Blue Heron was working something in the grass and we watched it tug and tug. . .








until it dislodged this water snake. It was probably a Lake Erie watersnake.












I suspect the bird was heading to some rocks to bang the snake senseless before swallowing it. Eeeeeyew!









A Baltimore Oriole collecting nest material













Herons are certainly successful predators. We stopped briefly at Metzger Marsh and spotted this Green Heron gobbling a huge bull frog. You can see the frog's foot poking out of the bird's beak there.













The frog put up quite a fight,














but the bird eventually succeeded in swallowing it.


We had a great day of birding with about 75 species seen. What a fantastic end to a nice series of bird trips with EEOB faculty and students.

2007 Idaho trip - Day 2

19 August 2007. Our second day in Idaho was a travel day between Boise and Sandpoint - about 500 miles of a two lane highway.

We followed the Payette River for a couple of hours, which brought back a lot of memories for me. I used to drive this stretch of road between Boise and McCall quite often when I lived in Idaho during the late 1970's. I love the sound of the river and the smell of the forest.

There were a few fires going on in the area so one of the dominant scents in the region was smoke from burning forests.



We saw this bald eagle along a calm stretch of water. What a treat! It was just a few hundred feet from us and we had a wonderful view of it as it took off in flight.























I have a better appreciation of how large these birds are after seeing this wing span.































Magnificent, yes?












We saw a huge number of Ospreys while we were in Idaho. We stopped at a wetland reserve just south of McCall and saw about six active nests in a small area of the reserve.









These are also pretty spectacular and I'm really glad to see them doing so well in numbers.









We walked along a road that divided the lake and kept scaring up the same eight Wilson Snipes. You can follow them in flight, but as soon as they land you can't see them, they are so well camouflaged against the background. It's pretty amazing.







Lesser Yellowlegs.











A couple of dozen American White Pelicans were in the wetlands and gave us a good show as they took off in flight.











They look pretty awkward in flight, but I always enjoy seeing them.















Ospreys bite off the heads of the fish before aligning them along the length of their bellies for flight. They seem to be pretty successful at catching fish.

2007 Idaho trip

18 August 2007 - Steve and I took our second ever vacation sans kids 18 - 25 August. This year was my turn to choose the place we'd go and I picked Idaho. I had enjoyed my time here in June with the Laidlers, and I wanted to see what the northern panhandle region was like. We flew to Boise and stayed the night there before heading north the next day. We arrived early enough to try to get some birding in before sunset and so we headed over to Deer Flat Wildlife refuge.



We saw some grebes, several species of shorebirds, raptors, and a few other species. One of the sights was this smoke plume rising above the mountains north of Boise. Forest fires were going on all over Idaho during the week we visited.








We saw several California Quail at the refuge. They sure are cute birds.











A great tailed grackle and a couple of regular ones, too.













Caspian Tern.
















This was an interesting effect. The view is toward the east near sunset time. The smoke in the air was playing tricks with the low light angle.