Nebraska: The Good 'Bird' Life

It is no secret that Nebraska is my home state, where I was born and raised.  That is also where my first recollections and my fascination with our avian friends began.  As a farm child growing up in very rural Nebraska, I have some very vivid memories of some of the birds that captured my interest as such a young age.  Of course, and like most kids, the more colorful or unusual birds caught my eye back then.  Now that I have matured a little more, it isn't always the most colorful birds that catch my eye all the time. (Still hard to ignore those colorful birds!)

Surprisingly, this year was the 50th year for my high school graduation and of course a get together was planned.  My high school graduating class consisted of only 28 students.  That tells you how small and sparsely populated some places in Nebraska happen to be.  So I planned a trip in late May for this occasion and decided to add in a few extra days for birding and visiting family.  Stayed with my sister and her family in McCook and took advantage of the birding opportunities that were there.  The first morning, I headed out to Barnett Park on the south edges of McCook to see what I could find.  It was amazing and I got the pleasure of seeing and photographing a lot of birds.

 Red-headed Woodpecker - Probably one of the best looking woodpeckers in the United States and I saw a lot of these birds during my visit.

 Downy Woodpecker

 Spotted Sandpiper - This one is in breeding plumage which we do not see very often in Arizona in the winter months. We normally see the drabber winter plumage without spots.

 Yellow Warbler - Male

Yellow Warbler - Female

American Goldfinch - Male

 Baltimore Oriole - Male

 Cackling Goose - This was a new species for my Nebraska list.  As a kid, I might have seen them, but just assumed they were probably Canada Geese.  (Little did I know back then!)

 Cedar Waxwing

Common Yellowthroat - These birds can be quite secretive and hard to photograph.

Swainson's Thrush - Not a bird that was on my radar, but found out that they are quite common.  Helps to pull out the old field guides once in a while to study range maps!

`
  Later in the day, I headed north of town and visited Red Willow Lake. Saw many of the same birds, but also found a few different birds that I do not recall ever seeing in Nebraska before.  No, they are not rare by any means, but I have been away so long, that one forgets what is possible.

 Bell's Vireo

 Field Sparrow - This was another bird that was not on my radar, but their range does reach Nebraska.  Makes me wonder if they were around when I was a kid, but just shrugged them off since they were just LBJ's. (Little brown jobs! Ha Ha!)

Tree Swallow - Another bird not on my radar, but apparently fairly common, note the man-made nestbox.

The next day, I headed even further north to the small town of Wellfleet, Nebraska.  Not much of a town, but they have a nearby small lake.  When I was young and had a great uncle and aunt living in this community and I remember spending a summer with them to help them with their farming.  I can also recall our family spending time in the summer to help with the irrigation of the farm land.  It was a really nice nostalgic visit and I was astonished by the birds that I found while exploring the town and the land around the town.

 Bars Swallow - These were very common on the farm as they nested in our barn and in the summer they entertained us when we milked cows every morning and night.

 Eastern Kingbird - Another bird that i was familiar with as we had them from time to time on the farm.  Western Kingbirds were much more common.

 Gray Catbird - Do not recall this bird from my childhood, but due to their nature to be a bit secretive, they were probably overlooked as a kid.

 Orchard Oriole - This was another surprise to me.  I do not remember this species as a kid, but had Baltimore Orioles every year.  This bird was fairly common for me on this trip.

Yellow-breasted Chat - A very enjoyable bird to see and hear, even though they can be tough to see sometimes, their calls and songs cannot be ignored.

The next 4 photos are the Indigo Bunting, plus a bonus photo at the end.  This bird was one of my fondest memories of my interest in birding as a child.  Being a farm family, we were very much involved in 4-H and in 1962, 4-H offered a bird course and I gladly signed up.  We had to keep a record book, and the Indigo Bunting was the species that I focused on for my study bird.  I have added a photo of the page from the record book showing what a talented artist I was back then!  HaHa!  Regardless, of all of that, this bird along with a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that visited our farm back then, have been the impetus for my interest in birds.  It was such a joyous occasion when the male in my photos below offered me a chance to get all these great photos.  It is so blue that it almost blends in with the blue sky.

 Indigo Bunting - Female

 Indigo Bunting - Male

 

So now you all know a bit more about my childhood in Nebraska.  It is fun to return after being away for so long and now that I have a much larger understand of birds.  There is so much more of the state that I would like to explore.  So maybe i need to plan a road trip in the future!  Stay tuned for a second post covering this trip to Nebraska and my search for a special bird. 

Here is a photo of the old farm where I spent the first 18 years of my life. The house is now vacant.

Warblers, Vireos, and a Crane

The old blog has not seen any recent posts, so figured it is time to rectify that issue.  Most of my recent birding has been near home and I am truly enjoying the wonders of migration and discovering a few new spots around the Valley of the Sun. Many of the birds I am seeing are species that I have more than once posted on my blog site in previous posts.  

Having the time to spend on exploring regular sites and observing many of the migrating birds that are usually only seen for a short time, once or maybe twice a year as they pass through the state of Arizona.  During a 1 week period in late April, I made 3 trips to my regular spot in South Mountain Park and during that period, was able to detect a total of 8 migrating warbler species in this dry desert wash.  When birds are migrating, they need to constantly replenish their their fuel by devouring many insects, pupa, larva, and even unhatched insect egg cases.  The species list of these warblers include:  Hermit, Townsend's, Wilson's, Yellow-rumped, MacGillivary's, Black-throated Gray, Nashville, and Orange-crowned.  That s pretty remarkable considering that none of these species calls this place home for breeding purposes.  Of course, being a warbler, most do not pose for photos very well, so several did not get documented with photos.

Townsend's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Vireos are also a common migrant through Arizona, but are usually not quite as colorful and flashy as the warblers.  Some are very vocal and are easy to detect by sound even though they do not always present themselves for photos very well, just like the warblers. 

Gray Vireo

 Bell's Vireo

 Cassin's Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Then something remarkable happened.  A Common Crane was found at Mormon Lake in northern Arizona.  This is a Eurasian species that has appeared in the United States from time to time, but has never been recorded in Arizona.  I took off for Mormon Lake shortly after I heard the news.  It was about a 2½ hour drive from Mesa and it took me awhile to locate the bird on this vast lake.  As I was trying to get a bit closer for better photos, it took flight and disappeared over a ridge.  I was able to snap a few photos before it flew and also as it was in-flight.  Wish I could have gotten better photos, but getting a lifer is much more important.  What a great bird to add to my life list.

Common Crane

My current life list now sits at 689 species and currently there is a big trip in the planning stages that should easily push me over the 700 mark and then some.  Looking forward to some great birds in the near future.  

Wisconsin - Part 2

The next day of my trip, I met up with Chris and we did not waste anytime in getting out to search for birds.  We started with some local spots, Molash Creek and Woodland Dunes, and found the deep, dark, and shady trails were swarming with birds.  But alas, they were also swarming with some much smaller critters, known as mosquitoes.  But that was to be expected and we did not let it stop us in our hunt for those birds.

I quickly discovered how common Red-eyed Vireos were in Wisconsin.  I had seen this bird once before at High Island, Texas, but it was just a brief glimpse and of course I was not able to capture any photos that time.  This time was different, since they were very common and singing just about everywhere we visited, one of them in Molash Creek gave us great view and some much needed photos.  (To bad the birds cannot communicate to other birds to let them know that we mean them no harm, and just want to see them and take a couple of photos!)

 Red-eyed Vireo

Another bird that was abundant just about everywhere was the American Redstart.  Yes, we do see a few of these birds yearly in the winter in Arizona, but they are rarely very vocal when we get them in AZ.  But in Wisconsin, they were very vocal and active.

 American Redstart

One of my new life birds that I added on this day was the Eastern Towhee.  The Spotted Towhee is very common in Arizona and one that I am very familiar with.  At one time in the past, the Eastern Towhee and the Spotted Towhee were considered one species; the Rufous-sided Towhee.  But the Rufous-sided Towhee was split into Eastern Towhee and Spotted Towhee some years ago and after seeing and hearing the Eastern Towhee, they are definitely different in my opinion.  While the photos are not what I would have liked on this first sighting, I was able to see more during my stay and got a better photo at a later date. 

 Eastern Towhee

Other cool birds in the forest that were not life birds but still awesome to see and hear were Black-throated Green Warbler, Ovenbird, and a fledgling White-breasted Nuthatch.  We would have not seen the nuthatch had it not been for a parent bird coming in to offer some food tidbits.

 Black-throated Green Warbler

 Ovenbird

 White-breasted Nuthatch - Fledgling

Next stop was Woodland Dunes in Two Rivers which is another wonderful spot.  I picked up 3 new life birds at this spot; Alder Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, and Sedge Wren.  The only bird of these 3 that I was able to photograph was Alder Flycatcher; the other 2 proved to be very elusive.

Alder Flycatcher

But there were plenty of other birds at this location that very cooperative for photos including some Chimney Swifts, which I had never photographed before.

 Chimney Swift

 American Goldfinch - Male

 American Goldfinch - Female

 Cedar Waxwing

 Swanp Sparrow

 Yellow Warbler

From here we ventured a short distance to the Manitowoc Impoundment on the shores of Lake Michigan. Naturally this was a complete different habitat that resulted in all new species.

 Caspian Tern

Common Grackle

Later that evening Chris and I headed to the home of his brother who claimed they had a pair of nesting Merlins near their back yard.  While we were not able to see the nest itself, the Merlins were definitely there and one of them even landed on a pole in their back yard.

 Merlin

And as usual, at the end of the post are some other photos that were interesting to me along the way.

 Painted Turtle

Definitely a full day of birding and by this time, I had picked up 7 new life birds so far.  I have many more to come and will be mentioning several on some future posts.