The weekend rolled around at last, which I have been very much looking forward to - the weather forecast looked much more amenable to a nice bike ride - highs in mid-30s, which sure beats -21, which was our low earlier in the week. Unfortunately, once the weekend did get here, it wasn't quite as warm as promised, and it's been quite breezy. The plan was to ride over to nearby Cleary Lake Park to look for owls and a recently reported American Goshawk (!) that my friend Caleb found earlier this week. We'd meet there and try to find the bird again, along with owls, hopefully.
Well, four degrees at 9am this morning plus a little breeze did not excite me for a 25 mile ride through open agricultural land, so we shifted plans, and instead decided to meet at nearby O'Dowd Park, where I'd found some nice conifers and "whitewash" from a likely recent owl resident. A 15 minute or so walk back and forth was quite doable, even with a bit of a breeze.
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| Lovely bright, breezy day |
It was a quiet but pleasant walk over. Families were out ice fishing and running around on the ice with their dogs, etc. Once I arrived, we walked around the park for about an hour. One change from last time I was there was that aerators had started running on both O'Dowd and Thole Lakes, and there were swans loafing in both of them. 56 total at O'Dowd, pretty cool, although the light wasn't good for photos right away, and they all ended up leaving. Good to keep an eye on these spots though, especially once the waterfowl start moving again.
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| Whitewash (poop) from a recent owl, maybe this fall |
It was a fun walk, but not super productive birdwise. Fortunately, Caleb had done some research and found out that a very nice looking conifer stand across the road was publicly owned. We decided to walk over and check it out. Great set up; thick, wooly conifers, nearby water and open, grassy area with lots of nearby tangles. Perfect for a roosting Long-eared or Northern Saw-whet Owl. We didn't find an actual owl - but did find some more sign - whitewash and pellets (regurgitated bones and hair from their small mammal prey). A good sign for later. I'll definitely be coming back here once things start to shift around in late winter/early spring.
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| Rodent hair and bones - yummy |
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| Nice thick conifers - when you have to crawl through some of it, you know it's good |
Again, no new birds, but we agreed that this place has potential, so felt pretty good about it. We headed our separate ways and I started the walk back home. I passed by the open water and saw a lone duck -a goldeneye - where the swans once were. A lone duck immediately makes a birder wonder if it could be something rare (Barrows Goldeneye perhaps?), so I walked out on ice and tried to get closer. It was distant and I couldn't tell much with binoculars. Good chance to try out my new camera that has a great zoom, if nothing else.
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| Go no further |
I crept along the outer edge of the "Thin Ice" signs trying to get closer. The ice groaned a little which didn't make me feel great, but I stayed on the safe side. I was able to snap a couple of decent shots, and was happy to see that my camera passed the test - I got some good zoomed in shots, not magazine cover material, but plenty good to tell that it was a female Common Goldeneye, not Barrows. I shuffled back onto the road and continued my walk back.
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| Actual distance with naked eye |
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| Zoomed in - not bad! |
I continued the walk back and on the way, off to the west, heard a little "tin trumpet" vocalization - Red-breasted Nuthatch! A new green bird for the year, which was nice. I finished another pleasant stroll back and was greeted with the usual guilt trip from the dogs - who I could hear howling in displeasure as I walked away in the morning. A nice 3 mile walk with another new green bird. Fun stuff. Thanks for reading!
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| How could you possibly leave us?!? |
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