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| Welcome Spring! Some bloodroot blooming in the woods. |
It was a blustery week this week. Pretty much every day was windy, which made for some somewhat challenging bike rides. Nevertheless, spring is here, the birds are returning, and I managed to get out on the bike on both Saturdays since my last post. Nearby Spring Lake, which I've posted about before, had quite a few good birds reported on it by other birders - including Canvasback - so we headed out to hit it on Saturday the 12th. Winds were out of the south that day, however I wanted to check the southern half of the lake first, as last time I was there, that's where most of the ducks were. Riding into the wind was...challenging. And the south end of the lake didn't work out like I'd hoped. Other than a raft of American Coots and few Pied-billed Grebes, it was quiet.
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| Nothing but mudhens here |
We shook off the disappointment of the extra few "wasted" miles and headed to the park on the north side of the lake. Things were better there - big rafts of ducks. Surely there would be at least ONE Canvasback in the mix, I thought. The wind was hitting us in the face across the water, which wasn't super pleasant, but we patiently scanned through the hundreds of ducks. Mostly Lesser Scaup with good numbers of Redheads, too. Fun, but I already have those!
Time and again we sifted through and rode back and forth along the northern shore. Eventually some different species revealed themselves, bit by bit. A small raft of Buffleheads further out. Some Ruddy Ducks sleeping in the middle of the scaup. Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loons out in the middle of lake, fishing. Not a single Canvasback! This was surprising, but that's how it goes sometimes.
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| Sleepy Ruddy Ducks |
"Well, at least we got some exercise", I said as we began to think about wrapping it up. Finally though, a few other small reddish birds stuck out near some Buffleheads far out on the water. One raised its' head ever so briefly to reveal yellow "horns" along the side - Horned Grebe! No Canvasback, but this is a good one! Not a bad consolation prize despite missing my main target for the trip. The window for Canvasback is closing quick but will open up again in the fall. Maybe then. We took the grebes and rode back home. This time the wind was at our backs, which was nice!
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Horned Grebes and Buffleheads - way out. Not bad considering the wind and zoom!
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The following Saturday was a nice day. Still windy, but sunny and pleasant. Great day to hit Louisville Swamp and maybe get some shorebirds and more early arrivals. Field Sparrow perhaps. It was a windy but quick ride over on the bike, and I locked it up to wait for my family (including the dogs this time) to arrive. Nothing was singing at all as I got gear out. Not a great sign for birding, but I was ready for a fun walk regardless.
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Nice day
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The woods and grasslands along the ridge were super quiet. I was really surprised not to hear a single Field Sparrow, which are common there, and are back now. We walked down into the bottoms, and along the big wetland unit. I saw some good flats back on the "low road" loop back to the bike. Could there be shorebirds there? I'd keep it in mind for later. Some good stuff revealed itself as we walked along the wetland - a Lesser Yellowlegs flew in pretty close. A Broad-winged Hawk soared overhead. Ducks flushed as a Northern Harrier cruised along the wetland. While looking through the ducks, I noticed a flash of white - a tern! After watching it for a bit, it revealed itself to be a Forster's Tern, which was an unexpected pickup. Nice.
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| Lesser Yellowlegs staredown |
We hit the flats on the walk back, and the mud immediately seemed to be crawling which was exactly what I was hoping for. A flock of Pectoral Sandpipers! Not much variety, but great to see those. We scanned the flats quite a bit, but nothing else stood out besides more yellowlegs and a Killdeer. We did pick up some Wilson's Snipe though further down. Not a tough one, but a new bird nonetheless. It was fun watching them feed in the shallow water.
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| Light wasn't great - but here's a Pectoral Sandpiper for you |
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| Blue-winged Teal and a Mallard loafing in a small wetland |
The walk was a good one overall despite a slow start. As we got closer to the end, a sparrow jumped up into a shrub. The pink bill and eye ring were exactly what I wanted to see. Field Sparrow! They were there after all. Then another one flew up not too far along from that one. Better late than never. Great finish to a pleasant afternoon walk.
The bluff climb was the challenge it always is heading back home. I was hoping for some sparrows along the roadside, and I wasn't disappointed. I flushed a Savannah Sparrow from along the edge of the ag fields into the weeds, and then another bird flushed up into a tree. A flash of white in the outer tail feathers was exactly what I wanted to see - Vesper Sparrow. Not bad getting two new year birds while biking through the cropland.
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| Sparrow Highway, USA |
Between these two trips plus some new species around the yard (Osprey, Brown Thrasher, and Yellow-rumped Warbler), it was a productive week - 27.8 miles of biking, and 4.3 miles of hiking. I'm up to 109 green species now, great to break 100 this week. We're getting into an exciting time for birding - shorebirds should really pick up the next week or so, and I'm hoping to get an American Woodcock, maybe on my Earth Day ride into the office on Tuesday. Wish me luck, and as always thanks for reading. A reminder, if you'd like to support bird conservation and help motivate me to get out and bird, you can sponsor me in this effort by just sending an email to 25bigyear@gmail.com, as described in the sidebar on this blog! Whether or not you decide to sponsor, I appreciate you reading and sharing my enjoyment of this adventure.
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