Some cool beach birds...

Tweet During migration, I like to hit the beach at the local reservoir in the early morning to see what birds are moving through. I go at the first hint of daylight and leave when the people start to show up.

There has been quite a few birds around the south beach at East Fork State Park. I have had all the regularly occurring terns that one would expect to see here during migration - Black, Common, Forster's, and Caspian.

Here, a Caspian Tern flies into the beach.

The Caspian decided to land in front of where I was standing.

(Looks like it has a carrot for a beak!)

Here is a Juvenile Common Tern. Notice the thinner bill, dark carpel bar and hood that is not split.

Also, been seeing a good variety of shorebirds. The beach at East Fork is about the only local spot (less than a 1 hour drive) to see shorebirds around here when water is not low.

Here is a little Semipalmated Plover. Sooo cute!

Also, there was this pair of shorebirds pictured below. The one I IDed as a Least Sandpiper immediately. The other one gave me fits. I originally IDed it as a Semipalmated Sandpiper, but the odd leg coloration gave me fits (legs should be black, not orange. I will have more of this bird and its ID in a later post.)

Least and Odd Sandpiper

Below is a juvenile Sanderling from today. The orange legged bird in the picture above was suggested by a few to be a Sanderling. The bird above is a juvenile, but as you can see, it is not a Sanderling. (Notice that the Sanderling has no hind toe, which enables it to run back and forth chasing waves on the beach.)

The Sanderling was not afraid of me at all and came to within a foot. It was comical to watch the bird poke at the sand castles that were on the beach. The bird even knocked a few down!

Sanderling poking in sand castles

There was some more cool birds in the woods that border the beach. I often hear Yellow-billed Cuckoos here, but I don't get to see them much. This bird was just sitting out in the open!

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Also, lots of Cedar Waxwings. Always love the waxywings!

Disgruntled Cedar Waxwing

And, as I was watching the beach birds, an adult Bald Eagle flew by scattering everthing. Here is a fast, far away shot of it. It also dove and caught a fish, but I didn't get it on camera.

Bald Eagle

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Nice (Yellow) Legs!

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It isn't often that I get to see yellowlegs up close. If you have never seen them up close, the brightness of their yellow legs is stunning.

Here is a juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs that I found foraging along the beach at East Fork the other day. Man, those are some bright legs!

Why are you looking at my legs?

The yellowlegs are comical birds to watch, constantly running and stabbing at the sand. I watched this bird for about half an hour.

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Young Red-headed Woodpeckers!

Tweet After seeing Red-headed Woodpeckers numerous times at the end of my road, I was finally able to confirm that they are breeding in the area today. They used to be VERY hard to find around here, however I am seeing more and more of them.

Here is a pic I took this morning out the car window of an adult Red-headed Woodpecker after just feeding a juvenile. If you look closely, you can see the young one.

And here is a pic of the juvenile -

The sighting was entered in to the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II.
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Someone Terned off the heat!

Tweet Thunderstorms have given way to a much nicer, cooler, and less humid air mass. Being cooped up for about two weeks due to mid - high 90° temps, I had to take advantage of the nice weather.

August is the time that I start to see terns appearing on the beach at East Fork. I love terns! I have to go early to avoid the people. I found this gorgeous Forster's Tern there the other day.

Forster's Tern

And a quick drive by of the beach yesterday produced this nice looking Black Tern. It just flew in and landed in the corner of the beach with the local Ring-billed Gull flock.

Black Tern in non-breeding plumage

Ospreys are also moving through, two have been fishing the lake for the last couple of days.

Osprey

Got lucky and found this beautiful Prothonotary Warbler this morning while looking for a Red-headed Woodpecker that I heard calling. I never found the Red-headed, but I got good looks at the Prothonotary.

Prothonotary Warbler

It's already time for the American Goldfinches to start nesting. They start nesting later than other birds as to coincide with the abundance of food from blooming thistles. Here, a female gathers nesting material from a cattail.

Female American Goldfinch

Young of the year Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been hanging around the yard eating peaches from my peach tree. Here is one that spooked when I opened the back door. Notice that it is just getting its red crown.

Young Red-bellied Woodpecker

Also been seeing a lot of butterflies and dragonflies. Here, I leave you with this photo from today of a Twelve Spotted Skimmer.

12 Spotted Skimmer

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