Some favorite winter birds

Tweet The weather can't seem to make up its mind here in SW Ohio, as we have had our first snowfall of the season as well as a late November round of severe weather including tornado warnings.  With the weather swings, I was hoping something rare would show, but the birding has slowed down at my local haunts.  What is cool about birding is that you don't need to see rarities to have fun.  I have been enjoying some of my favorite winter birds.

If one comes across poison ivy berries this time of year, it is always worth waiting around a while to see what will come in to feast.  This year there seems to be a huge amount of Yellow-rumped Warblers overwintering.  I have had about 30 or so in my yard for a week now.  They love poison ivy!

Chowing down

All the activity around the ivy has also drawn in other birds that were not interested in eating the ivy berries.  I love this Field Sparrow's look and pose.

Nearby, there was a good deal of birds.  I heard a Brown Creeper and turned around to find one.  I just starting pushing the shutter button, not even looking at the bird as I had lost him.  I was lucky to get a good shot of one.  Love this bird. 

Who doesn't love a creeper?

Another favorite winter bird that I got lucky to find the same day was this cute little Winter Wren.  I stood still and the bird just walked through the brush not a few feet from my feet!

It was like it was playing hide n' seek with me.

Golden-crowned Kinglets were flying around high above, they are always hard to get a good shot of.  Here is one just hanging out.  I like the color in this picture, I call it upside down in a sticky situation.

Another one of my favorite birds to run across on a cold winter day is the White-crowned Sparrow.  I remember seeing this bird in my yard when I was young and wondering what it was.  While not considered my spark bird, this bird had a lot to do with my interest in birds at a young age.  

Talking about color!  A royal sparrow it is.  Just look at that face.

It appears that a good deal of the rarer gulls and ducks are still up north.  As I write this, it is fairly mild with south winds.  This weekend is supposed to harbor low temps in the teens with highs in the twenties, so maybe some will move south soon.  Even though it is mild I did find a penguin on the beach at East Fork.  I saw this thing from afar through my binos, thought what is that?

A kids toy.  One never knows what you may find on the beach at East Fork.

On my way back from birding East Fork the other day, I stumbled across a mixed flock of blackbirds in a wet field at the end of my road.  It had a good variety of species.  I was able to pick out Rusty, Red-winged, Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird and European Starling.  Then I spotted something white.  It was a leucistic blackbird.

I am thinking Red-winged or cowbird.  

I am hoping to be able to find some winter owls this winter.  I haven't seen a Saw-whet Owl outside of a banding operation in a long while.  Same goes for Long-eared.  I would also like to run across good views of Short-eared again.  This will be a hard goal to achieve.  Until I find some of the northern owls, I will enjoy the locals.  I spotted this little Eastern Screech-owl sitting in a tree as I was getting in my car at East Fork the other day.  This picture was taken out the car window.  If you look closely, you can see the whiskers (rictal bristles) and the cute little talons.

Make sure you get out and enjoy the birds that are around you and try to take someone new birding or especially a young person.  Remember to always have fun!

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Purple is for kings

Tweet The weather has been very winter like as of late, which usually means that good birds are going to show up.  The Franklin's Gulls that I wrote about in the previous post were just the beginning of what was to come bird wise.  Thanks to the gulls, they brought more birders to East Fork.  I always like to see birders from the west side of Cincinnati here on the east side.  As I was not going to go birding Wednesday, Oct. 23rd due to other commitments, I am glad that a west side birder friend of mine did.  He got lucky and hit the jackpot at East Fork!  The rest just seemed like a blur...

As I was checking the Cincinnati Birds website, I got a call from another birder friend who said that three Purple Sandpipers were currently being seen to the left of the south beach at East Fork.  As that would be a life bird, I dropped what I was doing and grabbed my camera and out the door I went headed to East Fork!

When I got there, there were about five or so birders watching them.  The weather was very cloudy and windy with spitting rain.  I knew they must still have them in view.  I raced down to where they were and was pointed to the birds.  WOW!  A Purple Sandpiper in SW Ohio is a big deal, but 3?  In October?  This would even be early up on Lake Erie.  Even though the lighting was tough, they were still just beautiful birds. They say that purple is for royalty, and this bird is definitely a royal shorebird!   Life bird!

Just awesome!

I went back Friday and could not find the birds.  Later that evening, a local birder friend refound one bird in the same spot.  I watched it with another birder until dark.  A stray cat came down and stalked the bird, and me and the other birder chased it far away.  

Saturday, the sun was shining, so I was hoping to get some better views and pictures of the Purple Sandpiper.  It is such a nice looking bird, plus I was wanting to see a hint of that purple sheen.  The one lone sandpiper was still there and very cooperative.  

It walked kind of funny sometimes.  I love shorebirds.

There were other birds around as well, including a couple of Dunlin.  

Sunday, I was back at East Fork.  The Purple Sandpipers could not be found.  A good number of birders were there.  I love seeing all the birder action down here.  I met a lot of new birders, always fun.  I was even asked by one for an autograph!  That was a first.  I love sharing my knowledge and love of birds with others on my blog and out in the field.

While talking to a newly made birder friend, a small bird popped up and back down in some vegetation very near the rocky beach edge.  

I had an idea as to what it is, but I couldn't see enough for a positive ID.  Then a couple with a dog came very near and the bird popped out for about 3 seconds.

Vesper Sparrow!

I see them in the spring, but not often during fall migration.  Pretty bird.

As the weather seems to be in a lull, another powerful cold front is slated to slam into here with wind and rain Friday.  I wonder what goodies this one might bring?  If you are a birder in Ohio or near Ohio, make sure you bird after these cold fronts, as you never know what might show up!  Good birding and have fun! 

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Cold air, good birds

Tweet The birding had been rather slow for early October, with SW winds and warmer temps dominating.  Not much change in the happenings of birds on the beach at East Fork.  Smaller birds such as Juncos and Sparrows have arrived locally per reports, but I have yet to come across any.  I did hear a Winter Wren a couple of weeks ago.  Also, I have been working mornings and haven't been able to get out to look for passerines much.

Back during the first week of October, another birder and I took a walk back to the man made wetlands/bike trail on the other side of East Fork Lake.  We thought we heard a Marsh Wren, but could not confirm.  We did see this immature Rose-breasted Grosbeak migrating through.

Flickers seem to be everywhere as of late, and they are always nice to see.  Love their colors.

Always take time to admire the common birds!  Like this immature Ring-billed Gull.

As it is now mid October, the cold has finally arrived.  We had our first frost this past morning here.  It looks like the cold is here to stay, with reinforcing cold fronts lined up.  This could only mean that the dam should break open for some good birds.

This afternoon/evening, I decided to check the beach at East Fork.  I find it as the best time to get the best idea of what is around the lake gull wise, as they all fly in to roost on the beach just before dark.  When I arrived, there were people with cameras and children chasing the gull flock back and forth.  I didn't expect much.  I took up a position on the beach that provided the best light.  After a while, the people faded away briefly and the gull flock positioned itself right in front of me.  

I noticed a dark winged type of hooded looking gull way out over the water, but it would not land with all the commotion on the beach.  I kept watching, and finally it came in to rest.  Oh, I know this gull!

The guy in the background was chasing the gulls when I first arrived, I don't know what he was photographing.  Kind of defines the birding at East Fork.  

With the Common Tern that has been hanging out on the beach. ^

As I was looking at the Franklin's in the BACKGROUND through my camera, I zoomed out to notice that there was another Franklin's right at my feet!

The light was fading fast, so the quality of photos degrades.

I took the camera away from my face and rescanned the flock.  I see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 FRANKLIN'S GULLS!  

I couldn't get a shot of all of them, as they were scattered about the flock and people were still very close - so the birds kept shuffling.

The guy in the first picture got up, scattering the gulls off the beach.

Here is a photo of the SIX Franklin's Gulls flying off into the darkness.

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An early winter?

Tweet It is early fall and the temperatures are still pretty mild.  There has been little change in the composition of bird species on the beach at East Fork.  Vultures have temporarily taken up residence on the beach in the morning.  This may have something to do with the lack of shorebirds, but I doubt it.

The turkey vultures were protecting their garbage can from me.  Something must have been tasty in there!

As I got closer, one of them spread their wings and started hissing.

 Least and semipalmated sandpipers along with five sanderlings have been on the beach for a while.  Here are three of the sanderlings flying.

I have been seeing both osprey and bald eagles fishing the lake, but they have not been very cooperative for me photo wise.  This immature bald eagle was perched right above my head for a while.  A person walked between me and this bird, causing it to fly.  

But the real surprise came today.  While I was talking with another birder, waiting for an osprey, eagle, or something good to come by, I noticed a small bird flying above that landed in the brushy weeds in front of us.  I thought I could see white outer tail feathers at first, but I couldn't tell.  At first, I heard no sounds other than a chip.  The bird stayed in the thick weeds for about an hour.  I could see orange on the face of the bird, so I got excited.  This is about the time of year that maybe my lifer LeConte's Sparrow would come through.  I could only see the head mostly.  This was about as good as it got for a long while:

The bird's head is in the center.  From this view, it was hard to tell what it was.  I was still hoping that it would show enough for an ID of LeConte's Sparrow.

Another birder and I watched the bird for a while.  I was going to leave the bird unIDed and hope to see if the other birder got better pics than I.  I decided to stick around and check the beach just one more time before I left.  The other birder had done left.  When I came back to the spot the bird was earlier, a man with a dog was very near here.  The bird flew up and landed right in front of me.  

What the heck?  I thought.  It is 81° and not even October yet.  Can't be.

and then, the bird flew a bit and landed on a stick.

It has to be.  I can see the bird's namesake! 

I then said to myself:  If it would just fly to a rock in the open by the water, I could confirm my ID.  And, it wasn't long after, the bird did just that!

Yep!  Look at that long spur!  Definitely a Lapland Longspur!!!  But what is one doing down here so early?  Local records show that this bird is about 2-3 weeks early.  Is this a sign of an early winter?  Don't know.  Maybe it will be a good year for what I consider to be snowbirds (Snow buntings and Lapland Longspurs)?

Very nice colors in the sun!  

For local birders hoping to find this bird, it has been hanging in the patch of vegetation on the left hand side of the beach, the same spot that the upland sandpiper was.  

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