March 25, 2014

A 13 Bird Weekend

Even though I added 13 county birds for the year to my list, I'm starting off this post with a good ole American Robin....and sunshine!


Sunday we drove all over the south part of the county investigating back country roads. We wound our way to Hagg Lake for some late afternoon birding and night time owling.

Gotter Prairie was accessible, but you can see how high the water level was by the striping on the brush.



At Hagg Lake we got great views of a hunting Osprey and watched an American Dipper do dipper stuff in the creek. We had no luck with owls although we put in a good 3 hours trying.

Monday we tried again for the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Finally success!! Can you find the bird below?





Then on to Fernhill Wetlands. This was my first visit this year.
Swallows were out in full force and it was really fun to watch them claiming their nest boxes.

Right off the bat I found the reported Swamp Sparrow. I could never get it in focus to get a photo, but it was a really pretty bird with a very flashy rufous crown.






I ended the weekend at 118 for my county list, and I managed to get some gardening done too.

3 comments:

  1. Focus frustration is the worst. Congrats on the lifer and all the awesome county birds!

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  2. Very nice post, and sightings, Michele! I see 3 types of woodpeckers in my neighborhood, but not the sapsucker. I did see those when I lived in S Dakota though. The inability to get good shots of a bird you really want one decent shot of, has to be the #1 frustration for bird enthusiasts, ARG!

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  3. That's a great assortment of birds! Sarah and I are 0-2 on sapsucker attempts.

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