County Birding

Yesterday afternoon we walked around Fernhill Wetlands. It was an unusual 72 degrees and sunny. The expected birds were there. The trails are open again and there are some muddy spots for shorebirds and dabbling ducks.

But lets get on to the good stuff. Things were exciting over on Milne Road. Evidently its the place to be these days as we ran into a couple of familiar faces.

First off: Horned Lark in the road!!!!!!!! This super hard to find county bird is my county lifer #190. It was just hanging out watching the sun set. Later it flew and another one popped out of the short grasses and followed it.

Last year for the Big Year, we visited Milne for Short-eared Owls and saw some, but not very well. We went back a few weeks ago and had the same experience. I grumbled "I'm never coming back to to this stupid place", but here I was again. Finally some owls were about!

They made their appearance shortly after 6:00. They were flying around with the harriers and hunting for rodents.

You can count on a nice sunset out there!