Showing posts with label Birding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birding. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Backroads


Dan and I just got back from a road trip to Wisconsin. We had a wonderful visit with Luke and family. On the way there and back, we took our time driving the backroads of Nebraska and Iowa.


In the middle of Nebraska, Dan located a car museum where he wanted to prowl around for a few hours. Lo and behold, it was in Kearney, which is near the Platte River, and it just happens to be the season for the Sandhill cranes migration! I knew what I would be doing for the afternoon.





Sandhill Cranes are thought to be the oldest living bird species, and they are the largest birds in North America. For thousands of years, hundreds of thousands of these majestic creatures have been migrating through the Midwest flyway of the United States, on their way to nesting grounds in greater Yellowstone, Canada and even the Arctic. They begin their journey in southern Texas and New Mexico, and stop in the Platte River Valley of Nebraska for several weeks, to refuel and rest up for the rest of their journey.

They are a spectacular sight to behold, especially in the early mornings as they venture from the wetlands of the Platte River where they spend the nights, into surrounding fields to feed during the day.


After stopping at the Visitor Center for the Crane Trust, an organization that works to preserve crane habitat and study these and other types of birds, I took to the backroads. Driving through miles of farmland, there were cranes galore, feasting on waste corn in agricultural fields, as well as snails, worms and beetles.



It was late afternoon when I got back to the car museum, the pickup truck covered in road dust. Dan had lots to tell me about the cars he got to see. I had lots to share about cranes. And I think we both thought we got the better part of the afternoon.




 

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Monday, May 12, 2025

Mother's Day


May is a primo month for birding. Summer visitors are arriving to join the year-round residents, and it's migration season, when birds from the south are heading to northern breeding grounds. There are so many beautiful birds passing through to catch a glimpse of while they are on their journeys.

Trees are starting to leaf out, but it's still possible to catch a good look before the foliage comes in fully. After being inside much of the winter, it's no wonder birders love this time of year!


Last weekend, I went on another birding trip with a local bird club. We traveled to Western Kansas, where one of the members has a small ranch. The birding was fabulous! Among the many species were red-headed woodpeckers, prairie chickens and burrowing owls. It was such fun being with a group of people that never tired of talking birds and exchanging ideas on places to go and trips to take. 


Dan and I had planned to go together, but he decided that a weekend at home was needed to do some catching up, and I was more than happy to take a solo road trip. On the drive out, I took a circuitous route so that I could stop at a museum I've been wanting to see. It made for a nice break in the four-hour drive.


The little town where our group gathered had just the barest of amenities, but it was a lovely, tidy little place with good food and homey digs. The no-frills, but immaculate It’ll Do Motel provided a place to lay my head at night. I packed breakfast and lunches, and in the evenings our group gathered at the local brew pub. 

 

Eastern Phoebe


 Of course, birds weren't the only creatures flitting about.



One of the nicest sightings was this burrowing owl in flight.


Eastern Kingbird

Western Kingbird

Cliff swallows

I drove a different route home, stopping at a state wildlife area. After being with a large group for the weekend, I welcomed the solitude, observing a pair of red-tailed hawks with their young, soaring and then perching near their nest in a grove of cottonwood trees. A pair of kestrels flew about nearby. Yellow-warblers, nuthatches and a variety of sparrows flitted about in the willows near the riverbed. 


A  different kind of Mother's Day, but so enjoyable!



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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Winter Birding


Our weather has been downright frigid the past week. When most people think of Colorado, they think of the mountains, so that wouldn't seem surprising. But, here down on the plains, we are rather spoiled, and cold winter months are often interspersed with warm, sunny days. For instance, next week our temperatures are predicted to be in the high 50s.

Tiring of the indoors, I decided to brave the cold yesterday and take a walk at one of my favorite birding spots. Clear Creek runs from the mountains through Denver and out to the eastern Colorado.  A portion of the trail that runs through a city south of us has become one of my favorite birding spots. Yesterday, the sky was heavy and gray, turning the world into black and white. Snow felt softly and the air was crisp and biting on my face.


It hardly seemed like prime bird watching weather, but as a friend pointed out to me once, the birds have to eat and they really have no where to go. So, it can be interesting to look for their behavior in different seasons and in all kinds of weather.

A kestrel eyed me as I walked by. He was all puffed up, his feathers creating little pockets of insulated air to keep him warm. Further down the trail, a group of gadwalls appeared oblivious to the cold as they paddled in the stream and plunged their heads under water for food.


There was little bird noise for the first part of my walk, save for an occasional rattle of a flicker pecking at a tree trunk, and the sound of a white-breasted nutcracker.


 A few other walkers with dogs on leashes braved the cold. Some park workers came through in their truck fronted with a snow plow to keep the path clean. Other than that, the quiet held a peacefulness that allowed for reflection and calm.

As the snow let up, the sounds of crows and starlings filled the air. A pair of robins started a ruckus and a flock of Canada geese stirred on the lake, their honking filling the air.



Walking back to the car, a pair of common mergansers swam and dove in the icy stream. I heard the rattle of a belted kingfisher. My thoughts turned turned to home and settling in with a cup of hot coffee.


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Monday, July 1, 2024

Birds, flowers and beautiful country


In my last post I mentioned going for a little trip to the mountains for a couple of days. I left early Friday morning with a new friend from my birding activities. Donna leads some of the field trips for our club and she is a whiz at knowing her birds and knowing where to look for them. I was so excited when she invited me to go with her for a few days up to North Park, a wide valley rimmed by mountains in north central Colorado. It is sparsely populated with lots of open space occupied by ranches, state parks and a 23,000-acre wildlife refuge.


We identified over 100 species of birds during our three days in the area! As if the birding wasn't fabulous enough, the wildflowers and wildlife made the trip even more spectacular. Pronghorn and mule deer abound, as well as moose and bear. I was a bit disappointed not to see the former. Relieved not to run into the latter.


Still, lots of creatures, great and small.


But, our primary goal was birds. The area attracts a wide variety of birds and waterfowl, and since it is breeding season we were treated to lots of mamas (and papas) and babies. 

A pair of mountain bluebirds built a nest in a metal pipe. They were busy non-stop catching bugs to feed the babies. These photos (as were all of the ones we took of wildlife) were taken at a respectful distance to the nest.




I could've watched this mama Coot and her baby all afternoon. Coots are divers and they gather food from the bottom of the lake. They eat plant materials, insects, tadpoles, fish. While her baby waited patiently, this mama would go for a dive and come back with a bill filled with food and feed it to the little one. We watched a group of pelican mamas feeding their babies in the same way.



This ruddy duck was swimming about with his Mrs. 


I was able to quickly grab a photo of this sage grouse mama, who was herding her flock of six chicks through the grass.


An American Avocet.


The northern edge of the basin touches on Wyoming. We took part of a day to drive up to the Snowy Mountains range and do some birding in the high country. At over 12,000 feet, there was still a lot of snow!


The wildflowers were in abundance and so were the birds. There are so many beautiful campgrounds in North Park and in Wyoming. I can't wait to go back with Dan and our camper trailer.


One of the thrills for me at the higher elevation was seeing so many beautiful alpine flowers. These are glacier lilies. They are so delicate, they look like paper fluttering in the breeze.


Such great memories, exploring a part of our state that is fairly new to me. I can't wait to go back!

 

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Sunday, May 19, 2024

Prairie Spring

Before I get too far behind, I want to catch up on the past 10 days or so. On Mother's Day afternoon, Dan and I took off for a two-night camping trip. We call it our "shake-down," where we make sure everything is in order for our summer trips. The camper was running okay, except for a small snag with the generator. The truck did well. And we had a really nice time out on the eastern plains of Colorado at the Pawnee National Grasslands.


It's a good time to visit, in the early May, when the weather is cool and breezy, the bird migration is at its best, and wildflowers are beginning to bloom. The trees are just starting to leaf out, adding a lovely green hue to the otherwise yellowish brown prairie grass.

The grasslands cover almost 200,000 acres in northeast Colorado. We camped at Crow Valley Campground, which was alive with all kinds of birds. The following photos were all taken there. As amazing as some of these birds are, my favorite was a mother robin who was nesting in the tree next to us. While western kingbirds squawked and rough-housed like a group of rowdy teenagers, she said quietly in their midst, tending to her nest.


House wrens added to the cacophony of sound.


A western kingbird. A few of his eastern cousins were there, too, but much more camera shy.


A downy woodpecker.


A bullock's oriole snacking on berries.




On our drive through the grasslands, horned larks were plentiful. . . 


. . . as were lark buntings, Colorado's state bird. 


Chipping sparrow.


The birds were the noisiest inhabitants at the campground. Otherwise, it was wonderfully quiet and peaceful. There are just 10 spots in addition to a couple of group spots. There weren't any groups camping. We met a couple from Ottawa, a wildlife photographer and his wife who have been traveling the states for a couple of months. It got us thinking about one of our bucket list items, to take a long trip somewhere. For now, we'll just dream about it!

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