Back To The Country

I went back to the countryside today.  I can say that it was enjoyable. Western meadowlarks were seen more frequently than on Saturday. Solitary sandpipers were the most common species of shorebirds seen. Other shorebirds seen included Spotted sandpipers and Semipalmated plovers. Yellowlegs numbers decreased with only one Greater yellowlegs. My sister described what might have been an American avocet. We are not certain though. Once again the most common bird was the Cedar and Bohemian waxwings. Tons of these birds were eating berries and flower buds. Swallows were everywhere. I found a Barn swallow nest in the screened-in porch. Their were four chicks and the parents kept flying in to feed them. Sparrows were only seen three times. All of them were Song sparrows. Warblers were seen along the river bank quite often. The species seen were Wilson's, Yellow, and Black and white warblers. The highlight was an American pelican. A large completely white bird with a black area on the wing and a huge beak. At first I thought it was an overgrown Ivory gull with a black wing area and a beak deformity. There were once again a large number of Eastern kingbirds. I saw them fighting over a dragonfly that one of them had caught. Gulls were seen only a few times. They were all Ring-billed. Common ravens and American crows were squawking away all around me. Canada geese were not hard to find with a flock of 100 along the other side of the river. It was a good day of birding and I'm glad I did it despite it being a 30+ degree day.