Migration is in full swing! Ah, it’s the special time of year when I drive around looking for flooded farm fields and get the opportunity to misidentify shorebirds. We’ve had several flooded fields thanks to some heavy rain storms in Minnesota this summer. My neighborhood flooded again two weeks ago. In general, I like shorebirds–they [ Read More ]
A birder scans the dawn for migrants. What a beautiful morning at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio! During the Midwest Birding Symposium, I got the opportunity to observe some shorebird banding last Friday (which was a fun change of pace from the usual songbird banding I do on Fridays). The banding started at dawn [ Read More ]
Are these the same species or different species? What species do you think they are?
Thanks for all the guesses in the blog and on Twitter. DC Birding Blog guessed correctly when he wrote Wilson’s snipe. I love that tail, it looks like a mini red-tailed hawk tail. Tai brings up a good point, note how small the feathers are in relation to the fingers–they are small birds. Here is [ Read More ]
Don’t worry, this post isn’t all shorebirds. On a Friday I was watching these little semi-palmated plovers squabbling on a beach and then the very next day, I’m watching them on a mud flat in western Minnesota… And getting prickly pear cactus paddles stuck on my leg–owie. Yes, we do have a couple of cactus [ Read More ]
So, Swarovski took all us bloggers out to the remote South Beach section of Cape Cod for some birding and digiscoping. The morning started foggy and chilly but warmed to a sunny day–a few times, it looked more like we were in a desert rather than the cape. We saw some horseshoe crabs. They do [ Read More ]
When Swarovski took us birding out South Beach in Cape Cod, I made a beeline for ruddy turnstones. LOVE those guys. They’re shorebirds which give them a kind of Dr. Seuss look and they are so flashy looking. Attention must be paid to a turn stone. They are opportunistic and feed on rocky and sandy [ Read More ]
