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| While out searching for prairie chickens this morning I found an adult Northern Shrike. Here are my two best photos of the shrike, seen on 3/5/08 in Sullivan County in north central Missouri, classified as accidental in this region. They show the large bill, pale lower mandible, thin black face mask, and overall pale gray coloration typical of NSHR. This bird also had streaking on the breast which does not show well in the photos.
They were taken with a Canon Powershot A540 through a pair of Nikon Monarch 8x42's.
Unfortunately a very thorough search of the area produced no prairie chickens this AM... the shrike was a nice consolation prize, but I'd rather have found the chickens. Yet another landowner in the area mentioned he hadn't seen any this year. | | |
| Here is my best digiscoped photo of the Piping Plover (rare transient in MO) found first by Scott Schuette and also observed by Brad Jacobs and myself. It was found at Settle's Ford CA (Bates and Cass counties) this morning, 8/8. The orange legs show pretty well in this photo.
In addition, there was a colony of Double-crested Cormorants nesting further back in the unit.
The mudflats here were enormous. This photo only shows part of them-- and those willows on the right hand side of the picture are pretty good sized, to give you an idea of scale. While the water in the pool holds this is probably a great place to find some good birds. We estimated about 6,000 shorebirds present, most of them Pectoral Sandpipers.
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Well, the photos aren't great, but my digiscoped shots usually aren't. This bird was seen at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area in Boone County, MO today from 4-4:30 PM. First reported by Brad Jacobs, Snowy Plover is classified as an accidental transient away from the NW portion of the state.
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Sorry, couldn't help it with the title. Both photos binoscoped with a Canon Powershot A540 and Nikon Monarch 8x42's...
This first photo was taken June 6th in Ozark County outside Gainesville.
This pair of Greater Roadrunners was seen today (21 June) in Douglas County along the Glade Top Trail.
In two trips down there, we've had 4 (with a possible 5th near Lebanon). Definitely seem to be in decent numbers!
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So... I finally found the place that the NEMO prairie chickens are lekking. The spot I had been checking was apparently in use by some, but not all, chickens. Today the spot I had been checking had only one bird (who was displaying his heart out), and the other lek had eight birds, three of which were hens!
Needless to say, I was disheartened when I got there and only saw one bird. Luckily, the landowner who owns the land the chickens are displaying on saw me looking for them from my car and gave me the tip on where the rest were. Plus, he let me drive back into his pastures, which meant I got to go offroading in the old minivan. Awesome.
I also got word from another landowner who knows chickens well (he's from KS) that he saw a flock of 12 about two months ago in the same area. VERY good news.
Here are the photos...
The lone chicken displaying in the corn stubble...
Air Chicken. After the chicken jumped like this, the chicken held up a sign reading "Michael Jordan has nothing on me. I want a shoe contract." I was too slow with the camera and missed it. Surely it would have changed our understanding of the class Aves...
A shot of the "real" lek. That's a male on the left and the three blobs on the right are hens. Pardon the blurs, but this is digiscoped at a distance of about 300 yards. The hens pretty much ignored the other males and concentrated on this one. Whatever it is, he's got it. They flew off at 8:30 and the males dispersed shortly afterwards.
On to Union Ridge, where I added a new bird to the CACHE checklist. On my way out near the southern boundary, I saw this bird.
Yes, it's "just" a Kestrel. But this has been my nemesis at URCA since day one. I've seen Peregrines there multiple times, a Merlin once, but never a Kestrel within the boundaries. Oh, they're all around there, but never in there. This bird was perched inside the conservation area boundaries by three feet. It was just that kind of day.
Also had two Henslow's Sparrows in the usual spot near the entrance, and calling Louisiana Waterthrushes along a creek. One gave very good views, but my boots got "a little" muddy to see it.
New migrants... higher number of chickens... awesome day!
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