Spring Migration!

Ducks Headed North!

Northern Shovelers

Yesterday we stopped at water treatment ponds along the Interstate in Oklahoma. We stopped here a few weeks ago and this was the first time we saw Northern Shovelers. We was the same as last time, Ring-necked Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Mallards, Rock Pigeons, and Northern Shovelers. We even saw a Northern Harrier flying through; just like last time. Overhead was a completely different story hundreds and hundreds of ducks flying hheading north! Bring on the spring migration!! What a beautiful thing to see so many ducks/geese flying through the air.
Today we are enroute to GA and on a tight schedule; this would be the down fall to be doing a big year and being a truck driver. But we are at 126 and I am quiet happy with our number! Happy Birding!

Lost and Not Found.....

No birding today...yestereday I lost my inhaler. We looked all over the truck and could not find it. I'm thinking I lost it in Kingman when I went into Kmart or the Flying J. But we got a new one today. Not sure if we will have time on this load to do any birding but we will see. We are on our way to GA, Vidalia to be precise. Happy Birding everyone!

~Santa Ana River~

Well yesterday we went to Santa Ana River in CA and saw eight new bird for this year! There was Mallards, American Coots, Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpipers, Least Sandpiper, Costa's Hummingbird, Western, Ring-billed and California Gulls, American Wigeons, Black-necked Stilts, Gadwalls, Killdeer, Tree Swallow and Yellow-rumped Warblers. We went birding for about 2 hours and were very pleased with the outcome of our trip. Below are some picture of some birds we got. Hope you enjoy!

Coots and Black-necked Stilt

Greater Yellowlegs and
Mallard

American Wigeon

Coot

Greater Yellowlegs

Spotted Sandpiper

Too Cold!!

Well, we went birding yesterday but didn't get very far as we were battling three foot of snow in Wyoming. There's this rest area along Interstate 80 and there's a wooded area where we got some lifers last summer, but not this year. We walked the quarter of a mile to the line of trees and were beginning to sink in making it very hard to walk and breath; since I have asthma. But we decided to check out the level of snow in the woods and make the decision to go further or turn around.  Simon had told me earlier that he had saw an owl flying over the trees so I really wanted to get an owl! We tried a couple different spots to get into the forest but the snow was just to deep. We rested for a few minutes listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and headed back to the truck empty handed.

Today we will not be going birding because its to cold out and we have to make it to California tonight. But tomorrow we plan to stop at Santa Anna River, Santa Anna, CA. We went there last fall and saw quiet a few birds! Until then, happy birding!!!

Sandhill Cranes...But No Common Crane.

Yesterday we arrived in Alda, NE dropped our trailer at a little truck stop and headed over to the Nebraska Nature and Visitor Center. The lady told us where to look for the Common Crane saying it would be among a flock of Sandhill Cranes and we headed out in search of a ABA code 4 bird. We went the five miles she directed us to and there was no flock of cranes. So we went a little further and nothing so we turned around and went down a few more roads but still came up with nothing. We started heading back when we saw a flock of what looked like Canada Geese and something that seemed to be white. This flock was right behind a elderly man's house so Simon went and talked to him and he let us go back there and check out the flock. Then we soon realized that they weren't moving....yup all decoys. That was disappointing. Went we got back to the man's house we had a good laugh and he stated that he wasn't sure if the decoys were still there or not since he was on an oxygen tube. But no harm we got a good walk and that's always good! Always important to look on the sunny side of things! As we were walking back we could need the flock of cranes. We were to busy paying attention to the "geese" that we didn't even notice the noise of the Sandhill Cranes.

After leaving the man's home we went over to when the flock of cranes were. We pulled into an abandoned farm parked the semi walked through the trees and saw all the cranes! This is our first time seeing cranes and what a sight! They were everywhere in this field, truly an amazing sight! We walked up this little road trying not to scare the flock away but also trying to get close enough to get a good picture. We don't have an expensive camera or lens so for us to get a good picture we have to be fairly close to the birds.

There was some other birders down the road a little bit from us. There had to be up to 2000 Sandhill Cranes there and we had to find the one Common Crane out of the bunch. Unfortunately that did not happen for us. We took 550 pictures and only 55 turned out. It was so beautiful to see so many cranes in one spot its a little bummer that we didn't get to see the Common Crane. We realized later on once we were back on the road that we should have gone down to where the other birders were. That must have been the side of the flock where the Common Crane was. But we still got a lifer for the day and we are now up to 118 for the year and 222 for our lifer list (birds we've seen since starting birding). Those numbers are pretty and we are quiet happy with them.

We expect to hit a dry patch until spring migration starts in late February early March, but as always I will be posting about our day to day birding. We hope to continue our great streak of birds and we are keeping a positive attitude about finding birds. Happy Birding!!!

Sad News....and Good News!!!

We did not find the Common Crane we were hoping for but we did find about 1000 Sandhill Cranes!!! Full report tomorrow with some pictures!!!!

Yesterday we stopped at a Love's Truck Stop and took a little walk in some woods. We didn't see anything new except a bird Simon has been wanting to see for a while...Brown Creeper.

Brown Creeper

White-breasted Nuthatch

Hairy Woodpecker

Not the best photos of the Brown Creeper but sometimes you get a wonderful picture and other times not so much. The photos of the Hairy Woodpecker and White-breasted Nuthatch turned out wonderful!

Today we plan to stop off at Nebraska Nature and Visitor Center. We called them to see if there was room to park a semi tractor trailer and it sounds like we will be able to park along the road, she also informed us that there is a Common Crane there. The Common Crane is an ABA code 4! ABA code 4 means it's a casual visitor, not annual with 6 or more total sightings recorded in North America and 3 or more records in the last 30 years. WOW, we are excited to see this bird, hopefully it will still be there when we arrive. We have 90 more miles to get there. Wish us luck!!! Happy Birding!!