Bird Migration and Misc Birding Thread

[GrindingAway]

Yes, they are common along with Semipalmated, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral, Solitary, and our nesting Spotted. Sadly all shorebirds have declined horribly from decades ago so heartening to hear you got a pond full of them.

I'm still a pretty new birder (just crossed one year on ebird) and shorebirds are the one group I haven't really figured out. If I look at my top 10 needs list of Iowa half of them are in your post.

Other than the obvious "hang out by the shore" (or wetlands) any advice?

 

[StClone]

I'm still a pretty new birder (just crossed one year on ebird) and shorebirds are the one group I haven't really figured out. If I look at my top 10 needs list of Iowa half of them are in your post.

Other than the obvious "hang out by the shore" (or wetlands) any advice?

Finding shorebirds can definitely be trying as they are habitat dependent. They often migrate fairly high and at great speed and will rest and feed where the right habitat occurs. As of now there should be later migrant shorebirds around right into early June. Mid-July they come back in a leisurely Fall migration. Concentrations can be found late summer where drying wetlands reveal muddy edges.

Don't know your location but eBird and Iowa Bird Facebook are often updating bird observations including shorebirds:

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Since you use eBird check this out:



Look for locations on eBird where your target species are showing up near you. And, depending on rain, Fall migration can be very productive. Also places where lakes, ponds, reservoirs, water impoundments are drained or lowered.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Late afternoon today I was raking leaves from under my Japanese yews and pruning out all of the dead needles and the deer gnawed damage. Was probably at it an hour or so and noticed what looked like an owl pellet on my ground level deck. I looked up into my crab apple and there was a barred owl only six feet above where I had walked half a dozen times in the last hour.

Called a birder friend who lives nearby but owl had flown just as he got to my house. We walked over to my neighbors backyard and heard an adult owl's whine call and owlets hissing and found mom feeding two owlets. So cool! The owl in my yard was likely the dad.

Just some cell phone snaps:

 

[Fishhead]

I'm still a pretty new birder (just crossed one year on ebird) and shorebirds are the one group I haven't really figured out. If I look at my top 10 needs list of Iowa half of them are in your post.

Other than the obvious "hang out by the shore" (or wetlands) any advice?

Though farm fields are pretty much all drain tiled now, look at flooded fields and you will definitely see them during migration

 

[BoxsterCy]

And here's the barred owl owlet I found after spying one of the adults in my yard. Two owlets were in my neighbors backyard oak and I had a really good twilight look at this one.

 

[dahliaclone]

Have a killdeer in the yard that laid an egg. What a weird bird. They lay their eggs in the open on the ground. Then if anything gets near the nest, the mother will fake injuries to lure the predator/human away from the nest.

 

[chuckd4735]

How do I murder European Starlings. Hawkeyes of birds

 

[2020cy]

I’ve seen killdeer do that several times and a few times hen turkeys do a similar monouver.

 

[JEFF420]

How do I murder European Starlings. Hawkeyes of birds

they make some pretty awesome bb guns today

 

[BoxsterCy]

Have a killdeer in the yard that laid an egg. What a weird bird. They lay their eggs in the open on the ground. Then if anything gets near the nest, the mother will fake injuries to lure the predator/human away from the nest.

I nearly stepped in some of their eggs last spring. Was in a park lawn area under some silver maples looking up at some baby screech owls high in the trees and was backing while looking up. Ended up within another backwards step of smashing the eggs by accident which would have been pretty awful. The adult was off in the distance trying to distract us and their was more than one set of killdeer bopping around so hadn't that "nest" right there where we were.

 

[StClone]

I’ve seen killdeer do that several times and a few times hen turkeys do a similar monouver.

Odd day in my yard. I was going to replace a derelict 14-year-old Bluebird box on my acre and a third when, as I grabbed the post to remove the screws, out flew a female Bluebird. The box contained a completed nest. Surprise!

From our devastating mid-March ice storm, we still have a five-foot-tall pile of branches. After the city picked up most of the early cleanup, we obtained a burn permit and I was preparing to ignite the pile when out popped a Brown Thrasher from a nest inside. Surprise #2.

After reading a post about Killdeers feigning injury to lure intruders away from their nests, I witnessed a Mourning Dove drop like a rock from a major crotch seven feet up in a Willow tree. As it neared the ground, it opened its wings and began acting strangely—flipping and flopping one wing conspicuously, then fluttering the other, as if drunk or injured. I thought it might be poisoned or hit by a car. But each time I approached, it responded the same way, clearly capable of flight. Eventually it flew across the street. Looking back at where it had dropped from in the tree, I spotted two plump squabs perched in the crotch. #3

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

This thread makes me miss the screech owls that lived behind me about 15 years ago. They would land on the deck just a few foot away from us and chill for sometimes 15 minutes. Super curious animals.

 

[VeloClone]

Last night we had dinner at Clives Roadhouse in Champlin, MN. There is a small retention pond with areator fountain right next to the outdoor seating patio/deck. There were 3 green herons fishing in and around the pond pretty much the entire time we were there.

I'll try to get some pics from daughter who took a bunch of them with her cell phone camera.