Birds

I know I haven't been posting much, but I haven't been doing too much bird-watching. I went down to Montrose Harbor last week after going running, so I didn't spend too much time because I was tired but I did see some interesting birds.

As I was walking through, I didn't really see any birds in the trees, but I saw some somewhat large birds flying away from me that had white rumps. I didn't think too much of it because I thought they were robins. I went on down to the beach and walked out onto this concrete pier that goes out into the lake. I saw a couple of brown birds that looked like cormorants but didn't have the correct coloring. One flew up and perched on this big structure of some kind (probably used to have a light in it) and another flew down and floated on the water. I looked at them for a long, long time then when I got home I was able to identify them as Juvenile Double-Crested Cormorants. So, my first instinct was right. That might be the first time since I've started that that's happened :)

Then I was kind of bummed about not seeing too many birds and I just kind of rested my elbows on this concrete ledge that was chest-level and kind of relaxed. All of a sudden 4 little white and grey birds fly down and land on this ledge about 30 feet from me. I turn to them and look at them through the binoculars and they're just walking along, pecking at the concrete, walking towards me. So I lowered the binoculars and just watched, and darned if one of them didn't walk right up to me! I made a very small sound (oops) and he looked slightly alarmed and walked quickly away. I could have reached out and touched him. He was so cute! So then I watched them as they flew away and saw white stripes on their wings, much like Killdeer and Sandpipers.

On my way back through the hedge, in a clearing I got a good look at those white-rumped birds again and started stalking them around the park. They were large, about 12 inches, and perched both in trees and on the ground. They had SO much going on. Brown head, black beak, black "bib" on their neck, black "moustache", red heart-shaped mark on their nape, black speckling on their body, white rump, and, best of all, when they flew you could see the most beautiful saffron color on their wings, so that it looked striped yellow and black on their wings. They are in the woodpecker family and are called a Northern Flicker. After stalking them a bit, I realized that there were at least six of them and I wasn't the only birder out there checking them out.

Neither of those pictures show the black "moustache". One is red, and one isn't there. From the pictures, it seems that that can differ. Also, the eastern sub-species is the Yellow-Shafted Flicker, and the western is the Red-Shafted Flicker. The ones I saw were yellow.

So, when I went to Oklahoma, I wasn't able to go bird-watching, but I still saw some cool birds. On the way home from the airport I saw at least 3 hawks. One was coming right at me and I thought it had the head and size of a Kestrel, but I wasn't sure. Later that day, Christine and I drove to Target and as we were going down the interstate, which is lined with fields, we saw 2 different hawks exhibiting the same behavior, which was to soar close to the ground in small circles, obviously hunting, and then every once in a while they would flap their wings over one area to stay in the same place. I knew that I had seen this behavior described in one of my books, and when I got home to Chicago I looked it up and it is an extremely common behavior of American Kestrels. I wish I could have seen their coloring, but I couldn't. It's neat. So I'm very confident that those were Kestrels.

So as I was looking in the bird book (yes, I brought my binoculars and bird book to Oklahoma, why do you ask?) I was just pointing out cool birds to Michael and Christine. I showed them a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and said that I really wanted to see one, but that they weren't up in my area. Well, I looked at the map and they're natural habitat is centered on Oklahoma! Michael and Christine both said they'd seen one. But since I wasn't going to have the chance to go bird-watching I didn't think I'd see one. On Sunday morning, driving to church, I was watching the electrical wires, as is normal for me now, and I saw one!!! I was so excited! Michael thought it was funny. THEN, on the way to the airport, we saw another one. But in that case, I was able to get a better look at it because we were waiting to turn left at a T, and it was right in front of us.

Also in Oklahoma are Great-Tailed Grackles, all over the place. The females and males look different, but they weren't any shyer than the Grackles here :)

And I saw a Blue Jay. I had forgotten how gorgeous their coloring is, and I swear I haven't seen one in the Midwest in years - anyone else?

So, that's all, but they were all pretty cool.

Oklahoma, Cole, Abby, and Birds

So I went to Oklahoma to see Michael and Family (it's gotten so big that they are just "and family" now). I was a little sick unfortunately, but Christine said it wouldn't be the same if one of us weren't sick :) So I was highly averse to makeup only when the pictures were being taken apparently :)

Abby looks thrilled, no?

I love the little smile!

Big Yawn!

The sleeper I got him :) He looks slightly startled by this turn of events.

What happens when you tell Abby to smile:

Hee.

And a video that isn't terribly interesting, I'm afraid, aside from watching Cole.

New Leah pics

Happy Birthday Jen!!!

Um, I think she wants the Sprite.

Leah!

Yay! So I finally got to meet my niece, Leah. I had this secret fear that she wouldn't like me at all, but we got along just fine. I held her a lot while her mom ate. It was a novelty for Nikki to eat hot food, I think :) Anyway, here are some pictures. I was lucky in that I was able to schedule work around the visit, so I was with them for a whole week! These are in no particular order.

Mom with Izzie - they're kind of in the same position, right?

We put the baby bath down and guess who jumped in?!

Leah really liked her Uncle Ralph! They had a ball - I'll post some videos if I can.

And here she is with Aunt Diane

Random picture of me and Izzie. I lost all my pictures of her, so I had Nikki take some new ones.

I'm framing this one and putting on my desk at work. She's wearing a white dress that her Great-Grandma Shackelford bought her, and that's who's holding her. I just love her in headbands!

Great Grandma and her Granddaughter and Great-granddaughter.

Adore this picture. She's saying - Nana, I am not a doll that you can dress up - now get me out of this ridiculous bonnet!

Great-Grandma and Leah

Other Great-Grandma and a sleeping Leah

Leah with her cousins, Emily and Molly (who, of course, asked where Tyler was - she adores him)

Leah and Dave

Izzie was incredibly fond of Leah (really Brendan's) playmat. Thanks Jen! We'll clean the cat hair off before we give it back!

The Magic Hedge

After 2 days of birding at the "Magic Hedge" on Montrose Harbor (about 1 mile away from my house). These are in no particular order. I'll try to add some more description later. The Magic Hedge sounds like this idiotically hokey name for a very small park smack dab in the middle of Chicago - but that's before you go. Once you go, you realize that the Hedge is, in fact, magical, and I say that without a hint of irony. It's probably one of the best bird-watching spots in Illinois and it's right down the road! The particular bit of hedge that it was named for in the park is amazing - there are birds everywhere and just SO many species. But the park actually butts up to the beach, so you can bird the migrating birds as well. Large parts of it are roped off to walkers so that the birds (and foliage) can live in peace. It's pretty cool. The only downside is that it doesn't really ever get raptors.

Gray Catbird - I saw one of these at Eagle Creek (ostensibly what got me on my current birding kick) and had to end up identifying it by his call, which is loud and sounds like a really annoyed cat mewing/yowling. Kind of like Izzie when she's hungry, actually. Anyway, I swear this guy was chasing me around the park on Sunday - kept hearing him, and then he'd jump out onto the trail. This time I was able to see his rather pretty rump - which is rufous-colored instead of gray like the rest of him.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - probably the only Flycatcher of the 5 that I'll ever be able to identify.
Worm-Eating Warbler

European Starling (juvenile) - an entire freaking flock of them descended on the tree I was looking in - all juveniles in some form of molt.

Purple Finch

Promonotary Warbler

Guesses anyone?
No idea? Here's a hint:

Yeah, that's right, Red-Winged Blackbird. I saw the female first (above), then the next day an entire flock of males all together. I never would've identified the female without some fellow birders coming along.

While looking for a picture to accompany my Male Red-winged Blackbird, I was linked to a story in the UK Telegraph newspaper recounting the frequent attacks being made by territorial Blackbirds in Chicago in 2008. The last line of the article: "Mr. Stoltz advised anyone targeted by an angry blackbird, to stare directly at it. If that fails, barking like a dog should keep it away". Crack journalism, that.

Eastern Kingbird - he sat and modeled for me for a while.
CEDAR WAXWING! I actually only saw the top half of it for like 5 seconds, about 2 minutes after I walked into the Hedge for the first time. I've been dying to see one of these since the 2nd grade because it was the prettiest picture in my bird book. So I'd like to see the entire thing some time, but it sure made me happy that I finally found where that stupid hedge was!

Caspian Tern - probably spent 20 minutes looking at 4 of them sitting on the beach. Finally identified them using the following field markers - Black tail, Black legs, Black tip on the end of the beak that I was only able to see through my binoculars while standing maybe 10 feet away. Another field marker is that their beak is redder and larger than other Terns, but without anything to compare it to, I had to use the other field markers to confirm.

This is how I saw them - standing in a field of Gulls with his black tail sticking out. This particular one is either a juvenile or molting because his black head isn't as striking.

Black and White Warbler (my favorite find of Sunday)

Female American Redstart was another one of my favorites because I had to look her up when I got back home, but I'm positive of the identification. The female has the exact same pattern of colors as the male, but in different colors (gray and yellow instead of black and orange). I could see the yellow on the sides of the breast, but then she flapped her wings and I saw all kinds of yellow which was under her wings. She's very pretty.

American Tree Sparrow

Also saw a Downy Woodpecker, dozens of Ring-Billed Gulls, Mallard Ducks, Flycatchers, Cormorants, a bird that may or may not have been an Ovenbird, a Mama Goldfinch feeding her exceptionally loud baby (or teenager, she wasn't very small, and she sounded like an extremely incessant squeaky toy), and some warblers that I couldn't identify. Also, there were Swallows EVERYWHERE. They call constantly and fly above your head constantly, so your eye is always drawn to them. I think they were Barn Swallows and Bank Swallows, but I'm not very good at identifying them because they're often backlit and they're fast little buggers. And for the third consecutive bird-watching session, I saw the Black-Capped Chickadee at the same time and location as the Woodpecker. It's like they're symbiotic. I also have 2 descriptions of birds in my notebook that I can't identify and don't have a picture in my head, so I probably won't be able to. That's frustrating. But overall, the Magic Hedge lived up to its name!