Pretty As a Picture

                                                                   Green Heron

Red Admiral

                                                        First Year Female American Robin

                                                                   Red Admiral

                                                       Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Flight

                                                              Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

                                                          Female Red-winged Blackbird

                                                               First Family 2015
                                                               Mallard Ducklings

                                                           Ditto, Mallard x Domestic

                                                                        Ditto

                                                                        Ditto

                                                                  Canada Goslings

This is a couple of days of work this week.  Weather has still been somewhat unsettled, but it
appears to be improving.  The palatable temperatures in the 70s will soon be in the past.

053115 SNP Edition, Life at Boomer Lake

http://www.stwnewspress.com/community/local_columnists/life-at-boomer-lake-floods-help-clean-waterway-around-boomer/article_35eed804-071b-11e5-9788-2b19efcb892f.html?mode=story

A Song of Oil, Ice, and Fire

If we let Shell drill in the Arctic, this is what is going to happen.  Please protect what you love, and keep Shell away from one of the most pristine areas in the world.

Ethics and Wildlife Photography

http://aviannovice.hubpages.com/hub/Ethics-and-Wildlife-Photography

And After the Rain, Sunshine Flows Like Gold

                                                       Great Blue Heron with Fish

                                                           Striped Skunk(polecat)

                                                                     Bell's Vireo

                                                                    European Starling
                                                                   (Recently Fledged)

                                                                           Ditto

0830-1040/68-73 degrees/partly cloudy/20 mph wind gusts

Finally, I was able to get out without being rained upon for seven days!  The highlight is
the first fledgling that I have seen for the season, the European Starling.  There's also
a beautiful Carolina Wren that has been perching upon my fence for several days, so the
camera is set up at the back door.  He is calling for a female, and if he permits me to get a
photo, I will help him locate one.

The striped skunk is the first that I have seen at the lake this year, which was actually a week
ago, between raindrops, of course.  It is definitely a female, as she raised her head when a crying baby was being pushed past her in a buggy.  Any female in the animal kingdom takes notice of that.

Photos by Jeannie Pratt Dibble

                                                   "For the proliferation of avian science,
                                                         one valuable species at a time."
                                                     

052415 SNP Edition, Life at Boomer Lake

http://www.stwnewspress.com/community/local_columnists/life-at-boomer-lake-be-patient-to-get-the-photos/article_77e92e74-0196-11e5-8e6a-375d8aa0cd2f.html

The New Santa Barbara Oil Spill

The EPA was created in 1970, to combat oil spills ad other devastations to the environment.  This time, the safety valve didn't work.  The last one occurred in 1969 in Santa Barbara.  Okay...don't they EVER learn that history will repeat itself?  What will happen when Shell gets to go to the Arctic?  There is a 75% chance of a spill there, too.


http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/20/oil-spill-santa-barbara-flashback?cmpid=tpnews-eml-2015-05-23-oilspill

We Are Putting Plastic Into Our Oceans Innocently

If microbeads continue, they will be back in our own bodies, we won't just be using them. View this video and see what plastic really does in the circle of life. I guarantee that you won't like it for your families, especially when it comes to your children. Let's start by stopping it NOW.

Dow Chemical Is Destroying the Food of Monarch Butterflies

Monarch butterfly caterpillars require milkweed plants in order to survive and morph into butterflies. Not only do the weedkillers that Dow manufactures, the glyphosates, and even worse is Enlist Duo, kill weeds, but they also destroy the invaluable milkweed.  Don't let butterflies become a thing of the past, as they are strong pollinators.  Help me help them.

Songbirds and Other Animals of Oklahoma

                                                           Female Red-winged Blackbird

                                                         Male Great-tailed Grackle

                                           Double-crested Cormorant with red eared slider

                                                          Male Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

                                                            Male Orchard Oriole

                                              Diamond-backed Watersnake(Harmless!)

                                                                American Robin

                                                          Perturbed Eastern Cottontail

                                                            Cedar Waxwing(Well Fed!)

                                                                  Canada Goslings
                                                                   "The Guardian"


Most of the songbirds have young in their nests, but some have more than one brood.  A
few got an early start this year, so some could have up to three broods in one season.
The elusive little Bell's Vireo is in higher populations this year, so there will be many of
them in the deciduous trees on the east side of the lake.  They are known for their call,
"Cheedle-cheedle-chew, Cheedle-cheedle-chee," which is in a rapid pitch.  If you hear
that, you know who told you.  http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/189254

051715 SNP Edition, Life at Boomer Lake

http://www.stwnewspress.com/community/local_columnists/life-at-boomer-lake-rain-often-makes-for-good-bird/article_ae31fc0a-fc13-11e4-8842-4fd9cecb561c.html

Our Own Government Destroys Birds!

Wildlife Services, part of the US Department of Agriculture, is part of this travesty. Sounds like they might need a good ornithologist to oversee this department and turn it into what it should be. Due to spring and fall migration, natural causes for death and disease, as well as good practices for bird removal, I believe I could take on this challenge. Should I try? Oh, President Obama, I think you need me...


http://www.revealnews.org/article/shot-and-gassed-thousands-of-protected-birds-killed-annually/

Come Fly with Me

                                                                Female Orchard Oriole

                                                                    Cedar Waxwing

                                                                  Green Heron

                                                                Male Yellow Warbler

                                                                Western Kingbird

Monday, 05-11-15
50-56 degrees/0720-0930/partly cloudy/20 mph wind gusts

Very unsettled weather has been occurring for the past five or six days.  This has brought in a
number of migratory birds, but some will settle in this area.  New studies are being done and it has been postulated that bird irruptions(like the Cedar Waxwing, a boreal forest wintering/ Northern breeding bird) could be predicted on its location for several years.  When there is a lot of rain in an
area like we have had for the past three springs, seed growth is at an all time high.  This will encourage birds to feed here, which is why so many new and interesting birds are in this vicinity.
Another good example, is the fact that the Veery, the Wood Thrush, and the Chestnut-sided Warbler
are in Oklahoma, rare birds.  It will only get better this spring, so it bears waiting to prove this
point.  Keep your binoculars and cameras at the ready, as you'll be in for some exciting surprises.

Songbirds, Woodpeckers, and Shorebirds, OH, MY!

                                                               Spotted Sandpiper

Scissor

                                                 Male Downy Woodpecker at Nest Cavity

                                                           Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

                                                                 Northern Flicker

                                                                    Brown Thrasher

                                                          Male Red-winged Blackbird

                                                            American Robin

0745-0900/partly cloudy/66-70 degrees/20 mph wind gusts/Saturday May 9

Once again, dashing between raindrops, these are the beauties that I came home with!

05-10-15 SNP Press Edition, Life at Boomer Lake

http://www.stwnewspress.com/community/local_columnists/life-at-boomer-lake-birds-of-a-feather-really-do/article_ff9e9534-f6a6-11e4-983f-4fa789d19f09.html

Spring Warbler Migration, Where to Find Them, and How to ID Them

This information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will teach you how to easily find warblers in a wooded area(the wood warblers), what kind of days to find them, and how to call them out.  Warblers
are some of the most beautiful birds that the United States has to offer.

Eight Warbler Songs to Learn this Spring

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/95627/8_Warbler_Songs.pdf?t=1430768659782

This Show Debuts Wed., May 20, on PBS

This is the first segment of an award-winning nature series by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
this 1-hour show immerses you in a world of owls, hawks, eagles, bluebirds, pronghorn, and coyotes, all framed by the spectacular rituals of a bird you truly have to see to believe: the Greater Sage-Grouse.

A Supercharged Spring Is At the Ready

                                                          Great Blue Heron, Fish #1

                                                                   Ditto, Fish #2

                                                                    Ditto, Fish #3

                                                                Second View of Above

                                                              White-crowned Sparrow

                                                            Eastern Cottontail Rabbit

                                                                  Great Blue Heron

                                                                   Downy Woodpecker

                                                              American Robin


Monday, May 4
0720-1000 hrs./64 to 74 degrees/partly cloudy/light and variable winds up to 20 mph gusts


This is what I encountered upon my return home from High Island Texas, so I am not going
to be desperate to write a column with all this material.  The first shots of the Great Blue Heron
with his assorted catches were obtained by him in approximately fifteen minutes, so he wasn't
hungry for long.  I could only get a White-crowned Sparrow in Texas on the ground, so getting
one in a tree was a welcome change.  The Downy Woodpecker is definitely cavity nesting, and
this dead robin appears to be laden with eggs.  Such will be the circle of life's beginning this
spring.

05-03-15 Life at Boomer Lake, SNP Edition

http://www.stwnewspress.com/community/local_columnists/life-at-boomer-lake-more-birds-making-pit-stops-at/article_4c4d965e-f11c-11e4-ba5f-d7678ed98bb1.html

Birding On a Shoestring: The Finale--Big Thicket Texas and Tulsa Arboretum

cypress knees, 

                                                                 Orange Fungus

                                                                Cypress Knees

                                                                   Marsh Rabbit

                                                             Red-headed Woodpecker

                                                                Dwarf American Toad


The first three pictures were in an area with another cypress swamp, Big Thicket's Kirby Trail,
the Cypress Loop.  There were no interesting water moccasins, but there were birds galore.
Sadly, we were unable to see them due to the denseness of the area.  We saw a Pileated
Woodpecker at a glance, but there was no hope for a photo.  The Red-headed Woodpecker was seen at there Big Thicket Sundew Trail, but we never got to see the rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker at
Angelina Forest, nor did we spot the Brown-headed Nuthatch, another uncommon bird.  Perhaps next time!

However, we saw this wonderful frog at the Tulsa Arboretum and a pile of three of them, but that picture didn't come out.