Sunday, May 28, 2017
Saturday, May 27, 2017
There Is Plenty of Light on Boomer Lakefront
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Green Heron Pair
Green Heron
Female Orchard Oriole
Canada Gosling
Least Flycatcher
Female Orchard Oriole
Ditto
Great-tailed Grackle
Female Red-winged Blackbird
Great Blue Heron
Prothonotary Warbler
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers
Green Heron on Nest
Male Orchard Oriole
Least Flycatcher
Great Blue Heron
05-22 through 05-26-17
This was an impressive workweek, as far as I am concerned. The trumpet vine bush on Boomer
Lake's east side is nearly in full bloom, which invited the Orchard Orioles that nest nearby to partake.
They have nested in the area for years, most likely because this bush exists there, as well as the fact that their site is in the willows by the water, which really attracts a number of good birds to its habitat.
Another wonderful piece of habitat is Heron Cove and the surrounding area, which has native trees, mulberries, and plenty of wetland habitat, which attracts my beautiful Heron colony. Right now, there are two pairs of Green Herons there, which perturbs my Great Blue Heron. He just doesn't have the freedom to come and go as he pleases, but he really does accommodate his Green Heron cousins quite well.
Our usual suspects also enjoy the area, which includes the grackles, blackbirds, warblers, flycatchers, warblers, and when in the area, the catbirds.
Boomer Creek also has dense habitat for those birds that prefer those kinds of areas, like the breeding birds, the shy Yellow-billed Cuckoo, this year's first Least Bittern, and a good group of migratories when they come through.
There are still a few more photos in the camera, which I will save until a later date. These include a few that are a bit on the unusual side, but I'm sure that you'll be pleased.
Until then, enjoy your own private birding areas, and as always, let me know what you are observing.
Friday, May 26, 2017
The Beauty of Boomer Lake, Starring the Migratory Black Tern
Black Tern
Black Tern
Ruddy Shelduck x Domestic Variant
Black Tern
Brown Thrasher
Prothonotary Warbler
American Goldfinch
Least Flycatcher
05-20 (Saturday) and 05-21-17 (Sunday)
Last weekend provided a small push of migratory birds with a minor low pressure system coming through. With it, came the largest amounts of Black Terns that have graced Boomer Lake. I believe the high count was thirty-five terns. It was no easy task, but I managed a few decent shots. These terns were a lot faster than the usual local birds, which provided some good practice on how to photograph them.
These terns tend to migrate through the North American interior. In summer, they tend to become marsh birds and in winter, graces both Central and South America as coastal seabirds. These birds forage for insects on the wing, dipping to the water to also glean fish from the surface.
Also in the background was another Ruddy Shelduck, much more of a mixed domestic than the last one. This bird was also a wild bird that had reverted from its original domestic state, as can be observed above.
Birds are with young at various stages. The first parent birds are the Canada Geese and Mallards, followed by the American Robin and Mourning Dove, then the grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds.
Our Green Heron family is sitting on a nest or two.
Boomer Creek should soon have young Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Eastern Phoebes, assorted Woodpeckers, and Prothonotary Warblers, to name just a sampling.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Birding On a Shoestring: Life on the Oklahoma Panhandle
Wilson's Phalarope
Stilt Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
Ditto
American Avocet
Wilson's Phalarope
Lark Bunting
Western Meadowlark
Lark Bunting
Long-billed Curlew
Loggerhead Shrike
Pronghorn Antelope
Swainson's Hawk
House Finch
Juvenile Say's Phoebe
Cassin's Kingbird
Female Bullock's Oriole
Male Orchard Oriole
Chipping Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Male Pronghorn Antelope
Say's Phoebe
Female Black-chinned Hummingbird
Male Black-chinned Hummingbird
Lark Sparrow
White Tailed Deer (Doe)
White Tailed Doe and Fawn (Left)
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Ditto
Canyon Towhee
Cassin's Sparrow
Rock Squirrel
Mule Deer
Black-chinned Hummingbird Nest
Burrowing Owls
Burrowing Owl
Friday, 05-12 through Monday, 05-15-17
This was a trip that I had been wishing for a little over a year, and when the opportunity arose,
my heart was filled with joy. Photos were obtained from the entire panhandle of Oklahoma, which encompasses Beaver, Texas, and Cimarron counties. It holds a wide range of important ecological regions in the state, which makes it an unusual area for western and eastern birds to converge.
We observed long and shortgrass prairie regions, pinyon-juniper habitat, sagebrush wild lands, brushy chaparral, mesa tablelands, Rocky Mountain foothills and rock mesa faces. With these diverse and desert lands came a remarkable and wide range of mammals and birds, most of which I had never encountered before.
Unfortunately, I managed a quick look at one small lizard common to eastern Oklahoma and Texas and met a common garter snake. I had hope for a prairie rattlesnake, but that wasn't in the cards for
this trip.
Many birds were seen but not photographed, like the Common and Chihuahuan Ravens and Prairie Falcon. The Lazuli Bunting and Marsh Wren were heard, along with the Common Poorwill and Western Screech Owl.
As you can see, many beautiful mammals were captured and many birds indigenous to the region, but many more were not. Perhaps this will create a need for a future trip, but it took nearly a day to get
here. The journey was well worth it, and it enriched my first trip to this most important birding area.
These are lands that must be protected at any cost, for our grassland birds are in danger. We have seen great decreases in their presence over the years and the fight for their survival is great, including the Lesser Prairie Chicken. We must make saving their habitat a prime endeavor and you can help by donating to the cause and not buying homes here or destroying this habitat in any fashion. Please help me help THEM.
Perhaps you will enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. If you have an interest in this area, which I believe you will after seeing these striking animals, you can help by spending time at Black Mesa State Park and the Black Mesa Bed and Breakfast caters to birders at the Black Mesa Tableland region. Many ranchers raise cattle here and are helping to keep the ecological region alive and well. I tip my hat to these people for this and support their efforts.
Red-headed Woodpecker
Turkey Vulture
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Monday, 05-15-17
The grand finale before the return trip home was in Woodward county, just east of the panhandle.
These were all species found at home, so they were just for the fun of it, and one last hurrah. We tried for the Barred Owl, who was not co-operative, but she had young in the nest hole, so it wasn't her fault. Our timing was poor.
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