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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.

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


                                                                    Bullock's Oriole


                                                                   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)


                                                                 Western Kingbird

         
                                                           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.