PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEB HIRT: 2022

This bird apparently showed up yesterday and decided to stay into at least today, so my poor shot from several months ago at least showed that there is Brown Booby interest in Boomer Lake. This species is a seabird that usually resides in southern waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, though it occasionally comes inland. However, if one looks at the Oklahoma eBird stats, it is becoming more frequent in this state.

071922 Green Heron

It appeared that we might have young being raised this year, but with all the cover and lack of viewable area, it was very difficult to make observations. There could have been fledglings, but writer is not aware of any that were seen.

061519 Green Heron with White Chick

In Front of Her

This has been the youngest nestling that writer has observed since following the small Green Heron colony of Heron Cove. This was a very low nest at the west side of the cove, which was questionable as to whether or not the young would survive, as there was such easy access to it with no real cover. Sadly, it was not long before the nesting must have seen its demise, as the adult was gone within a week.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

073022 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

073022 SNP Edition, Life At Boomer Lake

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/lifestyles/life-at-boomer-lake-the-songs-and-calls-of-area-birds/article_c613f048-0eae-11ed-a662-537651777323.html?utm_source=stwnewspress.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Flists%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1659182403&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

Saturday, July 23, 2022

072322 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-variety-of-sparrows-live-in-oklahoma/article_226ce0c4-920c-5a50-8db7-859da0469203.html

072322. SNP Edition, Life At Boomer Lake

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/lifestyles/life-at-boomer-lake-getting-young-birds-ready-to-move/article_e3bc6d2e-093a-11ed-a518-67fdf2f0e1cc.html

Sunday, July 10, 2022

071022 The Express-Star, Birding Today

https://www.chickashanews.com/news/birding-today-birds-sensitive-to-changes-in-climate/article_56ffb2bd-6e43-53fa-9082-367bbc409b18.html

071022 SNP Edition, Life At Boomer Lake

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/lifestyles/life-at-boomer-lake-younger-birds-are-out-and-about/article_6bbc5b5c-fe4c-11ec-bd1c-77ca59df96ef.html

Monday, July 4, 2022

070422 Worth the Waiting For the Best of Nature to Show

070422 Barn Swallow Female Adult (Bottom)

Barn Swallow Juvenile (Top)

The moms had the kids out and they were stretching their wings, as well as being fed. There were eleven Barn Swallows out today, which were mostly young ones. Fortunately, I got a couple of nice photo ops for this holiday.

Closeup of Juvenile Barn Swallow

With the position of the young bird in the top photo, we see a lot more down, but it is the same bird. I believe this one is the youngest bird I have photographed as a photographer.

Female Downy Woodpecker

Either I followed the woodpeckers or they followed me. I saw both the mother and the young male progeny, but her photo is the best out of the two.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

This is the first sighting of the gnatcatcher this year. It is nice having them close to home. Luckily, this is the year that my overgrown hotspot is really producing as a second growth riparian area, though there are some older trees here, too.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Same area netted this beauty, which I knew was around, as it was heard.

dark morph female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Plenty of butterflies out today. This one gave a great viewing the moment that I saw it, so speed was necessary on getting this shot.

0655-0810/80-84 F (heat index 76-86)/partly cloudy/ESE5-S9/71-69% RH/29.98 Hg and steady - 29.98 Hg and rising

Sunday, July 3, 2022

070322 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-warbler-returns-to-previous-territory/article_023d26af-d71a-568a-8f68-2802e0cc82d4.html

070322 SNP Edition, Life At Boomer Lake

Sunday, June 19, 2022

061922 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/birding-today-up-to-us-to-find-solutions-to-bird-deaths/article_3f5865ca-3e2c-59e7-ae19-2fec58a5b11c.html

Saturday, June 11, 2022

061122 Chickasha Express-Star, Birding Today

https://www.chickashanews.com/news/birding-today-multiple-species-threatened-by-military-activities/article_4c2121f7-2f7b-53b0-ad8b-2d9e1621c56d.html

061122 SNP Edition, Life At Boomer Lake

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/lifestyles/life-at-boomer-lake-birds-follow-the-food/article_ab4a13ea-e826-11ec-933e-df2d64efe5bb.html

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

060122 Young Bluebirds Make a Big Hit With Everyone

052722 Juvenile Eastern Bluebird

It took weeks to get photos of the young bluebirds hatched at Heron Cove. The first photo was taken of all three while they were together in one tree, then it became more and more difficult as they progressed high in sycamore trees eating insects. The adult male was always there monitoring their progress, while we assume that the female is on more eggs.

Writer still has been unable to photograph all of them together, but the date given was the day that this photo finally happened. Even though I could not get him in the picture, the father was close by as can he seen in the shot just below.

Adult Male Eastern Bluebird

The proud father attending to his three juvenile birds. Two winters ago, there was a freeze that lasted for quite some time that was responsible for the deaths of both bluebirds and Carolina Wrens. The bluebirds have taken it upon themselves to increase their numbers, but the Carolina Wrens are few and far between. There are other nesting wrens in several neighborhood locations.

053122 Juvenile Eastern Bluebird

In a more shaded area, this juvenile bluebird can be seen sporting its spots and its lack of the adult plumage. Isn't it beautiful?

060122 Male Northern Cardinal

This lovely cardinal was actually within the tangled trees and brush of Heron Cove. Who thinks that there could easily be a nest in there? One of the nest locations disappeared, as cleanup efforts were undertaken by the city and some valuable habitat was removed. However, there is still plenty of habitat here and many birds are nesting this this wonderful area, including the Brown Thrasher, Warbling Vireo, Red-winged Blackbird, Mourning Dove, Green Heron, grackles, Eastern Kingbird, and plenty of others.

Thursday, May 26, 2022

052622 Late May Rains Hold Up Some Migrants, But Not Others

051722 Eastern Wood-Pewee

Today the Least Flycatcher was heard, but this character popped out at the end of the trip.

052422 Orchard Oriole

This Orchard Oriole was observed between raindrops on the second rainy day of four.

Great Crested Flycatcher

A pair of these birds were observed looking for protein when the rain held off for a while.

052622 Cliff Swallow

This was the snag that a two Cliff Swallows had an interest in, though many were scouring the area for gnats and other tiny insects. They rarely perch as their feet are somewhat rudimentary since they spend so much time on the wing. Writer also tried for shots yesterday, but it began to rain and that made me more interested in heading home.

Canada Goose

A pair of Canada Geese preferred this quiet wet part of The Lowlands in which to set up a respite. Photo taken to show a little water depth.

Monday, May 16, 2022

051622 Excessive Early May Rains, Migrant Travels, and Grand Father of Heron Cove

050622 Greater Yellowlegs

This was the day after the crazy four inches of rain that hit us. The two shots were taken

at the Lowlands, which is off Husband Street near Lakeview Rd. In attendance were a Spotted Sandpiper, Blue-winged Teal, two Mallards that paid me no mind, both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and the star of the show, multiple Wilson's Phalaropes, that are not seen very often in these parts.

Wilson's Phalaropes Flanked by Lesser Yellowlegs (L) and Greater Yellowlegs (R)

By the way, did you know those gorgeous phalaropes are the females?

051122 Clay-colored Sparrow

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

We all call this birds a scourge due to their behavior (dumping eggs in other species' nests),

but it was how the evolved. They probably made horrible parents, so now they leave it up to someone else. There are other subspecies that raise their own...to some degree.

Male Brown-headed Cowbird

051322 Clay-colored Sparrow

They are usually gone by the 15th, but it is now the 16th. Are we going to press our luck? This is an appropriate spring shot, and the buzzy call will be remembered well until next spring.

051622 Great-tailed Grackle

My old birding buddy always says, "get some action shots." Okay, Susan, will this suffice?

Brown Thrasher

This fluffy beauty was quiet just sitting under second growth cover, minding its own business in the shade, but it was a nice shot, so here were are at the original flood plain.

Male Eastern Bluebird (Dad)

The same day of this posting this sweet little male finally emerged with three strapping fledglings. Unfortunately, writer was too far in the distance for a nice photo, but they were seen via poor photos and binoculars. By the time that I slowly meandered over, the young were nowhere to be seen, but dad was perched (actual photo), so the three young were around SOMEWHERE. We'll be trying to get shots of them, as well as the proud mother.

Monday, May 2, 2022

050222 Migratory Action in the Heat of 2022

042522 Eastern Bluebird

Warbling Vireo

042722 Clay-colored Sparrow

042922 Lincoln's Sparrow

Green Heron, First of Season

There was also a second one in the area.

042122 Gray Catbird

Every year a pair come to breed.

042022 Snow Goose

At the end of March, this bird who was a juvenile at the time, and in the company of 19-20 Canada Geese remained at Boomer Lake until close to the end of April. It simply disappeared, even though it went everywhere with its Canada Goose entourage. Writer believes that nature finally struck and it reached the time when Zugunruh made it restless. It could easily be in its northern breeding area now doing what comes naturally.

Brown Thrasher

Several thrashers appeared in the area all calling for mates, which was fine for a day or two, but even nest mates will become angered and expect the others to move on, even if they must be forced to do so. This is the male that is left and he has a mate. As a matter of fact, just on May 4, one was seen collecting nesting material.

041522 Yellow-rumped Warbler

We still have a sparse amount of Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers that hatched later than the first group, which should be in breeding territory now. As one can observe, this male was in breeding plumage when this photo was taken.