Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Truth Is Out There












Swainson's Hawks ready to make sweet sweet love. They sexed for quite a prolonged period of time after this photo was taken, I was impressed. Near Camas National Wildlife Refuge, ID.

Everyone keeps asking me..."Seagull, where will you end up this year?". The truth is, I have absolutely no idea, but for the short term, I will go north. I seek the Snowy Owl, after all. Yesterday I began my migration that will culminate in dismal/dreary Port Angeles, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula....a place that some refer to as "where people go to die". I hope that's not true, or else I should seriously reconsider my motivations for going in the first place.

Being a Professional Crastinator, here are some more of my fav birds from last summer. Thank you, come again.

Gray Flycatcher, the baron of the sage. Mono Lake, CA.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds are obviously the best blackbirds. Camas National Wildlife Refuge, ID.


Franklin's Gull...an excellent gull. Redmond Lakes, ND.


Upland Sandpipers were a common sight for me over the summer. I guess that explains my face melting off several times a week. Redmond Lakes, ND.


Baird's Sparrow. If anyone gets a job at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge this year, I can tell you where the magic Baird's spot is. Otherwise...just go to the Sharp-tailed Grouse blind, and don't misidentify the Grasshopper and Savannah Sparrows there. Redmond Lakes, ND.


Common Nighthawk. Peent! Peent! Peent! Redmond Lakes, ND.


Chestnut-collared Longspur. This was the friendliest longspur I met all year, on the entrance road to Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge, MT. Yet another prairie bird with an awesome song and tear-jerking flight display.


Black Tern. Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge, ND, is awash in Franklin's Gulls, Black Terns and other shorebirds in the late summer. The terns act more like swallows than seabirds there, and are easy to get good photos of.


Before last year, I have never been someplace where Vesper Sparrows plague the landscape. Now that I lived in North Dakota, that has changed. Redmond Lakes, ND.


5 comments:

  1. Damn elusive Snowy, I wants me one, I needs me one. Nice Nighthawk, my face melted.

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  2. Have fun with those crows. WHAT ARE THEY????

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  3. Port Angeles is a funny town. Not sure if people go there to die, I thought that was reserved for twi-hards in Forks.

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  4. @Lauren - Yup, I chased my first one yesterday, and missed. Round 2 will happen tomorrow I think.

    @Corey - I will soon consult the local experts...

    @Jen - I am going to pick someone up from PDX this afternoon, and then look for the infamous bunting. Maybe by this afternoon we will have pictures of THE SAME BIRD.

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