Clay-colored Sparrows are everywhere here. If I was a bird I would want to be named after dirt too.
Summer! That's right nonbirders. It's summer now. Don't let the flooding, hail, rain and cold weather fool you...yes, listen to the tornadoes. All of the continent's birdlife have reached their nesting grounds (or died trying), and migration is no more. Migration defines the seasons for most birders...if birds aren't moving, its summer or winter, if they are, it's spring or fall, depending on which way they are going. Shorebirds heading south from the high Arctic will start appearing in July, but birders are content with not proclaiming that Autumn has arrived until August 1. It's weird, I know, deal with it.
Oh Rose-breasted Grosbeak, you are so much flashier than your western cousin.
Yup. North Dakota. There doesn't appear to be much to do out here in the prairie except bird...especially when you run out of beer. And now migration is over?! Crud.
Not that I don't appreciate my new bird friends here. This afternoon while eating my cold pizza in the truck I was being serenaded on one side by a Baird's Sparrow and on the other by a Sprague's Pipit. People would kill for that, which I understand completely...these birds are not easy to find anywhere except in this part of the world.
Sprague's Pipit. That would be something to get a picture of. The only ones I see here are hundreds of feet up in the air while they sing. They crazy. Ive managed a few Baird's digiscope shots at least, which you will see eventually. Contrary to popular belief, they are not unfriendly birds.
Right. I could go on forever, but need to go roost for the night after I finish this Schlitz. Good birding ya'll.
Bye American Redstarts! It was nice having you around for a week.
Richardson's Ground-Squirrel, my most common yard-mammal. They are quite endearing, in their ground-squirrel way.
Blackpoll Warbler. Sweet. Sweet, yet also gone.
Canada Geese. I know I was talking about migration and everything, but they're not going anywhere.
Pretty redstart. So isn't there some kind of North Dakota local Schlitz-type beer? Ya know, like Oly or Lone Star or Utica Club or something.. Fargo Ice?
ReplyDelete