Shawnee County Big Day

Jim Malcom and I did a Big Day for Shawnee County this past Sunday.  A big day is an attempt to find as many species as possible in a 24 hour period.  We finished the day with 71 bird species, and the best were Prairie Falcon, Short-eared Owl, Northern Shrike, Brown Thrasher, Snowy Owl, and Peregrine Falcon.   I also added some new mammal and insect species for the year.  We found several Honey Bees out and about enjoying the 60 degree temperature on Sunday.   

Saturday evening I caught a Deer Mouse in a live trap in my garage.  He was dining on my bird seed stores.  After a short photo session, it was released in some tall grass a short distance from my house.  No more free-loading on the bird seed.  Total species as of January 27 is 103 for the year.

 

Deer Mouse - caught stealing bird seed; sentenced to life outside my garage.

Saturday Wanderings

I started the day at Hillsdale Lake in Miami County, KS.  I was looking for the Glaucous Gull that has been reported there.  After much searching through the spotting scope, there it was; standing on the ice in the middle of the lake.  While too distant for good photographs, it was a very good bird for Kansas.  This is one of our largest gulls, and according to my best bird book, it rarely is found south of the Great Lakes and Massachusetts.   On the way home, I explored Baker Wetlands in Lawrence.   It was very windy and I only found 15 bird species, but one of those was new for the year – Swamp Sparrow.

Snowy Owl

When the first email report arrived on Monday evening that a Snowy Owl was found in rural Shawnee County, I knew that I was going to be late for work on Tuesday.  I left my house at 6:45 am and arrived at the reported location around 7:15.  The owl was easily located, being perched at the top of a tree along the road.  A great bird for 2014.

Snowy Owl perched at the very top of a tree.

Longspurs and Swans

I attended a Topeka Audubon Society field trip on Saturday to Lyon State Fishing Lake, with seventeen people participating in the trip.  It is always great to hang out with fellow bird and nature enthusiasts.  After reaching our destination, we were able to locate four Long-eared Owls.  The group then spread out and walked through a short grass field south of the lake and flushed one Smith's Longspur.  Smith’s Longspurs are traditionally a difficult species to locate in Kansas.

On Sunday morning, after hearing tales of a large number of swans, I travelled to Wyandotte Lake.  I was amply rewarded with 42 Trumpeter Swans at the lake.  They were accompanied by thousands of Canada Geese and a variety of ducks, mostly Mallards.  I did locate some Common Goldeneye, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, and Redheads.  The swans were well worth the trip.  

Trumpeter Swans at Wyandotte Lake

First Insects of the year

I found an insect in the basement of our house, which research proved was an Asian Lady Beetle.  Sources from Kansas State University indicate that this species is not something we want to have around.  Asian lady beetles are related to the U.S. beetles known as ladybugs, which the Asian beetles are competing with and sometimes displacing.  These beetles are native to Siberia, China and Japan, and are considered to be invaders.  They somehow made their way from Asia, showing up in Kansas by the late 1990's. They are proving to be aggressive predators across the United States.  If they gain access to your house, these beetles can become bothersome during winter.  Lucky that I only found one.  They can bite pretty hard, and when disturbed, the beetles also emit a yellow-orange fluid that smells foul, which is a defense they evolved to protect themselves against birds.

When the temperature soared to 60 degrees last Sunday, I noticed a small swarm of insects in our front yard.  It turned out to be a species of winter crane fly.  This insect is usually seen in late fall and early spring, but are occasionally encountered on warm, sunny winter days.  Larvae are primarily scavengers and feed on decaying material.  They are about 1/4 inch in length.  There are 28 species of Trichocera in the U.S. and Canada.

Lastly, I had a small Virginia Opossum wander into my yard, looking for food under my bird feeders.

January 12 Update

Thanks to work and a bad head cold, I was relegated to just occasionally watching my feeders for the past week.  The second best feeder visitor was a Hairy Woodpecker, second only because the Brown Thrasher continues to frequent my feeders.  Also had an Eastern Gray Squirrel wander into my yard.

Hairy Woodpecker – differentiated from a Downy Woodpecker by the overall larger size and much longer beak.

On Saturday January 11, I assisted Jim Malcom with the annual Council Grove Christmas Bird Count.  We covered one-third of the count circle and enjoyed the warmer temperatures.  Best birds were a Golden Eagle and a Northern Shrike, both located in rural Morris County.  Also found a pair of Wood Ducks on a small unfrozen section on a creek downstream from the Council Grove Lake spillway.  Others assisting with the count were Brett Sandercock, Bob Hoops, and a graduate student from Atchison (can't remember her name).  

As of today, I have 74 bird species and three mammals for a total of 77.

Day Two

It was a cold and cloudy day.  Seemed like a perfect day to go south, at least to Osage and Lyon Counties.  Started at Osage County Fishing Lake, then Melvern Lake, Lyon County State Fishing Lake, and finished up at Pomona Lake.  I added some good new winter birds to the year list.  The best bird of the day… (see photo below, a picture is worth a thousand words).  I also had an unusual visitor to my feeders – a Brown Thrasher.  He should be way south by now.  I hope he survives the current cold snap.

I found this Long-eared Owl at Lyon County State Fishing Lake.  After taking the photo, I was able to back away without the bird flying away.

This cold and hungry Brown Thrasher should be way south of Kansas by now.

Low Hanging Fruit

The first day of the year was spent trying to locate and photograph common, easy species.  It was cold, windy and it started to snow, so not the best conditions.  Started at my well-stocked feeders, and then checked out Lake Shawnee, followed by a trip to Perry Lake.  Ended the day with only 35 bird species and one mammal.

Ring-billed Gull from the spillway at Perry Lake.

One lone Snow Goose among the hundreds of Canada geese at Lake Shawnee.