Hi All,
It is the 1st of February as I start this blog (book), but the ideas here start a month ago, at the beginning of the year. Every January 1st, for some birders, we contemplate doing what is called a “big year,” making a continuous effort to find as many birds in a certain location for the whole year, whether to set a new record or for some other reason. I have to admit I toy with the idea of doing such in my local county every year, but circumstances have altered my thinking each year since 1998, the last time I went all out and set the record at 209. That record was beat a few years later by a good birding friend who upped it by one.
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| Snow forces birds like this Varied Thrush down from the mountains. This one was at our feeder after the Coast Range got inundated with snow |
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| Even the deer take advantage of easier food in the snow |
One thing that determines whether or not to launch into such is how many rare birds are known to be in the county at the start of the year, and this year there were 2 rare birds being found with some regularity - Ross’ Goose and Harris Sparrow. I was able to refind the Harris Sparrow on 1-4-17 and the Ross Goose on 1-12-17. That day a Barrow’s Goldeneye was found at the local sewage lagoons, so another birder and I refound it the next day. Later in the month as my wife and I were enjoying an afternoon drive, we found a Say’s Phoebe, which was the 4th rare one of the year. As we were not far from the road to Bald Mountain, we went to see if the gate was open, and it was. This was the another determining factor in deciding if I should do a big year in the county, because it provides the best access to the higher elevations. Without that gate being open, finding the higher elevation birds becomes much more limited. So, with 4 rare birds already bagged, and the gate open, the "ducks were lined up" to help me make the decision. I have to admit I was torn between this and working on my other county lists.
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| Barrow's Goldeneye at MSP 1-13-17 |
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| Ross Goose at BSNWR 1-12-17 |
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| Greater Yellowlegs in January with snow |
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| Rough-legged Hawk in S Polk County 1-10-17 |
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| 1st year Harris' Sparrow 1-4-17 |
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| Say's Phoebe 1-28-17 |
The next day something happened that helped me decide - my wife’s mother fell and broke her hip. This meant my wife would need to stay local as she tends to her mom and dad often, and I would likely be needed as well for my nursing experience. On my next day off, 2-1-17, I decided to start looking for certain county birds with another birder named Chris. Part way into the day we spied a Sandhill Crane. This was a big deal, the first I have ever seen in my home county, and has been by far my # 1 jinx bird until now. This species also became # 290 in the county on my all time Polk County list. I was ecstatic! I also took this as motivation of sorts to stay local and go ahead do the big year, so the decision was final. I made the announcement of such on the local bird list, asking other birders to call or text me if they found something I should know about.
So here was January’s bird list. Pied-billed Grebe, Western Grebe, Great-blue Heron, Great Egret, Tundra Swan, Snow Goose, Canada Goose, Cackling Goose, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Eurasian Wigeon, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Turkey Vulture, White-tailed Kite, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, California Quail, American Coot, Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Common Snipe, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Great-horned Owl, Anna’s Hummingbird, Acorn Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Black Phoebe, Horned Lark, Tree Swallow, Stellar’s Jay, Western Scrub Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Black-capped Chickadee, Bushtit, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Bewick’s Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Western Bluebird, American Robin, Varied Thrush, American Pipit, European Starling, Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Both Audubon’s and Myrtle Subspecies) Spotted Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Brewer’s Sparrow, Purple Finch, House Finch, House Finch. So by the end of January my list stood at 94.
A couple notes on some of these. On 1/12 I had a Turkey Vulture fly over, which is the earliest I have ever seen one in the county. Not sure what he did in the snow storm shortly afterward. That same day I found a greater yellowlegs, a hardy shorebird, and as the picture shows, there was already snow on the ground, an odd situation to be seen in. On 1/20 I saw a Tree Swallow at the Sewage Ponds, the first time for such in January for this hardy swallow. On 1/21 THREE Acorn Woodpeckers came to my bird feeder. This is the 3rd time for this species at my house. They prefer large oak trees and so are rare at my house where there are none. They were still being seen on and off by 5/26 when an adult brought a young bird by, so they must have nested close by. On 1/27 our local Red-shouldered Hawk was finally seen. He was first seen on 9/24/13, which is some 40 months ago. I hope he eventually finds a mate.
Now that I am caught up (it is 2/1), I can keep a running tally of my local birding outings. Other birds seen today which were new for the year were Double-crested Cormorant (95) Trumpeter Swan (96) Canvasback (97) Ruffed Grouse (98) Thayer’s Gull (99) Chestnut-backed Chickadee (100) Winter wren (101) along with the Sandhill Crane make (102).
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| Acorn Woodpecker at our feeder. Isn't he a beauty! |
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| Western Bluebird 1/31/17 |
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| Mom and Junior Black-tailed Deer 1-31-17 |
Seeing how it is only the beginning of February, and I have written a few pages as well as included a number of pictures, and there are 11 more months of birding, this blog will probably be a short book when done, so the reader needs to be aware there will be much more to come. I plan to include pictures of common birds, nice scenery, places where I bird often, and any other scenes of interest. As it looks to be rather blustery for a few days, not much is likely to be added until the weather is more favorable.
Farther along some power lines cross the road, and raptors use the power poles for perches. I slowed down to check out a couple, and one turned out to be a Prairie Falcon!(106) This was one on the rare list. There are usually one or two of these that winter in the county, but can be difficult to find, so this made the day much sweeter.
2/3/17 - The weatherman said it might snow last night, or possibly sleet, so when I got up I looked outside and there was only a skiff of sleet. With temperatures expected to rise and heavier rain later in the day, I started scheming where I might go birding. After breakfast with my wife (of course), I headed over to Pedee where I know of a small patch of old growth forest where I might find some Red Crossbills. This is an “irruptive” species, meaning they can travel (irrupt) for many miles to suitable cone crops, and this appears to be one winter for such. On the way there I saw a flock of 23 Wild Turkeys (103). Once in the area I kept scanning the tops of Douglas Fir trees for crossbills, but the rain kept getting worse, so I scrapped that idea and headed back into the valley and figured I’d drive around birding. Near the place where I saw the turkeys I found 2 male Ring-necked Pheasants (104). Some 5 miles after that I was in the valley proper and found some swans and took this picture of a "pair." I only zeroed in on one to ID it as a Trumpeter Swan but when I got home and put the pics on the Mac, it was obvious the second bird was a Tundra Swan.
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| Trumpeter and Tundra Swans: Can you tell the difference? |
I drove around to some familiar places, eventually reaching the north end of Livermore Rd. Sometimes when it rains the gulls head to this area where they feed on worms which the water drives to the surface, but there were none today. So I drove south along the said road with hopes to find a Lapland Longspur, which occasionally can be found with the wintering Horned Larks and Water Pipits, but today there were none. By this time it was raining pretty hard and one particular field where these birds were was quite muddy. In looking them over I realized some were Least Sandpipers (105), and the more I looked, the more I found - at least 15. We have occasional small numbers here in winter, so this was a large flock for early February.
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| American Water Pipit. If you look closely, you can see the beads of water on his back |
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| Horned Lark |
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| American Coot at the refuge. Looks a little prehistoric, don't you think? |
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| The ice from last night was still hanging around. |
I checked over the waterfowl at the refuge before heading home, but there were no new year birds.
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| A female Northern Flicker at the suet |
2/4/17
After church and visiting my mother-in-law at rehab, my wife and I went for a drive (in the rain of course). My goal was again to find a large gull flock. Near Perrydale I found a large flock of some 275 gulls, and there was in fact one young Western Gull (107). Also among them were 3 California Gulls (108), another addition to the year list. Nearby was a much smaller flock of gulls and also a rain soaked Bald Eagle. For those of you back east it might be of interest to know they are quite common here in Oregon. I could find one any day of the year - that are THAT common.
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| Bald Eagle, cold and wet. |
2/8/17
Late in my work day yesterday the rain finally halted, and I decided to stop at selected spots on the way home to listen for owls. One would think after getting wet for a few days the owls would have something a hoot about, but as it turned out, only the Great-horned variety were vocal, the rest not. One consolation was having a herd of about 25 elk cross the road in front of me. I maneuvered the car so I could shine the headlights on them. They all stopped about 100 feet off the road and looked back at me. There was one with antlers.
During the night the rain started again and continued most of the day. I knew I just could not stay in the house all day, so went to look for gulls and waterfowl. The same basic gull flock was relocated, but there was nothing new in it. Lots of waterfowl spread out in places they usually aren’t as there are many more options with flooded fields. I did come across a young Peregrine Falcon who looked quite waterlogged. Mid morning I checked a certain weather ap which showed an upcoming break in the rain, so I headed to Monmouth Sewage Ponds where I found that the Barrow’s Goldeneye had returned after about a month’s absence. An odd sight was a Ring-necked Pheasant within the enclosure. One needs to understand that there is a fence around every sewage treatment plant in Oregon, and this is for liability reasons.
I worked my way south, eventually reaching the Wendell Kreider Reservoir where there was a large flock of Blackbirds and Starlings, in which there were about 75 Brown-headed Cowbirds (109) which was the only new bird for the year today.
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| Immature Peregrine Falcon, all wet! |
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| Ring-necked Pheasant at Monmouth Sewage Ponds |
2/9/17
It continued to rain today so my wife and I decided to take a drive and check out the flooding. We also needed potting soil for vegetable starts in the greenhouse and fertilizer for the blueberries, as well as some garden seeds. There were plenty of fields quite flooded, as expected. We stopped here and there and took pictures, but these don't really do it justice - you had to be there. All that said, it was no where near the flooding of ’94. The first pic is of the Luckiamute drainage. The 2nd is of the Willamette River, the main river which runs north and drains the entire Willamette Valley, also forming the eastern border of Polk County.
Around noon the rain stopped and we walked around the north end of the town of Monmouth looking for a Townsend’s Warbler. Small numbers winter in the lowland towns but can be difficult to find. Soon after getting out of the truck, I spied a sapsucker which was not one of our local Red-breasted ones. I only saw it mostly head on, and it was sure looking like a Red-naped Sapsucker, which breed about a hundred miles away, on the other side of the Cascades to the east. It took off before I was really able to nail it down.
After about 20 minutes we were able to relocate it and get some pictures, and it turned out to be a hybrid of the two sapsuckers mentioned, so am not sure how countable it is.
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| Luckiamute River drainage |
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| Willamette River. The water in the flood of '94 would have been over my head while taking this picture |
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| Red-breasted X Red-naped Sapsucker |
2/10/17
We could see from the weather ap that there would be a brake in the rain from 9-12, and as my wife wanted to get out for a walk, we headed for the local Sewage Ponds. Just a few miles from our home we saw this Bald Eagle about a hundred feet off the road, eating some poor mammal. Luckily for us he stayed put for a few pics.
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| Bald Eagle with a mammal in his talons (it is barely visible) |
The easternmost pond of the 3 sewage lagoons is the largest, and usually has the least amount of waterfowl, so after looking over the ducks, we walked around it. We then relocated the gull flock mentioned a few days back, but there was nothing new. A few miles west of there we saw this Northern Shrike (110), a nice addition to the year list.
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| Northern Shrike |
We eventually ended up at the local refuge where an overdue Long-billed Dowitcher (111) was found. After that we visited my wife’s mother, and then came home. When the rain lets up I will put fertilizer on the blueberries.
2/11/17
My wife and I skipped church today, opting for a hike. We settled on the road going into the Aaron Mercer Reservoir, which is the water supply for the city of Dallas. It is gated off, but open to walkers, joggers and bikers. It is 6 miles to the reservoir, and we walked 4 in and then back out. Two new birds I was able to find for the year were Hutton's Vireo (112) and Pine Siskin (113). The siskins were the first I had heard about in quite some time. Being another irruptive species, the bulk of them are in another part of the state (or in an adjacent state), but the large flock of 40 we saw may indicate they are returning to the area. When we were almost back to the car, this Pacific Wren popped up on a branch to have a look at us. He was cooperative enough to snap a few pics, and these are the best ones.
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| Pacific Wren. Only 4 inches from head to end of tail, but they can really sing. My wife and I once timed one singing and it lasted for 11 seconds! |
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| Same bird, different pose. His tail is quite short. |
2/15/17
We all have days when things don’t go so well, hopefully to be balanced out by those that do. My work week ended last evening. It was a rough week as Monday morning when I got there, I learned that the other 2 nurses from my unit called in sick. When quitting time came, it became evident that both the night nurses called in sick as well. That day I was the only one of 5 nurses on my unit, soooo, that meant a long day and OT into the night, only to return the next day and finish up. It could have at least been a little bit of an uplift if the weatherman was promising good weather for my days off, but all he could come up with was what appeared to be solid rain for the next 2 days. (Does this sound familiar or what?) I planned to stop at a certain location en route home to listen for Screech Owls in a place where I have heard them before, but by then, what had been a dry day was turning quite wet, so no owls were calling.
I slept in until 0900, quite rare for me. (Hey, it was raining outside anyway.) We enjoyed the morning as best we could, then left for a care conference for my mother-in-law by 2 pm. I left my wife there at 3 pm and went for a drive to the local refuge and saw my first of the year Violet-green Swallows (114), probably the earliest I have ever seen them. I decided I might as well check the gull flock one more time. I surmised they should be there as there were a few dry days before today, so the hard rain in the last 16 hours should be to their liking, forcing up the worms to the surface.
Sure enough, there were maybe 75 gulls in the area where they had been coming to, and I began to scan them over from a distance. When I was just about to the end of the flock, I found one snow white gull with a bicolored bill, dark at the tip. Bingo! Glaucous Gull (115). This was one on the list of rarer birds, and only the 9th county record. As you might guess, I was now glad for the rain, more or less. Earlier in the day I had been complaining to a friend about the weather, and he reminded me that such can bring rare birds, but at the time I was more of a complainer.
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| Glaucous Gull with Herring Gull behind |
I little farther along I found a subspecies of Merlin not usually found in our area, so that was a nice bonus. When getting back in to Dallas my phone rang. It was my wife wondering where I was. I was supposed to pick her back up after birding and I forgot all about her. Wonder why?
2/16/17
Rain, and more rain. It was looking like there would be a break at mid day, so I went over to Monmouth to walk the streets looking for Townsend's Warblers. By the time I got there the wind kicked up and the rain stepped it up a notch, so I scrapped that idea. I was briefly entertained by this sign. We have all seen lots of signs, but this one has escaped me until now.
As it was looking like I was not going to be walking outside today, I began driving around looking at ducks. I eventually arrived at the north end of Livermore Rd to check out the gulls. There were close to 300 today, and the white one of yesterday was back. I got some more photos. I felt I needed to do this because I had sent some from yesterday to a friend who is more or less an expert on gulls, who thinks it is an intergrade (Hybrid) with another gull species. So this time I got better pictures, cleaner ones. It was raining quite hard yesterday and that may have affected the clarity and the mud on his bill, so I sent new pics to him a short time ago and am awaiting his reply.
2/16/17
Rain, and more rain. It was looking like there would be a break at mid day, so I went over to Monmouth to walk the streets looking for Townsend's Warblers. By the time I got there the wind kicked up and the rain stepped it up a notch, so I scrapped that idea. I was briefly entertained by this sign. We have all seen lots of signs, but this one has escaped me until now.
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| Wonder if my dog can read this? |
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| Glaucous Gull |
2/17/1
Last night my wife and I drove around to various places listening for owls, as well as playing their calls, and came up with none! Not even a Great-horned Owl. Oh well, guess that is how it goes sometimes.
Today was looking to be dry at least, so I headed over to Monmouth to look for Townsend’s Warbler, but could not locate any. I did find my first of the year Lesser Goldfinch (116) and Cooper’s Hawk (117). While looking I came across this suet feeder which was patronized by Bushtits and Yellow-rumped Warblers. As it turned out, while it was dry, it was really too windy to have much success with small birds, so it was no surprise that I was not able to find the warbler.
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| Bushtit and Yellow-rumped Warbler on suet |
I next went to the Monmouth Sewage Lagoons, but there was nothing new. I did get a nice photo of a Yellow-rumped Warbler.
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler at Sewage Lagoons |
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| Red Crossbill. Notice how the upper and lower bill crosses. |
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| Stellar's Jay with no crest..... |
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| Hairy Woodpecker |
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| The clear day enabled me to see Mt Hood |
2/18/17
Last night I woke up around 1 A.M. and was still awake at 2:30, so stepped out the back door to have a talk with the Man above. I was out there for about 10 minutes in which time I heard a Northern Saw-whet Owl (122) and a Barred Owl (123). The Saw-whet I have only heard a handful of times at my home, but the Barred Owls seem to be moving in. Last winter there was a pair that hooted out back on and off for a couple months.
2/19/17
En route to work this morning at about 5:15 A.M. I flushed a Barn Owl (124) from a power pole. It is interesting that 3 nights back my wife and I spend 1.5 hours driving around and did not hear any owls at all, and now, the last 3 entries here are all owls with hardly any effort at all. Such is birding......
2/22/17
I birded around the county today with Chris Chappell, who has been in the area for a few months getting his mom settled into a different Assisted Living Facility, and now that that is done, he will be heading to Arizona to live. We have appreciated each other’s birding company. We “beat the bushes” pretty hard, specifically looking for swamp sparrow, but came up empty. My only new year bird was a Marsh Wren (125) at the Farmer Road Marsh. The most interesting sighting was of a Peregrine Falcon eating what I think is a Robin. The prey is quite dismantled so that is my best guess.
It may be of interest to know that Chris relayed to me that he heard on the radio yesterday that in the first 3 weeks of February it has now rained more than any February in the past. And just think, there is one more week to go. At this rate the new rainfall record may be put out of reach for a number of years!
It may be of interest to know that Chris relayed to me that he heard on the radio yesterday that in the first 3 weeks of February it has now rained more than any February in the past. And just think, there is one more week to go. At this rate the new rainfall record may be put out of reach for a number of years!
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| Male Northern Flicker at the suet |
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| Peregrine Falcon eating a robin |
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| Black Phoebe. |
"Some days are diamonds, some days are stone. Sometimes the hard times, won’t leave me alone.” John Denver
I slept quite well, and by 5:00 I could sense that I was not going to sleep anymore, so decided to get up and try for a screech owl, so moved about quietly so as not to awake my wife (I found out later it did not work). When I got out the front door it was obvious there was a lot of frost, so I went back inside for a jar of hot water. My wife had parked the car a little down the road from our driveway as my neighbor needed to bring some composted manure and sawdust and dump it over the garden fence with his back-hoe, so the cars needed to be out of the driveway. So I could not see very well when I reached my truck and ended up stepping in a large puddle to get into it. I ended up tossing the water a few feet onto the windshield since I did not want to stand in the puddle. I then took off, but the wetness on the windshield turned to ice down the road, so I pulled over and tried scraping it off with the top of a pop can (that was all I had). It did not work so well, but I could see just enough to continue. Then I noted my gas gauge was perilously low, so decided to turn around at the next convenient place. Since I could hardly see, I almost went into a large ditch. When exiting the car I stepped in another large puddle, and my feet were now cold and wet, so I decided it was not in my best interest to go owling this morning. My wife met me in the living room, so I was obligated to relay this info to her, and she was not impressed. So to impress her I figured I had better stay around home and do some work after breakfast.
The reason for all the composted soil was to put into the garden bed in our greenhouse. I had extended the sides another 12 inches to make it easier to tend to the tomatoes we plant there every year. I need to interject here that I have a place in my lower back that I injured about 15 years ago, and if I am not careful, I can reaggravate it. So I was being careful, but about 2/3 of the way into this job, it tweeked, I bent over, and I knew I was done with such type of work for the week. I came in and laid down for about 20 minutes, then got back up, and since it did not feel so bad, and I decided I could at least drive around birding, maybe even walk some.
So I made my plans known to my wife, rounded up my stuff again, and headed to the refuge. After that I drove to the north side of the refuge and started walking down Livermore Road playing a swamp sparrow track on my iPhone. No luck with responses though. I did hear a Virginia Rail (126) which was a nice consolation. I went about a half mile, and then my back was feeling the pain, so turned around.
I drove around a little more, ending up near my home and on the Luckiamute River looking for American Dippers, but no luck with them either. I did try to take pics of a pair of common mergansers, and below is the best shot out of about 80. Using autofocus of a fast moving river is a real challenge. I took some ibuprofen once back.
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| Common Mergansers |
"As long as you love me so, let it snow let it snow let it snow." Well, that is the first song that came to mind as I looked outside today. Between my bad back and this snow, and going to visit our accountant, I don't think there will be much, if any birding today. My wife really likes those "big flakes" so I guess there is something to be said about the snow that seems.......... invigorating.
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| The birds know where to come when it snows. |
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| How nice - more snow!
2/25/17
My wife and I went for a 3 mile walk after church. It was nice to have a dry day for a change. We headed to the west of town and walked on some logging roads. We looked for a dipper along the way but came up empty. We did find this Turkey Vulture on the way back. They are not regarded as particularly attractive, as you might guess.
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| Downy Woodpecker at the suet
3/2/17
I woke up about 3:30 after sleeping for 6 hours straight, which is rare for me. Feeling quite refreshed I thought I'd try owling once again. I needed two more of the common species and knew some likely spots to try. Great-horned Owls were vocal, and I saw one or two Barn Owls. Finally reaching the old reliable place for Screech Owls, I parked and walk a little on the road. I played their song, and in about one minute one started to respond, so that was rewarding (127). My next target was Short-eared Owl, so I headed to the Farmer Rd marsh, where, historically they have been very reliable, but less so in recent years. But first I walked north on the R&R tracks to an oak forest where it looks to be a good place for Long-eared Owls, but none responded. As I was getting back to Farmer Rd, a Short-eared Owl flew by (it was just getting light) and this would be a nice addition to the year list (128).
I came home for breakfast and then went back out because the forecast was for rain and wind by noon or so, so I figured I could get in some birding before the deluge. So I drove here and there, looking mainly for Common Goldeneyes, but came up empty. I did find another Northern Shrike at the refuge. Here are some shots for the day. |
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| A Red-breasted Sapsucker |
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| Four young Bald Eagles at the refuge |
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| Northern Shrike |
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Western Meadowlark singing today- March 2nd
3/8/17
"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." The Carpenters.
February was one of the wettest on record for Oregon. March is starting out as if it were in competition to beat it. Between the rain and wind, the birding quality surely takes a hit. I did get over to the next county to see a Tufted Duck which has been there for a few days, so that was a nice addition there. I got out this morning for a while and visited the main bodies of water, looking for a rarer duck, but success eluded me. Tomorrow is predicted to be very wet, so I won't be able to avoid chores around the house.
A good birding friend mentioned that this cold, wet weather is likely holding back any good migrants, which is why we are not seeing any. Makes sense to me. Plus, I think I need a break from local birding, so he and I are headed to the coast on Friday March 10.
One of these days the weather will start taking a turn for the better, with more of the expected migrants showing up, and the numbers will start stacking up again. Until then, I will just need to be optimistic and stay focused. 3/10/17 As planned, another birder Roy and myself went birding, but in two adjacent counties and had a good time. Best bird was a Say's Phoebe. Afterward, just after mid day, I visited the local sewage ponds, and then went for a walk nearby. When I was just getting close to the truck, I spied some movement in an oak tree, which turned out finally be a Townsend's Warbler (129). It was also finally a nice day weather-wise, so I drove over to the Farmer Road marsh and walked a mile down the R&R tracks and back. I did see a Peregrine Falcon and the Harlan's version of a Red-tailed Hawk. It was indeed a refreshing day. It was even a good day for herps as Roy and I saw 3 Pond Turtles sunning themselves and I saw on Garter Snake along the R&R tracks! 3/11/17 The weatherman was right again - more rain! One bright spot though was the arrival of the first Rufous Hummingbird (130) at our feeder this morning while we were eating breakfast. This shot is of one I took last spring:  Also, while eating breakfast, the 3 Acorn Woodpeckers returned after an absence of 5 weeks.  After lunch with my Father-in-law and 2 aunts to my wife, they all went to visit my mother-in-law at rehab, while I went driving around. I saw the bird in the pic below which is the Eurasian form of the Green-winged Teal, something rare in our area. Not a great pic as the light was poor and it was over 100 yards away.  3-15-17 The weatherman predicted rain today, and he was right. However, about noon I got a notice of a possible rare bird in the next county to the south, so my wife and I started out that direction. It ended up being a false alarm. As we needed to get out of the house, we drove around for a while, ending up checking out the gull flock in the usual place. There were at least 300 gulls there. Here are a couple shots of about half of them.  
The weatherman is predicting a fairly nice day tomorrow, so hoping for a nice day of birding.
http://billsbirdingjaunts.blogspot.com/2018/01/polk-county-big-year-2017-part-2.html
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