Douglas County, MO
September 23, 2020
It has been a week since my last diary, and that has given me several opportunities to go out on my daily walks and take some photos along the way. To make things even better, the temperatures have been very mild — even chilly — in the early mornings, my favorite time to go for a walk.
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So, what have I been seeing in this cooler weather? Birds! Lots of different birds! Several that I definitely have not seen in the past. I knew that the yellow-billed cuckoo up above lives around here, but the only time I had ever seen one previously was after a neighbor hit and killed one with his pickup truck. A few days after taking the photo at the top of the page I saw another yellow-billed cuckoo more than a mile down the road, near Fox Creek, but that bird did not want to pose for me.
Moments after taking the first photo I saw this red-bellied woodpecker working its way up the side of a dead tree not more than 100 feet from where I had just seen the cuckoo. I took over 20 shots of this bird on various parts of the tree until I finally decided to move on — he stayed put!
During the same walk I also saw a young buck with his antlers no longer covered in velvet. He has only three points on each antler. You can’t tell from this shot, but the points are long enough to count. The older bucks seem to have all disappeared after hunting season last winter, so he could be next in line. OK, I can use this photo — Buck starts with a “B”:
A few days passed without my seeing any new birds in the usual spots. I could usually expect to see some juvenile indigo buntings along the way, but they were looking really ragged, so I didn’t even try to take their photos.
This little wren showed up near the creek one morning looking fairly dapper, so I took her photo:
The following day I saw several birds, but only one of them was unfamiliar to me. The summer tanager below is one I had never seen before. It is possible that I might have seen the brilliant red male summer tanager previously, but this female was new to me:
Sunday didn’t bring me any new birds, but it did bring me plenty of butterflies and bugs. There were so many I cannot show them all, but here are a few, such as this wheel bug:
This Carolina Saddlebags Dragonfly — for today’s purposes, this is a bug:
And this Viceroy Butterfly:
Another view of the same butterfly:
Then came yesterday, 9/21/2020! My morning started with a real surprise outside my sun room door. There was a Cooper’s Hawk sitting on the railing of my porch hungrily eyeing a nearby squirrel.
Here is a better view of the bird from the front:
The squirrel was oblivious but wandered off the porch before the hawk could strike. The hawk then flew to a tree across our yard and waited for the squirrel to get withing striking distance. It didn’t take long before the hawk swooped down toward the squirrel...and missed! The squirrel ran a few feet away. The hawk flew back to the tree branch and then flew away without breakfast. Within minutes the squirrel was playing blissfully in the middle of the yard again:
All that activity and I had not even started my day yet!
When I finally headed out for my walk I wasn’t really expecting a lot of surprises. There were the ever present juvenile buntings that I did take photos of because the sun was out and it shone through their feathers making them look quite pretty — but not “special”. But then the “special” thing happened again. Another hawk was up in a tree right ahead of me. At first I thought it might be the same bird I had seen on my porch, but the tail feathers on this bird were much shorter:
I took 50 shots plus a video of this bird before it finally flew away.
Here is a closer look at this lovely bird:
One more time:
That was yesterday! But today was also surprising. It was warmer than earlier in the week, but still cool at 60 degrees. I walked down my driveway, disturbing only one of our local deer as I passed. When I reached the road I stopped and saw birds flying into and out of one of the trees across the road, so I turned on my camera and started looking for a clear shot. When I saw what I was aiming at I recognized it as some kind of Grosbeak, but did not know which kind. iNaturalist says this is a juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and since that is the only kind of Grosbeak I have seen around here, that is probably correct.
As soon as the grosbeak flew away a Downy Woodpecker landed in the same tree:
The next bird that I saw was a new one for me. According to iNaturalist it is a Northern Parula. This bird did not want to pose, so the photo is not very clear:
Juvenile Indigo Bunting looking fluffy and adorable:
Northern Flicker from the back:
and from below:
Carolina Chickadee:
This morning did not provide much in the way of bird sightings except when I heard a distinctive “Gronk” sound when I neared the creek. I knew the GBH was there somewhere so I tried to be quiet as I rounded the bend, but he had heard me. I caught him as he was taking off and I took photos until he disappeared into the distance. All of the shots were from behind and most were a little blurry, but I will post one before I put the lid on this bucket:
That’s it for the “B”’s — what letter of the alphabet should we address next?
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Now It's Your Turn
What have you noted happening in your area or travels recently? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.