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Flint Hills of Kansas
Gaaak! Hope we have nothing but good luck today. I just realized it’s Friday the 13th.
This diary is a collection of photos acquired during my most contracted birding trip over the course of a few days days.
I have several circular routes I can choose from for relatively short range birding sessions. They start from the end of my driveway and can lead me in any direction I choose. Of course, successful results make a few of these favored routes. I have one that has become my favorite of all, and it is customizable to expansion or contraction along the way, with any version ending right back at my home. That one, in it’s basic form, is a route of approximately 10 miles in length. That 10 miles can consume as little as 30-45 minutes, or it can take all day. Expanded it can most certainly take all day. It can also be contracted to a short excursion that only covers about 1 ½ miles up and a return back to the Wagon Trail West for a total of 3 miles off the main road. Of course the 5 miles from my house to the AA turnoff can make for a lot of interesting events too! Like the oddly shaped burned stump I saw atop a hill and passed by until something clicked in my mind to go take a closer look. When I looked through the zoom on my lens I saw this...
Photo trips in the Flint Hills aren’t always restricted to birds only. Mammals that aren’t collared or wearing ear tags have a tough time surviving here as a majority of the human populace tends to believe they should be eradicated. Therefore sightings are infrequent, but not unknown. A short distance after the Swainsons Hawk I discovered, very briefly, a Hokah (badger) who was in a scurry to find refuge before I could stop. I snapped a couple of shots with my right foot on the brake pedal and my left foot struggling to provide stability on the blacktop. They are not good photos and software attempts to improve them had limited positive effect.
There is a small cattle tank/pond mere yards beyond where I spotted the Badger, and I saw 6 Teal Ducks enjoying a stopover in it’s shallow water. With my big zoom lens mounted I couldn’t get all six in the frame, so you only get to see four!
I only have one Red Tail nest to check now as severe wind blew the tree over in which nest #2 was built.
I turn off the Wagon Trail and head north for a mile or so to the top of a hill where I can turn around at the junction to head back, making it a short trip. That little jaunt features RT nest #1, a nice pond on the east side of the road, and my favorite Harrier hunting fields are on both sides of our sideroad named AA, fields which extend for miles east and west along both sides of the Wagon Trail. Sometimes I am amazed at all I can see on this short trip.
As I drive north through my harrier field, which is on both sides east/west of AA road (and extends for a length of about 4miles) toward the pond on the east side of the road I come upon a pair of Killdeer in the road.
After some shenanigans they moved from the road out into the pasture. I moved on toward the pond. A dam hides the pond from the road for the most part, but there is an overflow in the dam which provides a little bit of wetland habitat. There I got another chance to see a Greater Yellowlegs. It was the second time I found them in this spot over a span of about 2 weeks.
Turns out there are at least two pair of Killdeer occupying space on this short stretch of road now. I ran into the second pair almost immediately.
The REAL reason I snuck away from the Killdeer was the sudden appearance on the scene of a pair of Scissor Tails. It began when I saw one perched on a charred sprig in the field.
But maybe not the best pic! The younger bird circled and headed back to the road where there were two small but thick limbed trees to provide cover and a resting spot. I move carefully down the road toward where I saw the bird land in the nearest of the two trees. Maybe I can do a better job getting focus if I can catch it perched, right?
The bird maintained it’s comfort zone by moving to a scrub tree perch as I advance in it’s direction. It’s a quick stop for a glance at me before it moves on to gain cover of a thickly branched tree just yards away. I continue to advance but am careful not to increase speed. Actually, the faster s/he moves the more I slow down.
I may be struggling to get BIFs the way I want to but this bird sure poses nice for perched shots.
I have selected the order for these photos to match our story sequence. I have a lot better luck at that than predicting how they will look when posted after KOS gets done processing them. LOL Pics all look the same size on my computer when I view them prior to upload.
The vertical rise shown off by this Scissor Tail is a maneuver I have seen and photographed before. It is a spectacular sight, especially when seen in a sequence of images.
In this case it is only trying to gain a bit of altitude for the dash to a nearby tree that offers ample protection to hide in.
Once in the safety of the tree branches the bird becomes less anxious. It moves from branch to branch but is reluctant to leave the tree. However, it does jump to outlying branches for the advantage of access to open space. That is when the better photos tend to happen. However, when the bird is in thick branches I have to switch over to manual mode in order to find focus on the bird instead of on the branches between me and the bird.
The branches are too thick and causing our bird stress as there is not enough room to fold it’s wings properly. So the bird looks for a spot with more space. More space for the bird is much better for the photographer, too. Besides, it seems our bird is getting the idea I mean it no harm so is more content to perch and keep an eye on me instead of trying to flee. That led to an extended pic session and I got a lot of winners. I will sprinkle those into comments down the line.
Thanks for reading this Friday Sequence Bucket.
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