Black Dirt Birding, 1/16/16

 

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~An American Kestrel that actually did not flush as I drove by! A birding miracle in the Black Dirt Region, 1/16/16.~

I birded the Black Dirt Region by car this morning and covered a lot of ground. I wanted to first check to see if the Snowy Owl continued – I was unable to relocate the bird and did not hear of anyone relocating the bird all day. My second goal of the day was to sort through some of the many Canada Geese in the area, looking for rarities. I really wanted to locate a Cackling Goose, especially since John Haas had reported 2 from the day before. I located two decent candidates; one flew before I got any photos or could be sure of the ID. When I located the second candidate, Linda Scrima joined me and although we got some decent looks and photos of the bird, we left unsure of the ID. I kept going back and forth with this bird, sometimes it looked really good for a Cackling and other times not so good. Being this unsure, I will leave this bird unidentified, but I’ve included a photo of the bird in this post in case anyone would like to weigh in. The only other notable geese from the day were 5 Snow Geese. My final goal was to try to add some birds to my Orange County list and I increased it by 9 birds. I had 30 birds on my species list, which I’ve included at the bottom of this post. Highlights of the day for me included 2 Rough-legged Hawks and 2 American Kestrels.

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~A male Northern Harrier, the Gray Ghost in flight in the black dirt. This was taken earlier in the week, 1/13/16.~
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~Three of the 5 Snow Geese I had in the black dirt today, 1/16/16.~
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~Same Gray Ghost as above, perched on the ground. Black Dirt Region, 1/13/16.~
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~American Kestrel taking flight, Black Dirt Region, 1/16/16.~
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~This was Cackling Goose Candidate #2… Any thoughts? ~

Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-necked Pheasant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Short-eared Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch

4 thoughts on “Black Dirt Birding, 1/16/16”

    1. Thanks so much for weighing in Ken, I seems like it might be a closed case for cackler #2. Matt

  2. That shot of the Male Harrier in the grass is a winner! Priceless!
    Thanks for sharing as always!
    Bill

    1. Thanks, Bill.i like it too – I enjoy a photo of a perched harrier once in a while, since they are so often seen in flight. Matt

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