A Day Out Birding With Ebird

       

       Today I went on a birding adventure. It started at 9:00 a.m. Well, that is when I started to plan for it. We didn't leave until 12:00pm. The first thing I did was go onto ebird and decide where to go. Then, I made a map of all the places we were going to go.




  The first stop on the map was a little place called Hazel Dell Cove. My goal was to become the top ebirder there. I needed to identify two or more species of bird. I identified three. I saw one American Kestrel, seventeen Hooded Mergansers, and four Mallards.




The next stop on the list was a place I call eagle island, but is really called Marine Point (and it's called Hickory Point on ebird). I call it eagle island because there is a little island that has a Bald Eagle Nest on it. My goal was to try to find the Long-tailed duck that was sighted three days ago. Sadly, I didn't see it. I did see ten Common Goldeneye, two Turkey Vultures, twenty one Ring-billed Gulls, one Great Blue Heron, one Herring Gull, four American Crows, ten American Robins, and one Pie Billed Grebe. 



Next, we went exploring. We drove down a little street, past houses and regular things in a neighborhood. The farther we went, the more wild it became. We found a little stream that overflowed its banks because of all the rain we've had and in it we saw a little family of Mallard ducks and a Muskrat.

As we continued down the lane we started to see deer. I saw and took this picture of a mother deer, baby deer, and father deer. I like all the pictures of the mother and the baby, but the father was behind some branches and my camera was only focusing on the branches. By the time I had it focused, he had walked out of view. I only had time to snap one bad picture.

                                                                         Mother

                                                                        Mother

                                                                                  Baby

                                                           

                                                                      Baby

                Father; Can you find him?

The last stop on my adventure was a place called the Beach House. I go there all the time, only because on ebird there are so many cool sightings, but when I go there I see nothing.

That concludes my adventure.

Loons on Lake Springfield, IL

12-26-15

 Today I saw the first of the many amazing birds that migrate through our state.   Lake Springfield in Springfield, IL is a great place to bird watch in the winter! The warblers and other warm weather birds have left and now it is time for the water birds (Loons, Mergansers, Scaups, and Buffle heads). Once, I even saw a White winged Scoter, trapped in the ice. They, like loons, need a long take off area and the one I saw was trapped in a small circle of ice.  This year, thanks to El Nino, we don't have any ice but we still have loons!  I saw one this morning and when I did, I set up my spotting scope and grabbed my phone. I hurried back and took a picture through the lens of the scope.

Bird ID #3

I love trying to identify birds in pictures.  Here's the third of my bird identification challenges.  I'll give you a hint: I saw this bird on Lake Springfield in Springfield, IL.

Raccoon Cam 1

In this video, the raccoon is eating out of a plastic Easter egg. I think the raccoon recognized it as an egg and that is why he/she is try to bite the top off of it.

Congratulations to Madison Wilcox

Congratulations to Madison Wilcox for correctly identifying bird ID #2.
       Thanks for participating.

RACCOONS

11-24-15
 I had a crazy idea to film raccoons eating. Weird, right? My reasoning was that I would learn what they can do with their hands so that I could figure out how to raccoon-proof my feeders.  I go through a LOT of birdseed, suet, peanuts and actual feeders and I've long suspected that raccoons are the culprits.  Here is some footage of what goes on in my front yard EVERY SINGLE NIGHT:

 

This is a video of one of the raccoons using it's paw to hold and eat a piece of food.

Here is a video of FOUR raccoons eating at my feeders. Please notice how fat they are!

New Feeder Bird!

11-16-15

 I was looking at my feeders and I saw a couple of birds with streaks on their backs. At first I thought they were female House Finches.  But then, I saw the yellow on their wings and I realized that they were a Pine Siskins. Some of you who live in the northern climates where Pine Siskins are super common are probably thinking, "Big deal, there are so many of those at my feeders right now."
Well to all you who are thinking this right now, I have to tell you that I've never had Pine Siskins at my feeder before. I immediately got my camera and video camera and took a lot of videos and pictures. I was really excited!

ID #2

I love trying to identify birds in pictures.  Here's the second of my bird identification challenges.  I'll give you a hint: I saw this bird in Palm Springs,Ca. It was eating from a mistletoe shrub.

Id #1 Results

Congratulations

The two people to correctly identify the bird where Lisa and Audrie.
I hop that you both participate in the next ID challenge.

 

Spicy squirrels

      11-9-15

One of my biggest bird feeding problems is squirrels. If you feed birds, at one time or another you will look out your window and see a big fat squirrel sitting there, eating out of your squirrel-proof suet feeder.  I have dealt with this problem for years without much success.  Then, one time I was in a Wild Birds store looking to buy some suet and I saw a spicy pepper suet block. I bought one and a couple of the regular suet blocks. The squirrels ate the regular and left the spicy. That solved my suet problem. But, there was still one more problem. I have a feeder that holds a compacted block of seed.  It's pretty expensive and the squirrels kept eating it and would scare away all the little birds.  That would leave the squirrel alone for an hour or so to devour it.  So, I went to Wild Birds looking for a replacement for the block feeder and I saw a 'pepper coated' block feeder.  I haven't put it up yet, but when I do, I'll take a picture of it and post it.  I'll keep you advised if the squirrels leave it alone or not.

 

Owl Prowl

10-23-15
Last Sunday, I went to the Margery Adams Audubon Sanctuary and while I was there,  I was looking at the corkboard to see if there was any thing going on.  I saw a story about the founder and a map AND there was a poster saying there was going to be an owl prowl on Friday. I thought that would be super fun,  so I asked my mom if we could go. She said yes, of course . So fast forward a week: It's Friday, I get home, I'm excited and I grab my camera, and binoculars. The trip starts at 6:30PM. It is 5:30PM so my mom and I go to a Mexican restaurant to have some food before birding. The food took 30 minutes to even get to the table! Not a great start to the night. But then I got to the Audubon Sanctuary and I saw the truck that has the birds in it. I was getting excited. We went in and paid the $15 fee for the two of us and we took our seats. There were about twenty people there. The lecturer says he is from the Illinois Raptor Center, and he tells all about owls. It was a great lecture. Then we went outside to see the owls. There are owls with handlers placed about every 100 feet on the trail. They are trained owls that sit on the trainer's arms. The guide told us all about them and the natural history of their species. We saw two Eastern Screech Owls ( a red morph and a gray morph), a Snowy Owl, a Great Horned Owl,  a Short Eared Owl, a Barn Owl, and a Barred Owl.

I loved the lecture and seeing all the owls close up.  I learned a lot of facts I didn't know and found out about a great summer camp that I will definitely check out.  If you notice an Owl Prowl anywhere near you, go to it.  It'll be worth your time!

ID #1

ID #1

I love trying to identify birds in pictures, so I thought it would be fun to post a picture and see if my viewers can identify it.  I'll give you a hint:  I snapped this picture at Mount San Jacinto State Park near Palm Springs, California.

Accidents and Falcons

 10-11-15

Today, my family and I went on a bike ride. We drove down to Elsa, Illinois to get on the Sam Valdalabene Trail.  The colors on the trees were changing, the air was warm, and it was a perfect day to ride a bike.  I rode about two miles, when off to my right I saw a steep, grassy hill. I thought I would ride down it like I've done a million times before. I did, and disaster struck! As I was going down the hill, and I saw a trench and I thought, "I hope my wheel doesn't get stuck".  It did, I went flying over the handle bars. All I remember is the green of the grass and the sound of the bike crashing next to me. When it was all over, I stood up and took stock.  To my surprise, I escaped with only a scrape on my shoulder but my bike was not so lucky. It had a cracked front fork and the back wheel was bent. I could not continue the ride, so my dad and I set off for the car. I was riding my mom's bike. At about the one mile mark, I saw a medium sized bird being mobbed by a smaller bird. There were pretty far away and I didn't think much of it. But a few moments later, the larger bird came flying over and I saw that it was a Peregrine Falcon! I'd left my camera on my bike, so these pictures of the wreckage will have to do.

Bird Banding

Today I went bird banding. I go to Lincoln Land Community College. I like bird banding because I get to see the birds up close and I get to hold and touch them.

 The Cardinals will bite whatever they can get their beaks on... it can be your note pad, your finger,or in this case, it was the bands.

  

 We caught two Northern Flickers. When the first one was caught, it made so much noise I could hear it all the way from the bird blind! The bander said that when the birds make a lot of noise, other birds come to investigate and they catch more birds.

 Song Sparrow with it's fancy ankle bracelet.

One of the things I noticed about the Brown Creeper is that it has a very long bill.

 This is a female Golden Crowned Kinglet. They make a super high note for the call.

 Male Golden Crowned Kinglet

 Male Ruby Crowned Kinglet.

 Me, holding a Mourning Dove

  I was lucky enough to be there when they caught a Blue-Headed Vireo for the first time.

 

Yellowstone

I went to Yellowstone and saw a lot of cool animals...especially BIRDS.
On the travel day, our flight was cancelled and we could not make our connecting flight to Billings, Montana. The flight was boring and we got in late at night. The first place we stayed was Old faithful lodge and I saw Violet Green Tree Swallows and of course, Old Faithful. Another cool thing is that wherever you look, you see Buffalo,  Elk,  Mountain Blue Birds and the occasional bear.

 

 On the second day, we went to the boiling mud pots. They are so fun to photograph.

 

 

 The next day my family and I went out to see some Geysers and we saw a flock of Mountain Chickadees. SO CUTE!

 I don't really remember what happened after that except that when we had a picnic, there was a Common Raven hanging around our table.

The next day, we went to see the Morning Glory Pool and Riverside Geyser. They were awesome except for the fact that people throw garbage in the Morning Glory Pool and each year rangers have to suck all that out. On the way back we saw a pair of Lesser Scaups.

 

 

The next day, my family and I went on (in my opinion) the best way to see wildlife in Yellowstone: Just getting in the car and driving and seeing what you see. And this is what we saw... a beaver.

 

 

The next day,  my dad and I went on a hike to Beaver Pond and we spotted a Western Tanager and a Clark's Nutcracker.We did not see a single beaver, but we did see a muskrat.

 

 

 

  The next place we saw was Mammoth hot springs. The cool thing about  Mammoth hot springs is that the Black Billed Magpie are very abundant.  

The next day was a travel day. During the trip we moved around a lot so we could see the whole park.

And doing so, we saw a moose, a petrified tree, a black bear, and some Big Horn Sheep.

 

 

When we got to the hotel, my dad and I left to see what we could see.  This is the part where I almost fainted.  My dad told me to check the distance of a hike on the guide sign and I saw a Black Bear looking for food.  He was only 30 feet away!  I rushed back to the car and said, " I just saw a bear". So we went to see if we could see it and on our way, we flushed out a Wilson's Snipe. When we came out of the forest, we saw a flock of Grey Jays. I was too startled to take pictures.

So the last day in the park my dad and I went to Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and we saw an Osprey in its nest. It was awesome.

 The trip was over and it was time for the long, boring trip back. The trip was amazing and I recommend going. If you like nature, you'll love Yellowstone. Thank you for reading. Here are some additional pictures that I think you'll like:

                                  Scat

  
                                                  Elk

                                                Pine Tree

    Little Island

                                Grizzly Bear

 
                                      Cool Picture

                                    Mountain Chickadee Nest

                          Park Entrance (one of several)

    Entrance Sign

    Baby Buffalo

   Pronghorn

 Buffalo Herd

    Prairie Dog

    Buffalo Scat


   

 

                             Geyser (I don't remember the name)