I have featured Bell’s Vireo on this site before, but it is one of my favorites and I never get tired of hunting, watching and photographing this grassland cutie.
The Grassland’s Cutie – Bell’s Vireo – Again
Category: wildlife
The Turkey Vulture
While driving around BK Leach Conservation Area this spring, we came across a Turkey Vulture feeding on a raccoon carcass. Did you know that the Turkey Vulture has the most advanced olfactory system of any known bird? They can pick up the smell of a rotting animal from more than a mile away. As shown below, we noticed the bird would attempt to cover up its meal when it spotted other vultures soaring nearby.
Turkey Vultures can often be seen with their wings widely spread in what is referred to as an “horaltic pose”. The benefits of doing this are not entirely known but have been hypothesized to be an aid in warming the birds and helping to dry feathers. The bird posing in the shot below was taken one morning while I was hiking at Shaw Nature Reserve.
Finally, I thought I would share some video footage that this patient bird let us take whilst it was digging into some coon.
Red-tailed “Harlan’s” Hawk
Sarah and I came across this gorgeously colored Red-tailed Hawk early this spring at BK Leach C.A. I may be wrong, but my best call is a juvenile Harlan’s.
A Few From Wild Acres Park
Today I will share a few photos taken this spring at Wild Acres Park in Overland, MO.
Fascinating, Rusty Blackbirds are always a treat to find. I am planning on publishing a post focused on Rusties soon.
A morning with a singing Pine Warbler is as good as it gets…
I have been surprised a number of times this spring by the waterfowl I have come across in the park’s lake. Unfortunately, the skittish birds often flush as soon as they see people. This pair of Bufflehead stayed for the entire time I visited the park and allowed me to get close enough to photograph. I have found Wood Ducks, Hooded Merganser and Scaup this spring as well.
Finally, although it looks as there will not be young Groundhog in the park this year, I still see the adults from time to time.
Thanks for the visit
-OZB
handsomeozarkbillyboy@gmail.com
Coastal Wanderer – The Brown Pelican Visits the Show-Me State
Typically found in warmer coastal waters of the Americas, St. Louis birders were in for a treat by the visit of this Brown Pelican that arrived about a month ago.
The bird has been seen consistently and may stick around at RMBS for the rest of the summer.
Unfortunately, these photos were strongly affected by heat wave distortion that was prominant on this clear day.
Thanks for stopping by.
-OZB
Winter has Finally Come!
No, I’m not referring to that no account, poor excuse of a season we witnessed a few months back. What I was finally able to do was capture a few pics of a Winter Wren. I have never been able to get more than a fleeting glance at this skulking bird as it somehow is able to hide by rarely moving more than a few feet off the ground. This spring, however, I was in the right place (Shaw Nature Reserve) and was lucky to find a few of these birds and follow them long enough to get a few poor quality images.
With more than 35 recognized subspecies, the Winter Wren has an enormous range and is the only member of the wren family to be found outside of the Americas.
According to NatGeo, “Per unit weight the Winter Wren delivers its song with 10 times more power than a crowing rooster”. I was able to hear the quite complex and rapid musical songs as I watched one or two of these birds foraging. I could tell they were merely partial songs and not delivered with full attention and voice as is often the case of migrating birds, but I was still awed by the sounds.
The photo above focuses on the quite short tail of the Winter Wren, a distinguishing and obvious field mark.
Although the next photo is quite poor, I like that it captured the typical squat, egg-like shape of the bird.
Finally, I thought I would add an image of a House Wren that I took on the same day, the first of this species that I found this spring. Notice the much longer tail and the lack of any barring pattern on the flanks forward of the legs. A generally paler bird.
-OZB
Return to the Kingdom of Quivira
I have previously discussed and shared a number of our photos from previous trips to Quivira NWR. Steve and I recently returned from a short trip to central Kansas and I wanted to share a quick photo. Last year we had sure looks and photos of Hudsonian Godwits. This year one of the highlights of the trip was finding a group of 23 Marbled Godwits.
We were a bit earlier this year than last and this combined with a longer, cooler spring, bird species diversity and overall numbers were a tad lower. Constant abusing winds made the cool temperatures nearly unbearable to sustain for long, especially with two dudes who dressed for spring. But, we just worked a little harder and made the best use of good light, higher temps and calmer winds when we could find them. Another unforgettable trip.
Sischuan Takin
If I were to pick my spirit animal, the Takin would definitely be one of my top contenders. An impressive animal, the Takin is a perfect mix of brawn and agility. Phlegmatic, confident and humble (they seem to me), these goats live with the Giant Pandas in the mountainous bamboo forests of China.
Sarah and I took a day off to visit the Zoo and imagine our pleasure at finding the newest Takin in StL. This little one was about a week old when we made our visit.
A week old and ready for anything.
This guy would go from bluffing and horsing around with mom and the other cow in the enclosure to being timid and weary.
Here she is getting a reassuring nudge from mom.
Here you see the little one watching one of the adults having a rub in the dirt.
And now it’s his turn…
Till next time…
-OZB
Winter of the Short-eared
I have shared images and discussed the Short-eared Owl on a number of previous blog posts. Never did I imagine the “storm” that the “winter” of 2015/2016 was to bring. On many different trips to a few different places, I along with my partners Sarah and Steve, were fortunate to have great looks at great numbers of these fluffy fascinations in feathers. I can’t say for certain if this winter in this region was abnormal for hosting a greater than average number of SEOW, or if my observational skills have just improved, but it certainly seemed easier than in past years to find and watch these birds. I’ve just finished putting together a video with some video clips and highlight images that I wanted to share. Without further ado, here you are…
Oh, the challenges video brings to an inexperienced, unprepared and poorly equipped photographer. Throw in the fact that these birds are utterly unpredictable and it’s hard to believe I was able to capture what I did. So, I learn and take notes and hopefully improve next year.
Other than the simians, is there another species easier to anthropomorphize? Here we have cute and inquisitive SEOW, followed mere seconds later by the evil, harbinger of doom SEOW of which early writers told.
And then we have the indifferent SEOW…
Okay, I’ll stop now before they take my biologist card away from me…
Although I got a few images, I struggled mightily and missed several great opportunities at capturing SEOW in flight this season. The randomness of the encounters coupled with challenges with lighting and equipment make this a true challenge. Funnily, one of my better in-flight photographs was taken with a setting sun at the bird’s back – not the best opportunity…
The image below was taken with the sun in a better position. Notice the catch light, which suggests that the bird was up and in flight with the sun still in the sky. Something else in this photo that I noticed before is the difference in dilatation of the lit pupil compared to the pupil of the shaded eye.
Below is a flight shot from a further distance. I liked the warm light of the golden hour, painting the dead prairie vegetation in fire.
One night Steve and I were fortunate to have an owl perch close to our car well into dusk. It then left its perch and landed nearby in the vegetation. We could not tell if it was after a prey or decided to go back to bed, as it sat there for the short remainder of the day.
The final image I am sharing here is just to show off those feather-covered legs. A great adaptation for the cold climates in which these birds are found.
-OZB
The Leafcutter Bee
The Leafcutter Bees are an interesting group of native solitary bees found within the Megachilidae Family along with Mason Bees, Resin Bees and Carder Bees. There are approximately 200 species of Leafcutter Bees (Megachile genus) found in North America and several of these species can be easily found in gardens throughout the eastern United States where they favor the plant families Asteraceae, Campanulaceae and Fabaceae.
Leafcutter Bees get their names from an obvious behavior. These bees line their chosen nest cavities (stems, cracks, wood-boring beetle borings, holes of all kinds) with circular discs that they cut from green leaves or flower petals. When a cavity has been sufficiently lined, the bee will deposit an egg along with a provision of nectar and pollen, afterward abandoning the nest.
Bees in this family are abdominal pollen collectors, as can be seen in the photo above. Unlike most bees that hold pollen in brushes on their legs, the Megachilidae hold their pollen on the underside of their abdomens that consist of course, unbranched hairs that curves towards the tail.
A diagnostic behavior of the Leafcutter Bee is their habit of extending their abdomen vertically while they forage. I have not been able to find an accepted reason that they do this.
This is a group of native insects that anyone can help in their own backyard. Consider making, purchasing and installing nesting structures for your native pollinating bees. It’s quite easy to do and will help out a lot in suburban where natural sites for nests are often hard to find.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 