Bryant had a piano lesson in town today, so I got to go to Hoskinson's Sandpit for about an hour and a half this afternoon. Over the past several weeks we have seen a gradual increase in Franklin's Gulls and a gradual decrease in Ring-billed and Herring. Today they were almost all Franklin's with only about thirty Ring-bills and no Herrings. As I sat there I saw a small bird swimming away. I looked over and it was an Eared Grebe, I was pretty pleased because it was only the second time I had ever seen one in Reno county. It was also a pretty good year bird.
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| Eared Grebe |
I walked around the sandpit and got my first of season Cliff Swallow along with a fly-over Osprey. I started walking back and saw a Swainson's Hawk, I saw a pointy winged raptor flying behind it. I looked at it and was amazed to see a Peregrine Falcon, which is a good bird at this time of year. Unfortunately it was too far off to get any pictures, but it was a very neat bird! As I walked back to where I would wait for Bryant, I saw a large bird fly out of a tree. It was a Black-crowned Night Heron! It circled back around and came by me so I could get some okay pictures.
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| Black-crowned Night Heron |
I then sat down to check out the Franklin's Gulls again in hopes of finding a Bonaparte's Gull. After a little bit I saw two gulls flapping around and identified them as Bonaparte's. To top it all of I had two first of year Purple Martins fly over, giving me year bird #140 in Kansas. It was a gorgeous day to be out, but it was a bit warm.
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| Bonaparte's Gull (center) |
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