Cheney on Sunday

On Easter Sunday, Joseph, Anthony, and I went to Cheney for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  We went to the dam right away and right as we got to the top we saw several Horned Grebes.

Horned Grebes are gorgeous in their breeding plumage!

We moves on along the dam a couple of hundred feet, when Anthony exclaimed that he found a Loon.  Any loon is good, but when we got scope views we were all thinking we had a Pacific.  This was confirmed when we got home and looked at our pics.  A lifer all around!

Pacific Loon

Unfortunately, it was far enough out that we couldn't get any good pics.

There were many Bonaparte's Gulls and one Eared Grebe as well, along with the other more common birds.

This Bonaparte's was just getting his breeding plumage black hood.

We continued along the dam seeing several year butterflies such as Common Sootywing and Painted Lady.  Joseph also got some pics of one of the Olympia Marbles that were cruising the south side of the dam, in the sun and out of the wind.

Olympia Marble: pic by Joseph

We decided to hit some other points in the state park on the way back.  It was a good thing we did.  When we got out to scope some scaup, Joseph mentioned that he had a Red-breasted Merg, I looked up and saw a obvious Horned Grebe, we debated heatedly about this for a bit, both thinking the other crazy.  Eventually we realized we were looking at different birds, so I guess we were both right and are still friends for now.

Since the Merg was to far away to get pics, I will just put in this coot pic:)

While driving back around the lake we spotted a Bald Eagle nest, a quadcopter, and a friendly man out enjoying the beautiful day with his sons.

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Fish Crow

I visited the sandpit on Monday and found that the Fish Crows are back at the Hoskinson's Sandpit, along with my FOS Franklin's Gulls and a flyover Osprey!



Andrew

Firesky!

The sky in Kansas turned downright apocalyptical yesterday. A massive grass fire stretching from northern Oklahoma into southern Kansas released a dense plume of smoke stretching for hundreds of miles downwind. The tinder-dry conditions and howling south wind helped spread the fire through nearly 400,000 acres of range and canyon-land in Comanche and Barber counties. We noticed it starting to get hazy here by late morning, and by early afternoon the sky had turned a fiery yellow-orange.

 It looked very eerie, nearly twilight dark with the sun a dim red orb high in the sky.

 Eventually the wind switched to the southwest and it began to clear off.

You can't normally see sunspots without a special filter, but you certainly could through the dense haze!

This is actually what the sun looked like. I've never seen any weather conditions that made it look pink before







 






Fire rabbit



And yes, this is a horribly unfocused picture of a Bufflehead. But it is a Bufflehead, which up until now I had never seen in our yard. That, and I kind of like the background


Joseph

Spring Pushes

Spring is coming early this year!  I am ready for the change, but in some ways it seems like we hardly had winter this year.  This made it hard to get some of the normally common winter birds. However, I am not going to complain!

I guess I will start with butterflies!  I have only seen about a dozen species this year so far.  The most interesting being an Olympia Marble.

I saw several of these Olympia Marble in my yard one afternoon!

Their underside is a striking bright yellow!

Question Marks are always one of the first butterflies to show up in the spring.

Now for the birds!  Stuff has really started moving around lately, with the early migrants such as Killdeer and Eastern Phoebes now all over the place.  Purple Martins are back as well and I've also seen a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows and a Barn Swallow.

One of the Northern Rough-winged Swallows that was at a local pond for several days in a row.

There was a Baird's Sandpiper and a Greater Yellowlegs at our pond and Joseph had Least Sandpiper at a different pond.  This spring we have already noticed a push of White-winged Doves.  Anthony has seen one at his place for a couple weeks, Joseph had one at a nearby farm, and I saw a pair a few miles from my house.

Monday evening, Joseph called to say that he and Anthony had a Burrowing Owl at a worked field near Abbyville.  Bryant and I rushed out to try to find it.  I managed to get a brief view in the fading light, but unfortunately, Bryant missed it.

Tuesday afternoon I went to Hoskinson's Sandpit for about an hour.  I was hoping to see a some Fish Crows, since we had seen them there regularly at this time last year, but I couldn't find any.  However, I did pick out a late 2nd cycle Thayer's Gull out of a bunch of Ring-bills.  According to Birds of Kansas, this is the third latest they have been seen in Kansas!

2nd cycle Thayer's Gull at the sandpit.

So far, my year list sits at 123 species.  Not bad for late March!

Andrew

Cockfight!

I was surprised one morning last week when I noticed a pair of cock Ring-necked Pheasants viciously fighting in the field next to our house. I grabbed the camera and watched as they sparred rather violently for a few minutes.

Sadly, the distance was a little to far to get any good shots

Revolutionary new species of bird discovered in Kansas! Introducing the Two-tailed Pheasant, Phasinius duocaudatus.

I assume they had ulterior, lady-related, motives for the fight, although there were no hens to be seen in the area.

I've never seen behavior like this in pheasants before, although it is similar to displays in other grouse species, such as prairie chickens.

Joseph
 
Butterfly year list-4:(
Bird year list-98