The refuge itself has multiple lakes and miles of hiking trails. It also has a five mile driving tour over part of the refuge, which is what I chose to do today. The refuge has wooded areas (pine), grasslands, and riparian habitats, and the driving tour takes you through some of each.
As soon as I entered the refuge I saw my first life bird of the day - a WESTERN BLUEBIRD. (Picture from google).
I had seen eastern bluebirds in Texas, but never any here. I also noted in the bird list that there is a mountain bluebird which is relatively common here, and, therefore, a life-bird I will make some time to pursue on another day. About 1/4 mile down the road I decided to stop the car, turn off the engine and just scan the trees for a while. I find that after about a half an hour, birds tend to accept anything in their environment that isn't moving (or a recognized predator), and start to move around in usual patterns. It was early in the morning and the day was clear and bright. I could hear some type of woodpecker hammering in addition to several "tweety birds" or passerines, to be more correct, singing. Eventually several pairs of downy woodpeckers started flying around, and then I spotted a larger bird that appeared to be a woodpecker at a distance. It took me about 20 minutes of looking before he flew into view, but suddenly a gorgeous red and black woodpecker parked himself on the tree right in front of me - and over the head of a "small" female moose that I had neglected to notice! The markings were very distinct and it was easy to determine that he was a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. (Picture from google).
After I realized I was staring into moose eyes from a relatively close distance, I decided it would be wise to move on.
I stopped at a couple of other locations and saw several pygmy nuthatches in a group (one of my more recent lifebirds), in addition to white breasted nuthatches. After turning a corner and coming up to one lake, I noticed a very prominent nest at the top of a snag that had an osprey in sitting in it, calling. I stopped the car and rolled down the window to be able to hear better and get a better look. She kept repeating a relatively "un-hawklike" tweet that really didn't seem like it should be coming from her. She didn't stop either, and continued for almost five minutes. While I was trying to figure out why, a male osprey swooped in and mated with her! Yikes! Neat thing to see, really. Around the next corner I saw two elk heading out of my way, a ground squirrel, and chipmunks. It was quite the day for mammals!
After about an hour, I decided I had better head back to the house to let Tillie out (she was locked in her crate indoors while they sprayed). Because my original intention was to look for a crossbill, I spent all my time looking in the trees and only noted water birds when they happened to cross my path. Even so, during the time I was there I amassed the following list!
(Stars indicate life-birds):
1. Canada Goose
2. American Widgeon
3. Ring-necked Duck
4. Bufflehead
5. Osprey
6. Red-Tailed Hawk
7. California Quail
8. Mourning Dove
9. *Red-Naped Sapsucker
10. Downy Woodpecker
11. Northern Flicker
12. Black-billed Magpie
13. American Crow
14. White-breasted Nuthatch
15. Pygmy Nuthatch
16. *Western Bluebird
17. American Robin
18. European Starling
19 Chipping Sparrow
Unidentified sparrow
20. Dark-eyed Junco
21. Red-winged Blackbird
22. Brewer's Blackbird
This puts me at 233 on my life-list!
I am really looking forward to taking Matt out there tonight, and, because it is only about 10 miles from school, I plan to make lots of trips during my three hour breaks between classes throughout this quarter!
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