New Blog Feature

I decided that I want to show a bunch of my favorite photos, both old and new so I created a photo of the week spot on my sidebar.

Birding has been slow the last few days although the transition between winter birds and spring birds has been pretty evident in the back yard as the Common Redpolls are gradually being replaced with Dark-eyed Juncos. Two days ago my first Red-winged Blackbirds showed up in the backyard. Although their arrival in the area was nothing out of the ordinary at this date, this is the earliest I have seen them in my backyard in the 4 years I have been here by about 3 weeks.

The weather here was very nice this past weekend and we were able to get our windows cleaned for the spring. Benton helped by making sure the flies didn't come in the window when we had them removed.



The weather has deteriorated the rest of the week and we just missed the precipitation that was called for. All we got out of the deal was the wind - from all directions this week and blowing hard. I could see the snow line just to the south about 4 miles on my way to work this morning. One Franklin's Gull was with a bunch of California gulls in an empty field in Glasgow this morning. Tomorrow I am up early for my first Greater Sage-grouse lek survey of the year at a reported new lek.

Saturday Fort Peck Birding

This morning the boys, the dogs, and I headed down to the banks of the Missouri River for a walk. We had a good time making wailing sounds from the new green grass blades stuck between our thumbs (well, I was able to do it). Benton (4 years old) made a good imitation with his own voice while holding a blade of grass to his mouth and Crean (1.5) made funny sounds while holding an old cattail blade in his hands. We looked at the resident beaver dam, threw sticks into the water for Addie, our Flat-Coated Retriever, and the tried to avoid the shower when she shook near us after bringing the stick back. We saw the first Painted Turtle of the spring basking on the edge of the pond. We also were able to watch a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings come to water at a small clearing along the trail. The boys and I were able to crouch near the edge of the water and have the waxwing come in all around us. There is a good bunch of waxwings around the area right now - probably at least a couple thousand. Many of them were flycatching from the tops of the Cottonwoods this morning and the sky was full of swallow-like waxwings. We also saw our first Red-winged Blackbirds and Killdeer of the spring.

Back home for lunch for all of us, a nap for Crean and a dinosaur movie for Benton. Dad gets to work on his computer!

More Photos from Chile

Torres Sunrise

Beach Forest Undergrowth
Correndera Pipit
Southern Lapwing

Zorro Chilla
Southern House Wren

More Antarctic photos

Black-browed Albatross

Adelie Penguins
Baily Head Rocks
Sleeping Chinstrap Penguin
Chinstrap Pollock
Antarctic yacht

Grasslands Thoughts and Recent Birding

Steve Bodio recently posted a link and short quote from a Kansas Wildlife and Parks Magazine article concerning burning and the ecology of grassland systems by Randy Rogers. This is an excellent overview of grassland systems and the challenge of managing to mimic historic disturbance patterns that prairie inhabitants have evolved with. As Mr. Rogers states:

"At least since the last ice age, the prairies and prairie wildlife of the Great Plains adapted to a cycle of perpetual change. Of course, this included sharp variations in weather — daily, seasonally, annually, and even over decades. But probably the key driving force to which prairies have adapted was what ecologists call the fire–grazing interaction. "

I might argue the relative importance of these disturbances depending on where you happen to be on the North American prairie, but these certainly are the main disturbances that shape these grasslands. I would also add the Rocky Mountain Locust to the traditional Bison as an important grazer that shaped the grasslands.

As we move into spring and my thoughts start turning to upcoming grassland bird surveys, one of the blog entries that that keeps coming to the top of the stew of ideas is a discussion on the grassland bird surveys that we have been doing in northern Valley County for the last five years and broader thoughts on grasslands, grassland management, and the disturbances that have shaped and some that continue to shape what is left of our North American grasslands.
This post would also include a short digression on grassland conservation (or lack thereof) in North America and my thoughts on a recent proposal to reintroduce Pleistocene mammal surrogates into the North American plains (we can't even find enough room for prairie dogs and Sprague's Pipits or Bison, let alone a camel or elephant - what we have left isn't as big as many seem to think). Check back.

Anyway, birding has been picking up as temperatures have warmed up and ice starts to come off the water. Northern Pintails have been moving through and the bulk of them have moved further north already.

I still have a fairly large number of Common Redpolls coming to the feeder and the American Robins are staking out territories in the back yard.

I also have a number of Antarctic photos I will be posting and at least one story to two left yet to post.

Today's other photos - Portrait and Place

Chinstrap Penguin portrait - Deception Island


Rim of Baily Head - Deception Island

Today's photo - Patterns

Glacier Ice and Volcanic dust. Deception Island, Antarctica