[birdky] Schochoh, Logan Co., weekend list

From: Stephen Tyson <kytysons9152@xxxxxxxxx>
To: BIRDKY <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2023 19:06:28 -0500

It was an extraordinarily “birdy” weekend, here at the house, with 53 species counted. My notes from the last March weekend in 2022 said we counted 51 species and that was the best-ever for the weekend. It was too windy yesterday but today’s perfect weather made up for that.The big highlight was an absolutely gorgeous calurus/abieticola Red-tailed Hawk that I spotted, this morning before sunrise, as it flew across Trimble Road, southeast of the house. It landed in a cedar tree about 600 yards south. The local Red-tails soon chased it and it flew further west and landed on top of a fencerow tree, in plain view. My photos were at 600+ yards (and look like it) but I added some to our eBird list for the day, anyway and linked to it, below. I told Debby that it looked like a chunk off of a Hershey bar. There were lots of other highlights including three first-of-season species. I counted several Purple Martins, yesterday, then a Palm Warbler and the Vesper Sparrows, this morning. It started with a Loggerhead Shrike on Friday evening. I heard it singing from the top of a walnut tree, just across the road from the old pond depression. I’d heard their weird call before but I think this was the first time I’d heard one actually singing….yes, their song is weird, too.I hadn’t seen a SEOW since last weekend, after carefully watching for them most evenings. I watched again last evening and had finally decided that they must be gone when it was getting too dark to see. I was still scanning half-heartedly, and about to pack it in, when two distant coyotes that were still visible in the gloom suddenly scattered, while looking nervously skyward. I focused on them and could see a SEOW swooping at them. The juvenile GHOW had been very active early in the week and, around mid-week, I started to think there were only two of the three owlets in the cavity, even though I had looked carefully and couldn’t see one in the surrounding trees. Then, for a few days, mom wasn’t on her normal diurnal perch. We started to wonder if one of the owlets was out of the cavity and further back in the woodlot, beyond our view, and that maybe mom had relocated to keep an eye on it. Then, last evening when it was almost too dark to see anything, I spotted one of them out of the cavity and on a ledge 6-8 feet above, and the last sibling was resting in the opening. My impression from past years was that, once out of the cavity, the owlets stayed out but, this morning, I found two of them snoozing in there and mom was back in her normal roost. I didn’t know what to think until I was heading in for breakfast and happened to notice number three in a walnut tree, about 80 yards east of the nest tree, where I hadn’t been looking. It looked just fine, which is amazing to me after Friday’s 2+ inches of rain and hateful wind. Debby counted 11 Bobwhites along the south edge, this morning, and I got a decent recording of one singing in the old pond depression. He doesn’t know it’s too early. This eBird list also includes the Vesper Sparrow photos and song recording from this morning.The next weekend will be in April…how’d that happen?

eBird Checklist - 26 Mar 2023 - Tyson’s Acres (access by permission only) - 42 species (+2 other taxa)ebird.org

Stephen (Steve) Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co., KYSpecies Name:Canada GooseMallard
Northern Bobwhite
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Killdeer
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned/Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola)
Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl
Short-eared Owl
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker American Kestrel
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Purple Martin (FOY)
Tree Swallow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
House Sparrow
American Pipit
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow (FOY)
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Palm Warbler (FOY)
Northern Cardinal

[birdky] Schochoh, Logan Co., weekend list

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