We’ll be busy later so I’m posting early this weekend. We counted 56 species,
here at the house.
The early migrants that we first reported in July, continue, including
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, and a Least Flycatcher. The Least
really confused me, on Friday evening, by leaving their normal haunts, low in
the pond depression and hanging out in the tops of some dead elm trees.
Our June drought is a distant memory and we had 2.9 more inches of rain in the
last few days. This has apparently recharged the low-spot puddles in the east
and southeast fields. I can’t see the water from here, but see lots of bird
activity. I recognize some of them as shorebirds but my lack of experience
with them and the distance mostly prevents identification. I did finally
identify a Pectoral Sandpiper, last evening, our first-of-year that, for some
reason, flew this way and across the south field, close enough that I could see
that distinctive bib and contrasting white belly. Curiously, our only sighting
in 2022 was on August 6. I watched a flock of 40-50 birds over the east
fields, this morning, that were probably Pectorals but they were a bit too far
out to identify.
Our only other highlight was our first Barn Owl sighting in many weeks. I’ve
been sitting out occasionally, after sunset, to watch and listen for them but
have missed them entirely, recently. I wasn’t thinking Barn Owls when I
stepped out, 30 minutes before sunrise yesterday and set my scope in the
driveway, pointed southeast. It was still fairly dark because it was densely
overcast overhead, but there was a band of clear sky to about 10 degrees above
the horizon, in the southeast, along the Red River. This is a favorite scoping
condition and I’m sometimes able to pick up Mallards, Canadas, Great Blues, or
even Cormorants, moving along the river. I can sometimes catch the Red-tails
leaving their roosts in the big sinkhole thicket, to take up their breakfast
watch on the steel power-line towers. I scoped one of the towers and
immediately saw a raptor, winging directly toward…or away from me, I couldn’t
tell in the distance. I assumed that it was a Red-tail but I soon realized
that it was flapping constantly, without the Red-tail-typical glides. I
watched it for a minute or two and realized that it was definitely coming
toward me. At one point, it hesitated and dropped its legs in a very owl-like
way, as though thinking of dropping on some small creature. It eventually
flared slightly north, just as it reached the neighbor’s trees, and I could see
the distinctive big-headed shape and then that Barn Owl face, in the low light.
That’s one of only two three times we’ve seen them, here, in the morning.
What a nice surprise!
https://ebird.org/tripreport/149493
Stephen (Steve) Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co., KY
