[bcbirdclub] redstart
- From: Bob Sweaney <kypm62@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: buch birding <bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:24:09 -0400
Pike County, Ky.---Just finished mowing the yard this morning and while
cleaning up I thought that I heard a redstart. I got the glasses for a look and
was met with silence for several minutes----but he couldn't quit and he started
singing again very nearby. Got several good looks at him.
We have just returned home from a visit to the Flint Hills of Kansas and some
of the counties of southern Nebraska. It's pretty early to do a lot of birding
out there--but the Flint Hills are beautiful---and home of the Tallgrass
Prairie National Preserve. They are an area in east central Kansas where much
of the land has never been plowed. The Flint Hills and Chase County are well
chronicled in William Least Heat-Moon's "PrairyErth".
We did see a good number of birds---particularly unidentifiable sparrows---it
was very windy. Upland Sandpipers and a very cooperative scissortailed
flycatcher were our favorites. In the Flint Hills were numerous
Meadowlarks----all of them Eastern. This suprised me as I grew up in northwest
Iowa and we only had western meadowlarks there. The first Western Meadowlark we
heard (and saw) was near Navarre, Kansas--just southeast of Abilene. And that
is all we heard as we headed back east across the southern tier of Nebraska
counties. We also saw several wild turkeys displaying---usually one male and 3
or more females. But on a gravel raod three miles south of Gilead, Nebraska, we
saw three males displaying and could see only two females---there we likely
more females over on the other side of the ridge.
One last thing---the redbuds were in bloom out there too--and they are a darker
shade of red than the redbud here. And walking around the small towns, the
smell of the lilacs was intoxicating.
Bob Sweaney
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