A rare sighting of a western Red-shafted Northern Flicker punctuated a period of Yellow-shafted Flicker migrations through the area. Note the “red mustache” on this male’s face.
A side view of the male Red-shafted Northern Flicker, the first to visit Paul’s neighborhood, and moments later appeared in his yard.
Looks like this was the last Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the season (September 20th), but Paul will keep his nectar feeder stocked for some weeks ahead, just in case.
Large flocks of Franklin’s Gulls have been migrating through central North Dakota recently, providing photo opportunities of some individuals, now in basic plumage.
An apparent maturing brood of Ring-necked Pheasants were especially trusting while they foraged near one roadway.
A Rock Wren at the eastern extent the species’ range provided a surprise view during a visit to a Badlands outcrop just east of the Missouri River.
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It was one of those days that was made for birding: Friday was sunny and windless, and my feeling was that raptors might provide the excitement for the afternoon. After the fact I was right, tallying 31 raptors, with 9 Swainson’s Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, and 3 Northern Harriers providing the action the first hour on the way to Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge. After the first 60 miles, Red-tailed Hawks took over, totaling 16 along the rest of my drive. Then, the moment I reached the west shore of Long Lake I was excited to see a big eagle flying low in my direction along the shore, pretty much looking eye to eye with me as I focused my camera.
As the young Bald Eagle flew closer it elevated a little higher, above my head and over the water, which provided a definite potential for photos on the wing. With the sun at my back, I photographed the eagle as it passed close by, wings up, wings down, flying slowly away. Thinking I might be able to intercept its flight, while keeping the big raptor in sight I drove a mile south and turned west 200 yards. There I could see the eagle approaching my position, and that’s when it joined 2 Turkey Vultures that began circling in a rising thermal of warmer air.
As they approached closer, the eagle provided some nice vertical spread-wing photos as it flared into the sunlight, followed by a vulture that did the same move but in the opposite direction. I thought they would sweep overhead, and the vultures did, but the young Bald Eagle worked its way back north into another thermal far out of camera range. It was a fun photo episode that yielded some nice images, some of which are illustrate the Bird Photography feature in this issue.
When I returned to my original shoreline drive position I noticed another young Bald Eagle perched on a low fence post. Could this be a signal of an eagle gathering at the refuge? Apparently not, as it was my last eagle sighting of the afternoon, but at the location where I photographed Western Grebe families a number of times earlier in the summer, I encountered 2 White Pelicans, 1 Mallard in eclipse plumage, and several young Double-crested Cormorants. The next time I passed by, a Snowy Egret was standing on the rock where the Mallard was initially, and I found another Say’s Phoebe, possibly the last flycatcher of the season.
Always a Western Grebe summer stronghold, Long Lake only produced a single Western Grebe sighting; and I was surprised not to see any shorebirds, not even a Killdeer. Oh wait, there was a big flock of about 50 American Avocets feeding in a shallow marsh at the south side of the refuge. On the big lake there were large rafts of Northern Shovelers feeding, and a few flocks of cormorants, more pelicans, and many, many Franklin’s Gulls. As I was leaving the refuge, I passed a group of Ring-necked Pheasants, all males not yet in full fall plumage, but interesting and trusting enough for me to photograph them. As I was nearing home, I sighted a big Great Horned Owl perched with its back to the setting sun; the first I’ve seen in quite some time. Not that Great Horned Owls are uncommon in the region, but because they have plenty of places to stay out of sight during spring and summer with abundant leaves on the trees.
Earlier in the day, I photographed a Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched next to a hanging basket of flowers. Well, actually it was napping a bit, spending short periods with its eyes closed, but periodically startled by insects flying by. Its brief break in the action gave me a chance to photograph it resting, illuminated by the overhead sun before a black shaded background. After photographing a hummingbird the previous Monday afternoon, I was concerned when no hummers were around Tuesday or Wednesday, and kinda gave up on them for the season. But I was glad to see one working the flowers Thursday morning before heading out for Fargo, followed by the Friday photo session. Incidentally the drive to Fargo provided a very rare sighting of a Common Raven in east-central North Dakota, between Valley City and Fargo.
Weekend Birding
An especially windy Saturday was bookended by fairly calm days, so I didn’t hold much hope for birding as I drove away from my office that afternoon. But just a hundred yards away, the mountain ash tree was bustling with avian action, so I positioned myself for a short photo stop. There appeared to be equal numbers of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins harvesting the bright orange berries, swallowing one whole before reaching for the next one. All the waxwings were young birds, which was interesting as only 1 young robin was noted. Surprised to see a flicker fly into the feeding frenzy, I had to mentally question myself: Did I see a flash of salmon-red color in the underwings as it landed?
The Northern Flicker was initially hidden behind leaves, which added to the interest level, but it moved a bit to show its position, and moved again to let me see its red “mustache” marking on the side of its throat, just behind its straight beak. That was a giveaway that this was a male Red-shafted Northern Flicker. It turned to move to a closer branch, providing a chance for some documentary photos from the side. That’s when it twisted into something of an opening provide a frontal foto surrounded by clusters of orange berries. That’s when it flew directly over my head, flying straight toward my backyard.
Is it possible this western cowboy-bird would stop in my yard to add to my Yard List? I gingerly drove in that direction, and sure enough, there it was on the section of recently mowed lawn! It was the first of this subspecies to visit my yard, a Red-shafted Northern Flicker, now in the company of 2 Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers. These are considered west and east races (subspecies) of the species: Northern Flicker; although even as recently as when I was in high school, they were considered separate species. I was especially glad to get the close photographs of western flicker in the berry tree, and now the black-mustached Yellow-shafted males seemed a little bland compared to this red-mustached male. (Appropriately, female flickers don’t have the “mustache” markings.) How enjoyable it was to find this “different” flicker, and to photograph it in the process. But now I was compelled to check every flicker I saw to see if it was a red-mustached dude – ha.
With my attitude appropriately adjusted by this initial sighting, I enjoyed a birding drive along my usual southern route, out to Charo Marsh and back essentially. There were a few big flocks of Franklin’s Gulls, and 1 huge flock; plus some large feeding groups of Double-crested Cormorants, mostly young birds. After the lack of Western Grebes at Long Lake Refuge the previous afternoon, it was interesting to see 3 different groups of Westies in my area, with about 30 in 1 loose flock. A few White Pelicans were scattered around area marshes as usual, and there were a some wading birds, one group included 2 Snowy Egrets, 1 Great Egret, and 1 Great Blue Heron, while other egrets were widely scattered, as were single White-faced Ibis and Black-crowned Night Herons.
Flocks of ducks are ever-present, with Mallards being the most common, along with Gadwalls, Ruddy Ducks, and Blue-winged Teal, some Northern Shovelers and Northern Pintails, and occasional Canvasbacks and Lesser Scaup – plus a large flock of Redheads. At Charo Marsh all these duck species were present, along with some Giant Canada Geese; and the shorebirds on hand included a tight resting flock of 21 Long-billed Dowitchers, 23 Killdeer, and 3 Wilson’s Snipe; while 3 Greater Yellowlegs were present at Alice’s Marsh to north of home.
Migration Fallout – BirdCast radar showed a big migration transpired overnight, so with the official dawning of the new fall season Sunday, I did a local morning search for migrants, even checking out Melody’s Grove for songbirds and native sparrows, but I returned home without much to report. Even the birds on hand seemed a bit sedate along my 10 mile route east, and another 10 north. So imagine my surprise when I went upstairs to shower, only to peer out a back window to see a few tiny birds actively foraging on nearby blue spruce boughs – tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and there were Chipping Sparrows too. Several Dark-eyed Juncos appeared next, then my favorite native sparrow, a Harris’s Sparrow, appeared on the ground, now in basic plumage.
A couple Northern Flickers flew in too, one perching nearby in the spruce, and a few American Robins too. How fun to have a little fall fallout in my backyard, and how enchanting to see them at eye level, 16 feet above ground off my second floor deck. A couple Chipping Sparrows actually landed on the deck too. The backyard action put me on high alert, and I went back downstairs to get my binoculars, then returned to enjoy the closest views ever of the active kinglets, and all the others. Then, like so many songbird fallouts, suddenly the action subsided and the birds were gone; but those are the moments we remember as backyard highlights, and it was a memorable introduction to the first day of fall.
Later that day, the sunlight and weather were so perfect, that to celebrate the first day of fall holiday I plotted a different birding route to emphasize raptors to and along the Missouri River – and to see what overnight migrants might have landed, in terms of shorebirds, songbirds, and others. I figured raptors would probably be the more obvious birds in transit, and they were while cCrossing the open plains. It was especially nice to reach the tall buttes and occasional Badlands clay outcrops along the Missouri River south of Bismarck.
As it turned out, my final destination was a memorable Badlands ridgeline where I managed to take some of my favorite American Kestrel photographs last fall. The area also yielded sightings of a Ferruginous Hawk and Northern Harrier previously, so in addition to the landscape, the birds of prey attract me here. However, my first drive across the ancient land offered only Western Meadowlarks.
Upon reaching the high prairie beyond the Badlands, I turned round and retraced my route back to the clay ridgeline. And there it was, a female American Kestrel that dropped down from a high perch to grab a big insect! By the time she returned to her perch, a second kestrel appeared, this one a male; and then another male, nice! I observed the mini-falcons a bit, hoping for at least one to reposition to a natural perch or the fence line for another close photo series. Soon, one of the males began a hovering hunt, and the other flew toward the ridgeline, but disappeared out of sight behind it.
That’s when the rare bird of the day showed up on the steep vertical slope of the bare clay ridge before me – a small bird, a Rock Wren! It was surely the first I’ve seen this year, or in a few years, but it’s an expected species in a Badlands setting. I was especially happy to be close enough to even get a few documentary photo portraits of the Rock Wren at the eastern edge of its range.
As I watched the female American Kestrel through binoculars, much farther in the background I detected 2 large black gliding birds – Turkey Vultures, and there were 10 of them gliding ever lower. In a few moments I saw the vultures begin to circle into a rising warm air thermal. They elevated in ever higher circles within the thermal, then straightened their wings into another long-distance glide, indicating they were in migration mode to points south. In this way, birds like vultures, hawks, eagles, cranes, and some other birds migrate long distances while preserving energy by not having to flap their wings in the process.
In the opposite direction I noticed a Northern Harrier on the hunt, and a Red-tailed Hawk was also flying low along an open coulee. The kestrels dispersed, and with the sun low, I began the long drive home – after all, I still had plenty of work to do on this issue. I did see a flock of 6 Gray Partridge along the way, and there were more hawks on the way back. Overall, I observed 53 raptors including 30 Red-tailed Hawks, 11 Swainson’s Hawks, 4 Northern Harriers, 7 American Kestrels, and 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, always rare in the open plains.
The other highlights of the day included many large and small flocks of Western Meadowlarks, mostly within 15 miles of the Missouri River. I also found a shallow wetland where 16 White-faced Ibis were foraging across a broad area, and in one corner of the marsh was a concentration of about 120 Long-billed Dowitchers with a Greater Yellowlegs and a Lesser Yellowlegs among them. It was another day created especially for birding, the first day of fall, the first of many fall days afield. I hope you have some birding opportunities during the week ahead; it’s an exciting time to monitor migration, and to watch for birds in your yard and neighborhood. Best wishes for a birdy fall.
Article and Photos by Paul Konrad
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