On The Road – Albatrossity – Spring and summer birds in Flyover Country

The last lingering White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) usually depart Flyover Country by mid-May, and this one was the last I saw this spring. Portly and gray, they always remind me of rotund old men, for whom only a brace of suspenders would be needed to complete that look. They don’t stay away long, returning in mid-September for a long winter stay. Click here for larger image.

One of the most common returnees in mid-May, the Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) is also one of the biggest challenges to photograph. When they are not flying jerkily around, they are usually perched in dark, sooty, inaccessible places. And frankly, they are not very colorful, so the incentive to get their picture is not as high as it should be. Nonetheless, these acrobatic mosquito killers have long been high on my list of “birds I want to get a good picture of”, and, after lots of years, I got some. Here’s one of those flying cigars captured in mid-flight. Click here for larger image.

On the opposite end of the colorful bird spectrum, the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) evokes superlatives in every field guide. “Incomparably beautiful” or “unmistakable” or “dramatically colored” show up time and time again, and they are accurate descriptions. The French name for this species, nonpareil (without equal) is perhaps the most accurate. Click here for larger image.

Now we are kipping ahead a few weeks because of a detour to Costa Rica. A late arrival each spring, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), seems to arrive here just as the larger insects (cicadas, caterpillars of the larger moths and butterflies etc.) become more abundant. Unlike the Old World cuckoos, which are nest parasites and lay eggs in the nests of other species, this species builds its own nest, using dead twigs like the one it is collecting here. More often heard than seen, they also have the colloquial name “rain crow” for their alleged habit of calling more frequently on cloudy days. But, as one source says, “its proficiency as predictor of weather has never been demonstrated”. Click here for larger image.

A very welcome returnee for the summer here in Flyover Country, the Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) is a stunning denizen of forest edges, power line cuts, and other shrubbier habitats here in Flyover Country. This adult male is in at least his second summer, and probably he is older than that because I have found an adult male in this exact location for at least three years now. This guy is high on the list of birds that visiting birders long to see. Click here for larger image.

Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are now common summer residents here, with their populations enhanced both by the banning of DDT and the building of large dams and reservoirs here. This image, to me at least, evokes Tennyson’s poem, simply titled “The Eagle”.

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He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

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Click here for larger image.

No thunderbolts are associated with this Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), but he does do a credible wolf whistle. So he has that going for him, as well as his frequent flyer miles. Click here for larger image.

A tiny bird with a distinctive song, the Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) is also on the list of birds heard more often than seen. If you have been in any deciduous woodland in the eastern US in springtime, you probably have heard their buzzy song, described by some as sounding “like a zipper” Seeing them is a challenge, as they are tiny, fast-moving, and prone to stay in the treetops. But sometimes they drop down from the upper limbs  to perch lower, and let you admire their handsome coloration and funky bicolored bill. Click here for larger image.

Lots of my fellow birdwatchers also keep life lists of dragonflies and damselflies, members of the insect order Odonata (aka “Odes” in birding lingo). I’m not quite there yet, but I do photograph them when I have a chance, as a camera rig that is good for birds is also usually fine for odes. This is a female Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), photographed not far from the Northern Parula above. Mosquitoes and other prey species probably call it the green-eyed monster. Click here for larger image.

For me, no spring here is complete without checking out the baby American Bison (Bison bison) on Konza Prairie. The colloquial name for these rusty darlings is “Red Dog”. In a few months that hair color will turn dark brown, and that little tiny nubbin of a horn will grow out lots more. Click here for larger image.