I had the opportunity to participate in my first Christmas bird weekend at the park this weekend. We had a few activities based around birds on Saturday, including a little educational program. Our friend Gracie, the ring-necked dove, served as a live ambassador for the bird family during our program. Ring-necked doves are not actually found in Nebraska, but they look similar to a collared dove that is found in the area.It is always a joy to her Gracie "laugh" throughout the day. She lives in our education center at the park.
We focused our Saturday activities on birds, as Sunday we would be participating in the 115th Annual Christmas Bird Counted through the National Audubon Society. Surveys are conducted across the nation and tallies are tabulated, which helps conservation researchers. I imagined this day to consist of riding around in a vehicle with some more seasoned bird watchers and making tally marks as we saw different birds. While my simplistic vision was correct, it was no where near covering all what my day would include.
A few of us from Ponca State Park, a few guys from the local Audubon Chapter, some bird watching enthusiasts in the area, and a representative from Pheasants Forever met up at 7:30am Sunday morning. We then broke off into teams and were assigned an area to survey. The entire group covered a 7.5 mile radius. I joined the Game and Parks team, which included my fellow naturalist, our park superintendent, the parks division administrator, and the administrator's wife. We covered the park grounds, while the other groups headed outside park boundaries.
We started out in the vehicle, asked some questions, watched my boss pick out birds in trees as we went, and all I kept thinking at first was all I see is a black figure on the tree branch... not sure if it's a bird or just a leaf. Then, when I decide it's a bird... even with my binoculars on, I can barely notice any distinctive features clueing me into what that bird may be.
Alas, it was fun to see the more seasoned birders become excited, pick up on bird sounds, and even watch flight patterns. Maybe some day I will be practiced enough to be closer to that level. In the meantime, we parked the vehicle down at the river bottom, climbed out, and went for a hike near the backwaters. As the guys took the lead, every now and then, all of a sudden.... flap flap flap with a whoosh pheasants would come zooming out of the prairie grass. Whoever was in front would jump a bit, smile, and say how cool that was. Coming a few steps behind, I would jump a bit myself, giggle, and agree that was pretty cool.
While walking along, I had my older camera at the ready on the dreary day and took some non-birding photos as I couldn't help myself. A few of these photos included tracks seen along the way of those who had walked before us.
A few were of the river wetland itself like this, where it was fun to watch the water against the ice that still remained despite the warmer December temperature we had recently experienced.
A photo of some evidence of beavers down this way. We saw quite a few trees that looked like this along our birding walk down near the Missouri River and backwaters on park grounds.
We saw a handful of flocks of birds flying over the river including some Merganser, Mallards, and Canada Geese. I snapped one decent photo of one of the groups of geese.
As we trekked further into the trees down around the backwaters than I would have ever thought of traversing, we found great numbers of sparrows as our boss knew was likely down here. I will say this was a fun walk, and I have a feeling one of these days I will find myself walking down this way again.
After paying more attention to the diversity myself, I can see why bird-watching is such a popular hobby everywhere. So many different colorations, flight patterns, sounds, and joys to see. Here I snagged a photo of some White-crowned Sparrows. You will notice the white stripes on their heads.
The more I looked through my binoculars, the better I became at noting the birds quicker and with even more excitement. This photo is of an American Tree Sparrow.
Just a few more nature shots for fun along the way.
There appears to be an oriole nest in this tree.
Also saw quite a bit of this partridge pea plant. I learned the name of this plant amid our birding adventure on Sunday.
We also spotted some tracks near the river that our "experts" were not even sure of. The pattern of the tracks being so close together seemed different from anything they had seen before, and I am still trying to figure what out what they are using some resources. Maybe one of these days we'll have a good idea.
I also took a close up of the bird print itself.
Well maybe just a log that looks like a goose head. :-)
Then, we spotted a turtle in the river. A yellow-bellied slider.
When we found the turtle, we decided it was simply time to cross a bit of the shallow water rather than back tracking quite a ways. Unlike everyone else, I did not come fully prepared with waterproof shoes on that day. Ooops. Never would have guessed I would have found myself "wading" through the river that day. Haha. Lucky for me it wasn't quite so cold that day. Slipped off my shoes to keep them dry and walked on across the small distance. Some fun parts of life and my job include the unexpected turns, the adventure, and the experience!
We also spotted a few larger groups of Northern Cardinals and Cedar Waxwings up on top of some of the hills in the park. I don't have any photos of those, but man oh many it was pretty cool. I became so excited because the seasoned experts were so excited. Excitement is contagious. Neither of them had seen such large groups of these birds at one time. I even said I hardly see more than a few cardinals at a time, let alone 20 in a bush at one time. It was pretty cool to see.
As our exploration continued, the temperature dropped, some drizzle began to fall, and more fog settled in on a day that had already begun rather dreary on the weather end of things. I took a few photos of the fog settling in over the river as seen from the North addition of the park.
While it may not have been the most clear day we had lately, I still had a great time! I learned a lot, enjoyed the hikes, spent time with people who really know their stuff, and came out with some good stories. I must say now when I go turn on the lights in the front animal area, I spend a bit more time gazing out the window near the bird feeders, taking note of what I am actually seeing like this little White-breasted Nuthatch here.
Check out the National Audubon Website, if you are curious at all about the bird count itself. Christmas Bird Count
Hope you maybe found some enjoyment in my day of birding. I enjoyed it! Have a wonderful week, and here's to new experiences!
