Marshes - 17 Sep. 09

Ashley and I checked out Errington Marsh and Saylorville in Polk County this morning. We didn't turn up any LeConte's or Nelson's Sparrows yet but we did have great looks at a couple neat things.

First we had a ton of SEDGE WRENS:

There were plenty of MARSH WRENS as well:

We saw several sparrows as well which gave us a chance to practice up (these LCSP or GRSP?):

We noticed a PEREGRINE FALCON in the air as well. But what was odd was that it was carrying a dead RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD! However, the falcon dropped the blackbird and decided to leave it. Here is the falcon after it dropped the blackbird:

We also flushed a SORA from a marsh edge. No Yellow Rails yet. :-)

Sneaky or just curious? This NORTHERN RACOON was spying on me yesterday from a park here in Ames: