Ashley and I couldn't pass up such a nice afternoon here in central Iowa. We went over to Harrier Marsh to check things out.
There wasn't much in the way of sparrows (just Song & Swamp) but we still enjoyed the walk-around.
A SORA was a nice sound to hear again, it had been a while. Secondly, we managed good looks of both SEDGE WRENS and MARSH WRENS. Here is a MAWR that couldn't pass up a closer inspection of us:
Maybe the most common bird was the ubiquitous COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. Here is a first fall male:
One thing that stood out were the flocks of BOBOLINKS around the marsh. I would estimate 50-100 were seen flushing out and flying about among other blackbirds. Here are a couple shots of some perched:
Anyone out there know their Iowa amphibians? I photographed these two different frogs today and suspect they are Leopard Frogs. Problem is... we can't decide if they're Plains or Northern. Some appear to even show marks of both!
We ended at Emma McCarthy Lee Park in Ames looking for migrants. Once we found the flocks, it was an enjoyable couple hours; we had 9 species of warblers, 5 species of vireos, and many other migrants. Things that come to mind include:
Golden-winged Warbler (1)
Tennessee Warbler
Northern Parula (1)
Magnolia Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
American Redstart
Warbling Vireo (1)
Philadelphia Vireo (2)
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo (1)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Carolina & House Wrens
