700th photographed bird species!

This morning Torre, Tyler, and I went birding down around Saylorville and then some in Boone County. Although the birding was extremely slow due to wind, etc, we still found a couple things. Among those was this YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. This was my 700th photographed bird species!

We also saw a couple OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS. Here is one in Boone County:

Adding a nice splash of color, we also saw this male BALTIMORE ORIOLE:

Then late this afternoon, Ashley and I went to Brookside Park in Ames to check for warblers. We weren't disappointed (especially given the lack of birds this morning). We had 8 species of warblers:

Black-and-white Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Mourning Warbler

American Redstart

Canada Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Wilson's Warbler (see below photo)

Warblers - 28 Aug. 2009

Although I don't have much in the way of photographs from the last couple days (it's been raining almost constantly!), I thought I'd give a quick update on some of the migrants I've seen here in central Iowa.

First off, my yard in west Ames has been surprisingly productive. So far I've had 11 warbler species:

Tennessee Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

"Bay-poll" Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

American Redstart

Northern Waterthrush

Mourning Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Canada Warbler

Three other warblers that I haven't had in the yard yet but DID see this morning in Ames included:

Blackburnian

Golden-winged Warbler

Ovenbird

The yard has also produced these other migrants:

Least Flycatcher

"Traill's" Flycatcher

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Veery

Swainson's Thrush

Pretty fun time to bird central Iowa! Or maybe I'm just overexcited to see "eastern" warblers (considering I don't see too many during my field work in Nebraska).

Warblers - 23 Aug. 2009

Warblers and other passerines have begun to pass through central Iowa. In fact, even along College Creek (including our yard which borders College Creek) has been decent for migrants. Over the last 2 days we've seen these species in the area:

GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER

CANADA WARBLER

CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER

BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER

MOURNING WARBLER

YELLOW WARBLER

VEERY

Numerous RED-EYED VIREOS, WARBLING VIREOS, BALTIMORE ORIOLES, LEAST FLYCATCHERS, etc.

Yesterday, we had this GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER just down the path from our yard:

Today there was this MOURNING WARBLER which gave us a good chance to study up on eye-rings and throat/breast patterns of fall MOWA's.

Saylorville, etc - 18 Aug. 2009

Ashley and I made a quick loop down around Saylorville this afternoon/evening.

At Polk City Wildlife Area I stumbled into these 2 new butterfly species.

NORTHERN PEARLY-EYE:

DAINTY SULPHUR:

The shorebirds at Jester Park were pretty impressive. With probably over 1000 birds total, we tallied 15 species:

AMERICAN AVOCET (6)

WILLET (4)

BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (3)

RUDDY TURNSTONE (3)

SANDERLING (2)

STILT SANDPIPER (3)

SEMIPALMATED PLOVER

KILLDEER

LESSER YELLOWLEGS

GREATER YELLOWLEGS

SOLITARY SANDPIPER

SPOTTED SANDPIPER

SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER

LEAST SANDPIPER

PECTORAL SANDPIPER

Some other birds present included CASPIAN TERNS (4), BLACK TERN (1), and hundreds of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS.

What was really quite impressive was watching an immature PEREGRINE FALCON catching a Pectoral Sandpiper! Interestingly, the falcon was wearing a red color band on its right leg. Perhaps it was a young bird from a nearby public nest?

Western Sandpiper etc.

Today Steve Dinsmore and I canoed out to the mudflats at Red Rock to get a better look at the thousand plus shorebirds.

On the day, we tallied 19 species of shorebirds:

Pectoral Sandpiper

Killdeer

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover

Spotted Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Black-bellied Plover

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Solitary Sandpiper

Sanderling

Wilson's Phalarope

Baird's Sandpiper (3)

WESTERN SANDPIPER (2)

Upland Sandpiper (1)

American Golden-Plover (1)

RUDDY TURNSTONE (1)

A highlight for me was seeing at least 2 WESTERN SANDPIPERS. Below is a digiscoped photo of one of them:

Another highlight included 3 singing ALDER FLYCATCHERS at one spot!