Yesterday my dad and I decided to go birding in search of the woodcock in display, so we left with a flashlight, a few minutes before it usually gets dark. We walked down the block to a damp, brushy forest with a open field beside it. It was still late evening so many songbirds were making their last song for the day. We kept walking until we found where the forest and field met. There we turned on the flashlight and listened very carefully. Standing there a female Canada Goose came which sounded very similar to the woodcock. We stood there for about ten minutes and then, as soon as the sun had completely gone down we heard a nasal PEENT! Followed by one of them flying up high in the air making twittery whistles and then a loud chirping sound. Then it dived so fast I thought it disappeared. Then both the male and female did their courtship display, covering so much area that I had a difficult time trying to track were the sound was coming. They both did that same thing over again until we left the field. Then we heard a single hoot, which was a Long-eared Owl. We didn't hear it every few seconds because we were talking for the rest of the jog. Then we saw them fly in front of us again, at first we had mistaken them for swallows because of their small size, but then when the second one came, I noticed a completely different flight pattern. On our way back home we found out where a museum was. Maybe that will be my next blog post topic, maybe. Anyway, I think that the mystery bird from my last post is a hybrid between two grebes but I'm still trying to identify it. Thank you for any help you may have given me (I only look at the comments from before, after I do my next post)
Total Names of Birds Seen:
Red-winged Blackbird
Northern Cardinal
Black-capped Chickadee
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Crow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Northern Flicker (Check for 2009)
American Goldfinch
Canada Goose
Common Grackle
Ring-billed Gull
Blue Jay
Killdeer
Mallard
White-breasted Nuthatch
Long-eared Owl (Check for 2009)
Feral Pigeon
American Robin
House Sparrow
Song Sparrow
European Starling
American Woodcock
Downy Woodpecker
Total Number of Birds Seen:24 species
Goodbye,
Birdman
