Winds of Change

With definite harbingers of spring appearing each and every day now, we decided to venture out to say farewell to our wonderful winter residents at Nixon Farms. Only one Short-eared Owl remained, but it gave us a good show. It first appeared 3 feet off of the ground in the middle of the paved road 300 feet in front of us. Upon spotting us, it took a sharp right and settled in the meadow beyond the large bales lining the side of the road. It was there that he posed.We also searched one more time at the Fellows Lake Spillway for our favorite winter bird, the Northern Shrike, but I believe that it had long again left this southern sanctuary for its more suitable northern climes. Fellow's Lake had a few Horned Grebes, Lesser Scaups, Pied-billed Grebes, and Bufflehead, but was largely bare.

Of course, with spring in the air, we had hopes of finding new arrivals. Our birds of the day were a flock of 65 Greater White-fronted Geese at the Horse Ranch on AA highway. Although they were way the heck out there, I managed to shoot some identifiable photos through my scope.
All in all, it was just a wonderful day to get out, and by the way, it's time to get out again before the cold front changes everything once again tomorrow. And so, Martha and I are heading to Table Rock Reservoir today. Could a Western Grebe or Greater Roadrunner be in my future? I can only hope. See you in the field!

Two "Fellows" Warm Up Near "Palmetto"

Our day began early as Marvin and I arrived at Nixon Farm in the pre-dawn hour. It had been two weeks since we had seen the three Short-eared Owls, and we were curious if they were still around. The balmy 48 degree start to the morning made jackets unnecessary, but the strong southerly winds still added a slight chill to the air in the early morning. I briefly thought that the winds might have sent the owls to the ground sometime in the middle of the night. My worries were unfounded, however, as the owls made their entrance 20 minutes before dawn, fluttering like butterflies and fighting winds over the field that serves as the diurnal siesta site. We watched as the three crisscrossed the field in search of prey. When they landed quite close to us, we decided to walk out into the field in hopes of getting some photos. The wary owls rose immediately, again searching the field for movement. This time they landed across the field as the sun rose over hill. The day worker, a Northern Harrier, harried the sitting owl, appearing to alight on it for an instant. It was less than a minute later that we realized that the Harrier was eating a small mammal. We put two plus two together. The harrier had stolen the morsel from the owl it appeared to sit on.

It occurred to me that in winter GOAS birders tend to underbird the Palmetto region along the Greene/Webster County line east of Springfield. On the way there, we counted 7 Rusty Blackbirds in the short grasses in front of a ranch at McCraw's Ford near the James River.

However, it is in this "Palmetto region", that extremely fertile fields, remnants of natural grasslands that once topped the Springfield Plateau, give way to agriculture. Interspersed in the area are natural wetlands where shorebirds thrive during spring migration. The birds that occasionally make their way to Palmetto are many and varied, genetically linked to an earlier time when bluestem, Indian, and switch grasses thrived and natural playas supplied plentiful moisture to the area. These species continue to pass through, hoping to meet their survival needs in the current soybean, alfalfa, and fescue fields that dominate the area now.

Records of species from this area in the last 15 years are amazing. Most amazing; A Swallow-tailed Kite by the late Betty Dyer. My personal list from the areas includes Sandhill Cranes, Western Kingbirds, Peregrine Falcons, shorebirds galore, Black-bellied Plovers, American Golden Plovers, Baird's, Pectoral, Least, Semipalmated, Western, Solitary, Spotted, White-rumped, and Upland Sandpipers, Dunlins, Sanderlings, Dowitchers, Phalaropes, Willet, Sora, Snipe, Black Terns, Forster's Terns, Caspian Terns, Franklin's Gulls, Rough-legged Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Marsh Wrens, Bobolinks, and countless others I cannot currently recall.

On this day, the Northern Harriers glided and the Horned Lark sang, entertaining us on the productive FR 166 through the region.

We headed up the road to the French's Mustard plant on I-44 just NE of Springfield. In the ponds near the plant, we added Gadwalls, Lesser Scaup, Hooded Mergansers, Mallards and Ring-necked Ducks to our list. I was lucky enough to catch the splash as the duck on the left eagerly dove.

Valley Water Mill added 2 female Northern Shovelors, and a cooperative mockingbird enjoyed the warm temperatures on the road to Fellows Lake.

Fellows Lake was choppy but yielded 12 Common Goldeneye, 4 Horned Grebes, 25+ Pied-billed Grebes, and 2 Common Loons. Passerines were almost totally absent on the windblown north side of the lake. Stopping at a popular feeding station on the road near Fellows yielded this handsome immature White-crowned Sparrow.

Last surprise of the day was over Ozark on the way home. A single Turkey Vulture drifted north on the warm winds. With a harbinger like that, can spring be far behind?

The Short-eared Owls' Twilight Dance

Every year our local Audubon Society sponsors a field trip to Prairie State Park and the surrounding area in search of Short-eared Owls. It's an all day trip, and there are no guarantees. The state park is approximately 100 miles away, and it's easy to stay home instead of making the committment of time and energy necessary to see the owls.

What a surprise it was, then, when local birder Charley Burwick discovered 2 Short-eared owls in the early pre-dawn hours on Saturday, the day of our annual Greene County Christmas Bird Count.

Work conflicts prevented me from visiting the site earlier, but this evening I set out with Marvin DeJong at 3:45 pm to view the birds. Marvin had photographed them last evening, so he knew exactly the area to stake out, and the odds were in our favor to relocate the owls. Here's one of his pictures from last evening.

The timing was totally a surprise to me, however. In my previous experiences with the owl species, it was very near dusk when the Northern Harriers checked out, and the Short-eared Owls checked in. Perhaps the appearance of only one Northern Harrier today provided a reason for the owls to take over the hunting grounds early. Niche partitioning..... if the day hunters are a "no show", the night hunters fill in this promising early crepuscular hunting niche. On the prairie west of here, I have once seen harriers and owls compete aggressively for hunting territory as dusk approached.

Tuesday, we arrived at Nixon farm at 4:10 pm on a balmy late fall afternoon. We set up our tripods to await the action. Between 4:15 and 4:20, a good 45 minutes before sundown, we spotted our first two owls. The slow wing beats and acrobatics of the Short-eared Owls never fail to amaze me, but in the bright light of the pre-dusk sun, the colors jumped out at me. The beige leading edge of the wings appeared bright yellow in the horizontal rays of the sun. The facial disc glowed. The birds gracefully and gently winged their way back and forth across the field, alighting for brief moments before soaring again. A third owl appeared. The birds began to interact with one another, shifting, diving, and climbing in an avian mid-air ballet. It was truly an incredible few moments with Nature: colorful, dynamic, flowing and vibrant.........., far more beautiful than a setting sun alone.

Photos Courtesy of Marvin DeJong