"Feeder" Birds

What defines a "feeder" bird, really?  To me, a "feeder" bird is a bird that comes to food that you've put out for the purpose of attracting birds.  A few years ago, we were able to log Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) as feeder birds on our property because we put corn out along our driveway and they showed up to feed on it.

 

In this sense, our friends Eric and Dawn Scarborough recently had some pretty interesting "feeder" birds at their property in Starke County, Indiana.  Knowing that raptors often feed on animal carcasses, they put a raccoon carcass in an agricultural field and set up a trail camera to capture the results.  Here are some of their photos of one of the two Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and two Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) that feasted on the remains.

 

Anniversary Birding

One year ago today, Lindsay and I were celebrating our 10th anniversary sipping hot chocolate while sitting on a deck watching hummingbirds in the Ecuadorian highlands at Tandayapa.  A few of the more interesting species we saw that morning were Western Emerald, Brown Inca, Violet-tailed Sylph, and Booted Racket-tail.

Western Emerald

Brown Inca

Violet-tailed Sylph

Booted Racket-tail

Today we celebrated our 11th anniversary with a group from the South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society on a birding field trip at Potato Creek State Park.   We were greeted by two mature Bald Eagles and a variety of other good birds including Ruddy Duck, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and White-throated Sparrow.

Bald Eagles

Bald Eagles

Not quite the same as birding in Ecuador, but a good morning of birding nonetheless, and a great way to spend the morning of our anniversary.

Roadside Raptors and Such

If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that the drive from North Liberty, IN to Painesville, OH should be considered one of the rarest forms of torture. True this drive is a straight-shot on the Indiana and then Ohio toll roads but it offers very little more than corn fields. That's why on Christmas afternoon when we started the trip I was so easily swayed when Scott said "hey, let's play a game." The game.....counting all the roadside raptors we could see with the unaided eye.

And the results were........

Indiana (on the trip to Ohio)
American Kestrel-3
Cooper's Hawk-1
Bald Eagle-2
Rough-Legged Hawk-1
Red-Tailed Hawk-8

Ohio (still on the way there)
American Kestrel-5
Red-Tailed Hawk- 21

Ohio (on the way home)
Red-Tailed Hawk-28
Cooper's Hawk-1
Peregrine Falcon-1
American Kestrel-5
Bald Eagle-2

Indiana (almost home and starting to get dark)
Red-Tailed Hawk- 2
American Kestrel-1
Barred Owl-1


The second part of the game occured when Scott also decided that the blog needed a picture of a Red-Tailed Hawk to go with the post. I mean how hard can it be to get a picture of a roadside hawk? Every time we would see one I would then hear "oh man I should have stopped" or "that would have made a great picture." Needless to say we learned the hard way that it is very difficult to get a good picture of a hawk while traveling 70+ miles an hour on the toll road with traffic. Hmm who would have thought? The above picture is instead taken the day after the trip outside of Potato Creek State Park, but you get the idea.


Although not the highest quality, this is a picture of one of the Bald Eagles that we saw soaring in Ohio not too far from the Sandusky exit. No matter how many I've seen them, there is still something amazing about seeing a Bald Eagle in flight.

The final score: Scott and Lindsay 1, Boredom 0.

A Christmas Eagle

While walking Bootypants on our trails today, I heard a murder of crows creating commotion in the farm field south of our property. I looked in the direction of the crows and saw something white flying in the distance. As I continued to watch, I realized that what I was seeing was a white tail; I then saw a white head on a dark body and realized that yard bird 103 on our property was a Bald Eagle! I still haven't figured out this digiscoping thing, and the snow and strong winds didn't help. The bird was also quite a distance away, so I had both the camera and scope zoomed in all the way. Below is the resulting photo, which is good enough to document the bird, but not good enough for much else.


There is a deer carcass in the field that I think attracted this eagle (and the crows). At one point, the crows chased the eagle out of the trees; the eagle proceeded to fly directly over our property before flying back to the south into the farm field and eventually back to the line of trees on the west end of the farm field.

7 Years of Bliss!

Scott and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary last weekend by making our annual 3 day trip to an area with parks, hiking and a bed and breakfast. This year we went to Utica, Illinois. Utica is unique because it is a small town but if offers 3 state parks all within an 8 mile radius of each other. We got to Utica on Friday afternoon and after a quick lunch and check-in we went to Starved Rock State Park.

The quality of the above picture is not great but any time you start out on a trail and get to the first overview and see a bald eagle you have to post it. You don't have to be a birder to appreciate how amazing the bald eagle is. One of the coolest birds our area has to offer. Starved Rock has a pair of eagles that winter and nest in the park.

Starved Rock was beautiful. As you can see the park is made up of many (18 to be exact) canyons. There are trails that allow you to hike into the canyons and get great views of the waterfalls and tree covered sandstone bluffs.

We were a little late in the year to see the peak of fall colors but the trees still had quite a few leaves and the rain held off all weekend so it made for great views, hiking and birding.

We wish we would have had more time to spend at Starved Rock. We only walked about 4 of the 13 miles of trails that the park has to offer. I heard the park is especially beautiful during wildflower season. We hope to return and take in some wildflowers and hike more of the trails.

Saturday we went to Matthiessen State Park. Matthiessen is also a park that is full of canyons and streams. It did not take long for us to realize that the recent rains had caused the streams to flood. Scott and I didn't care. We decided to "take the plunge" anyways and follow the trails as best we could.

Many bridges led us through the canyons and dells. It was also crazy to see how these relatively large trees could root and prosper in an area that was pretty much stone. As you can see from the below picture the trees have very little dirt to root in.

The next picture is just comical because you can see the trail (wooden boardwalk) that is completely under water. Scott was not up for a swim so we found a new way around that part of the trail.

In addition to our hiking we also enjoyed a couple of nights out with good food and good company. Although I don't have an pictures, I have to give a shout out to Cajun Ron from the Cajun Connection. Great restaurant with authentic Cajun cuisine. The atmosphere was fun and Cajun Ron even chatted with us and gave us complimentary pecan pie for our anniversary. Some of the best food I have ever eaten. The second night we ate at a local steakhouse restaurant and then enjoyed a couple of drinks while taking in some football and the World Series.

As you can see, Scott upheld tradition and upon arriving at the bed and breakfast there were 7 red roses (1 rose for each year we've been married) waiting for me.

Long story about the bed and breakfast but to summarize we have renamed it the "bed-n" because we never got breakfast and the above picture is us locked out of the bed and breakfast on Sunday morning.

We would not recommend the Lander's House to anyone in the Utica area but we did have a wonderful time in the area. Utica is a great town with lots to do for the nature lover. Thanks Scott for a fun and memorable anniversary. You make "til death do us part" seem too short.