Red-headed Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-headed Woodpeckers were a common sight at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary in Nebraska; 7-11-10.

One of the most beautiful sights in the bird world (in my humble opinion) is the flight of a Red-headed Woodpecker. Its white feathers on its wings and tail contrasting with its black body and completely red head is very striking. For the first time I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker while driving to the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary this past July. I was so excited that I yelled at Val (who was driving) to pull over so I could try to get a picture. It was sitting on a road sign and I hoped that by the time I dug out my camera, put in the settings, got out of the car, and focussed on it, that it would not fly away. Indeed, it stayed put and gave me time for several shots, inching closer with each photo, before it finally decided I was too close for comfort and flew away. Little did I know that once we started hiking inside Rowe Sanctuary a few minutes later, that I would have many oppurtunities to see more Red-Heads (Above and Below, 7-11-10). According to bird guides, the Red-headed Woodpecker does live year round in my neck of the woods (Northern Illinois), but I have never seen nor heard it.

Red-headed woodpecker in Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

I thought I saw one last summer while hiking to Tokopah Falls in Sequioa National Park, California. However, that would have been quite a rare sighting, as the Red-headed Woodpecker has never been seen in that part of the country. In fact Nebraska and parts of Eastern Wyoming and Montana is the farthest West it has ever been sighted. The bird that I saw in Sequoia was a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Below, 6-24-09).

A Rd-breasted Sapsucker in Sequoia Nat. Park, CA; 6-24-09.

You may see why, by this photo (which doesn't show a clear look at the bird), that I might have guessed it was a Red-headed Woodpecker. It behaved like a woodpecker. But after I really saw a Red-headed WP, I relooked at this older photo and upon further research concluded that it's a Red-breasted Sapsucker. These Sapsuckers have obviously less white on its wings, and it seemed to be the only tree-clinging species of bird that has an entire red head and face that lived out as far as California.

Spotted Towhee

Yesterday, while highlighting the Dickcissel,  I mentioned the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary near Kearny, Nebraska, and that it is a prime birding area. I am not over emphasizing this place, when I say you will see a dozen of different types of wild birds within minutes of being there. At least that is what happened to Val and me. We weren't walking their trails for more than two hours and identified at least 30 different birds within the first hour. And this was in the middle of summer, not a prime migrating time. Of the 30 birds I identified, five were first timers for me: Dickcissel, Red-headed Woodpecker, Orchard Oriole, Western Kingbird, and the Spotted Towhee (Below, 7-11-10).

I spotted a Spotted Towhee at Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary, Nebraska, 7-11-10.

Rowe Sanctuary is world famous for it being the prime stopping area for the majority of the Sandhill Crane population migration route.  In October and March of each year thousands of Sandhill Cranes can be seen here.  Val says she has seen the large flocks several times while making her annual spring break ski trip to Colorado.  I for one, would love to witness this. I have seen photos of this spectacle at the Rowe website: http://www.rowesanctuary.org/ and urge you to take a look. It's an awesome sight and site. Someday I will make this trip.  It seems that both the peak of Fall and Spring migrations are always the busiest time of my school year and can never get away for such events.

Deer running across the Platte River, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

The Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary boundary runs along the Platte River, and not long after I took one of the trails that led to the river, I heard splashing and saw three deer crossing the river. I didn't get very clear shots of them, but it was a fun sight to see. Having grown up in Wisconsin and living adjacent to a Forest Preserve, I have seen way more than my share of deer in my life, but not often running across a river. I kind of liked the moment and snapped a couple of blurry photos.  Val would laugh at me because I always complain about other people who hold up traffic when they stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of a deer, I scold them, "It's a deer! There's millions of them all over the world! Why do you need a picture?" My photography code seems to be if you're going to hold up traffic to take a picture of wildlife, it had better be of something that isn't seen very often - like a moose or a bear or a wolf (or a bird - ha!), something of that nature - but not a deer or a bunny! So there's my deer picture.  At least I didn't hold up any traffic.

Dickcissel

A Dickcissel singing away at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

I have always heard and read that Dickcissels live here in Northern Illinois, but despite all my attempts to locate one, I never encountered one until one day on a bike ride I finally heard one in the tall grass along Blood Pt. Rd (yes that's a name of a road - and I have bled there). I didn't see it, but I definitely recognized its distinctive song.  Now I am not so sure I would have even recognized its song if I didn't see and hear plenty of them (Above) this summer at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary (An awesome birding venue) in Nebraska, while passing through on our way back to Illinois from our Colorado trip. Dickcissels come in two types - one a drab brownish bird that can be confused with a sparrows, but the other type has a very colorful yellow and black pattern on its face, throat, and breast as well as reddish wing markings (Below, 7-11-10)

The Dickcissel's colorful yellow, black and reddish markings make it a fine capture for a photograph.

Pine Siskin

Notice the yellow markingss on the Pine Siskin's wings and tail; Silverthorne, CO; 7-6-10.

A member of the finch family that can easily be confused with a sparrow is the Pine Siskin.  They have the brown streaks on their breast, belly and flanks much like several varieties of sparrows. Distinct yellow markings (Above, Silverthorne Bike Path, Colorado; 7-6-10) on the wings of male Pine Siskins set them apart from sparrows. And the streaks will set them apart from the American Gold Finches and Lesser Goldfinches. However I have always had a hard time distinguishing between female Pine Siskins and female House Finches, until I get a good look at their beaks. The Pine Siskin's beak is more slender than the House Finch's stubby thick beak.

A Pine Siskin feeding at a bird feeder in a Silverthorne, CO, neighborhood; 7-6-10.

Pine Siskins will spend the winter in the U.S. pretty much from coast to coast, but as the weather warms up, they will migrate North and spend summers in Canada and the Southeast section of Alaska.  However some will stay year round in the cooler altitudes of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains (Below, Yosemite NP, 6-18-09).  As a matter of fact, it was in the Rockies of Colorado where I saw a small flocks of Siskins in both open forests as well as in towns feeding at bird feeders (Above, Silverthorne, CO, 7-6-10) where there were plenty of trees.

The first time I was able to identify a Pine Siskin was in Yosemite National Park, CA, on the Cathedral Lakes Trail; 6-18-09.

Black-throated Sparrow (#11)

A Black-throated Sparrow giving me a wary look; Siphon Draw Trail, Lost Dutchman State Park, AZ; 12-26-08.

My 11th and last in my blog series of Sparrows is the Black-throated Sparrow, which I think has one of the most distinctive looks of all the Sparrow species. The first time I saw a Black-throated Sparrow (Above) was in December of 2008. Again, like most of my pics of Sparrows before this year, I didn’t know it was a sparrow until after I looked up what kind of bird was on my memory stick.  This might have given me an unconscious notion that not all sparrows are uninteresting little brown birds. Ach! Those tricky sparrows!

I saw a few more the very next winter we visited Arizona. They like an arid brushy scrub as their chief habitat which in winter is mostly in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. In summers they will migrate further north to California, Utah, Nevada, and even up to the high desert of Eastern Oregon. I have only seen them Arizona and it seems in all the pictures I have of Black-throats, they always look like bandits up to no good with their black mask hiding part of their eyes (Below) which gives them a sort of a menacing look - luckily they are small.

Another Black-throated Sparrow keeping an eye on me; Butcher Jones Trail, Saguaro Lake, AZ; 12-29-09.

This photo of a Black-throated Sparrow (McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Phoenix, AZ; 12-30-09) was actually a lucky accident. I was focusing on a Cactus Wren which was in the same bush just above it and didn't even know he was there until after I downloaded my photos on the computer and looked at my pics.


Below is the original photo of the Cactus Wren and the Black-throated Sparrow together.

Cool! Is this known as one bird photo in hand is as good as two birds in a bush?

White-throated Sparrow (#10)

The striking White-throated Sparrow sitting on our front porch stoop one spring morning; 4-24-10.

In April, this Spring, I was surprised to see a White-throated Sparrow rummaging around the ground in our backyard. It stayed and fed at our feeders for about an hour and then must have moved on because I didn’t see it again. It is the only time I have ever seen one. It has very bright yellow lores, that stuck out against its white eyebrow and black eye-line and crown stripes. The yellow lores are what helped me identify it fairly quickly, otherwise I might have thought it to be a white-crowned Sparrow. Of course, the “white throat” was a good indicator as well – hence the name. The photo (Above, 4-24-10) was taken as it hopped up on our front porch in front of the window. (Bottom, 4-24-10) It moved to the backyard to feed on birdseed that other birds had kicked to the ground beneath our feeders. White-throated Sparrows do spend their winters in Illinois (its most northern winter grounds), so I hope to see more of them in the future. Maybe this one will remember where he got food and will return next spring as it migrates north to its breeding grounds in Northern Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, and throughout Canada. Or if I am lucky, spend part of the winter here.

A White-throated Sparrow with its very striking yellow lores, foraging on the ground for spilled feeder seed in our backyard; 4-24-10.

White-crowned Sparrow (#9)

White-crowned Sparrow singing its familiar song along a bike path in Silverthorne, CO; 7-6-10.

I first observed a White-crowned Sparrow in 2009, while hiking in Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, in June, and then again in December, in Arizona. Both times the birds were foraging on the ground in a dry brushy habitat. I thought I was lucky to spot these birds as they are not very common in Illinois. However, Sibley’s Guide to North American Birds does list them as spending winters in Illinois. I have not noticed them in our area, but this past summer while spending time in Colorado, White-crowned Sparrows were all over the place: in trees along bike trails (Above, 7-6-10) in town, out in open fields, and even around alpine lakes in the higher altitudes. I had many photo ops with this bird and learned to recognize their song as I heard them singing continuously during the week I was in Colorado. Their orange beak was a great contrast to their black and white crown colors (Below, 7-6-10).

The bright orange beak is an identifiable trait of the White-crowned Sparrow; Summit County, CO; 7-6-10.