I was able to get out several times this weekend, with the goal of catching the different waterfowl as they moved through. I was also hoping to pick up my first killdeer and turkey vulture of the year. Picking out the different waterfowl species usually means breaking out the scope, so I will apologize in advance for my photos. I haven't yet bought a digiscoping case for my iPhone, so I had to take photos the old fashioned way - holding my iPhone directly up to the eyepiece and moving it around until I could get the birds in view. It's not perfect, but it's free :)
Friday I intended to bird my way around the east side of Saylorville Lake. It was such a nice day that the place was very busy - people fishing, highschoolers goofing around, people with their dogs off-leash, motorcycles - not ideal birding conditions. But I found a few quieter corners, like the overflow/spillway ponds where I found this Hooded Merganser (left) and Bufflehead (right, 2013 year bird #44), both males:
I also heard a Killdeer fly over, making it year bird #43.
Saturday I decided to head south to Maffitt Reservoir. When I first arrived, all I could find were large flocks of Mallards - not really the duck diversity I was hoping for. But knowing it's migration time, I was patient. Most of the Mallards moved out and some new birds moved in:
First came the mergansers - I counted 18 Red-breasted, plus this single female Common. The Red-breasteds were a lifer for me (and year bird #45).
Then 2 little ducks swam up and sat on the ice a little ways away from the Mallards - a pair of Green-winged Teals (female on left, male on right, 2013 #46). Note the white stripe on the body (in front of the wing and below the head) and the yellowish patch on the rump on the male. After a bit, the male wandered off into the flock of Mallards, making for a great comparison in body size:
The male teal is 4th from the right (5th if you click on the photo to see it full-sized). Then I noticed the 3 birds furthest to the right weren't Mallards. Notice the whitish patch on their bellies? I repositioned the scope to get a better look:
While I was doing that, they repositioned themselves as well. I could definitely tell I had both males and females. They had yellow legs, a white wing patch, and the males had a dark patch on the end of their tails - Gadwalls (another lifer and year bird #47)! I've been chasing Gadwalls around the Des Moines area for the last month or so, always just missing them. They were on the clean-up list I made for myself at the beginning of the year. Clean-up meaning species that are pretty regular Iowa visitors or inhabitants that I could reasonably expect to see this year (and that I feel I should already be on my life list but aren't). After spending years doing mostly woodland and forest bird surveys I find my life list is weak on certain bird groups because I just didn't pay much attention to them before - namely the groups of birds that closely associate with water like ducks, gulls, and sandpipers. So this year my goal is to "clean up" my list of those groups. And I'm off to a great start, adding 3 duck species so far. :)
While I was at Maffitt, my fiance Mr Pescador texted me that he'd seen a Turkey Vulture at Lake Ahquabi (where he was fishing). I have to admit, we get a little competitive with the birding and I didn't want him to be the only one to see a TUVU that day. Even scanning every flying speck I could find produced no vultures. And finally I had to pack it in and head home to get ready for a work meeting in the afternoon. But luck and the birds were on my side that day, because on the way home a TUVU soared right over my car. That's why I love birding - no matter where you are, there are always birds around. And sometimes you'll drive all over the place looking for a bird only to have it land or fly right in front of you after you'd given up.
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