Or, why it pays to scan the flock. Earlier this month I took a photo of a group of migrant dark-eyed juncos gathering in their usual spot in a West Fargo park. It’s always instructional to study juncos due to their extreme variability and the number of recognized subspecies. Additionally, there’s another lesson here. That [...]
Posts tagged ‘West Fargo’
Where’s Waldo?
Posted November 21st, 2011 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
Where there’s smoke…
Posted April 28th, 2011 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
While on a walk through a West Fargo park last week I happened upon a couple of trees with splatters of what falconers call “whitewash.” Basically it’s poop, but from a raptor. (I know a falconer who located a peregrine nest in Arizona by scanning cliffs for the telltale whitish stains left by defecating birds). [...]
We’ve got a shot
Posted April 6th, 2010 by kcorliss. Comments (2).
On the very same day IÂ received the photo below from an acquaintance in Minnesota, IÂ flushed a pair of hooded mergansers from the Sheyenne River in a West Fargo park. This is a duck species which has always intrigued me. It’s a stunning (at least the male) carnivorous duck which nests in cavities much like wood [...]
Gotta love these little guys
Posted March 31st, 2010 by kcorliss. Comments (2).
Bernd Heinrich, a biology professor at U. of Vermont, has written many books. And not for science students either. They are meant to educate the masses and educate they do. One of my favorites is Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival. A certain little critter keeps appearing throughout the chapters in this highly informative [...]
Too good not to share
Posted December 15th, 2009 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
On the way home from the airport this morning there was a little falcon sitting blithely in a tree right next to our fire station in West Fargo. Sure it was huddled against the cold but it appeared to care little about my presence. This is a merlin, specifically one of the Richardsonii (or prairie) subspecies. [...]
Listen to the noisemakers
Posted November 23rd, 2009 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
Our collective lore tends to endow Indians with outdoor skills not matched in the modern day. Likely there is some truth in that. One cue the natives certainly were aware of was the activity and vocalizations of birds. Some well known birders possess an almost frightening sense of what is going on around them. But this [...]
AMWO? I’ll take it
Posted October 22nd, 2009 by kcorliss. Comments (2).
The count rose by one this morning with the addition of another unlikely bird, the American woodcock. This upland shorebird is a fairly common bird just to our east and south. But eastern North Dakota is on the ragged edge of this highly secretive bird’s range. I had found it in the county before but [...]
Who’s looking?
Posted October 7th, 2009 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
Not me. So I guess I can’t chastise the rest of the North Dakota birders for not checking out those juvenile sapsuckers. Here’s one from yesterday at a West Fargo park: Last weekend I ran across four young woodpeckers in a local park. On a piece of paper I recorded the number and the species–yellow-bellied sapsucker. But [...]
Skip the woods, head for the shore
Posted August 10th, 2009 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
Well the 2009 county count is stuck on 237 with no new birds to report. Not that I didn’t try. I spent quite a few hours listening and looking for field sparrow in likely habitat but got shut out. Not only that but strolling though woodsy areas at this point in the calendar is frankly [...]
Ain’t this great?
Posted July 31st, 2009 by kcorliss. Comment (0).
Late yesterday my buddy Dean and I were standing along the edge of the lagoon system in West Fargo, each of us with a spotting scope, looking through a large array of shorebirds and gulls. At one point, Dean turns to me and says, "this is great." I agree. Being somewhat shortchanged when it comes to [...]
