April 24 – I believe that I saw a Swainson’s light morph sitting on a fence post along 13th St near the Ayrshire dairy. – Richard Mousel
April 22 – Saw our first Turkey in the neighborhood, thankfully not in the yard. Also a White-crowned Sparrow. – Richard Mousel
April 21 – Yes all ready saw two small groups of them yesterday below GS in the afternoon and in the morning saw one very colorful male red necked grebe also below GS. – Arla Eckert
April 21- turkeys were near a house on 13th St S past the old Ayrshire Dairy. spotted three burrowing owls amongst the p dogs at the buffalo jump. the pair of osprey were at the nest atop the utility pole at Ulm FAS and, finally, the female American Kestrel flew out of her nest in Highland Cemetery as I drove by – Bev Axelsen
April 20 – We have our first of year Grackle. – Richard Mousel
April 20 – At Giant Springs today – I added a ruby-crowned kinglet this morning along with a house wren. I forgot to mention the eurasian wigeon that I saw yesterday (and again today). I caught a glimpse of a baby owls head today. I actually saw a couple violet-green swallows today – I suspected they were back earlier but finally saw them. – Beth Hill
April 19 – Yellow-rumped Warblers are bouncing around Giant Springs. I thought I might have heard one or two short calls yesterday, but today it was full singing – and response. Myrtle variety with the white throat. The osprey have completely rebuilt their nest on the industrial park platform. They just showed up a couple days ago. Mama owl could be seen from the chest up yesterday and today. Spring is progressing. – Beth Hill
April 17 – I also stopped in at GS, saturday morning, sorry I missed you Steve. I saw the Loon pair plue bonus birds: a pair of Horned Grebes and a pair of Black-necked Stilts. – Jan Wilson
April 17 – Took a swing by Gt Springs this morning. Seemed like just overnite a big flock of a couple hundred or more tree swallows showed up and were busy buzzing low over the water dining on hatching midges most likely. Likewise, at least a couple hundred Franklin’s gulls also seemed to show up overnite and were busy swimming around and also dining on the hatching midges (or maybe mayflies,,, I did not check…). – Steve Leathe
April 13 – No snow geese at Freezeout, a few Canada geese, lots of pelicans, several white faced ibis, mallards, cormorants, gulls, avocets, pintails, robins, ravens, a willet, and tons of decaying carp along the shoreline with water level way down. maller ponds next to highway all dried up. bald eagles and red tailed hawks sitting on nests along the route. Osprey nesting near Ulm at fishing access sites near the bridge and at muddy creek. turkeys near the river. – Bev Axelsen
April 13 – Saw 3 (maybe 4) loons around Gt Springs this morning. Also a few Franklin’s gulls showing up in that area and on the river in town today. – Steve Leathe
April 12 – Just checked Highland Cemetery birdhouses, I saw 2 Kestrels, one was on the fence near Calgary Cemetery, the other one was seen sitting on top of the box on the East side of the Cemetery. – Richard Mousel
April 11 – South Raptor Route field trip: This is always an interesting field trip. Today was no different. The temperatures ranged from 45-65 degrees with a variable sky of mostly to partly cloudy and light SW wind. Bald Eagles were once again abundant – 16 adults and 14 sub-adults were either perched or soaring. Most occupying nests likely had baby eagles. We were also seeing Red-tailed Hawks sitting in nests besides the several kettles of hawks. 3 Northern Harriers – all males! All 3 nest platforms outside of Ulm had an Osprey associated with it. Turkey Vultures are back – there was one kettle of 7. 2 more were tugging on a dead cow carcass not far from the road. What a good , close look. Nice surprise birds – a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a small lek of Sharp-tailed Grouse, Green-winged Teal on a few potholes and reservoirs, a flock of at least 150 Red-winged Blackbirds scouring the ground, several Sandhill Cranes – all paired, several Long-billed Curlews (most in pairs)(one pair courting around) and just a nice day all around. Thanks to Velda for driving and Richard for spotting all those little birds. – Beth Hill
https://ebird.org/tripreport/499213
April 10 – Yesterday I had a good wildlife-sighting day.. went Birdtail west to deadman’s coulee road.. came upon a sharpie lek with probably 15 displaying birds on the Birdtail, plus a pair of harriers and pair of sandhill cranes just a mile or so south of 200 on Birdtail ( right near my house) . Also saw bull and cow elk, large elk herd at west end of Birdtail. 10 bighorn sheep at base of Birdtail butte and lots of antelope. This crane photo was actually Wednesday when I didn’t have good camera of course (when will I learn 🙄) still kicking myself cause they were right there!!! Anyway yesterday a beautiful day like today! – Darolyn
April 9 – forgot to mention that Curlews showed up on Monday. – Kitty
April – 9 – Among several new arrivals I’ve seen in the past week around Cascade county – pelicans, avocets, greater yellowlegs, turkey vulture, common loon, green winged teal, mourning dove, red-breasted merganser, barn swallow, burrowing owls, tree swallows (claiming boxes), barn swallow. There is something (at least one) new every day right now. Many singing red-winged blackbirds, robins, house finches, meadowlarks. Mourning doves are “mourning” already. It appears that the GS owls have hatched and the GS red-tail is sitting on eggs. – Beth Hill
April 9 – There was an Osprey bring sticks to the nest at the Ulm FAS this morning. – Kitty and Kris
April 5 – After a visit to the buffalo jump this morning we came home and 4 adult bald eagles appeared overhead – making big lazy circles in the sky. At one p[oint a gull joined the circle – getting higher and higher. It made me wonder where 4 adults came from – I know of 2 local nests, but the female should still be in the nest, either incubating or keeping new hatches warm. First burrowing owls (1 or 2) seen at the buffalo jump. There were LOTS of singing meadowlarks. Even a couple flickers (no trees nearby, just cliffs for them). – Beth Hill
April 4 – Was extremely fortunate to have the Benton Lake Wildlife Refuge Grouse blind this morning, we had a terrific time. Beth, Russ and Jack joined me for a Birdafull day. There were 30+ Grouse, we also had a small flock of Snow Geese fly by. This morning was by far the best Sharptail Grouse photographing I’ve ever had. – Richard Mousel
It was amazing. We stayed until way past 8:30 (sunrise 6:59). I haven’t had a morning that good in years.
Just got home and haven’t had a chance to look at photos and videos yet. We all saw the same thing. I want to look at the muddy feet pictures! (after it warmed up they began to get mud “boots”) – Beth Hill
April 1 – BLWR -Far fewer snowgeese on the second pond; more ducks on the first/large pond today. today I was surprised by what I’m pretty sure was a northern harrier hawk that flew up from the grass/weeds along the pond where I observed the snow goose yesterday. lots more horned larks today and fewer meadowlarks than yesterday. the best viewing was a pair of sandhill cranes slowly walking down the road along the big pond where I’d seen them before (also saw coyote in that area where I’d observed it before)
April 1 – Spring can’t be far away, our Chickadees are cleaning out the sawdust out of our Chickadee birdhouse in our backyard. I put in sawdust as Chickadees seem to enjoy cleaning house before nesting. It seems like it’s earlier than usual. – Richard Mousel