2comments Of Larks, Longspurs, and Rough-legs

The bashful Lapland Longspur that I failed to photograph yesterday was more than obliging today, and he brought some friends! A total of about six Lapland Longspurs were toiling away looking for bits of food only 10 feet from the truck. I sat and watched and photographed them all day. It's hard NOT to photograph these guys when they make it so easy to do.

This photo shows the long back toenail (hallux) that gives Lapland Longspurs their name.

Lapland Longspur

The usual Horned Larks were around again, there were more today than yesterday.

Horned Lark

The Rough-legged still continues to be seen. Today he was fond of perching on gas well heads and he also had a particular favorite tree in the wetlands.

Rough-legged Hawk

I was wondering where the American Pipits had gotten off to earlier in the day. I found the two from yesterday when I went to the compost area of the landfill and found them picking around a giant pile of discarded spoiled produce from local grocery stores. If you squint you can make him out at the bottom left hand side in the mud.

American Pipit

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0comments Snow Birds

When there is a lot of snow or ice on the ground, all the birds head up to the tipping floor where the garbage is being dumped. Everything else right now is covered in ice, so their only hope is to pick morsels of trash or stray seeds from the mud. Today I saw Mourning Doves, Eastern Meadowlarks, Horned Larks, two American Pipits and a single Lapland Longspur all at the active dumping area. The Rough-legged Hawk is still around as well. These shots aren't the best because the low light forced me to bump up the ISO and the birds are constantly moving picking food up off the ground so some are a little fuzzy.

Eastern Meadowlark

The most numerous birds were the Horned Larks with around 50 present. Most of the birds looked even paler than this bird below. There was a lot of variation in their color and no two birds looked the same.

Horned Lark

This Mourning Dove found some hay that was laying in the mud. It was frantically picking of all the small seeds from the grass.

Mourning Dove

The most accommodating by far was the American Pipit. The bird ventured close several times, sometimes as close as six feet from the truck. I counted two who were expertly dodging dump trucks while foraging for food.

American Pipit

The only bird I wasn't able to photograph was the Lapland Longspur. I saw it several times but it never came close enough for me to get a photo. Guess I'll have to try again tomorrow. I'm hoping for sunny skies instead of clouds, that way I can drop the ISO and open the aperture and avoid these fuzzy photos.

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0comments American Pipit

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0comments Why I Love Snow

Horned Lark

There were several flocks of birds pecking around in the snow where the dirt had recently been seeded. At first I thought they were all Horned Larks until I got home and looked at the pictures and found these Lapland Longspurs.

Lapland Longspurs

This bird was all by itself pecking around in the trash with the starlings and meadowlarks.

American Pipit

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