1comments Today's Birds

Today's sunny weather really had the birds out and about. I saw White-crowned, White-throated, Swamp, Song, and American Tree Sparrows; a light phase Rough-legged Hawk has been back since Wednesday; a dark Western Red-tailed Hawk was spotted this afternoon; even the Eastern Meadowlarks were singing their tinkling tune. There were some signs that maybe spring isn't as far off as it seems.

Below the Rough-legged Hawk flies by the Merlin bird radar unit.

Rough-legged Hawk

Usually when it snows there will be around a hundred or so Horned Larks picking for food along the roadsides, oddly enough this week I have only found one.

Horned Lark

Northern Cardinal

The meadowlarks are numerous at the active dumping area. There were probably around two dozen looking for scraps alongside the starlings. This guy below finds an old stale piece of bread too good not to eat.

Eastern Meadowlark

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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 Immature Horned Lark

I know there are a thousand pictures of Horned Larks on this website, but they are such willing subjects, so I posted a few more.

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0comments More Larkness

This pale Horned Lark was mixed in with a flock of about 50 that were pecking along the side of the road. Aside from being much lighter than usual, he also appears to only have one leg.

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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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0comments End of the Year Post

I thought it would be nice since it is the end of the year to post some pictures from the landfill that did not make it on to the blog. Some are especially nice right now since they bring back memories of warmer days and more colorful birds. Enjoy and have a happy new decade.

Horned Lark

Dickcissel

Orchard Oriole

Silver-streaked Skipper

Prairie Warbler

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0comments Horned Lark Photo Shoot

There are a group of Horned Larks at the landfill, the most I've seen at one time is around five. I don't notice them until the place closes and all the trucks and bulldozers are gone. Then they start singing and feeding on the roadsides the trucks use during the days. Most of the roads are gravel and I see them picking up bits of seeds and grit. The males like to find a nice rock to stand on and sing their tinkling song to nearby females.




It's nice to see Horned Larks back at the landfill. During the ice storm in January a group of 200+ showed up on the landfill along with Snow Buntings and a Lapland Longspur. They were at the top feeding frantically on trash and whatever they could find exposed on the roads. Any place that wasn't covered in ice or snow had a Horned Lark on it looking for bits of food. Perhaps the smartest birds found a place under the pair of flares on the landfill that burn the methane generated by the decaying trash. The place was freshly seeded with grass which probably helped a good number of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings make it through the winter. The heat coming off of those flares is considerable and provided a nice warm spot in the chaos created by the winter storm.

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