1comments Hkarrr Hkarrr

Hkarrr! Hkarrr! You may hear this strange prehistoric sound coming from the sky and look up and see a large flock of birds passing overhead. You may think to yourself, "Huh, that's a funny sound for Canada Geese to make." And you would be right, if you were indeed seeing a flock of geese. What you are actually seeing are Sandhill Cranes, one of the only two species of cranes native to North America. These two large flocks below were seen flying over the landfill on Monday near sunset. A great thing about the landfill is that I am up above the tree lines and I get an unobstructed view of migrating birds. It is really something to see a flock of Sandhills flying over or perhaps Common Nighthawks when they head south in the fall.

Please consider joining the Kentucky Coalition for Sandhill Cranes in opposing a Sandhill Crane hunting season here in Kentucky. Many people enjoy watching this bird and several towns all over the country have even started Sandhill Crane Festivals to celebrate the crane's migration. Too many people enjoy this great natural resource to allow a hunting season in this state. Kentuckians, make your voice heard and contact your local KYDFW representative and tell them you oppose a Sandhill Crane hunting season.

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10comments Dine n Dash

This American Robin was oblivious to my presence as he was chowing down on some Japanese Honeysuckle berries. Robins are notorious berry eaters and this guy was no exception. He didn't stay long though. He grabbed a couple berries and split, a dine and dash.

I posted earlier this week about finding food sources that birds like to eat as a way to find birds to photograph. One other good thing about finding food sources is that there are usually plenty of birds in a small area, meaning you get more chances to get the perfect shot. I had several more pictures of a different robin feeding, but when I loaded them on the computer there was a twig right in front of it. Luckily for me this bird flew into view and I was able to shoot these shots before he flew away.

As always at this time of the week, check out the Pine River Review for World Bird Wednesday, where bird bloggers come together to share photos and experiences. Thanks for stopping by!

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0comments More Berry Madness

Brrrr! Man it got cold today, but I love it. Not sure how excited the birds were about the below freezing temperatures and snow. All the more reason to juice up on some berries.

House Finch

Northern Mockingbird

If you look close at the picture above, the Northern Mockingbird has a little bit of berry shmutz on the side of his bill. Nothing to be embarrassed about little bird, we've all been there before.

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2comments Finding Birds

I have found the best way for me to find birds to photograph is to find the food they love to eat. Out at the landfill that means different things at different times of the year. It seems many times out there it is a boom or bust kind of situation. There have been many times when I have seen hundreds of American Goldfinches feeding on unknown weeds or Common Sunflowers. Other times warblers and others descend in droves on the dogwood berries during fall migration. During the summer there was a lot of construction at the landfill, and subsequently, a lot of recently planted wheat. Wheat is often planted and covered with straw to prevent soil erosion, it grows quickly and can withstand cold better than most other ground covers. All that wheat on the ground has attracted more Mourning Doves than usual and a nice group of Horned Larks as well.

Mourning Dove

Right now it seems the birds are devouring the Japanese Honeysuckle berries as fast as they can. The stuff grows profusely along the woodland edges at the landfill. Japanese Honeysuckle is one of the most invasive species there is, nonetheless, the birds seem to enjoy the berries it produces. I have heard before that Japanese Honeysuckle berries are an "ecological trap", meaning that the berries are attractive to the birds but offer little in the way of actual nutrition. Even if this is true the birds do not seem to notice because they guard their patch of honeysuckle fervently, especially the Northern Mockingbirds. Here is a short list of birds I have found in the honeysuckle patch yesterday: Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, White-throated Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Golfinch, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Rusty Blackbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler and of course American Robins. The berries are going quick so I may have to find a new spot to photograph birds soon.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Chickadee

American Goldfinch

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0comments Presentation at Beckham Bird Club

Hello all. I wanted to make everyone aware that I will be the speaker at the Beckham Bird Club meeting in December. The meeting is on Tuesday, December 14, at 7:00PM at the Clifton Center on 2117 Payne Street. The presentation will be on Powerpoint and will include two parts: my job as a landfill bird biologist, and the birds I see at the landfill. There will be plenty of pictures so the presentation promises to be entertaining.


The Beckham Bird Club is located in Louisville, KY and was founded in 1935 by Charles Wickliffe Beckham. The club holds weekly field trips to the area's best birding locations and also participates in nationwide group counts such as the Big Sit and the Christmas Bird Count. If you live in the Louisville area and are interested in birds or nature, you should consider joining the Beckham Bird Club. There are many people in the club who have years of experience and knowledge and they love to share with new birders their bits of wisdom. I know I would not be anywhere near my level of expertise (I'm good at everything besides shorebirds :P ) if it wasn't for the great people in the club who are so enthusiastic about birding and helping others. So come on out to the next meeting and learn about the birds seen on the landfill and meet some of the best birding minds around!

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0comments Tundra Swans in Flight

Another day, another swan picture. Something got all the swans, ducks, and geese up in the air at the same time. There were hundreds of birds flying in circles above the drainage basin and it was an easy task to pick out the flock of big white birds, Tundra Swans. They came right over me and flew off into the distance to the southwest. I watched them fly about for a while, thinking they were moving on, but after a little wing exercise they came headed right back and I was able to get these pictures. Before I left I checked the basin and there they were in their usual spot.

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7comments Tundra Swan

The swans were still swimming today, thankfully, so an accurate identification was made. Access to the Melco flood basin site adjacent to the landfill is restricted access but they do give birders permission to set up their scopes if something exceptional is being seen. So today I joined Pat and Jane Bell and Carol Besse for a brief, cold, and wet look at some beautiful swans. It was determined the mystery swans were Tundra Swans based on the extensive pink on the bill of the juvenile and the yellow spot on the bill which was seen on an adult.

So I was able to snap off a few more pictures, but nothing exceptional. The pictures were taken through my scope and it was raining pretty hard, plus I had to crop them way down, so they may resemble the Loch Ness Monster more than a Tundra Swan.




The dusky looking bird above on the left is the juvenile. It's tough but if you look closely you can see the bill is mostly a pinkish orange color, with black at the tip, as opposed to the juvenile Trumpeter Swan, which has black at the base of the bill as well. Nevertheless, we proceeded to get closer to be 100% sure we were correct. When we got closer the birds started to swim away, guess we were getting a little too close, but luckily Carol was able to spot the yellow spot on the bill, confirming the hunch that it was a Tundra Swan. I wasn't able to capture that in the pictures unfortunately, but you can see how some of the birds have a rusty tinge to their heads and necks, which I recently learned they acquire from foraging in ferrous wetland soils.

On another note, I will be participating in World Bird Wednesday, a meme created by Springman at the Pine River Review to bring together nature bloggers from around the world to share out sightings. Check it out!

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