Nixon Road Scanning

I spent this afternoon searching for the snow birds that have been reported on S. Nixon Road. I have never birded the Nixon Road area, so I was going in blind. Traveling south on W. Whitehall Road, I took a left onto S. Nixon, and the first thing I saw were birds flushing from the side of the road. I pulled off near where the birds landed a grabbed my bins. 3 American Pipits.

 

American Pipits

American Pipit

American Pipit

 

I watched the pipits forage for a while, flushing every time a car drove by. I turned my vehicle around after scanning the fields and finding nothing, and made my way towards the S. Nixon/W. Whitehall road intersection to scan the fields on the opposite side of W. Whitehall. About half of a dozen crows had flushed from a passing car, which were followed by some small birds. I again pulled off to the side of the road close to where the birds had landed. 4 Horned larks.

 

Horned Lark

Horned Lark

Horned Larks

Horned Lark

 

I watched as the larks foraged and bobbed in and out of the corn stubble among the 30 or so American Crows. I didn't get an exact number on the crows because they were constantly coming and going.

 

American Crow

 

I continued heading North on S. Nixon, stopping every so often to scan the fields, finding a flock of 14 more horned larks. I came to N. Nixon to find 57 mourning doves sitting on the power lines.

 

Mourning Doves

 

There were also two large flocks of birds, one was between me and the sun so I didn't get looks at them. The other flock was on the opposite side of the road, and from what I could tell were Horned Larks. I turned onto Ernest Lane to try to get looks at the other flock, which was a plan that failed. I parked my vehicle next to a wooded brushy area that had some juncos and chickadees flying around on Ernest Lane, and killed the engine. I immediately heard a flock of Canada Geese over head, which was made up of ten birds.

 

Canada Geese

 

I heard lots of pips and chirps coming from the brushy wooded area, so most of my attention was directed that way. I heard and saw black-capped chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, and a song sparrow. For about three minutes, a great horned owl was hooting from the woods. I was really bummed that I didn't know who owned the land, and I didn't want to trespass to get photos. I heard more canadas, lots of them, but it took a moment to locate them in the vast deep blue.

 

Canada Geese, there were 142 in this flock!

 

Hopefully tomorrow I can get looks at the Lapland Longspur and the Snow Bunting.