This past weekend I got out a couple of times to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Early Friday I checked multiple locations in Miami and Linn Counties for owls. As is the case with most of my nighttime searches, most of the stops were silent without anything. I was surprised to hear multiple owls during the almost pitch dark and calm night at a location I have for years told people that it seems perfect. I have tried there at least three times previously without any response, so who knows if they moved in this year after being absent before or if the weather and timing affected their responses as I speculate.
At first light I heard a peenting AMERICAN WOODCOCK at La Cygnes Wildlife Area. The warm water discharge pond has turned over greatly this past week from the BAS field trip a week prior. It was full of Canvasbacks and had a limited number of other divers.
There were ducks in almost every puddle in Linn County. I was hoping to find Swans but struck out on them. With Unit B too far to comfortably scope with heat shimmer, I went to Unit G and spent a half hour looking through the 10k ducks. For whatever reason I was dreaming of a Eurasian Wigeon . As such I looked at each of them longer than I had ever previously in my recollection....but unsuccessfully. I did however find one extremely dark duck that seemed consistent with an AMERICAN BLACK DUCK at Unit G.
Friday evening my wife and I walked a while at Wyandotte County Lake after visiting the MCI airport. It was nice to see the ice on the southern half of the lake, but we didn't have much except a couple of very vocal and surprisingly friendly HERMIT THRUSHES.
Sunday my wife and I enjoyed a walk at Hillsdale Lake in Miami County. I had hoped there was still ice, as the week before it was almost all frozen and a few individuals were out fishing. The warm rain Saturday had eliminated any ice that had remained, but luckily the GULLS were along the edge of the lake near Pintail Point Campground in the park and offered great views of their faces, bills, eyes, legs, and primaries. It was awesome to look at all the variation among the leg colors, bill patterns, and eye color of near adult birds. It was a great reminder of why I hear so many people indicate they hate gulls, but I loved it even though there were only two species present. With only 200 gulls present there was one Ring-billed adult with dark/dusky eyes, two adult type Herring with dark/dusky eyes, and one third cycle Herring with greenish yellow legs. If any of these field marks were taken by themselves, completely different identifications are possible.
Timberdoodle calls are a welcome harbinger of northbound migration and the warming temperature of the sun and melts tend to lift my spirits. It was great to get out a bit.
Malcolm Gold (Overland Park, Johnson County, Kansas)
