Big Wall

Rick and I picked up Rocinante to head out on the water! Today was a paddle around Big Wall marsh! It was amazing! We were really just hoping to find Yellow-headed Blackbirds, because we found a solitary female there last fall. We found HUNDREDS of YHBlackbirds, a Sora, and two new species we'd never seen before!

Baby Robin begs for food in a tree in Papa Steve's yard

Yellow-headed blackbird (first male sighting)

Yellow-headed Blackbird (female)

Black Tern (FIRST SIGHTING!!)

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Black Tern

Black Tern

Swallow battle! We'd never seen tree swallows fight like this. They were really going at it.

But then the first swallow knocked the second into the water, you can see his little head poking up, and swallow 1 flew away. Swallow 2 flew away a second or two later. 

Sora - It just walked right out!

Sora

Muskrat!

Muskrat mansion! They were everywhere!

Black-bellied Plover (FIRST SIGHTING!!)

Black-bellied Plover

A great paddle ended with a rainbow!

Dean's List and Diseases!

Ricky and I both made Dean's list again this semester!

While most people celebrate the end of the semester / dean's list with a drink with friends or a relaxing vacation, Rick likes to celebrate with a potentially crippling and long-lasting disease.

Last semester it was Shingles.
This semester it's Lyme Disease

But, like the shingles, we caught the lyme disease in it's first stages and Rick is on medication to get rid of it.

Rick's Morning Walk and Chichaqua Bottoms

Common Yellowthroat: Photo by Rick

Redheaded Woodpecker: photo by Rick

Indigo Bunting: Photo by Rick

House Wren: photo by Rick

Wilson's Warbler: photo by Rick (FIRST SIGHTING)

female butterbutt? photo by Rick

Least Flycatcher: photo by Rick

Brown headed Cowbird: photo by Rick

Yellow Warbler: photo by Rick

female common yellowthroat: photo by Rick

Yellow Warbler: photo by Rick

Yellow Warbler: photo by Rick

Ring Necked Pheasant: photo by Erin

Spotted Sandpipers: photo by Erin

American Bittern: photo by Erin (FIRST PHOTO - 2nd Sighting!)

Sandhill Crane: photo by Erin

Song Sparrow: photo by Erin

Willet: photo by Erin

Chichaqua Bottoms

Scarlet Tanager (not a great picture, this guy wouldn't let us get close, but at least he's identifiable)

Olive-backed Swainson's Thrush

Tennessee Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Juvenile Baltimore Oriole

Flycatcher

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (female - she was snapping off twigs for her nest!)

Redwing Blackbird (female)

Ring billed duck

Ring-billed pair

Sora (FIRST SIGHTING!)

Sora

Sora - this is one of the HARDEST BIRDS TO FIND that Rick and I have ever gone hunting for. 

 The next 3 pictures are a fun game Rick and I played ALL AFTERNOON called "Spot the Sora"

This is the first picture Not Cropped for anyone who wants a real challenge

Sora's are REALLY hard to find until they flush, and really hard to get a picture of in flight because they drop back down so quickly. 

Rose breasted Grosbeak

Goldfinch

White throated Sparrow

Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Kingbird

Common Yellowthroat

SO Many Cliff Swallows!

Dickcissel