Monday, December 28, 2009

Birding Around Sedgwick County

December 18, 2009

Richard Stevens:

We birded mostly on private ranches around Julesburg today (Sedgwick County).

Roger Danka's ranch has 2 Harris's Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow visiting its feeders. His resident Eastern Screech-Owls are up to 4 in number!

At a nearby ranch, we counted 5 Long-eared Owls! A third ranch had another Harris's Sparrow and a red race Fox Sparrow!

To stretch our legs, we walked Ovid Woods and the Ovid Sewage Pond area. The Eastern Screech-Owl briefly answered our recordings.

Julesburg Wildlife Area (which is really just south of Ovid) was pretty quiet. However, a beautiful male Northern Cardinal sang in the woods to the west of the Wildlife Area (west of the bridge over the Platte River). The bright red color "popped out" of the drab woods.

Only a couple of Black-billed Magpies flew around the Sedgwick cemetery.

The Short-eared Owls, which sometimes fly over Sedgwick Draw, were not seen tonight. A nearby Eastern Screech-Owl site was quiet tonight.

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