Commoners

As summer moves to its speediest stretch, I'm trying to be more active in my birding again. This morning I decided to go down to the park. My first goal was to photograph the tree swallows, but I was only seeing barn swallows. I then had the idea of going to the bridge to photograph some cliff swallows, but it seems they too are off on migration. I snagged some shots of the rock pigeons hanging around before turning around.

Walking back through the park, I happened across a pair of downy woodpeckers in some nearby trees and a hunting green heron across one of the ponds.

Guess I forgot how short the breeding season can be for some swallows. Well, it was a nice walk, and I'm happy with the pictures I got along the way. Only a few weeks remain in my summer break, but my biggest trip of the summer is coming up soon.

The Garden, first summer

 As mentioned previously, this spring I finally committed to starting a garden with the hopes of supporting birds, bees, butterflies and more. As soon as the snow (finally) melted, I dug and tilled up a little rectangle in the corner of the backyard. I learned that hand-tilling is a good workout.

Once the spot was free of grass, I sprinkled some wildflower mix over the soil and put some water down. Whenever I would look outside, I would see sparrows hopping around the garden, and so I re-seeded the area several times. I was pretty concerned because for what felt a few weeks, nothing was coming up. I bought a few plants from local greenhouses just to guarantee something would grow, but it turns out that was unnecessary.

The garden is now teeming with life. Lots of cosmos, black-eyed susans, cornflower, alyssums and zinnias. The mix I bought was geared towards pollinators (monarchs in particular), but so far I have not seen any milkweed, blazing star or prairie clover. That said, I'm happy with how much has grown, and it has been very fun to sit around the garden a little every day and see what has changed plus who comes to visit. So far I've noted a few tiger swallowtails, many species of bee, some beetles and a couple monarchs! The rabbits have also been snacking on the lower branches of the cosmos, but the plants are growing just fine.

Little east, little west

Other than the cancelled Arizona road trip, I had very few planned summer birding ventures. I was hoping to get over to the Sheyenne National Grasslands and camp out to see/hear the commonly reported Eastern Whip-poor-wills, but missed the window I was hoping for. The only other plan I had was an overnight trip to some of the prairies in central North Dakota from which I've recently returned.

But first, a stop to my family's lake place was in store. So, early on Thursday morning I headed east to the Kettledrummer Prairie. When I arrived, the sun was just rising, and the blanket of fog was fading. The little prairie was full of blackbird, clay-colored sparrow and sedge wren song, plus a constant mosquito buzz (was very glad I decided to bring boots, gloves and full coverage).

The lakeshore has purple martin apartments. Among the adults zipping in and out feeding young birds was a single male house sparrow. The house sparrow would forage around the ground, then fly up to the apartment and feed an immature purple martin.

Middle of the afternoon, I was westbound on interstate. While not long, the drive was rather stressful. Just as I was going through Fargo, I entered a pounding rainfall and took shelter beneath an overpass with several other cars. Beyond Jamestown, what felt like half or more of the way was under construction. It was quite a relief to arrive in Dawson.

With only a few hours of daylight remaining, I scouted out the area around the Dewald Slough. First, I checked the Dawson WMA, then drove around the slough, stopping in several spots to take some photographs of birds flying and perching at roadside and birds in and around the more distant slough. I then drove to Slade NWR where I was hoping to catch some Zs only to find large signs forbidding overnight parking and camping. So, after recording a few observations, I headed back for the Dawson WMA and pulled out a book to read until it was too dark. The sort of sleep you'd expect to achieve in a car followed.

Friday morning, the sun rose behind a now familiar haze. I slowly trudged through the growth of the Dawson WMA, pausing to spot flycatchers and blackbirds among other species. I was really hoping for a glimpse or hint of LeConte's or Nelson's sparrow to no avail.

Going back east, I made a few stops in small towns along ND-13 to shade in some eBird counties. No serious birding and no big sightings, but it was nice to get out and stretch the legs a few times. My favorite moment was making a new friend at the Lehr Cemetery.

While I didn't find my target species (or really give the best effort for finding them), I was happy enough with how the trip went.

Breaking Out

 As previously mentioned, the majority of my birding this year thus far has been local. But the constraints gave me good cause to focus on getting some pictures of breeding birds at Chahinkapa Park. I discovered a great little spot along the river where the swallows and other birds would touch down, so I arrived there early one morning to sit quietly and see who would show up.

This week I was able to hang out in the Twin Cities with family. On Thursday morning, we headed over to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary. In addition to a humble list of birds, I was able to observe a doe and pair of white-tailed fawns.

And yesterday, before leaving the cities, I swung down to walk the old Cedar Avenue bridge.