Sunday, October 26, 2008

Out of the Garden

We had a mighty interesting day of birding today. The weather was nearly as perfect as you could ask for any time of year. We had a several first of the fall season birds today including this Lapland Longspur. It was in a most unusual place too. It was found on the break in a large lake where we bird. Quite the handsome bird with the rufous in the wing even though it is in its winter plummage.

They are normally in fields.We usually don't even start looking for these little birds until mid winter. They can be found in the fields along with horned lark and sometimes if we are lucky snow buntings. I think this one is a male since it has all that dark streaking on its breast.
Sometimes they stick around until early spring when they are molting into their breeding plummage. Either way I was happy to see them.
On the other end of the spectrum we had what I think of as late summer early fall birds, a Great Egret. It probably won't be around here after this weekend because it is to get down into the 30's tonight. I imagine it will be heading for warmer climes.
If you want to see the Lapland Longspur a little better you can click on the pictures to enlarge them. I want to thank my Dearly Beloved for taking so many nice pictures today and letting me use them on my blog. I hope you were all able to get out and enjoy the weekend.

22 comments:

  1. It sounds like a fabulous day. I have seen that bird only in my bird book so it is so great to know you not only saw one, but let us see it also.

    I love when you go birding!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa, Thanks for sharing your birding information. I don't know one bird from another, but would like to learn.

    Deb.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful way to spend the day together Lisa. Your DB took some splendid photos!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful shots...would you thank DB! I just picked up a Tennessee Bird List and I am going to start paying attention! I know the usual suspects but there are so many more on the list to see! Gail

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Lisa,

    Nice to get a view of some birds that aren't common to our neck of the woods! Glad you had such a good day tootling around with your Sweetie Pie! The best kind of day

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like y'all had a great outing, perhaps the last warm one for a while. Thanks to your DB for the excellent photos.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Lisa, I did click on the photo of the little bird for it looked almost like an owl in the one photo. The streakings are lovely and the face is handsome. The puffy white chest makes this guy striking. I bet he is quite sought after as daddy material! HA

    Frances
    http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never seen a longspur Lisa. How sweet! Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have never seen longspurs.
    Quite a handsome bird--you must have been thrilled with your day out!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great photos lisa! I should start bird watching again one of these days (if I can find the time). By the way what camera/lens do you use?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great shots Lisa, love the shot of the great Egret only ever seen little egrets myself. Weather looks amazing, it was 4 degrees C this morning on the way to work so cooling off a bit here.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I always enjoy your birding results. Even if I wdon't have a clue with ot your explanation. Glad you had such a good day for it-it was WINDY here.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Birdwatching - my favourite kind of day too :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lapland Longspur - that would be a new life bird for me. I see by my range map that they also inhabit SE Minnesota for the winter, so I need to be on the lookout this bird.
    My field guide also says this, "Winters on open ground, such as fields and beaches" so this one wasn't too out of place where you saw it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'll watch for the little LL, others might be migrating thru my area.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'll watch for the little LL, others might be migrating thru my area.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  17. Lisa, I love those birds! Does he use a zoom lens? How far away were you?

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Lapland Longspur is a pretty bird....how lovely for you and DB to see one so early.......and his photos are great.....

    We to are heading for an artic chill.......

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dear Lisa,
    I have never seen one of these. I will keep an eye out. I never know who will come to the back yard.
    The cold front passed through yesterday so I am expecting to see more arrivals. The Pine Siskins are back as are the Juncos.
    I love seeing all your birds.
    Your husband is a great photographer. Thank him for me too!
    If I see one of these in the backyard I hope to be able to identify since his pictures are so clear.
    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  20. Lisa, I am learning so much about birds from you! The great Egret is a magnificent bird, but I've never heard of a Lapland Longspur before. DB took some great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Great shots! and good eyes, since you can hardly see the small birds among those stones.
    And yep, you are right, maybe I should not have taken so much collagen :-)But that's the part I love best.

    ReplyDelete

New Blogger, Old Blogger

     All I can say it is difficult to deal with change. This new Blogger format is not as user friendly in my opinion. I guess I will get us...