Headed out into the prairies once again, this time our main focus was on finding Greater Prairie Chicken in the vast open landscapes of prairie, dotted with lakes. It’s no mean feat but we actually scoped a pair of males at a good distance displaying and could hear their calls. What a show they put on and we celebrated our major find vigorously with high fives and even hugs!
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| Greater Prairie Chicken...... |
The lake beside us held drake Wood Duck (much to Brian’s delight) and a cracking drake Hooded Merganser right in front of us, with a group of Ring-necked Ducks, a few Canvasbacks and the usual assortment of other wildfowl, which made for quite a spectacle. Skeins of Canada Gees flew overhead migrating to more northern climes, whilst we watched a family of Canada Geese below us with 6 cygnets. Weird huh? Buoyed by our success we spent some time driving and birding the prairies without finding anything new before returning to the hotel for breakfast.
Our next stop was some 3 hours away amidst a fantastic mixture of conifer and alder forest, dotted with lakes. One such body of water held over 30 Common Loons, making for quite a spectacle. At the appointed place we parked and straight away saw American Goldfinch, Eastern Phoebe, Sand Martin and Ruby-throated Hummingbird – the latter showing well perched on a telegraph wire in the scope. A short walk was productive with a few Red-eyed Vireos, Swamp Sparrow, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Great Crested Flycatcher and a Green Heron. Back at the car, a Veery called and was lured into view for very nice scope views – a much-wanted lifer for Graham. And then we were off to Sax-Zim Bog, a little short of 90 minutes away where the grounds of our lodge had several Purple Finches visiting the feeders, plus a flock of Cedar Waxwings was present. A good day!
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