Birding Notes

May 25: I went for a short walk along the side of a hill near the parking lot at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. I could hear a number of different birds in the nearby shrubbery which encouraged me to stand still and see if they would appear where I could get a better look at them.

I was soon rewarded with a pair of birds, both of which stayed on the same spot for about 5 minutes while singing almost continuously. It took a fair amount of work this morning with my field books to identify them. The first bird was a Spotted Towhee. I had difficulty deciding between that and an Oregon Junco, but one of my photos showed the white spots on the black wings.

Spotted Towhee

The other bird was even more difficult to identify. I now believe it was a Clay-colored Sparrow.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Another sparrow that took repeated looks at my field guides was a Lark Sparrow, a new lifer for us.

Lark Sparrow

I was not the only one birdwatching this morning:

Hoary Marmot

I also saw a few Brown-headed Cowbirds, plus a large Northern Harrier gliding just above the ground as I was about to leave. The white underbelly and the black wingtips made this an easy identification.

Here is a table summarizing the two day's observations.

Name	Photo	Time	Location	ID#	2007 #	Lifer
Spotted Towhee	Yes	10:20 am	Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump	82	95	.
Clay-colored Sparrow	Yes	10:21 am	"	104	1	.
Brown-headed Cowbird	Yes	10:47 am	"	49	93	.
Lark Sparrow	Yes	10:48 am	"	141	96	Yes
Northern Harrier	.	10:50 am	"	14	33	.

SUMMARY of the session: This was a very enjoyable hour as I rarely moved and simply watched the birds as they became visible on the top of the shrubs. Getting a new lifer is always nice and seeing two new birds for 2007 was another plus. I am beginning to learn to see the birds of the open prairie but it is still very difficult to identify them at the time I first see them.