Ft. Niobrara NWR

I spent some more time at Ft. Niobrara NWR this morning.  I was greeted by a herd of bison in the road, right by the entrance.

Not far down the road was this red-tailed hawk.

And of course the prairie dogs were around, as usual.  They are such a great form of entertainment!

There aren't many places for raptors to perch at Niobrara, so raptors make use of the bison fence posts.

female rough legged hawk, light morph

 You can be sure there is a raptor in just about every tree in the morning, since there are so few trees.  This one had a light morph ferruginous in it.

Later, and immature bald eagle perched in this same tree.

Down the road a little on a gate, this dark morph rough legged hawk was trying to catch his breakfast.  He made numerous unsuccesful attempts at critters on the ground.  He was also undeterred by my vehicle.  I parked it right in the cattle gate as he was on the ground trying to snatch something, and when he came back up, he flew right towards me and landed less than 15 feet away!  I think my vehicle blended in as part of the gate.  He continued to make unsuccesful dives for about half an hour, when I finally had to bring myself to leave.  This is the first dark morph rough legged hawk I have seen on this trip.  Usually, I see light morph females.

going for a kill...but missed.

Near the entrance to Fort Falls, there were 4 bald eagles in these trees (two adult, two juvenile)

Next I headed to the Fort Falls trail.  This has a small waterfall and leads down into and along the Niobrara River.  This trail is excellent in the spring and summer for warblers, but today I only found downy woodpeckers, black-capped chickadees, and white-breasted nuthatches.

However, there is a ridge that runs along the canyon that the Niobrara River flows through.  This is a great raptor viewing spot.  This morning there were three ferruginous hawks thermalling, and flying low through the valley.

Tomorrow I am heading to South Dakota!

Nebraska sandhills: Valentine NWR and Fort Niobrara NWR

Well I have made it to one of my favorite spots in the midwest: the sandhills of Nebraska.  I have just about finished my roadside habitat survey points, except for a few more to the west.  I am spending a few days near Valentine, NE so I can hang out at Fort Niobrara NWR and Valentine NWR. 

Nebraska sandhills

Before getting here, though, I saw my first rufous morph red tail hawk in Custer County.

Rufous morph re-tailed hawk: Custer County, NE

There were also a few flocks of sandhills around.  There are reports from Quivira NWR and Cheyenne Bottoms in KS that tons of whooping cranes are coming through....a flock of 18 at Quivira!  Too bad I just missed them by about 2 weeks!!!!!

sandhill crane: Custer County, NE

The morning I left Custer County, I had a small run in with a deer.  I saw it for about .1 seconds bolting at me from the left, so I slammed the breaks, only to hear the smack on the back driver's side.  I looked in the rear view to see it slide off the car and take a tumble, as the words "LIABILITY ONLY" flashed through my mind.  I stopped, fearing the worst and to assess the damage...to find only a deer snot mark on the car.  Not a dent at all!!!  I went back to find the deer, but she was gone.  There was only a bit of mud in the road that she knocked off my car.  I'm sure she had a major neck cramp for the rest of the day.  Luckily it was only a white tail.  I'm not sure I could have gotten off so easy if I hit a mule deer, or a cow, both of which I have had close calls with.  Also, yesterday, I got my first flat tire of the trip.  It was a slow leak, caused by half of a metal staple.  An easy repair though.

Highlights from today were this juvenile harlan's intermediate morph, and a variety of rough legged and ferruginous hawks.

Typically, these darker birds are more leery and take flight more easily than lighter colored birds, but this one stuck around for awhile, allowing me to get some good photos.

Harlan's intermediate morph juvenile: Cherry County, NE

At Niobrara NWR, there is an area known as Prairie dog town, where hundreds of these cute little prairie dogs run around and make cute noises as your vehicle goes by.  This ferruginous hawk had them all in a fit.  I found him first in my scope (a juvenile).  He was tucked in near this brush, very low to the ground.  He was trying to escape the wind, as it was gusting up to 35 mph or more out on the open prairie.  Eventually he started preening.  I did not find any burrowing owls (Alex and I found them here in June) but I will be there early in the AM to try again.

ferruginous hawk and prairie dog at Fort Niobrara NWR, NE

scoping out some dinner?

On the east side of the refuge I found these two ferruginous hawks soaring over the prairie.  They seemed to be having more fun than anything on the wind, but I am sure they were also looking for dinner.

rufous morph ferruginous hawk: Fort Niobrara NWR, NE

light morph ferruginous hawk: Fort Niobrara NWR, NE

light and rufous morphs together

dinner?

another black-tailed prairie dog

There are not many places to perch at Niobrara, so this ferruginous hawk found this nice outcrop on a high sand dune, and had a great view of prairie dog town below.

ferruginous hawk: Fort Niobrara NWR, NE

Finally, one of the great things about Fort Niobrara NWR are the roaming buffalo.  Well, kind of roaming.  They are enclosed and managed within the refuge, and give us a good idea of what it was like before we wiped them out.  There are also elk here, but I didn't find them today.

Bison: Ft. Niobrara NWR, NE

After tomorrow, I will head west and finish my points.  I will then head in the general direction of Rapid City, SD, where I will wait for Alex to arrive at the airport on November 20th.  Hopefully the weather stays this wonderful (it was 80+ degrees today!!!), so I won't be regretting my idea to travel in the mid-west in November!

Custer County, NE

Well, it has been an interesting day.  The debate is whether or not I have seen a dark morph short tailed hawk (extremely out of its range and highly improbably and unlikely) or a very small harlan's hawk (realistically, this bird fits the range).  However, I like to think that rare birds happily expand in a world that is against them.  I will leave it at that, and spend tomorrow searching for the bird.  I saw it again this evening, and it was still small and dark...and saying "I'm not a red tail!"  :)  Hopefully I can get some other people to observe the bird tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from yesterday and the day before.  I have been seeing a lot of rough legged hawks, merlins, and northern shrikes.

rough-legged hawk

tree sparrow

unknown sparrow (potential harris?)

brown morph adult junco

prairie falcon

prairie falcon

waterfowl at a playa

merlin

rough-legged hawk

Bingo and pickles...this can be had in Ogallala!!!!

Here is the shrike I was photographing as I found the "mystery" bird.  The lighting was perfect!

northern shrike: Custer County, NE

northern shrike: Custer County, NE

looking up, potentially at mystery bird approaching

the mystery bird, runing my shrike photo session!

Finally, not to ruin the great bird day, but I found this red-tail kill on a pole in Logan County.  It is still holding on to its mouse.  I think this is a few days old.  Unfortunately, it is the same design pole that I saw a red-tail stuck to in KS, and that I see many, many hawks land on every day.

Mystery hawk, Custer County, NE

Around 11:15 am this morning, I found a shrike sitting on a telephone wire on road 792 in Custer County.  I was getting great photos.  All of a sudden in my camera shot, a dark bird appeared.  My intial thought was that it was a night hawk...small, dark, and some evidence of white on the wings.  This is when I snapped the photos below, as the hawk was coming towards me and approximately 20-30 feet above me (my camera was on full 20x zoom).  However as I watched the bird head straight for me, it became clear that it was not a night hawk at all, but a small hawk like bird, actually bigger than a night hawk.  My initial thought was accipiter, only because it seemed to match the size.  However, none of the markings were correct, and the bird was not acting like an accipter.  I watched it soar, then "kite" repeatedly (similar to the behavior of a kestrel, but not as rapid/quick).  This bird was too small to be a red-tailed hawk or a rough legged hawk (never have I looked at either and thought "night hawk").   It stayed around for about 5 minutes, slowly getting father and farther away.  I called Alex Lamoreaux, my boyfriend and also, conveniently, raptor expert, and he suggested that I was observing a merlin.  Again, the field marks were incorrect for any kind of falcon.  The bird left, and I took varios photos of its silhouette, and a brief video (the bottom two photos are the best, will post more soon).  I then consulted my Peterson guide to hawks, and the only thing I can match my photo to is a short tailed hawk, dark morph.   (Update! Confirmation from Jerry Liguori that this is indeed a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk!)

Rough legged hawks, ferruginous hawks, and a bald eagle

After spending 2 days in McCook, NE, and taking 4 days off due to bad weather, I got back on the road this morning.  Most of the snow has melted, but the roads are still mushy in parts.  For the most part, though, roads are passable. 

In Chase county, I had three rough legged hawks withing one mile!!!!  All had full crops, and were sitting on telephone poles/soaring.

Rough legged hawk number 1: Chase County, NE

Rough legged hawk number 2: Chase County, NE

Rough legged hawk number 2: Chase County, NE

Rough legged hawk number 3: Chase County, NE

A little further north in Perkins county, I passed another interesting hawk on a pole.  I passed it at first, but thought I should go back to document it, especially if it was another rough legged.  A picture text/call to Alex confirmed it was a ferruginous hawk, the first I have ever seen! 

ferruginous hawk: Perkins County, NE

ferruginous hawk number 1: Perkins County, NE

It seemed like every where I went, I saw a new and different bird.  Interestingly, I barely saw any red-tail hawks today.  I found this ferruginous hawk about 5 miles SE of the first.

ferruginous hawk number 2: Perkins County, NE

And finally, as the sun started to set and I rushed to get point done, I found this juvenile bald eagle sitting in some trees in a pasture.  He was not shy at all, and I got excellent photos.  He watched all of the cows intently that passed underneath him.  A great raptor day!

juvenile bald eagle: Perkins County, NE

juvenile bald eagle: Perkins County, NE