Friday I took one of my clients on a short birding adventure. Teenagers seem to feel more comfortable opening up when they are engaged with you in a shared activity or riding in a car as opposed to staring at you across a desk. I have taken several of my clients birding near Salem during their sessions, and I cannot think of one of them who did not enjoy the experience. Many of them approach me later to ask, when are we going birding again. Birding is educational, therapeutic, and it gives them a break from the residential campus where they attend school and live 24/7. During our last "birding" session, this particular young man had suggested that we belly crawl to get a closer at three female Ring-necked Ducks, but he also enjoyed looking through the scope at the birds because he wants to be a marine sniper. He said the snipers' spotters use similar scopes to locate their targets.
Our first stop on Friday was El Paso Sewage Treatment Center. We pulled up beside the two large ponds there and began scanning with the scope. As we took turns scanning, we kept finding new birds, including, to our amazement five goose species. I have heard of the Woodpecker Grand Slam. What is it called when you get Canada, Cackling, Greater White-fronted, Snow, and Ross's Geese all in one shot?
We also had seven duck species: Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, and Green-winged Teal. We were having so much fun, we agreed to continue through lunch, knowing that peanut butter and jelly would be readily available when we returned. On the way back we stopped at Gridley Wastewater Treatment Ponds, where we saw Northern Shovelers and American Pipits galore. The shovelers were feeding so ravenously, they hardly seemed to notice our presence.
One of the smaller ponds was nearly empty, but had just the right amount of water for the pipits to feed and bathe in.
While I was trying to photograph the shovelers, my birding partner spotted a Spotted Sandpiper in the mud with the pipits. This was the same Spotted Sandpiper, which has been hanging around at this location for weeks. It's feathers seem to be visibly damaged, and when it flies, it flies low like it is barely able to stay up and only covers short distances.
We also located a Gadwall and a Ring-necked Duck before we returned to Salem Ranch, and we still managed to get back and eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before school started back up. Friday ended up being a long eleven hour day at work so it was nice to have that time in the middle of the day birding with one of the boys.
Saturday morning, I decided to check out White Oak Park in Bloomington. I hoped to find a Red-necked Grebe since the lake there hosted one last November, but the only Grebes there on Saturday were Pied-billed Grebes.
Also present were a male Green-winged Teal and a female Northern Pintail amongst dozens of Mallards and Canada Geese.
Aside from Canada Geese and Mallards, the bird which gave me the closest looks and the best photo opportunities, however, was this Greater White-fronted Goose.
I returned home late in the morning in time to get ready to go see Santa Claus v. the Martians, the free movie showing at the historic Normal Theater. After spending a mere $3.00 on refreshments, but sitting through 50 minutes of extras such as advertisements from the 50s, cartoons, and an episode of Howdy Doody, Carrie and I decided it might be much longer before they actually played the movie and decided to cut our losses and leave. If we were waiting to see a better movie, perhaps it would have been worth the wait, but Santa Claus v. the Martians is considered one of the worst movies of all time. It's hard to be patient when you are waiting to see a bad movie. Also, we realized we would not be able to finish the movie and get back in time to prepare for our evening company. When we returned home, I built a fire in our back yard so that our guests and we could roast hot dogs and marshmallows for smores. We had a wonderful evening with our friends and their children.
After attending church and spending time with Carrie on Sunday, I made a quick run to Evergreen Lake. It was very windy on Sunday and the lake was very choppy. I hardly saw a duck, and the mudflat, which had been on the South end of the lake was now submerged. I did manage to locate five Common Loons on the West side of the lake just South of the dam. I had to hike the trail just to the South of the dam to get a good look at the birds with my scope. One of them was preening and giving quite a show, turning over on its side and showing its belly and feet. All in all it was a busy but nice weekend with Carrie, friends, and a few birds here and there.
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