The Goslings Are Here!

Canada Goose and her goslings on Discovery Island in Pierre

This is the time of year that the first bird babies start to arrive. Earlier this week I found this pair of Canada Geese taking their newly hatched Goslings out for a walk. They also got a few preliminary swimming lessons. Note the posture of the male goose in the photo below. He hardly moved the whole time I was watching. It is clear that his job was to keep an eye out for predators while the female tended to the young ones. He was keeping a particularly close watch on a group of Ring-billed Gulls just down the beach.

The adult geese keeping watch over the goslings' first swimming lessons

A Grackle at the Boat Ramp

Common Grackle
 

I found this Common Grackle perched on a sign on the LaFramboise Island Causeway in Pierre. Two years ago the boat ramp there was perfectly usable and people launched boats there all the time. Then came the Great Flood of 2011. When the floodwaters receded, there was a huge deposit of silt below the boat ramp and the water became too shallow for most boats. The benefit for me is that without the added congestion of boaters, that area is much more attractive for birds. And the caution signs make great perches!

Vultures Make a Pretty Picture

Turkey Vultures

A lot of people call Turkey Vultures ugly and scary. I'm not one of them. I think they're quite handsome. And unless you are recently dead, you should not be the least bit afraid of them. Just look at how attractive these two look while posing in this dead tree against the blue sky. Don't they make a pretty picture?

Swainson's Thrush

Swainson's Thrush

I saw my first Swainson's Thrush of the year this afternoon. These close relatives of the American Robin are migrating through central South Dakota this week. They have just flown in from South America, and are heading up to the Canadian border where they will spend the summer. The best field marks for the Swainson's Thrush are the plain olive-colored back and the buffy eye-ring.

Handsome Bird... Ugly Voice

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

I love to take pictures of Yellow-headed blackbirds. They are so photogenic. And the handsome males seem to love to pose prominently on reeds, weed stalks, or fence posts. However, the voice of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is anything but beautiful. Field guides describe this bird's song as, "extremely harsh and unmusical" or as a, "wavering raucous wail like a chainsaw." To me it sounds more like a rusty door hinge. I heard the song coming from this particular Yellow-headed Blackbird this afternoon when I snapped these pictures. It sounded just like the closing of a large, rusted iron gate. They are such handsome birds. It is just too bad they can't sing a lick!

Yellow-headed Blackbird "singing"

Storks and Cranes and Babies

Bird joke of the day:

"Smaller babies may be delivered by stork,

but the heavier ones need a crane."

White Stork

Bible verse of the day:

 

"Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons.

The turtledove, swallow and crane are aware of their migration,

but my people do not know the requirements of the Lord."

Jeremiah 8:7

(Holman Christian Standard Bible)

 

Sandhill Cranes

How to Take a Drink of Water

American Robin shows step one

"To get a nice drink of water, the first thing you have to do is find a nice bird bath like the one on the Bossmans' deck. Then you get as much water as you can hold in your beak..."

American Robin shows step two

"Then you quickly lift up your head, trying not to spill too much water on the way up..."

American Robin completes the demonstration

"Finally, you just let the water run down your throat. My that was refreshing!"