Mild weather greeted us as we gathered in Bancroft at 8:00 AM on February 15—starting out with clear skies, 30 degrees and little or no wind. Over the years, we have battled snowdrifts and bitter cold in the wide-open, barren landscapes of the Buena Vista grasslands, but this year it definitely felt like a touch of spring was in the air!
We soon headed over to a site on Lake Road where GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKENS had been booming on a lek in the early hours of that morning, but they may have been done courting as we drove up with our caravan, and we saw about a dozen of them take off—flying in front of us. We proceeded a little further down the road and soon flushed what may have been the same group, now taking off and heading back east. A few minutes later, another group also flushed and flew eastward. We also spotted several ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS along the way, both light and dark morphs.
Rough-legged Hawk by Tom Schultz
Turning south on Townline Road, we stopped adjacent to a field where several more GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKENS were viewed through scopes from time to time as they moved about. Several HORNED LARKS and a couple of SNOW BUNTINGS were also present, along with a BLUE JAY and some AMERICAN CROWS. Several CANADA GEESE and a couple of MALLARDS were present on a ditch that had open water, and further south an AMERICAN ROBIN was spotted along the road.
Along Swamp Road we encountered another ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, then turned north on Elm Road. Nearing one of the two WSO properties at Buena Vista, we spotted another 32 GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKENS! We also found HORNED LARKS, BLUE JAYS and another couple of additional ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS along the way. From there we headed over to the east end of Prairie Chicken Road and worked our way westward and then continuing on Swamp Road, which were both fairly quiet.
Photo by Tom Schultz
Driving south to Mill Road, and then east, we encountered three COMMON RAVENS, as well as some AMERICAN CROWS, a ROCK PIGEON, and a group of DARK-EYED JUNCOS. Interesting to see along there was a RED-TAILED HAWK that was sitting on a nest!
Along Farmers Road we spotted a group of WILD TURKEYS and a couple more COMMON RAVENS that were on in a field. A home with bird feeders had MOURNING DOVES, both WHITE-BREASTED and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, and also a DOWNY WOODPECKER.
We continued working our way back to Townline Road, where we stopped along a wooded area to walk around and check for bird activity. A BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE popped up to greet us, a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER was spotted, and a PILEATED WOODPECKER drummed in the distance. We had a nice surprise when an EASTERN SCREECH-OWL started calling nearby, responding to a recording, but unfortunately we weren’t able to spot it. Perhaps it was sitting in a hole that we couldn’t see. Heading back to our field trip meeting point around 11:30 AM, we spotted a couple more ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS. By then, the temperature had risen to around 48 degrees… quite balmy for this time of year!
Black-capped Chickadee by Tom Schultz
Thanks to all who attended this year, and to Jeff Baughman for co-leading. We had been pleasantly surprised by the number of GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKENS that we’d been able to spot, as well as the many good looks at ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS!
Our bird total for the morning was 23 species, and our trip report can be viewed at: https://ebird.org/tripreport/477098
Tom Schultz – WSO Field Trips Committee
