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Recent outings have been a warm up to what I hope to be several exhaustive area surveys of sparrow numbers in SW OK over the next couple of weeks. Today, I visited Tom Steed Reservoir in Kiowa Co. The census was conducted much as I would approach a Christmas Bird Count, whereby I may walk, but mostly drive, throughout a pre-determined area within a set time, sampling habitats. Although my field notes are broken down to 9 discrete observation sites, these can be distilled into two basic units; that of the Great Plains S.P. and Mtn Park W.M.A.
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TSR: Great Plains S.P.; 07:40 to 12:35 pm 0/10 cloud; morning low of 17 F had reached 24 by start time. calm becoming 15 mph NW by 10:30. Walking = 2.5 miles; Car = 18 miles 30% ice cover remained on smaller ponds and streams. Canada Goose - 3000+ Snow Goose - 5 (white morph) Mallard - 20 Gadwall - 56 American Wigeon - 3 Green-winged Teal - 2 Hooded Merganser - 14 American White Pelican - 2 Double-cr. Cormorant - 46 Great Blue Heron - 2 American Coot - 11 Northern Harrier - 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (ad. male) Red-tailed Hawk (dark morph) - 1 ad. Red-tailed Hawk (light morph) - 1 American Kestrel - 2 Killdeer - 10 Ring-billed Gull - 19 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 3 Ladder-backed Woodpecker - 4 Northern Flicker (Red-sh.) - 1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-sh.) - 11 Horned Lark - 1 Eastern Phoebe - 1 Loggerhead Shrike - 1 Blue Jay - 15 Carolina Chickadee - 3 White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 Rock Wren - 3 Canyon Wren - 7 Bewick's Wren - 11 Carolina Wren - 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet - 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 10 Eastern Bluebird - 15 Brown Thrasher - 4 Northern Mockingbird - 2 E. Starling - 500 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 4 Spotted Towhee - 14 Rufous-crowned Sparrow - 1 Field Sparrow - 208 Chipping Sparrow - 74 American Tree Sparrow - 4 Vesper Sparrow - 6 Savannah Sparrow - 14 GRASSHOPPER SPARROW - 2 Fox Sparrow - 11 Song Sparrow - 126 Lincoln's Sparrow - 2 Harris's Sparrow - 69 White-crowned Sparrow - 21 White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's) - 1 ad. Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-c.) - 410 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 6 Lapland Longspur - 1 Northern Cardinal - 27 Red-winged Blackbird - 28 Great-tailed Grackle - 85 Western Meadowlark - 34 Eastern Meadowlark - 2 Meadowlark spp. - 492 House Finch - 8 American Goldfinch - 21 Pine Siskin - 74 ... combining these numbers loses some of the partitioning these species exhibited in the field. For example, the Chipping Sparrows were a single flock moving along the lake shoreline in the park near the dam. It was a simple matter to count them 1, 2, 3, etc. The Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Rock and Canyon Wrens were restricted to the rock outcrop at the south end of the park, while the Carolina Wren was at the mouth of Glen Creek in the NE. The Grasshopper Sparrows were both on the Yellow Trail in the "East Area" of the park, as were the bulk of the Fox Sparrows which were especially vocal today ... even had one break into song. All but 4 of the Pine Siskins were in a flock along the road in a weedy field a mile N of Svoboda (NW of Mtn Park). The Lapland Longspur was with a massive concentration (400+) of meadowlarks in a grassy field opposite the parking lot for the Yellow Trailhead. |
TSR: Mtn Park W.M.A.; 12:40 pm - 15:40 pm 15 mph NW becoming 20 mph Walking = 0.5 miles; Car = 29 miles inclusive of Cold Springs; mouth of Otter Creek; Twin Mtns; and Mtn Park WMA wetland development area. Gadwall - 88 Mallard - 31 Northern Shoveler - 1 Green-winged Teal - 1 Hooded Merganser - 2 Double-cr. Cormorant - 9 Great Blue Heron - 3 Northern Bobwhite - 1 American Coot - 10 Northern Harrier - 2 Cooper's Hawk - 1 ad. fem. Red-tailed Hawk - 8 Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan's) - 1 imm. American Kestrel - 3 Killdeer - 1 Ring-billed Gull - 2 Mourning Dove - 2 Northern Flicker - 5 Ladder-backed Woodpecker - 5 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 3 Blue Jay - 1 American Crow - 2 Loggerhead Shrike - 3 Carolina Chickadee - 11 Carolina Wren - 4 Bewick's Wren - 2 Winter Wren - 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1 Northern Mockingbird - 1 Brown Thrasher - 1 Field Sparrow - 20 Song Sparrow - 22 Lark Bunting - 288 Savannah Sparrow - 6 Vesper Sparrow - 31 Fox Sparrow - 5 Harris's Sparrow - 76 White-crowned Sparrow -35 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-c.) - 58 Dark-eyed Junco -(Oregon) - 1 McCown's Longspur - 320 Red-winged Blackbird - 7000 Brown-headed Cowbird - 736 Brewer's Blackbird - 180 Common Grackle - 2 Meadowlark spp. - 225 Pine Siskin - 33 American Goldfinch - 7 Were this have been a CBC, the species total would be a respectable 74 species for an 8 hr effort. The McCown's Longspurs were found in 3 flocks along NS 220 Rd between EW 155 Rd and EW 157 (most at jct. with latter where scoped from 30 yards away; photo efforts resulted in little gray blobs). The Red-winged Blackbirds were going to roost within the new wetland development on the west side of the reservoir (dike work is not as yet completed but looks promising already). The bulk of the Lark Buntings were where EW 153 Rd ends near the W.M.A. but small flocks were found NW of Cold Springs just off Rt. 183. The Winter Wren, Carolina Wrens, and sapsucker were at the mouth of Otter Creek (access via Cold Springs) which is a nice riparian corridor within an otherwise dry, sparsely vegetated landscape. The great number of Vesper Sparrow was a consequence of getting lost in the community of Cold Springs. This small collection of homes are without lawn vegetation per se and the bare ground attracted a multitude of meadowlarks and sparrows ... virtually all of which proved to be Vespers. |
cheers
Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts, OH