Bird walk

Once a month on a Saturday morning, when I am home and able, I go on a bird walk.  I am so thankful for the museum offering this 1 1/2 mile walk through the woods and for the teaching Greg and others provide to expand my knowledge of birds!  

This past Saturday, the sunrise was pretty amazing!  I took this photo from the overpass over I35.  I think those vehicles were hunters as I heard gunshot earlier from our nearby home.

By the time I got to the museum parking lot, the sky was orange.  Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your beautiful morning painting!  Each day a new one!!

This morning, there were only 4 of us with the 2 instructors.

We saw several white throated sparrows  (not my image).

You can hear the sound at this site.  Often, humans give a little way to remember the call of a bird.  The biology teacher with us told us that these birds say "Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody."  Wonder who Sam Peabody is? Or her mother taught her "Dear sweet Canada, Canada."  

The Carolina wren says "tea kettle, tea kettle" and the titmouse says "Peter, peter."  If you could make up words for your favorite song bird, what words would you use?

We were surprised to see water in this creek.  It was completely dry last month.  However, we did have a couple days of rain recently.

Do you see the green hedge balls in the picture below?  You can actually purchase hedge balls on-line!  Hedge Apple Osage Orange Horse Apple Monkey Ball are sold on Amazon for $14.29 for 10. 

I'm glad I can go out my back door and pick them behind my house!  They make for pretty decoration.  Some claim that they keep away crickets and other critters and they put them in their garage.

An unusual teenie tiny tree duck was spotted in this tree!

We were told that the people who are in charge of naming birds are re-naming many.  They say some of the names are racist or sexist.  Anna's Hummingbird and Wilsons Sparrow, for example.  If named after a woman, the first name is used, but if after a male the last name is used.  They will no longer use human names in naming birds.  Evidently no books will be republished until all the work is done.

This robin was quite large.  The robins that were around here in the summer have migrated south, and those from the north are in Kansas now.  They are larger than the ones we usually have here.

A friend of mine and I were talking about the decrease in the number of birds at our feeders.  Greg told us that due to the drought, lack of food supplies have driven them elsewhere.  There are always these berries, but they are like candy and have no nutritional value.

Greg was so excited to see a yellow bellied sapsucker!  We had not seen many birds that morning - usually in November we see double what we saw this morning.  He said this made it worth it.

We also heard a sweet sounding bird.  The Merlin app identified it as a kinglet.  The guides agreed.  They are so tiny - and cute!!   I couldn't get a photo as it is just lost in the branches, but found this one online.

As we were finishing the trail, these geese flew over head.  Greg took one look and guessed a number.  Just looking at this photo, how many do you think there are?

This is an easier number to guess.  15.

Did you guess the number of geese?  I told Greg the only way to be sort of sure about it is to photograph it and count.  Which I did.  I counted twice and came up with 219 in one count and 217 in the 2nd.  

Just to think that God knows exactly how many birds there are all over the planet!  That is pretty incredible to think about!

"I know every bird in the mountains (and prairies!), and the insects of the fields are mine."  Psalm 50:11