Oxley Nature Center, North Woods (Sierra Club/Oxbow Lake/North Woods Trail) - Tulsa, OK - August 27, 2010

Location: Oxley Nature Center (North Woods) - Tulsa, OK


Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.224317,-95.924377&spn=0.008482,0.013754&t=h&z=16&msid=103228297516276567813.00048ee2cc824ead7288a
Observation date: 8/27/10

Number of species: 21



Wood Duck - Aix sponsa   20

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias   4

Great Egret - Ardea alba   3

Green Heron - Butorides virescens   4

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - Nyctanassa violacea   1

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis   1

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus   2

Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura   1

Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon   1

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus   1

Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus   1

Eastern Wood-Pewee - Contopus virens   1

Red-eyed Vireo - Vireo olivaceus   2

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   4

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   15

Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis   7

Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor   1

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   3

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   2

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   5

Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea   1
 
   With the recent drop in temperatures, Friday morning at Oxley was fantastic birding weather.
 
    The North Woods area of Oxley is a fantastic place to see Wood Ducks. The isolated oxbow lakes provide a perfect habitat for the ducks to feed and breed. Wood Ducks are amazingly skittish - it is very difficult to get even remotely close to a group of them for observation.
 
   I have been seeing several Green Herons each time I visit. I have seen them on Oxbow Lake, Mallard Lake, and the unnamed Oxbow near the North Woods trail. On this particular visit I was able to watch one at close range (20 feet) while he eyed the shallows for small fish or amphibians.
 
   I am really looking forward to walking these trails during the fall migration season.
 
-Photo courtesy of Snowmanradio, via Wikipedia.org
 
-SPQ 8/28/2010

Oxley Nature Center, North Woods (Sierra Club Trail/Oxbow Lake Trail) -Tulsa, OK - August 21, 2010

Location: Oxley Nature Center (North Woods) - Tulsa, OK
Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.223071,-95.923508&spn=0.004241,0.006877&t=h&z=17&msid=103228297516276567813.00048ea8c7823f4736cd8

Observation date: 8/21/10

Number of species: 19

Wood Duck - Aix sponsa 15

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 2

Great Egret - Ardea alba 1

Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea 1

Green Heron - Butorides virescens 2

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - Nyctanassa violacea 1

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus   3

Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon   3

Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus   1

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   8

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   15

Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis   3

Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor   1

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   3

Prothonotary Warbler - Protonotaria citrea   1

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   8

Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea   1

Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula   2
 
-Photo courtesy of Snowmanradio, via wikipedia.org

-SPQ 8/23/2010

Oxley Nature Center, North Woods (Sierra Club Trail/Oxbow Lake Trail) - Tulsa, OK - August 13, 2010

Location: Oxley Nature Center (North Woods) - Tulsa, OK


Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.22359,-95.924807&spn=0.008482,0.013754&t=h&z=16&msid=103228297516276567813.00048dc91a3f7c7db7f08
Observation date: 8/13/10

Number of species: 9


Wood Duck - Aix sponsa   12

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Archilochus colubris   1

Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus   3

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   9

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   25

Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis   3

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   1

Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos   2

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   6

    While walking the Sierra Club trail I spotted a small group of Wood Ducks dabbling around the edge of a small pond. It took me a moment to identify them; they were sporting their non-breeding plumage (see the photo above).
 
-Photo Courtesy of  MauriceJFox3, via Wikipedia.org
 
-SPQ 8/14/2010

Keystone WMA - Cimarron Unit ("Buckeye Creek") - Oilton, OK - August 1, 2010

Location: Keystone WMA - Cimarron (Buckeye Creek) - Oilton, OK


Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.108305,-96.51824&spn=0.015776,0.027509&t=h&z=15&msid=103228297516276567813.00048cdc84b242b8e4447
Observation date: 8/2/10

Number of species: 16



Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias   6

Great Egret - Ardea alba   2

Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea   1

Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura   6

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus   1

Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes   2

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus   3

Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus   2

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tyrannus forficatus   1

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   3

Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis   6

Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos   1

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   4

Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea   12

Painted Bunting - Passerina ciris   1
 
    We got a late start on Saturday morning and paid for it Saturday afternoon. It must have been at or above 100 degrees by the time we left (around 1:30 pm). So the word for the day was HOT.
 
-SPQ 8/3/2010

Newblock Park - Tulsa, Oklahoma - July 24, 2010

Location: Newblock Park - Tulsa, OK


Map:  http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.147535,-96.007891&spn=0.004133,0.006877&t=h&z=17&msid=103228297516276567813.00048c4b4c664a1475b76
Observation date: 7/24/10

Number of species: 6


Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura   3

Western Kingbird - Tyrannus verticalis   2

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   8

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   12

Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos   4

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   1
 
   It was HOT during my birding outing at Newblock Park. I'm guessing most of the birds were resting during the sweltering mid-day.
 
-SPQ 7/26/2010

Mohawk Park - Oxley Nature Center - Tulsa, OK - July 18, 2010

Location: Mohawk Park--Oxley Nature Center

Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.225304,-95.896311&spn=0.016514,0.027509&t=h&z=15&msid=103228297516276567813.00048bbe08a47b48af040


Observation date: 7/18/10

Number of species: 14

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias   1

Great Egret - Ardea alba   6

Snowy Egret - Egretta thula   1

Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea   1

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis   1

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   6

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   2

Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis   1

Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor   1

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea   3

Prothonotary Warbler - Protonotaria citrea   1

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis   6

Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea   3
 
    I got a somewhat late start Sunday morning (by Birding standards), so it was quite hot when I arrived at Mohawk Park.
 
   I didn't see many birds during the first part of the walk - I could only hear a couple of crows. This made me worried that most of the birds would be resting and trying to avoid the mid-day heat. I only saw a pair of Northern Cardinals when I walked across Blackbird Marsh.
 
  From the obervation deck along Lake Sherry I could see a couple of Great Egrets fishing along the edges of the lake. I was thrilled to be able to watch a single Snowy Egret thrash about in the shallows in search of a fish or small amphibian. Snowy Egrets are so animated and active - a great contrast to the "statue fishing" methods of the other larger wading birds. At one point the Snowy Egret took flight and landed on a fallen tree near the shore of an island in Lake Sherry. I heard a series of honks and hisses coming from the fallen tree and spotted a lone Little Blue Heron perched there.
 
  I spent so much time watching the wading birds of Lake Sherry that some of the passerine birds in the area were unaware of my presence. A single Blue-gray Gnatcatcher was bounding along the branches of a tree near the observation deck. At one point the microbird was withing 3 feet of my head; oblivious to me and in search of some hiding insects. A Carolina Chickadee flew past the observation deck and landed on a nearby tree - also unaware of me.
 
   I walked from the observation deck to the Blue Heron Loop. During the walk I spotted several Northern Cardinals, a pair of American Crows, and a single Tufted Titmouse. I didn't see or hear many birds during the walk around the Blue Heron Loop, excpet for a small group of American Crows that burst noisily into flight when I passed their perch.
 
   As I began to head back to the car I spotted a Prothonotary Warbler perched on the lower branches of a tree. Such a dazzling warbler to see. It is also a bird that has an interesting place in American History:
 
The prothonotary warbler became known in the 1940s as the bird that, in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, established a connection between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. Chambers had testified that Hiss enjoyed bird-watching, and once bragged about seeing a prothonotary warbler. Hiss later testified to the same incident, causing many members to become convinced of the pairs' acquaintance.
 
-Photo courtesy of Dominic Sherony, via Wikipedia.org



-SPQ 7/19/2010

River City Trail - Sand Springs, OK - July 9, 2010

Location: River City Trail - Sand Springs, OK

http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=36.131047,-96.125479&spn=0.016949,0.027509&z=15&msid=103228297516276567813.00048b0cd46a3b2130015


Observation date: 7/9/10

Number of species: 9


Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon   1

Eastern Phoebe - Sayornis phoebe   1

Western Kingbird - Tyrannus verticalis   4

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tyrannus forficatus   2

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos   2

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica   6

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus   1

Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis   2

American Robin - Turdus migratorius   4
 
-Photo by Mike Baird, courtesy of Wikipedia.org
 
-SPQ 7/10/2010