A brief bit of bird trivia

Oklahoma Mesonet reported 0.31 inches of precipitation over the last seven-day period, which basically was snow and fog.

Payne County rare birds over the same period included the ongoing Lesser Goldfinch at various locations, Black Scoter, and Yellow Palm Warbler at Lake Carl Blackwell, and Tundra Swan flyovers vicinity E0560 Road.

The continuing nationwide vagrant/rare birds include Yellow-headed Caracaras in Texas and Florida, as well as Brown Jay, Kelp Gull, and Cattle Tyrant in Texas alone.

Ontario counted Tufted Duck in the Toronto area, as Prince Edward Island added Spotted Towhee.

Alabama shared Glaucous- winged Gull and Thickbilled Longspur, as Oklahoma tagged Varied Thrush on Tallgrass Prairie Christmas Bird Count.

Hawaii located Western Gull in the Honolulu area.

Locally, it was nice to observe three Snow Geese among a throng of Canada Geese at The Lowlands off Boomer Lake on Jan. 8. Two were light morph and one was a dark morph hybrid with the blue only on the head and neck.

Here is a bit of history for those that enjoy trivia. After logging 30,000 miles in six years, J. Dewey Soper was commissioned in 1923 to collect flora, fauna and geological specimens in northern Canada.

He also wanted the nesting ground location of the Blue Goose. In 1928 with information from an Inuit gentleman, Soper received a map from him north of Bowman Bay along the Foxe Basin coast. Needless to say, the nesting site was found due to the birds on the fly.

Soper studied both Snow

DEB HIRT

Geese, determining that they were the same species, just differently colored, in Inuit territory of the southern coast of Baffin Island A bird sanctuary was named for him there.

Boomer Lake counted Canada, Greater White-fronted, and Cackling Geese, Mallard, Canvasback, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Ring-billed and Bonaparte’s Gulls, Pied-billed Grebe, Double Crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black and Turkey Vultures, Belted Kingfisher, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, European Starling, American Robin, House Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow- rumped Warbler, Gadwall, American Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Red-tailed Hawk, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, White-throated and Song Sparrows, Lesser Scaup, Mourning Dove, Ring-necked Duck, Red-bellied and Hairy Woodpeckers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Cardinal, Killdeer, Cooper’s Hawk, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Flicker, American Coot, Tufted Titmouse, American Tree Sparrow, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Common Merganser, Harris’s Sparrow, Redhead, Greater Scaup, Hooded Merganser, Blue Jay, and Snow Goose.

Lake Carl Blackwell tagged Black Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Carolina Wren, American Pipit, House Finch, Yellow Palm Warbler, Eastern Bluebird, Red-breasted Merganser, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Greater Yellowlegs, American White Pelican, and Bald Eagle.

Sanborn Lake added Fox Sparrow.

The Botanic Garden at Oklahoma State University checked Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Red-headed and Downy Woodpeckers, American Kestrel, Eastern Phoebe, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Harris’s and White-crowned Sparrows, Wood Duck, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Cedar Waxwing.

Keep your eyes on the ground and your head in the clouds.

Happy birding! Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and photographer living in Stillwater.

Glaucous-winged Gulls fight over a Pacific Herring near Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

SARAH SCHOEN, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY