Long Time, No See.

Seems it’s been nine months since the last time I posted an update and I’d like to apologize for that.  Too many distractions (Skyrim is a terrible time sink) and a general lack of desire to write anything have contributed to my absence.  When writing starts feeling like work and posting becomes a chore, I generally just step away for a while until the desire returns.  I’d tell you it won’t happen again, but I’d be lying.  The only thing I can promise is to try to post on a somewhat regular basis and go from there.  I have a ton of crayfish stuff I need to get to, but I’ve been having a bit of success photographing birds lately, so I think we’ll pick things up there.  On with the show…

Back in May, Dayna called me from work to say she’d seen a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at the junction of US 60 and J Highway, just east of Fremont.  The core range for Scissor-tails is Kansas/Oklahoma and extending into northeast Texas and the prairie regions of western Missouri.  I’ve seen them as close as southern Howell County, approximately 50 miles away and if you go as far west as Springfield, they’re fairly common.  But seeing one that close to home was newsworthy. 

Range map courtesy US Forest Service, Northern Research Station

I searched the area where she’d seen the bird and didn’t find anything.  But the disappointment didn’t last long.  A few days later, I saw one at the junction of US 60 and C Highway five miles west of Van Buren and then another at a hayfield/cattle pasture along Pike Creek two miles east of the C Highway location.  I pass both of these locations on my way to work and over the next month, I saw as many as three at C Highway and two at the Pike Creek site. 

They were always perched on the power line along the highway, which is really out of the effective reach of my 300mm lens.  Finally, on a trip to town specifically to try and get photos, one perched briefly on the power line that crossed the highway, almost overhead.  He was backlit by a bright sky, but a little photoshop work and I had this image.

I was sure there was a pair there and that they were probably nesting, but I had no idea where and no permission to search the trees in the field.  But as we sat beside the road watching the bird that’s in the photo, Dayna noticed another on a power pole, not the line.  I put the camera on the pole and eventually made out the bird’s head which was all that was visible from behind the pole and shot a couple of frames. 

Looking at the photo later, I noticed a pile of sticks on the cross beam and I have to wonder if that was their nest.  They certainly stayed in the vicinity of that particular pole.  And thanks to Google, I found several references to Scissor-tails nesting on power poles, so if that was a nest it wasn’t as odd an occurrence as I’d believed. 

Anyway, they seem to have completed the nesting cycle because one day last week, they were gone.  I haven’t seen them since.  Scissor-tails are notorious for roaming after the breeding season, so they’re undoubtedly off gallivanting about the countryside.  Hopefully, I’ll see them here again next spring.