A cool, gray morning is not always the best time to get out and about but this morning I had to drive my wife to the airport and on the way back through the Minnesota River Valley I had my first flock of Double-Crested Cormorants (
Phalacrocorax auritus)fly over. Then the more unusual sighting was a Wild Turkey (
Meleagris gallopavo) flying through and landing in the trees in my neighborhood. Now I've got some wood by my house but this guy was way out of where I'd expect him. Unfortunately he didn't get close enough to count as a "yard bird".
There are still lots of flocks of juncos chasing each other around and I thought I'd include a couple of photos of an odd bill on a junco we banded a while back. Not really deformed, but with a much longer upper mandible than I can remember seeing on other birds we've handled.
What do you think?
2 comments:
I would have to look at my junco's but what I notice is the coloring difference! I am trying to remember from what I learned at powdermill but the bluer bills are from the birds that don't go way up into Canada and the pink billed birds are further migrants! Or is it the other way around?? I will have to head over to there site and re-read!
Very interesting. I have only got to witness banding on a few occasions at the Carpenter Nature Center, when I could take off of work. It is very cool to be able to get a close up look at the birds so that you can notice these kinds of differences.
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