TOMMY's BIG DAY


 
Tom Gannon--June 4th, 1997--Lincoln, NE, and environs: 66 SPECIES
TIME LOCALE SPECIES NOTES
5:00 am
F Street (home in Lincoln)
  1. Common Nighthawk  
     2. American Robin

  (–all photos–reduced to the point of insipidity–
  by TCG; click on thumbnail for larger pict)
     3. Northern Cardinal  
     4. House Sparrow
     5. Mourning Dove
     6. European Starling
     7. Common Grackle
* AN INAUSPICIOUS OPENING: Where's the House Finch?! There's always one really common species I don't get until the end of the day. . . .
 
–on the drive to . . .
  8. Red-winged Blackbird
 
WILDERNESS PARK
  9. Blue Jay
6:00 am
   10. Northern Rough-winged Swallow  
    11. House Wren –heard all day/damned near everywhere
 
PIONEERS PARK
 12. Baltimore Oriole –back from being a subspecies of the "Northern Oriole" for a while (the A.O.U. keeps messin' with my life list!)
    13. American Crow  
    14. Eastern Meadowlark –besides the "scissors-cut" four-note song, a low chuckling unlike anything I've heard from a Western ~
    15. American Goldfinch  
    16. Ring-necked Pheasant –perching (& kaw-unking) on a fence line!
    17. Tree Swallow
    18. Brown Thrasher –loud presence at several venues today
    19. Canada Goose
7:00 am
 (the "magic hour") 20. Eastern Kingbird  
    21. Western Meadowlark –both meadowlarks species in the same locale! (songs distinctively different) [hear Western ~: ]
    22. Chipping Sparrow  
    23. Northern Flicker –yellow-shafted subspecies
    24. Great-tailed Grackle –hadn't seen one since Texas trip! (look "mutant," as if Common Grackles had spent too much time around Los Alamos!)
    25. Purple Martin  
    26. Orchard Oriole  
    27. Great Blue Heron  
    28. Green Heron  
    29. Belted Kingfisher –later, watched one hover and dive over & over, at the Audubon reserve
 
WILDERNESS PARK (again)
    
* Unidentified call: kuh-CHEE kuh-CHEE kuh-CHEE kuh-CHEE; kinda like an Ovenbird, but not quite (doesn't get louder, and wrong habitat); and I know
    30. Yellow Warbler  
    31. Red-eyed Vireo  
    32. Black-capped Chickadee
    33. Northern Bobwhite –quite vocal at several venues today
* Unidentified call: DOO-me DOO-me DOO-me DOO; the me's are about a whole tone higher than the (louder/emphatic) DOO's; but the whole series makes a general descent in pitch. . . .
    34. White-breasted Nuthatch  
* CAMERA IRONIES: I brought my camera, but usually left it in the car. So, naturally, this nuthatch posed two feet above me for a good half-minute, as if waiting & wanting to eat seeds out of my hand. I'll never get such a fine opportunity again–of course!
    35. Great Crested Flycatcher  
8:00 am
   36. Gray Catbird –lots of singing ones, later, at the Audubon place
    37. Willow Flycatcher  
    38. Yellow-billed Cuckoo –long time, no see; and hear: kow-kow-kow
    39. Brown-headed Cowbird  
    40. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher **NEW species!–"pert little person, but needs vocal lessons" (hissy squeaks)
    41. Red-headed Woodpecker –heard (its prehistoric-sounding call)
9:00 am
PIONEERS PARK (again)
 42. Cedar Waxwing
    43. Common Yellowthroat  
    44. Eastern Towhee  
    45. Killdeer

  –finally . . .
    46. Warbling Vireo –one of my favorite songs [listen: ]
* Unidentified call: m'LADY m'LADY m'LADY m'LAY (Carolina Wren?!–not sure enough to count it)
10:00 am
Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center
(S of Denton, NE)
 47. Eastern Wood-Pewee –heard: pee-uh-wee; pee-ooh
    48. Indigo Bunting  
    49. Dickcissel –what a name
    50. Barred Owl –unmistakable rhythmic series of hoo's–in the middle of the day!
    51. Grasshopper Sparrow  
    52. Black Tern –a half-dozen of 'em cruisin' over the pond; a bit out of range & season, but had to be this species: way too dark overall for Forster's Tern or Franklin's Gull
11:00 am
   53. Lark Sparrow  
 
–drive back to Lincoln
 54. Horned Lark  
    55. Barn Swallow

  –finally . . .
 
F Street (home in Lincoln)
 56. Chimney Swift  
* MOVE OVER, ROGER TORY PETERSON: broke old "Big Morning" record of 53 . . . (actually broke this record w/ the previous bird; see final notes)
12:00 noon
State Capitol Building
 57. Peregrine Falcon –thanks to the web (http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/falcon.asp) for turning me on to this nesting pair
 
Whitehead Saline Wetland
(off 27th St., just S of I-80)
 58. Blue-winged Teal  
1:00 pm
"N 27th" (dirt road N of Lincoln)
 59. Rock Pigeon

  –finally . . .
* MOVE OVER, ROGER TORY PETERSON (II): broke old Big Day record of 58 . . . (but via the "domestic pigeon"?! I broke the previous record more "dramatically," w/ a Bald Eagle. . . .) (actually broke record w/ the previous bird, the Green-w. Teal; see final notes)
 
Hwy 77 (N of Lincoln)
 60. Turkey Vulture

  –finally . . .
2:00 pm
"N 1st" (dirt road N of Lincoln)
 61. Cliff Swallow  
 
Little Salt Fork Marsh
(E of Raymond, NE)
 62. Red-tailed Hawk –a soaring pair
 
Branched Oak Lake SRA
 63. Western Kingbird  
* NOSTALGIA TIME: Back when I used to do "Big Days" on foot (no car), I always packed a lunch of a can of smoked oysters and a can of–gasp–Vienna Sausage. So I had them again today, on a picnic table by the lake. Uh–the oysters weren't bad, but I don't know how I was ever able to eat Vienna Sausage: kinda like little soggy bologna "fingers" soaked in formaldehyde.
    64. Ring-billed Gull –identified via the "process of elimination" (which are harder–gulls or fall warblers!?)
 
"N 27th" (dirt road N of Lincoln)
    
* Unidentified call: metallic dung dung dung (then) CHEE (sparrow-like bird–I know I used to know this one, too)
3:00 pm
NW Lincoln (got lost!)
 65. House Finch

  –finally! . . .
** THE END: Things always "peter out" in the (late) afternoon on my "Big Days"; exhausted, and almost all the birds are "repeats." Got home circa 5 p.m., for a rest and a bite, meaning to head out to some wetlands NW of Lincoln for the hour or two before dusk (I HATE ending on an odd number [65]!); but–rained out. . . . Correction: FORGOT to write down Mallard–ergo, 66, a nice even number:
6:00 am?!
SW Lincoln
 66. Mallard

  –saw lots, and early, but for some reason
  thought I'd already written it down

  * "REGRETS–I'VE HAD A FEW": Notable "usuals-on-my-list" that I missed today: Wood Duck / Northern Harrier / American Kestrel / Red-bellied, Hairy, and Downy Woodpeckers / Bank Swallow / Rose-breasted Grosbeak (pictured) . . . Wild Turkey (heard a few days later at Pioneers Park)