After leaving work a bit early Veery, SnowyOwl and I headed to a gravel road south of Rockford to look for Snow Buntings. I love birding deserted country gravel roads by farm fields. It reminds me of great times up in way northern Wisconsin.
We drove down the road stopping every hundred feet to look at Horned Larks. They look really cool how they hop about with their little horns sticking up. There were several hundred of them.
This picture was taken awhile back but shows the horns and other cool markings.
We drove down the road a bit more and then spotted one. “Snow Bunting!” I yelled. We didn’t have a camera with so this picture is from Cornell’s website. This made a life bird for all three of us in the car. The bird was right on the border of Winnebago and Ogle County so we picked it up for both counties. That is, if I feel like keeping a list for Ogle County. (I do keep a list for Winnebago).
From Cornell, an excellent site to learn about birds.
I wonder what the local farmers think about a car slowly patrolling a gravel road in front of their house.
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