Long-Tailed Duck on the Ohio River

This morning I joined in on a field trip with the Beckham Bird Club to Garvin Brown Preserve. Since Garvin Brown did not turn out to be very productive, we headed down river to Cox's Park. While we were there we spotted a solitary duck in the water near the bank.

Long-tailed Duck (immature male)

It turned out to be a Long-tailed Duck! According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this duck breeds in the Arctic and winters along the coasts of North America. So it is a pretty rare finding in the Louisville area!

Long-tailed Duck (immature male)

I got a chance to observe first hand the "rare bird alert" process. Calls were made, and next thing you know, several more people were there to observe this beautiful duck! It was a pretty amazing day!

Long-tailed Duck (immature male)

Posted in: Cox's Park,Jefferson County,Long-tailed duck,Louisville Kentucky,Ohio River

Red Crossbills in Louisville

This years winter season has been phenomenal for the sighting of rare birds. Cave Hill Cemetery has been the winter home for two species of Crossbills. White-winged Crossbills and Red Crossbills were seen by many local birders starting in November. Fortunately for us, the Red Crossbills have stuck around! Crossbills haven't been seen in the Louisville area since the 1970's. For a great explanation as to why we are seeing Crossbills in Louisville, check out Ryans' previous blog post about the Finch Superflight !

Female Red Crossbill taken in November

Since the Red Crossbills have been feeding in the tops of the Hemlock Trees, getting good pictures has been rather difficult. The picture above was digiscoped with my iPhone. It is probably the best shot I have gotten thusfar.

Male & Female Red Crossbills feeding in Hemlock Trees at Cave Hill Cemetery

If you look closely at the above picture you can see five Red Crossbills feeding in the Hemlocks. If you can't find them all, click on the picture to go to my flickr page, where I have them outlined!

I am providing a link to some great pictures of the Red Crossbills taken by Brainard Palmer-Ball. When you get to his flickr page, scroll to the right to see a nice series of five pictures!

Female Red Crossbill taken in January 2013

Here is a great article and video about Red Crossbills from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Posted in: Cave Hill Cemetery,Jefferson County,Louisville Kentucky,Red Crossbill

It Snowed!!

In case you didn't hear from all your friends on Facebook over the past day... It SNOWED!! :)

Just wanted to share a couple macros I took today of the pretty snowflakes...

Posted in: Louisville Kentucky,winter

A New Years Eve Spectacular Starling display

I got a spectacular send-off of 2011 On New Year’s Eve! While driving home from Indiana right at dusk, I noticed thousands of Starlings flying over the Kennedy Bridge in amazing formations. Luckily, there is an exit right before the bridge that goes down to Jeffersonville, IN! I quickly took this exit, parked under the bridge, and went down to the riverwalk so I could get a better view of the Starlings showing off their aerobatics over the bridge. This view allowed me to get some shots with downtown Louisville in the background.

John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge

I discovered that I was not the only one watching the Starlings. This Hawk took off flying into the large murmuration of Starlings. I don’t know if he got anything. If so, I didn’t see it happen. In this picture, I was fooling around with some of the special effects in my Picasa photo editing software! It’s called “focal zoom”.

I was so excited to have an opportunity to witness this. I believe scientists are still researching to determine why & how they do these amazing displays. Until then it will just be one of those natural things that may be unexplainable, but oh so cool to watch!

A view of The George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge (aka 2nd Street bridge)

Downtown Louisville, KY at dusk

I also took some video. Please keep in mind that this video was shot with an old point & shoot, so it’s certainly not the highest quality, and I tried to hold it straight, but was not always successful!

Posted in: George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge,John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge,Louisville Kentucky,Murmuration,Starlings