ORNITHOLOGY

A Web Page by Roy J. Beckemeyer 

Last update:  31 December 2004

Great Horned Owl photo taken by Roy Beckemeyer at the Chaplin Nature Center, Sumner County, KS. Click on the photo for another picture of this bird [Large file: 108k].

Pat and I were on our way back to Wichita from Ellsworth Tuesday the 27th of April, 2004, and drove around the Kanopolis Wildlife Area.  Found a spot where Upland Sandpipers were establishing their territories.  This fellow kept hopping up on fence posts and wolf whistling.  Photos taken with Nikon 500 mm lens and D-100 Digital body.  

Coolest of prairie shorebirds?  Maybe.  One of our favorite prairie birds, anyway.

Click to see enlarged pictures.

On the way back to Wichita from a Scott Riffle Beetle Photo Safari on 2 Nov. 2004, Bob Gress, Ed Miller, Kyle Gerstner, Stan Roth and I stopped in Garden City, Kansas to see the Broad-billed Hummer that had been staying at Leonard Rich's home.  Here is a digi-scope picture made by using a Nikon 990 digital camera with my Kowa scope.  A real rarity for Kansas! 

Photos by Roy Beckemeyer.

A December Pine Warbler gave us a Christmas present by coming to our feeder Dec. 23-30.  Photos and video can be seen by linking here:  PINE WARBLER

Left - photo from the newsletter of Botanica: The Wichita Gardens (Vol. XVII, No. 2, Mar-Apr 004), Pat and Roy Beckemeyer.  We have led monthly bird walks at the gardens for several years.  Everyone is welcome, 9 am till 10 am, 3rd Tuesday of the month, around the year.  Just a friendly walk around the garden to check on the birds that are present.  (We sometimes also look at butterflies, dragonflies, and, of course, flowers and plants.)  Walk is free with admission to the gardens.

INFORMATION ON KANSAS/OKLAHOMA BIRDS

• References to Kansas Birds
• Kansas Ornithological Society Information

The photo on the right (excuse the quality) was taken by putting a digital camera up to the eyepiece of a telescope.  This pure white burrowing owl was spotted at a small prairie dog town located along Hwy 56 in the panhandle of Oklahoma (20.8 mi. W. of the intersection of Hwy 56 & 95 in Elkhart, KS or 2.9 mi. E. of the intersection of Hwy 56 & 171 in Keyes, OK) on August 6, 2000 by myself and my grandson.  We also saw a mostly white (but with some streaks of usual coloration on the body) individual along with at least three normally-colored owls.  The burrows are north of the Hwy and adjacent RR tracks.  The leucistic individual shown was perched on a small trestle.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES OF INTEREST TO BIRDERS

• Phenological List of Birds of Konza Prairie
• Kansas Bird Checklist (Kansas Ornithological Society)
• The Prairie Falcon (Newsletter of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, with a summary of seasonal birding expectations by Dave Rintoul)
• Wichita Audubon Society
• Quivira National Wildlife Refuge