The annual City Nature Challenge is one of those events that I look forward too with great excitement. I don’t like that it brings out my competitive streak, but it always yields some surprises and joys. Please see my Bug Eric blog for this post about the insects I observed, but continue reading for the birds, mammals, and “herps” that I saw.
I am most fortunate to have Heidi as a partner. She has amazing observation skills, and is happy to point out what she finds so that I can get my own images, or at least try to. Much of what I see is thanks to her generosity.
Aside from insects, birds are the most obvious wildlife, and what Heidi is usually looking for. The City Nature Challenge conveniently falls near the peak of spring migration of songbirds, so we have that going for us.
This might be the year of the Palm Warbler here, as that was the most obvious of the warbler species after the abundant Yellow-rumped Warbler that we see throughout the year.
Wyandotte County Lake Park, in Kansas, is one of our favorite places to visit, in part because there is a public library branch there, the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. It also functions as a nature center, with live captive animals, and bird feeders outside. There are nest boxes for bluebirds and Prothonotary Warblers along that part of the lakeshore, too.
At this time of year there is little waterfowl diversity, so we only saw Canada Goose, and maybe a Mallard. A female Red-breasted Merganser did put in a distant appearance as we were crossing the dam.
Lapping the lake via the roads, we pulled into one viewpoint to find a Raccoon happily dining on what was probably birdseed, put out by someone to attract avian friends into view, where they could photograph from their vehicle.
Weston Bend State Park, across the river in Missouri, is another must for local birders. The “problem” this year was that the tree canopy was already so dense that seeing birds was exceedingly difficult. We’ve had a warm, periodically wet spring, and plants of all kinds have flourished.
Rather disappointed by our visit to Weston Bend, we came home to the delight of a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak dining at our backyard feeder here in Leavenworth, Kansas. It figures. LOL! A Lincoln’s Sparrow has made itself a regular in the back yard, too. It is still there as I write this on May 8.
We may be the Eastern Gray Squirrel capital of the country, too. The number of squirrels per capita has got to be pretty great. At any one time we can have two to four squirrels or more in the back yard, with more running up and down the giant Pin Oak in the front yard.
A new mammal for our back yard has been a Hispid Cotton Rat that alternates between hideouts in the log and brush pile, and the back of our water feature, stones framing a forty gallon prefab pond.
No snakes this year, but Heidi did see a Common Five-lined Skink in Wyandotte County Lake Park. By the time I reached the location, it had disappeared, as skinks tend to do.
We had better luck with turtles. Two different logs at Wyandotte County Lake hosted two different kinds of turtles. The usual pond sliders occupied one log, but River Cooters were on the other. Thanks go to Travis Taggart for the identifications on iNaturalist.
Amphibians included the abundant Blanchard’s Cricket Frog. I also spotted an American Bullfrog in a stream, from the bridge going over it.
We walked the Leavenworth Landing Park along the banks of the Missouri for our final outing of the City Nature Challenge, and Heidi spotted many great birds.
Heidi also noticed a Gray Treefrog sitting on an open gate where the walking path goes under a railroad trestle. Had I even seen the animal at all, I would have dismissed it as some kind of gross trash discarded by a human. Wow. Camouflage in plain sight.
As we exited the waterfront park, we noted Chimney Swifts flying overhead, and two Western Kingbirds on utility wires. It was a pleasant ending to another great City Nature Challenge.
You can find all of my observations for the challenge at this link on iNaturalist. Heidi’s observations, with much better images, are here. Please share links to your own observations in the comments. We love to see what you are finding!
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