Tag: birds

Thanksgiving Day Photos: Some local Bloomington birds that are not turkeys

WFHB antenna (Nov. 23, 2023)
Griffy Lake (Nov. 23, 2023)
Miller-Showers Park (Nov. 23, 2023)
Griffy Lake (Nov. 23, 2023)
Miller-Showers Park (Nov. 23, 2023)
Griffy Lake (Nov. 23, 2023)
This image was generated by AI.

The photos above were taken inside of 90 minutes on the morning of Thanksgiving Day 2023. To save future archivists one chore, that was Nov. 23, 2023.

The chronological sequence starts with a red-tailed hawk perched on the WFHB antenna just across from the 4th Street parking garage in downtown Bloomington. The photo was taken from the roof of the garage.

From there, The B Square headed north to Miller-Showers Park. The red-shouldered hawk photos were taken at Miller-Showers Park.

After Miller-Showers Park, the next stop was Griffy Lake. That’s where the photos of the woodpeckers and the great blue heron were taken.

These photos are a good reminder that not every great bird is a turkey, not even on Thanksgiving Day.

For people who earn a livelihood writing the news,  Thanksgiving Day is also a good reminder to say thank you to the folks who keep us in business: Thank you, readers!

Below are more photos, including some that were taken on the day before Thanksgiving.

Continue reading “Thanksgiving Day Photos: Some local Bloomington birds that are not turkeys” →

Photos: Fancy birds at Miller-Showers Park

great blue heron (Nov. 5, 2023)
downy woodpecker (Nov. 4, 2023)
blue jay (Nov. 5, 2023)
red-shouldered hawk (Nov. 5, 2023)

Here’s one point that has been made in opposition to the planned, but now paused, Bloomington gateway project at Miller-Showers Park: The park is home to lots of wildlife that might be disturbed by the project.

What sorts of animals hang out there? A B Square visit to Miller-Showers Park on Sunday morning documented four bird species that could be considered above-average: a red-shouldered hawk; a great blue heron; a downy woodpecker; and a blue jay.

The park’s wildlife inventory is not limited to just those birds. For example, muskrats are known to patrol the stormwater detention basins. Redhead ducks sometimes stopover in the winter. But on Sunday morning it was just the birds in these photos.

The complete set of photos is below. For a zoomed-in look at a photo, click or tap it, and from there you can swipe or arrow through the rest as a slideshow.
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Column | Lake Monroe: A neighborhood where Bloomington gets its drinking water

Great blue heron at Lake Monroe (Sept. 23, 2022).
Lake Monroe Day. Brian Hettmansperger, sales representative for Upland Brewing. (Sept. 18, 2022)
Lake Monroe Day. Kelsey Thetonia, Monroe County’s MS4 coordinator. (Sept. 18, 2022)
Lake Monroe Day. Sherry Mitchell-Bruker, board president of Friends of Lake Monroe. (Sept. 18, 2022)

From his yellow kayak floating along the shore of Lake Monroe, local birder David Rupp alerted me and five other paddlers: A great blue heron was sitting high in a tree on a dead branch.

Great blue herons are big, blue-gray, long-beaked wading birds—they’re commonly seen standing in the water. I don’t think to look in a tree.

As a professional guide, Rupp has a better eye for birds than most people. Even using binoculars, aided by Rupp’s precise description as he pointed at the tree, the great blue was hard to pick out.

But Rupp had spotted the bird just minutes after our small flotilla launched from the Pine Grove boat ramp.

Without being asked, Rupp gave us an insider tip: As soon as he’s out on the water, he always checks that dead tree branch to see what might be perched there. Sometimes it’s a great blue heron. Sometimes it’s a bald eagle.

Rupp knows where to look. Because he knows the neighborhood. Continue reading “Column | Lake Monroe: A neighborhood where Bloomington gets its drinking water” →

Photos: Birds in Bloomington parks (April 10, 2022)

Mallard.
Canada geese.
Maybe a great blue heron.

Miller-Showers Park, which is on the north side of town nestled between College Avenue and Walnut Streets, is a favorite spot for The B Square to visit on a pleasant weekend afternoon.

Around 2 p.m. on Sunday the temperature was about 60 F degrees with mostly clear skies.

Resting on the retaining wall of the lower (northernmost) pool of the park was a mallard. The duck un-burrowed its head from its feathers just long enough to be photographed.

Unnoticed by The B Square at the time was the photobombing of the mallard by a great blue heron, which was wading in the waters to the east of the lower pool. A pair of Canada geese floated not far away. Continue reading “Photos: Birds in Bloomington parks (April 10, 2022)” →

Column: Behold the Redhead ducks at Bloomington’s Miller-Showers Park!

revised lupe cropped-2021-02-24-ducks-IMG_5982
Image is from April 2020 from the Monroe County online property records system.
Image is from April 2020 from the Monroe County online property records system.

Miller-Showers Park is wedged between two of Bloomington’s heaviest-travelled roads—Walnut Street on the east and College Avenue on the west. On the south, the park is bounded by 17th Street. A bit to the north is State Road 46.

Those roadways combined carry something like 50,000 vehicles a day.

About 10 days ago at Miller-Showers park, the bird count included: 9 Snow geese, 4 Canada geese, 9 Mallard ducks, 1 Red-tailed hawk, 20 European starlings, 8 Redhead ducks.

It’s INDOT that counts the cars on the roads.

But who counts the ducks on the park’s stormwater ponds? Not me. Those counts came from someone else. I have only looked at them. The first time was last Sunday.

Among the Canada geese that I saw—and the “regular” ducks that everyone has probably seen before—were some ducks with red heads. I am not an outdoorsman. So they struck me as somewhat exotic.

I was intrigued enough that I returned to Miller-Showers Park a couple days later to see if I could get some better photos.

Did these glamorous crimson-headed birds have a commensurately glamorous name? No, that’s apparently not how ornithologists approach their naming task. Ducks with red heads are called Redhead ducks.

Photos: Miller-Showers Park (Feb. 24, 2021)

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