On this bright, frosty morning across the Great Plains, my bird sightings between Hays and Topeka were limited to geese, hawks and aliens. To be completely honest, I also observed a few crows and meadowlarks.
Flocks of Canada geese were common on the crop fields, grasslands and frozen ponds while their cousins (snow, Ross's and greater white-fronted geese) are farther south by this time of year. The hawks, easily observed in barren trees along the highway, were exclusively red-tails; had I been traveling west from Hays, across the High Plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado, they would have been primarily rough-legged hawks.
The alien species, not native to North America, were European starlings and rock pigeons. The starlings wheeled above the wintry landscape, performing their impressive aerial ballets, while most of the pigeons huddled atop barns and billboards, basking in the bright rays but relatively low-level warmth of the late December sun.
Flocks of Canada geese were common on the crop fields, grasslands and frozen ponds while their cousins (snow, Ross's and greater white-fronted geese) are farther south by this time of year. The hawks, easily observed in barren trees along the highway, were exclusively red-tails; had I been traveling west from Hays, across the High Plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado, they would have been primarily rough-legged hawks.
The alien species, not native to North America, were European starlings and rock pigeons. The starlings wheeled above the wintry landscape, performing their impressive aerial ballets, while most of the pigeons huddled atop barns and billboards, basking in the bright rays but relatively low-level warmth of the late December sun.
