Watching

Male western tanager on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlife Service; taken 5/25/17.

A red necked phalarope (adult male) on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Taken 5/21/17 & posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

The American bittern is a rare sight…not because they are uncommon, but because of their secretive, solitary nature and streaky camouflage. They are more commonly heard than seen. Their call is an odd sound that could be described as “gulping”. Their nicknames include: “stake-driver,” “thunder-pumper,” “water-belcher,” “mire-drum, and “shy-poke”. They commonly eat fish, frogs, and insects, and have the ability to focus their eyes downward (making them appear cross-eyed at times). The bittern will stand completely still and point its bill into the air to blend in with the vegetation around it. This bittern is using a wetland protected by a FWS wetland easement in the Kulm Wetland Management District in North Dakota. Photo by Krista Lundgren/USFWS. Taken 5/16/17 and posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlilfe Service.

Two of These Do Not Belong… This red-winged blackbird nest on the Baltzer WPA in the Kulm Wetland Management District has two eggs that don’t belong to the blackbird. The two white and brown speckled eggs are those of a brown-headed cowbird. Female cowbirds do not build nests of their own, but rather lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Cowbirds are one of the most common “brood parasites”. Their young are then raised by the host parents, sometimes to the detriment of their own young. Photo Krista Lundgren/USFWS. Photo taken 6/8/17 and posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Mountain bluebird on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge Photoby Tom Koerner/USFWS. Taken on 6/15/17 and posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Yellow headed blackbird on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Taken 6/8/17 & posted on Flickr by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.