Last Sunday (August 22) I drove up to Michigan City, Indiana to look for the Swallow-tailed Kite that had been reported there, and had been there for almost a week. After the three-hour drive I pulled up to the area where it had been seen. There were several birders already there who had it in view, and I had SWALLOW-TAILED KITE (Indiana state bird number 223, year bird number 204) in the bag within 30 seconds of arriving.
A report of a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron on Lingle Road on the Morgan-Owen county line provided my birding plans today, since I have never seen one in Indiana before. After some fruitless searching I managed to see it at a small pond about a half mile from where it was reported. It sat for a few minutes in a willow tree, then flew off toward the southwest. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON is Indiana state bird number 222, year bird number 203.
Last Sunday (August 1) I drove up north of Lafayette, Indiana to look for a Snowy Owl that has been present for a couple of weeks or so. It has made itself at home in the vicinity of a Dairy Queen beside the busy Interstate, and is usually easy to find as it sits on the Dairy Queen sign or even the highway signs. However, when I got there, I was told that the owl flew off to the south at about 8:30 that morning and had not been seen since. I drove many of the back roads for several miles around the area hoping to see the bird out in the soybean fields, but no luck. As is typical of birds, it showed up again that evening at about 8:30.
I tried it again this morning, and as soon as I got to the Dairy Queen, I saw it across the road sittng on a large gravel pile. SNOWY OWL is Indiana state bird number 221, year bird number 202.
Although Snowy Owls are casual on the Great Lakes in the winter, some years showing up in good numbers, it is very unusual for one to be here in the summer. This may in fact be the only summertime sighting of a Snowy Owl in the Lower 48 States.
This morning I drove to the north of Lafayette, Indiana to try to see a Snowy Owl that has been present for the last couple of weeks. Wouldn't you know that it apparently flew away early this morning about three hours before I got there. Very unusual for a Snowy Owl to be in the Lower 48 States during the summer.
On the way I stopped at a wetland in Lebanon, Indiana where I got two new state birds: STILT SANDPIPER (Indiana state bird number 218, year bird number 200) and BAIRD'S SANDPIPER (Indiana state bird number 219, year bird number 201).
On the way back from dipping on the owl, I stopped at a botanical garden in Lafayette where I got BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE (Indiana state bird number 220) at a feeder. Black-capped Chickadee was not a year bird, as I saw one in Illinois earlier this spring. Black-capped Chickadee is one of the commonest birds in the eastern United States; however, it took me more than a year to find one in Indiana, since I live in the southern part of the state, which is outside of its range, and this was the first opportunity I had to look for one in northern Indiana since I moved here a little over a year ago.