Sunday Summary: July 2 - July 8, 2018

Not a bad week for birding in Clay County, Kansas this past week. I reported 55 species in eight checklists, adding two species to my Clay County life list. This brings my county list to 127 species and my total life list to 170 species.

The Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) still evades me. I have seen a few of them while driving, but never when I am doing a bird count.

The two species added to my county list this week were the Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) which I had heard before in the area, but not well enough to positively identify them, and a Henslow's Sparrow (Ammordramus henslowii).

My highlight species for the week was the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). I found two Killdeer nests this week that should be hatching soon and was able to get some pretty great pictures of an adult performing its distraction display.

The picture of the week this time around was a really tough call. It came down to my picture of a male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) perched on some green, or the Killdeer distraction display. The deciding vote (my wife) has chosen the Indigo Bunting.

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) perched and singing.

The most observed species for my week was the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), having been observed every day and with a total of 37 individuals.

This has been o a summary of my week from July 2 - July 8, 2018. What are some of the highlights from your outings this week?