Road Trip to the East

About a week and a half ago we traveled to Ontario because our grandfather passed away. We got home Saturday night. We were very busy in Ontario and didn't have time to make a blog post.

We drove through the United States through Chicago to Toronto. We made the trip in two days, stopping at a hotel.

Many of the pictures aren't very good, because shooting through a window on a highway going over a hundred km/hour is hard.

I kept a log of almost all the birds seen on the way, complete with the number of birds and time seen. 

Not very many birds when we were in Canada, Snow Buntings and ravens mostly. When we crossed over into the states, we traveled on the Interstate 29, seeing a couple Bald Eagles, a Northern Harrier, my first Canada Goose of the year, and abundant amounts of starlings, rock doves and crows. Soon I began letting off counting those three species, because there were just too many! 

As we got farther into the states, and traveled on I 94, we saw 11 Bald Eagles! A couple of them were immature, one was eating on the ice, I was lucky enough to get this picture as we sped past and cars blocked the view. 

A immature Bald Eagle eating on the ice, with a crow to the left.

 We saw a bunch of mallards, lots of geese, a Rough-legged Hawk, and once again lots of starlings, crows and rock doves.

An adult Bald Eagle and immature flying.

 At one of the rest stops there were some starlings and house sparrows. Me and my brother snapped a bunch of good pictures of starlings, my brother got this one.

European Starling flying

 We continued across the U.S., seeing a couple of Red-tailed Hawks, more geese, mallards, crows, starlings and House Sparrows
We saw some horses, cows and bison in farms, and some deer.

Deer crossing a field

We stopped for the night at a hotel. In the morning lots of birds were seen. There was a bit of a tiny marsh outside, and some trees, but you'll have to wait for the next post for the pictures.

Day Two:

Many Red-tailed Hawks seen, by the end of the trip we totaled somewhere around 40. We saw some gulls, and all the other normal birds we had been seeing. Then two big birds, Sandhill Cranes! I was able to get this picture through the window.

Sandhill Cranes

 When a Turkey Vulture flew of the van, I was impressed with myself when I view the photos I got of it.

Turkey Vulture

 Here's probably the best picture of a Red-tailed Hawk we got on the way. My brother took this one.

Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree.

ebird Checklists:
I 29, North Dakota
I 94, Minnesota
I 694, Minnesota
I 94, Wisconsin
I 94, Michigan 

Stay tuned for the next part, Hotel Birding.