beginning to bird

SEOW!

2012-01-16T15:08:00.003-05:00

Gretchen and I went to the airport last evening to see a Short-eared Owl that's been making regular appearances there each day between 5:15 and 5:45. Sure enough, the owl appeared, flying low over a grassy area near the end (or beginning?) of the runways!

Unfortunately, I got no photos; I couldn't even see the bird unless I had my bins up, even when it was flying against the orange backdrop of the sunset. I watched the bird fly back and forth, making a lot like a Northern Harrier, looking for food.

I did note the white underwings, the lighter trailing edge of the wings, and the rounded head that said "owl" rather than "raptor." Pretty cool! I wish I'd gotten a photo, but I'm just glad I finally saw another owl. It's been years since I saw or heard anything other than a Great Horned Owl or an Eastern Screech Owl.

That, combined with a recently discovered Sandwich Tern on last year's photos from South Padre Island, TX, makes 320 lifebirds!

Perhaps you're wondering what I was doing looking at my photos from the beach in Texas from last year. I'm studying, naturally -- I'm taking my third annual February Texas Birding Trip next month! And Gretchen's coming with me! More on that later -- but for now, I've been studying to prepare for the challenges that I experienced last year: terns, gulls, and shorebirds. Baby G and I have divided it up, with me studying terns, the hooded gulls, plovers, and sandpipers.

While I was studying, I decided to take a look at my photos from the beach last year, and I discovered the Sandwich Tern! The black bill with orange tip, shaggy crest, white forehead (non-breeding plumage), and black legs. That's how I knew this----was a Sandwich Tern!

It's been helpful to look at those old photos again, for many reasons. I've learned that this year, I need to get closer to get better photos, and I need to spend more time looking at individual birds rather than letting the flocks overwhelm me and just taking group photos to look at later. (yeah, yeah, I've said that before, but this time I mean it!)

Further, and reading Bill Thompson III's Identify Yourself has taught me that I really need to focus on learning the more common birds so that I'll recognize ones that don't match. That book is such a great resource; if you don't own it, you should!

That book, along with my Crossley, my Sibley, my Shorebirds Guide, and my new Stokes guide (beautiful!), have been my textbooks for the last couple of weeks. I'm taking notes, highlighting, putting little Post-it tabs with more notes, and reading reading reading -- and looking at my old photos -- to really burn these birds into my mind.

I've also been monitoring the daily Texas bird alerts (thanks, eBird!) and the Rare Bird Alert to prepare myself for the crazy birds that are showing up down there this year. The Black-vented Oriole is back (hoping for better photos this year!), along with Crimson-colored Grosbeak, Brown Jay, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Black-legged Kittiwake, and others. We're hoping to get at least FIFTY lifers for Gretchen (it shouldn't be hard--she's never been down there), and I'm hoping for at least ten, plus some good photos.

Bonuses are that I'll get to see my parents, my brother, and good old sister Mary again. She's been able to go on both of my previous trips, but this year she might only be able to spend a day or two with me, so Baby G is coming along for the trip of a life(bird)time!

Excitement awaits!

Christmas in Texas part 1

2012-01-07T23:55:00.009-05:00

AB and I were able to fly to Texas for a few days to spend the holiday with my family. I hate planes, but it was worth it to hang out with my family. The Christmas bird-related hawl included a t-shirt with a raven and the words "Raven Lunatic" on it (AB's mom and dad), the Sibley's birding year calendar (sister Mary and her man Jim), and some Texas birding with AB!

AB is a rare bird indeed, able to bird AND knit at the same time:Yes, folks, she was watching birds as I pointed them out AND working on a little cardigan for her niece. Talented!

We birded at Warbler Woods with my niece Lilia and sister Mary. We didn't see anything too exciting, but I got some decent photos:We got long looks at this Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Despite seeing several Spotted Towhees, this was the best photo I got (and I use "best" reluctantly):
Well, at least you can see the spots.

This area is really amazing in terms of variety of habitats, though the drought has really taken a lot of the water out of the picture. I'm planning to go back there and spend more time (we only had time to see half of the area) in February with Baby G. I've been following the Texas listserv alerts from eBird, and they're seeing lots more stuff there than we saw.

When we first arrived, we saw a minivan with a woolly cap over its driver's side rear-view mirror; I figured someone had lost it in the parking lot and it was just hung there off the ground.

I was wrong:Attack cardinal! This guy pecked and pecked at my mirror until AB put her woolly hat over the mirror! He then flew off, confident he'd defeated his handsome opponent.

Look at this crazy caterpillar:
I haven't even had time to research what he might be.

And, because I'm always on the lookout for sport-related bird eggs, I was able to spot this little mystery egg:That one's for you, Susan.

We watched a little Hermit Thrush pick berries from a juniper; I missed the shot where he got a berry in his mouth and flew away, though:
And finally, a photo of a Carolina Chickadee stuffing his face!

Christmas in Texas - updates to follow

2011-12-28T20:35:00.002-05:00

AB and I just got back from five days in San Antonio to visit my family. We managed to sneak away twice for birding purposes, and I have a TON of photos to show you. However, it's 8:37 and I've been up since 3:45 Texas time; you'll just have to wait and see what I have for you.

Hope your holiday was safe and happy!

The Chase for the Black-headed Gull: FAIL -- UPDATED!

2011-12-19T21:47:00.013-05:00

On Saturday morning, Baby G, local birding heroes Alex and Anna, and I went hunting for a Black-headed Gull that had been seen in Moraine State Park near Pittsburgh. Gretchen picked me up at 5:40 a.m.; we picked up local birding heroes Alex and Anna at 6 (after a coffee run), and we were off. Two and a half hours later, in a steady but light snow (tiny flakes), we got to the park and ... we were unsuccessful.

We looked EVERYWHERE. We found a spot near the swimming beach where others had seen the gull; we saw a bunch of Ring-billed Gulls
Herring Gulls
and a couple of Bonaparte's Gulls
but no Black-headed Gull

NOTHIN'!

We saw Ruddy Ducks, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, and more -- but no Black-headed Gull.

In one exciting moment, however, I did get my first look at a Red-throated Loon! Lifer! He never settled down, though; it's tough to get a good look at a bird when it's flying back and forth about 300 yards out over a lake in a snowstorm. Do you think it counts? Alex pointed out the way he held his head lower with his neck bowed than a Common Loon would hold it, but that was about all I saw distinctive about the bird. Otherwise, I would've been hard-pressed to ID him. I'd much rather see the bird sitting in the water in full breeding plumage. Still -- I saw him! Getting a photo was impossible, though.

Another highlight: Alex lowered his window and it got stuck. Stuck in the open position:Electronic malfunction. Oops. Good thing he's got that beard to keep him warm!

We also got great looks at a Northern Shrike, only the second time I've seen one:This is a terrible photo (the light was nonexistent), but in Baby G's new scope we could see the light barring on his breast and his beautiful Liz Taylor-as-Cleopatra-like eye stripes. Awesome.

We also saw a juvenile UPDATED - TRUMPETER Swan! A lifer! With photo!So I had just glanced at the swan and thought "Tundra? Probably." But Alex pointed out that it's a juvie Trumpeter Swan -- note the bill that's black at the base, as opposed to a Tundra's which would be pink at the base. SWEET!

Here's Baby G and her new peeper:Very cool.

For much better photos of our exploits, see Alex's blog post and photos.

Gretch and I are pretty excited about our upcoming February trip to Texas -- I don't know if I've mentioned it yet here, but needless to say: there will be posts!

Snow before Halloween? TRICK!

2011-10-30T16:56:00.003-04:00

Gretchen, LT, and I attempted to go birding yesterday. Here's what it looked like on the roads:We'd seen text alerts about scoters, mergansers, and terns up at Bald Eagle State Park but, by the time we got out there in the heavy snow, visibility was terrible. The fog rolled in and we only saw one little Ruddy Duck, a bunch of European Starlings, and a sparrow of some sort.

I can't remember the last time it snowed before Halloween; we got about 3 inches of very wet and very heavy snow. We went out again today, a bright and sunny beautiful day, but again we were thwarted; the PSU rowing teams were out on the lake and there wasn't a duck to be seen. We'd heard there was a Red-necked Grebe out there, but it must've flown when the rowers started out.

I'll leave you with these photos of my babies:Cornelius is growing like a weed! He sure loves his mommy.

He also loves hanging out in Niblet's room:

A whopper of a catch-up post - updated! updated again!

2011-10-19T18:44:00.020-04:00

It's been a long while since I've had time to post all the observations and photos from the last few weeks of birding, so I'm going to combine it all into one giant whopping post. Stick with me!

Short of the trips to Cape May over the years, this has been one of my most productive fall migrations as far as new birds go. It's been fun learning some new hotspots in the State College area for fall migrants; Gretchen and I have tried to get out as much as we can, though work has kept us pretty busy and the weather (almost constant rain) has been against us a lot of the time.

Let's count 'em down by the location.

1. Circleville Farms: this is an area of fields and mowed paths with some great bushy undergrowth, lots of vine-covered small trees, and cornfields -- it reminds me a lot of the Beanery in Cape May. I kept looking for Phragmites and those blue china berries. The most exciting fall visitor there so far was a Henslow's Sparrow that proved incredibly cooperative for some of the local birding guys. The sparrow had been hanging out in the same bush every morning for about a week, so we got to the area and waited -- after about twenty minutes, he appeared! I got a great look at his golden highlights, fine streaking, and kinda neck-less compact shape; just as I lowered the bins and pulled up the camera, a Song Sparrow flew by him and provoked his natural territorial instincts. Translation: he flew after the Songy and never came back. No photo. Still, we got to see him! Within a few days, he was headed for southerly climes so I'm glad I saw him. Highlights for this trip included Palm Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, and lots of White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows.

2. PSU Arboretum: this was another area I didn't even know existed, right in the middle of town. The ornithology students do a lot of bird-banding here, and we decided to hit the area in search of several new warblers; we were not disappointed! And this time, we got PHOTOS!
We saw Nashville Warblers, easily ID'd by their prominent white eyerings and the white underparts area right where their legs meet their body (surrounded by yellow):

Lifer! (At least one of these photos was taken by Gretchen, by the way.)

I also got terribly blurry but definitive photos of a Wilson's Warbler wearing his little black cap:
What a cutie! And a lifer!

Finally, we saw a Mourning Warbler - and here's the update - but we didn't get photos. I'm sitting here with Baby G, and she says that although we saw the bird, we did NOT get a photo. I think I was trying to make these other photos into Mournings, but they're not. This is apparently a Nashville:and this is apparently still a Nashville -- also the same bird as the first photo. Thanks, Drew and Alex, and thanks Baby G for the memories!
So -- two more Nashville photos.

Still, Mourning was the third new warbler of the morning; sadly, I didn't get a photo of the Swainson's Thrush OR the Mourning, but you can't have everything.

Here's another photo with a bit of a mystery:

That looks like a Nashville Warbler on the left (that eyering is ridiculous!), but who's on the right? The bird's breast is so yellow, too yellow for a phoebe I think. But what is it? No wingbars, small warbler or flycatcher size. Help? UPDATE! Local birder (and one of my birding heroes) Drew of The Nemesis Bird checks in with the ID in the comments -- Common Yellowthroat! Thanks, Drew!

That little puddle also provided a tubby for this young male cardinal:Sweet little guy.

Other highlights for this spot included a Sharp-shinned Hawk that kept hanging around getting mobbed by American Crows, a Hermit Thrush, and a bunch of other warblers: Magnolia, Canada, Black-throated Blue, Common Yellowthroat, and American Redstart. This is a great spot, especially given the fact that the arboretum is like three blocks from one of the main streets through town.

3. Our Little Squat (not quite a Big Sit) in the backyard -- action was kinda slow, but we did get a new yardbird: a Belted Kingfisher! Our tally for the few hours we sat outside was only 20 species, but the kingfisher was a nice addition to the yardlist, now a whopping 49 species including three kinds of warbler, seven kinds of sparrow, Willow Flycatcher, Whip-poor-will, and Eastern Meadowlark.

Whew! A whirlwind of warblers and a blizzard of birds. My lifelist has jumped to 316!

I'll finish up with some cute:
Cornelius is growing up soooooo fast! Here he is in a rare quiet period; most of the time, he's tearing around the house, chasing the other cats and Niblet, and jumping on them. It seems to be his favorite method of greeting, closing, and everything in between. Here's a sample:Oh dear.

Sweet YardBird of Youth

2011-09-21T21:40:00.003-04:00

We've had a first-year female Cape May Warbler hanging around the pines in the backyard for the last three days:

If it looks like I'm right there next to the bird, it's because I was. She was surprisingly tolerant, flitting right at eye level and over my head in the low branches of the big pine and the yew shrubbery under it (A SHRUBBERY! hee hee) as I photographed her.

Pretty cool. Baby G came over and saw it yesterday and tonight -- a lifer for her!

Not a bad yard bird!

Fall foliage, early edition -- UPDATED with IDs

2011-09-20T20:54:00.013-04:00

No, we don't have too many fall leaves turning yet, but we do have a lot of nice fall flowers blooming. Gretchen, her gf, and AB and I went camping at Greenwood Furnace (they have a great pair of very isolated walk-up sites that we love) and got some great flower and mushroom photos. The best bird of the trip was a beautiful Ovenbird just above eye-level who gave us quite a show, including raised crest just like Crossley shows; unfortunately, he dashed out of sight before either of us could snap a photo. Flowers are infinitely easier to capture!

Meadow Closed Gentian

Calico Aster

the seed pods from Doll's Eyes, which are kinda creepy

some interesting orange-topped mushrooms

Magenta Coral mushroom?

a shimmery purple mushroom--it was like a cartoon mushroom from Barbie land

couldn't ID this one -- any ideas?

Is this a Striped Maple Tree? Here are the leaves:

Saw some nice moths; at least I think the second one is a moth:
there's nothing for scale, but he was at least two inches from tip to wing-end! He's a beauty! Perhaps some kind of underwing?

I don't know if this is some sort of clearwing moth or some gigantic mosquito hawk -- again, with nothing to show scale, it's hard to see that he's about 1-1/2 inches long with a 2-inch+ wingspan. Per Wren, my friend from Cape May, it's a Giant Eastern Crane Fly, Pedicia albivitta, and quite a beautiful little specimen. Harmless, per What's That Bug?

And some soon-to-be moths!
the closest I can come on this guy is a Banded Tussock Moth caterpillar
possible Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar

I leave you with this scary-big bee-wasp-possible-clearwing-moth thing:He was at least 1-1/2 inches long! I have gone through all the images of clearwings on the Bug Guide site, but I can't find one with this pattern of body -- many are close, but not exact matches. And if he's a bee or wasp... holy moly. His wings were constantly flapping, and he was very scary to someone who's allergic to bee and wasp stings -- like me. There's some discussion in the comments as to whether it's a Cicada Killer or a European Hornet -- not really sure. Either way, it's creepy and scary -- but it didn't display any aggressive behaviors, at least.

Lifer alert!

2011-09-12T21:35:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Gretchen, her gf, and I went to the flooded farm fields on Nixon Rd between here and Pine Grove Mills -- where I got my lifer Vesper Sparrow -- in search of a rumored American Golden-Plover. Also seen there earlier in the day were a Baird's Sandpiper and a White-rumped Sandpiper. We only saw the beautiful American Golden-Plover (the ABA checklist hyphenates it for some reason, so who am I to argue?), though it was dusk and the fog was rolling in -- so no photos.

I was hoping to see it in better light today, but the clouds and rain blew out last night and no one reported seeing them after early this morning. Hmph. At least I saw the Golden, but I sure wanted to see the White-rumped. (I saw a Baird's last year at Bald Eagle State Park, though it would've been neat to see the two quite similar birds side by side, like they appear in the oh-so-awesome Crossley ID Guide, about which -- although everyone knows how awesome it is by now -- I feel the need to shout how awesome it is pretty much every day.

Migrant madness--UPDATED!

2011-09-11T16:59:00.009-04:00

Gretchen and I went to Scotia Barrens IBA between 1 and 3pm yesterday afternoon -- an odd time, and not normally a good time, but it turned out to be really good. We saw sooooo many warblers and flycatchers that we were overwhelmed, but we did our best to ID and even got some good snapshots.

We started off at the pond; the weather had cleared earlier so we didn't see much waterfowl. Still, look at this Pied-billed Grebe:

Nice catch!

We then went down the road and saw several little flocks of migrating warblers, some still in breeding plumage but most wearing their "confusing fall warbler" outfits.

Black-throated Green Warbler, always abundant at Scotia

one of the many Magnolia Warblers we saw

Gretchen got this great photo of my favorite warbler the Blackburnian:I would've written this off as a BTGreen--but look at the face. Crossley has a photo of a Blackburnian that looks just like this.

Our complete list, which contains three lifers (in bold) but I'm hesitant to count two of them. I feel good about the YBFL because I got good looks at it. However, the Philly Vireo and Acadian Flycatcher were ID'd solely by voice and not seen--I'll note this on my spreadsheet and in my margin to the right:

Pied-billed Grebe 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Northern Flicker 1
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Acadian Flycatcher 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 6
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 6
Cedar Waxwing 32
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
American Redstart 3
Magnolia Warbler 7
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 3
American Goldfinch 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org)

That puts me at 310 -- 308 plus two heard-onlys. Hmph.

We also saw some good bugs and other creepy-crawlies:

some sort of damselfly--per John, a kind of spreadwing

is this the nymph stage of something, or a new kind of stinkbug?
Per John, it's probably the nymph stage of an actual stinkbug!

look at this beauty! I can't find this one anywhere in my moth book or online. Any help?
Per John, it might well be a Pyrrhia exprimens, or Purple-lined Sallow larva.
And it certainly does look like the photo on this web site.

And by the way, John mentioned a book that's sure to go onto my wish list: Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David Wagner. I loves the cats! Hello, Christmas present!

Red Darner? Nope -- probably a meadowhawk, per John. I thought perhaps a Ruby Meadowhawk, but they have black spots on the tips of the wings. Then I thought Red-tailed Pennant (a skimmer) but they aren't up here. So -- I just don't know enough! And if John couldn't give me an ID, then I might as well give up!

Thanks to John for all his ID help!

Of course I relieved my Warbler Neck issues with some flower-gazing:

this looks most like a Giant Sunflower, only it's not that giant and there are fewer petals on it. Probably a garden escapee.

Nodding Ladies' Tresses -- life flower!

my old favorite Butter and Eggs

This reminds me of Chamomile; can't find it in my flower guides. Any ideas?

We went back to Scotia this morning with a big group, one of the many guided fall walks scheduled for this month. I was thinking we'd see everything we saw yesterday and more, and all the big-time birders would ID everything we couldn't get yesterday. No such luck -- it was really dead out there; nothing on the pond, a random Blackpoll Warbler, a bunch of chickadees and Cedar Waxwings. We had a brief moment of excitement when we saw a tiny group of three BTGreens and an American Redstart. Pretty disappointing.

But at least we went out for breakfast afterwards, and I got some outdoor time before the rain came (again). It's been raining almost non-stop for the last week, remnants of TS Lee. There's severe flooding in several areas of the state, but we got lucky here and only had minor flooding one morning. The worst of it went south and east of us. It cleared up and the humidity blew out yesterday just in time for us to have a wonderful day outside. Today? Not so much.

More birds and flowers

2011-08-29T21:49:00.017-04:00

My bff Gretchen and I went birding last Saturday and, while we didn't see anything too unusual, we did see some nice places and beautiful wildflowers and butterflies.

Our first birds of the trip were some Wild Turkeys:Baby G told me that in the fall, the toms all hang out together and the hens hang out in their own groups, and they don't intermingle again until the mating season starts up. Interesting! There were three beautiful toms in this group, and nary a female in sight.

We started our birding at Bald Eagle State Park, where we saw quite an impressive array of birds at several hotspots along the lake. Highlights were several Osprey, a young Bald Eagle, a Cliff Swallow, a Green Heron that flew right past us at eye level and maybe 20 feet away, a beautiful Black-and-white Warbler, and huge flocks of Cedar Waxwings. Some photos:

A hanging nest incorporating some discarded fishing line

a very shy Cliff Swallow who refused to let us see much more than this

not one of the greatest photos of the Black-and-white Warbler

Red-eyed Vireo tocks! Every time I got a great look at him through the bins,
I would lift my camera and he'd hide. Grrrr.

We also went to Julian Wetlands and, a first for me, the new Governor Tom Ridge Wetlands Preserve, named after the former governor of PA. I had no idea he was any kind of environmentalist, but whatever. We saw some great butterflies in both spots, but not a lot of birds:

We saw lots of these--is this a male Eastern Black Swallowtail?

one of my favorite signs of fall, the New England Aster

These two photos are from the same plant. It's a new flower for me, but I can't find it in my books. Any ideas? They almost look like different flowers, but I think they were from the same plant.

a very worn Monarch on some New York Ironweed

a beautiful female (judging from the larger blue smudges)
Eastern Black Swallowtail on some New York Ironweed

this looks like a White Wood Aster, judging from the width of the leaves,
the sparse petals, and the shaggy center

I can't find this flower in any of my books. What the heck is it? There was TONS of it out there.

a Cardinal Flower -- what a beauty!

there were tons of mushrooms, which made Gretchen happy
as mycology is her newest interest. That flap under the cap is called a "veil."

look at this beautiful little spot, tucked into the woods behind the Tom Ridge wetlands

a shroom, just emerging

a grown-up version of the same kind of shroom

Gretch told me about the difficulty of mushroom ID; it's not about color or shape or appearance so much as it's the smell (don't they all smell alike?), the color of the spores (you make a "spore-print" by doing something or other--I kinda forgot what--with the cap to make it release spores onto a piece of paper), what kinds of trees the mushroom is growing near, and a bunch of qualities you can only see by tearing the mushroom apart.

I'm sure glad bird ID isn't so... um... physical.

Some serious shorebird migration

2011-08-09T21:37:00.003-04:00

We've had quite the display of migrating shorebirds lately, especially at Colyer Lake near State College. On Saturday, we had a big rainstorm and there were literally hundreds of peeps!

Unfortunately, I only had the chance to go and peer through the binocs of others -- I was working and had left my gear at home. Still, I got to see quite a good number of species and in rather large numbers.

Here is the list:
Canada Goose 4
Mallard 6
Great Blue Heron 1
Semipalmated Plover 8
Killdeer 6
American Avocet 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 60
Semipalmated Sandpiper 4
Least Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 18
Short-billed Dowitcher 24
Barn Swallow 3
Song Sparrow 2

At one point, a flock of over 100 shorebirds -- mostly the SBDOs -- wheeled overhead and landed. For this area, that many shorebirds was practically a record-setting fallout. Certainly, the SBDOs and the avocet are considered rarities here, which is why I took the detour from work. It was well worth it; the SBDO was lifebird number 300 for me, and I'd seen an American Avocet only once before, in Texas, and it wasn't in breeding plumage. This one was; one of my birding heroes Joe Verica took a photo:

Photo by Joe Verica

Notice all the birds! Pretty awesome. Needless to say, I did NOT ID all those peeps. I confess that Joe shared his eBird list with me and I just edited out the birds I knew I didn't see.

Sadly, the rain cleared up that night and by morning, the birds were gone.

Life states, life birds

2011-07-20T22:57:00.005-04:00

For the first time ever, I visited Wisconsin and Minnesota. AB and I went to WI first, to visit her sister, brother-in-law, and their new baby! No pics on the interwebs allowed, but let me tell you -- she's a cutie!

We then drove to Minnesota for a wedding during a ridiculously severe heat wave. We sat under a tent and sweated for four hours; it was a happy occasion, but I think I sweated off about 10 lbs. (I'm sure it all came back.)

Once in Wisconsin, I had my eyes peeled for Sandhill Cranes; I'd seen that we'd be in their breeding range and that there were lots of reports of them in eBird. We hit two different spots listed as "hot spots" around Beloit, WI, but we didn't see any cranes. I was also hoping to see a Dickcissel to get a better photo for my lifebird photo file, but again -- nothing.

On the road between WI and MN, however, we struck gold:Terrible photos, and we only got them after having to drive a ways, exit, turn around, go back a few miles, and then hope they were still in the field. AB spotted these; I was busy waving at cows. AB's patience rocks.

A few days later, on the way home, we saw these cranes in Ohio; after another 30-minute turnaround, I was able to get a decent photo:Sweet! Lifebird #307 and a good photo! Thanks, AB!

While we were in Beloit, I heard the constant twittering and buzzing of dozens of House Wrens:I'd never seen or heard so many in one spot! They were like HOSPs in this neighborhood--everywhere.

Update on the babies

2011-07-10T21:31:00.005-04:00

Despite his pouting and not wanting to be photographed, I managed to get some pictures of Niblet eating some baby carrots and greens we got for him from the garden:

Little Cornelius will be going to the doctor this week, to make sure he's healthy and FIV-negative and such. He'll be moving into the house after that! Fingers are crossed that he gets along with Maya and Owen, and that he's disease-free.

The Garden!

2011-07-02T22:52:00.016-04:00

I may have mentioned that I've been gardening, mostly in containers, for a couple months. I started everything from seed back in March (I think--I can't believe I didn't write down the date. Grrrrr.)
Here's what I started out with once I'd transplanted/planted in the containers--photos taken back in early June:

a young Serrano pepper plant(left) and a 'Purple Bell' pepper (right); the Serrano
is the only thing in the container garden that I didn't grow from seed

yellow squash sprouts

Chadwick cherry tomatoes on their first day outside

Brandywine tomatoes on their first day outside

the little spinach, mesclun, green leaf lettuce, and arugula (two rows each)

Here's what everything looks like today:

soon to be baby yellow squash!

all the yellow squash

little cherry tomato blossoms

little Brandywine buds
the somewhat eaten greens -- arugula up front (flowering!), green lettuce,
then mesclun, and then a blank space where the spinach just never happened

the cherry tomatoes, out of control!

Brandywines in cages -- but believe me, they're wild

carrots! (I didn't bother to show the dirt in the "before" section)
the entire container garden

All the plants in my container garden were grown from organic heirloom seeds by Seeds of Change (except for the serrano, which I couldn't find seed for).

I also have a small garden in the yard:

broccoli from a local nursery

Burpee's 'Straight Eight' cucumbers from a local nursery

We should be eating cherry tomatoes in maybe two weeks? and squash in about the same time. Everything else is on its own little secret schedule.

Speaking of little, here's a little surprise we received a couple weeks ago:It's little Cornelius, son of a feral cat who wanders this way now and again (at least we think it's her, as she was around on the first day we saw him). He's no dummy: he first appeared, meowing his little heart out, on a Thursday; he hung around all day, hoping to catch our attention. That night, he turned on the charm, getting us to pet him and talk to him--and feed him a little. That's when we saw the alleged mother cat, pretty much watching us feed him and taking off, like she was thinking, "That's it, kid. Hit up the suckers for food like I taught ya. You're on your own now!"

Then the next day, there was ANOTHER kitten! Cornelius brought us his little runty brother Muffin. So for a few days we had them both outside, with Cornelius begging to be let in and Muffin just being very shy, but both of them eating and being cute as buttons.Cornelius on the go!

So that went on for a few days; then, just when we'd decided to bring them both onto our covered three-season porch (like a balcony), Muffin disappeared. He hasn't been back; I think Cornelius bumped him off or gave him the slip, knowing we could at least consider adopting one kitten but not two! I do hope Muffin found a good home, instead of being eaten or something.

So now Cornelius is staying on the three-season porch, using his litter box, and being a general cuddle bug. He's such a loving little guy; he demands non-stop love and affection! We vacillate between trying to find him a home and considering whether Maya and Owen will like him. I know Niblet will like him because I'm guessing Cornelius will chase Nib around, which he can't get Maya and Owen to do. (My old kitties -- scroll down a little into the post for the kitty parts -- used to play like that with him all the time.) We'll probably take him to the vet and have him checked out; we won't make a decision until after that. He's just so sweet!

Oh, and one more kitty note: Maya went to a new vet today and is now receiving a new treatment for her "allergies" which may not be allergies at all but an auto-immune disorder and/or underlying bacterial problem. She was given an injection, some antibiotics, and some topical cream, and she's already scratching less! Perhaps the cone of shame will be coming off soon!

Coburn Rail Trail birding

2011-06-12T21:36:00.009-04:00

Gretchen and I went birding today at a place we hadn't been to in a long time, the Coburn Rail Trail. Long-time readers will remember the rail tunnel hewed into a hill.

In:
...through:

...and out again:
We saw a lot of American Redstarts, including one mother feeding her young:
And this singing male:
Their calls vary so much from bird to bird that several times we were fooled, wondering what we were hearing, only to find yet another redstart. Oh well!

Gretch got a lifer Louisiana Waterthrush, and we heard a Cerulean Warbler near the creek. I've gotten Ceruleans two out of the three times I've been there. Our complete list:
Mallard 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Eastern Phoebe 14
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Red-eyed Vireo 5
American Crow 5
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Wood Thrush 3
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 9
Northern Parula 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 2
Prairie Warbler 2
Cerulean Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 11
Ovenbird 2
Louisiana Waterthrush 2
Common Yellowthroat 3
Eastern Towhee 8
Chipping Sparrow 5
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 3
American Goldfinch 1
Hunting for warblers in June when the trees are all leafed out is pretty much futile; most of our IDs were by ear, confirmed by BirdJam.

We saw tons of butterflies, including the red spots on this Red-spotted Purple:

I saw some flowers I didn't recognize until I looked them up later:Purple-flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus) Apparently this is a very fragrant member of the rose family; sadly, I didn't think to smell it. Hmph.

I think this is Creeping Charlie (Lysimachia nummularia).

We also saw some snakes:Gretchen said that this guy was about to shed his skin; she could tell because of the blue coating over his eyes. There were more, just sunning themselves:They were chummy!

Tomorrow (or sometime soon): an update on the garden!

Finally -- a Black Tern!

2011-05-22T17:25:00.002-04:00

There are many sites out here in Central PA where people have seen Black Terns--Julian Wetlands, a place I've birded loads of times, being the most common--yet I'd never seen one until I found my new favorite place to bird, along Tadpole Road in Pennsylvania Furnace.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me and my cell phone was dying, but I managed to get enough power to snap a quick digiscope pic of the tern as he sat for a bit:That's bird number 306, a real beauty. I watched him for almost a half hour, mesmerized. What a pretty bird.

Also noteworthy: I wouldn't even have seen him without word from the local listserv; most of the time the bird was flying around like he was hawking for insects or something, and he moved so fast I might've missed him had I not seen a digi-video on another's birder's website. Thanks, Drew!

Whip-whip-poor-will!

2011-05-17T21:58:00.006-04:00

Last night after work, I took a tiny detour into the Scotia Barrens to listen for whatever birds might be calling at about 8:45pm. I heard mostly spring peepers, but I also heard a Whip-poor-will calling in the distance, and then I saw this:
This little guy was sitting on the road as I drove slowly, listening for sounds. I only took a couple of quick snaps and then swung way around to give him plenty of room. I don't know if he even flew off the road as I passed; I didn't hear or see anything.

I'm pretty sure this IS a Whippoorwill; I looked at Common Nighthawk, but they have barring on their breasts and darker tail feathers. So -- I'm thinking Whip.

Whip-poor-will was my 200th lifebird, back in May of 2009. I never thought I'd get a photo of one -- very cool!

Lifers, lifers, lifers!

2011-05-08T12:39:00.008-04:00

I've been sneaking in tiny snippets of birding while working, going to the grocery store, etc. -- time is just crunched right now, as I try to cram everything into every minute of this spring. I've been lucky enough to happen on some lifebirds during these little sneaky snippets!

A few nights ago, I stopped at a local hotspot near the turf where I was working, and I happened on some real gems. The first thing I saw was a Black-bellied Plover in breeding plumage -- finally! Oh, and I must apologize for the poor photo quality; I'd left my camera at home, so I was digiscoping with my cellphone camera at about 7:30 or so in the evening -- no light!
So cool--I'd only ever seen them in winter garb in Texas!

Then I saw this little guy:Semipalmated Plover! Lifer number 304! What a cute little bird this is. Gotta love those plovers.

Then the other day, as I headed to work again, I left a little early and stopped by a new little conservation area right down the road, the Barrens to Bald Eagle Corridor (aka B2B). I'd heard there were Bobolinks there, and I wanted to see and hear one. I was not disappointed!What an insane little song! And look at all that patterning on the back; it's like herringbone or something. That's number 305, baby!

I also saw and heard tons of Eastern Meadowlarks:
Spring of the year!

Yesterday, I wanted AB to hear the song, so I took her out there, hoping to show her the Bobolink and the Eastern Meadowlarks she'd admired when I showed her my pics from that day. So we get there, and OF COURSE she spots a Bobolink and an Eastern Meadowlark in the same tree, right off the bat, no problem. SOME of us have waited for YEARS to see a Bobolink, but AB gets out of the car and practically trips over one.

But I'm not bitter.

Now it's time for FEEDERFIRSTS!
You'll recall that in our last segment of FeederFirsts, we saw a beautiful male Indigo Bunting that came by to partake of the seed. On Thursday, we had another FeederFirst that really made my day:YES--a few people on the local listserv have been reporting that, for the first time ever, they've had RBGR at their feeders. Glad I could join in the conversation!

I'll leave you with this rather stern look from a Tree Swallow:Ouch.

Warblerama!

2011-05-03T20:04:00.006-04:00

Gretchen and I went birding on Sunday and actually made it out into the field at 7 a.m.! Though conditions were less than ideal--it was in the 60s with overcast skies the whole time, with winds every once in a while building up--we still were richly rewarded for our efforts!

First and foremost, I saw my absolute favorite bird, the Blackburnian Warbler:
You can see that backlighting (and frontlighting, for that matter) was awful, but I managed to lighten these up enough so the fiery orange would show. We saw several of these birds, which was a real thrill; I hadn't seen one since my atlassing days several years ago. Not seeing your absolute favorite bird for so long can lead to, when the bird is finally seen again, little fits of tears, inability to stop smiling, and a serious case of warbler neck as one peers into the trees for "just one more minute!"

We were going for as many warbler species in one trip as possible; some of the local birders on the listserv have been posting numbers in the mid-teens, so we at least wanted to get close to that, especially in light of the fact that we're in training for the PA Migration Count coming up in a couple of weeks. (Gretchen volunteered to lead the effort at our local Toftrees State Gamelands area, which means that we won't get to do what we usually do: hang back behind the "real" birders who are just listening and just kinda go, "oh yeah, BTGreen, BTBlue, and Prairie, right, uh-huh..." and shrug. More on this effort in another post.)

Some more photos from our quest:Two Pileateds were hanging out, one in a tree and one on the ground, and I should've gotten a better photo but I was too slow.

A terrible shot of a Black-and-White:

This American Redstart came within a couple of feet of my face, so close I could barely get my camera up and snapped in time:He was right up in my grill!

And finally, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak after not having seen one since like 2006!Hadn't seen one of these in years either!

Of course you know I was also on the lookout for life-flowers:Rue Anemone

Mystery flower -- some kind of cinquefoil? No clue.

We also got to see some tadpoles!The water was so cold they weren't moving very much at all; it's hard to tell but there are literally hundreds of them in this photo, all in a little swirl.

Our final checklists from the road through the Barrens and then from the pond area, with a grand total of 14 warbler species!

Ruffed Grouse 5
Wild Turkey 1
Mourning Dove 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 2
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Tufted Titmouse 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Wood Thrush 5
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 2
Nashville Warbler 3
Northern Parula 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 8
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 9
Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Ovenbird 5
Common Yellowthroat 6
Hooded Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 4
Field Sparrow 6
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Common Grackle 2
Purple Finch 12
American Goldfinch 9

Pond:
Canada Goose 1
Mallard 3
Ruffed Grouse 2
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Great Blue Heron 1
Green Heron 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Coot 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
American Redstart 2
Eastern Towhee X
Chipping Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Purple Finch 6
American Goldfinch 4

We also had an owl swoop across the road right in front of us, but all I saw was buffy-brown and white. Maybe a Barred, judging from the size and colors? Who knows. Certainly not a good enough look to call it a lifer, dangit. We tried following it into the woods; "ha ha!" he must've said, "as if you'll ever find me!" At least I didn't get any ticks on me.

Not that I've found, anyway.

One other note: we had a FeederFirst! (I should trademark that!) yesterday morning, an Indigo Bunting!SWEET!

Saturday's birding -- not much action

2011-04-30T20:26:00.007-04:00

After work today, I went to Scotia Barrens IBA in search of some late-to-rise warblers. Sadly, I found/heard none, but I did get mobbed by Purple Finches (one of my former nemeses!) and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. I even managed to get photos:
This male Purple Finch was surrounded by about 9 females. What a male:female ratio that guy's enjoying!

These were EVERYWHERE. Now that I recognize their little squeaky noises, I see them all the time! But a decent addition to my lifebirds photo file.

Here's another common bird that had somehow eluded my lens:There were Gray Catbirds like this one everywhere this morning too.

Highlights included hearing a Wild Turkey gobble way in the distance and a Ruffed Grouse drumming. However, soon after I'd heard the drumming a couple of times, I heard a really loud gunshot. I didn't hear the drumming again. I'm hoping that's just a coincidence.

Also had a low flyover by this fisherman:
That might be the best photo I have of an Osprey. Sweet!

I also got another life-flower: Trailing Arbutus, a plant that is getting more and more rare in PA according to my Guide to Common Pennsylvania Wildlowers (Carol A. Sanderson). Here's the flower:

Another one that I THINK is Plantain-leaved Pussytoe but I'm not sure:Any input?

I haven't even talked much about my ever-growing yard list of birds, which AB is helping with. She's getting really good at IDing new birds at the feeders! Today I had two singing Yellow Warblers; I had a Yellow-rumped Warbler a few days ago. I also had a Purple Finch -- none of these birds came to the feeder; they remained in the trees at the back of the yard by the stream. Still, yard-birds!

Speaking of feeders, I made some nyjer finch feeders myself today!I had looked at our local birdseed store, Wiscoy, but theirs were really expensive, and the ones at Lowe's were kinda crappy. So it occurred to me, while looking at my many water bottles bouncing around the floorboard on the passenger side of my car, that I could make a feeder! So far, the American Goldfinches are NOT amused. They kept swooping in and hitting the brakes HARD when they saw that something was just not right! I know birds don't deal well with change, so I'm trying to be patient. I did see one brave little guy on the feeder early in the evening, and I think he was getting some seed out of it. I'm pretty sure the holes are big enough, but perhaps they're not? Or perhaps I'm just being impatient and they just need to get used to the new look.

Sunday sightings

2011-04-26T09:20:00.011-04:00

AB and I took a walk on Sunday and had some great sightings, including a lot of nest-building.

The first bird we saw wasn't a bird at all, however:
This guy was hawking for insects for the entire five or so minutes we watched him, despite the daylight. That's the second time we've seen a bat flying in the daytime over a creek; I guess they do that?

Here's one of the first nests we saw:Don't see it? How about now:That's a Mallard nesting in a tree! Not very common, but I guess it does happen sometimes. I'd hate to be a nestling in that family taking my first step out of the nest! It's a doozy!

There were little bits of nesting material scattered around the tree:and it looked like at least one egg was deemed not up to snuff:
I thought it might've fallen out, but the cavity looked pretty secure.

We also found this guy sleepin' it off in the creek:

Here's another builder:That's a Black-capped Chickadee digging out a good home, but I didn't manage to capture Mrs. (or Mr.? who digs?) BCCH standing nearby inspecting the work and tapping her foot impatiently.

We also saw a bunch of a Yellow-rumped Warblers who refused to sit still and be photographed, but mixed into that flock I found this:Black-and-white Warbler -- finally a half-way decent photo for my lifebird photos file!

I had a life-flower for the day as well:Dutchman's Breeches! Finally! I had thought the flowers would be bigger but they're quite small. Another beauty:Purple Trilliums, which were really taking that "nodding" thing to the extreme:Must've been an "end-of-day-I'm-tired" thing; I'd never seen one drooping like that.

My second life-flower, Wild Ginger:Nice!

Finally, I was able to ID this scary-looking tree from hell using my new National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees:Honeylocust.

Nothing sweet about that tree, man.

Wrapping up Texas mystery birds

2011-04-16T18:19:00.009-04:00

Probably the biggest mysteries for me are shorebirds, despite all my attempts to learn them. After Mary and I left the SPI Bird and Nature Center, we went a bit further up the island right next to the Convention Center, where there are some hard sandflats where people fly kites, ride those sail-board-wheel thingies (???), and (apparently) drink and toss beer bottles onto the ground. We'd seen a huge flock of shorebirds and gulls and terns there when we were at the nature center, so we thought we'd get a closer look.

Here's an idea of how many birds there were--click for bigger:
I got a little too close and they all wheeled into the sky. That's the nature center in the background. Anyway, they settled back down and I got great shots of TONS of birds in addition to the various terns and gulls I showed you earlier. Here are some more mysteries:
These kinda look like snipe to me -- but there are some different birds in there too. Note the white leading edges of the wings on some of them. The one at the bottom is definitely different from the others, as is the one farthest to the right underneath that larger one. All the rest are, I think, the same kind of bird. Note also the white eyestripe on the many birds.

Some kind of sandpiper?

From left to right, a plover of some sort? a dowitcher (with long bill)? a something laying down? a young Sanderling not yet in full breeding plumage? (the whitish one) I give up.

Ah, now THESE are easy -- Black Skimmers, skimming.

Here's what I think is a Sanderling not yet in his breeding plumage:am I correct?

and here's a close-up of a similar plover to the one above in the group photo:no clue. I know from the bill that it's a plover -- the common one down there is Black-bellied, but shouldn't he have been (a)gone by early March OR (b)in breeding black plumage? Perhaps it's a female?

Any help with these mysteries would be appreciated. I also have a "sound" mystery, but unfortunately I didn't get a recording that came out. When we were at Laguna Atascosa after dark, we heard a "wheep!" sound -- the bird would say "wheep!" and then wait a second or two, then "wheep-ho!" I've listened to nightjars, goatsuckers, owls -- no clue what this bird was. Any suggestions? We never saw anything, but we heard him as dusk fell and into the dark of the night.

This is probably my last Texas post; it all seems so long ago now. I've been working like a dog lately, doing my door-to-door thing despite the almost constant rain and cold -- which can really get a body down. We had two beautiful days, yesterday and Thursday, but today we're back in the low 40s with a steady rain and biting wind.

I've done a little birding here and there, mostly while on my way to work. I passed a farmpond today in which I saw a pair of Buffleheads, a Pied-billed Grebe, and three Wilson's Snipe! That was pretty cool. Mostly, though, I've been working.

I'm also watching my tomato and pepper seedlings grow, waiting for warmer weather to come so I can start hardening them off in preparation for container gardening! I know better than to put anything outside before Memorial Day, so it'll be a while before I get any gardening updates. Right now, I'm working on some self-watering containers (from a book AB got me) and keeping my seedlings warm.

More Texas birds, and a tale of woe

2011-03-30T22:01:00.005-04:00

I was updating that last post with a different pic of the SBDO and I got a little carried away adding photos, so I went ahead and chopped that one off and am moving on to another potential lifer/mystery bird:Okay, here goes: DUNLIN? I thought I had a Dunlin last year at SPI, especially when the tour group leader ID'd a Willet as a Dunlin. But this one feels like a real Dunlin; I even looked at the silhouettes in the back of The Shorebird Guide (TSG) and hit right on it. The bill is what is telling me it's a Dunlin, along with his size. Coloration helps, but the size, the shape, the length of the tail feathers in relation to the body (what's that called again? rear projection or something?) are bigger factors, I'm sure. I really wish I'd taken TSG with me to Texas, but I had so much other stuff to carry that I had only my Sibley. I saw these birds while standing on the sandflats past the Convention Center, where you can drive your car right onto the beach (bayside) and the sand is flat and hard, like Daytona must've been when they started racing cars down there.

Anyway -- I felt shaky about the terns and the gulls, but this one I feel pretty sure about.

Now to the tale of woe that was our fruitless (and falcon-less) search for the Aplomado Falcon.

Mary and I went down to the Valley with a certainty that we were going to see the APFA; after all, I'd been tracking the ABA Rare Bird Alerts daily for like a month before the trip, and the APFA appeared almost daily and always in the same spot. How could we miss? We'd go down, get on "Old Port Isabel Road," and there the bird would be, circling around majestically in the air or perhaps perched on a cactus in some photogenic fashion.

We had Mary's iPhone with us and had locked in the GPS coordinates given on the RBA so we were all set; we went to South Padre Island first, then on our way back from the beach we took the turnoff.

First of all, without the GPS telling us where to go, we'd never have found this "Old Port Isabel Road." It's a dirt road with no marking signs at all. So we drove on this crappy dirt road full of trenched-out areas and treacherous holes, glad the entire way that we were driving a rental car. We finally got to the GPS spot indicated on every single report of the APFA, got out of the car, and looked to the skies.

And looked to the cactus.

And looked to the brush.

You get the idea.

You must understand that we haven't lived in the Valley for a long time; I'd forgotten just how huge a landscape can be when it's flat as a pancake and covered in low brush, mesquite trees, and cactus. You can drive for miles and it all looks exactly the same, mile after mile after mile. So we stayed there for about an hour or so, peering around at the empty sky and the endless coastal brush country to no avail.

We did see about a million Loggerhead Shrikes:
So that was something.

"Well," we thought, "we can come back tomorrow, and maybe we'll ask someone in the meantime for a little more, uh, direction."

We went the next morning to Estero Llano Grande SP where we met the actual guy who'd posted a bunch of those RBAs on the APFAs in the previous month! He works there at Estero Llano! So we ask him, and he gives us what sounds like can't-miss-it! directions which Mary claims at the time to understand (she lived in the Valley as an adult, whereas I never went back after leaving for college). She's been all over the place down there; we find we'd been on the right road but we just weren't looking in the right place! There's a nest, don't you know, and it's right on top of this 7- or 8-foot hack tower (WTF?), and it's about as far from the road as those cattails over there across this lake, okay?

Okay!

And, he goes on to say, not only can you get Aplomados out there, you can also practically trip over all the Cassin's Sparrows fluttering about! All you have to do is get on the dirt road, go to a big clump of cactus--can't miss it!--and play your BirdJam Cassin's Sparrow calls. They will just about fly into your car, there's so many of them! Can't miss it!

So. By this point, the guy's got us so worked up that all other thoughts -- of White-throated Thrushes, of Rufous-backed Robins, both of which were very close to where we actually were at that very moment but we didn't see the W-T Thrush when we looked earlier and the Rufous-backed was in some butterfly park nearby; of exact distances to drive or maybe a landmark or a distinctive tree or SOMETHING TANGIBLE -- were driven right out of our heads.

We had Aplomado Falcon Fever with Acute Cassin's Sparrow Syndrome.

We were gonna see these birds and nothing was going to stop us this time! We were gonna get two birds with one crappy dirt road! We couldn't miss!

So we drive halfway across the Valley again, this time getting to the road from the other end of it, from a highway with which Mary is more familiar. Can't miss! We know where we're going! We're just gonna look for that hack tower, by golly! Then we're gonna trip over some Cassin's Sparrows and see some more Aplomados! It'll be better than a David Attenborough Life of Birds moment, dammit!

SO.

So we get to this road that Mary knows, and there's construction. We have to detour around the construction, and somehow I take a wrong turn... and yet we still get to the axle-breaking crappy dirt road that is Old Port Isabel Road! Our APFA Fever is at like 106! We're on the road and we're going slowly, slowly, slowly this time, eyes peeled for this hack tower, cameras at the ready, bins strained to their limits!

And we look.

And we look some more.

And we see a lovely Curve-billed Thrasher:Hmmm, look at all the cactus here. Let's play the Cassin's call!

Nothing. The thrasher just looks at us.

We drive on. We see the lovely Pyrrhuloxia framed by the rustic barbed-wire fencing that is soooo Texas:Scenic.

We looked for at least an hour for this "hack tower," but we never found it. We realized that probably the guy had his spotting scope with him so seeing this 7-foot tower was easy, but with just our bins we saw nothing.

"My scope! My kingdom for a scope!"

We also played that Cassin's Sparrow call almost non-stop and got nothing more than a little Lincoln's Sparrow who, I could almost swear, said something like, "I think the fever's broken now. You can go home."

Texas lifers -- quickie post

2011-03-27T21:04:00.010-04:00

So just to get these birds on the blog --

Here are the lifers from Texas:Pyrrhuloxia

White-tipped Dove

White-tailed Hawk (photo by Mary)

Eurasian Collared Dove

Clay-colored Thrush

Black-vented Oriole

Wilson's Snipe

Green Kingfisher

UPDATE--that other photo was a Willet, but here is one that I'm 99.9% sure is the Short-billed Dowitcher--the one in the middle:
Short-billed Dowitcher

How's that one feel? I should've known the other one was a Willet by the thickness of its bill; I usually look for that weird nostril but didn't see it on that photo, and was just anxious to get a better picture than this lame one. Assuming this was a SBDO, which a few other people on the boardwalk agreed with me that it was, this was Lifer #300, which inspired a little photo:the SBDO is in the background, as is the alligator previously seen on this blog.

I didn't get a snapshot of the Clapper Rail, sad to say. I did get some mystery bird photos, though -- you've seen some terns and gulls, but here's a warbler:I wish I'd gotten a better photo. I thought at first that it was (what else, down there?) an Orange-crowned Warbler, but I don't think so. Perhaps it's "probably just a butter-butt," were this Cape May. But I just couldn't figure it out. UPDATE: John is thinking OCWA, and I really think he's right. There is some weird dark coloring on the throat there, but I think that was just the wind in his feathers.

I also took this photo of what I think is a Louisiana Waterthrush:what do you think? UPDATE: Yay, John thinks it's a Louisiana Waterthrush too! Boo, though, it's not a lifer. I have yet to see a Northern Waterthrush, despite the fact that I live UP NORTH.

UPDATE even more! More mystery birds, with my tentative IDs now that I've finally unpacked my copy of The Shorebird Guide -- an AWESOME book with a capital AWE -- to go along with my Sibley and my Crossley Guide (more AWE):

Get a load of this little guy:the best damned shot of the bunch and OF COURSE it came out blurry!
Okay. I was feeling "sparrow" here, given the general size, shape, and coloring, but I just don't think so. Note the bold yellow supralorals, which I'd only seen on White-throateds before this. But this is no WTSP. Then I thought (read: prayed) it might be a Seaside Sparrow! Right place, right time, yellow supraloral! But the ones I've seen online just look a lot more drab, like this one and their beaks are longer. I've gone through the finches and buntings with no luck. Look at those crazy huge pink feet, by the way. What is this bird? It's probably something super-simple. I'm always a beginning birder, you know?

Tune in next time for more mystery birds as well as the thrilling yet heart-breaking tale of The Hunt for the Aplomado Falcon.

Goldeneyes!

2011-03-24T22:07:00.005-04:00

Well, I'm STILL going through my Texas photos, culling and cropping and labeling, but today I heard about some big action at the Centre Furnace Duck Pond:
Goldeneyes! Beautiful little Goldeneyes! Lifer! Somehow I was expecting them to be bigger, or darker, or more distinctive. But they were kinda plain and little. But still beautiful! You know how I love my ducks!

I also saw some other good birds, though I apologize for the poor photo quality -- the batteries on my camera were dying and the gray skies didn't provide any light:

Lesser Scaup, about 20 of them

a beautiful Horned Grebe

some little Ruddy Ducks

a Canvasback hiding his head

and some Buffleheads.

The Duck Pond never ceases to amaze me in its ability to draw crazy-good waterfowl. This pond is right near the university, alongside a busy College Ave. between PSU and the local mall. Still, we get great ducks and other birds all the time. It's a real treat to have a spot for birding right in town near work.

Ensuring I'm right

2011-03-16T23:02:00.009-04:00

I told you in my previous post that I had to make sure on some IDs I did out in the field by examining my photographs and field guides (including my new Crossley ID Guide, which is AWESOME! -- more on that later!). This is the post in which I'll ask you smarter birders to confirm my IDs to ensure I'm right and not counting lifers where there aren't any.

1. Sandwich Tern
Here, between the dancing Herring Gull and the bowing Royal Tern, I saw the black legs and feet, black bill, and shaggy erect crest. Unfortunately, this is a from-behind shot. But aren't that gull and ROYT cute doing their little jig? What do you think? Sandwich Tern?

2. Gull-billed Tern
Here, you can see that black cap going all the way down the back of the neck and the thick black bill, but why are his legs orange?
Something tells me this isn't a Gull-billed Tern. Now that I zoom in on the bill, it seems to be light-colored at the base and dark at the tip. Is this a Common Tern?

3. Franklin's Gull
Here, I saw the red bill and white eye arcs and the black hood that doesn't come around in an even line on the nape. Still, it's not a great pic.

Here's another:I can kinda see the white spots on the tail here too -- is this really a Franklin's, or is a Laughing Gull fooling me?

I have a bunch more shorebirds, but let's take it in small doses. Here, for your enjoyment, are some little adventure shots:an Indigo Blue snake found at Estero Llano Grande

the longhorn cow I named Hornrietta, who got kinda excited and started swinging her horns around when I fed her some grass. I took a step back. And then another step.

Finally, the armadillo we saw!

Texas: warm, Pennsylvania: cold

2011-03-16T20:44:00.006-04:00

Home from Texas and only now getting some time to say hello and show you some of the sights from the trip. I STILL haven't finished finalizing my checklists from the individual places and entering them into eBird, mostly because I still haven't finished looking at photos and confirming my IDs (and figuring out what the hell I saw, in some cases). I do, however, have some good stuff to show you.

We'll start off with some lifers that I was lucky enough to see.

Bentsen-RGV State Park was boasting some pretty impressive potential lifers in the days leading up to the trip, but I saw only these:The Black-vented Oriole was very cooperative, coming to the Ebony Grove feeder station several times during the hour I watched for him. Still, this was the best photo I got; I didn't want to get any closer than the benches they had for watching, even though some people were practically shoving their giant lenses up his black vent. I chose to take the birder high road and settled only for this blurry but sure-ID photo. Neat bird; wish some of the splajillion Altamira Orioles I'd seen had been other Black-venteds, but I guess this guy was the only one brave enough to cross the Rio Grande.

I saw this bird and immediately thought: why is that robin so plain and brown?Clay-colored Thrush (or Robin, as they were calling him at the visitor center)! There were groups of up to seven of these at a time in various places in the park, which made photo ops a little easier.

Look at my sister Mary's great photo of a beautiful White-tailed Hawk:ID'd this one with some neat people we met at several places we visited.

And, because no post on the RGV would be complete without an Altamira:

Got really great looks at a Curve-billed Thrasher too, a great addition to my lifebird photo collection:

I mentioned the buntings earlier; here's all we saw:Several people were watching two little molty birds, hoping to make them into Lazuli or Blue Buntings, but no such luck. I'm pretty sure this bird above and the bird below are both Indigo Buntings coming into their breeding plumage.
I'm looking in particular at the beaks as well as the molt patterns they displayed, comparing them to young/non-breeding Lazulis and Blues. Again, I'm pretty certain these are just Indigos. But they're still cute as buttons!

Back to another lifer:This little fatty is a White-tipped Dove, apparently so named because the tail feathers have white tips (which can only be seen in flight). These guys are total lurkers, sneaking out of the greenery, grabbing some seed, and heading back under cover. Note the bluish sheen to his neck feathers -- very pretty!

I got much better looks at Olive Sparrows this time around too:
as well as this photo of what I am fairly certain is a female Anna's Hummingbird:Does anyone care to comment and/or confirm? It was questioned by eBird, so I sent this snapshot I got just before she fled for whereabouts unknown. But I'd heard there'd been an Anna's in the garden by the Visitors' Center, and I'm pretty sure this is it.

Tomorrow (or at some later date!), I'll continue my tales of Texas -- in which I meet an armadillo, feed a Longhorn some grass, and chase a bunny. Oh, and see a bunch more birds!

Brief check-in from Texas

2011-03-09T08:42:00.004-05:00

Well, bloggy pals, I'm exhausted. Happy, but exhausted!

I'll give full details later, but here are the highlights:

--didn't see the White-throated Thrush or the Blue Bunting but did see the Green Kingfisher and the Black-vented Oriole

--didn't see the Aplomado Falcon but did see the White-tailed Hawk

--didn't see any Lazuli Buntings but saw a bunch of Pyrrhuloxias

--did hit (and exceed) 300 but haven't even tallied up all the lists to see how many birds and lifers we saw

Each night, we'd get back to the hotel and just fall asleep! We're in Kingsville now at my brother's, and we're trying to decide whether to hit Kaufer-Hubert or Aransas on our way home to San Antonio.

Gotta get up and eat breakfast now with my brother and niece; at some point (tonight? tomorrow?) I'll process the photos, make my crops, and get some updates up.

Just know that we saw a whole lot of birds, missed a few birds, and had a great time.
See ya later, alligator!

Texas Day 1

2011-03-05T20:47:00.005-05:00

We made it! We're in the Rio Grande Valley, in a little hotel in Weslaco. We had quite the trip here, getting a lifer almost right off the bat:

"Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis?"

Pyrrhuloxia! You won't believe it: we're driving down Highway 281 south of San Antonio, figuring we'd see more stuff on the smaller road rather than the interstate. So we're in a tiny little village called Whitsett, doing about 55, and Mary screams, "Stop! Wait! I saw something!" So I stand on the brakes and whip the car around (that one was for you, Mary), and in this person's yard are at least six Pyrrhuloxias, just flying around like sparrows and twittering their heads off. WOW!

With one lifer under our belts, we pressed on. We saw another little flock of them later, along with several meadowlarks (Western? they were standing along the side of the highway, as Westerns are described doing, but who knows--we were going pretty fast), TONS of TUVUs and BLVUs, American Kestrels, and Crested Caracaras, a couple of Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned Hawks, and one Harris' Hawk and one Greater Roadrunner. A nice, nice trip down. There was a flock of swallows flying around one of the RTHAs but I couldn't ID them -- possibly Cliff?

Anyway, we checked into the hotel and ate at Fat Daddy's (you HAVE to eat there if you come down here -- BBQ, Chicken-fried Steak, etc. DELISH! Then we went for a quick look at the visitor center pond at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

We had quite an eyeful, including this cute little lifer:
Is this just the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life? WILSON'S SNIPE! Lifer number 2 for the trip, and we haven't even really gotten going yet! This guy just sat there, posing for the few of us late-dayers there at the visitor center.

Look at these beauties:

We also got some Fulvous and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, though they were obscured by cattails:

Over at the hummingbird feeders, I got a much better photograph of the Buff-bellied Hummingbird:A perfect addition to my lifebird photo collection.

There were so many Green- and Blue-winged Teals, Ring-necked Ducks, and Northern Shovelers that I couldn't count them all. Here's a nice group photo:
Someone mentioned to me that there was a hybrid Cinnamon x Blue-winged Teal to be seen, and maybe this guy to the right is him:But who knows. He never pulled his head up. He did look rather cinnamon-y all over, but I couldn't tell.

Anyway, it was late and we figured we'd better rest up for tomorrow. Just need to enter my day's numbers in eBird and I'll be out like a light.

Prelude

2011-03-03T20:02:00.005-05:00

Green Jay, seen at Santa Ana NWR last year

It's the night before my big trip to Texas, so I'm packing and getting things ready. I have my clothes for tomorrow all set out, and my bag is packed. I'm charging my camera battery, ensuring I have all the phone and battery charging cords, gathering my Sibley's Eastern Birds and my Peterson's Western Birds (you never know in Texas!).

I just checked the forecast in the Valley (again): 70s and 80s -- what a change from here, where it's about 20 right now. I've packed shorts and some cargo pants, short sleeves and long sleeves, just in case.

AB is hard at work on her review of the literature section of her comprehensive exams, so I'm trying to be quiet! It's tough, though -- I'm very pumped about going.

I know -- a Jim Beam and Coke ought to take the edge off! Mmmmm.

I'm a little worried about how many sales I'll miss at work when I'm gone. I'm taking my work phone with me, and I've got a few people on the fence who are supposed to call me back in the next couple of days, so I'm hoping I'll be able to make sales (by phone) while I'm gone. Plus my work phone is a Blackberry, so I can play little Solitaire games and stuff on it while I'm bored on the plane or in the airports (my personal cell is not a smart phone).

I just checked the ABA Rarities and Texas Needs list to find the following potential lifers still hanging around in the places we'll be birding:
Rufous-backed Robin (NABA International Butterfly Park, Hidalgo)
Black-vented Oriole (Bentsen-RGV State Park, Mission)
Scaled Quail (Falcon State Park, Starr)
White-tailed Hawk (around Cameron and Willacy counties, where I grew up)
Aplomado Falcon (Laguna Atascosa NWR, near Rio Hondo)
Sandhill Crane (Sabal Palm Sanctuary, near Brownsville)
Mountain Plover (near Lyford)
Marbled Godwit (Laguna Atascosa NWR, near Rio Hondo)
Dunlin (South Padre Island WBC, SPI)
Short-billed Dowitcher (South Padre Island WBC, SPI)
Wilson's Snipe (Sabal Palm Sanctuary, near Brownsville)
Gull-billed Tern (Laguna Atascosa NWR and SPI WBC)
Sandwich Tern (South Padre Island WBC, SPI)
Eurasian Collared Dove (SPI)
White-tipped Dove (Estero Llano Grande SP, near Weslaco, and Valley Birding Center, Hidalgo)
Green Parakeet (Valley Birding Center, Hidalgo)
Red-crowned Parrot (Valley Birding Center, Hidalgo)
Groove-billed Ani (Bentsen)
Green Kingfisher (Bentsen and Santa Ana NWR)
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Santa Ana NWR)
Hutton's Vireo (Friedrich Wilderness Park, near my parents' house in San Antonio)
Chihuahan Raven (Cameron County)
Clay-colored Thrush (Bentsen, Santa Ana, and Valley Birding Center)
Golden-cheeked Warbler (Friedrich Wilderness Area)
White-colored Seedeater (San Ygnacio, Zapata County)
Pyrrhuloxia (Bentsen)
Blue Bunting (Bentsen)
PAINTED BUNTING! my nemesis bird! (Santa Ana!)
Yellow-headed Blackbird (Hidalgo County)
Black-vented Oriole (Bentsen)
Hooded Oriole (Salineño)
Audubon's Oriole (Salineño)

Now -- I realize that I sometimes get a little over-excited and set my expectations a little too high.... but I figure these birds are there now. Maybe I'll won't see them all, but I'm bound to see some! And there are enough birds all around that my little bird-brain should be kept quite busy seeing what I see.

I'll be peeping and snapping and checking my guides and having fun -- and after all the birdy goodness comes family goodness. We're seeing big (and only) brother Ricardo in Kingsville, and big sister Raquel is taking some time off to hang out with me and Birding Mommy and my pop too. I'll see my nieces and my nephew, and I'll be in the place where I grew up.

I'm really looking forward to hitting a Sonic and having a fresh lemon slush and some French fries.

Finally -- some backyard birding!

2011-02-27T17:23:00.011-05:00

I went out today and got some Wiscoy's Best birdseed, some nyjer thistle and a sock, and one of those big hooks and set up my backyard for the birds!

AB gave me a fancy feeder when we moved in here, but the birds ate all the seed pretty quickly -- and I didn't have time to even watch them do it. So today, I set it all up, turned on the camera, and took some time to enjoy. Here are the fruits of my labor.

I first chopped up the downed branches from a recent windstorm into firewood:
It was an outdoorsy kind of day. Then I set everything up. Here's the suet feeder with suet from Baby G (another present):

The crook and bird feeder and the thistle sock on my makeshift pole:

After I'd been inside for a while, the birds got brave and started dive-bombing the feeder:I had at least three different White-breasted Nuthatches
at least four or five Tufted Titmice
even Mrs. Cardinal made a brief appearance!

Here was a thrill: an American Tree Sparrow showing off his hatpin spot:
And one brave nuthatch even scoped out the suet, though he didn't eat any:

No one touched the thistle sock either, but I'm hopeful. I also had some birds who weren't quite brave enough to approach the window feeders:This Dark-eyed Junco practically pulled a Woody Harrelson and beat me up for taking his picture.

I also had a picture of a beautiful male Northern Cardinal who came as close as the rocks at the back of the yard but no closer -- however, my camera seems to have eaten that photo. Hmmm....

Here's the whole backyard, starting with the window feeder set-up:

The rocks in the back right corner, where I've placed some corncobs to keep the squirrels busy and away from my feeders:

The creek that runs behind the house:to left, behind the rocks

the center

the sunset side with the little footbridge

It's a pretty nice backyard, though it's a little small -- the septic and drain field kinda dominate. As a result, I've been researching the growing of vegetables in containers. Come spring, I'll have tomatoes, peppers, corn, carrots, herbs, and squash -- all grown in containers! More on that to come -- as soon as it warms up.

Owls O, Stars 2

2011-02-22T23:18:00.004-05:00

Gretchen and I went owling tonight in the Scotia Barrens but came up empty. I'm guessing we should've waited longer or something, or maybe it was too cold (in the teens) -- but my feet were frozen!

Still, I had mounted the camera on the tripod in case we got any looks at owls, so when I noticed the bright stars I couldn't help but try to capture them:Orion the Hunter! I had the camera set to Night mode, and with it mounted on the tripod I was able to get something (especially once I slid the Brightness slider over to the max in my photo editing software). I even managed to get the Messier clusters in the hunter's crotch area.

You can see the slight blur on each point as, even though the aperture was only open for a few seconds, the stars had time to move. That makes me think that I could try a longer exposure and maybe point at the North Star and get one of those crazy star-trails photos like you see in astronomy books. Next time!

Here's another:Though not as bright as Orion, it's still visible: the Big Dipper, held high overhead.

I sent some emails to the Birding Nerd to see if he's going owling again anytime soon; he had some Great Horned, Eastern Screech, and even a Barred Owl the other night. I'm sure he probably stayed out there longer than the 20 minutes we stayed out. But it was cold!

Bff birding and a lifer

2011-02-20T22:02:00.005-05:00

Gretchen and I went birding today in search of mergansers and Horned Larks; we found both and then some.

First, we hit the marina at Bald Eagle State Park after Common and Hooded Mergansers as well as Common Goldeneyes were seen up there by my buddy Joe Verica. Didn't see the Goldeneyes but we saw the mergs:At this point in the day, the sun was shining and it was almost warm outside (probably in the 50s).

We then went in search of some Horned Larks I'd seen in my sales territory in Clinton County near Belle Springs Golf Course. I saw two of them on Friday, and I learned an important lesson: listen for them first, because you'll never see them unless they're flying around. That lesson served us well today as we passed field after field until finally trying Williams Rd (where Joe and I had seen some a few weeks ago).

We had been watching a mixed goose flock of Canadas and Snow Geese (1 white morph and 8 blue-morphs, which are my favorite) feeding in field when we started hearing the crazy little HOLA calls. Sure enough:BINGO! There were probably 100 birds in the flock, though it was like the whole flock would take to the air then a bunch of them would almost literally just disappear and it would only be like ten birds.
They are crazy-stealthy; once they landed, they hunkered down in the corn and old soybean stubble and just vanished. Only when we happened to catch them walking around (they're so cute and fast!) did we see them.

While I was trying to snap some photos in the now dim light of a cloudy afternoon (by now it was in the 30s), I happened to catch this rather rufous-touched individual:LAPLAND LONGSPUR!!!!! LIFER! I didn't even realize it while I was snapping the photo because it was all I could do to catch the motion, center and focus the frame, and snap the picture. So I snapped some pics and started looking at them -- look at that beautiful little bird with his rufous patches! Talk about a lucky break!The focus isn't great but it's good enough for a positive ID! WHOOT!

So that's lifer number 290. I can't believe I'm only ten birds away from 300. Based on the Texas eBird lists I've been looking at, I'll hit 300 somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley, which is fitting somehow, as that's where I started out as a little egg in a nest some 46 years ago.

And we're up!

2011-02-16T22:19:00.003-05:00

Just plugged everything in--TV, modem, router--and hey, we've got Internet! We've got cable! We're up!

And of course the first thing I did was check the Gmail to see the Texas needs list; Kenn freakin' Kaufmann has entered some observations from Edna, TX, in Jackson County (near Victoria, north of Corpus Christi). It's pretty wild to know that THE Kenn Kaufmann was right HERE earlier today!

I kinda feel like a stalker now.

It's really getting late now, so I won't post a million things, but here's a pic of little Niblet that Gretchen took earlier tonight; we had some great bff time, as she came over and we watched Buffy! (Season 2, "Becoming," Part 1 -- pure greatness)

So here's the little Son, Moon, and Stars just about to split the scene:Baby G got him just as he was about to bolt. And yes, I know--I need to clip his claws! Just look at those talons!

Texas notes

2011-02-15T21:09:00.005-05:00

I've been doing some research prior to my upcoming Texas trip, although I haven't been able to tell you about it as I haven't had much computer access for the last week. We finally finished getting everything into the new house and out of the moldy apartment! What a relief, but what a chore.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for our new tv/internet/phone (yup, I'm adding a land line! It's work-related) to get set up, so I'm blogging from AB's office at PSU. I don't want to get her account flagged, so I won't say anything like "Ohio State rules!" or "Michigan is No. 1!" Heh heh.

Back to the research: I have a bunch of checklists downloaded for all the birding sites we're planning to visit. We want to try to hit all nine World Birding Center sites; plus Laguna Atascosa and Santa Ana national wildlife refuges; then perhaps a quick jaunt up the Valley to the Falcon Dam area; then a swing through Kaufer-Hubert Memorial Park near Kingsville on the way back to San Antonio. (They've been seeing some amazing birds there!)

The plans are thus: I'll leave here Friday, March 4, and fly into Austin. Mary and I will drive to San Antonio Saturday morning and see our parents, then it's down to the Valley to start our bird-intensive trip. We'll stay down there until Wednesday, when we'll head back to S.A. Then I'll hang with my parents until Saturday, when it'll be back home to PA.

There will be pictures galore, and we're hoping to see some crazy-ass specialties, rare birds, and so forth. I've been getting the ABA Rarities and TX needs-list emails from eBird, and they are seeing some WILD birds down there!

from the Rarities list, seen at places where we'll be birding:
Hook-billed Kite
Aplomado Falcon
White-throated Thrush!
Blue Bunting
Black-vented Oriole!

and from the Texas needs list, also seen at places we'll be birding:
Greater White-fronted Goose
Ross's Goose
Northern Bobwhite
Snowy Plover
White-tipped Dove
Green Parakeet
Red-crowned Parrot
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Green Kingfisher (which we missed seeing last year)
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Cave Swallow
Clay-colored Thrush
Nashville Warbler
Lark Sparrow

Man, we're gonna be absolutely SCOURING every place we go to try to see every bird we can. I'll be keeping lists, lists, lists! I can't express how much I enjoy reading those eBird update emails; I scour them every day, clicking on every link, making my little plans!

There are some other great Texas birds we won't see, like the Yellow-faced Grassquit and a bunch of other seabirds, because we won't make it to Aransas; we don't have enough time. Still, out of the nine days I'll be gone, we're spending five days birding! Mary has gotten so hard-core; the schedule was all her idea!

I'm really excited about seeing my parents, of course. I got so used to having them around when I was living down there last winter; it was so hard to leave. Still, I like my life up here with AB in PA, and I'm glad I'm able to get down there and see my parents. We're also planning a Christmas trip down there, and I'm sure there will be more winter birding adventures and family fun-time (and AB will be there too!).

So--sorry about the lack of photos in this post; I did see a Black Vulture soaring and circling over my workplace this afternoon, only about a hundred feet up! But of course I didn't have my camera.

Hoping to have internet access at the new house soon; I have so many photos of the new house, and I'll be taking pics of my new bird feeder (my Valentine's Day gift from my valentine!) tomorrow. The birds have found it already, as I discovered this morning after being strafed by a little White-breasted Nuthatch this morning as I stood on the porch. He buzzed me on his way to the feeder, where he grabbed a sunflower seed and flew off to crack it.

On to new horizons

2011-02-08T09:30:00.006-05:00

So we did end up getting out of our lease (thanks for all your support and advice!), and I'm scrambling to schedule movers, transfer utilities, etc. Meanwhile, we had another cave-in last night -- incredible!

Some cracks had opened up in the bedroom where we had all the leaks last week and we noticed that, just from the time we left in the morning, things deteriorated:

Morning:

Last night around midnight:

This happened after we'd just gotten into bed, which we'd moved back into the bedroom but even farther away from the cracks. Thank goodness for that; one foot over made a big difference.

And all THIS happened after we'd gone out to the new house to look around some more (signed the lease yesterday), and then while driving back I lost control of my vehicle, spun around, and landed us in a deep ditch filled with about three feet of snow. Two hours and $200 later, a wrecker had come and pulled us out, along with the poor guy who pulled over to see if we were okay but then got stuck in the same ditch (I paid for his tow too, of course).

So last night, about 2 a.m., we lay in bed (in the dining room, which is now the "good" room, despite the plywood over the giant ceiling hole) and wondered what else could happen.

On a good note, I caught this little moment this morning:Maya's allergies are acting up again (due to the mold?) so we had to put the cone back on her to prevent her from scratching up her face; we're taking the kitties, the bunny, and an airbed over to the new house tonight after work!

Big changes

2011-02-06T09:38:00.006-05:00

Well, it's time to move again. Our apartment has been leaking -- severely -- on and off for the last month, and we've had it. Our landlord has been responsive, but his responses have been rather lackluster. His attitude, now that he's finally getting the whole roof redone after not doing it in the summer like he said (last winter) that he would, is that we should make sure the leaks have stopped, then let the remaining water "leach out" of the insulation and ceiling plaster/drywall, and then dry it all out with a dehumidifier.

Ahem.

As AB's mom asked last night, "'leach out?' LIKE INTO OUR LUNGS?!!!" Yeah. Everyone I've talked to has said we need to get out NOW -- mold develops in as little as 24 hours! When part of the ceiling in the dining room actually came down in a massive cave-in two weeks ago, we saw black mold-y looking areas on the plaster, but I was just so stunned by the fact that a 2ft by 3 ft piece of our ceiling had just caved in, I didn't even consider that I might be looking at a dangerous air situation!

Then when water started coming through the light fixture above the kitchen sink and seeping out of one of the electrical outlets in the kitchen, I started to think, "Um, this might not be up to code."

So--we've been talking and researching, and we're getting out. I sent an email to our landlord last night telling him yet again about all this stuff, and that we think this is no longer a safe place to live, and that he really won't be able to repair the damage properly while someone is living here. I was very firm but conciliatory, thanking him for his efforts so far; AB's mom helped me tone down the hysterics.

Yesterday, we checked out a very nice old farmhouse in nearby Stormstown -- a big fireplace, out in the country, few neighbors, with a creek running about 200 yards behind the house (and down a little hill), and plenty of bird-feeding and bird-watching opportunities right in the backyard! It's a little more than we're paying now, but it's got so much more room and we'll be able to have a garden! It'll be almost like the Marsh House, only with AB and no obligations to fix up the place -- which means almost heaven!

We're just waiting to hear back from our current landlord about whether he'll release us from our lease without argument or whether we'll have to get more serious with him. I'm giving him until 2pm to respond, then I'm calling him. We need to put our deposit down on the country house.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some photos of our current situation.

Here's where the ceiling caved in:The landlord had his guy come in a few days after the cave-in (and after we'd experienced days with the joy of bare fiberglass insulation serving as our ceiling) and put that piece of plywood over the hole. God only knows what it looks like now above that plywood, but you can see the areas where water has come through the plywood too.

The bedroom bucket brigade:We'd just gotten into bed Wednesday night when water started dripping onto our bed. We had to move it out of the bedroom. I had already had to stay home from work on Wednesday to empty these buckets every 2-3 hours. Yes, there was THAT much water.

The corner of our bedroom, where you can STILL see a water-filled bubble under the latex paint, as well as a line of wet plaster that dripped off the ceiling (and onto AB's nightstand):The ceiling looks like it has leprosy.

Updates yet to come!

UPDATE! We're out! Our landlord, who really is a decent guy, has granted us a release. I contacted the country house owner and we're signing the lease tomorrow! Now I just have to figure out how fast I can pack us up, retain a moving service, and get over to the other house!

Rest in peace, Domino

2011-02-03T23:57:00.003-05:00

My bff Gretchen's wonderful dog Domino passed away last night. Here are some photos of her in her prime.

I'll love and miss Nom so much.

Some work birding in the snow

2011-01-29T22:35:00.005-05:00

Some of my latest bird sightings:

We've been getting huge flocks of American crows here for the last couple of winters; these crows were photographed right across the street from my work. I wish I'd captured the flock of probably 200+ swarming in the air, along with a Red-tailed who swooped through the flock and disappeared; I wasn't fast enough with the camera. Still, I got some good pictures despite the overcast sky. I like that bird on the right in the second photo; it looks like he's strutting.

Another day, I saw this bird, which I'm fairly sure is a Common Raven. I was flying down the highway when I passed him and he looked so huge I was sure it was a raven and not a crow:
He was absolutely HUGE, and I'm pretty sure I captured the "Roman nose" here. I didn't get to see him fly so I could check out the tail to make sure. Note the snow in the photos. Could someone confirm crow or raven?

I also saw another Rough-legged Hawk:The other photos I took were terrible; he was a dark-morph, so about all you can see is his little beak. Rough-legs are everywhere around here this year! Today, a local listserver posted seeing seven!

Coming soon: another trip to Texas!

2011-01-18T22:52:00.005-05:00

One of my resolutions this year was to see my family more often than I used to, so I booked my first trip to Texas this year: March 4-12. It'll be a bird-heavy trip too, of course; I'm flying into Austin and then Mary and I will drive to the Rio Grande Valley on Saturday the 5th. Mary already made hotel reservations at the same good place we stayed at in Weslaco last year, so we're both totally pumped!

this image "borrowed" from here

We'll spend Sat, Sun, Mon, and Tues birding at various locations around the Valley; I'm hoping to go to Bentsen, maybe even the upper Valley/Falcon Dam area. We'll also stop in Kingsville to see our brother Ricardo and his kids, and maybe some more birds there. You know I will be meticulously planning and getting lists and freaking out in Excel spreadsheets for the next few weeks!

I'm getting even more excited just thinking about all the sorting and formatting!

On Wednesday morning, we'll drive up to San Antonio and I'll spend the rest of my trip with my parents and my sister Raquel and her daughters. There will most definitely be some Scrabble death-matches and lots of Mexican food!

I'm so excited about the trip--family and birds, who could ask for anything more!?

Well, actually, I could. AB can't come on the trip, at least she doesn't think so at this point. She's on a big push to do her comps right now, so that's got to come first. Still, we're already planning to go down there for Christmas! So you can bet there will be some Christmas birding and sight-seeing, but I sure am sorry she won't be on this trip.

So--until then, prepare to read ad nauseum about this trip! And if any of you is sitting there thinking, "gee, I'd love to see the Valley with some real live Valley girls!" now is your chance! Let me hear from ya!

More raptors!

2011-01-17T16:07:00.009-05:00

On my way to work this morning, I managed to see a bunch of raptors near this farm by our local state correctional institute, Rockview State Prison. I even got pics:
Am I correct in saying that this is a Rough-legged Hawk? I'm amazed by how tiny his beak is.

I also caught the bird in flight:This hawk was unlike any I'd ever seen. I first thought it was a dark-morph Red-tailed, but it didn't have a red tail! I pulled over as best I could to get these photos, and luckily there was a bit of scrubby hillside to hide behind while I shot. Hawks are so twitchy; usually I pull my car over and by the time I grab the camera, the hawk has seen me and flown the coop. Today, I had a little better luck.

I also could've sworn I saw a Golden Eagle, but this is the only shot I got, and it's probably just a Rough-legged:I know it's awful, but here's the thing: I saw those little "windows" (like you get with a juvenile Golden) on the wings, both from below and above, and you can see there's clearly a white patch on the right wing of this bird. It also has the up-turned wingtips of a Golden, and the white stripe on the tail. He had a lighter brown on his nape, but also on the front of his neck too, and the wings are in more of a dihedral than my guide shows they should be for a Golden. Still....

This bird also did something that I thought only American Kestrels could do: it hovered in a fixed position in the air. It would hover for a few seconds, flap a bit and drop closer to the ground, then hover again, then flap and drop a bit again. It did it for probably a total of ten seconds. It was amazing! Of course, I was so busy being amazed that I didn't take pictures of that.

So all you raptor experts out there, please tell me - is there any way I saw a Golden Eagle this morning?
UPDATE: I'm told that hovering is a Rough-legged specialty, and that I most certainly saw and photographed a Rough-legged here. That's okay -- still a lifer!

Meanwhile, back to the Rough-leggeds. I also saw this bird:

I'm assuming this is a Rough-legged too, but it's obviously a different bird from the first one I showed you. Note the crazy neck/breast coloring, and the dark patches on the undersides of the wings in the flight photo. He looks like he's wearing a scarf.

One more raptor:I was looking at this one and thinking "Red-tailed belly band but look at that reddish streaking and how dark he is--rough-leg?," and just then he lifted himself into the air and flashed a Ron-Weasley-red tail, of which I (sadly) did not get a photo. I just never get tired of Red-taileds.

My bff Gretchen, who moved back to town Saturday -- YAY! -- and Laura and I went to try to see some Rough-leggeds and a Short-eared Owl that are supposed to be appearing almost nightly down by Huntingdon yesterday, but we only saw a young Northern Harrier hunting the grassy fields. No owl. I'm glad I ended up getting a Rough-legged though, for lifer number 289!

Raptor Day

2011-01-15T13:35:00.004-05:00

I decided to spend the morning driving around looking for raptors and Horned Larks, and I was rewarded on both counts. The low light and heavy cloud cover made photos fuzzy, but I did manage to snap some decent shots:
This Red-tailed Hawk flew right over me, crying that awesome scream; it was a tear-inducing moment.

I wandered over to Penns Valley, my old stomping grounds, turning onto good old Kline Road and discovering this:
This adult Bald Eagle wheeled over me too, though he didn't scream his wimpy little call, nor was there a Hollywood foley artist dubbing a RTHA cry over it.

The American Kestrels were everywhere. Here's one in mid-hover:

Then perched:
I just love AMKEs.

UPDATE: Forgot to add my terrible Horned Lark photo:I chose to post this one not because it was any sharper than the others but because I caught two birds in flight.

My full list, including where I saw each bird:

Bald Eagle 1 (chased him from Kline Rd in Penn Hall, along Penns Creek Rd, up to Beaver Dam Rd)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 (near Williams Rd)
Red-tailed Hawk 4 (3 along 220, 1 near the Baldie)
American Kestrel 5 (near Shingletown on Rt 45, Paradise Rd in Penns Valley)
Mourning Dove 30 (Airport Rd)
American Crow 70 (all over the place)
Common Raven 1 (flying along Rt 45 near Old Fort)
Horned Lark 20 (Williams Rd, Old Fort. People have seen at least one Lapland Longspur here lately, but I didn't see one)
Black-capped Chickadee 6 (everywhere)
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 (Indian Rd. in Penns Valley)
European Starling 20 (flocks on Airport Rd)
White-throated Sparrow 1 (Indian Rd)
Northern Cardinal 2 (Airport Rd)
House Sparrow 10 (Airport Rd)
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Help Wanted

2011-01-10T22:28:00.006-05:00

Photos by my sister Mary, taken in Virginia over Christmas:

Wanted: experienced bird ID expert to help with this (probably oh-so-easy) identification! My first thought was female bunting, probably Indigo, but I'm just not satisfied that's right. Click on the pics to make them huge.

Help!

UPDATE: John from DC Birding Blog mentioned my other thought, Eastern Towhee--the shape is a dead match--but the coloring is so subdued, and there's no white on the belly. Sibley shows the male and female towhees with darker brown/black plumage, darker orange on the sides of the belly, and white on the belly itself. Is this some sort of pale juvenile?

2010 in Review

2011-01-03T21:06:00.003-05:00

Vermillion Flycatcher, seen at Santa Ana NWR, Texas

Thanks to eBird, I can now do a year-in-review of everything birdy about my last year!

I was lucky enough to be in Cape May for this
autumn's record-level migration fallout in October.

Number of species: 199, 54 lifers
Number of different sites birded: 27, in 3 states (PA, TX, NY)

Species list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Tundra Swan
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)
Wood Duck
American Wigeon
Mallard
Mallard (Domestic type)
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Wild Turkey
Common Loon
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Merlin
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
American Woodcock
Wilson's Phalarope
Bonaparte's Gull
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Common Nighthawk
Common Pauraque
Whip-poor-will
Chimney Swift
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Shrike
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Green Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Common Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Black-crested Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
European Starling
American Pipit
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Altamira Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

some wonderful bird behavior, seen at
Estero Llano Grande State Park, Texas

I also added some great bird books to my collection, including my Sibley's field guide, a biography of Roger Tory Peterson, some birding basics guides, a Maine birds guide, and more. I'm up to 288 lifebirds, with photos of 204 of them.

I'm hoping for some more birds this year, with a planned trip to Texas. Who knows where else we might go or what the year may bring.

Here's to good birds, good friends, and good times.

Christmas Bird Count highlights

2011-01-02T19:20:00.009-05:00

I went on my first Christmas Bird Count today, with my old atlassing buddy Roana and another birder named Jen. We got 32 species and a lifer!

Now the picture's not very good:but our view of this Northern Shrike was. That's number 288, for those of us who are counting!

Our complete list:
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose 40
Hooded Merganser 10
Red-tailed Hawk 6
Ring-billed Gull 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 5
Northern Flicker 12
Blue Jay 16
American Crow 15
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 13
Tufted Titmouse 7
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 24
American Robin 8
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 57
Cedar Waxwing 27
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
American Tree Sparrow 10
Song Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 5
Dark-eyed Junco 22
Northern Cardinal 6
House Finch 15
American Goldfinch 24
Northern Shrike 1
Merlin 1

Some real surprises, especially the Yellow-rumped; Ro told me that a few hang around here all winter, as long as it's not too cold, but I was surprised. It was also nice to see some Hooded Mergansers in the only small area of the lake that wasn't frozen. This pic's not too good either:
It was really cold; I was in Boston from Thursday night until last night and it was downright balmy there, in the 40s. I thought it was going to be warm here too, but I was wrong! A cold front blew in and the temps went from chilly to COLD. I was tough, though, as was this Ring-billed Gull:He was walking around on the frozen lake like a professional skater.

Speaking of skaters, the Skaters' Pond looked really weird:The lake's been drained (it's basically a manmade overflow channel to capture floods from local rivers; they drain it way down in the winter to make room), and this little pond had only a bit of a water, which froze in these strange shapes.

One of the House Finches was rather a strange shade of red, more like an orange:and it wasn't just the lighting. He was different from the other males. It was almost like the color on a Golden-fronted Woodpecker.

I got a better photo of a Blue Jay than I'd gotten before:

The park is frozen over, but there's still plenty of predators and prey; here's some evidence of both:Coyote(?) poo with lots of little bones. Squirrel? Bunny? We were on a mission, so I didn't get to examine too closely. Dangit! I should've taken a sample in a baggie or something! Something else to add to the Bad-ass Birding Bag kit.

I liked being a part of a big survey project again; since the breeding bird atlas work was finished a couple years ago, I've missed that sense of birding with a larger purpose. I can't wait to move back to the country, once we leave PA for AB's internship year (2012). The first thing I'm going to do is set up bird feeders and do Project Feederwatch again. What a blast!

At last, some birds!

2010-12-29T20:09:00.003-05:00

I've been seeing a lot of Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Red-shouldered Hawks, and possibly even a Rough-legged Hawk (but I didn't get a good enough view to call it a lifer), and today I went down to the Duck Pond near PSU and saw some nice ducks:a cute little female Ruddy Duck, complete with perky stiff tail, and

and a beautiful female Redhead. There is some back-and-forth on the listserv today about whether this is a Redhead or a Scaup -- I think the consensus is Redhead. Any other offers?

I'm also super pumped about three upcoming events:
1. Flying to Boston tomorrow for New Year's with AB and some of her old friends.
2. My bff Gretchen is moving back to State College next month!
3. I'm participating in the Christmas Bird Count for Bald Eagle State Park on Sunday! (that means a quick turnaround on the Boston trip)
So much fun, so little time!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas in New England

2010-12-28T20:47:00.006-05:00

AB and I spent Christmas in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, visiting AB's family and friends. We got caught by the big storm on our drive home on Sunday, though we'd thought it would miss us. It wasn't too bad, though; AB's a pro on the snow.

We had a great time with AB's parents and grandma, and I even got to walk on a frozen pond!So cool!

There was a big beaver dam across the pond, and lots of the trees looked like this:Real beaver teeth cut that tree down! I've never seen anything like it. I wish we could've seen the beavers, but I'm guessing they were underwater in their lodge.

AB's parents' dog Nora chases BIG sticks, no matter what the condition of the water:Apparently, little sticks hold no challenge for her. She was so funny, running and slipping around and grabbing the stick in mid-slide.

Didn't see too many birds, but I did get some great bird gifts! A neat bird whistle, bird books, and a beautiful cup:
and this cool sweatshirt:
My sister Nora got me that one. Cool!

Hope everyone had a great holiday/Christmas/Xmas/Yule/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/etc. (I'm doing my part in the Liberals' War on Christmas!)

beginning to freeze

2010-12-12T16:57:00.007-05:00

It was a very nasty day out at Bald Eagle State Park; temps just above freezing, a wicked wind, and steady light rain. Gretchen and Laura and I drove out there about 1.5 hrs after I got a text from a bird clubber that there was a big flock of Common Goldeneyes along with lots of mergansers out there.

We were disappointed to find only smaller rafts of Common and Red-breasted Mergansers and no Goldeneyes. Some very blurry (click to embiggen) photos:
That tall one near the middle up top isn't a Goldeneye, right? Or is it? It seems to have the white cheek patch, but I don't remember seeing the patch through the scope--and I LOOKED.
More:

Here's where you can really see some good wing and neck markings.

Look at this bird sticking his neck up, on the right:
Almost goose-like, no? But
a merganser. So we saw 20 birds when I snapped these pics, but when I was looking in the scope a little after these guys flew and landed again, the numbers were lower and those are the ones I went with for my eBird count below.

There was also a large flock of at least 250 Canada Geese, and mixed into that flock was one odd goose with pink/orange legs and feet, a white ring around the base of his bill (which was not black but not orange either--orange-black?), some random white feathers on the back of his tall black neck, and whitish cheek patch (sort of dirty white) but definitely NOT a white chinstrap like the other Canadas. It was just a patch on either check, with black underneath. It looked somewhat like a Greater White-fronted Goose but somehow NOT. Here are the three best pics:

So you can see that his body is more Canada-like, but a little lighter and his tail and rump were DEFINITELY like a Greater White-fronted, with the shorter tail and white tip, rather than the wide bands of white and then black of a Canada's tail. I really think this was a cross between a Canada and a GWFG. Is that possible? At one point we saw them flying and that's when I noticed the distinctly non-Canada tail. None of my guides have any juvenile Canada illustrations, and this goose was the ONLY one in the entire flock with these weird markings. Is this a Greater White-fronted Goose, or a cross between a Canada and a GWFG, a weird-looking Canada, or what?

A local listserver said that it kinda looks like some of these Barnacle x White-fronted crosses. Maybe?

Our whole list:
Canada Goose 250 (including the weirdo)
Mallard 4
Common Merganser 6
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Ruddy Duck 1
Bonaparte's Gull 10
Ring-billed Gull 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 3
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Eastern Bluebird 3
European Starling 15
Northern Cardinal 1

I was really hoping to see a Goldeneye; it would've been a lifer.

Look at this!

2010-11-22T23:03:00.003-05:00

You know how I love to look through the folders from old trips (I save my photos by trip and date); it's fun to remember the many things I saw that I might not otherwise recall. Sometimes, I find a surprise--the possible Cave Swallow was, I think, just a Purple Martin. But this:I was looking through the photos from my Rio Grande Valley trip with my sister Mary, and I remembered taking photos of this little bird on a wire.

I'm thinking Loggerhead Shrike! What do you think?

Today's bird club update

2010-11-20T11:15:00.002-05:00

This morning's birding update comes from local bird-stud Joe Verica:

"BESP 150 Overlook: wanker with decoys."

Ouch.

OMG, lifers!

2010-11-16T17:27:00.008-05:00

UPDATED!
LIFER OLDSQUAWS! (I refuse to call them Long-tailed Ducks.)

We finally got some good rain and cold last night and today, which means WATERFOWL! I got several texts from our local listserv (that's their new thing, texting alerts--which is awesome) about Bald Eagle and a little tiny lake called Colyer Lake near here. Colyer was easier for me to fit in, so off I went at lunchtime.

SCORE! Check these out!

I see a Ruddy Duck, some Scaup, some mergansers (red-breasted?), Canvasbacks, Oldsquaws, Buffleheads! The (correction) LESSER SCAUP (I thought Red-breasted Mergs were lifers, but I saw them at Middle Creek a while back) and OLDS are lifers! It was FREEZING out there, so I only stayed out about ten minutes, but those Oldsquaws were so worth it. They're beautiful!

Anyone want to play along on IDing each of these birds, from left to right? I'm working on it myself now, but I wanted to get these pics up quickly because I'm so excited!ID them by the numbers!

More pics, with IDs confirmed by a very good local birder named Alex:White-winged Scoter, Ruddies, WW Scoter -- I knew those two big black things were something different, and so much bigger than the other ducks (even the Canvasbacks, or so I thought). But Alex said those were the WW Scoters, and I realize now that they had the right marks on them through the bins -- LIFERS! Alex was out there too, earlier today, so I knew he'd be able to confirm IDs for me.

By the way, I ended up mis-IDing a lot of the Red-breasted Mergs as Ruddies, based on their tiny size. Beware!

Is this a Cave Swallow?

2010-11-14T20:27:00.004-05:00

I was going through my lifebird photos (yes, again, AB!) and cropping them a bit more, doing some photo-editing, etc. when I noticed this bird in my shot of Purple Marlins:Perhaps a juvenile Cave Swallow? Note the pale cheek and throat and the pale spot above the eyes on the forehead (non-birdy terms, I know, but you get the idea). If it were a juvey Barn Swallow, the throat would be more reddish. If it were a Cliff, it would have a dark throat. All this is according to Sibley.

What do you think?

I took this photo two years ago in Cape May with Baby G, so it's not like I'm going to count this as a lifer, but I would like to know whether I'm IDing it correctly.

A freezing morning at Bald Eagle

2010-11-07T17:33:00.010-05:00

AB and I went to Bald Eagle State Park yesterday, and Baby G and her gal and I went this morning--all in pursuit of rumored potential lifers Eared Grebe and White-winged Scoter. We saw neither, but we had good times nonetheless.

I didn't get many pics on Saturday with AB; there wasn't much to see. I did continue my annoying record of getting the clearest shot of a target bird right when its head is behind a branch:Grrrr. I have no good pics of BCChickadees, and I pished these guys to within like ten feet of us (to AB's delight), and all my other pics were blurry except for this one. Sigh.

To illustrate my agony, here are some reminders of other such great moments from the past:Not that big a deal, but this would've been a nice pic of an American Goldfinch. This next one was a little more upsetting:
My lifer Prairie Warbler, just over the fence at the Marsh House years ago, hiding his face behind a branch. Oy vey. Just after I snapped this, he flew. No second chances in bird photography.

Anyway, this morning Gretchen and her gal and I arrived very early at the lake--and here's what we saw:And it was COLD! There was frost all over everything, including this little cobweb:We saw some American Coots and a Pied-billed Grebe at one stop (East Launch), and then we moved to the Winter Launch and saw these:SNOW BUNTINGS! Aren't they gorgeous? Baby G spooked them as she walked along the water's edge and we followed them to the boat launch and watched as they charmed us with their cute faces and twittering calls. Lifer 284! They were awesome. I'm sure they look beautiful in their breeding whites, but this plumage is lovely too.

So I crawl up the ladder to 300, a few birds at a time, and I'm more in love with birds than ever.

A magical night

2010-11-05T22:50:00.002-04:00

I wrote the following after returning from watching a monster night flight from the deck around the Convention Center, Cape May. For photos and her description, see Susan's post.

It's about 10:30 p.m., and I'm lying on my back on the wooden deck behind the Convention Center in Cape May. Jeff Gordon is lying beside me; his wife is lying perpendicular to us above our heads. Susan is on Jeff's other side--he's put his arms around us to keep us warm in the cold night. Everyone is looking skyward, awestruck.

Overhead, hundreds--no, thousands--of American Robins, Chipping Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and other birds are flying erratically, like bats, glowing white in the night lights of Beach Avenue. A Savannah Sparrow rests on the street, a lifer for Susan. Every so often, a larger bird flies over: a Barn Owl? a gull? a woodcock? Hell, it could be a flamingo for all we know. We're seeing that many birds.

There are lifers for me too: Bill Thompson, Richard Crossley, Mark Garland, Louise Zemaitis. From our vantage point in the darkness, the birds look like leaves blowing in the stiff wind, highlighted by the street lamps. For me, it's an unbelievable, mind-blowing spectacle. Does this happen every night? How could I have missed it? How long will it last?

The best part? Even an ABA President, the editor of Birdwatcher's Digest, and one of the authors of The Shorebird Guide are just as dumb-struck as I am. They're all agog, gasping, uttering statements of disbelief -- just like I am.

For a magical hour on a magical night, we're all captivated, grasping for words and images to describe nothing more or less than the sight of robins and sparrows flying overhead on their way south. Common birds, common admirers, uncommon night.

Cape May wrap-up

2010-11-02T19:43:00.005-04:00

For posterity (and my own records), here are the species/lifers counts from Cape May:
American Black Duck
American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Oystercatcher
American Robin
American Wigeon
American Woodcock
Bald Eagle
Belted Kingfisher
Black Scoter
Black Skimmer
Black Vulture
Black-bellied Plover
Black-capped Chickadee
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brant
Broad-winged Hawk
Brown Thrasher
Bufflehead
Canada Goose
Carolina Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Common Loon
Cooper’s Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
Double-crested Cormorant
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
European Starling
Field Sparrow
Fish Crow
Forster’s Tern
Gadwall
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green-winged Teal
Hairy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
Herring Gull
House Sparrow
Killdeer
Laughing Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Lesser Yellowlegs
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Mute Swan
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Harrier
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Pintail
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Shoveler
Palm Warbler
Pied-billed Grebe
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Royal Tern
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruddy Duck
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Savannah Sparrow
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Tree Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Tundra Swan
Turkey Vulture
Western Sandpiper
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Wood Duck
Yellow-rumped Warbler

That's 84 species, 4 lifers. There were some birds that other Flock members saw that I didn't see, so I didn't list them. If I didn't see it and positively ID it (or have it confirmed for me by a pro), I didn't count it.

So my lifelist is now up to 283. Pretty amazing! My file of photographs of lifers is only up to 196, though. The funny thing is--the ones I don't have. It's not surprising that I don't have pictures of a Veery or a Sora; those are hard. But I don't have pictures of silly birds like Rock Dove and House Sparrow--well, of course I don't! So I'll have to go out and take pictures of such "trash" birds sometime, just to round out the collection.

Another wonderful autumn migration in Cape May. I am secretly hoping we go to Texas this spring (maybe for AB's spring break), because I'd be able to get all kinds of crazy birds down there.

To wrap it up, thank you, weather gods, for actually giving us sun (instead of the usual drear and rain) in Cape May! That's a first!

Cape May blowout

2010-11-01T22:40:00.010-04:00

An amazing weekend like we had in Cape May really can't be summed up in a bunch of words, no matter how poetic or superlative-laden they may be. So instead, I'll give you some photo highlights:

Wood Duck drake

Tundra Swans, a rarity in Cape May, though we saw a flock of about 10

Swamp Sparrows

Ruddy Turnstones -- lifers all!

Royal Tern

some beautiful Northern Pintails

a Northern Harrier who hunted for at least a half hour
by the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Point

Lesser Black-backed Gulls, lifers as ID'd by Pete Dunne, among Great Black-backed Gulls

Laughing Gull

Hermit Thrushes were almost as abundant as sparrows in the motel backyard

a Common Loon in the brackish marshes of Cape May's harbor

Brants were quite plentiful

this Black Scoter was sitting in the same spot for the Tidewater cruiser --
the guide said the bird was probably old or sick

this American Woodcock was blown in off the water on Sunday morning

American Oystercatchers

I didn't know American Coots had such blood-red eyes

AB took this snap.

Some of us got to get really close to Pete Dunne.

Boat-tailed Grackles, hanging out on an Osprey platform

I think one word that could sum up the weekend was "abundant." I mean, we saw literally thousands of Yellow-rumps, American Robins, sparrows, Double-crested Cormorants, ducks, and raptors. There were so many birds at any given time that it was challenging for the trip guides to point out just one bird among the dozens or hundreds flitting and flying among the foliage and in the air.

On Thursday night, Susan and I got to hang out with people like Bill Thompson III, Jeff and Liz Gordon, Richard Crossley, and Louise Zemaitis, first at New River trip leader Mark Garland's house (eating chocolate chip cookies minus the chocolate chips) and then down at the old Convention Center watching thousands of birds flying overhead in the lights of Beach Avenue. It was surreal--like a lost reel of The Life of Birds combined with an episode of Name-Droppers.

The whole weekend was non-stop, and we didn't miss a trick. We birded at the Beanery, the Meadows, the Hawk Watch, the Bunker Pond, and the beach at Cape May Point. AB and I watched the sunset and found some Cape May diamonds at Sunset Beach. We had breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House and the Mad Batter's. We had a nice sit-down dinner at Carney's (we were getting sick of bar food). We watched the Rangers win their one World Series game. (sniffle!) AB fell in love with Cooper's Hawks and Wood Ducks.

So much happened... I could go on and on and never cover it all. Suffice it to say that we saw more birds than we'd ever seen all in one place in our whole lives. And we loved every stinkin' minute of it.

Cape May quickie

2010-10-29T17:12:00.006-04:00

one of about a million Yellow-rumps

UNBELIEVABLE.

MAGNIFICENT.

AWE-INSPIRING.

That just might cover our first night and morning's birding here in Cape May. I'd need way more words to describe today.

They're having one of the biggest migration fall-outs in ten years, according to the local experts. We've seen at least 5,000 Yellow-rumped Warblers, another probably 10,000 American Robins, probably a 500-count mixed swallow flock (Northern Rough-winged, Tree (!), and a couple of Cave! LIFER!), and more. It's truly been a day unlike any other for me.

Some quick photo uploads:I think this is a juvenile Bald Eagle, but Susan was hoping it might be the Golden Eagle that was banded later (after we saw him) this afternoon.

We saw a couple of Northern Rough-wings:

We birded with Bill Thompson III this morning at the Beanery:

LIFER!

presidential birding

More later!

Cape May Countdown: 2 days!

2010-10-27T21:20:00.003-04:00

Really it's just ONE day, though, because we're leaving tomorrow around 12:30! AB got out of her meeting, so we're on our way early. Susan will already be there, and I think she'll be hanging with our new ABA President Jeff Gordon and his wife (my friend from high school) Liz, so I'm TOTALLY pumped! There's also a gathering on Friday night at the C-View, so I'll see everyone! Beth, the other Beth I don't know, and maybe even BOTB! Sooooooooooooo excited!

We're already packed, which was easy because I've been prepping for days now. I have my to-do list for the morning (drop off AB at school, get oil change, pack car, fix everything up for Nib and the kitties, buy some booze, and then get AB and GO!).

As usual, I've already made my Wish List for lifers that are hanging around in Cape May, according to eBird:
Lesser Scaup
Eurasian Widgeon
Black Scoter
Northern Gannet
Hudsonian Godwit
Wilson's Snipe
Royal Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
Nashville Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Rough-legged Hawk
Western Kingbird
Cave Swalllow
Rough-legged Hawk
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Whimbrel
Swainson's Thrush
Bobolink
Lapland Longspur
Seaside Sparrow
Brant
Ruddy Turnstone
Short-billed Dowitcher

There are countless other birds on their latest sightings list that I need pictures of too, so my battery's all charged up and my memory card is blank and waiting for photos! I think I've gathered all the photos I've ever taken (though I didn't count some blurs), and I have 180 photos of my 279 lifers--that's a lot of photos still to get! The worrisome part is that I don't have photos of some lifers I saw in CA and TX--TX I'll visit again, but CA? I don't know when I'll be back out there.

I'll be studying my Sibley and my Shorebird Guide tonight, focusing on things like Seaside Sparrows and Whimbrels and stuff, just to make sure I am familiar with the field marks.

Can you tell I'm totally geeking out?

Cape May Countdown: 3 days

2010-10-25T21:06:00.004-04:00

That's three days until Friday's day of fun and birding!

I've been working on a new project lately: getting photographs of every lifebird I've gotten. I've had to search back through the blog for some photos, as I don't have any of the photographs I took from 2006-2008 (they were on Kat's computer), and I either haven't always been able to get photos of other birds I've seen or I must've put them on my old Macintosh computer that's in Texas, so I don't have access to them right now. Still, I'm working on compiling and organizing. I don't have an exact count just yet but I working on it.

I'm also getting the eBird "needs alert" from Cape May, and if I'm lucky I'll be able to not only get some lifers but add some more lifer photographs to my file. So that will be an added challenge!

I'm hoping that AB can reschedule a late Thursday afternoon meeting so we can leave earlier. Can't wait to get there!

Lifer 279, in which Delia freezes half to death

2010-10-24T18:47:00.008-04:00

Most people see Golden-crowned Kinglets up here fairly regularly; I had never seen one until today, however. I'd seen bunches of Ruby-crowned before, but I finally got the Golden:I was lucky enough to get this photograph in which you can see the golden spot on its head. Sweet!

We went camping last night at Greenwood Furnace State Park; I was anxious to try out some fire-making and cooking techniques I've picked up from watching my favorite show, Man vs. Wild. Does anyone else watch this show? I LOVE IT! I actually purchased a FireSteel a few weeks ago, eager to spark a fire in a tinder ball of dry grass, just like Bear Grylls does it. I've been driving AB crazy by sparking it in the house or taking it with us wherever we go "in case we're in a survival situation!" I also have been wanting to cook something over an open flame on a spit made from a tree branch or something. Primal!

So I talked AB into going camping last night; we collected sticks and things for our fire to supplement the firewood, and I gathered a little ball of dry grass. Turns out, the dry grass wasn't so dry and didn't really catch the spark. Toilet paper, however, goes up like a mofo, as do cotton balls laced with Vaseline (a trick I learned from my camping book)! So, yes, okay--Bear doesn't use those things on his show, but I'll bet he would if he had some handy! Anyway, I got the fire going pretty quickly, and then it was time to prep the vittles.

As a recovering vegetarian for the last year or so, I've added a little tuna and chicken to my diet, so I'd prepped some chicken breasts in a Greek dressing marinade (Gazebo Room brand--it's the best!). I cut them into strips with my tiny pocketknife (I'm still trying to convince AB that I need a big Bear Grylls knife, but I'm still working on that one) and--again, unlike Bear--skewered a couple of strips on my awesome roasting fork. As a backup plan, I also put some strips into heavy-duty foil and set them in the coals along with some foil-wrapped potatoes. It took a while to ensure we wouldn't eat undercooked chicken and get sick, but the results were fantastic! I couldn't decide what to pretend the meat was; I mean, it couldn't be rabbit, obviously:Someone would not approve! It couldn't be Wild Turkey; I love those birds! So I just pretended it was a feral farm chicken, captured in a clever snare I rigged after stalking it for hours.Or something like that. AB just rolls her eyes and smiles at me during these moments. She's a good sport.

Our fire kept us quite warm until about 10:30; we went to bed feeling warm and happy. AB was prepared with her fleece and sleep pants; in my survival mode, I insisted I was quite warm in my boxies and a t-shirt.

First, I felt the cold in my legs--it was like the ground was radiating cold. My feet were still kinda warm, but my legs felt a little cold. I got the sweatpants. Then I added the fleece pullover I got at the L.L. Bean mothership store. I huddled against AB for warmth. I insisted I didn't need socks, but OH MY GOD WHY DIDN'T I BRING MY WOOL SOCKS!?

In short, we froze half to death. Worse, I had to get up to pee about five times (I have a tiny bladder), and we were roughing it at the walk-up site so the bathroom was waaayyyy too far away. Needless to say, I needed a shower BADLY when we got home.

So this morning when we took a walk to warm up, seeing a lifer was a good way to start the day. We also saw several Hairy Woodpeckers (but no Downy), Least Flycatchers, Blue Jays, and American Crows. The little songbirds were flitting around so quickly that those were the only positive IDs I was able to make.

P.S.--my countdown to Cape May begins tomorrow!

WE DID IT!

2010-10-22T23:18:00.002-04:00

WE BEAT THE YANKEES!

More Maine and some New Hampshire too

2010-10-20T21:05:00.015-04:00

I love weather vanes.

I never finished showing you everything we saw on our New England trip! Here are some pictures from around beautiful Bethel, Maine:

The mountains there are so much taller than those around me here in PA, which is why Bethel is a big skier's destination. AB grew up there.

We saw a flock of these birds as we walked around town--UPDATE!--female Purple Finches!

This was a bit of a mystery, but only because I always overdo it on the fieldguide analysis. Thanks to Laurent from Michigan for the help!

Here's a sweet little Dark-eyed Junco from AB's grandma's back porch:Kinda pale, no? A juvenile or a female?

We went canoeing on Songo Pond with an old teacher of AB's; I didn't have to row, sitting in the middle and just taking pictures:We had to stay out of the wind by sticking to the leeward side of the pond, and we didn't see many birds at all.

We drove the Kankamagus Highway into New Hampshire:
The line of cars to climb Mount Washington was waaaaaay too long, so we didn't do that. But we saw the Presidentials:

More breath-taking scenery:The Swift River, in a not-so-swift area

Rock faces near the Lower Falls of the Swift River

Beaver Pond

We spent a little time in Northampton, which was nice -- an interesting contrast to the college-town atmosphere of State College. It was much more funky and had more (and more interesting) shops and restaurants, much more like what I expect a college town to be like.

Well, it's late and I'm tired, so I'll leave you with another nice photo:

Tribute to a friend of a friend

2010-10-13T22:05:00.004-04:00

Back in March when I was driving back to PA from my California-Texas odyssey, Niblet and I had the wonderful opportunity to "get native" and stay with my good friend Susan and her family, including her sweet pup Nellie:I just found out that Nellie passed on last month; I've been checking my favorite blogs only sporadically lately, as I'm often working until 9 or later every night. But tonight I read this post, and it made me think of the one chance I got to meet Nellie:She was a sneaky kisser, that dog. A sweet and sneaky kisser.

Big big hugs to you and the girls, Susan.

My first Big Sit

2010-10-10T15:21:00.011-04:00

There was a lot of standing at our Big Sit

I joined the State College Bird Club's fourth annual Big Sit out at Bald Eagle State Park this morning; it's my first Big Sit ever, and I really enjoyed it. The leaves are at their peak right now:

I got a few pictures; our one warbler species was the oh-so-common butter-butt:

Yellow-rumped Warblers were abundant, flitting about all morning until about 11.

From the time I got there until about a half-hour before I left, this Great Blue Heron was practically sitting in our circle.

"I sometimes like to come out here and ponder the mysteries of life."

Here he is, trying to swallow a good-sized sunfish:

GULP!

This immature Bald Eagle flew right over our heads, maybe fifty feet up at most, but I didn't get my camera on him until he was almost gone.

A Greater Yellowlegs dropped by:He stuck around for a couple of hours.

This Common Loon began calling to some other loons around the bend at the marina:He stayed under water for almost a minute at one point.

I met AB out at Fisherman's Paradise for a nice little walk along the creek; check out these Woolly Bear caterpillars:
Does the wide cinnamon-colored band mean a harsh winter?

We also saw this little love scene:I had googled red dragonfly and found some great info; I wrote the following: "Is this a Ruddy Darter or a Common Darter? I checked this web site for following information. The size and coloring seem to match Ruddy, but they're far more rare than the Common. The Common is supposed to have 'light patches on the thorax,' which this one lacks; it's also more orange than the Ruddy. This specimen is more red, not orange--at least in my opinion. I can't tell for certain if the legs are black (Common) or red (Ruddy), or whether it has a 'waist' like the Ruddy. I only got this one slightly blurry shot before they took off. Looking at the female, it's also hard to tell. Female Ruddies are 'greeny-brown' while the Commons are 'yellowish-brown.'" Then it occurred to me to check the range. Dangit, both of these species are found in the UK and Europe!

Hmph.

So -- Autumn Meadowhawk? Help, John!

Weekend in New England, Part 1

2010-10-07T14:27:00.007-04:00

What a great weekend we had in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont! Our New England whirl started with a visit to AB's parents in southern New Hampshire and a trip to Plum Island, MA.

Here are some of the birds we saw there, despite the rain and cold:A young Great Black-backed Gull, maybe first year? I'm basing this on the pics in my Sibley.
A full-grown GBBG. There were a LOT of these gulls all over New England; I didn't see many other kinds of gulls, at least not sitting still so I could ID them.

In the Salt Pannes area of the park, we saw these guys:A lot of birds in this group. I think I see a Least Sandpiper there, in front of the bird on the left. The bird with the wings in the air? We'll get to him. Next to him on the right are what I believe to be two Greater Yellowlegs. Then there's the bird in the lower right. Let's look at the next picture.
Okay--there are a few Greater Yellowlegs, but there is still the matter of the bird in the foreground and the bird who's lighter in plumage and facing to the left. Next picture:
The birds, the pale one near the middle and the one in the foreground, were the same kind of bird, but neither one wanted to show me any kind of helpful hint for the camera. I have gone over and over my Shorebird Guide and my Sibley, and the closest I can come is winter-plumaged Black-bellied Plovers. Comments, anyone?

More pics of them:

Here's the best one I got:
Black-bellied Plover?
See how camera-shy he was?

We also saw several Snowy Egrets:

I wish the weather had been better, and that we'd gotten there earlier in the day. Still, it was nice out there. I'd like to go back there soon.

Watch this space!

2010-10-05T22:52:00.004-04:00

just outside Bethel, Maine

Just finished my photo-editing of the pics from the Maine trip; still some IDs to make sure of and a post to write, but watch this space!

State of the lifelist address

2010-09-28T23:35:00.002-04:00

I was just entering my latest observations from the past few days' incidental and purposeful birding, when it occurred to me to see how many birds I've seen this year. This is the state of my lifelist/yearlist thus far:

Birds seen so far in 2010: 190
Lifers seen so far in 2010: 48
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Mottled Duck
Cinnamon Teal
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
White-tailed Kite
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Common Moorhen
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Willet
Baird's Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
American Woodcock
Wilson's Phalarope
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Common Pauraque
Whip-poor-will
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Green Jay
Cliff Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Black-crested Titmouse
Long-billed Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
American Pipit
Cape May Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Dickcissel
Altamira Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch

Not too shabby a list for this year, both total and the number of lifers. Many of the lifers were seen in Texas. Some people go to Costa Rica or Belize; I just go to my parents' house. It's cheaper!

I'm really looking forward to our Maine trip, and I can't believe we're leaving Thursday. So far, the birding plans involve a trip to Plum Island in New Hampshire with AB's parents, as well as some stops along the southern Maine coast. AB's mom sent us some potential places that we might consider:
Webhannet River Marsh, Wells
Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells
Vaughns Island Preserve, Kennebunkport (this is only accessible at low tide)
East Point Sanctuary, Biddeford Pool
Prouts Neck Bird Sanctuary, Scarborough (no parking; they suggest you bike there)
Scarborough Marsh, Scarborough

I don't know how much biking or low-tide accessibility we'll have. For that matter, we're only supposed to bird for part of the day and go to the L.L. Bean in Freeport (aka The Mother Ship, per AB) to get me a new coat and some rain pants for Cape May (as well as for work--it's always raining, and I sell door-to-door). So we'll probably hit the most accessible places. Does anyone have suggestions for a must-see place in that area between Portsmouth NH and Freeport ME? Scarborough Marsh apparently has an Audubon center. We may go there.

After all that birding and driving, we'll be going to AB's hometown of Bethel ME, to see all her old haunts and her grandma.

I wonder if we'll see any Atlantic Puffins. Their range appears to be a bit farther north, and I think they're fairly pelagic during non-breeding time.

I'm really excited to see the rocky coastline. We're coming back via I-91 to see the fall foliage, and we're stopping in Greenfield to look around that area (a potential place to go after AB's done with grad school). It's going to be a whirlwind trip, but it'll be fun!

Best video ever!

2010-09-22T18:25:00.003-04:00

Julie Zickefoose's monarch caterpillar/chrysalis/butterfly photos, made into a video by NPR.

This video is beautiful. It reminds me the chrysalis I watched one year. Remember? Pure magic.

Now, I always look on milkweed plants, hoping to find another chrysalis to watch. I've never found another one, though.

They've been posting a lot on the Cape May site about the thousands of monarchs they're getting there right now. I wish I were there!

Testing, testing 1-2-3

2010-09-21T20:50:00.005-04:00

Early this evening, I saw this Red-tailed Hawk perched in a tree by the road and thought I'd test out my new camera. I was hoping to get him while he perched, illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun but, as always happens, he heard and saw me coming (though I was way down at the bottom of a hill and he was on a tree up top) and took off. The thing is, I always think, "there's no way this big predator will even notice me down here!" but raptors are far more skittish than I give them credit for. I've learned to turn on the camera before I even get close to these roadside raptors so they don't hear it coming on, but perhaps I need to zoom before as well. Still, I was able to catch this dark silhouette; I really like the beak profile.

Later, I headed to Bald Eagle State Park after work to see if I could spot some migrating geese or anything overhead in the fast-fading light. I figured there'd be nothing in the water, as we've had absolutely beeeeyoootiful days lately so no birds would be forced down by the rain and cloud cover. I've seen and heard a few Vs of Canada Geese in the last few days.

As predicted, there wasn't one bird on the lake; overhead, nothing. I chose as my vantage point a pull-off that overlooks the majority of the lake and the marina. I've seen Common Loons at the marina before, but tonight there were none. No mergansers; no Mallards even. Nothing. I heard the mewling of a Gray Catbird and the chipping call of a Northern Cardinal. The only other sound was the roar of passing cars.

Still, the evening wasn't a total loss:
The full moon shines on the 23rd, but this is pretty close to full. I put the camera on my tripod and played around with several of the modes on the camera, from Night Portrait to Starry Sky. Starry Sky mode was actually an adjustable long-exposure setting, with 15-, 30-, and 60-second settings. Here's what the moonlight flecks on the water looked like on fairly fast exposure:Here's what it looks like with 15 seconds of exposure:
I'm wondering if that's the setting that one would use to catch moving water, like a waterfall, with that blurry motion effect.

All in all, the camera performed quite well in the low light. I was pleased with the fast focusing and shutter speed on the raptor photo; the backlighting was inevitable, given where the bird flew and the time of day. I'm feeling more comfortable with the camera too. I need to learn more about the different modes and what works best for what scenarios, but the automatic mode pretty much rocked.

Morning birding at Scotia IBA

2010-09-19T17:13:00.003-04:00

I got out to the Barrens this morning around 7:45 or so, though the birds were quiet until the sun hit the trees around 8:30 or so. I had the pleasure of birding with a local listserv guy named Drew, which was nice as he helped ID many more birds than I could've done on my own. It's funny; I appreciate the help of other birders because I am able to key in on and see more birds that way. But at the same time, I often wonder how many I could've ID'd or even seen on my own. It's like taking a test when someone's whispering the answers; you appreciate the help but you know it's still cheating! But it's hard to bird alone at an IBA like Scotia Barrens; everyone's out there to see the warblers that are sweeping through right now.

So my list was improved quite a lot with Drew's help, but I tried to hold my own and spotted the Chimney Swift, Red-bellied and Downy woodpeckers, and Song Sparrow. I also ID'd my first Cape May Warbler just before I met Drew. Here's my list:
Wild Turkey 8
Cooper's Hawk 1
Chimney Swift 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 5
Blue Jay X
American Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
American Robin 10
Gray Catbird X
Cedar Waxwing 12
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Cape May Warbler 4
Hooded Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 5
Song Sparrow 2
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

I didn't list any bird I didn't actually see myself; Drew called a Black-and-White, a Black-throated Green, and a Blackburnian as well as some Purple Finches that I either missed completely or just saw as dark silhouettes against the cloudy sky (he heard the chipping calls of the PUFIs and BTGW). The rest I got decent looks at, but no photos. Trying to shoot warblers with a familiar camera is tough enough; trying it with a new camera that I'm not familiar with was impossible.

This was the only pic I got:It's not good to see a feral (I presume) cat out at an important birding area, but the cat didn't really move from this spot the whole morning. I didn't see him chasing any birds or anything.

We seem to be having a banner year for Cape May Warblers, based on the listserv buzz. Last year we had a lot of crossbills but I never saw them (always missed them by minutes, it seemed), so I'm glad I've seen so many CMWAs. It's interesting how we seem to get irruptions here every year; we've had a Snowy Owl year (my first year of birding here; never saw one), phalarope years (with Wilson's and Red-necked this year), and now the CMWAs. We've also had some great Horned Lark/Larkspur spp. years.

In non-birding Sunday news: my Cowboys lost AGAIN. And played like crap AGAIN. Hmph.

It's coming!

2010-09-14T21:26:00.002-04:00

Previews of coming attractions:

First, I finally pulled the trigger on getting a new camera (again). You'll remember I took the Nikon back and now am awaiting a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35. I am hoping it's the camera of my dreams; I'm very excited. Thanks to John for his advice and emails about it.

Second, I'm also excited to say I FINALLY got a butterfly guide! AB got me the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies! She also got me RTP's All Things Reconsidered, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything, and Jeffrey Glassberg's Butterflies of North America. (In case you're wondering, it's my birthday tomorrow.) I'm super-pumped about these books and will fill you in on their greatness as I read them. She said she wasn't sure about whether I'd like the Glassberg guide or the Audubon guide better; I'm thinking the Audubon one is far more complete. But both are beautiful! I may trade the Glassberg guide for a moths guide! (although that's a lot of different stuff to ID!)

Finally, our trip to Maine is a lock; we'll be driving up to the southern Maine coast to do some birding (I just want to see an Eider or a Oldsquaw or something!), then up to her grandma's house, then over to her parents' house in New Hampshire. Then we'll be coming back down at peak fall-foliage time. Cool!

Fall warbling

2010-09-06T10:50:00.005-04:00

I awoke this morning before even the ever-present House Sparrows had begun to twitter: 5:55 a.m. This is not a good time for me, but I wanted to go along on a local birding club field tour of the Scotia Barrens, an IBA near State College. The trip was led by Joe Verica, a really nice guy and an excellent birder.

The temperature was in the mid-40s when I met the group; we'd arrived way too early to see much. Until the sun was well up around 8 or so, we basically trudged along the main road, freezing, and listening to American Crows, American Robins, and Blue Jays. Joe said that once the sun got warmer and lit up the trees, we'd see more; he also gave us an interesting tip: listen for Black-capped Chickadees, as warblers tend to move in mixed flocks. I don't know if that's a universal truth, but it turned out to be true for the Barrens.

We finally started seeing little groups of warblers, mostly the same ones over and over. I did see one lifer: Cape May Warbler! Yippee! I'd been wanting to see one of those for a while, as they are almost as beautiful as my favorite Blackburnian Warbler. Most of the individuals were already in their muted fall plumage: I noted that most of the streaky-breasted warblers only have the black streaks on the flanks; the Cape May's streaks start at the throat and go down all the way across the breast. It's hard to tell in this one, but the streaks do go across the breast.

Later, I did get to see a male who was still hanging on to his fancy breeding suit, but I didn't get a photo of him. Once again, I forgot to put the memory card into my old Kodak camera, so I didn't take too many pictures. Plus I was trying to focus on the birds themselves, trying to ID each on my own. It's been a while since I took my guide out into the field, but the Sibley is small and easy to carry and I really wanted to study each bird.

Here's the complete list:
Broad-winged Hawk - the first time I've seen one perched! Beautiful.
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher--what he was doing deep in the woods, I don't know.
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch--these guys looked especially pale today, as opposed to the blue-gray. I didn't see anything about that in Sibley, but they were definitely paler gray than I've ever seen before
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Gray Catbird--am I the only one who always wants to tell these guys to shut up so I can hear the real birds?
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler--LIFER #278!
Pine Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Eastern Towhee--their "drink your tea" was reduced to a simple "tea!" today
Rose-breasted Grosbeak--a streaky female, puffed up for warmth
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

So that was my morning. My feet and hands are still pretty cold, but it's a bit chilly in the apartment. I wonder whether, after having spent last fall and winter in south Texas, I might have some trouble this winter re-acclimating to the northern winter. Granted, today I was only wearing two layers, one short-sleeved and one long-sleeved tee. (I should've worn a sweatshirt, at least.) Still, I was just so cold! My hands were probably the worst; I just couldn't get them warm, even though I kept them in my pockets or rubbed them together constantly. It's rare that I've had to use gloves while birding, but I might invest in some thinsulate-lined gloves for my fall/winter birding. I have a couple pairs of mittens, but no gloves. Mittens while birding are kinda bulky, by the way, but warm!

...I just put on two layers of socks and some sweats--much better! Quite toasty now! Of course, it'll be hot soon. And it's going to be in the 80s again tomorrow--just in time for work.

Sigh.

Last day of the Nikon P100

2010-09-04T21:59:00.008-04:00

I took the Nikon camera back today; I felt like the zoom was too much zoom to be practical. To illustrate, here's a full zoom, hand-held:The focus is just too soft. So I tried using my tripod. This image, though the subject was much closer, isn't really that much better:The details really aren't that much better even though I sharpened it a bit. Here too:See?

Also, I wasn't happy with the zoom toggle. I like the kind of zoom where you push a button on one side for zoom and the other size for unzoom. This camera has what most cameras have now: a toggle on the shutter button. I tried getting used to it, but I just don't like it. It doesn't have finesse either--I push the toggle and it goes to like halfway zoom; there's not really a "nudge" factor to the zoom. You get whoa! zoom, no matter how lightly you push the toggle. Don't like that.

So I took it back. I looked at all the other cameras again, at several different places, but I didn't find anything I liked. I'm just going to have to order one online again--which I've done both times I bought cameras before. I have good recommendations from people. I'll just have to see which one looks right.

Here are some last photos of two different Eastern Phoebes:I kinda like this one; look at those tiny skinny legs on this Eastern Phoebe. Here's another one:
The legs on this one don't look nearly as fine and fragile. Juvey vs. adult? Or just optical illusion?

Here's a list of the birds I saw today, out at Bald Eagle State Park:
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Osprey 2
Caspian Tern 2 (Long observation of two Caspian Terns--noted field marks: very red bill, black cap, pale gray wings with black on undersides of wing tips. Watched the two birds plunge-dive for food for several minutes. Compared in Sibley field guide to Royal Tern--certain of Caspian because wings were dark underneath, unlike mostly white underwings of Royal.)
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
American Crow 6
Cliff Swallow 1
Gray Catbird 4
Chipping Sparrow 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

New books, MORE new things to learn

2010-08-31T22:02:00.005-04:00

I've been rather frustrated with my inability to ID shorebirds with any kind of confidence, so I finally knuckled down and got a couple of new books: The Shorebird Guide, by Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley, and Kevin Karlson -- the shorebird bible! -- and (finally!) the Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, and (just for my masochistic side) Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World by James Cowan Greenway (books like this always just make me sad and angry). That last one hasn't arrived yet, but the first two arrived yesterday and I am THRILLED so far with what I've seen!

First, I dove into the shorebird guide. From the Introduction on, I was learning new things, like the fact that woodcocks and snipe are shorebirds. Yeah, I didn't know that. Still don't really get it, either. But when I read the section on woodcocks and snipe, I'm hoping to understand more!

Both books, especially the shorebird book, stress shape as a critically important aspect of identification. The best part? I went to the CMBO View from the Cape site and just clicked on some shorebird photos they had without looking at the ID info. Two straight birds, I only looked at the silhouettes on the back flap, and I ID'd them both! Granted, they weren't peeps--one was a Marbled Godwit and the other was a Willet; both have distinctive shapes. Still, it was a thrill for a dummy like me!

I'm getting to the Sibley, but probably not until the weekend. AB will be in Baltimore visiting our new niece, so I'll just basically be birding my little heart out and studying my books!

I'm really looking forward to studying hard and taking notes, especially with the Cape May Autumn Weekend coming up. I'm hoping to do a little ID on my own, instead of just following the guides around and letting them do all the work. Plus the big bunker pond at the lighthouse is always a great place to look for peeps and other shorebirds, and I really want to be able to be more than just a beginning birder.

New camera, new things to learn

2010-08-31T21:05:00.011-04:00

I'd been thinking about getting a new camera for a while now, after noticing that the auto-focus on my Kodak was just not that sharp anymore, nor was the color so crisp and wonderful, and after getting tired of not having the LCD (it took some sort of impact in CA and went black).

So after asking around, and pricing things on Amazon, and trying some cameras in the stores, I ended up with a Nikon Coolpix 100. I like it so far! The macro mode is pretty awesome:The macro mode on my Kodak never worked well at all. With this camera, like my old Nikon Coolpix 4800, the macro lets you get right up in the nostrils of your subject.

It also has (get this) 26x zoom!!!! Holy hand grenade, I was zooming all over the place on Saturday morning when I went birding! I got a photo of this Red-eyed Vireo who was wwaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy up there in a tree but unfortunately half-hidden behind a branch:But I would've gotten him had he not hidden!

I didn't see too many other birds that day; that's what happens when you go looking for warblers at around 11 a.m. Seems I recall something about an "early bird," but whatever. Tra la la!

I also saw this little damselfly:Looks a lot like that slenderwing I snapped a couple of weeks ago.

I also took a photo of the tiniest little cicada EVER:At least I think it's a cicada. It could just be some sort of fly. But it looks cicada-like!

Speaking of cool-looking bugs, look at this one:That's some very vivid coloring!

Now the focus on these macro shots is not as tack-sharp as I'd like; I think I need a little more practice on that. Plus I find that as I get older, I'm a lot shakier than I used to be. Maybe I should use a tripod for these kinds of shots?

Here's another macro shot: a photo of a daisy from the courtyard garden at our apartments. The gardener is a crazy lady who lives in the next apartment; she's one of those 70-ish "spinster" women who never got married and have no friends and who's been alone wwwaaaaayyyyy too long and thus cannot interact with others in anything resembling culturally accepted ways. She once asked me why I was picking dandelions out of the yard; I told her they were for my rabbit. That evening, we got a note taped to the door, stating unequivocally that rabbits in the yard were completely forbidden according to our lease -- which she then quoted extensively!-- despite the fact that Niblet NEVER leaves the apartment, much less wanders around the yard eating Crazy-Lady's plantings. The next day, she accused me of breaking her morning glory vines, claiming she'd "seen me" in the yard. Well, you know what a plant-hating vagrant I am! I told her I didn't touch her vine, wouldn't break her vine ever, etc.--she said, "Oh I know it was you! I saw you!" Wow. So I just said, "hey, think what you like. It wasn't me," and walked off.

FREAK!

She also plays her TV at FULL VOLUME every single morning from 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Sometimes, I just want to leave her a note quoting our lease and stating that I'm legally allowed to kill her if she doesn't turn down that damned TV. I figure if I put it in quotes, she'll take it seriously.

Anyway -- sorry to get off on a tangent! Back to the camera. I'm not sure whether I like the quality of the autofocus. Is is me, or is the focus on this shot of mallards a bit soft?I wasn't zooming much at all here. This is cropped but not otherwise edited. The focus looks a little soft to me. Or am I just going blind? It's also possible that the focal point (which you can set on this camera) was just too small or whatever. Or too big.

I need to shoot some more tomorrow (somewhere in there between working and working) and make a final decision on whether I want to keep the camera. The place where I bought it has a 14-day return policy as long as nothing is wrong with the camera, so I've been very careful during my testing process.

If this one doesn't suit me, I will probably just buy one like Mary's. Her photos are always incredible, and I'm hoping some of her magic will rub off on me.

If anyone else can suggest a good medium-priced ($250-400) point-and-shoot that (1)isn't just one of those little snappy brick-looking ones (i.e., this) and that (2)has a manual mode so I can pretend I know something about f-stop, etc. -- please suggest in the comments! And it's (3)gotta have good zoom and macro modes!

Baird's Sandpiper!

2010-08-24T21:12:00.006-04:00

Never thought I'd see a Baird's Sandpiper this far EAST -- they migrate south through the Great Plains west of the Mississippi -- but we've had one here at nearby Bald Eagle State Park for the last couple of days, and today I was able to get up there and see it!

Here are the best of my crappy photos; it was an overcast and misty day:

Here's the bird with what I first thought was a Semipalmated but someone else called a Least Sandpiper that was working the swimmer's beach alongside the Baird's:I just didn't pay much attention to the little guy, but he was small and brown, a lot like a Least.

Here's what a real photographer, listserv buddy Ron Crandall, did with the same bird, a much better camera, and getting a lot closer to the bird.

I also saw more Eastern Kingbirds and Eastern Bluebirds than I could count; they were everywhere and the bluebirds were VERY excited, chasing one another in what seemed liked territory-protection displays. These two were hanging out on a pavilion after chasing each other in super-tight formation. The funny part was their plumage. Do adults molt most of their blue off, or were ALL the birds I saw first-year juveniles? Because they ALL looked like this: speckled like starlings on the breast/shoulders, blue only on wing and tail tips.

Here's my complete list, courtesy of eBird:
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
Eastern Kingbird
American Crow
Barn Swallow
Eastern Bluebird
Gray Catbird
Chipping Sparrow (I was delighted to see an adult feeding a juvenile as they foraged on the ground. No pics, though! Couldn't get a good shot in time.)
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow