San Antonio birding, day 1, part 1--updated!

It was an overcast morning yesterday, threatening rain and then later delivering; still, sister Mary and I got up before the sun and hit the birding trail. Also along was our niece Olivia, her first time birding. She was skeptical, but you know how it goes: first they mock, rolling their eyes dramatically, saying, "yeah, I GUESS I'll come along." Then they yawn and say, "this is gonna be soooo booorrrring!" Then you get to your destination, and they see their first non-House Sparrow. In our case, Olivia's first bird was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron who was VERY used to human presence. That was it; she was hooked. We watched its movements, laughed at its brazen disregard for our presence.

Now she wants her own binocs. SNAP!

Our first stop was a new location for us, Live Oak City Park, on the northeastern side of San Antonio. It's a great park, with huge grassy expanses, a nice-sized "lake," and good trails. We all got soaked and mosquito-bitten, but we had a great time with the birds, toads, grasshoppers, butterflies, and moths. Our list for this location:

Muscovy Duck
Mallard, 5--One mallard was VERY blond; photos to follow
Blue-winged Teal, 2
duck sp., 2--One had a bluish bill but no stiff tail like a Ruddy, also had a whitish stripe down his forehead. Photos to follow.
Great Blue Heron, 1
Great Egret, 3--these birds were also used to humans all around
Little Blue Heron, 2-- one molting juvenile, white with a few blue streaks along his back. Photos below. The adult was all blue, no reddish neck or cresty feathers evident at all. However, the adult was on a small snag, watching the juvenile feed in the shallows.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, 1--Olivia's spark bird
Black Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk, 2--The first was being harassed in-flight by a Great-tailed Grackle, the second by a Northern Mockingbird. Poor raptors!
Killdeer
White-winged Dove
Inca Dove, 2--Pair attempting cloacal kiss on the road just at the entrance to the park! We all respectfully averted our eyes.
Chimney Swift, 5
hummingbird sp., 2--mystery species. VERY buffy, no evident green or red coloring at all. Birds were together, feeding and buzzing around. Juveniles?
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Couch's Kingbird, 1--ID'd by his call; photo below. LIFER!
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, 3--it's ridiculous how common these guys are.
Blue Jay
American Crow
Purple Martin--nice!
Barn Swallow (thanks, Hap!)
Mexican Cliff Swallow (thanks, Hap and Curlygirl!)
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Northern Cardinal
Dickcissel, 1--LIFER! Singing in a treetop just for me. Photo to follow.
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
Sparrow spp.--too many to even ID. It was all I could do to handle the rest of the birds. Most looked like house sparrows, but I'd be willing to bet there were some others mixed in. Still, I just didn't have my sparrow-fu working yesterday.

Okay, now for the photos!

In the rear is the Muscovy Duck which I've decided, owing to the not-so-secretive behavior and his bright red knobby facial area, is probably just a domestic Muscovy, which means no lifer. Dangit. Apparently, the true "wild" Muscovy's knob would be "blackish to dark reddish;" it's "usually brighter red in domestic male"). So much for that. I guess I should've known a true wild Muscovy wouldn't be found at a city park in San Antonio, right? My field guide says that a "nest box program in northeastern Mexico helped spread of wild Muscovies to Rio Grande area..." (info courtesy of my National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America). Oh well. One of these days, I'll go birding in the Mexican jungles and see one of these guys for real.

Continuing with this same photograph, what do you think of the brownish duck in front? Note the white on the face and on the neck. For a second, I thought I had a female Wood Duck, but I quickly dismissed that notion based on the lack of prominence of that white ring around the eye. I'm guessing this duck is a mutt; no ducks in my guide have those white markings. What do you think?

Here's the brave little Yellow-crowned Night Heron, who came within ten feet of where I was standing and looking at swallows.

I finally saw a Dicksissel!

This was the only photo I got of the two buff-colored hummingbirds I saw:Juveniles? Lesbians?

Ah, the swallows. They were abundant and confusing! I think many of them were quite young, and I have no experience really studying or IDing them other than easy Tree and Barn Swallows, so I took about a million photos. The best shots I got were of these fellows and ladies sitting on a fence, being cool.I thought some of them were Cliff Swallows, some might be Cave Swallows.... uh.... UPDATE: Per Hap's and Curlygirl's comments, I checked out some more info on Cliff or Mexican Cliff Swallows, and I agree with them that the different-looking guy to the right of the post is a juvenile (Mexican) Cliff Swallow and the rest of these guys are just plain old Barn Swallows (though I didn't check their immigration status). So I don't think I got any lifers here.

Here's one in flight--I was lucky to get a camera on him at all. What the heck is this? I didn't see any banded tails in my field guide!

Here's one in isolation. Note the whitish on his back--young bird?

The whole gang, looking tough.

Just half of them, including one who is obviously aware of my presence.

The other half. Is that evidence of a gape I see on the the two on the right? And whitish. Like I said, juveniles, I suspect.

After a while, I think they got sick of me taking their picture:Do you mind????

Moving on:The girls.

Couch's Kingbird, ID'd based on its call. Lifer!

Blue-winged Teal male

The blond Mallard with his friend? Mate? Brother?

A juvie Little Blue Heron. His mom/dad was also around, but she flew before I got a pic.

Seriously. Cut it out.

So that was two lifers. I took tons of other photos of butterflies, etc., but this post is already straining at its seams.

I mean it. Beat it! Tell your story walkin'! OUT!

New Paltz birding

The weekend in New Paltz, NY, was nice! It was really hot and humid, but we had a good time. I finally got to meet AB's parents and her sister CB and CB's hubby SB, which was really fun. Her mom and I immediately began nerding-out over wildflowers, sharing photos and stories of Pink Lady's Slippers. We celebrated AB's birdday too, with a delicious orange-chocolate cake that AB's mom made. Lots of good food, great conversation, and family love made the weekend pretty spectacular.

I took a few photos too, though not many bird photos came out. Still, my list was decent for the Wallkill Rail Trail:
Canada Goose X
Mourning Dove X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing 2
Yellow Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
House Finch X
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow X

as well as for the yard at the rental home we stayed in:
Canada Goose 35
Mute Swan 1
Mallard 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 8
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 2
Barn Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 2
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
House Finch 2
House Sparrow X

I FINALLY saw my FOY Indigo Bunting, one of my favorite birds.

Now I'm in my old bedroom in Texas at my parents' house. I'm planning to do as much birding as possible down here, but as I pored over my field guide on the plane I noted that there aren't as many great birds here in the summer as there are in winter! Still, I'm planning to bird City Park and perhaps the Botanical Gardens here in San Antonio, then MAYBE a trip to Hornsby Bend near Austin, and then a swing south to Kingsville and the coast (Kaufer-Hubert Memorial Park, on Baffin Bay) to see my brother Ricardo.

Chances are good that I'll see at least some of these potential lifers:
Painted Bunting! Finally! I hope!
Northern Bobwhite
Neotropic Cormorant
King Rail (maybe--rails are tough)
Clapper Rail (maybe)
Wilson's Plover
Sandwich Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Least Tern
Sooty Tern (maybe!)
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (if we go into the King Ranch near Kingsville)
Lesser Nighthawk
Green Violet-Ear (hummingbird--I pray!)
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Bank Swallow
Cave Swallow
Summer Tanager
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Dicksissel!
Pyrrhuloxia (maybe)

I've been checking the local eBird reports, Rare Bird Alerts, etc., to get an idea of what's being seen out there. If I see half of these guys, I'll be happy. I'll really be flirting with the magical 300 lifebirds if I see them all, but I'm trying to be more realistic (not my strong suit, as you know).

So I'll be updating you all week from here in the Lone Star State. And ohmigod, it is even hotter here than I was afraid it would be.

Holiday weekend recap

Had a great Memorial Day weekend, birding and looking for wildflowers in the Toftrees State Gamelands and Black Moshannon State Park.

Black Mo has some of the oldest growth forest land in Pennsylvania, and it's located on the Allegheny Front, fabled western gate to the Appalachians. As such, it's normally cooler than the rest of the area (I recall a camping trip one August with Kat and Em wherein we FROZE... in August.), but this weekend we had record high temperatures and humidity, so it was pretty rough going. Still, I saw my first ever Pink Lady's Slipper!We saw four of them, including one that someone had PICKED and put into the crook of a tree trunk, presumably for later. Aren't they protected from picking?

We saw a lot of great sights. Do you see what I see here?Here they are again:Aren't they the cutest!?

After that, it was all wildflowers a-go-go!

English Plantain

Blurrifically terrible photo of Butter-and-eggs

whoops--now how did this shot get in there? That's Owen, being a sweet brother and grooming his sister Maya!

a baby trillium of some sort--can't wait to see!

Bunchberry

Indian Cucumber-root, which is really delicate and beautiful, no?

Jack-in-the-pulpit

our state flower, the Mountain Laurel

Orange Hawkweed, or Devil's Paintbrush

Partridge-berry and a white Canada Mayflower

Starflower

White Baneberry, and here's the beautiful little flower bunch:Pretty sure on this ID based on leaves and flowers, but I'm always open to smarter and more experienced flower minds!

Yellow Pond Lily, right?

I still haven't seen Dutchman's Breeches and it's kinda late in the season for them now, so I'm bummed about that. But I've seen and ID'd a lot of flowers! It's cool to photograph flowers: they don't move, but it's always tough to focus on the flowers themselves rather than the background or foreground.

So that was Sunday. Then on Monday, I went with some local Bird Club members to a place I've walked around but never birded seriously, the state gamelands in Toftrees (a ritzier part of town). Saw some great birds, though no lifers. Still, the birds are in full breeding plumage and brighter than ever!

A Great-crested Flycatcher:Their heads are so funky-shaped.

Here's another flycatcher: This Eastern Kingbird was hanging out about ten feet below the oriole above:You can't see his funky-shaped flycatcher head, but it's there.

The Baltimore Orioles were almost on fire with their bright orange feathers:We saw a few orioles, all of them this absolutely knock-out glowing orange. Awesome!

Also saw some good flowers:Smartweed

POISON HEMLOCK! I always see this stuff and figure it's young Queen Anne's Lace, but it's not. It's all poisonous, the entire flower and plant. Look out.

Kinda cliche, no? Sadly, I couldn't get some direct sunlight glinting on the drops though; otherwise, it'd be a Hallmark card or something.

Barren Strawberries in their not-so-tasty-fruit stage:

An Eastern Painted Turtle:Check out that attitude!

We saw a lot of fouled nests, some with still-soft raw yolks and stuff in the broken eggs:I think all of these were probably disasters rather than hatches, sadly.

So that was the trip. AB was sweet and came along, but a group walk without binocs can be tough--and boring. As her birdday is coming up (Monday), I'm getting her some bins! She says she's excited, and I think it's gonna be so fun really birding with her!

A-traveling we will go!

My niece Bronte will be graduating from high school June 9, so I'll be making a special trip to Texas for a week! I'll be there from June 7-12, and sister-pal Mary will be taking the week off too, so you can bet there will be LOTS of Texas birding to be done! I might see that Golden-Cheeked Warbler yet!

Before that, though, AB and I will be driving up to New Paltz, NY, to stay in a vacation rental home with her parents and her sister and brother-in-law on the weekend before I go to Texas, so there will be more out-of-PA birding to do there! AB's mom is a big hiker and wildflower lover, so I'm hoping to see lots of photo-worthy sights!

In the meantime, I'll be squeezing in some birding whenever I can.

This past weekend, I walked in a fundraising walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. My friend Amy's daughter Zoe was diagnosed before she turned 2, and another friend's son was diagnosed at age 5. I also have a friend named Molly whose daughter Lucy was diagnosed. All these kids were young and active, otherwise healthy, until suddenly they weren't anymore. Once doctors figured out what was wrong, their lives have been better, but they deal with daily "I've gotta check your sugar" requests, finger-sticks, insulin shots/pumps, and dietary control. So walking a couple of laps around Beaver Stadium and raising some money was the least I could do. Speaking of which...

Thank you, Susan of the blog Lake Life, one of the original Flock members! for your online donation! And to my old Domino's Pizza pal and Facebook friend Chris Stant for your online donation! (I worked at Domino's Pizza for a year before moving up to PA back in 2003.)

So--vacation plans are firming up, my new job at MegaCorp is going well (9 sales for the month so far, which is really good!), and life is sweet with Niblet and the kitties. By the way, think good thoughts for little Owen, who's spending the night at the vet in preparation for having his teeth cleaned and a bad tooth removed tomorrow. I know just how he feels.

Here's a pic of all three babies in happier times:That's Owen, looking cool for the camera in the gray, Maya on the left -- no doubt headed for the food bowl -- and Nib working on some fresh timothy in the back.

Digiscoping brainstorm!

What if, instead of using a spotting scope for digiscoping, you used a monocular? Admittedly, the zoom capabilities would be lessened; for instance, if you used a 10x25 monocular, you wouldn't get the same zoom capacity as if you used a typical zoom setting of between 20 and 30x (the lower end of a spotting scope's ability, as recommended by digiscoping god Mike McDowell). Still, it might be a viable (not to mention low-cost) alternative to the big spotting scopes.

Oh wait... what about mounting to a tripod? Perhaps there is something that could be done to join the monocular--or WAIT! the camera!--to the tripod! Of course!

I love thinking out loud on my bloggy because everyone offers great advice! So please feel free to offer some advice.

The monoculars I'm considering. Note the large eyepiece lens on the cheaper one--critical for alignment of camera lens for digiscoping.

The digiscoping adapter I'm considering.

What do you think?

Speed-birding

After work this evening, I speed-birded a couple of spots today: the Scotia Barrens and the Julian Wetlands. I only had twenty minutes to a half-hour in each place, so it was pretty quick.

I went back to Julian because people have seen as many as four Red-necked Phalaropes there in the last few days! That would mark the last phalarope for my lifelist, having seen the Red Phalarope in Texas and the Wilson's here at Julian--in my opinion, the most striking of the three. I didn't see the phalarope, but I did get some good pics at both places.

I Birdjammed a Brown Creeper! Look:
See him there, on that diagonal slash-scar on the bark near the middle of the tree? No?

How about now? I realize it's just a blurry bird-shape, but I was working the Birdjam and the camera at the same time, and it was evening light. Here's a little hint:
I'm just glad I got him. (That IS the bird, right? it's not just a branch?) I know it was the actual bird; I called him in, watched him flit from trunk to trunk, traded little call phrases with him. It was awesome!

I also saw some nice flowers:

No idea what this flowering tree is, but the flowers smelled just like orange blossoms.

Forget-me-nots at the Julian Wetlands

Wild Geranium (I think)at the Barrens

Barren Strawberry! (I think) The leaves and flower type/color match.

And look at this little guy, a (I think) Long Dash Skipper

One of the things I love about being in the woods is seeing young trees, just starting their lives, fighting for sun and water and life:

young aspen

young maple

young oak

I also saw this little couple, pondering the future of their family:I wonder what they're thinking about.

Two additional lifers

Well, it seems that the powers that be in South Texas have decided that my Song Sparrow was really a Lincoln's. I guess I see their point; with all that gray on his sides, he makes an odd Song Sparrow.

I feel a little strange about calling the Lincoln's a lifer, kinda like I was hesitant to call the American Pipit I photographed but couldn't necessarily ID a lifer. But I've changed my mind, thanks in part to Beth in NYC's comment that just because I couldn't ID a bird right off doesn't change the fact that I saw it. God knows my ID skills are those of a relative beginner when compared with guys like John at A DC Birding Blog or my major birdy hero Julie Zickefoose.

So I'm going to count these birds, the Lincoln's Sparrow and the American Pipit, and I'm going to hope that I recognize them right off the next time I see them. That brings my ABA lifelist number to a whopping 269, which really pleases me.

But you know what?

I'd love to have to see a lot of those 269 birds over again--especially the ones I don't see every day. I'm gonna try to get in some early morning birding this week or weekend because I'd really like to see some warblers. I've been focused a lot on wetland/shorebirds, and my warbler skills have suffered.