Daily Birding

Banding in Louisiana

2012-01-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

Just got back from banding in Louisiana for the last two days with an awesome bunch of people from Madison Central High School in Madison, MS. Also present and helping out were some grad students from LSU. Highlights were lots of Henslow's Sparrows, and a Le Conte's Sparrow, and one very cool Bachman's Sparrow. The trip was a great success. Very fun.

Linnaeus' description of the Geese

2011-12-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading about John Vanderpoel's big year effort this year. He recently made a joke on his blog about the Greylag Goose, a bird he's been expending a great effort to see. He says it's so boring it was probably described by Linnaeus himself. So I thought I would look up the original description. Linnaeus did name it, and he didn't seem to write to glowing about this bird any more than John V. did. Linnaeus was incredible stingy with words in his descriptions. You can hardly blame him though, when one is attempting to describe every living on the planet you're bound to want to keep things terse. Unfortunately the byproduct of this and given that everything is in latin makes it really hard to figure out what the heck old Carl was actually describing. Here's a little flavor of that. From his description of the Greylag, Canada Goose and Brant.

This is the description of the Greylag from 1758 from Systema Naturae, 10th edition vol 1, Basically everything that follows excluding my comments of course is translated from latin. This was done by me and somewhat poorly, so I apologize.

"[Anas] Anser A. Beak semicylindrical, the body gray above, pale below, the neck striped."

He goes on to list three subspecies labeled alpha, beta and gamma: Anas Anser Ferus [wild goose], Anas Anser domesticus [domestic goose] and my personal favorite Anser canadensis maculatus [Brown stained canadian goose] which I think is either supposed to be a Brant or a Canada Goose, I'm not really sure since he has descriptions of both of these species on their own.

He describes the brown-stained canadian goose and it gets a little confusing:

Neck striped. Spontaneous white ring below base of bill; migrates (or moves) by phalanges (I'm not sure if he means phalanges to be interpreted as "groups" or the bones in the wing also called phalanges); imprisoned threads, males 1, females 4 (not sure why this is there I guess this is some stripe he's describing on the bird where males have 1 stripe and females have 4); from there wing and feathers wooden, spartan to the right.

He has other geese described including the white-fronted goose, which we now treat as at least two species. He called it Anas erythropus. He describes it: cinereus, fronte alba[Gray, white forehead]. He probably lumped the bean goose (which is itself actually 2 species) in with the White-fronted Goose too. The bean goose wasn't described to science until two years later by Malthurin Jacques Brisson.

He describes the Brant under the name Anas Bernicla "Brown, head neck chest black, white collar. Duck head meets black[...] Dwells in northern Europe; migrates above Sweden"

Linnaeus also lists Anas canadensis [Canada duck] which he provides with the synonym Anser canadensis [Canadian Goose]. This description is much nicer. He describes it in six words fusca capite colloque nigro gula alba [brown, black head meets with white throat]... then some references and then "Dwells in Canada."

So basically the take away from this is that Linnaeus was pretty inconsitent with his descriptions, didn't include a lot of detail, and the result is that it's hard to tell which of our modern species he was actually talking about just by reading the descriptions. Fortunately the quality of descriptions has increased since then along with our much larger number of known bird species. Given the 10,000 species we know today it would be a huge mess to try to rely on this type of description to tell species apart.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Noxubee

2011-10-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

From last week at Noxubee NWR. This was found by Margaret Copeland, and Terry called me and I went there and refound it with him. County bird 159 for Noxubee County. I just hit 250 for the state yesterday. In Grenada County yesterday I found about 45 Franklin's Gulls (249) and one Dunlin (250!) .

Weekend Warblers

2011-10-03T09:00:00.001-07:00

Fall migration is slow around these parts compared to other parts of the country (I'm thinking coastal California; Dauphin Island, Alabama; Cape May, New Jersey), so you have to work it pretty hard to get a good warbler/vireo fix. That's precisely what I did this weekend. I got out Friday, Sunday and Monday and with fairly good results.

Wooblahs

American Redstart

Common Yellowthroat

Pine Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Vireos

White-eyed Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo

other transient passerines

Baltimore Oriole

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Pelagic from LA

2011-10-03T05:06:00.001-07:00

Cory's Shearwater
Brown Pelicans
Atlantic Flying fish (Cheilopogon melanurus)
Audubon's Shearwater
Bow-riding bottlenose dolphin.
Bridled Terns
Frigatebird
Black Tern
dark morph Jaeger

Last weekend I went to Venice, LA for a Gulf coast pelagic adventure. It was a hoot! I drove 6+ hours on Saturday afternoon, found a quiet place to lay low, and then slept in the car until 5:30am. The boat left the dock at 6:30. This was my first boat trip into the Gulf, so I was excited about the possibility of seeing some lifers. All the other pelagic trips I've been on have been in the Pacific ocean. There are a slew of species that occur in gulf that don't occur in the Eastern Pacific. The bird activity was low for the most part. Near shore there were a a lot of terns and marsh birds and that sort of thing, but there was a long lull before we saw any pelagic birds. My understanding is that you need to hit clear blue water before you tend to find anything pelagic. Getting to blue water took about 3 hours from when we left port, and when we got there it wasn't exactly swarming with birds. The birds we did get were some quality species nonetheless. I ended up with 4 lifers after 13 hours on the water, which I'll take any day:

Bridled Tern

Audubon's Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater

Sooty Tern

The drive back was brutal since I had to be back by 8am monday morning I elected to drive back on Sunday night. I drank copious caffeine and still struggled to keep my eyes peeled open. The boat pulled into the dock around 7pm or so, meaning the six plus-hour drive got me home around 2AM, then up a few hours later at 6:30 for my Entomology class. Ouch.

Upland Sandpiper

2011-05-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

Terry called me this afternoon to let me know about an Upland Sandpiper at North Farm that he'd found. This isn't the best photo, but this guy wouldn't let me get within 100 yards unless it was 100 yards over my head.

"Dickcissel" is a funny word

2011-04-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

They are a cute bird though. These two are from Adrian's field sites. I went with him to see his fields sites and help out with some fire ant sampling.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

2011-04-26T15:25:00.001-07:00

Lots of birds at North Farm this afternoon. Including a handful first of the year birds: Singing Baltimore Oriole, Magnolia warbler and this shy Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus).

Beautiful day for bugs

2011-04-17T12:42:00.001-07:00

Perfect day outside today. It's about 75 and sunny fairly low wind. I headed over to North Farm as usual around 11 to look for butterflies. It was absolutely gorgeous. Bird activity was very low. Lots of odenates about. Decent butterfly activity. I managed to pick out a Common Wood Satyr from the ubiquitous Carolina Satyrs. Odenate highlight was an attractive female Ebony Jewel wing (Calopteryx maculata) not much on the butterfly side of things. Falcate orangetips seem to have disappeared already.

Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata). Very cool bug.

Monarch on Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)
You belong to the wrong order so I have no idea what you are!

Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri)
Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle (Cincindela sexguttata)

The only bird that would sit still long enough for a photo: Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)

South Farm = Windy weekend

2011-04-04T06:40:00.001-07:00

I went to South Farm on Sunday. Damn it was windy! Didn't stop the Dragonflies from being out, although it was a little trickier to get good looks at the butterflies and birds. I added 1 Oktibbeha County bird: Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata). I have this bird for Clay and Noxubee Counties, but not for Lowndes Co., which as it turns out is my newest county to break 100! I went with Terry to Columbus Lake to look for a Franklin's Gull that he'd found, which had since disappeared, and managed to spot several county birds in the process.

Eastern Pondhawk - Erythemis simplicicolis
Common Whitetail - Libellula lydia
Female Eastern Pondhawk
Damselfly. Not even going to venture a guess.
Bluets?
Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria

Butterflies @ North Farm- Success

2011-04-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

Much more success today with Butterflies at North Farm then last weekend. I had a first of the season Blue-winged Warbler singing in the wood lot too, which was cool. One of my favorite warblers for sure.

Epargyreus clarus - Silver-spotted Skipper
Hylephila phyleus - Fiery Skipper
Papilio glaucus - Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Papilo/Battus sp. - Identified dark Swallowtail sp. (probably Spicebush Swallowtail Papilo troilus)

Anthocharis midea - Falcate Orangetip
Colias philodice - Clouded Sulphur
Colias eurytheme - Orange Sulphur/ Abaeis nicippe Sleepy Orange
Phoebis sennae - Cloudless Sulphur
Cupido comyntas - Eastern Tailed-Blue
Libytheana carinenta - American Snout
Danaus plexippus - Monarch
Phyciodes tharos - Pearl Crescent
Vanessa atalanta - Red Admiral
Anaea andria - Goatweed Leafwing
Hermeuptychia sosybius - Carolina Satyr

Goatweed Leafwing

Female Falcate Orangetip
Male Eastern Tailed Blue
Carolina Satyr
American Snout

Dragonfly. I don't know much about Dragonflies. Best Guess: Lancet Clubtail (Gomphus exilis)
Silver-spotted Skipper

This Monarch didn't want to stop and pose for a photo.

thwarted by rain

2011-03-26T10:26:00.001-07:00

I thought it would make for a nice afternoon to walk to the north farm and look for some migrant warblers and perhaps a butterfly or two. It's about a mile to walk from the apartment to the farm. The temperature was in the low 80 when I stepped out the door. Overhead I could see a large bank of sooty gray clouds moving in from the West. The first drops of rain hit my head half a mile into my walk. I gave up and came back home. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

The only butterfly I saw was this Pearl Crescent (Phycoides tharos)

Old Friends from Texas

2011-03-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Pipevine Swallowtail

Ruddy Turnstone
Snowy Egret and immature White Ibis

One of about 50 Plain Chachalacas at Estero Llano Grande.

Inca Doves
Garter Snakes making baby garter snakes.
Couch's Kingbird
Aztec Dancer (Argia nahuana). What a great name.

Oh crap look at all those feral pigs!

First winter Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
First Yellow-throated Warbler of 2011! He's eating bugs on the outside light of the Ed Brune School Library in Leakey, TX.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilo glaucous) on Mescalbean (Calia secundiflora)
Feral piglet.

Back from Texas

2011-03-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

I added 10 State birds for Texas, but missed all the rarities except one due to windy weather and poor showings. Best bird: Yellow-faced Grassquit! New Texas total: 344. Louisiana is my newest state list. The list is entirely composed of birds I saw from the car. Louisiana total: 14. I had fun with some county birds too. Hidalgo County Texas gets an additional 15 checks to go from a white county (0-99 species) to a blue county (100-124). Real gets 3, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, American Wigeon and Song Sparrow, to go from blue to teal (125-149). Aransas County gets within three of going blue by adding 39!.

I've spent 2 half-days (11-Dec-2010 and 12 Mar 2011) in Aransas, and otherwise have never spent any time within the boundaries of this county. It's amazing I got 97 species in two days in about 8 total hours. Sure people doing big days have done more than twice that in one day, but they have a route picked out, drive like crazy, have intimate details of birding locations, bird in April and scout rarities in advance of the big day. I just showed up and started looking around and had a huge list in no time. Aransas County is really a fantastic place for birds! Best birds for Aransas: Yellow-faced Grassquit and Whooping Crane.

New totals

2011-03-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

My new California list total is 329. Not a bad number. Eventually I'd like to see 400 species in the state. That's a bit of a pipe dream for now, as we're living in the deep south, specifically Mississippi. One perk of living in this part of the world is that Jill and I were able to drive to West Texas in December and see some great birds including three awesome ABA ticks (two of which were lifers). The first was Whooping Crane at Aransas NWR on the Gulf Coast. It's pretty spectacular considering only about 260 individuals exist in the wild. The spot where we saw these birds is the most reliable spot anywhere to find them. Nonetheless it was very cool. The main target of our trip was a Tufted Flycatcher in Big Bend National Park (I love Big Bend!) that someone found some weeks before and had been hanging around in Rio Grande Village. It was only the 5th or 6th record for the US I think. We found the bird, and Jill got killer pictures. The last new bird was a Crissal Thrasher. This species has been a nemesis bird of mine for a while. This was my fifth or sixth trip to Big Bend, and I'd missed this species every time I'd been there before despite it being a fairly common (although secretive) resident. We finally found one this time though at a really spectacular oasis called Sam Nail Ranch. Actually Jill spotted it first and got me on the bird.

Another perk of the trip was lots of Texas state ticks. I managed to get my Texas list ahead of my California list again were it belongs, by adding 23 Texas state birds (including the 3 new ABA area birds). About 10 of these species came from Aransas, and were mostly waterbirds. Twelve species were from West Texas and one was from San Antonio. Most unexpected was a Red Fox Sparrow in a desert oasis deep in the Chihuahuan desert. Flycatchers were well represented with 3 new species for Texas: Dusky, Gray and Tufted. I also added two new woodpeckers for the state: Yellow-bellied and Red-naped Sapsuckers, and three new sparrows: Black-chinned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco and Fox Sparrow.

My Texas list (334) is 5 species ahead of California for now (329). It's about to pull away a little further in a little over a week. Jill is leaving tomorrow to go to Leakey for another season of field work with Golden-cheeked Warblers, and I'll be going out to visit her the week after.

There have been several chasable rare birds hanging around that I plan to twitch while I'm out that way. Hopefully they'll stick around for another 9 days at the least. The top dogs are a Yellow-faced Grassquit at Goose Island State Park and a Black-vented Oriole at Bentsen-RGV State Park. The grassquit is a trash bird in parts of central america, but is very rare in the US. It's not a lifer for me, but would be a great ABA tick. BV oriole is a mega for the US with only single digits of other records and would be a lifer. I intend to chase, and hopefully find Blue Bunting and White-throated Thrush. Neither are lifers, but both are solid ABA area finds. The last two birds I hope to find are both regular in the US, but still quite rare: Rufous-backed Robin and Crimson-collared Grosbeak. Both would be lifers for me. I'm sure I'll find some and miss some of these guys.

If I find all of these and don't see anything else I'll already be at 340 for the state, which would be great. There are still a bunch of really common birds in East Texas that I need for the state. If I'm feeling ambitious on the way back I may stop and try to find a few to try and get close to 350. We'll see about that when the time comes. Like California I'd like to see 400 in Texas, but I'll start with 350 as my immediate, somewhat more attainable goal. Unlike California, Texas is a lot closer so I should be able to visit a little more often to chase rarities and work on some of the common and uncommon species I still need to find.

Targets met and exceeded!

2011-03-04T14:57:00.001-08:00

As of my last posting almost a year ago I had just reached my goal of 250 birds for Humboldt County and 300 birds for California, and I had made a list of some target birds for the state I hoped to find over the summer. I'd added 9 more species to reach 260 for the county by the time Jill and I left Humboldt . Several of those species were on my target list for California as well. The newbies for the county were a Sage Thrasher, Dusky Flycatcher, Townsend's Solitaire, Western Wood-pewee, Willow Flycatcher, Solitary Sandpiper, Pigeon Guillemot, Lazuli Bunting, and Yellow-breasted Chat.

Jill and I spent the summer in Truckee working with Western Willow Flycatchers throughout the central Sierra Nevada. I was there from the last week in May through the first week in August. Jill stayed through the third week in August. Then took a roadtrip home.

It was a blast. We really enjoyed working in the mountain meadows. We saw lots of animals, like weasels, bears, and beavers, and of course many bird species. I added 23 species for California and actually had a longer California list than Texas list for a few months. Two of the species were lifers: Pinyon Jay, an old nemesis bird of mine that I never could seem to track down, and not one, but two Yellow Rails in Plumas County at the base of Lassen Peak. The rest of the species were mainly sage desert species from the east side of the Sierra or the White Mountains, or species that in California are more common in the mountains. The sage desert species included Chukar, Gray Flycatcher, Juniper Titmouse, Pinyon Jay, Sage Sparrow and Green-tailed Towhee. Some of the mountain species were Northern Goshawk, Lewis's Woodpecker, Cassin's Finch, Evening Grosbeak and Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Target State birds

2010-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

There are bunch of easy birds that I don't have on my California list. Many of these birds are omitted for three reasons.

1) I started using eBird at the very beginning of 2008 and my record keeping before that using Microsoft Excel was subpar.

2) I haven't travelled that much to southern California and haven't bothered to chase down a lot of birds that are common and widespread throughout the US, but may be slightly more restricted range in CA or don't occur in NW california, most of the birds in this group I've seen a lot of elsewhere, so I didn't feel like I needed to drive somewhere to go see them in CA.

3) over the last three years I've spent each spring and a good part of the summer elsewhere, mainly Texas, Tennessee and Oregon, so a lot of birds that are common summer visitors I've been seeing elsewhere, just not in CA.

Here's the list of birds that I want to add to my CA state list before I leave California for a while. These should all be pretty easy to tick off this summer while based in Truckee:

1. Sandhill Crane (This is a poor record keeping omission)

2. Lewis's Woodpecker

3. Black-chinned Hummingbird

4. Olive-sided Flycatcher

5. Dusky Flycatcher

6. Gray Flycatcher

7. Hammond's Flycatcher

8. Ash-throated Flycatcher

9. Western wood-pewee

10. House Wren

300 for California and 250 for Humboldt!

2010-04-25T09:47:00.001-07:00

Bullock's Oriole at Blue Lake Cottonwoods is 300 for California, and anti-climatic Brown-headed Cowbird is 250 for Humboldt. Success! Below is the last few for Humboldt County to reach 250. California is now my second state to have seen 300 or more bird species. My first is Texas. Humboldt is now my first county in the United States where I have seen over 250 species in a single county. It is probably one of the best counties in the US to hit this goal. Helping out in this regard is its large size, its diverse habitats and its coastal location. Access to the pacific ocean accounts for a huge chunk of the birds including 4 loons, 5 shearwaters, 1 albatross, 4 Jaegers/skuas, 13 gulls, 5 terns, 4 alcids (puffins and auks). On the various beaches and mudflats there are great opportunities to view shorebirds, with 33 species of sandpipers and plovers seen in the county. Another great county to do this would be Monterey County, CA for many of the same reasons.

242	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea	Alderpoint to Cain Rock Trestle	US-CA	27 Mar 2010
243	MacGillivray's Warbler - Oporornis tolmiei	Arcata Community Forest	US-CA	06 Apr 2010
244	Green Heron - Butorides virescens	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	14 Apr 2010
245	Palm Warbler - Dendroica palmarum	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	15 Apr 2010
246	Bewick's Wren - Thryomanes bewickii	Korbel	US-CA	17 Apr 2010
247	Purple Martin - Progne subis	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	17 Apr 2010
248	Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	17 Apr 2010
249	Bullock's Oriole - Icterus bullockii	Blue Lake Cottonwoods	US-CA	18 Apr 2010
250	Brown-headed Cowbird - Molothrus ater	Elk Viewing Area by Red School House	US-CA	24 Apr 2010
251	Western Kingbird - Tyrannus verticalis	Elk Viewing Area by Red School House	US-CA	24 Apr 2010

County bird 241, State bird 294

2010-03-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Northern Rough-winged Swallow at Arcata Marsh yesterday at 2:35pm. Only 6 more to go to hit 300 for California. Only 9 more for the county to hit 250. I might make it.

Target list

2010-03-17T10:35:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I suggested this list of target birds to get to 250 for the county. I've managed to see three of these species so far in the county and have seen two others that weren't on the list

1. Short-billed Dowitcher

2. Green Heron

3. Red Crossbill

4. Ross's Goose

5. Lapland Longspur

6. Oak Titmouse (only present in the far southeastern part of the county)

7. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (see above)

8. Lark Sparrow (see above)

9. Black-legged Kittiwake

10. Horned Lark

11. Golden Eagle

12. American Redstart

13. Semipalmated Sandpiper

14. Rufous Hummingbird

15. White-faced Ibis

+ Sora

+ Pine Siskin

Humboldt County 239 and 240

2010-03-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

March 7th at the Goose "Fly-off" at the national wildlife refuge. Several Sora calling from the marsh: county bird number 239, but not a state bird. March 14th at Woodley Island still unable to track down the redstart, a flock of over 200 American Goldfinches mixed with House Finches, Purple Finches and at least 15 Pine Siskins. Pine Siskin is number 240 for the county. 10 to go. Still need 6 birds for California to get 300.

+1 county and state

2010-03-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

A very birdy day at Humboldt Bay NWR - Salmon Creek Unit. Lots of geese. Mostly Aleutian Cackling Geese and Western Canada Geese, also some B. h. minima cacklers. The highlights though were 1 Ross's Goose and 1 (possibly 2) Greater White-fronted Geese. Ross's is a state and county tick. Also present were two Eurasian Wigeon, one Rufous Morph Red-tail and 4 Short-eared Owls.

new county total: 238 (12 more to hit the goal of 250).

new state total: 293 (Only seven to go to hit 300!).

Next week is my spring break so Jill and I are heading to Southern California. State ticks will abound. I'm optimistic I'll break the three hundred mark then.

One more for the state and county

2010-03-02T18:47:00.001-08:00

Although it is an oversight, a data point forgotten from the past, I was glad to add a county bird (and remarkably a state tick) to my list. I spotted a rufous hummingbird that has made its home at Rob Fowler's hummingbird feeder. I was in Arcata this evening at about 6:15pm, just before it was too dark to see.
ebird lifelist: 796 (unchanged)
CA list: 292 (8 to go)
Humboldt County: 237 (only 13 left to hit my goal of 250).

One bird closer

2010-03-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

Amongst other birds Jill and I spotted a Black-legged kittiwake with a flock of other gulls at clam beach yesterday. Thats a lifer, and put me one closer to three of my goals

ebird life list: 796 - 4 to go

California lifelist: 291 - 9 to go

Humboldt County lifelist: 236 - 14 to go

Below An absolutely terrible photo of the bird.

red in humboldt

2010-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

The goal: 250 species in Humboldt County California by May 2010.
Currently I stand at 235 species. only 15 to go. Below's a list of 200-235. I think its going to take a good smattering of vagrant birds this spring to hit the mark. Here's a list of 15 birds I think I could find to hit my goal this spring.

1. Short-billed Dowitcher

2. Green Heron

3. Red Crossbill

4. Ross's Goose

5. Lapland Longspur

6. Oak Titmouse (only present in the far southeastern part of the county)

7. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (see above)

8. Lark Sparrow (see above)

9. Black-legged Kittiwake

10. Horned Lark

11. Golden Eagle

12. American Redstart

13. Semipalmated Sandpiper

14. Rufous Hummingbird

15. White-faced Ibis

200	Northern Parula - Parula americana	North Spit--Entrance Patch	US-CA	07 Sep 2009
201	Marbled Murrelet - Brachyramphus marmoratus	Pelagic out of Trinidad (up to 30 mi)	US-CA	13 Sep 2009
202	Arctic Tern - Sterna paradisaea	Pelagic out of Trinidad (up to 30 mi)	US-CA	13 Sep 2009
203	Sooty Grouse - Dendragapus fuliginosus	Honeydew	US-CA	18 Sep 2009
204	Wild Turkey - Meleagris gallopavo	Honeydew	US-CA	18 Sep 2009
205	Spotted Owl - Strix occidentalis	Saddle Mt. Trailhead (location approx.)	US-CA	18 Sep 2009
206	Common Poorwill - Phalaenoptilus nuttallii	Saddle Mt. Trailhead (location approx.)	US-CA	18 Sep 2009
207	Chipping Sparrow - Spizella passerina	Lost Coast - Miller Flat to Horse Creek	US-CA	21 Sep 2009
208	Western Bluebird - Sialia mexicana	Lost Coast - Miller Flat to Horse Creek	US-CA	21 Sep 2009
209	Northern Saw-whet Owl - Aegolius acadicus	King Range NCA - Buck Creek Trail	US-CA	21 Sep 2009
210	Acorn Woodpecker - Melanerpes formicivorus	King Range NCA - Buck Creek Trail	US-CA	21 Sep 2009
211	Eurasian Wigeon - Anas penelope	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	26 Sep 2009
212	Harlequin Duck - Histrionicus histrionicus	Humboldt Bay--South Spit jetty	US-CA	10 Oct 2009
213	Gray Jay - Perisoreus canadensis	Gold Bluffs Beach	US-CA	12 Oct 2009
214	Greater White-fronted Goose - Anser albifrons	Gold Bluffs Beach	US-CA	12 Oct 2009
215	Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus	Gold Bluffs Beach	US-CA	12 Oct 2009
216	White-throated Sparrow - Zonotrichia albicollis	Cooper Gulch Park	US-CA	16 Oct 2009
217	Black-headed Grosbeak - Pheucticus melanocephalus	Cooper Gulch Park	US-CA	16 Oct 2009
218	Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	23 Oct 2009
219	Blue-winged Teal - Anas discors	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	23 Oct 2009
220	Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos	Humboldt Bay--South Spit	US-CA	04 Nov 2009
221	Ring-necked Pheasant - Phasianus colchicus	Eel River Wildlife Area--Ocean Ranch Unit	US-CA	08 Nov 2009
222	Rusty Blackbird - Euphagus carolinus	Arcata Bottoms--Lanphere Rd. dairy	US-CA	11 Nov 2009
223	Eurasian Collared-Dove - Streptopelia decaocto	Mad River Estuary	US-CA	18 Nov 2009
224	Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius	Mad River Estuary	US-CA	18 Nov 2009
225	Yellow-headed Blackbird - Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus	Arcata Bottoms--Lanphere Rd. dairy	US-CA	20 Nov 2009
226	Nashville Warbler - Vermivora ruficapilla	Eureka	US-CA	01 Dec 2009
227	Mountain Plover - Charadrius montanus	Clam Beach	US-CA	06 Dec 2009
228	Snowy Plover - Charadrius alexandrinus	Clam Beach	US-CA	06 Dec 2009
229	Hutton's Vireo - Vireo huttoni	Patricks Point SP	US-CA	09 Dec 2009
230	Northern Waterthrush - Seiurus noveboracensis	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	14 Dec 2009
231	Tricolored Blackbird - Agelaius tricolor	Arcata Bottoms - Mad River Road	US-CA	25 Jan 2010
232	Redhead - Aythya americana	Humboldt Bay NWR - Salmon Creek Unit	US-CA	02 Feb 2010
233	Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor	Arcata Marsh	US-CA	22 Feb 2010
234	Virginia's Warbler - Vermivora virginiae	Janes Creek--Zehndner and Q St.	US-CA	25 Feb 2010
235	Mountain Chickadee - Poecile gambeli	Horse Mountain	US-CA	27 Feb 2010

some eBird goals

2010-02-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

For this year

eBird Lifelist 800. I'm 5 birds away right now

ABA 550. 19 to go.

California 320. 31 to go. This would put me on the eBird top 100 for the state, and put California ahead of my Texas list (311).

1000 California county ticks. 231 to go. (1000 is a nice round number). I'm not a county birder really, but I like to get around the state when I can.

Humboldt County 250. 17 to go. This is my biggest county list and I'd like to, as the county birder's say "go red," in this county.

My landmark birds

2010-02-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

(from eBird)

ABA

200 Brown-crested Flycatcher (TX)

300 Heerman's Gull (CA)

400 Canyon Towhee (AZ)

500 Scarlet Tanager (TX)

World

500 Clay-colored Sparrow (TX)

550 Northern Saw-whet Owl (OR)

600 Green-crowned Brilliant (Costa Rica)

650 Orange-chinned Parakeet (Costa Rica)

700 Black-capped Gnatcatcher (AZ)

750 Golden-fronted Greenlet (Trinidad, W. I.)

California

200 Barn Owl (Humboldt County)

250 Western Tanager (Humboldt County)

Texas

200 Orchard Oriole (Llano County)

250 Monk Parakeet (Kerr County)

300 Philadelphia Vireo (Galveston)

My eBird stats

2010-02-25T18:01:00.000-08:00

If there were birding baseball cards this is what would be on the back of my card. These are some of my species totals from eBird as of 25-Feb-10. Being that this is from eBird all of this is all from the western hemisphere. I started keeping track of my bird lists on eBird at the beginning of 2008. I retroactively added some species from 2007 and even fewer from 2006.

eBird lifelist: 795
omitted eBird species: Cerulean Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black-chinned Sparrow, California Condor, American Woodcock, Wilson's Storm-petrel, Bicknell's Thrush
AOU area: 714
USA: 531
Biggest state list: 311 (Texas)
Second biggest: 289 (California)
ABA area ticks: 1298
Number of state lists: 12

Number of state lists >100 sp. : 6
Number of county lists: 88
Number of county ticks: 2,778
Biggest county list: 233 (Humboldt County, California)
Smallest county list: 1 (nine-way tie between Caldwell, Fayette Bastrop, Brazos, TX; Colusa, Sierra, CA; Lane, Oregon; Saline, Cooper, MO)

Nemesis birds:

1. Red-headed Woodpecker

2. Northern Shrike

3. Lapland Longspur

4. Barrow's Goldeneye

5. Pinyon Jay

6. Bachman's Sparrow

7. Black-headed Gull

8. Gray-cheeked Thrush

9. Black Rail

10. Tropical Parula

Former nemesis birds: (all since checked off)

1. Hermit Warbler

2. Varied Bunting

3. Mourning Warbler

4. Lewis's Woodpecker

5. Cassin's Vireo

6. Olive Warbler

7. Mountain Plover

8. Arctic Tern

9. Northern beardless Tyrannulet

10. Botteri's Sparrow

Favorite vagrants/rare birds:

1. Northern Jacana (AZ)

2. Wood Sandpiper (OR)

3. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (DE)

4. Ruff (CA)

5. Flame-colored Tanager (AZ)

6. Berylline Hummingbird (AZ)

7. Green Violet-ear (TX)

8. Slaty-backed Gull (CA)

9. Short-tailed Hawk (AZ)

10. Harris's Sparrow (CA)

2008-07-18T19:07:00.001-07:00

A Chukar sneaking around our campsite in S. Utah.

Quick stops in New Mexico California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona (not in that order) and now Im in Oregon. New birds latley for the year in Oregon have been Red-naped and Williamson's Sapsuckers, Greater Sage Grouse, Yellow-headed Blackbird and others. Other interesting birds have been Gray Vireo, Northern Goshawk, Chukar, Virginia's Warbler, Grace's Warbler, Plumbeous Vireo, Black Terns, Sage Thrasher, Calliope Hummingbird, Mountain Bluebird, Lazuli Bunting and Golden Eagle.

New stuff from Texas

2008-06-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

New birds this year from Texas for the US this year include Mississipi Kite, Groove-billed Ani and Monk Parakeet. I had a few additional new birds for the US in Arizona in February as well. Those include Northern Jacana, Yellow-eyed Junco, Abert's Towhee and Arizona Woodpecker. The really exciting new thing this year is my new camera. In an effort to improve bird picture taking and to help Jill realize her dream of being in Nat. Geographic I bought some nice camera equipment: a canon digital SLR and a really nice wildlife lens (500mm focal length). pics Monk Parakeet and a Black-bellied Whistling Duck

2008 Year List off to a good start

2008-02-18T18:53:00.000-08:00

There have been some great birds in Humboldt County this winter. An Adult Slaty-backed Gull made a brief appearance in Hiller Park in McKinleyville a few weeks ago. I was fortunate enought to get good looks at this eurasian vagrant. The other great bird of the winter has been an Arctic Loon on Stone Lagoon in Humboldt Lagoons State Park. As well as these very rare vagrant species, I've had the good fortune to spot several other birds, that while not quiet as rare are still very good finds.

Lots of owls so far this winter. First up Short-eared Owl, then Western Screech, Great Horned, Barn, Northern-pygmy, and Burrowing Owls. Its pretty good with raptors too so far Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, Rough-legged, Ferruginous, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, Bald Eagle, White-tailed Kite, Osprey, Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.

A good start with gulls as well: Bonaparte's, Herring, Ring-billed, Mew, Thayer's, Glaucous, Glaucous-winged, Western, and Slaty-backed. Sparrows so far include: Song, Savannah, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Harris' and Fox and Dark-eyed Junco and Spotted Towhee.

I expect to get a lot of sparrows in the next few days on my way down to Texas ( I leave Wednesday) including Canyon, Green-tailed, California and possibly Abert's Towhees, Yellow-eyed Junco, Brewer's, Sage, Vesper, Lark, Cassin's, Chipping, Rufous-crowned, Rufous-winged, Black-throated and possibly Black-chinned Sparrows. I'm aiming to get all four gnatcatchers: California, Black-tailed, Black-capped and Blue-gray.

Not a lot of finches yet this year, but I think I should be able to remedy that on the trip. So far the only finches I've seen are House, Purple, Lesser Gold and American Gold, I think I should be able to get without too much hassle, Pine Siskin, Red-crossbill, Gray-crowned Rosy-finch, Black Rosy-finch, and Brown-capped Rosy-finch with a possibilty of Cassin's Finch.

Duck wise this year I've got all the common ones (except wood duck for some reason) the only glaring omissions are Redhead, Barrow's Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck and Harelequin Duck. I don't have any Eider's at this point either.

Woodpeckers have been few and far between so far. I've got only two! Hairy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker. I hope to get at least several more in the next week or two including Downy, Arizona, Gila, Ladder-backed, Nuttall's, Golden-fronted and Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Early in the season I'd like to head over to east Texas and get Pileated, Red-bellied and Red-headed Woodpeckers as well.

Over the course of the about 1 week long trip I hope to get at least 50-60 year birds.

Here are some pictures i've taken the last few weeks while birding. They are 1. Burrowing Owl on the South Spit of Humboldt Bay, Some Harbor Seals lazing on the beach, and an bull Elk with the biggest rack I've seen in long time

Ahhh, stretching my birding legs!

2008-01-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

I was going to do a winter Big Day yesterday, but it was pouring rain in the morning so it didn't end up happening. It stopped raining at about 11:30, and I went with Aaron down to Hookton Slough, the South Jetty of Humboldt Bay, Loleta Bottoms, Ferndale Bottoms, Bear River Ridge and the along the coast north of Petrolia, then looped through Humboldt Redwoods State Park after it got dark. I ended up with about 10 year birds making for a total of about 30 or so on the week. The best birds of the day yesterday were an overwintering Caspian Tern at Hookton Slough and a first winter plumaged Glaucous Gull along the coast. It was really birdy at Hookton Slough. There were several tundra swans, wigeons, gadwall, Bufflehead, coots, gulls, cackling geese, two greater scaup, and a handfull of shorebirds as well. South Jetty was hopping, lots of Brant, Red-breasted Mergansers, a few loons, some shorebirds and a Merlin. Most of the bottomland birding was a bust. Nothing much of note other than an obliging sharp-shinned sitting directly in front of us on a post. The weather had gotten a little gnarly by the time we got to Bear River Ridge, and we didn't see any Golden-eagles or much in the way of passerines, but we had great looks at four different Rough-legged Hawks cruising the ridges. The coast had lots of gulls, there are a lot of creeks and streams that run into the ocean along that section of coast and the freshwater attracts a lot of gulls for bathing and drinking. The Glaucous Gull was a great find, I spotted it from the road and made Aaron slam on the breaks. He also almost ran over a Thayer's Gull while trying to get a better look at one in the road.

the plan for 08

2008-01-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

Here's how I'm going to try to do the year list for 08. Most of the travel is squeezed in on my trips between texas and california, the states I live and work in (about half the year in each).

1. Lots of NW Cal birding. I don't have much of choice here. Its where I live. I'll just try to stay on top of birding here, and be sure to get whatever I can get.
2. Lots N Cal birding. Stopping down in the bay area adds opportunity to bird some highly covered areas to pick up some good stuff, along with California speciality stuff.
3. So Cal. Should have invested more effort in this area. I'd like to get out on an LA audubon society pelagic. I missed several storm-petrels and black-vented shearwater in 07. Also could use a California Gnatcatcher, Abert's Towhee and Yellow-footed Gull.
4. Stay vigilant on the AZ stuff. Birding southern AZ is a must. Last years' trip was with a female friend and I didn't bird as crazily or as long as I would have if I were alone or with another serious birder. This year I will be doing a late winter and a early summer trip to ensure as many birds as possible.
5. Cover texas as well as possible. Spring means bird Texas all out. try at least 2 trips to LRGV, High Island, Big Thicket, Bolivar Penninsula, Big Bend, Davis Mountains, Padre, and of course Hill Country.
6. A summer Florida trip, everglades/miami area.
7. Alaska or N. Manitoba, one or the other is going to have to happen this year.
8. What about the east coast??? I don't want to miss the east coast/ mid atlantic again this year. Last year was the first year I didn't get to bird NY, VA, PA or New Jersey at all, which definately cost me some ticks. A fall migration trip to the east coast would probably add some late year birds.

There are some places I'd like to bird this year, but I don't know if I'll be able to find the time.
- Machias Seal Island and Acadia NP in Maine.
- I'd love a Montana Trip
- More great basin stuff just for the hell of it.
- Northern part of lower penninsula of Michigan.

427

2008-01-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

Its 2008. Obviously this means that my 2007 ABA year list has come to an end. The final total was 427 which is not bad really. Its not fantastic by any stretch either. I missed a lot of eastern birds, northern birds, Alaksa birds, Florida birds, easy birds, hard birds... basically I missed a lot of birds. I did well with Texas, Arizona and California specialties, plus a few south east birds and poorly with just about everything else. Here's the list of my top ten favorite birds this year and the ten biggest misses.
First the tops:
1. Spotted Redshank: best bird of my life and it was self found. Mad River, Arcata, CA
2. White-eared Hummingbird: Miller Canyon, AZ
3. Flame-colored Tanager: Madera Canyon, AZ
4. White-collered Seedeater: Awesome lifer in Zapata, TX
5. Colima Warbler: I love Big Bend! Big Bend National Park, TX
6. White-headed Woodpecker: my new favorite Woodpecker Tahoe National Forest, CA
7. Ferruginous Pygmy-owl: Cool mexican style owl. Bensen Rio Grande State Park, Mission, TX
8. South Polar Skua: Pelagic out of Eureka, CA
9. Gray-crowned Rosy-finch: I had just such a great time tracking these guys down on a beautiful hike through Lassen, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA
10. Long-tailed Jaeger: another awesome pelagic bird, Pelagic out of Eureka, CA

Now the misses:
1. Golden Eagle: How the hell did I miss this?
2. Gray Jay: again, what am I lazy? There are resident Gray Jays at the arcata community forest 2 minutes from where I go to school.
3. Red Crossbill
4. Purple Gallinule
5. Black Rail
6. American Dipper
7. Red-headed Woodpecker
8. Bachman's Sparrow: I spent so much time playing tapes in long leaf pine savannah. You just got be there in the spring.
9. Black-headed Gull: I looked through so many freaking Bonaparte's Gulls for nada.
10. Northern beardless Tyrannulet: I spent way too much time looking not to find one. I even staked out a nest site and failed.

Lifer at Nick and Lucy's

2008-01-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

I got out of the shower on Saturday morning to see that my friend and coworker Aaron had left me a message on my cell phone. "Hey man, Nick has what he think's is a Harris' Sparrow in his back yard." 15 minutes later I was standing in Nick's backyard (which is just up the street a few blocks). After 20 minutes or so of looking we relocated what was absolutely 100% a Harris' Sparrow. First good bird of the new year, first ABA lifer in a while too.

the best self found bird that I've ever found

2007-11-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Although the birding gods are often cruel they can be very kind sometimes. Aaron and I took off from the lab this afternoon and headed out to the Arcata bottoms where we found both an American Golden-Plover and a Pacific Golden-Plover that had been previously reported. Not a bad start. Then we found yes... a singing Tropcial Kingbird on Lanphere road. Hell yeah!! Then we headed over to the Mad River where to the east on the bars foraging all alone was a Spotted Redshank!!!!!!! A Spotted Redshank, yes a Redshank, Red legs and all, a Spotted Redshank! A Spotted Redshank. An adult non-breeding plumage Spotted Redshank. It was very pale and had bright pinkish-red legs, bold supercilliam. A Spotted Redshank! What a ridiculously awesome bird.

Owls are awesome!

2007-10-15T20:34:00.001-07:00

Owls are incredible animals to observe. This years year list has a fair smattering of owls.
This is from memory so it may not be perfect, but the first owl of the year was in January I belive (could have been February). It was a great Horned Owl at the North River Marsh in North Carolina. Its a wonderful place to bird and has as good a chance as any place for finding Black Rail (or so I've been told). The Great Horned was calling from the tree tops across the marsh on an unbelievably cold morning (for North Carolina anyway). It was well before dawn and the sun hadn't yet come up. Virginia, Clapper and King rails were calling all over the place (year listers). I also had my year list Woodcock and Snipe that early morning. The only other Great Horned Owls I remember getting this year were in late summer in Oregon, there were several nights on which they were calling while I was out doing bat field work. Owl number two for the year was Short-eared Owl. After a long day of birding in eastern North Carolina I stood in the cold on the roof of my car looking out across the fields at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Standing on the car it was very breezy and my hands were really cold I remember. I had my scope set up and was scanning in the fading light hoping for a short eared or possibly a Barn Owl. After a while it was getting to dark to see very well. I started to leave in my car and sure enough a Short-eared Owl plopped down on a roadside sign. I stopped the car quickly kicking up some dust and gravel and the owl flew off. I tried to look for it again briefly, but it was too dark and there wan't much hope of seeing it again, so I took off, headed for the outer banks. In early March I spotted several more Short-eared owls around 5:00pm at Anahuac NWR in east Texas and managed to get a handful of photographs. The next owl I had for the year came a few days later. It was an Eastern Screech Owl. It was the first week in March and I was at Garner State Park in Texas, setting out transects for our Golden-cheeked Warbler Study. This guy was hanging out across the street calling as clear and loud as could be. Over the course of our my field work in Texas this year there were several more ESOW or EASO or whatever the AOU code happens to be for these guys. At the end of April came two more Owls, both in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The first was one of the many very vocal Elf Owls at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park on a Saturday night also present in large numbers were Lesser nighthawks and one of my favorite nightjars the Common Paraquee. The next morning turned up the very reliable Ferruginous Pygmy-owl at the Ebony grove. It was chasing around a clay-colored Robin and a noisy group of Chachalacas were making a racket in the Ebony grove as well. I managed to get photos of that guy too. Not of the Elf owl though. I didn't spot any other ferruginous p-owls this year. The only other Elf this year was the one that lives in the telephone pole outside the cabins at Madera Canyon, I probably could have found one at Big Bend in May down by the river, but I looking for snakes at dusk instead of birding. I was looking for snakes by driving slowly on the road where they sometimes come out to soak up the heat. While I was doing this I managed to luck out when a Barn Owl landed right in the middle of the road, my next year list owl. I slowed down and got a great look at it in the headlights before it decided to take off. The next year list owl I had was in June in Arizona. It was a pair of barking Mexican Spotted Owls at the south fork of the creek in the Chiricahuas just outside of Portal. At this locale I found another pair of barking birds, two beautiful Elegant Trogons. I didn't see any other Mexican spotted Owls this year, but while on an overnight drive from Lakeview, Oregon to Arcata California I managed to watch a Northern Spotted Owl, that was perched on a street sign off of highway 299 in Trinity County. I stopped the truck and watched the bird sitting there staring at me in the early morning darkness. After a few seconds the bird flew away. Speaking of Lakeview, Oregon. Several areas outside of town in the Warner Mountains and in Freemont National Forest were great for owls. There were tons of Western Screech Owls (my next year list owl). I heard them many nights while out doing bat stuff. Besides the previously mentioned Great-horned, these areas also turned up two more year listers, Northern Saw-whet and Long-eared. I actually got a cool flight video on a night vision camera of the saw-whet, purely by accident while videotaping bats drinking at a watering hole. The long eared I only heard one night calling a long serious of monotone hoots. I did manage to get a really cool picture of a Long-eared Owl (see the next post) at the Arcata Marsh this past week, which was the only other Long-eared I came across.
So a summary: I got 10 and missed 9, although both Barred and Northern-pygmy are strong contenders up here in Humboldt county for still making the list. Also if I ever get down to Yosemite a great gray is possible and a Burrowing Owl is more than likely if I ever get my keister back to the bay area to visit my dad, who rides past a burrow on his way to work everyday.
So here are the hits:
Barn
Eastern-screech
Western-screech
Great-horned
Ferruginous Pygmy
Elf
Spotted (Mexican and Northern subspecies)
Long-eared
Short-eared
Northern Saw-whet

and Misses:
Flammulated (apparently a pretty difficult to find species, I know very little about them and it would be a lifer)
Whiskered-screech (Southern Arizona bird. Didn't spend a whole lot of time down there)
Snowy (If this turns out to be an irruptive year I could have a outside shot)
Northern Hawk (probably not going to happen)
Northern Pygmy (maybe we'll see)
Burrowing (see above)
Barred Owl (hope so)
Great gray (probably not going to happen)
Boreal (probably not)

2007-10-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

Here's an awesome Long-eared Owl on 10/13/07 in the willow trees at Arcata Marsh in Humboldt County a few blocks from where I live.

It's just not as rare as you thought...

2007-10-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

There's a well documented phenomenon in the birding world. Its something that all of us birders have experienced at one point or another. Some birds for no apparent reason just get overlooked. Other people see them all the time, but for whatever reason, you don't, and its not because they're particularly rare, usually its a species that might be skulky or uncommon, but not a truely rare species (not a vagrant by any means). It is inexplicable. Then one day... "Hey it's a Henslow's Sparrow/Baird's Sandpiper/Saw-whet Owl/Least Bittern," you think to yourself (the exact species will of course be vary widely between individuals and where you happen to bird of course) as you stare this elusive bird down in your binoculars. Then the next time you go out, "Hey it's a Henslow's Sparrow/Baird's Sandpiper/Saw-whet Owl/Least Bittern," you think, "that's two in one week, fantastic!" Your birding companions are unimpressed, after all, like everyone else it seems, they see these guys all the time. Then suddenly you realize that you're now a person that sees species X, after months or years of always managing to overlook it. Its as if a light switch has been flipped. You see species X everywhere and soon its a junk bird now for you, not a lifer certainly, not a year or county bird, just there, like its always been, but no longer invisible. "How could I have missed this bird so regularly?" you question yourself. It doesn't make sense, and then why so suddenly did you simply start seeing it. For me in my birding adventures there have been many birds that have been like this. When I first started birding the one that really sticks out in my mind was the Brown Creeper. Certainly cryptically colored, but by no means a rare bird, I spent many cold winter days looking for it without success and then one day... everywhere, Brown Creepers were everywhere. It wasn't like they just showed up in a migratory flock the night before, they had been there, but it was as if I just learned to see them. My first one was in Shenendoah National Park in March (this was several years ago now), then I found one at Brandywine Creek State Park in Delaware. Then I found one in my yard. My yard that only had 3 trees in it, and only one over 15 feet.
As I have learned more about birds and their habits and how to find them it's been a while since I had a good 'nemesis bird.' Travelling a lot too has certainly cut down on the number of my nemesis bird species. It took me a while to find my first Wood Stork, and Saw-whet Owl, but when you can drive down to North Carolina or to the mountainous west where these birds are, it takes a more elusive bird. A crafty predator needs craftier prey. As of right now I think I share the same nemesis birds with a lot of other birders who are young (for the birding world anyway) who haven't been around forever and seen everything. Most of these birds are pretty damn hard to find. As of right now my number one nemesis bird is Black Rail. I have looked for this bird in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas and California. I even spent a summer working in coastal salt marshes without finding one. When I was in college my girlfriend wrote her undergraduate senior thesis on rail detecton. By all means I should have found one by now, but still no dice. My other big nemesis bird is Hudsonian Godwit. There doens't seem to be any reliable time or place to find a Hudsonian. I am always travelling a ton, and it seems like the best place to look for one is whatever place I just left. There's nothing more frustrating then seeing the bird report for an area where I was a week before and seeing a Hudsonian Godwit was spotted the day after I left. Eventually I think I'll have to head up their remote artic breeding grounds where I can't possibly miss.

Old texas pictures

2007-10-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

After the whole ordeal at Big Bend I forgot to post the pictures. So here we go:
1. Verdin
2. Colima Warbler
3. Black-throated Sparrow just before dawn
4. Broken down on Highway 90 in the desert

I did pretty well with hummers this year though

2007-10-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

So my last post was about not doing to well with the warblers this year. One area where I did really well this year was with Hummingbirds. I didn't get everything I'd hoped for, but I did pretty well with 11 on the year and missed only four of the 14 regular breeding species (b) in North America, and managed to get 1 mexican vagrant too. The other ones I missed are pretty rare, I left off the vagrants for which there weren't any records this year (as far as I know).

b-breeding species
v-vagrant

Hummers I got:
b-Black-chinned
b-Ruby-throated
b-Broad-billed
b-Broad-tailed
b-Buff-bellied
b-Rufous
b-Calliope
b-Magnificent
b-Blue-throated
b-Anna's
v-White-eared

Misses:
b-Allen's (got out to the west coast a little too late in the year, then just got unlucky)
b-Violet-crowned (just not in the right place at the right time for this one)
b-Lucifer's (tried in Texas and Arizona both and missed it both places. The only one of the ones I missed that I already have on my life list)
v-Berrylline (Mexican vagrant, although regular)
v-Green-breasted Mango (Mexican vagrant. There was a record from Wisconsin of all places this year, I didn't jet set after it though)
b-Costa's (just didn't see it for whatever reasons despite being in the right habitat and range a couple of times)

hmm... running out of options for new year listers

2007-10-09T22:40:00.001-07:00

If you've read my Big Bend Fiasco post, you'll know that I no longer have a car. That could pose a problem for chasing down new year birds. At this point in the year getting year birds means having to travel farther afield, and means that I could really use one. But since I don't there's no use grousing about it. I'm going to need to get some local-ish stuff. There are still some birds I could get without having to go to far. Tricolored Blackbird, Red Crossbill, Lawrence's Goldfinch are all missing from my list. If I could manage a trip down to Southern California I could get some resident stuff down there. Abert's Towhee and California Gnatcatcher would be two possibilities. Humboldt County is really good in late fall for vagrant eastern warblers, so I'll have to keep a close watch on the 'bird box' to get whatever ones happen to stop by. Missing eastern warblers has definately been the biggest shortcoming of this year's list. Just one spring weekend at high island or in michigan or a fall afternoon in southern New Jersey would have made this list a lot bigger. I had a handful of warblers mostly western stuff, but missed a whole lot more. I excluded from the following list all the really rare warblers. i.e. Bachman's (extinct), Golden-crowned (vagrant from Mexico), Crescent-chested (vagrant from Mexico), Fan-tailed (vagrant from Mexico), Rufous-capped (vagrant from Mexico), Tropical Parula (Vagrant from Carribean) and Slate-colored Redstart (Vagrant from Mexico).
Summary: This year I got 23 and missed 27 species of warbler. Of the 27 that I missed 15 were on my year list last year when I was living in the east (marked with a star). So adding the last two years I got 38 and missed only 12.
In no particular order here are the warblers I spotted this year:
Black-throated Green
Black-throated Gray
Golden-cheeked
Townsend's
Blue-winged
Wilson's
Black-and-white
MacGillivray's
Orange-crowned
Yellow
Common Yellowthroat
Painted Redstart
Nashville
Yellow-throated
Lucy's
Colima
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped (Audubon's and Myrtle)
Pine
Palm
Yellow-breasted Chat
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush

Painfully long list of the warblers I missed this year:
Virginia's
Hooded*
Northern Waterthrush*
Kirtland's
Worm-eating*
Swainson's
Cerulean*
Black-throated Blue*
Kentucky*
Hermit
Red-faced
Olive (Peucidramidae not parulidae, but whatever)
Canada*
Magnolia*
Blackburnian
Bay-breasted*
Blackpoll
Golden-winged
Prairie*
Prothonotary*
Tennessee*
Canada*
Chestnut-sided*
American Redstart*
Grace's
Mourning
Cape May

2007-10-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

1. South Polar Skua with pink footed and buller's shearwaters
2. Pink footed Shearwater
3. Black-footed Albatross

I'm back. My goodness its been a while.

2007-10-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

1. Pectoral Sandpiper at Arcata Marsh
2. Western and Least Sandpipers
3. Red-necked Phalarope in Arcata
4. Nothern Fulmar off the coast of Humboldt County
5. Coral Sea, ship I went out on 9/30 photographed from The Shenendoah on 10/06 in Humboldt Bay.

So last time I blogged I was back in Texas last May. Now its October. My old year list total was 280. Now I'm at 415. So I guess I'll try to bridge five month gap and hit on the higlights. I had a few new birds in Texas but not too many. Most of my year birds since then came in Arizona and California and some in Oregon where I was doing bat field work for my advisor Joe Szewczek. After I got down in Texas in mid-June I went with Jill to some Arizona hot spots, Madera and Miller Canyons, Portal, the Chiricahuas, Patagonia, a few places in the Flagstaff area, Coconino National forest, Red Mountain. I don't have the list in front of me but I had a ton of birds. Lots of Hummers, including White-eared, Magnificent, Blue-throated, Anna's, Broad-tailed and Broad-billed, Short-tailed Hawk, Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher, Elegant Trogon, Painted Redstart, Plumbeous Vireo, Gambel's Quail, Cassin's Kingbird, Mexican Whip-poor-will, Mexican Spotted Owl, Flame-colored and Hepatic Tanagers, Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren (the last of the wrens I needed for my year list) Hooded Oriole, Bridled Titmouse, Western Wood-pewee, Gilded Flicker, Lewis's, Gila, and Arizona Woodpeckers, Lazuli Bunting, Prairie Falcon, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Steller's Jay, Western Bluebird, Mountain Chickadee Violet-green Swallow and a bunch more I can't think of right now.
After that I hit up Joshua Tree National Monument, then up to the bay area to visit my folks. I can't remember getting too many birds at J-tree. I did get a Common Poorwill though. The bay area was productive. Off the top of my head I had California Thrasher, Yellow-billed Magpie (at a rest stop somewhere between LA and San Jose), California Towhee, Pac-slope Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Black-crowned Night-heron, Ring-necked Pheasant, Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot, Cassin's Auklet, Common Murre, Black Oystercatcher, and Heermann's, California and Western Gulls.
I got some great birds out in the Sierras, and the high elevation sage brush deserts outside of Truckee, California, while I was staying at Sagehen Creek field research station. Williamson's Sapsucker, White-headed and Black-backed Woodpeckers, Purple Finch, Pine Grosebeak, Black-billed Magpie, Calliope Hummer and whichever of the Blue split is in the interior. Dusky right? I always forget. Then I went up to Oregon to do more field work I had Sage Thrasher, Northern Saw-whet, Western Screech and Long-eared Owls, Brewer's Sparrow, Townsend's Solitaire, Evening Grosbeak, Mountain Bluebird, California Quail, Red-necked and Wilson's Phalarope, Northern Spotted Owl (in Trinity county, CA). I saw a Bobcat and Elk too, which was cool. Somewhere in there I went to Lassen Peak National Park in California where I had Clark's Nutcracker and Gray-crowned Rosy-finch.
Eventually in August I came down to Humboldt County to get my butt in gear for grad school. Mostly I've been in Arcata. I've had a few shorebirds, Western, Least and Pectoral Sandpipers. I've also had Chestnut-backed Chickadee( I might have gotten that in the bay area, I forget now) Rufous Hummingbird, Wandering Tattler, Surfbird, Black Turnstone, Elegant Tern, Bobolink (pretty sweet find for coastal Cali), Willow Flycatcher, hmm... what else... I don't know. Stuff just trickling in ones and twos for the last several weeks. Golden-crowned Sparrow, Varied Thrush. Last weekend and the weekend before I went out on pelagic trips out of Eureka, CA, which is just south of here by about 10 miles. I definately picked up good stuff on those trips. The first one I got I think 11 year birds: Pomeraine, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers, South Polar Skua, Sooty, Pink-footed, Buller's and Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Rhinocerous Auklet, Black-footed Albatross and Northern Fulmar. On the second trip got most of the same birds again (including another Skua) no Long-tailed Jaeger or Flesh-footeds the second time, but I added Sabine's Gull and Red Phalarope as two more year listers. I have a ton of pictures, mostly on the Dell laptop which has kinda crapped out on me, some on my parent's computer in Mountain View. I have a handfull of pictures from recently on this computer so I'll post what I can find.

The big bend fiasco

2007-05-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

I had multiple brushes with death this weekend, but I'm ok now so don't worry. I had possibly the worst luck last weekend ever. I was trying to go to Big Bend National Park which is about 5 hours drive from here in the middle of absolutely nowhere. More specifically it is on the Mexican border in the center of the Chihuahuan desert. To begin: On the way drive out I blew out a tire at 80 mph resulting in insane swerving S's across both lanes of the "highway." After pulling over we were stuck on the side of the road outside Sanderson (nowhere). The spare tire isn't a full size so apparently it doesn't work with an all-wheel drive. It made the car pull hard to one side, then locked the brakes and stalled the car every time we tried to drive with it. It tooks 4 hours to get back on track, it cost us a boatload to get towed and to buy a new tire. Melissa, our field supervisor got bitten by a spider (we think possibly a brown recluse or other venomous bastard) on Saturday and got a weird bruise/bite and got sick and vomited a lot. Camping in the desert hours from the closest hospital we had no choice but for her to sweat it out. On Sunday morning we went for a scenic drive along the Rio Grande. Unfortunately unknown to us, a major storm a few days prior had washed a foot or so of mud onto a section of road, and so the car got stuck in the mud along the Rio Grande river, and took us all morning to get out. On Sunday afternnoon driving out of the park on our way home my car broke down 20 miles outside of Langtry (population:15) at 7:30pm, and 10 miles from the mexican border. We got stuck on the side of the road in the middle of the damn desert as it was getting dark. It was scary. At one point some weird dude stopped and was acting erratically and freaked us out, but thankfully left. At 10:30 a really nice border patrol guy stopped and drove us to a place where we could use a phone to call a tow truck (again) and we got towed to Del Rio (about 70 miles away) at 2:00 in the morning. We stayed at a shitty motel in Del Rio, which flooded due to the heavy thunderstorm that was going on during a lot of this fiasco. Thankfully we were on the second floor so we didn't have to get evacuated. The estimate to fix my car was $1800 (Which if you count the $450 I got for the kayak, was more than I paid for the thing). The transmission was completely shot. I decided to get rid of it, and try to recoup some of the loss. We went to a used car dealer in town, who redirected us to a lower-end car dealer: a charming tattooed mexican named "Pepe." Trying to sell a Subaru in Texas is like trying to sell a bicycle to a fish. I've never actually seen another one in the entire state besides mine. Besides selling a car that won't even turn on isn't easy either (the battery was dead too, I guess from leaving the blinkers on for several hours). I talked the guy up to 400 bucks and was glad to be rid of the thing (which was still sitting in the motel parking lot). I was just happy I didn't have to pay another tow truck to take it somewhere and drop 2 grand to get back my lemon. The only rental car place in town charged us $90 to rent a shitty car to drive back to Leakey, but since it was podunk town we had to return the car back to Del Rio where got it. So we drove 2.5 hours to Leakey, turned around and drove back in two cars, dropped off the rental and came back to Leakey. As if this wasn't bad enough some ass sheriff pulled us over, doing 67mph in a 60 zone, and wanted to search the trunk (apparently lots of smuggling problems in the area) which was full of all of our camping stuff. After that whole ordeal we finally got back to leakey at 11:30 at night and get this: taped to the trailer door is a note from the Ranch, saying that we can't use the community center anymore and to remove our stuff immediately. The community center has the shower, phone, laundry facilities and our work computer. So that's freaking great. I don't know what we're supposed to do about not having phone access, shower or laundry, we kind of need those things. We couldn't even get in today to use get the computer, since they took the key. So not only did we miss work yesterday because we were stranded, we missed work today because we couldn't get our GPS points from the computer to go out in the field. Last but not least the school were we use the internet got struck by lighting during the storm and knocked out the network. Oh yeah, apparently the road where we broke down (twice) is called "the most dangerous night-time drive in America" because of the border problems, drugs, central american gang activity, kidnappings etc... and the extremely remoteness.
Haha what a mess! What can you do but laugh at how absurd it all is. The good news is that I picked up a bunch of year birds and a lifer, the Colima Warbler, at Big Bend. Since coming back this last week I've added a few of later migrants too as year birds. Nothing really exciting, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bunting and Bell's Vireo. The Big Benders were mostly common things. The Colima and Varied Bunting were highlights. On Saturday night we spotted a Barn Owl in the road, they can be hard to find, being strictly nocturnal as they are. So Barney the barn owl was a year bird. The new list total is 280 I think, not bad for this time of year, not particularly great though. Its going to be tough to get more birds without a car. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of west coast stuff in the fall at Humboldt. Arcata Marsh is supposed to be a solid birding spot. I'm still planning on doing Arizona if I can figure out how to make that work. I can think of probably 30 or 35 year birds I can get there. I should be able to get a handful in the Northern Great Plains later in the summer too. Here's a list of targets for AZ I'm pulling out of the air
Red-faced Warbler
Painted Redstart
Olive Warbler
Hepatic Tanager
Lucy's Warbler
Phainopepla
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Five Striped Sparrow
Buff Collared Nightjar
Arizona Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
Gilded Flicker
Crissal's Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Mexican Chickadee
Bridled Titmouse
Elegant Trogon
Virgina's Warbler
Whiskered Screech Owl (maybe? I know nothing about this species)
Flammulated Owl
A late summer Aztec Thrush would be awesome
6 or 7 Hummer sp.'s

I'll post the pictures from Big Bend eventually. I took some great shots of the landscape, and a few decent bird/wildlife shots.

Rio Grande Birds

2007-04-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Altimira Oriole
Harris's Hawk
Great Kiskadee
Bullock's Oriole
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Gray Hawk
White-collared Seedeater
Clay-colored Robin
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Green Jay

South Texas

2007-04-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing birding trip on my day off. I'll post the pictures soon, I took about 300, so it will take a little time to sort through them. I had 32 year birds in about 30 hours of almost continuous birding. It damn near killed me, but it was incredible and my new year list total is now 261. The best birds of the trip were definitely the White-collared Seedeater in Zapata, and Clay-colored Robin and Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl in Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park. I had a lot of the South Texas specialties like Audubon's and Altimira Orioles, Olive Sparrow, Ringed Kingfisher, Gray Hawk, Green Jay, Bronzed Cowbird, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Plain Chachalaca and Brown-crested Flycatcher.

I managed to get photos of mostly all of the year list bird I spotted. The exceptions were the Sora (for fairly obvious reasons) a Chimney Swift which was moving at about 500 miles an hour, and a few skulky birds that wouldn't come out of thick vegetation for very long: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Lincoln's Sparrow, Painted Bunting, Blue-winged Warbler and Brown-crested Flycatcher (which wasn't terribly skulky I just couldn't get a decent shot).
The big misses for the weekend:
Northern Beardless Tyrannulet- I staked it out for several hours in the oppressive heat at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, but never saw it.
Red-billed Pigeon ( and Muscovy Duck too I guess) -I searched three locations for the Red-billed: Salineno, Chapeno and Roma Bluffs Observation tower. Although I picked up several other good year birds during this time I failed to find the Pigeon in 2+ hours of searching.
Groove-billed Ani and Fulvous-whistling Duck- These two I really wanted to find, but just didn't have time to make seriously hunt for them. I heard that both were at Estero Llano Grande State Park. I plan on going back to the Lower Rio Grande Valley towards the end of May when I have more time, and hopefully I'll be able to get these guys along with the Tamaulipas Crow, and some shorebirds at Laguna Atacosa NWR / South Padre.

Here's the complete list of the 32 year birds in the order in which I saw them.
Scott's Oriole
Harris's Hawk
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Great Kiskadee
Bullock's Oriole
Painted Bunting
White-collared Seedeater
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Ringed Kingfisher
Common Ground-Dove
Green Jay
Altamira Oriole
Brewer's Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Gray Hawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Paraque
Clay-colored Robin
Plain Chachalaca

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Audubon's Oriole

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Broad-winged Hawk

Lincoln's Sparrow

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Sora
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Olive Sparrow
Swainson's Thrush
Blue-winged Warbler
Chimney Swift

Scott's Oriole

Year Birds since last post: 32
new list total 261

half dozen year birds from last week

2007-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

The second half of last week produced some decent year birds. All from either the ranch, Garner State Park or Lost Maples State Park I added the following birds:

Eastern Wood-Pewee

White-tipped Dove

Lesser Nighthawk

Swainson's Hawk

Peregrine Falcon

Philadelphia Vireo

Baltimore Oriole

That puts the year list total (as of 4/27) at 229.

alright

2007-04-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy working and haven't posted an update in a little while, so here we go. It looks like year birds have been trickling in by ones and two for the last couple of weeks. I haven't been anywhere outside of the Frio River area, but I have managed to pick up a few birds nearby. I'm at 223 now, so that means I've got 8 since the last time I posted. Lets see if I can remember what they are.
Two different Kingbirds: Western (big deal) and Couch's (a lifer, and actually a big deal!)
A migrant male Ruby-throated Hummingbird with at least 20 Black-chinned Hummingbirds at the feeders at Garner State Park last Saturday. I got some great pictures of the Black-chinned Hummers and I'll have to post them when I get some time.
Handfulls of Purple Martins at a Martin House in Utopia, TX.
Grasshopper Sparrows on two different days. On Saturday I heard some near Utopia on an Exotic Game Ranch, but never actually saw any. On Sunday on the way to Lost Maples State Park I caught one out of the corner of my eye while driving on rt 187 and slammed on the brakes. I pulled off the road and managed to snap a few mediocre photos of a fairly obliging bird.
Last week at some point I spotted two Green Herons on Big Springs Ranch.
I had an Eastern Wood-Pewee (two actually) at Lost Maples State Park on Sunday while Hiking with Melissa.
The last one is a Chuck-wills-widow that's been calling a lot from around the community center near the *sigh* trailer park.

Year Listers since the last post: 8
Lifers this post: 1
new list total: 223
new life list total: I don't know. I'm going to go back and look at it at some point. It should be around +/-460... I think.

A life bird

2007-04-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

I picked up a few new birds including two life birds recently. On Sunay I found a Long-billed Thrasher in a marshy/ scruby park outside of San Antonio. I also had a singing Winter Wren (not a life bird, but a year bird) that seemed to be migrating through the area on Monday this week. On Wednesday a FOY Blue Grosbeak landed on a tall oak on the edge of one of study transects, and I found a (lifer) Clay-colored Sparrow the same day skulking in a young Ashe Juniper. On Thursday morning a singing Scarlet Tanager was outside the door of my... *sigh*... trailer. So anyway I jumped up to 215 f0r the year. My butterfly list is growing too. I think I'm at thirteen now. I don't have it in front of me, but I'll post some pictures when I get around to bringing them to the library.

some Texas pictures

2007-04-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the headwaters of the Frio River at Big Springs Ranch. Black Phoebe, Spotted Sandpiper, and a blooming Cactus.

Some Newbies

2007-04-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I went for a hike with Melissa and Jill on the Ranch. We found a few new year birds including Yellow-throated Vireo and Summer Tanager. It was really hot in the afternoon and the birds were very quiet after a short while. Later this week (4/06) I managed to find my first decent mixed migrant warbler flock of the year. It had Orange-crowned, Black and White, Golden-cheeked (I think they were just foraging in the same area, not actually migrants), Nashville, and Wilson's Warblers. The Nashville and Wilson's are both year listers. I was hoping to go down to Bentson RG State park and Laguna Atacosa NWR, plus a few other south Texas birding spots this weekend, but the weather is really bad. Its supposed to thunderstorm all night and into tomorrow, so its not really worth the trip.
Besides being a great place to watch birds, Texas seems like a great state for butterflies. Figuring that now was as good a time as any, I started a Butterfly life list this week. Right now my life list has two Butterflies on it. I do think that I've seen quiet a few more species since I started the list, but I haven't spotted the diagnostic markings. I'm still a novice, and I don't want "it kinda looks like" identifications for life listers.
1. Red Admiral
2. Little wood-Nymph

New Year List Total: 210.
Butterfly life list total: 2

I'm just a negative nelly today

2007-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

more problems with this year's big year
1. No east coast Pelagics.
2. No Alaska (although some of the Manitoba stuff should help)
3. No money
4. Going back to school = no time either

I just realized that my year list is going to suck.

2007-03-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

Why? Because I'm not going to get down to Florida at all this year and am going to miss all the cool birds that live down that way. If I can scrape together some money later this year just maybe I'll fly down to Miami. Maybe if a cool vagrant shows up like another Loggerhead Kingbird or something like that. Otherwise no Flamingo, Gray Kingbird, Florida Scrub-Jay, Spot-breated Oriole, Red-Whiskered Bulbul, Purple Swamphen, Brown Noddy and so on and so on... damn it.

oh yeah...

2007-03-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

...the third bird was a Greater Roadrunner. I added one more bird today. A Black Phoebe (year lister) on the Frio River getting attacked by a Green Kingfisher (not a year lister). I also heard a Hermit Thrush singing this morning although its not a year lister either. Another cool find was a huge Texas Alligator Lizard. It was about 16 inches from nose to tail.

3 year listers in one day

2007-03-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

I added three year birds while out territory mapping Golden-cheeked Warblers today w/ Melissa. Ovenbird, Red-Eyed Vireo, and um... I can't remember the third one. The real highlight of the day however was finding a golden-cheeked nest, with an attending female bringing food to nestlings. I'm at 202 now, assuming that I can remember that third bird. So anyway I figured I'd lay out my plans for birding the rest of the year. Since I'm stuck in Texas until June, I'm going to pick up a lot South Texas stuff when I have the time and shoot over to West Texas to get Colima Warbler and Lucifer's and Blue-throated Hummers when they show up, grab a few desert sp.'s too and Montezuma Quail, etc... For my migrant eastern warblers I'm kinda screwed this year. I'm going to get one shot at a May weekend at High Island and I'll have to take what I can get. I'll hopefuly get some boreal forest breeders when I head up to Manitoba in July. At the end of June, I'm heading over to N. Mexico and Southern Arizona to get all those restricted range southwesty type birds. From there its north to Colorado for Mountain Plover or Burrowing Owls, or whatever at Pawnee National Grasslands, then White-tailed Ptarmigan, and high elevation stuff at Rocky Mountain NP. Then its off to the Dakotas then Manitoba for northern Prairie stuff. I missed Leconte's already on the wintering grounds (grrrrr) so I'll have to get breeders. From there its up to Churchill, Manitoba to get the really northern species, Hawk Owl and Snowy Owl and Little Gulls and Black-backed and Three toed Woodpeckers, another Ptarmigan sp. breeding phalaropes (for the nice pictures) and other tundra breeders. For fall migration, its down to Northern California. I'll probably shoot up to Oregon for the awesome Pelagics they are running out of Newport, or down to Monterey for that one. Than its hanging out in California until December and maybe a last minute effort to pick up some easy misses towards the end of the year.

birding edwards plateau

2007-03-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

lots of new year listers since eastern texas. The new list total is 199 for the year. Some highlights include, Green Kingfisher, lots of Golden-cheeked Warblers, and plenty of early migrants: Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Black-and-white Warblers, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated Warbler, Zone-tailed Hawk, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Black-capped Vireo. Lots of resident stuff too: Spotted Towhee, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Crested Caracara. I still have to dig up the updated list.

2007-02-25T16:53:00.000-08:00

Year lister 154: 13 Cedar Waxwings in a tree near the apartment on Wednesday.

I forgot one

2007-02-20T12:21:00.000-08:00

I also had an American Tree Sparrow at Brandywine Creek State Park. So thats 10 total year listers in Delaware for a total of 153 on the year.

getting out there

2007-02-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

Its been too cold lately, so I haven't been birding much. Today I went out and found a few birds around Swansboro, Cape Carteret and Croatan National Forest. My first stop was the White Oak River between Onslow and Carteret Counties. I took a few pictures of some brown Pelicans that were hanging out behind a fish market. There were a few hundred Bonaparte's Gulls flying around. It was really windy so I couldn't scope them for Little or Black-headed Gulls. I went over to Croatan, and stomped around the Long-leaf pine savannah for a while. It wasn't very birdy. Nothing remotely rare showed up, not even the pine specialists: no Bachman's and no Red-cockadeds. After a while I drove to Cedar Point Recreation Area and looked for photographic opportunities. There wasn't much. It was about 2pm and the light was harsh. I walked out on the boardwalks and had a lot of fun using my cell phone to "call" a Clapper Rail out into the open using the rail vocalizations I have on my cell phone. I had one year lister a fly over Osprey in Swansboro.
Year list total: 143

Bob Crane

2007-01-30T11:14:00.001-08:00

This has nothing to do with Bob Crane. On the other hand, it does have everything to do with Sandhill Cranes. On my fifth, yes thats first second third fourth fifth try, I found the four Sandhill Cranes on Swansboro Loop Road in Swansboro, NC. No, they're not a life bird, I just have lots of time to look for birds. They're year bird #141. So with one day to go in January, I need nine new birds to hit my goal of 150 for the month. I don't think its going to happen, but you never know.

you better wrap that gavel up (part 2)

2007-01-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

Here's the wrap up of my outer banks trip for the second day (out of two).

top: Merlin
bottom: Lesser-black Backed Gull
I woke up at 6:40 and walked onto the beach. The sky was pink. It was very cold out. The most common birds on the beach were Willets. Also very common were a variety of Gulls including at least four individual Lesser Black-backeds, the most I've ever seen in one place. I saw a small falcon while walking out towards the sand spit, but was unable to get a good look at it to determine whether it was a Kestrel or a Merlin. It turns out it was a Merlin. I resighted the bird on the way back, and was able to get a few photos of my first year lister of the day. In all, I had spent three hours birding the beach, and had walked god knows how far.

I hopped in the car and shot north, stopping once to get junk food for breakfast. Pleased with Merlin, but still a little disappointed at having birded three hours to get one year lister, I
pulled the car into the parking lot at Pea Island NWR. For those that aren't familiar with Pea Island it is one of the best waterfowl spots in the United States. It's certainly the best I've ever been to, and I feel like I've been to some very good waterfowl spots. I was about to pick up a whole bunch of year listers, really quickly. From the wildlife trail on the south end of the famous "North Pond" I picked up my next lister of the day through the scope, an American White Pelican. I later drove further up NC-12 and was able to get a few photographs of a small group of six White Pelicans. From a nearby vantage point I also found a small group American Avocets, bills tucked-in in the cold wind. I scanned a flock of mainly American Wigeons and Coots and found two Canvasbacks, a single Greater Scaup hen and a drake Eurasian Wigeon, all three were year listers. To the north in a marshy area a distant group of a few hundred Snow geese flew up, making for year lister number 7.
top: Eurasian Wigeon
middle: Hunkered down American Avocet
bottom: American White Pelicans

At this point I was very excited, especially about the Eurasian Wigeon, a european vagrant species that is often very difficult to find. I drove north to Oregon Inlet and walked the causeway on the bridge. I kept an eye out for sea ducks but found only Red-Breasted Mergansers. A decent size mixed gull flock with 50 or so Bonaparte's Gulls was following a dredging ship under the bridge. I was pretty far away, but at this distance I figured if there was a Black-headed or Little Gull I might be able to pick it out with the scope, especially if it was a distinctive first-winter bird. So I scanned the flock the best that I could, but without success. There were a lot of "white headed" gulls too, so hoping for a white-winged gull species I scanned through them as best as I could once again, but again came up short. I checked the rocky edges of the inlet, no Purple Sandpipers and no sea ducks.
Blue-winged Teal

Cursing my southern lattitude I drove to Bodie Island Lighthouse to check to the pond. I used my cell phone to play Sora and Virginia Rail calls in the marsh, but without any luck. I scanned the pond, hoping for a Common Merganser, then cursed my southerly lattitute once more for making me have to hope for a Common Merganser. The pond had lots of dabblers, but not the Merg.. I found my final year lister here though, a Blue-winged Teal. It was actually pointed out to me by a fairly cranky older woman, who knew very little about birds. She called it, "the one with white on the head." So that was it: 5 year listers day one and 8 on day two. I had a lot of good birds, but was very disappointed that I didn't find a white-winged or any of what I like to call "the mini bonaparte's gulls." The other big let-downs included: not a single Horned Lark, American Pipit, Lapland Longspur or Snow Bunting, and no sea ducks and no Purple Sandpipers.

So I am eleven birds short of 150 for the month of January. Of the birds I missed I could get almost all of them in a heartbeat in Delaware. Since I need to return my binoculars anyway maybe I could stop back up there sometime. It would be easy to get a big number of year birds.
Indian River and Savage's Ditch would easily produce Long-tailed Duck, Surf Scoter, and possible White-winged Scoter. A Purple Sandpiper would be a gimme. Little Gull would be likely. Brant and Common Goldeneyes would also be very likely. Any of these that were missed, could be found at Cape Henlopen, where Snow Buntings are also fairly easy to find. Then shoot over to scour Prime Hook for any White-winged Gulls, Ross's Goss, Cackling Goose and a Northern Shrike. Check the wastewater plant in Rehoboth for Black-headed Gull. The Tilcon pond for Red-necked Grebe. Bombay Hook to look for Cackling Goose, Horned Lark and American Pipit and a likely Common Merganser and Mute Swan. Then to Brandywine Creek (or White Clay) to look for a Pine Sisken, Purple Finch, and Common Merganser if I still need it. Ashland is usually good for a Rusty Blackbird and Black-capped Chickadee. It would be easy to shoot down to Cape May to get a Snow Bunting or other birds that may have been missed as a backup plan. The Band-tailed Pigeon may still be around too.

you better wrap that gavel up (part 1)

2007-01-24T18:19:00.001-08:00

Here's the wrap up of my Outer Banks trip for the first day (out of two).

Hatteras before sunrise

Well, I was definately a little bit optimistic with the number of year birds in such a short time, but I was right on target with a lot of my predictions. I had thirteen year listers in two days, most of which was spent driving in the car.

First stop on the trip was the "sand pits" restored wetland near Greenville. This looks like a good birding site, and will be a lot better once the construction is done. Gulls and dabbling ducks were abundant. I found an Anhinga, an uncommon to rare species in this part of North Carolina in the winter. I spotted my first year lister here, the first of several bald eagles on this trip. The Wood Stork that was reported here was nowhere to be seen. I didn't spend lots of time looking for three reasons. I was eager to get to Alligator River NWR. A Wood Stork will be easy to find in the summer, and even more so further south where I expect to be shortly. I thought I might have been trespassing, and I didn't like the looks I was getting from the increasing number of construction workers showing up for work on the site.

Stop two: Some fields east of Rocky Mount to find Lapland Longspur and Horned Lark. Although I planned on coming here to find these birds, I didn't. Its further away then I had initially thought.

Stop three: Voice of America grassland area. This one was impromptu. While driving I saw a street sign and remembered reading about this site in the book from the Falcon Guide series on birding in North Carolina. I didn't find any year list birds, but there were a lot of meadowlarks, in the nearby farm fields, and in a field of broomsedge were several Fox Sparrows and Eastern Towhees.

Stop four: Lake Matamuskeet. Not being all that familiar with this sight, I thought that it would be less productive to spend lots of my time here, and moved quickly through the refuge. Route 94 runs through the center of the lake from South to North over a five mile causeway, and provides many opportunities to stop and look for waterfowl and other birds without going out of the way. I did stop several times, and found many dabbling ducks and Tundra Swans, but was disappointed that there were few diving ducks, and no sea ducks at all. I had been under the impression that I might be able to find Goldeneye, Brant or Scoters on this gigantic lake. Part of the problem may be the time of year. I think I read that this lake is better in November and December, and that by late January and February the numbers decline sharply. Not being very familiar with this NWR, I did not check the impoundments and did not get either the Glossy Ibis or Black-crowned Night Heron that were here on the Christmas Bird Count.

I getting frustrated because I had only one year lister after all this birding, and was feeling doubtful about the trip.

Stop Five: Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. I like this place a lot. This refuge covers an incredible amount of beautiful unfragmented habitat. It was very heartening to see a lot of thriving wildlife. The only non-squirrel mammals for the trip were spotted here. Actually, thats not true I did see a group of deer at the Bodie Island Lighthouse later that night. Regardless I saw a group of White-Tailed Deer, a large Raccoon and one of my favorite mammals, a River Otter. My optimism returned as well here. I found two year birds in the flooded fields, Northern Pintail and Green-winged Teal, as well as four year-lister Royal Terns in a podunk town called "Stumpy Point."
above: Northern Pintail hen, year lister number two for the day.
below: Basic plumage Royal Tern, year lister number four.

The fifth and final year lister of the day was one I had been really hoping to get soon, before I missed my shot this winter, a Short-eared Owl. There is an area of the refuge that is an expansive area of intermingled grassland and farm fields, a very productive area for raptors including more Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels. Far and away the most common raptors were the Northern Harriers. I saw at 20, if not more, with as many as eight within view at one time. It was here that I waited for the sunset, hoping to spot an owl coming out to forage as the light began to fade. I stood on the roof of the car and surveyed the fields with the scope from 4:00 until 5:30. At five thirty when it was almost too dark to keep looking, I thought I had missed out on the Short-eared for the third time this month, and started heading for the refuge exit. At 5:35 from the road I spotted what looked to have been an owl. I slammed on the breaks, grabbed my scope and jumped out of the car. I was rewarded with an owl perched on a post or a shrub or something sticking up in one of the areas with taller grass. After a few seconds the owl hopped off, and flapped a few quick times and I was able to see that it was indeed a Short-eared owl. I was really stoked.
One of the many raptors present, a Red-tailed Hawk.

Content with a very respectable five year listers for the day, I cruised out of the refuge and looked for a place to park the car for the night to sleep. I drove across Roanoke Island, and onto the Outer Banks. Then I drove South to Bodie Island Lighthouse and parked in the lot. I planned on sleeping there, but a few cars drove by and I decided I'd like something a little further away from people where I wouldn't have to worry about being disturbed. Then I had the idea that I should start birding the next day from the South, and work my way North so that when I was done for the day I could make a quick getaway, and get home a lot earlier. It is a lot faster to drive home from Nags Head than it is from Hatteras. So I drove down to the Lighthouse on Hatteras Island, and parked in the empty lot where I slept comfortably and undisturbed.

year listers for day 1 of 2:
1. Bald Eagle
2. Northern Pintail
3. Green-winged Teal
4. Royal Tern
5. Short-eared Owl

new year list total (as of 1/23/07): 131

I've already got a Shoveler

2007-01-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

One of my target birds in my last post was a Northern Shoveler. I've already got it on my list. I guess that means I'll have to get one more from my "maybe" list.

crossing my fingers for my trip to the Outer Banks

2007-01-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I'm heading out to the Outer Banks, or if you're trendy you call it "OBX." I'm going to spend maybe 2 or 3 days birding, and sleeping the car. I'm hoping the trip will help me to reach my goal of 150 species by the end of January, and that should be possible with a little bit of luck. Right now I have 126. I have 24 species to go in just nine days. Here's how I think I can do it:
Drive out to a couple of Ponds in Greenville that have:
127. Bald Eagle
128. Wood Stork
then up to Rocky Mount to get:
129. Horned Lark
130. Lapland Longspur
From there head over to Alligator River and Matamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges for some ducks:
131. Northern Pintail
132. Green-winged Teal
133. Blue-winged Teal
134. Canvasback
135. Northern Shoveler
136. Snow Goose
137. Eurasian Wigeon
138. Glossy Ibis
139. Black-crowned Night Heron
140. Greater Scaup
Then to the outer banks, hopefully I'll get:
141. Long-tailed Duck
142. Purple Sandpiper
143. Brant
144. Surf Scoter
145. White-winged Scoter
146. Whimbrel
147. American White Pelican
148. Common Merganser
149. American Avocet
150. American Pipit

I figure I will get at least one or two out of this remaining group if not more.
1. White-crowned Sparrow
2. Eastern Screech Owl
3. Barred Owl
4. Barn Owl
5. Short-eared Owl
6. Rusty Blackbird
7. Black Rail (I'm going to try again at Hatteras)
8. Black-headed Gull
9. Little Gull
10. Iceland Gull
11. Glaucous Gull

Hopefully I well get some of the above group to cover any other misses I may have. I could definately see myself missing any or all of the Wood Stork, Eurasian Wigeon, White-winged Scoter and Lapland Longspur. I tried again for the Sandhill Cranes that were in Swansboro, but they were not there today either. Unfortunately they probably moved on.

things so far

2007-01-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

If you look at my year list so far there's not much that stands out as being particularly ununsual. Some of the birds are somewhat difficult to find in the winter in North Carolina; the Common Eider, Harlequin Duck, Anhinga and Lesser Black-backed Gull are a few. There are however birds on the list that are really not North Carolina birds at all, and are really good finds. I wish I could take credit for being the one to find them, but I didn't. Regardless of who found them originally, I had the good fortune of finding out about these rarities via the Carolina Birds listserv, and made the effort to relocate them. In particular there are three rarities that I chased down so far.

The first was a female or immature male Vermillion Flycatcher. I don't know how to tell them apart. It wasn't the easily identifiable bright red male breeding plummage, that's the important thing. This bird was near a place called Bettie, which isn't really much of a place at all. A few farms and Route 24 is about the whole town. I drove out there near the beginning of the year one day at dawn, and searched and searched without success for this little bird. I ended up leaving after several hours and driving to Cape Lookout National Seashore. Apparently its on a barrier Island and you have to have your own boat to get to the seashore during the offseason. I obviously don't have my own boat so that was a bust. I drove back to Bettie and looked for the bird for a while longer. The whole time I was looking people kept stopping and asking me why I was staring into a field with a telescope in the early morning. I don't think rural-type folks always get birders. While I was looking for the flycatcher, I inadvertantly stepped in a fire ant nest. I was bitten very badly on my calves, ankles and feet. It made me very cranky for a couple of days afterward. Despite that bit of bad luck I eventually found the bird when it flew up on some vegetation in this dinky little ditch in the field. It only stuck around for two or three minutes before it disappeared again, and it was too far away to photograph. I didn't care though I was just happy that I finally found it after five hours of looking.

The second rare bird that I chased was a Say's Phoebe that someone had found on this state run cow farm near Goldsboro. I left around nine one morning and drove out to search for it. It took close to two hours to get there, and when I did get there I spent close to four hours looking. There were with other birders looking for it too. They came and went in small numbers throught the day. By around 2:30 I had given up and I left. I did get a few year birds that day as a consolation. There were two or three Loggerhead Shrikes there I remember, and I saw a Wild Turkey on the side of the road when I was driving. I also stopped at this little trailer park campground that allegedly was a nature center where I found a White-breasted Nuthatch.

It wasn't until the next day that I eventually found the Phoebe. This time it was very easy. I just walked out on the farm and the bird was prominantly perched on a concrete wall. That day I had been birding with Andy Webb, a guy from Jacksonville. We drove around and he showed me a bunch of spots in the area where he likes to go. We found some good stuff, and I had a few listers that day although nothing rare. We chased the third rare bird of the year together, a Lark Sparrow. The guy that wrote Birding Coastal North Carolina had found it originally in a cemetary in Morehead City. We drove there and found the bird with a bunch of Chipping Sparrows without too much trouble. The bird was pretty shy and stayed well hidden in the bushes and at one point in a tree with a lot of dense leaves obstructing any great looks. It was also the first time I've ever birded a cemetary. But anyhow we found it, and the Say's Phoebe too after another long drive out to Goldsboro and back.

top: Say's Phoebe
middle: Common Eider
bottom: Anhinga

Oh ! you gods, why do you make us love your goodly gifts, and snatch them straight away ?

2007-01-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

I left the house shortly after 6am this morning, and drove down to North Topsail Beach. My intention was to hopefully knock off some of the harder to find nocturnal marsh birds for my yearlist. I was hoping I had an outside chance at Black Rail, American Bittern, Barn Owl or Short-eared Owl.

It was still dark when I got there around 6:45 . It was also really cold and foggy. This was not what I was hoping for, since it meant that if there were any Black Rails there at all, they probably wouldn't be very vocal. A ton of "typical" and "Ipswitch" Savannah Sparrows were flying around the marsh/beach ecotone in the dark as I walked out towards the place I was going to head into the marsh. Also on the walk I heard my first year lister of the day: two Clapper Rails calling back and forth at each other from somewhere in the Spartina alterniflora.

I wasn't out there for very long before the sky started to lighten. It was very overcast, so the sun never really came up the sky just gradually got brighter. I figured I missed my chance at hearing a hissing Barn Owl. Since they just about never are out when its light enough to actually see them. I wrote off Black Rail too. The marsh is a typical "low marsh" with only limited areas of "high marsh." Basically the vegetation wasn't great. There was too much alterniflora and not enough Spartina patens or Bullrush. Low marsh means that the area is regularly inundated at high tides, which is too wet for typical Black Rail habitat. I think they prefer habitat that is inundated less frequently, like maybe on a monthly basis at new moons (when the tide is really high).

As the day started to set in I scanned over the marsh hoping to see a Short-eared Owl cruising low, looking for a meal, or maybe a fly-over American Bittern. Instead two Northern Harriers were out foraging already, and that usually means that you're going to strike out on Short-eared Owls. These two species hunt in the same way, and split the same niche by time of day; Harriers during daylight, and Short-eareds at night and at dusk or dawn.

By now it was getting light enough to see pretty well, so I scanned the beach, but there wasn't anything new there. There was one large mixed flock of birds that were roosting for the night, but it was mostly Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, with pretty good numbers of Willets, Dunlin and Sanderlings. Some loons were out in the channel. Quite a few ducks were in the marsh for the night, especially Bufflehead, and they periodically flushed, usually coinciding with the sounds of not too distant gunfire coming from the direction of the Marine Base at Camp Lejeune. The ducks quacked a lot as they flew to other parts of the marsh that I guess they considered safer from the Jarheads in the distance.

Having given up on getting lucky and finding any of my nocturnal birds wishlist. I focused on finding some of the other birds that can be a real pain to find. I checked an area of Bullrush surrounded by lower marsh vegetation and was happy to find a large number of both species of Sharp-tailed Sparrow. I had found about a half dozen of the Nelson's Sharp-taileds at the marsh near Fort Fisher a few weeks ago (along with a lot of other good birds), but I had missed the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed then, and was relieved to find several today. So that was my second year bird of the day. I pished out all in all close to 30 Sharp-taileds on the day, making this area an incredibly production one for these often secretive Ammodramus genus sprarrows.

After getting the other Sharp-tailed sp., the next bird I figure I could probably get was a Sedge Wren. I walked the ecotone between the marsh and the woody vegetation. I guess it was mostly myrtle or bayberry, maybe a little Iva fructescens tossed in. I didn't really pay that much attention. Anyway the long and short of it is that I struck out again. There was no Sedge Wren, and more surprisingly there weren't any Marsh Wren's either, even though there was a thin Phragmites stand mixed in with the native vegetation, something that seems to attract these little guys a lot of times.

A little disappointed I went back to the car and drove to this little pond that sometimes (according to John Fussell's, Birding Coastal NC) has overwintering Common Moorhens. The water level looked really high, way too high for Moorhens, and all I found were American Coots and two Pied-Billed Grebes. I drove down to Shrimp Lady Lane and walked out in the marsh again. This time I found a large group of georgiana race Swamp Sparrows. I think I may have seen a nigrescens race Swampie too, but the light was poor, so whatever. There were a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers on the edges with the Swamps, and more Sharp-taileds in the marsh itself.

Still hoping to get a Sedge Wren, I went back to the marsh on the north end of the Island, and walked the edge again. This time I was lucky and managed to flush one, but it very quickly disappeared again. I kept walking, but rechecked this area on the way back and flushed a wren fairly close to where the first one was. I assume it was probably the same bird. That was my third and final year lister of the day. Although it was still fairly early in the day (well before noon), I had was forced to give up birding on the day.

Satisfied with this much better second look at the Sedge Wren, I got back in the car and drove down to the Seaview Pier. This is when tragedy struck (and the reason for Bill Shakespeare quote from Pericles in this post's title). My god damn binoculars broke. I was getting ready to go inside the restaurant at Seaview, and the eyepiece on the right side fell off. The lense or prism, or whatever it is inside, fell out on the rocks in the parking lot. I tried to put it back in, but it had cracked pretty badly. I tried to play with it a little bit, but it just went to pieces. It made tinkling maraca noises. So my sweet 10x45's are no more. I am stuck with my pitiful compact 8x32's until I can figure some way of getting my binoculars fixed. The pair that broke is under warranty, but I'd have to take them back to the store where I got them, which is in Newark, Delaware, 8 hours of driving away. Oh, I am fortune's fool!

above: Two White Ibis that flew over in the early morning light.

Year birds for the day:

Clapper Rail
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Sedge Wren

New Year List Total: 119

year list so far

2007-01-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

Double-crested Cormorant	1-Jan
Canada Goose	1-Jan
Rock Pigeon	1-Jan
Mourning Dove	1-Jan
Northern Cardinal	1-Jan
Northern Mockingbird	1-Jan
Yellow-rumped Warbler	1-Jan
American Coot	1-Jan
Brown Pelican	1-Jan
Killdeer	1-Jan
Herring Gull	1-Jan
Great Black-Backed Gull	1-Jan
Pied-Billed Grebe	1-Jan
Northern Flicker	1-Jan
Ring-Billed Gull	1-Jan
Turkey Vulture	1-Jan
Red-Tailed Hawk	1-Jan
House Sparrow	1-Jan
European Starling	1-Jan
Red-Winged Blackbird	1-Jan
Carolina Wren	1-Jan
Fish Crow	2-Jan
Eastern Bluebird	2-Jan
Sanderling	2-Jan
Willet	2-Jan
Black-Bellied Plover	2-Jan
Ruddy Turnstone	2-Jan
Northern Gannet	2-Jan
Red-Throated Loon	2-Jan
Common Loon	2-Jan
Forster's Tern	2-Jan
Horned Grebe	2-Jan
Brown-Headed Cowbird	2-Jan
House Finch	2-Jan
Boat-Tailed Grackle	2-Jan
Dunlin	2-Jan
Least Sandpiper	2-Jan
Great Egret	2-Jan
Piping Plover	2-Jan
American Kestrel	2-Jan
Belted Kingfisher	2-Jan
Blue Jay	2-Jan
Great Blue Heron	2-Jan
American Crow	3-Jan
Pine Warbler	3-Jan
Brown-Headed Nuthatch	3-Jan
Red-Cockaded Woodpecker	3-Jan
Fox Sparrow	3-Jan
Eastern Towhee	3-Jan
Gray Catbird	3-Jan
American Goldfinch	3-Jan
Common Yellowthroat	3-Jan
White-Throated Sparrow	3-Jan
Song Sparrow	3-Jan
Pileated Woodpecker	3-Jan
American Robin	3-Jan
Eastern Phoebe	3-Jan
Carolina Chickadee	3-Jan
Black Vulture	3-Jan
Palm Warbler	3-Jan
Swamp Sparrow	5-Jan
Eastern Meadowlark	5-Jan
Red-Breasted Merganser	5-Jan
Mallard	5-Jan
Tufted Titmouse	5-Jan
Savannah Sparrow	5-Jan
Vermillion Flycatcher	5-Jan
Sharp-Shinned Hawk	5-Jan
White Ibis	5-Jan
Hairy Woodpecker	5-Jan
Bonaparte's Gull	6-Jan
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker	6-Jan
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet	7-Jan
Bufflehead	9-Jan
American Oystercatcher	9-Jan
Marbled Godwit	9-Jan
Tricolored Heron	9-Jan
Marsh Wren	9-Jan
Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow	9-Jan
Seaside Sparrow	9-Jan
Black Scoter	9-Jan
Northern Harrier	9-Jan
Common Grackle	10-Jan
Brown Thrasher	10-Jan
Orange-Crowned Warbler	10-Jan
Ruddy Duck	11-Jan
Hermit Thrush	11-Jan
Anhinga	11-Jan
Red-Bellied Woodpecker	11-Jan
Red-shouldered Hawk	11-Jan
Downy Woodpecker	11-Jan
American Widgeon	11-Jan
Gadwall	11-Jan
Little Blue Heron	11-Jan
Loggerhead Shrike	12-Jan
White-breasted Nuthatch	12-Jan
Wild Turkey	12-Jan
Ring-necked Duck	13-Jan
Hooded Merganser	13-Jan
Greater Yellowlegs	13-Jan
Chipping Sparrow	13-Jan
Lark Sparrow	13-Jan
Eurasian Collared-Dove	13-Jan
Wood Duck	13-Jan
Say's Phoebe	13-Jan
Lesser Scaup	15-Jan
Tree Swallow	15-Jan
Cooper's Hawk	15-Jan
Laughing Gull	16-Jan
Common Eider	16-Jan
Harlequin Duck	16-Jan
Great Cormorant	16-Jan
Northern Shoveler	17-Jan
Lesser Black-backed Gull	17-Jan
Redhead	18-Jan
House Wren	18-Jan

My year list

2007-01-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

So I'm sort of doing a big year this year. If you'e not a birder, a "big year" is like an informal contest where you try to observe as many species of birds as you can in one calender year. I say "observe" because you don't have to see it. Hearing a bird species counts too. If you think this is bunk, there are some good reasons for this. Its really hard to see some birds like Yellow Rails, which stay low in marsh and wet fields, and trying to see one would mean tromping around their habitat and would be bad for the bird. Besides virtually all birds in North America have diagnostic calls. When heard, can tell you the exact species.
When you do a big year you keep a list of the birds that you've seen (or heard) so far and where and when you've seen them. This list is called a "year list." Most birders, and myself included, keep a list of the birds that they've identified called a "life list." When you see a new bird that you've never seen before its called a "life lister," or "lifer." If the bird is new for your year list its called a "year lister."
So its January 18th, and I just ticked off (saw a new bird) two year birds today. One was a House Wren which is a really common bird. Its still early enough in the year that there are a lot of fairly common birds in North Carolina that I can still get for my year list. The other bird was a Redhead, which is a kind of duck. It belongs to the genus Aythya, which means its a type of Scaup. There was a flock of about 200 birds on this little dinky pond behind a convenience store called Zena's. There were also some Canada Geese and Mallards on the pond. I got a tip from a guy on the Carolina Birds message board on the Redhead flock. The photo is pretty bad. It was raining hard so I didn't bother to get out of the car. I didn't feel like getting my camera wet. The House Wren flushed from a tuft of wire grass at Croatan National Forest on this trail called the Patsy Pond trail. These two birds are year listers numbers 115 and 116. I've been out birding pretty much every day since January 1, so I've got a backlog of birds to post about.