Why not, Red Knot?

There are few birds that capture the imagination like a Red Knot.  They travel awesome distances, gather in spectacular fashion, and embody a plight of all nature, dwindling numbers.  Many people will tell you that the Red Knot's story is dwarfed by others who also face the same struggle.  For me though, the Red Knot was one of the first birds to really understand their plight and their migration.  The Story of B95 is one that is widely well known and shows the great story of the Red Knot and other Shorebirds.

Shorebirds are amazing birds.  I don't think I need to sell many people on how amazing they are but its a good reminder and exercise to do so.  Red Knots were one of those amazing migrations that I had always wanted to see and witness.  It was a definite moment when I was hit with the unicorn effect when I found this Juvenile Red Knot.  I can't wait to see more of migration and hopefully more Red Knots.  I can't wait for the opportunity to try and chase some Red Knots in breeding plumage to round out my experience of them.  Until then..

Juv. Red Knot

Snowy Egret Hiding in the rocks

Northern Waterthrush at Jamaica Bay

A Cicada

2013 Year Birds: 261

Coming Up:  More Fall Migration!  Hawk Watch!

Birding by Eye

I want to be an altruistic birder.  I want to see the birds for the sake of seeing the birds themselves.  That doesn't seem to be working out.  While I am definitely not some crazy lister than only cares about what they see next.  I want to see all the birds I can and now I want to have photos of them and what I am seeing to be able to share them.  So I guess that makes me a selfish birder...

That's ok to.  I can use my selfish birder to make things better for the birds and people everywhere.  I've noticed recently that when I am out with non-birders, I go full on into teacher-mode.  Let's look at this, What do you see here, What do you think... start about 90% of my sentences.  Connecting with nature is key these days and I feel a need to help people do just that.  Maybe birding just isn't about the birds after all.  Its about all of us on this planet and sharing one large super-complex ecosystem. That's a heavy thought for the weekend, maybe it is just about the lists....

I had to take a step back after chasing after a picture of a little Marsh Wren.  I struggled with just enjoying is song and admiring how well suited he was for his environment.  I had to have a photo of him.  I needed the photo.  So I decided to settle for just a slight picture of him.  Can you spot him in the last photo?

Semipalmated Plover and Least Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs 

Some Herring Gulls just hanging out

Can you spot the Marsh Wren?

Coming Soon:
Photos from a pelagic and A review of the Warbler Guide

Getting Ready for April

Migration is starting...  Migration is starting.... I say it again because I am so excited.  Migration is coming. All over the state (nation, world, etc) there have been reports of incoming birds and new arrivals.  Waterfowl are moving around with gusto and the arrival of the swallows tells me that we are getting ready for the movement of warblers and other great birds.  At the park I found a great number of Killdeer and Tree Swallows (6~8) and I was excited to see them hunting, eating, and flying about.  Osprey (pics in next post) have also returned.  Their recovery (along with other raptors) have been a great example of how durable nature is, of course, they shouldn't have to dance around us.

My birding at the park was interrupted but I enjoyed the preview of migrants who showed up.  The great number of birds out there has me very excited for the oncoming Warblers and Shorebirds.  Ebird's Occurrence maps mark and display with great drama how birds move across our continent.  New Hampshire's Squam Lakes Natural Science Center has a tracking device attached to an Osprey and you can follow along with Art the Osprey's Migration.  Currently, he's looking at the Caribbean and waiting to move across to get to North America.  Think about these voyages over the next months.  How do birds do and how do they cross our borders and boundaries?  And remember that they do it again and again!  There's so much tying us to our desks and jobs and institutions, yet for the birds, that's no matter.  Well, not much will be tying down in April and May, so I guess the birds got another convert.

Happy Birding!

Link:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/occurrence-maps/occurrence-maps
http://www.nhnature.org/programs/project_ospreytrack/osprey_mapART.php

 Red-Tailed Hawk

 Great Egret

 Red Necked Grebe

 Greater Yellowlegs

Tree Swallow

2013 Year List: 113 (87 to go!)

Red-Necked Grebe (lifer) (Life List total: 263, 37 to go!)

Tree Swallow

Great Egret

Winter Storm? No More

A quick update on the birding of the day.  I spent most of the day outside birding various sites and different environments and got a good variety of birds.

Site #1 - A Beach/Marsh - Here I saw my first Green-Winged Teal of the Year and heard many Grackles and RW Blackbirds too.  Marshes are pretty good environments for birds as they supply a lot of hiding space and food.  This marsh was behind a couple of warehouses and has seen some migrants and local rarities.  While we are always hoping to find something new.

Site #2 - A freshwater pond - This pond has been the site of various waterfowl lately and I was hoping to see some before all attention passes to the Warbler Migration.  The benefit of this pond was that it also had a 2nd growth forest meaning that lots of cardinals and chickadees were at play!

Site #3 - Another Beach/Saltmarsh/Sandspits - This site is home to a variety of species and is one of the places where I fell in love with birding.  Here I saw more GW Teals, American Wigeons, crows and one of my all-time favorite birds, A Carolina Wren.

As Spring approaches, I am getting more and more ready for migration season.  Studying, reading, training will help make it as productive as possible.  Of course, I would like to spend sometime with friends and family... but maybe they just need their own migration season.

 Red-Tailed Hawk (c) soaring a few feet above me

Carolina Wren (c) singing its heart out!

2013 Year List: 88
Notable Additions
Carolina Wren
American Coot

Cedar Waxwings

The Cedar Waxwing is one of the most striking birds that I got to see.  While they are much more common that their cousins, the Bohemian Waxwing, Cedar Waxwings are fascinating and social birds to watch.  As I approached the grouping that I photographed below.  They were startled by my presence.  To be fair, I was startled by them as well.  They, unlike me, flew up out the cedars.  Where I had seen 3 or 4, 15 popped out of 3 different cedars.  They zoomed around the cedars looking, presumably for another place to hide from me.

I got lucky.  The street where the cedars were was an over populated, overbuilt street leading to the beach and the waxwings landed back in the first cedars.  Lucky for me.  But I thought about the poor waxwings.  They just wanted to be safe.  What if instead of a birder, I was a car?  A cat?  Another predator?  The Waxwings probably would fly off of course but to what end.  I guess what I am talking about is habitat and birds.  This is something that has preoccupied me lately and something I hope to write about in the future with a more detailed idea.  In the mean time, enjoy pictures of waxwings!

Wind so strong it blew the feathers in the face of the waxwing

Two Pictures of Cedar Waxwings (C) me 

2013 Year List
Brown Headed Cowbird

Red Knots and Redpolls

Too bad you can't call birds over like in the Red Rover game.   Red Rover, Red Rover, Hoary Redpoll, come on over!  It doesn't really work like that.  It doesn't work like that at all.  The search for the Hoary Redpoll began and ended with my feet in the snow.  For a couple of weeks of now, a Hoary Redpoll has been visiting a local feeder.  So, i woke up and headed over.  After an hour and a half of standing in the snow, I had to call it quits.  My feet were cold, my toes were numb and my blood was probably at the early stages of icing.  So without any sign of any more than 2 Common Redpolls at a time, I called it quits and went in search of another bandit.

Beach, wind and shore birds.... lots of shore birds.  What do you do when you are face to face with a single digit wind chill and hundreds of similar looking peeps?  You call it a good day and take out your scope for a good time.  The cold melted away and the wind was stayed with a bounty of chap stick as a looked over Dunlins, Plovers and Turnstones.  The challenge was to judge the legs, beak and coloration all while trying to count the birds!  Sadly, I dipped out the red knot but that doesn't mean I am not going to go out looking for it again... Maybe I'll try the red rover thing with the red knot and redpolls...

The Hoary Redpoll (C) Juho Holmi from Finland

The Red Knot (C) DickDaniels http://carolinabirds.org/

2013 Year List:

62 (138 to go!)

Highlights:

Common Redpoll

Northern Harrier

American Robin

Hooded Merganser

Life List:

256 (44 to go!)

Shorebirding... sorta

Since nabbing the Northern Saw-Whet Owl, I made a return to see some shorebirds and other birds.  There was a good variety of birds and I did spend most of the weekend outside looking for birds.  Which is of course my favorite way to spend a weekend.  I managed to see some old favorites and get some great new birds for the year!  The highlight was watching a Sharp-Shinned Hawk attack and devour a chipmonk.  Pretty cool to see.  The hawk had to navigate some through some bushes and hedges to chase down its prey.

Great weekend of birding and many more to come!

An American Pipit (C) Jonathan Hornung

Life List - 256 (44 to go!)
2013 List - 50 (150 to go!)

Notable Sightings:
American Pipit
Rusty Blackbird (lifer too!)
Lapland Longspur
Snow Goose

A Day at the Beach

A great day at the state park today. Great Sun and warm weather meant that it would be a great day for birds. And it certainly was. Birds were everywhere! As well as birders. Pulling into the parking lot gave me the chance to talk to several birders and admire a Greater Yellowlegs making the rounds while avoiding the ring-billed and Herring Gulls that were just sleeping around him. After than, I decided to move on. There were lots of American Black Ducks, Ring-neck Ducks and Red-Breasted Mergansers just sitting in the waves soaking up the sun. Even a few people were joining them! The salt marsh also had a lot of activity. Killdeer were flocking around and were joined by a few snow buntings! A little too warm to imagine that snow buntings were still around, but there they were! Just hanging out and having fun. Harriers and Turkey Vultures filled the sky along with the new arrived Red-Wing Blackbirds. They were fighting over spots in the trees with Grackles! Bonaparte's Gulls, a bird I had been looking for since November, finally caught up with me. I found them just sitting on a sand bar. The sand bar was a popular place to hang out. Even a Harbor seal made an appearance! Rounding out the day I got horned larks, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows, Red-Throated Loons. My 2012 Total rose to 97 and my life list grew to 139. My goal for 2012 was to get to 200 for both the year and life lists. With Migration season upon us, I hope I can get there!

Outing #21
Bonaparte's Gulls LB
Killdeer

2012 Total: 96

Snow buntings...

Today was not a good day to bird.  There were lots of hawks and vultures out but that meant most birds were going to be in hiding. Add that to the high winds and huge number of dogs out and that's a recipe for a bad birding day. The High winds also meant that birds would be hard to find and reluctant to come out. So there wasn't much to see. Even though the weather was difficult to see birds, it was great to be outside. The Beach in winter is a great place to see birds and catch some sun. Although it would be insane to be tanning in the middle of January. In any case, I did manage to get a new bird for 2012. In the parking lot, there are always horned larks. Which are a great bird to see. But Today as I check out the horned larks, i saw a flash of white... hmm... odd as horned larks are most definitely not White. Out come the binoculars. Well there's definitely something there but I can't see it through the binoculars so out comes the scope. 2 Snow Buntings in the flock of larks. So that's a new bird for 2012! Great day all and all. Great day to go and see birds. A second spot showcased some Common Mergansers, Gulls, Black Ducks, Gadwalls and Mute Swans, not new birds for 2012 or my life list, but beautiful birds to see and enjoy!

Outing #10
Snow Bunting

2012 Total: 50!

Another Visit to the Beach

Imagine being on the beach on a sunny day. No one else around. A whole beach to yourself. Now here's the catch, its only 40F outside. But still, this morning I had beach to myself. Saw some great birds and got a couple of new birds for 2012. Saw Ruddy Turnstones again, Sanderlings,and a Northern Harrier. The Harrier was hunting and riding the wind gusts. Red breasted Mergansers and other sea duck-like birds were around. I was hoping that there would be a harbor seal out there. I saw one last time i was out there but this time no luck. As I started to walk home, I realized I was not alone. There were about 10 other birders out and maybe 20 others, walking their dogs, themselves and a couple of park rangers. It was time to go home realizing that the park was in good hands. I was happy to see people out and about on this sunny winter day and I hope more and more people will take advantage of the parks and see the birds!

Outing #3:
Dunlin
Great Blue Heron
Northern Harrier
Red-Tailed Hawk
American Crow
Rock Pigeon
European Starling
Red-Breasted Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-Rumped Warbler

2012 Today: 26

A Year in Review, A New Year's Goal

So as 2011 wrapped up, I went out looking for a Snowy Owl. One has been very active along the coast and I've always wanted to see one. Sadly, I missed the owl but got an pair of American Wigeons sitting in a marsh. I also got to see a bunch of brants. I needed the year at 118 species. Not great, but a good start for a beginning birder. Some of my favorites of the year have been seeing a red-headed woodpecker, pilated woodpeckers, green winged teals, little Blue Herons, Wood Ducks, and horned larks (also my first bird of 2012!). I did also see a few Brown Pelicans this year. The most memorable birding moment of the year was seeing two bald eagles perform their courtship ritual. An amazing feat of nature and life and I can't believe that I got to see it live. Always a treat to see such beautiful and majestic bird...

Which brings me to my new years goal. Besides the typical go to the gym, eat better and walk my dog more, I decided to set a goal of at least 250 birds and to see how many birds I can get in 2012. Now I won't be using any restrictions other than the North America, which will be easy as I have no plans for travel outside that area currently. In any case, should be a fun year and one that I hope to track of... hence the blog...

Year List for 2012:
Common Eider
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
American Black Duck
Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Ruddy Turnstone *LB
Sanderling
Purple Sandpiper *LB
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Horned Lark

Total: 13