Birding Around Homer, Alaska

There is never enough Alaska to be had. I loved exploring Homer so much, I'm already eyeing a tour offered by Zugunruhe Birding to Barrow next year. 

Semi-palmated plover seen along the Homer Spit. 

Alaska is one of those states you can't say no to when it comes a callin'. It's so far from the lower 48 states I was the speaker in 2016 for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival and it was a place I immediately felt at home. One thing that struck me about the area was how much it reminded me of northern Minnesota if it had mountains. I met quite a few people who were originally from Minnesota and Wisconsin, came to Homer for work with the intent to stay for three years and yet found themselves in Homer going on 16 or more years. I could see myself doing that...not so sure about my city loving husband, but me? I'd for sure give Alaska a go. 

The state of Alaska is so huge, you  need more than one visit or the opportunity to live there to really get to know all of the different areas. It's beauty is overwhelming and the day length is unnerving. 

Everywhere you look in Alaska you see a Bob Ross painting. This is Chugach National Forest, Moose Pass between Anchorage and Homer.

My foot compared to a moose track. 

I wondered how quickly I would see a moose on my drive from the Anchorage airport to Homer. I had to stop at a few scenic vistas on my way because I was not focusing on the road but the overwhelming beauty. Everywhere I stopped were signs of moose from tracks to poop. We have a small and dwindling population of moose up in Minnesota and I went on a moose safari in Sweden a few years ago so they aren't new for me but are always cool to see. I have a fairly distrust of moose on the side of the road ever since I saw the episode of Mythbusters that pretty much said you're boned if your vehicle collides with one. 

Moose blocking traffic in Homer.

The closer I got to Homer, the more moose I saw: in the road, along the road, running along side my vehicle...which was quite nerve wracking. And signs like these didn't ease my mind. But I made it to Homer without incident and picked up a few lifers along the way. 

Mew gull...so weird to see a gull perched in a tree and also weird that I was able to id a gull on my own...

Golden-crowned sparrows sang all around my cabin. 

The light at 10pm in Homer in May...

I checked into my cabin at Shadow Star Vacation Rental which was right on the bay and gave me views of scoters, sea otters and of course lots of bald eagles. Golden-crowned sparrows, sooty fox sparrows and hermit thrushes serenaded me as long as it was light out. Which was a bit of a problem for me. I tend to wake up with the light and the cabin had excellent light blocking curtains so when it was still dusk like at 11pm I'd have a shot at sleep. However, the hermit thrushes and sparrows kept going and my brain refuses to turn off when bird song is going, especially gorgeous songs from thrushes or birds I haven't heard before. But fortunately, Shadow Star offered the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on in my life and that combined with noise cancelling headphones playing white noise allowed me sleep. 

The Sourdough Joe breakfast at the Fresh Sourdough Express. There's fresh reindeer sausage in there so I had to order it. 

After a good breakfast, I explored Homer and what it had to offer for birding, specifically along the spit. This area was infamous for years for the Homer Eagle Lady who fed chum to hundreds of bald eagles. Since she's passed away, Homer now has very strict rules about feeding birds along the spit. Apparently, there are some after effects of the feeding like black-legged kittiwakes now nesting under the piers so as to not have their nests predated by eagles. 

One of the piers where kittiwakes seek shelter from eagles. 

Black-legged Kittiwake up close. 

That's not to say a kittiwake colony doesn't attract attention. Here's an immature peregrine falcon and northwester crow near the kittiwakes. Eagles still abound as well. 

Obligatory bald eagle photo from Homer. They pretty much nest on anything that can find. You might be at risk if you stand in one spot for too long. 

Black oystercatcher seen along the Homer Spit.

You may have noticed that I attended a festival with "shorebird" in the title and I've posted very few photos of shorebirds. I went in 2016 and the timing of the festival and shorebird migration didn't quite coincide. Such is the nature of migration and weather. Though I didn't get the big numbers of godwits, sandpipers and plovers, there are plenty of birds to keep you entertained and to fatten up your life list. 

Common murres against the sun taken from a boat.

One of the field trips you will want to make sure you get a space on is the seabird trip. It's only three hours but you can head out to a common murre colony and find eiders, common and Kittlitz's murrelts. It's also a gorgeous way to experience the Homer Spit view. If you're not sure how you would ever do on a pelagic, this small trip and a good way to test out your sea legs. You get quite a few opportunities for seabirds and shorebirds. 

Common murres and black-legged kittiwakes on Gull Island. Digiscoped from a boat. The iPhone is a very forgiving camera. 

I like the above video because it captures the frenetic activity of the birds and the adventurous air on a boat birding trip. Just walking around Homer can feel like an adventure, but the sights, the wind, the roar of the common murres and kittiwakes yelling overhead combined with the aroma assaulting smell of copious amounts of bird guano just adds to it. 

But that's just the birding around Homer. There are other places to explore in the next post. Also, be sure to check out the shenanigans my friends Sue and I got up to with our friend Flat Michelle. 

Digiscoping with an iPhone 5s

Hey Minnesota and Wisconsin friends, my buddy Clay Taylor from Swarovski and I will be at the National Eagle Center on December 7, 2013 for the Optics Expo and if you have any questions about digiscoping or would like to learn more about using your smartphone with a spotting scope, this would be a great day to come down.  I'll have some adapters you can play with to. Speaking of smartphones, my Verizon plan was up for renewal which meant I could finally get a iPhone 5s. I am enjoying using this so much for digiscoping, I'm tempted to hang up my Nikon V1 for good.  I got the new phone right before I left for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival in early November. If you saw the birding trailer I made for it, that was filmed and edited entirely with the new phone.

When the iPhone 5s was announced, my techie niece was wondering why anyone would care or want to have burst mode or slow motion video on a phone camera. I thought, "Man, birders are going to love this!" I already love the iPhone for its ability to capture images well in low light conditions, but slow motion video could be quite something to aid in identification.

Clay and I were down to teach a digiscoping workshop at South Padre Island during the festival and we arranged it so we'd not only be able to practice getting photos of birds in the afternoon light, but also play around with getting arty shots at sunset (one of Clay's favorite pastimes). I was eager to see what this phone could do with my scope.

This was the sort of lighting conditions were were dealing with.  You can see a concentration of gulls and terns just off the shore.

Kite surfers were working the winds and the birds roosting along shore didn't seem to mind them. Above is a black skimmer, laughing gull, marbled godwits, willets and royal terns with kite surfers behind them.  Made for some interesting shots. But it gets fun with the SloMo video feature on the phone. The videos are taken at 120 frames per second. On your iPhone, it will replay back easier, but if you have an older Mac operating system and you upload them to iPhoto, they may show at normal speed. This is easily fixed by opening the movies in iMovie and watching them at 25% speed.

Here's a sample of what you can do with digiscoping through a spotting scope (it looks best if you select watching it in 720p HD or 1080p HD):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1muz5glNxk

This is fun lightweight option to take in the field and with iMovie you have some fun editing options. Heck, one could almost film their own wildlife show with a phone and a good quality scope.

Killdeers, Oh my!

I realized on Monday that since I came home from Europe, I hadn't done any birding apart from the usual mental notes of what is around me when I'm outside. We had a horrible storm that I'd been dealing with and some work that piled up. I was feeling out of sorts and I thought, "Screw it, I'm going birding." And I was so glad I did, summer goes so fast, it's easy to miss moments with common birds like this eastern kingbird. I've been playing quite a bit with the PhoneSkope adapter for my iPhone 4s and my Swarovski ATX scope and I'm overall pleased with it.  It's interesting that I notice the fit sometimes isn't as snug based on temperature fluctuations, but nothing major and easily fixed with a little tape. But I really like it's compact size on my phone and I find myself reaching for my phone first and my Nikon V1 second when I want to digiscope something. The above shot was taken with the iPhone 4s, PhoneSkope Adapter and Swarovski ATX 85mm scope. If you are interested in ordering one of the universal iPhone adapters, you can get a 10% discount if you used the coupon code birdchick13. They have adapters for iPhone 4, 4s, 5 and even Androids. The exact one I'm using is the C-4 Kit. If you're not sure which kit is for you, contact the folks at PhoneSkope, they're very helpful.

While I was driving around the country roads of Dakota County, MN I came upon a family of killdeer. They scattered as I slammed on my breaks, kids running in all directions and adults flanking the front and back of my car.

I paused to digiscope them quickly and also hoped that my vehicle stopped on the narrow road would encourage the other cars coming behind me to slow down and not hit the killdeer chicks. And really, how often do you get to see these little teeny, tiny puffballs on stilts? I posted one of the pictures of the baby killdeer to Twitter and @coneslayer called them "killfawns!" Which is what I will call young killdeer from now on!

Here's the adult that was in front of my car.  Look, the bird looks fine and normal so if I were a predator, I'd want to go for the tiny, slower, weaker killfawns, right?

Oh wait, no that adult bird looks like it's hurt, I of course want to go after that because it would be a higher food reward and an injured adult is easier to catch than a healthy chick, right? I just love that killdeer protect their kids by trying to fake you out, pretending to be injured. And even their rumps are kind of a rusty red, almost looks like an injury or blood--nature is ingenious.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNGMTKY60c4&feature=youtu.be

I left after a few minutes when the adults herded the young kids off the gravel road. The adults must have looked mighty daring to the young killfawns--their parents protected them from the giant scary thing on the road. Always happy to help parents look cool to their kids.

iPhone Digiscoping Adapters

All sorts of adapters for digiscoping using an iPhone and a spotting scope are cropping up. I can barely keep up with testing them. This post covers two different adapters that are very similar and work well with my Swarovski ATM scope.

From left to right we have the iTelligent iPhone adapter, Kowa iPhone adapter and my Mophie iPhone charging case. My only complaint with these adapters is that they do not work with the Mophie case. The iPhone 4s has a crap battery life and if you are going to use your phone to take photos and videos, that battery life is going to get eaten up quickly. If someone could find a way to make an adapter that would work with a Mophie case or if someone could create a digiscoping adapter that is also an iPhone battery charging case, I'd be one happy little clam.  And I don't want to hear about how that would be cost prohibitive when Mophie cases run $79 - $99 and digiscoping adapters run $65 - $199.  I don't think my dream is unreasonable.

But enough of my battery charging rant.

The iTelligent adapter is a case that goes around your iPhone and works with the Swarovski DCA adapter using the M37 ring. I know Swarovski is changing their digiscoping adapters but quite a few of us have DCAs already so this can be a good solution to holding an iPhone steady up against a scope eye piece. I've used the DCA adapter for years to slide a point and shoot or SLR camera over my scope eye piece. It's fast and easy to use. It may seem awkward to have the DCA on an iPhone, but if you are used to having the DCA on a camera in the field, it's easy to adjust to toting it with your phone. The DCA easily screws on and off the case, so you don't have to have it on all them time.

I usually have one of those Women of the Cloud Forest totes with me and this fits easily in there.

The Kowa adapter works without the DCA adapter and is a little skinnier. The Kowa adapter is the one on the right with my finger on it. It wedges on to the scope's eye piece and doesn't have the locking mechanism that the DCA has, but stays firmly in place. I wouldn't leave it unattended, a good bump to the scope could cause it to fall (but that's just common sense with any sort of camera when digiscoping). You do have to do a little futzing to get the full image, but it does the trick and fits in a pants pocket. You can take the ring off of the case too.

I played around with both the Swarovski  20-60 zoom eye piece and 25-50 zoom eye piece. The 25-50 works best with an iPhone 4s. Above is a shot I took with the 20-60 and you can see that there is some serious vignetting which you can get rid of by zooming in the image on the iPhone (not zooming in with the scope eye piece).

But if you start with the 25-50 zoom eye piece you have very little vignetting.

When you use the video feature with your iPhone 4s, you do not have the option of zooming in.  If you use the 20-60 eye piece you will have vignetting which you can edit out using a program like iMovie. Or you can use the 25-50 eye piece and have not vignetting in video mode.

I took a couple of short videos with each adapter and the 25-50 eye piece so you can see how they work.

Here is the iTelligent adapter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-KIjEAn-oc

Here is the Kowa adapter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6JTKhc5C1U

Both work well and are fun way to digiscope. And with both of these adapters, you can still actually use your iPhone to text and you know...phone calls.

Brown Birds

Even though autumn is winding down in my part of the country, the color still tried to pop as in one last hurrah before our white and gray pallet of winter arrives. Bird migration still has a big push going and and though it may not be about warblers any more, it's sparrow city in most of my field work or even around the office. These are a sample from the last week, most of these were taken on the same cloudy day with my spotting scope and either my SLR or my iPhone.

And this last ditch effort at color seems to make all the sparrows even prettier. Now, for all you non-birding/casual birding, the sparrows I'm about to post are all different birds--I swear. Above is  swamps sparrow, a native sparrow and not one usually found under bird feeders. I love that pose, the bird had popped up when I pished to see what sparrows were around.

Brace yourself, this is a completely different brown bird that the one above.  This is a Lincoln's sparrow that was in the same loose flock with the swamp sparrow. Note how this one is streaky on the sides and the swamp is not? I love the way this bird is highlighted by the yellow grasses.

Here's a junco that popped up to remind me that it's still representin' as a sparrow.

Beefy fox sparrows flush up on wooded arrows when I approach my field survey spot.

Robust Harris's sparrows are all over the place in the Twin Cities.  I even had one show up at the bird feeder outside my office window, but they're all over on my field surveys too...though my non birding coworkers are dubious that this is different from the house sparrows.

This wasn't seen on my surveys, it's a cool sparrow that with its pumpkin coloring is so appropriate for Halloween.  This is a Nelson's sparrow. And as much as I love getting a photo of one, I'd rather have it on its breeding grounds and not foraging on mud during migration. But a sparrow's got eat what a sparrow's got to eat. Wish these guys would learn to love millet. I'd wet myself if a Nelson's ever showed up under my bird feeder.

Osprey Banding

Even though I have a spanky new job with a desk and everything, quite a bit of what I do is field work. And like any job, you have to keep your skills sharp and go out for training.  

This week it took the form of helping Mark Martell of Audubon Minnesota with banding osprey chicks. And because we have the same heatwave in Minnesota that's gripping the rest of the nation, we had to start early and scramble like crazy to get four nests of birds banded before the heat of the day would make it too stressful to handle young birds.

Most of the nests were on typical poles but our first nest was on top of the lights in a high school ball field. We use a professional tree climber to climb up to the nest. He uses his yellow bag to load up the chicks and gently lowers them down to the ground. He will remain at the nest while we band the birds and then we will hoist them up the rope.

I'm sure the tree climber gets a great view, but I'm so glad that's not my job.

Some of the chicks were so large that we had to send them down one at a time in the bag. While we do this, the adults fly around and make a fuss.  The don't really attack us, they mostly flap can yell. Occassionally one will dive towards the climber, but doesn't get very close unlike peregrine falcons or Cooper's hawk which actually will make contact. The above adult perched long enough for me to get a photo of her by holding my iPhone up to my spotting scope. She really does look like she's spewing some serious profanity at us.

When we take the chicks out of the bag they are up right. As the adults circle overhead and make warning calls, an instinct for the chicks to flatten kicks in.

And they sort of deflate right before our eyes. It's an interesting defense, if you are looking at the nest from the ground, you can't see any chicks. And with that coloration on their backs, they would blend in well with the colors of the nest and help hide them from aerial predators.

Above is Avian images holding a chick, my coworker Brie applying a rivet band and Mark Martell walking us through the process. Each bird gets a silver federal band and color band that will be easier to read for tracking purposes. Most of the chicks were in the five to six week old age range, meaning their feet are big enough for a band, but not old enough to attempt to fly. But some of the chicks were getting closer to fledging age which is between seven to eight weeks. After we banded older birds, we sprayed their feathers lightly with water which makes them less likely to flap around after they are put back in the nest and less likely to take a tumble over the side as the climber puts them back.

Here are two chicks after being banded. Don' you just love osprey faces? They look like, "WTF just happened?" Just think, in a couple of weeks, these two kids will be learning to grab live fish with their toes and then migrate south into Central and South America. They will spend the next 18 months down there figuring out how to be an osprey and then return in 2014 to breed. That sounds so appealing sometimes, going south of the border to find discover myself for 18 months. Sigh.

I checked out osprey longevity records on the Bird Banding Lab site. The oldest osprey I could find according to bands on wild birds lived over 25 years. There were a few birdrs over 20, though I think 16 - 18 years is closer to the normal age range for a wild osprey. 

I love all the different people we encounter when we band these birds, above is musician and author Paul Metsa. You don't have to be hardcore into birds to appreaciate the amazing osprey. One of the really cool things about osprey is that they are truly a worldwide bird. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. They are a charismatic bird that appeal to people. While we were banding at the first nest we noticed someone on the other side of the ball field in a minivan watching us. One of us went over and told her to join us so she could see the banding up close. Turns out she lived in the neighborhood and has been watching the nest. She heard about the banding and wanted to watch but didn't want to interfere. But I love how osprey inspire people to take note of nature. I love how they have adapted to using poles people put up for them but also taking on light poles and water towers. They are a truly resilient and tolerant bird.

Another sweaty day in the office but a fun day nonetheless.

Lawrence's Warbler

I took a quick trip down to Indianapolis to visit my family. On the way, I made a stop at Mr. Neil's and got a big surprise. I went to the spot where blue-winged warblers have nested in the past and sure enough heard the familiar 2 note, buzzy call of a blue-wing. I was excited to see one, but when I got it in my binoculars I was surprised to see something golden-winged warbler-ish...it was a hybrid!

This is a Lawrence's warbler which is some sort of mix of blue-winged warbler and golden-winged warbler. These two species are known to hybridize, the more familiar hybrid is the Brewster's warbler. This bird really threw me for a loop because it sounded so much like a blue-winged warbler. Here's a video so you can hear what it sounded like (there's also a common yellowthroat singing in the background):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XffAG983LY&feature=youtu.be

I was kicking myself that I didn't wander the trail for bird watching until so late in the evening, I wished I had better light. I took both the photo and video with my iPhone through my scope...incidentally, I used the Meopix iScoping Adaptor to secure my iPhone to my spotting scope...more on that later.

I found an interesting article by by David Bonter and Irby Lovette on these two hybrids. It reads, "The most common hybrid form is known as a "Brewster's" warbler; the rarer form is known as a "Lawrence's" warbler. We currently believe that a "Lawrence's" warbler results when two "Brewster's" warblers mate, or when a "Brewster's" warbler backcrosses with one of its parent species, but research into the genetics of hybridization between these species is underway and many questions remain unanswered."

I haven't paid attention to this spot in the last few years because of my work and travel schedule. Did a golden-winged warbler mix it up with a blue-winged warbler? I can't imagine this bird coming to the exact territory where a blue-winged has nested in the past unless it hatched here. One thing is for sure, I'll be checking it more closely this year.

Here's a an article from the American Birding Association's Birding about the hybrids with lots of great photos.

Hummingbird Reminder

It's the time of year when I get hummingbird questions so I thought I would do a quick reminder about hummingbird nectar. Here is the recipe:

4 parts water 1 part table sugar (not honey, not corn syrup, not Splenda, not Stevia, no artificial sweetner)

Don't bother with red dye, it's not needed, could be harmful (we don't know for certain but it's best to err on the side of caution). Your feeder should be red enough to get the hummingbirds' attention.

Mix until the sugar is dissolved. One thing that I do is add in a little hot water from our tea kettle to the sugar, just enough to dissolve it. Once it's dissolved I add in cool water so the nectar won't be too hot and can go right in the feeder. You can make a big batch and store the excess in your refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Remember to keep the nectar in the feeder fresh. If you feeder is in direct sun, change the nectar every two days. If it's in the shade, change it every five days. If the nectar looks cloudy or if you see black on the inside of the feeder or around the feeder points--clean the feeder and change the nectar. A clean feeder is essential.

If the idea of keeping a feeder clean is daunting, use flowers to attract hummingbirds instead.

http://youtu.be/JhTSjgwKzUo

Woodcocks At Biggest Week

Part of the fun of birding at the Biggest Week is I get to see my friend Dale Forbes.  I met him a few years ago in Kazakhstan and since then he's moved on to working full time for Swarovski Optik as a products manager.  This is Dale's first time in North America...so you can imagine he's about to explode getting tons of colorful life birds. Jeff and Liz Gordon are also here pimping the American Birding Association and they tipped us off to some hot all woodcock action over at Maumee Bay State Park.  We hightailed it over there after one of my programs so Dale could get the full on woodcock lekking experience.

Before we started, we could hear an eastern screech-owl trilling outside their cabin. I of course had to experiment getting a shot of said owl with my iPhone.  Considering the only light was a flashlight, this wasn't too bad.

Dale got the full woodcock treatment.  The bird skydanced and timberdoodled several times.  He even landed so close at one point that there was no way for me to digiscope him--but what a thrill, we even heard the little crazy inhale sound before they explode out their peent.  Most of the time though he was in a position to not only get shots like the above with my iPhone and scope but also video:

http://youtu.be/vup4FGTGoAM

Jeff also got a video of the woodcock and the sound quality is much better, though he was using an actual camera with video and not an iPhone...it now kind of makes me want to investigate mics that are available for the iPhone.

Woodcocks are all over, one has been found foraging near the boardwalk and appears to have a nest hidden in the leaves.  Some of us have tried to scope her but she's so well hidden, almost all you see is that eye.

So it's not just all about the warblers here at Biggest Week.

Biggest Week In American Birding

So if you've been following my Twitter feed, you know I'm at something referred to as the Biggest Week, it's a big ole' honkin' bird festival in northern Ohio at Magee Marsh.  It bills itself as the "Warbler Capital Of The World."

I have seen quite a few warblers, but not enough yet to call it the warbler capital of the word...yet.  Warbling Vireo Capital Of The World is my current title for it--these dudes are all over the place.  That's one in the above photo.  I think the winds haven't been in our favor so far, so we're not getting the numbers of warblers dripping low off the trees that Ohio birders speak of with reverence, but I'm sure it's coming soon.

It's a cool festival though, there are warblers all around. The first bird I got when I stepped out of my rental vehicle was a chestnut-sided warbler (the bird above). It's not the best photo, I got that with my iPhone and spotting scope.  As a matter of fact, all of the photos in this post were done with my iPhone.  I thought I would challenge myself to only go out with my iPhone for a few days to see what I could do digiscoping wise if I left my SLR in my hotel room.  Some of the results are okay, but some have really surprised me.

Here's a yellow warbler, they're all over the Magee Marsh Boardwalk.

Here's my favorite warbler photo so far of a Cape May warbler and yes, I got this shot with my iPhone and Swarovksi spotting scope.  Am I ready to leave my SLR home for good?

I have to admit, I was worried this festival was going to overwhelm me.  You mostly bird watch from a boardwalk through Magee Marsh and with hundreds of people that can be some sardine birding. I think being short gives me a natural aversion to crowds--I can't see over tall people and I really don't like standing in a place where I cannot see an exit strategy.  The west side of the boardwalk is jam packed with birders--some people really enjoy that. Not me.

However, if you are like me and would like some space, the east side of the board walk is for you.  There will be some clusters of birders but you can still get past and there are a ton of bird because warblers move around.  So many birders from all over are here, it's fun to run into people I know only via Twitter or old friends from festivals past. The camaraderie is 50% of the fun.