Birdchick Blog
While birding near Chase Lake in North Dakota, a white-tailed deer was running down the gravel road towards our group-completely oblivious to the group of birders watching it. It was trotting straight at us when it suddenly noticed the group with all the cameras--had an "Oh Crap!" moment and then ran away like a little school child.
I must admit, that's the dopiest deer run I have ever seen.
Thank you Born Again Birder for spreading the good word!
It's so weird, I'm listening to the great Zickefoose talk about nature journaling while blogging.
Today's weather totally made up for yesterday. This bobolink in the glowing sun is just the tip of the iceberg...or prairie. It will take awhile to sort all my digiscoped images for posts.
Back to listening to Julie.
Look! I found more bird mugs! The other side of this one also features a cardinal and a goldfinch. Oooooo, ahhhhhh.
Well, the weather has been interesting so far in North Dakota--even more interesting than last year.
Yeah, I don't know exactly what this hat a local rancher was wearing is trying to say either, but it made me laugh.
I'm staying at the absolutely lovely Pipestem Creek--more on that later. I'm in a double wide trailer that has been converted into a little, cozy cabin--it's just cute, perfect and surrounded by birds. It's called the Bobolink, so what could be better?
Last night, I called Non Birding Bill and asked him to check the weather--I don't have internet access, a radio or tv in the cabin, so didn't know what expect. He said that they were predicting storms for my area with a tornado watch. I went to sleep at about 11pm.
I had a strange dream about my next door neighbors installing a large blinking sign that read "Eat At Joe's". It just kept blinking and irritating me. Then I woke up--it was continuous lightening--not a flashing sign. I looked at my phone and it was now 12:45am. The wind had picked up considerably and the lightening was a non stop strobe light. I was half asleep still but noticed a distinct rumbling almost train-like sound. Crap! Had the tornado watch turned to a warning? I started a checklist in my head: Did I hear a tornado siren: no, could I hear hail: no, was I in a trailer aka tornado magnet: yes! I debated with myself if I should dash over to the owner's house or risk the trailer--the lightening was continuous, so it is possible it was just non stop thunder. I decided to go the bathroom where there was plumbing that went to the ground. After five minutes, the rumbling lessened. The lightening still flickered for another half hour. And I went back to sleep before my alarm went off at 3:45am.
When I met the field trip at 4:30am, I overheard someone say that a tornado warning had been declared last night in the county I'm staying in. Yikes! Makes me rethink that rumbling.
I've said something like this before, and I'll say it again: Prairie birding--the thrill of longspurs, the agony of wind...and rain...ugh. It was not the best day to go searching for soft singing grassland sparrows. I had a tough enough time digiscoping this yellow-headed blackbird clinging to this reed while trying to sing his scratchy song.
It started off just misty and chilly, but by late morning it was full on wind and very hard rain. The bus driver heard a weather report that said it was going to be pretty much like a blizzard, only with rain instead of snow. Awful, weather for birding. But we trudged on--literally. Here's a clip to give you an idea of the wind. I think the wind is so loud that you can't really hear the rain pelting my jacket and camera. It's only 14 seconds long:
Sound fun? Ah, yes, my glamorous lifestyle! We did see some really awesome birds. We found a field that was just chock full of Le Conte's sparrows.
While we were going through the field looking for the sparrows, one of our group flushed a mallard hen. We paused thinking a nest was nearby an we didn't want to step on the eggs. All of a sudden we heard faint peeping and a little shift of grass revealed chicks hatching! We decided to leave the nest, and I took a photo so folks could see the nest without all 32 of us disturbing the nest. I also took a six second video:
Don't worry, the hen made it back to them in plenty of time.
The winds were so strong that the lakes and ponds were cresting.
Even the birds like this American avocet seemed to be feeling the effects of the wind. It's gotta be tough to search around for birds in this weather. It's gotta be even tougher if you are a bird looking for food in the water.
The forecast is for perfect weather the next few days, so I'm hopeful to have some fantastico digiscoped shots.
Last year, the Felton Prairie was a magical field trip: the sun made the prairie glow, you could hear a symphony bird songs: marbled godwits, chestnut-collared longspurs, bobolink, western meadowlarks, etc. It was chilly but not bad. This year, it was cloudy, cold, and windy. I was totally unprepared and forgot my gloves. The birding was still great. Above is a large flock of Franklin's gulls rolling across the prairie in front of the giant windmills.
We had much better views at prairie chickens here. There were quite few, at point several were flying on either side of the bus. With the wind they were laying low, but a few testosterone laden males were still trying to out dance each other.
We found two western meadowlark nests. Mostly because they were close to the road and we flushed them before almost stepping on the nest. I took the above blurry photo because we had just flushed the female and the whole group wanted to see the nest. The chicks were just hatching and it was WAY too cold for the female to be off the nest--the ethical thing to do was to leave so she would go back and incubate. With the photo all 54 participants could take a look. It was touch lumbering the large group away, great birds kept coming into the area like an orchard oriole and a lark sparrow. But we did get away and the female went back. Whew.
Here's the second western meadowlark nest. Can you see it? It's right in the middle. If you look close you can just make out the eggs.
Okay, here's a closer (and in focus) view of the nest. We flushed it as we were on way to board the bus, so I'm sure she made it back in plenty of time to keep them warm.
Here are some cliff swallows hunkered down on a power line. The swallows were definitely feeling the cold. Barn swallows circled the bus like crazy as we kicked up insects. Northern rough-winged swallows circled our group as we walked in the grass--I suppose we were kicking up bugs much in the way cattle would. Tree swallows were swarming low over any body of water.
Here's a loon with a swallow zipping into the shot.
Even the pelicans seemed to be feeling the cold. They just hunkered together with an expression that said something along the lines of, "Craaaaaap, it's sooooo cold." Look at their bills, many of them are sporting the knob on the upper bill that they get during the breeding season.
And no birding trip would be complete without a snipe. We could here these guys winnowing all over at Agassiz, but didn't see them. This Wilson's snipe was hanging out on a fence post.
Of course, a big part of the fun of birding at Felton Prairie is the herd of cattle that follows you around. Just like last year they were very curious about our group and came in for a closer look...sometimes scaring off prairie chickens and longspurs.
I did get a kick out of this brown-headed cowbird actually mixing in with the cows--actually doing what its name implies--go figure. Apparently, the cows had so much fun with us that they didn't want us to leave and tried to block the road. Our very intrepid bus driver proceeded carefully. I caught it on video:
When I drove up for the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival, it was very hot and warm. Friday while birding at Agassiz, it was cooler, but by afternoon it was very hot. That night some incredible storms moved in. Jeff Bouton and Ben Lizdas and I headed to Hamden Slough for a scan of birds and could see some powerful lightening coming our way in the distance. That night the lightening flashed like crazy. One interesting note was that Jeff discovered a couple of tundra swans mixed in with trumpeter swans. Above is a photo of a trumpeter on the left and a tundra on the white. Note how the tundra swan has a slightly thinner neck and the dainty look of the bill. You can't see it in the photo, but through out scopes you could see yellow on the bill.
The next morning it was cold and windy at Rothsay Prairie. Not the best weather for listening for those quieter prairie sparrow species like Le Conte's sparrows but we did see some other species. Above is a swamp sparrow that was fairly accommodating.
Clay-colored sparrows were also lurking about in the grasses. I love that little buzzy call they give.
And of course, bobolinks were all over. We saw large flocks of males flying up from the roads--they are so pretty and hypnotic with the bold black and white coloration.
Of course, the fun of the prairie are the shorebirds. Here is a marbled godwit that we found working the road. The bird appears to have an injured foot but was able to fly and find food. I love how birds are still able to survive and function even what appears to be a tragic injury.
We saw some more phalaropes. Above is a male Wilson's phalarope--these guys are interesting because the females are more colorful than the males and after she lays eggs, leaves the male to incubate and raise the chicks.
We had so much fun at this particular pond. The bus pulled over and Doug Buri and Bob O'Connor stepped outside to scan it for interesting shorebirds. They thought they saw a Hudsonian godwit. I remained on the bus with the rest of the passengers. Being on the bus, we were higher up and could look down on the shorebirds. Suddenly people started asking me, "Hey, Sharon, what's that yellow shorebird?" I scanned the water and found it right away--it stuck out like a sore thumb. The color was kind of yellow, kind of orange, but the bus windows and cloudy day was probably distorting the color. I stuck my head out the window and shouted, "Hey, Doug, Bob, what's that yellowish bird--buff breasted sandpiper?" Well, they were on the ground and could only see the head being lower than we were. They both looked at the head and said, "We're not sure." I got back on the bus and announced, "It's gotta be good, the experts don't know what it is!" Everyone on the bus got a great look at it. I started running the little hamster in my brain--"What shorebird would be yellowish? Yellow...yellow...well, actually it's salmon color...I remember reading a book about researchers in the 1970s and 1980s coloring shorebirds to study migratory patters...what birds were those...shorebirds...they were red knots...WAIT! RED KNOT!!"
I stuck my head out the window and both Doug and Bob looked at me and we shouted at the same time, "Red Knot!" We had all worked it out in our heads simultaneously. The bird was going into breeding plumage to get that red color and that's why it looked salmon-ish (something we're not used to in Minnesota). As we were getting people off the bus the knot took off with some short-billed dowitchers, but at the point everyone had been watching for awhile. It was so windy, we tried to follow it, but the wind could have blown it into Canada. We made an immediate call to our inside man at the MOU to let him know what we saw and where. When our field trip returned, we gave out directions and maps but the knot was not seen for the rest of the festival. It was interesting, the shorebirds at that pond were changing all day, so with the wind I'm sure many birds were just passing through.
Rothsay is known for it's prairie chickens--we saw some, but they were hunkered and way out in the fields. Above is a shot of the giant prairie chicken in the town or Rothsay. Doug didn't want to stop and look at a big plastic bird but there was some mutiny on the bus and he lost. He didn't hesitate to tell us how ridiculous it was that we made a point to see it.
I love heart Buri.
Sandhill cranes flying off the road as our jam packed 57 passenger bus was creeping along Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. That place is definitely worth the hype.
Well, I learned an interesting tid bit at the festival--the field trip to Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge sold out before the field trip to go birding with David Sibley! I'm pretty sure that it had more to do with the awesomeness of the location rather than the cool factor of guides. I don't care, I'm so glad that I was one of the guides for the Agassiz trip--we saw 25 species of shorebirds on the trip!! Whoot! Whoot! Whoot! And really cool shorebirds at that! Above are some of marbled godwits (the big birds). Check out the dunlin in the back--that's the little guy with the black belly.
We had some unusual birds, above on the lower left is a red-necked phalarope (the other bird is a semipalmated plover). We were expecting Wilson's but we ended up getting the red-necked too. I couldn't do a lot of digiscoping because the priority was making sure the 53 paying customers got to see the birds and the light wasn't that great for it either. It was fun though, because as soon as someone would point out one really cool shorebird like the red-necked phalarope and then get the group focused on it, then someone else would shout, "Stilt Sandpiper!" It was a good problem to have. We even had crazy numbers of more unusual birds--like 90 some odd hudsonian godwits.
I loved this scene--it's a black-bellied plover surrounded by a posse of semipalmated plovers. Wish we could have been closer, but at least we got to see the bird. That was a cool new bird for quite a few people on the trip.
The place was lousy with American bitterns--at one point three of them were flying around the bus. Bitterns are secretive birds who stand straight up and use their stripey plumage to hide amongst reeds. The above blurry guy was one that I saw running in short grass. When he noticed our bus coming he shot his head up to hide himself but then suddenly realized that he was surrounded by short grass. We stopped the bus and he ran to a very sparse patch of taller grass and assumed the position. The bus windows distorted the shot, but you get the idea.
It was a diverse group and people wanted different birds--some wanted to focus in on shorebirds, others wanted better looks at area specialties. While Doug Buri and Kim Risen would focus in on peeps (small shorebirds that give me a headache), I would call in a sora or get some yellow-headed blackbirds (above) or bobolinks in the scope. By the end of the day, our bird list topped out at 135 species, which may be a festival record. It was awesome. I get the sense that they will offer the trip again next year and hopefully we will have more time than just four hours to bird there. We had such limited time. The trip was two hours out there, four hours to bird, and another two hours back. Next year they could easily add another two hours for birding--we really could have added more warbler species and I would have loved the chance to photograph red-necked grebes.
Ah, prairie birding: the thrill of longspurs; the agony of icy high winds, and ticks...
...and interfering cattle!
Speaking of ticks...ew! As I was driving home today, I had my iPod in my lap so I could easily skip or repeat songs. I had just finished eating a Nut Goody and went to press the wheel on my iPod. I put my finger on the click wheel and felt a crumb--oh if only it had been a crumb! I looked down on my iPod only to discover it was not a crumb from my candy bar:
It was a blood sucking tick--ARG! I pulled over to (take a photo) and remove it. Vile creature! Does this mean that I need to get my iPod tested for Lyme's disease? After having typed this entry, I suddenly feel like I have ticks all over me--ick.
I am so tired, I'm pretty sure that in the last 48 hours that I have had roughly 7 hours sleep--but I loved every minute I was awake. Birding festivals are like chocolate chip cookie dough for me. I make it, and I start eating--it tastes so wonderful that I know I should stop. But I don't stop, I keep on going--even when I start to get to the point that I can tell I should stop--it's so good, yet I keep at it...and then I finally get to the point where I'm moaning and asking, "Why did I eat so much?" However, I still have the great memory of how much fun it was to eat the bowl of dough. I am so tired and achy and about to loose my voice.
Lots of stories of the fabu Detroit Lakes Festival--the birding was great, albeit a tad of on the cold side yesterday and today. I sang so much karaoke--it was a great audience who pretty much danced to anything anyone sang. We learned from Krazy Karaoke Dave that I did several firsts:
1. Sang a Liz Phair song ("Polyester Bride")
2. Called someone (NBB) on my cell phone during the instrumental break of a song, picked up singing right on cue, and sang the rest of the song to that person over the phone (Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over"--how could I not do that?)
3. Sang the song "Xanadu" (which is opening as an off Broadway musical this month--I wish I could go!)
Other songs I sang included "Holding Out For a Hero", "Sledgehammer", and "Space Oddity". Others did participate in the karaoke but a new rule about not blogging such activity has been ratified or I don't get invited anymore. What happens at Detroit Lakes, stays in Detroit Lakes. I will say, the other participants rocked very hard.
I must sort photos of godwits, phalaropes, and bobolinks for updates--and shower--and sleep.
YAWN.
Well, I've seen some nice purple martin action so far. That's a male and female above. I can never see and hear enough of these large swallows. They have such a musical song--most swallows have a more click-ish type sound--like little dolphins. Purple martins sing it loud and sing it proud.
I did a demo of birdJam outside. We got into the who ethics of calling in birds. When to do it, if you are going to do it, do it responsibly, etc. As we got into some of the controversy, I referenced an infamous story about a pygmy nuthatch. Years ago before I moved to Minnesota, a pygmy nuthatch was reported along the Red River in North Dakota. Just a short trip across the Red River puts you in Minnesota. The nuthatch was at a feeding station on the North Dakota side and someone played a tape and it flew over to the Minnesota side--and was a first state record...or was it? The jaunt across the river was minimal and the bird probably would have flown over of its own accord (if it hadn't already). It caused a huge rift in the birding community and accusations and arguments exploded all over. What is "artificial means of attraction" when it come to birds anyway? Technically, a feeding station is artificial attraction. The distance the bird flew was only a few hundred feet--was it really that big of deal? It wasn't nesting, it wasn't on territory--what did it matter?
Anyway, this story has reverberated throughout the birding community. I had heard of it, but never knew the parties involved. Last year at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest, Jeff Gordon referenced it during his program "The Top Ten Birding Moments of the last 100 Years". Well, as we were discussing it, a man laughed, raised his hand, and said, "That was me!"
Ah, connections.
And now I leave you with a male tree swallow. I must go to bed, I have to get up at 4:30am for my field trip. I'm so excited, the Country Inn and Suites in Detroit Lakes (where I am staying) is going to have breakfast and coffee going by 4:30am--sustenance--Whoot!
One of my favorite things to do is banding and they had a great demo at the North Coast Nature Festival.
Here is one of my favorite photos of the weekend. That's master bander Tom Bartlett showing a goldfinch to some awestruck kids. Look at that little boy in sunglasses--that look about says it all!
Kids got the chance to release some of the birds after they were banded. This little girl just opened her hand the finch flung himself from the palm of her hand in a split second.
Here's a handsome little chipping sparrow that came into the nets. I have to say, Tom is one of the fastest banders I have ever seen. Birds were banded, measured, weighed and outta there in less than two minutes.
I also really appreciated how patient and enthusiastic he was around the kids. His missioned appeared to go beyond just banding the birds, but sharing their beauty with them. If kids wanted to, they had a chance to touch the birds. Several years ago, I was against this. I thought it was cruel to the bird and wondered why do kids have to touch everything. One day I realized that touch is how to make something real and understandable to a kid, and when done in a respectful manner, is not that stressful to the bird.
Sometimes, there can be issues. This female brown-headed cowbird gave one little boy a good hard nip on the finger with her bill. It stung, but he survived. He was lucky it wasn't a cardinal.
Tom got several woodpeckers in the net that day, including this male downy woodpecker. You can really see all those downy feathers around his bill...and his tiny spear like tongue.
And off he goes. If you'd like a chance to watch Tom in action, he will be banding at Kelleys Island later this month.
Migration was just getting hot and heavy in Cleveland, OH this past weekend. White-throated sparrows (above) covered the ground and we could hear some warblers overhead. Part of my festival duties were to lead a "Birdchick Walk" for families at Rocky Ridge Nature Center on Saturday and Sunday. You have to kind of pick your battles on this type of walk. If you have thirty people with you, almost half of whom are under age 8, you really want to consider carefully if you want to point out that Cape May warbler flitting in the trees high overhead. In that type of situation, warblers can become an exercise in futility.
What I love about family groups is that people are excited about Canada geese (like the one snoozing above), red-winged blackbirds, and goldfinches. One of the ladies in our group pointed to some reeds and said "I saw something black and red over there." I guessed red-winged blackbird and a moment later, a male popped up. She confirmed that was the bird she saw. I said, "Good spot!" and her friends high fived her.
On the second day of the field trip, some of the young 'uns were a little rambunctious and more interested in racing down the trail and screaming. It was a warm sunny day, these boys had energy to burn and asking them to be quiet was just not going to cut it. So, I used one of my kid tricks. I told them that one of the best ways for us to find birds is to listen. If we can hear where a bird is ahead of us, that give us a better chance of finding it. Sometimes, it's hard to hear the birds in the distance, so we need to shape our face like an owl. If you cup your hands over your ears and open your mouth--you can increase your hearing ability by up to 40%! At first it looked like the boys weren't going to buy it (note skeptical look of the lad in the green shirt above).
But the kids bought it and continued down the trail a little more quietly. As I was getting the boys to do this, their parents were giggling wildly behind them. As silly as it looks, it really does help increase your hearing--and helps to quiet kids and to teach them to listen on a bird walk. After a few minutes, one of the boys came up to me because he heard a new sound. We listened and we were hearing the trilling of American toads. Very cool.
Amphibians were all over. We heard toads, spring peepers, and even found a bull frog (above). I was fortunate enough to have Jen Brumfield helping me out on my walk (mark my words, she's an amazing illustrator and will be huge in the coming years, Cleveland Metroparks are lucky to have her on staff--check out her books here--the dragonfly book is OUTSTANDING).
Jen was fearless on the walks. Here she is grabbing a frog out of the water for the kids to look at up close.
She also found a red-backed salamander (dark morph) on one of the walks. It was great and all the kids were really impressed. I've not had much experience with salamanders, when she first found this under a log, I thought it was an earthworm.
But looking closer, you could see the little nubby hands. It's kinda cute for a slimy thing you find under a log.
On Sunday, one of the best parts of our walk was finding an old woodpecker cavity chock full of raccoons. The female was sleeping and all you could see were one of her back paws sticking out. Did she party a little to hard Saturday night? We took a moment to digiscope a few photos.
After awhile, she shifted, yawned and started licking...something...
She jostled a bit more in her cavity and then a small ball of fur started moving in front of her--she had young! You can see the back of it's head on the left side of her face. Cute!
Eventually, she popped her head out as if to look down on all of us and say, "Alright, nothing to see here, move along. I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here."
We didn't see huge amounts of birds, but we observed some great wildlife that delighted the crowd. I was so happy to be part of sharing nature, birds and otherwise with the kids, and grateful to have Jen along with me. Oh, and there was one more highlight from the trip:
Notice anything familiar in the above photo? Look at the shirts. Someone is wearing a Disapproving Rabbits shirt! Whoot! Her name is Dawn and she was really sweet. When I told Non Birding Bill about it, he recognized her name and said that she was one of, if not the first person to order a shirt. Thanks, Dawn, for spreading the good work of my bunnies around Ohio. And thanks for coming along, it was so great to meet you!
