Watching Hummers With Penn Jillette

There are more people interested in casual birding than we realize and you never know who that is. So, last fall I went to Las Vegas with Non Birding Bill, Clay Taylor and WildBird on the Fly to film some digiscoping videos, I think I had my biggest geek out ever--bigger than the time I met Scott Weidensaul. I was a tad inebriated at a bar during an ABA convention and Scott suddenly walked in and all I remember is thinking to myself, "Act sober. Act sober. Act sober."

I must not have been too bad because Scott still welcomes me with a hug when he sees me, rather than darting away in the opposite direction.

But due to some lucky scheduling and total generosity of Penn Jillette, we got to see the Penn and Teller Las Vegas show , hang out backstage (that's Amy and me with Teller), and watch birds at Penn's house--I got a lifer in his yard, a black-throated sparrow.

It was the most surreal moment of my life back stage. For one thing, it was the first time NBB has met some of my closest birding buddies. For another, how weird was it to be back stage with a bunch of magicians, the editor of WildBird Magazine and Swarvoski Optik--and we ended up talking about bees! Penn and Teller told us about a segment where they made thousands of bees appear on stage, you can watch it here (see if you can tell when they get stung).

I said, "Holy crap! How did you do that," meaning how did they work with bees, but they told me how they did it, how the entomologist they consulted backed out because he got freaked out and how many stings they ended up with and how Penn had a rather unusual injury on a rather sensitive area of his anatomy--I'll let you google that one, it's easy enough to find or better yet, if you meet Penn, he will gladly tell you the story much better than I ever could.

Again, Penn had a lot going on that weekend, he was flown to another state to shoots a scene for a movie, had his own Vegas show and still managed to give us some time to talk hummingbirds (I got to make hummingbird nectar in his kitchen). Since we were dealing with brief time and when working with video things like cicadas and air traffic can get in the way it's not perfect, but it's still someone I think is cool showing an interest in birds.

I've also hesitated posting this because I was geeking hardcore on the inside during this segment and tried very hard to keep my geek in check. I think from now on, I'm going to have to just let my geek flag fly because trying to play it cool makes me look like a dork.

So here it is and thank you to Swarovski for making this possible and to Birdorable for making the perfect shirt to wear in Vegas and especially to Penn Jillette and his people for being so nice, so gracious with their time and allowing us a few moments to chat about birds.

You can do some awesome birding in Las Vegas. We still have one more video to go, but here's a link to some of our adventures. Between this, testing Swarovski awesome new digiscoping adaptor in Kazakhstan, and climbing a volcano in Guatemala to see a giant tree chicken I can safely say that 2009 was hands down the craziest (in a good way) year of my life.

Fishing American Robin aka Holy Crap!

One of my favorite parts about this blog is that people email me questions about birds or photos to try and identify something. Every now and then, someone sends in some insanely interesting bird behavior and it knocks my socks off.

I got an email from JJ Golden who was out taking photos of ducks not too far from where I live. There are still a few patches of open water and JJ was at a Twit Cities Golf course when something strange happened. Golden reports, "As I walked around the pond I saw this Robin so I stopped and watched it for a moment. It flew down to the pond, I assumed to get a drink by a small open/slushy spot. At this point I tripped over my own snowshoes, dropped down to my knees and dropped my point and shoot camera (with lens uncovered) into the snow. I was only a few feet from the Robin who paid no attention to my blundering self."

Golden goes on to report, "As I got up I could see the Robin had pulled a small fish out of the water and dropped it on the ice. It flip flopped around for a minute or so as the Robin seemed to be studying how to get it down. It then ate the fish in what looked like one gulp. The open area was very slushy so I'm amazed that the Robin could see a tiny fish from as far away as it was. The fish had a slightly pinkish tinge which made me wonder if it looked like a worm to the Robin."

I know robins will go for some not traditional foods in winter--some will eat seeds out of the shell like sunflower hearts or even go for suet. When I worked at the wild bird store in Wayzata, MN we had a bait shop in our strip mall. They would always toss out dead bait behind the store and we would see flocks of winter robins flying down for tiny dead fish but this is the first time that I have seen someone document an American Robin (Turdus migratorious) actively fishing for food!

So, now I wonder if this is a robin that has grabbed bait fish and somehow put two and two together and figured out how to get slow moving fish from slushy water? Did the robin figure it out by seeing a resemblance between the fish and a worm that it would normally go for?

Has anyone else ever seen a robin active fish for food?

Birding Sax Zim Bog

I really hate car shopping. When we had to go through the process a few weeks ago, I heard through the MN birding grapevine that several northern hawk owls were reported in northern Minnesota, I decided a day up to Sax Zim Bog with my good friend Amber would be my reward. Besides, what better way to get to know our Kia Pet (the named dubbed to our very beige vehicle because it looks like a Chia Pet before the grass grows out) than by taking it on an all day birding trip?

Since daylight is short, Amber and I left the Twin Cities early to arrive at Sax Zim Bog just after sunrise and get some great photography light. Our plan seemed to work. The light was great when we arrived, and dark clouds in the distance only enhanced the bog's colorful landscape.

Alas, the sun was a total tease and soon hid behind clouds that brought light snow. On the upside, I got to really test out the Kia Pet's brakes and refamiliarize myself with driving on snow and a few patches of black ice. Whoopee, I stayed out of the ditches. I do laugh, we've had this vehicle for a couple weeks now and I still drive it like our old sensitive Saturn, like pausing before I press the gas to go in reverse. You had to give the Saturn a minute to think about it or she wouldn't reverse or would jerk violently into it. I forget with this car, I reverse without pause. Ah, the joy of driving a reliable car! But back to birding the bog...

We got a northern hawk owl right away near the corner of 7 & 133 near Meadowlands. If you are interested, there's a google map of where northern hawk owls have been reported which members of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union add sightings to help those who visit the bog. There appears to be a small irruption of hawk owls this year (perhaps a crash in the vole population on their breeding grounds, pushing quite a few owls south into Minnesota). It's not on the scale of the owl irruption of 2004/2005 but we will never see the likes of that again...or at least not in our lifetime.

This bird put on quite a show for us, as it was actively hunting. It dove down into the grasses, we could see it scurry though and then fly back up. This spot is right next to some railroad tracks and is a road that's used quite a bit in the bog. I'm always fascinated by an owl's ability to hear any prey in a spot like that. I must say, I'm loving the Nikon D40 for digiscoping. This photo turned out way better than it should have considering how low the light conditions were. In the past I've used point and shoot cameras for digiscoping with my Swarovski scope and I would have gotten blogable photo, but nothing this clear on a cloudy day. We ended up seeing a second northern hawk owl as we meandered around the bog, but it was much further away from the road and flew off to parts unknown. I couldn't believe we got our target bird so early.

But the blog is not just about owls, there are so many great birds to find this time of year!

We used the MOU's Sax Zim Bog site maps (particularly the Birding Roads tab) and went looking for birds. Any time we saw a flock of birds land nearby, we pulled over to investigate. We found a small flock of white-winged crossbills working their way through.

We also saw about a dozen rough-legged hawks--each one different (we even saw a couple of dark morph birds). We saw many bald eagles as well but we did note that we did not see any red-tailed hawks, interesting change of buteos. The rough legs are very cagey and hard to get photos of. No matter how far away you park, as soon as the scope is trained on them, they poop (a sure sign they are about to fly)...

This is a different bird than the one perched above--very dark, almost a dark morph. It's cool to see them in so many different color variations. One of the things I love about living in Minnesota is that a day's drive at the right time of year can give you a completely different set of birds. In the Twin Cities, we're loaded with red-tailed hawks. A two and half hour drive north and we're surrounded by rough-legged hawks. Awesome to have a change of pace.

Speaking of a change of pace, Amber and I started following another large flock of birds. When they landed, I rolled down the car windows and was excited to hear the louder and deeper trills of bohemian waxwings.

Here's a closer photo of them. Can you spot the differences between these and a cedar waxwing? If you follow this link, you'll see photos of cedars--they have white butts. The above bohemians have rusty butts. Bohemians also have a red and white patch on their wings. So, cool--a different type of waxwing too! I tried to get a video so you could hear the difference in their calls, but the wind blocks it a bit:

At Xeno Canto, you can also here the difference. This is the sound of cedar waxwings and then this is the bohemian waxwings.

We drove down Admiral Road where a deer carcass is usually hung. In the past this has been a great spot for all sorts of birds. Amber and I found that a deer carcass was already up. Black-capped chickadees and down woodpeckers snuck it for bits of fat and meat.

As did about five gray jays (who kind of look like a balding chickadee on steroids). I showed this video to Non Birding Bill and he said it reminded him of Hannibal Lecter which led to this photo caption. There ended up being about five gray jays who came in for the food source. It was interesting to watch the difference in these jays, the crept in quietly like the snow for the food. I'm so used to blue jays--or even green jays or Steller's jays who noisily announce their presence before coming into a feeding station. These birds swooped in secretively, very unjay-like.

I loved the contrast of the ragged, bloody cage compared to the soft feathery gray of the jay. I took a ton of photos, but the wind picked up at this point and my eyes were watering, I could barely focus my scope.

We also came across several flocks of common redpolls feeding on birch seeds. It was great to see them eating on a natural food source and not a feeder (not that I won't take them at a feeder, but I read they eat birch seeds, I enjoy seeing a bird doing what a researcher tells me they do). We've already had pine siskins show up at Mr. Neil's. I wonder if we'll get redpolls too?

We also stopped at one of the feeding stations open for public viewing at the bog (which was innundated with red-breasted nuthatches). One of the residents has been kind enough to put bird feeders at the end of their driveway and you can park across the street and stand at the end of the driveway and enjoy the birds. In the past, this has been chock full of birds. She came out to greet us and said they had just put the feeders up so the birds were just discovering it. There's normally a little box requesting donations for bird food, she hadn't even had time to put that out yet (so we put a few bucks in her mailbox as a thank you). All in all it was a GREAT day. We didn't see every bird possible--no boreal chickadee or great gray owl so Amber and I decided that we're going to have to take another day and bird the crap out of the bog.

Pine Siskins Hit This Weekend

We had the Wingscapes Cam up at Mr. Neil's this weekend and I'm fairly certain I witnessed the arrival of pine siskins. I was out and about on Wednesday and I didn't see any. Just the usual suspects like the above tufted titmouse were using the feeders on Wednesday.

Then on Saturday, I noticed one or two pine siskins. The pair either jockedy for position at the thistle feeder with the goldfinches or took their chances with the more easy going black-chickadees at the sunflower feeder. Non Birding Bill and I ended up spending the night and the next morning...

...it was pine siskin palooza! I stepped outside and you could hear that distinctive upward trill of the siskins sounding from the tops of trees, they easily out numbered the goldfinches at this point. I wasn't expecting to get big numbers of siskins this year, last winter we had tons and some even stayed around the Twin Cities metro area to breed. I wonder if we'll get a few redpolls again this year?

Here's an animated gif of the birds flocking down to the stump covered with sunflower and thistle. I love watching the build up with the photos. It starts with a chickadee and then ends with a ton of siskins.

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Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan Winds Dangerous For Life!

I found another Kazakhstan entry from when I was there last May!  Whoot!

One of the coolest places that Swarovski took us to test out their new magnesium scopes was Charyn Canyon in Kazakhstan.  It's so huge that you can barely see the people in the distance in the above photo.  I think the only bird we got here was the alpine swift because we were so overwhelmed by the breathtaking views...and the dangerous winds.

We had been birding other areas and we were fortunate that for the most of our trip we avoided rain.  But a storm was coming and our van driver was doing his best to get us to the canyon before the storm hit.  The dark clouds swallowed the huge mountains as it caught up to our van.

We made it to the canyon with the storm still at bay.  We had to check in at the ranger station...wow, I feel like some of my local parks are neglected when it comes to funding, but all this ranger had was a trailer.  That's our guide Sergei entering to make sure our bus could pull through.  I think the ranger was just excited to see people.

Our bus took the narrow gravel roads as high as it could and we were let out to take in the view.  Above is Dale from Discovering Alpine Birds and Corey Finger of 10,000 Birds (and my buddy Clay Taylor is lurking behind them).  I think this was a little prayer sanctuary right above the canyon.  Knowing that we had limited time before the storm hit, we left all of our scopes there to take a few moments to explore the trails.

The canyon was like a mini version of the Grand Canyon, but no less spectacular.  The locals refer to it as "Dolina Zomkov" which translates to "Valley of Castles" and it's easy to see where that folk name came from.  Even with the approaching clouds, the color of the rocks were a lovely palette.

The canyon was formed over over centuries with the Charyn River, a large river that runs through the Tien Shan Mountains.  In a short amount of time, we had managed to work our way down the trails and the wind hit and it hit hard.  As I took this photo, a fellow traveler who was much taller than me was literally knocked over by the wind.  He wisely hightailed it back towards the vehicle.  My low center of gravity kept me fairly upright and I explored a bit further down the trails.

I could see Dale off in the distance.  His defense to get the perfect photo was to lay flat on the ground, which is close to the position he remained in on his way back up the trail.

Here's Corey and Sergei working their way back up the trail.  The wind eventually was so strong that I crouched too.  It was simultaneously exhilarating and scary.  We would crouch and work our way up, then periodically hold on to one of the larger boulders when the wind would gust harder.  If I stood straight up, I could feel my body being moved as my shoes slid over the loose gravel.  Getting knocked over by an invisible force larger than myself and plummeting to the canyon below became a real possibility.   While we were down the trail, we had left our magnesium scopes up at the top--the wind blew them all over.  Fortunately, Swarovski scopes can take a beating, so they all survived, but Clay and some of the others gathered the scopes and loaded them into the van so they would blow over the side of the canyon.

I have to say that up until this point, our guide Sergei had been a very serious man.  As soon as the wind hit, he laughed and howled like a wild man, it energized him like a thousand cups of coffee.

This sign wasn't kidding, this canyon is Dangerous for life when the wind hits.  Dale put up a YouTube video of his shots that he got when the wind first hit.  There's also a bit of me demonstrating what it was like to walk to walk in that wind.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LflDWa8csRY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

When I walked into our van, Clay snapped a photo:

My hair that morning started out wavy and ended up stick straight after that wind.  All in all, one of the highlights of the trip even though we didn't see much in the way of birds.

A Day In Frank Taylor's Blind

A photo of a pair of hatch year sharp-shinned hawks (the female is the larger bird on the left, the male is smaller and on the right) means that it's that special time of year for me.  That special time when I try to cut back on where I travel to so I can have time to help out with some hawk banding.  To those who have ever participated in a well run and a good banding station, it's not only scientific research, but it's part hunting and part sports game.  You scan the skies looking for a hawk that might be in a good position to see your bait, if it comes down, it could at the last minute dart off, if it does hit the net, you have to make sure the bait bird doesn't get nailed, then you have to dash out of the blind before the hawk gets out of the net.  After all of that research, you take notes on the bird and let it go, hoping for it to be recovered again when even more valuable information can be garnered.

Sunday was the first day I was able to go up.  I hit the road dark and early.  Watching the forecast, I wasn't sure what to expect. Websites predicted a 40% chance of rain all day, but the winds would be west in the morning, northwest in the afternoon--promising.  And at the end of the day, a slow day in the blind, is better than any day away from it.  And even to have the chance to watch the hawks on part of their journey is a treat.  No worries, it was not a disappointed day in the least, note the above red-tailed hawk--oh, what a flight to watch come in to the net.

Above is my buddy Frank Taylor posing with a hatch year (passage) red-tailed hawk we got in the nets.  He's also posing with his wounded rabbit call, which I must admit, I was skeptical about it. But it totally worked!  This young red-tail flew up to catch a thermal.  Rick, our master pigeon yanker, pulled the pigeon to flap a few times, and the red-tail showed no interest.  Frank grabbed his wounded rabbit call, blew loud and blew hard and the bird flapped, came out of the thermal and set towards the pigeon--it was beautiful.  It came in from far, set its wings, slowly lowered the talons and flew right into the net!  The call of the wounded rabbit was just enough to get the red-tail's attention to see the bait bird.

After we band the birds and are about to let them go, I like to try and get photos of them taking off.  My favorite way is to lay on the ground.  Normally, the birds are looking to get away.  Not this red-tail, it watched me to the whole time.

It was not interested in anything else.  I even said to Frank, "I really don't like the way this one is looking at me." It was not looking away.

Yet, when the hawk was released, it lost complete interest in me.  Whew.  When I showed this photo to Non Birding Bill, he said the hawk looked like it was auditioning for Fame and trying to light up the sky like a flame.

One of the fun parts of the blind is getting to see the local wildlife come out, not knowing that we are there.  This was a doe who came out to browse.  Although, her interest was piqued when she heard all of the camera clicks.

We had a very ballsy chipmunk come out to gather some of the leftover pigeon food to its winter stores, seemingly oblivious to the potential predators we were trying to draw in.

Blue jays also came in for the spilled food and periodically competed with the chipmunk.  This bird was really loading up on food--look how full the crop is.  Early in the morning when fewer hawks were moving, we had time to watch the chipmunk and the hawk, but by 10am, the hawk faucet was turned on and we were too busy catching hawks and watching others fly over to pay attention to the others.

We got in quite a few haggard (after hatch year) sharp-shins.  Normally, we don't get too many of those until later the season.  It was such a great day of watching hawks of all sizes from far off spot the pigeon and then come in for it.

One particular adult had us wondering about his past.  As soon as my friend Amber took him out of the nets, she noted that he had a Cooper's hawk look about him with his head.  It did look a bit flat, but he was sharpie in size and dainty bill.  As she banded the sharp-shin, he did what many hawks typically do--open its mouth and stick its tongue out.  Only, when this hawk did it, the tongue veered sharply to the right (not unlike someone with a neurologic disorder).  While Amber banded this bird, more hawks came into the nets and Reier held the hawk.  The hawk turned it's head this way and that.  When it would strain too far to the left or right, it would shake.  Reier noted that it was like someone with nerve damage.  Between the flatness of the head and the abnormalities, I wondered if this bird had flown into a window or some other blunt trauma?  It was a chunky bird, so it felt as though it had been eating well, but something happened to it somewhere.

Shorebird Banding At The Midwest Birding Symposium

A birder scans the dawn for migrants.  What a beautiful morning at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio!  During the Midwest Birding Symposium, I got the opportunity to observe some shorebird banding last Friday (which was a fun change of pace from the usual songbird banding I do on Fridays).  The banding started at dawn and involved two men named Tom.

The nets were set in areas where the shorebirds were feeding. The banders had to be careful to too keep the bottoms of the nets high, so if too many birds were caught, the nets wouldn't droop down into the water. You had to wear some serious waders in order to put the nets up and to retrieve the birds.

Some birds were not buying it, like the above pectoral sandpiper (that's a yellowlegs blurred in the background). Some birds fed right under the nets, while others flew right above and below.  However, many flew into the nets and we got to see quite a large variety of shorebird species in the hand.

Some of the nets were not easy to get to. Shorebird feed on mudflats and that gets messy.  They had to cross a stream to be able to get at the nets in a fast and easy manner.

Look at this beauty--a pectoral sandpiper.  This is one I can remember, note how far the brown goes down on its body before it meets the white.  The brown goes down much further on this bird than it would on a semipalmated or least--plus it's bigger.  The birds were all smaller in hand than they look in the field, which is what I expected.  According to bird banding guru Peter Pyle, this bird takes a band size of 1A.  You can put a 1A band on a cardinal to give you an idea of size.

The banders took the usual measurement of wings and tail, but also checked weight. This was done swiftly, by quickly inserting the shorebird into a tube and setting it on a scale (the weight of the tube was already calculated on the scale.  I think the banders had all of their measurements taken, banding and then assessment of age and sex in less than 60 seconds. They were quick, with the shorebird's safety and health a primary concern.

Here's a cute little bird! It's the sample size version of the killdeer, a semipalmated plover.  Don't you just love that yellow eyering?  These also take a small 1A band like the pectoral (and cardinal).  After this bird was banded, it flew across the nearby creek and began to forage as though nothing had happened.

And if you are wondering what the name "semipalmated" is all about, it refers to the slight webbing between the toes.  See?  Again, a bird named back in the day when they were shot first and identified later.  It's something seen easily in hand and up close to the face, but rarely seen when the bird is running around on a mudflat.  And believe it or not, non birders, this is not the only semipalmated bird out there.

We also got a semipalmated sandpiper into the nets too.  Above you can see Tom splaying the toes revealing the partial webbing between the toes.  This bird had a slight deformity on its bill, there was a lump in the middle.  Had it flown into a window at some point? Was it just some sort of odd defect it was hatched with? Who can say?

If you remember the photo from the previous entry, I asked if these were the same birds or different.  Even in hand, up close it can be a challenge.  Normally, I would point out the bill differences, but the semipalmated has that notch in its beak.  Another way I tell the two apart in Minnesota is also covered up.  Semipalm's bill and feet appear to be the same color, least sandpipers feet look lighter in color than the bill (you'll have to take my word on that since the least's feet are covered up in that photo).  You can see some examples here.

The coolest bird of the day for me was a Wilson's snipe that came into the nets.  What a great bird and what a treat to see up close.  Above is bander Tom Bartlett, reminding me a bit of Hannibal of the A-Team, loving it when a shorebird plan comes together.  And for the record, all we had to do to get this snipe was put up banding nets in the morning, no one was out in the middle of the night with a pillowcase making strange noises.

Here are some snipe toes, remarkably clean for a bird that wanders in mud.

Here's a shot of the head and that incredibly long beak it uses to probe in mud.  The bill  of the snipe is so flexible that it can open just the tips without opening the whole bill! Sensory pits at the tip of the bill allow the snipe to feel its prey deep in the mud.  It's bill is also handy for yanking the occasional worm too.

Tom tried to gently reveal the serrations inside the bill.  There are a couple of different theories as to how the snipe gets food and perhaps it uses both.  Some think that they may suck up food when the bill is probed in soil and others think the serrations pointing back towards its mouth in conjunction with its tongue will help move prey found in mud.  Still something we can learn.

Tom does have to bee quick when getting birds out of the nets.  He showed us this photo from just last month when a young peregrine falcon saw shorebirds struggling in the nets and thought it might be easy prey.  Tom got a little messy, but was able to get the falcon before it got the shorebirds.

This was a fun and educational experience and hands down one of my favorite birding moments at the Midwest Birding Symposium.

Birding Around Almaty, Kazakhstan

You may recall that I took a little trip to Kazahstan in May...I still have a few posts left to write about this wonderful place.  I don't know if I will ever get back, but I hope I do.  I have said it before and I will say it again, if you want to feel like the only person on the planet, you find several spots that will give you that impression.

When we first arrived, we stay in Astana, a city still growing and full of new development.  It's on the Steppes which is basically short grass prairie, but the locals do try to grow trees and they are very small.  Above is a photo of Almaty, and older city with established trees and older buildings.

I was most curious about my accomodations at this hotel, in my travel itinerary it was described as a "Soviet Style Sanatorium."  However, as you can see in the above photo, the rooms were not padded and did not come with complimentary straight jackets.  They were very clean and simple.  The tubs were huge and even though I was tired and had to get up early, I refuse to let an opportunity to soak in a deep hot bath pass and took advantage of it.  I had a life bird singing the whole time right outside my room, a scops owl--kind of like an eastern screech-owl (here is what it sounds like).  It was not what I would call a soothing and relaxing sound...neither were some of my fellow birders outside my room trying to call it in.  I ended up putting on my headphones in order to fall asleep.

The next morning I woke up to some crazy birds outside--like Indian Mynahs.  Alas, it was a tad cloudy and drizzly so I was not able to get the best photos, the mynahs were very striking birds.  Here's a photo of what one looks like.

Here was a familiar bird--the Eurasion collared dove.  A bird working its way into the United States as an introduced species.  Again, here I was seeing the bird where it was supposed to be, Eurasia.  Our breakfast at this hotel was an odd combination of cold cuts, white sausages, cucumbers and tomatoes, cheese, some kind of cabbage salad and yogurt.  I was also getting accustomed to NestCafe--instant coffee granuals are not as bad as I thought.

We had quite a few destinations this rainy day, but some of the most exciting were around this cemetery.  Not quite as grand as some of the larger ones seen near Astana but still quite cool.  This spot was where we got our first look at hoopoes which were just too darn fast digiscoping on a cloudy day, but man what a dynamite looking bird.  And what a fun word to say.  Incidentally, it is pronounced "who poo" not "who poe."

We passed quite a few shrikes on the road and one was teed up in the cemetery.  For a bird that is known to impale it's prey on spikes and sharp barbs, a cemetery seemed the perfect place for it to establish territory.

Surrounding the cemetery were huge poppy fields.  We passed dozens of fields with wide swathes of crimson, full of poppies.  When we stopped near the cemetery, we did find an interesting, yet familiar plant growing among them which we all sensibly acknowledged but left behind with knowing smiles.

Another exciting species for me (but not as exciting for my fellow European birders in Kazakhstan) were these rollers.  They are kind of related to kingfishers.  They are a striking big blue bird and looked gorgeous over the poppy fields.

Another bird that showed up was the golden oriole.  Again, these are just the tip of the iceberg to the amazing birds and scenery that were yet to come this day.

Birding In Sunset Park, Las Vegas

Well, I don't know how I survived it, but yesterday, my buddy Clay Taylor and I (and my poor husband Non Birding Bill) went to Sunset Park in Las Vegas for a little afternoon birding...in 104 degree heat.  I was a tad moist at the end of it.  I wasn't wearing too many clothes, yet I felt about as soaked as I would working my hives in a full bee suit.

We went for Crissal thrasher who hang around in the mesquite by the administrative building, which we saw but did not digiscope, but we did see tons of Gambel's quail which made NBB hum the Benny Hill theme every time they ran--too cute and too funny.  The quail loved to lurk and watch us from the brush, can't blame them for seeking shade.  As I was getting photos of the above male, something walked into the shot:

Oh, hello there outdoor kitty.  Fortunately for the quail, the cat was more worried about me and the scope than the intended quarry in the brush.  I looked up from my scope and the cat skulked away.

Clay found another critter as I was trying to get this hidden quail.  Can you see signs of another animal in this photo.  Take a quick look above.  See it?  I didn't either and would have missed it had Clay not pointed it out.  I'll give you a hint if you can't see it, the animal part is on the bottom towards the center left...see it?  It's a rabbit ear.

Here I focused on the rabbit.  Look at how crazy long those ears are!  From this angle I thought that it must be some sort of hare, but it seemed to small in the body.

I adjusted my position for a better view and saw that it had more of a rabbit body than a hare body.  I quick look on the internet and I found out that it's a desert cottontail.  Rabbits use those ears for thermal regulation.  Where I live in Minnesota, the cottontails have tiny ears.  If you are in the Vegas desert, you need big ole honkin' hears to deal with the heat.  My non birding hubby was hidden under some shade marveling that Clay and I could bird and digiscope in the heat.  I walked over and told him about the rabbit and asked if he wanted to see it.  He declined but said some small yellow bird was coming down from the trees and feed a few feet away.  I waited and...

...down popped a Wilson's warbler.  How fun to have such a cooperative warbler!  We saw these all over in Guatemala and I see them from time to time during migration in Minnesota, but this guy was so cheerful and perky in the heat.  We also saw a butt load of mourning doves, black-tailed gnatcatchers and verdin.  Not bad for a quick afternoon spot in oppressive heat.

Birding The Tien Shan Mountains Part 2

If you'd like to read the first part of this leg of our Kazakhstan trip, visit here.

I think the Tien Shan Mountains were my favorite, check it out in the above photo--glaciers! One of the people in our group had been to this area before. He said that his group started earlier than ours and he knew of where we should be and at what time. After we spent the morning enjoying great birds like brown dipper, Eurasian hobby, and Himalayan rubythroats, it was time for lunch. Our guide found a nice clearing in the sun with a great view and not so much snow. However, the other birders wanted to go higher and staged a bit of a mutiny.

We drove up to a higher elevation that was covered in snow. If you were willing to walk up a very vertical and rocky ledge, you wound up at this abandon research station. And this was where other birds like white-browed tit-warbler. All the birders scattered in various directions. I tried, but there weren't very many clear paths. The few that were there, were covered in very deep water. I opted to walk through the snow and discovered that in some parts, it wen all the way up to my hips. I think I have said it before in the blog and I'll say it again, I have a new appreciation and respect for the REI convertible pants.  I stayed fairly warm and the material dried out quickly. It was hard work toting my scope, pack, recently acquired bagged lunch through such deep snow and rather than struggle to keep up with the tenacious long-legged birders in hot pursuit of tit-warblers and accentors, I decided to answer the call of my stomach and eat. I trudged my way to the building's steps.

Above is my provided bag lunch.  The food in Kazakhstan was not what I would call exciting--edible, yes. A sensation for the taste buds, not so much. What struck me most was that every single meal (even breakfast) included cucumbers and tomatoes. Usually in the form of a salad with a light dill vinaigrette, but in the bagged lunches, we got a whole tomato and a hunk of cucumber. The above lunch included a boiled potato, apple, hard boiled egg, a chicken thigh with a lot of paprika, and  four rolls (one of which reminded me of the female anatomy). Breads were common at meals too. The favorite to eat was a fried bread, kind of like a donut with out the sugar, which is a good way to describe a lot of the Kazak food. At some meals a plate of rice and meat would be in front of you and being fairly close to China, you expected it to be spicy. Not the case, it was quite bland, but if you wanted fuel to keep going, then this food did accomplish that goal.

This was my view during lunch. I could hear several Himalayan snowcocks singing all around me in the crisp mountain air. It was nice to take a break from the birding and just admire the beauty of the remote region I was in. I thought about what I would be doing if I were home, what others were doing. I thought about how huge and beautiful our planet is despite what we hear in the news and how little time any of us have to see it. Sometimes I get to a location and realize that my chances of ever being here again are next to impossible, I want to burn them into my brain. It was already pretty amazing I had made here in this lifetime.

Northern wheatears were all around too. What a treat to see this bird up close! Rarely, one will come down out of Alaska and hit the very northern tips of Minnesota, but never in sleek breeding plumage. And what funny noises they made! This one made sounds like a camera shutter going off. I don't know much about wheatears to know if they are a mimic species. I do know that they make all sorts of crazy sounds, but this one really had my attention.  I did manage to get some video with my digiscoping equipment, you may have to crank your volume to hear it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91JBg6ZzJog[/youtube]

My buddy Clay came over and digiscoped it too. He pointed to the mountain side behind the wheatear where we could hear snowcocks chasing each other and said, "See the Batman?

And there it was, the Batman Insignia made of a collection of fairly large mountain rocks. If I had to guess, it was about 40 feet long. Those researchers at the abandon station must have gone pretty darned stir crazy sometimes. I love how I'm in one of the most remote regions on the planet and yet, cannot escape Western culture.

Much to the reluctance of our group, we had to begin the slow decent down the mountains. It was early afternoon and we had to get down to the bottom in time for dinner and for part of our group to leave. I stayed for a couple more days, but most of our group was leaving that night and getting a large group of birders to move, especially in a place where once in a lifetime birds are packed, is no easy feat. Above was one of our target birds called a black-throated accentor.  This little bird just refused to perch in better light, but you can see a photo of it here. The higher we went, the less variety we had, but still cool birds nonetheless. I don't think anyone in our group got the tit-warbler, so I do have some excuse to come back.

This was lovely little bird that we saw flitting about called a blue-capped redstart. I'm not sure where the redstart comes from, but at least it had a blue cap.

Magpies were common on the Steppes in Kazakhstan and common in the trees in the mountains.

As the day became later, the light became perfect. We saw less and less snow and our faster pace made us warm up.

Tim Appleton (the guy who started the British Bird Fair) and is one of the most interesting birders I have ever met) came over to us and said, "There's a ruddy shelduck in perfect light for a photo." He was correct, what lovely color this duck was. We had seen them earlier on the lake, but they were very far away, this one was much closer and Tim was correct, in perfect light. It was about this time that I was starting to fade. Kazakhstan is about eleven hours ahead Minnesota and we'd been hitting hotel beds at midnight and getting up by 5am pretty regularly. Fortunately, Corey Finger became my pusher man with his oh so tasty cappuccino caffeine pills--bless that man. They did have some coffee in Kazakhstan but it was more int he form of NesCafe.

After perking up, I was able to enjoy the birds, like this mistle thrush perched in perfect view taking a preen. You can view a video of this large robin like bird here.  We eventually made our way down the mountain, but moving a group of birders is like herding cats, we made it to the restaurant late and many of the people taking flight that night had to change clothes and repack carry on luggage in the parking lot.

The restaurant had all kinds of Kazakh symbols around, even part of  a replica of the Independence Monument found in Independence Square in Almaty. The full monument is a golden man holding what I think is supposed to be a golden eagle and the golden man is riding a flying snow leopard. I know the bird is dinky for a golden eagle, but hey, this is a golden man, chances are if a dude is made of gold, he's going to be bigger than your average male. When I told people that I couldn't believe I had the chance to go to Kazakhstan, one of the first reactions was, "No one ever goes there." The truth is that I have always wanted to go, ever since I had read about tours to see Kazakh tribesmen hunt with golden eagles. We didn't get to do that on this trip, but we did see wild ones flying over.

Here is one of the dining rooms at the restaurant. We didn't get this one, our room had chairs, but it's basically the same decor and color in a huge outdoor gazebo. All of our chairs had blankets we could drape over ourselves as the darkness brought with it the cold mountain air.

By the time the food arrived, I was so hungry that I could eat a horse, which was fortunate, because that's some of what they served us. They also had chicken, beef, and something tougher that I suspect was goat, but the horse was a surprise. It was mixed in with a cucumber and tomato salad (again with the cucumbers and tomatoes) but it was pleasantly marinated and was quite possibly the tastiest thing I had the whole week (outside of the odd pizza that had no sauce but had carrots as as a topping).

After is was quite dark, one of my favorite bird names dropped in to our gazebo--a great tit. The bird fluttered right over us and began hawking for insects attracted to the light bulb. Clever bird, ignoring the usual convention of roosting at night and taking advantage of an abundant food source.