Random Snipe

Non Birding Bill may not like to travel with me to go birding, but he knows how much I love it and when he sees a good deal, he lets me know. I've been muttering all spring that I'm jonesing for a trip to Harlingen, TX and have been kicking around the idea of meeting up WildBird on the Fly down there in November.  NBB sent me a link for a sale at  Southwest Airlines and being a savvy traveler, I checked a few other airlines and found an even cheaper deal with Sun Country Airlines and now I'm committed--I'm going to the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival this November!  I love this festival for the birds, the organizers, the opportunity to see many birding friends (many vendors who work the bird show circuit show up there) and the fact that it has relatively inexpensive lodging and food.  If you only have the time and money for one or two bird festivals--this is the place to go.  You get off the wall cool birds like green jays, the opportunity for Central American species like rose-throated becard and fabulous Mexican food.  This festival is so awesome that in the most recent publication of Australia's Wingspan (the Australian version of the American Birding Association) listed their top birding festivals worldwide and the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival was on the list.

Meanwhile, I was cleaning off the desktop on my computer and found a bunch of photos that I meant to put in the blog but I think I only put on Twitter.  Above is a Wilson's snipe photo that I got at the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds.  We could hear snipe displaying above us (here is a link so you can hear what the display sounds like--they make this sound in flight with their feathers, so if you ever hear it in the wild, look up).

We had heard this sound several times, then I noticed a bird coming out of the sky and about to land, only it made this sound.  I couldn't believe it, a snipe landed on a snag.  Our field trip group was taking in the site and then three bloody cowbirds flew over and scared it off.  Really, snipe, you were intimidated by cowbirds?  I must admit, I expected more of you.

Anyway, it was cool to get a momentary look at a shorebird in a tree.

More on Los Andes in Guatemala

Look at this pygmy-owl outside of Los Andes lodge! This one perched right out the front door. There was some debate as to whether this was a ferruginous pygmy-owl or mountain pygmy-owl. The debate seemed to center around the spots on his head. Ferruginous pygmy-owls should have streaks, mountain pygmy-owls should have more spots. To me, it looks streaky. Bottom line, it was a tiny owl.

Pygmy-owls were all over the place in Guatemala, this was a pygmy-owl that was spotted as our bus was passing through a small town. You know how in the US, some people will try to whistle like an eastern screech-owl, in Guatemala, birders whistle like pygmy-owls to get smaller birds to come in closer. One day our group saw a yellow-wing cacique fly over. In trying to get it to come back, someone in our group started the pygmy-owl call and I noticed something small and brown fly up to a telephone pole with a hole. At first I thought it was a wren, but it was a ferruginous pygmy-owl--we actaully called one in.

How's this for a Guatemala sunrise? This was just off of the organic tea farm at Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. The tea is bordered by cloud forest where resplendent quetzals can be found. I'm generally not a fan of early rising (I know, I know, I'm a birder, I'm supposed to enjoy getting up in the dark, but I don't). However, when I'm forced to get up, what a treat to get a fabulous sunrise.

Here's a zoom in, you can see the puffs of smoke coming off the volcano--beautiful. We took our time walking in to the forest, many birds were already singing. I mentioned early on that digiscoping was a challenge in Guatemala--digiscoping in the tropics is hard work and this was a trail where I had to make a decision: spend a few wasted seconds trying to get the camera an scope lined up, or use those precious seconds to enjoy the bird. One was an antpitta, I can't think of any way to describe it but maybe, combine an American robin and a nerf football with long legs. It was a bird I expected to only hear and not see, but as our group made it through the forest, one was walking along the path searching for food. What a treat to see this secretive brown bird.

Here's the view of the tea farm outside of the forest with the quetzal. This was a cool spot to stand in and just watch birds go by.

We searched this forest more than once for the quetzal but I only heard it, I did not see it. I heard two different versions of quetzal sounds. One was a rather pleasant, almost ticking call. The other scared the crap out of me. I found a very distant version of it on Xeno Canto, you'll hear this kindy of shrieky gobble, that's what I heard, only it was right behind me and ten time louder. I literally ducked when I heard it. Alas, did not see the quetzal, but we saw their nest boxes scattered about. We saw so many other birds including azure-rumped tanager, emerald touchanette, blue-crowned chlorophonia, and collared trogon that I could live with living to see a quetzal another day.

They did have resplendant quetzal tail feathers on display at the lodge. I stood next to one to give some perspective as to how long their tails can get. I'm five foot and that tail is over half as long as I am.

I should mention that the road to the quetzal area is quite adventurous. Our group was packed into the pack of this truck and we had to stand...I had to be careful where I stood. My head was at the top bar level and if I stood in one of the corners, I would end up hitting my head.

The ride is about about twenty minutes long on what I would call minimum maintenance roads...and the above was about as flat as they got. There were curves and hills and large rocks and we were bounced all over in the back. It was nerve racking enough to watch when it was daylight and even more so when it was dark--our drivers were great, they knew how to drive on those roads, but to me who is not used to those types of mountain road--it was exciting. But the upside of when it was dark was that we'd periodically stop for pauraques sitting in the road, I'm sure they followed our vehicle a bit as toddled down the road, going after insects kicked up.

I have to get back to Los Andes. At least to see the quetzal, but also because it's a cool place.

Arriving In Harlingen

The Harlingen Airport is happy to see birders in Texas--look at the size of that banner! I feel so welcomed for the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival.

We had the opening reception last night, which is a great time to reconnect with friends and eat some fancy foods. There was a new addition to the table--live birds. A small cage full of parakeets was put out by catering company (cause see, we're bird watchers). They startled the dickens out of me, but the budgies seemed to be having a great time preening each other and chirping sweet nothings.

I tried to get a photo of birders using a pair of tongs to get a budgie, but to no avail. I asked Jim from Kowa (above). "No way," he said, "your just going to put it in your blog that Kowa eats birds." He then went the extra mile to put his arm around the birds to prove how much he LOVES birds.

Kevin Karlson walked by and I shouted, "Yo, Kevin, do me a favor, put some tongs to the birds."

He also resisted my request, "No, you'll put it in your blog."

I even offered to say nice things about his books in the blog, but he said that I already do say nice things about his books and he appreciates that.

They're on to me!

So, by the time you are reading this, I'll be a digiscoping fool on the Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park. Then I give my Blogging: The New Nature Journal Program, then do a book signing, and then its Birds and Beers. Such a wild and exciting Thursday.

I've already touched based with several bloggers including Flying Mullet, Round Robin, and one third of 10,000 Birds. Will Mike Bergin sway me to the power of The Nature Blog Network...we shall see...

Oh, and bird banders will get a kick out of this:

Bird bites the cover of the book that identifies, ages and sexes them! And it's a house sparrow too! This sparrow latched on to the corner an would not let go, taking out its frustration on being man handled on poor, poor, hard to read Pyle.

Speaking of the Pyle book, there's a second one out. Yes, the bird id book with no photos, that even uses math equations to id birds, and is the necessary evil of every bander's operation now has a part 2! Here's an earlier post I had about Peter Pyle's Identification Guide To North American Birds and I had to chuckle, Ian Paulsen posted a few months ago: "I think every birder will want Pyle's Identification Guide to North American Birds: part 2!!!"

I hope he was kidding. Pyle is NOT for every birder, it's only for the masochistic Jedi birders that use The Force to identify birds. It's this heavy little book that sits on your back when you're sweating over a flycatcher in your hand and asking yourself if you'll be able to try to identify, let alone age and sex it. Then the book says in a gravelly drag queen voice, "No! Do or do not, there is no try."

Scariest bird book out there, I swear.

Highlights & Gratitude For 2007

I'm a little foggy from last night's New Year's party. There was a man there who taught ballroom dance for a living and all the women took turns being twirled, whirled, hustled and rumbaed around the room. Good times.

The first bird that I saw and digiscoped for 2008--a white-breasted nuthatch. Mr. Neil tried to make a joke that seeing a white-breasted nuthatch meant a year of bad sex and Non Birding Bill wisely encouraged him to avoid inaccurate bird jokes before I have any coffee in the morning...so the fantasy writer still lives...for the moment.

I week or two ago I was tagged with a top birding moments of 2007 (for the life of me, I can't remember who tagged me) but I wanted to wait until 2007 was fully over before I put it together. I also get a wonderful email from a friend expressing gratitude for moments in the last year, so I think this will kind of morph into that as well since I have so much to be grateful for.

A huge highlight was getting to perform Play on Birds with Non Birding Bill at a Nature Festival in Ohio. I love doing this show and I love working with my husband on stage. I hope we get the opportunity again.

Digiscoping has just taken over my birding life and I've observed some really great moments with it. One big highlight was getting some great photos while at a meeting at Eastman Nature Center.

I also got a chance to digiscope a singing male indigo bunting. The bird was so focused on singing, he never noticed me. He sang so long that after I had taken all pictures I could, I just had to finally take the time to just enjoy him. What a treat and what a great bird to have such a beautiful bird in existence.

A big highlight was getting the chance to photograph and video a male golden-winged warbler at a bed and breakfast in Vergas, MN. If you follow this link, that will take to the post to watch the video of the golden-winged warbler and also of a bobolink that was singing at the bed and breakfast as well.

North Dakota was another great time, and getting the chance to observe ruddy duck courtship display was a definite highlight. I just happened to find them while exploring some remote gravel roads and spent and hour watching the males display and the females take their time in showing any interest. North Dakota was also a great chance to hang out with great friends and explore Clark Gable's grandparent's home and find a burrowing owl.

Young Cooper's hawks provided no end of entertainment from bathing in a puddle of a neighboring roof (she's a dirty girl) to nailing a pigeon right in front of my apartment building. I never ceased to be amazed at the incredible amount of nature right in front of our eyes in a busy metro area. Going out in the middle of nowhere is fun, but incredible wild stuff is happening anywhere, as long as you go out and take a moment to notice.

Banding hawks in the fall is always fun, but this year was particularly exciting because I got a chance to "yank the pigeon" and help bring hawks into the nets. I also slept in a van out in the fields to prove that if I need to, I can still rough it.

I finally had a chance to improve my shorebird watching skills! Doug Buri offered a weekend workshop in August and he promised me that I would learn my shorebirds. I was skeptical, but he promised that I would see least sandpipers within five feet of me. The man did not lie and not only can I had identify shorebirds in my area, I find them quite beautiful. I hear he's offering two workshops next year--I highly recommend them!

Carpenter banding is always fun, but this year when we had an adult sharp-shinned hawk try to get one of the juncos we had just trapped, was a big highlight--Hellziggy took the above photo. We ended getting the sharpie and banding it as well as the junco. This is not to be confused with a separate sharpie/junco incident that happened in December.

Having a young titmouse sit on my head while at Mr. Neil's was another highlight.

Speaking of Mr. Neil, I finally got vindication with a saw-whet owl. For years, I have insisted that one should be in his woods. I had found saw-whet feathers in wren nests, I had found poop, but never the saw-whet--until this year when I found the above bird sleeping in a pine. Whoot!

Birds were only part of this magical year. Beekeeping has opened my eyes to a whole new world, and words cannot express what it felt like to have a worker bee lick nectar off of my bare finger. From having a massive panic attack when installing the bees, to requeening problems, to even giving sex advice, to my first bee sting...this has been one weird year and I cannot wait to see what new adventures lay ahead of us in 2008.

And let's not forget the porcupet--the baby porcupine who was found on the side of the road next to his mother who had been hit by a car. He was being cared for by a friend of mine who is a professional wildlife rehabber. By the time he was in her care, he had already been imprinted on humans and could not go back to the wild. He is now living at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Mn and goes by the name Clover. His videos are still a sensation on YouTube.

Birding also got me a brush with coolness when the Colbert Report filmed a segment at an Eagle Festival in Connecticut.

And I can't talk about what an amazing year it has been without talking about Cinnamon and Disapproving Rabbits. That has been one wild ride to have a web page we put up for fun and have it turn into a book. To have signings and have people come from different states to meet my bunny is just overwhelming. When I looked over the blog in the last year and how it has morphed and changed, I noticed that Cinnamon has been featured less and less. I'm not sure why. At first, I thought it was my infatuation with beekeeping, a new subject to write about. Then we started a separate blog for Disapproving Rabbits so I wondered if I was keeping it separate. But, I also get some strange emails (greatly overshadowed by some really wonderful and funny ones) from fans. I wonder if the few odd/unpleasant ones are making me feel protective of my bunny's privacy and the fun times we have. Or is that she is getting older and I want to distance her to protect all from being too emotionally invested when the inevitable happens? Not sure, but we'll see what happens in the coming year.

Birds and Beers has been a real treat. Above is a photo from the first Bird Blogger Conference where many bird bloggers got to meet face to face for the first time. I'm hoping to expand Birds and Beers in 2008 where anyone who is remotely interested in birds from beginner to kinda interested to very interested to birding has taken over my life will get a chance to sit down, share a beverage and talk some birds.

And I would like to once again thank EVERYONE who reads the blog, leaves comments, sends emails, or spreads the word. I feel incredibly honored that people are interested in what I put on here and make it such a fun part of my day and my life. I've made some great new friends and connections and I love it when someone sends a note to tell me that they noticed some bird or activity that they never would have noticed before if they had not read the blog. We also did some good this year when readers from here did the "Click for Condors" and helped Ventana Wildlife Society win $10,000 in grant money. Not bad at all. Thank you very much, and here's hoping you have wonderful new year and share new adventures.

Thank you.

Final Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival Post

Really, it is. I swear. At least for this year.

Banding was slow today at Carpenter Nature Center and I spent the morning talking to the Development Director while she repaired nets. Fortunately, I had a chance to observe some banding while at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. Once again, a Sunday morning trip was scheduled to watch bander Mark Conway (that's Mark in the above photo banding a kiskadee) and his assistants band birds at Los Ebanos Preserve.

Here's a closer shot of the kiskadee Mark was banding. Something interesting that I learned was that all kiskadees have a yellow gape.

I took a photo of one earlier in the festival and I had never noticed that before and thought it was a young bird, but all kiskadees of all ages have that yellow outline at the corners of their mouths.

The first bird of the morning wast a gray phase eastern screech owl. The banders weren't targeting owls, but they had the nets up at not long after dawn and this bird was just flying through and flew into the net.

Here is a long-billed thrasher which I hear way more than see in when birding in South Texas. That bill is not deformed, that's the way they are.

The best part of the day was getting to see a green jay up close. Last year they banded quite a few and I figured that green jays were par for the course.

But Mark said that they don't get green jays in the nets very often as they are members of the corvid family and very intelligent. They had not banded at Los Ebanos recently so the birds were just not used to it.

Mark said that this set a record for the most green jays that they have ever caught in a day: 9 green jays banded--and I never got tired of them.

Another exciting bird of the day was an olive sparrow--one of the hardest birds to see, you hear them quite a bit. I was glad to have a chance to get this photo because, frankly, my earlier efforts were just plain sad:

Behind all those tiny branches lurks an olive sparrow at Llano Grande. This was not bad, just finding an olive sparrow sitting on a branch long enough to aim your scope and camera is feat within itself.

Here, Mark is holding an orange-crowned warbler. These guys are all over in the trees in south Texas this time of year. They're not an easy warbler to see, so when a guide finds one, I think people hear warbler and hope for an exciting/colorful bird. As they search and search, they'll say, "I see a small brownish bird..." Yep, that's the orange-crowned. It's not even as orange as a blackburnian warbler. You may be wondering to yourself, why this bird is called an orange-crowned warbler...

Here, Mark demonstrates the name. When you hold and orange-crowned warbler about six inches from your face and blow on its crown, you can see a kind of orangish color on the underside of the crest feathers--see how obvious that is? Another one of those birds that was named when bird watching was done with a gun, not with binoculars.

Here are one of the many great-tailed grackles in the area. When you get them in the sun, they really are a striking bird. You can hear great-taileds singing all over Harlingen, any time of day--even all night long when they are roosting in the trees--how do those guys get any rest?

They do sound incredibly mechanical as opposed to musical. I wonder how that adaptation sounded, and what must have early explorers to North America have thought hearing those things chatter all night in the trees above them?

There was also a very exciting bird into the nets--a common yellowthroat, which to Mark are not common but something to study in depth. He thinks that there is an isolated population of yellowthroats that could be a subspecies that he calls the Brownsville yellowthroat. Will there a split some day separating this species of yellowthroat from the rest of the common yellowthroats seen around the United States? If so, Mark will have been instrumental in that research.

Okay, this doesn't have too much to do with banding, but there were quite a few anoles running around during the banding program and this guy with the wavy tail caught my eye. I wondered what happened to make it look like that? Did appear to slow it down in its daily travels.

And so, I leave you wit one final green jay photo, because they are just so darn cool looking. I'm very excited, it looks like we will be able to go out with Mark one day on the South Texas trip next year, which would be awesome for the group and great for me to learn different banding techniques from different people.