Brief western sojourn, Oct. 8-11, 2010

There's been a brief hiatus in posting to this blog because I made a quick trip to northern California over the weekend to attend my son's wedding. There was not much opportunity for avian observation, but I did note a few species. I lived in California throughout much of the 1970s, though was not a very active birder at the time. So, while this trip wasn't a matter of going into entirely new territory, it was still a treat to venture outside my normal sphere.

I flew into Sacramento on Friday, the 8th, and drove down I-5 to Stockton late in the afternoon. The Interstate here goes through largely open country, much of which is farmland, but there are also a number of rivers in the area. I saw quite a few water birds of some sort in the air, but was not able to identify them. Roughly the size of small ducks, but clearly some sort of wading birds. Not herons. Buff-colored, and often flying in small flocks. I really can't make even a good guess about what they were; accurate identification will have to wait until my next trip!

However, I also saw a few Sandhill Cranes. Seeing the migrating cranes at the Hiwassee Refuge in Tennessee was always one of the highlights of my birding year, and I will greatly miss the chance to see--and hear--them this winter.

The wedding was at Lake Tahoe, a very different environment from that of the northern Central Valley! For starters there's a huge difference in elevation. The Sacramento airport is at about 25 feet above sea level, whereas Tahoe is about 6,200 feet, high in the Sierras. The mountain forests must offer great opportunities for birdwatching, and I hope to go back sometime to do just that!

Steller's and Western Scrub Jays were numerous, the former moreso than the latter. I was able to note a couple of Nuthatches of some sort, but can make no more specific determination than that. There were also numerous Chickadees flitting around in the trees, and I'm reasonably sure that at least some were Mountain Chickadees, which are a new species for me.

There were several large hawks flying over fields along Route 99 as we drove from Stockton to Tahoe on Saturday. Unlike here in the east one cannot automatically assume that a buteo of a particular size is a Red-tailed Hawk, though these may well have been one of the dark morphs of Red-tails. On the drive back over Donner Pass from Tahoe to Sacramento, a very large raptor flew over the highway--a young Bald Eagle, I'm fairly sure. 

I look forward to future return visits to the Golden State, and the chance to expand my birding horizons.

New visitors

I was delighted to see the first Dark-eyed Junco of the season this morning in the trees on the east side of the house! Just the one, but I trust that he/she will be joined by a cohort of peers before long. They're one of my favorite winter birds, but were rare visitors to my yard in Tennessee. I have fond memories of my father, who was the person who instilled in me a love of birds in the first place, bringing pitchforks full of old hay off the barn floor and scattering the chaff around on top of the snow so the Juncos could pick out the seeds. [This in western Mass., where I grew up.] This made an unsightly mess on top of the white snow, but the rewards of watching the Juncos having such a good time feeding more than compensated for any aesthetic offense caused by the piles of strewn chaff.

An even better treat for the day was the first-ever sighting in our yard of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet! He or she was bopping around in the brush on the verge between the lawn and the woods. Kinglets are tiny, peripatetic little things, that are always fun to watch--though they rarely stick around in any one place long enough to give birders much of a show! I was a bit surprised to realize that we'd not seen any kinglets in the yard before now; they may well have been here without us having seen them. We saw a Golden-crowned on Plum Island last week, and had seen Ruby-crowns at Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm in Wells back in May. I'm told that October is a good month to see kinglets at Laudholm--I'll have to venture there again soon!

"There's a reel I'd like to play for you..."

In case anyone's wondering about the title of this blog, this clip of the uilleann piping of the late, great Seamus Ennis should fill you in. I suppose there's also a bit of wishful thinking at work. Robins are the only thrushes who are around regularly, though we have seen Hermit Thrushes on numerous occasions, and were treated to concerts of their exquisite singing on many a summer's evening...if not the morning!

Whooosh!!!!

I never cease to be amazed at how many times when I'm out birding I decide to take One Last Look around before climbing in my truck and driving away, and with that Last Look I'm rewarded with the best sighting of the day. Take yesterday, for instance.....

I'd driven down to Wells in the afternoon to visit some friends. After leaving their place shortly after 4:00 I decided to swing out to the beach area to see if there were any interesting birds about. This wasn't a totally spontaneous move on my part; I'd brought along my good binoculars and my trusty Sibley field guide with the thought of making just such a foray.

From US1 I drove down Eldridge Road, turned off on Ocean Ave, and then onto Webhannet Drive that runs along the beach. I pulled over for a bit and enjoyed some good looks at a couple of female Common Eiders who were feeding in the surf, quite close to the surge line. One successfully came up from a dive with something in her bill--I couldn't tell just what it was--and was immediately set upon by two Herring Gulls who were trying to capitalize on her good fortune and hard work by stealing her plunder. She put up pretty good resistance, but in the end lost out to the gulls' superior numbers and bulk.

There wasn't a lot of other action out there so I headed for the parking lot at the mouth of Wells Harbor, which is usually a pretty good spot for, um, spotting birds. Seals often hang around there as well. No seals yesterday, but there was a largish flock of Double-crested Cormorants, a few Bonaparte's Gulls, several more Eiders, the usual Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, and--a bit of a treat--a Common Loon. We see Loons there with some degree of regularity, but it's always a pleasure when we do. The Loon and the Bonaparte's Gulls are in their off-season plumage now. I had hoped perhaps to see an Osprey or Northern Harrier over the marsh, but no such luck. They've probably mostly headed for warmer climes at this point, though an Osprey flew overhead while I was stuck in traffic on Rte. 128 outside Boston last week, and I did see three Harriers at Plum Island on Friday.

So, assuming I'd seen about all there was to see there I walked back to my truck. I'd unlocked the driver's side door when I turned around to scan the area one more time....and saw something flying very fast in pursuit of a smaller bird, out over the channel. Holy crap! Whazzat??? 

Even before I got my binoculars trained on it--no mean feat when the object of desire is traveling as fast as this thing was--I'd figured out that it must be a falcon, based on the wing shape. And, because of its size, it had to be a Peregrine!! Yup--with a quick look through the binocs I was rewarded with a glimpse of the unmistakable Elvis sideburns of a Peregrine Falcon! Woo-hoo! This was only the fourth one I've ever seen, but the third had been last Friday on Plum Island. Not a bad week for raptors.

Definitely worth taking that One Last Look!

Trip to Plum Island, October 1, 2010

Last Friday, after spending a night down in the Boston area, I stopped off at Plum Island, near Newburyport, Mass. Plum Island is home to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and is recognized as one of the top birding hot spots on the New England coast, if not in the whole country. I've been there a few times and have thoroughly enjoyed every visit.

I got to the refuge about 7:20 a.m., and there were very few others around. In the summer, access to many of the parking lots is restricted due to the popularity of the beaches for swimming, but in the off-season birders and fisherfolk seem to be about the only ones who visit. Just after going through the refuge entrance, and paying the requisite $5.00 day use fee, I stopped off at parking lot #1 where I'd never had occasion to stop on previous visits. 

From the parking lot a short boardwalk trail leads up over the dunes to the beach. Upon reaching the top of small hill and getting a view of the ocean, I immediately saw a large bird that I knew was something I'd never seen before. A quick check of my Sibley field guide confirmed my suspicion of what it was: a Northern Gannet. I had, in fact, been hoping to see my first Gannets on this trip, since I knew they visit the New England coast in the fall. After sighting the first one I realized that there were numerous others around. All were flying southward, bucking a stiff southerly wind to do so. I ended up seeing quite a few--easily over 50 altogether. I'll admit to being a bit disdainful about birders who are obsessive "listers"--who seem to care more about racking up big numbers of species seen than in spending time actually observing birds and learning about them--but I'll also admit to getting a distinct charge out of seeing a bird I've not ever seen before, and making a new entry on my Life List.

I watched the Gannets for some time. They make spectacular dives into the water in search of food! They tuck their wings back and plunge straight down, head first, making almost no splash when they enter the water. They don't stay down for long, but pop right up, and often take to the air again right away.

As I headed back to the parking lot a few sparrows flew up out of the brush along the trail. One sat on the fence rail long enough so I could get a good look at it, and identify it with some confidence as a Savannah. I've been spending some time lately on the fine points of Sparrow identification but still have much to learn! A few others flew up around the restroom/info building there, and yet another small flock was in the bushes by the entrance to the parking lot. I love the way sparrows just seem to explode out of the brush or grass in front of you as you walk! You think there are no birds around and then, all of a sudden, half a dozen or more just blossom in front of you!

I continued to work my way down the length of the island, making stops at nearly every parking area and making forays both towards the ocean and towards the marsh. The day was very windy, and rain was expected. One of the treats of the drive was seeing three Northern Harriers working over the marsh. Two were fairly far away, but I got great looks at one of them! I saw only one other raptor all day, but it was a good one: a Peregrine Falcon! He flew past at about eye level when I was standing on a small rise overlooking the beach.

The day was fairly productive for songbirds as well. The habitat on the island is quite varied, and there is a lot of very favorable area for songbirds. Notable sightings included: Red-eyed Vireo; a couple of Towhees; a couple of Yellow-Rumped Warblers; Chickadees; lots more Savannah Sparrows; Cardinals; many, many Robins; Tree Swallows; a Red-breasted Nuthatch; a Golden-crowned Kinglet; and a Nashville Warbler. One real treat, and something I'd never seen before, was all three mimic thrushes--Catbird, Mockingbird, and Brown Thrasher--together in one location, and all visible at the same time! I was surprised to see some of these birds, like the Towhees, Tree Swallows, Thrashers, and Catbirds, still around, but I suppose they'll head south soon.

A light rain began in late morning and though I continued birding for a good while after it started, it eventually started to come down hard enough that I decided to call it a day about 1:30 in the afternoon. Altogether I logged 35 species for the day. Not a spectacular number, but quite decent. All in all a very enjoyable trip!

Roll call

I might as well begin by giving a brief survey of our regular and semi-regular yard birds, and then say a bit about some of the notable visitors we had over the spring and summer.

The Usual Suspects around here are the same that many other folks get at their feeders: Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy and Down Woodpeckers, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Robins, Blue Jays Mourning Doves. The Goldfinches are perhaps the most numerous, with Chickadees not far behind. There are a few other visitors that are not plentiful, but that are around most of the time, such as a pair of Cardinals. Tree and Chipping Sparrows were around much of the summer, and both White-throated and White-crowned have been seasonal visitors. I'll have to go through a full winter here before seeing which of these species qualifies for year-round residency.

Thankfully we are not plagued by those species that are widely considered to be junk birds. I've never so much as seen a Starling or English Sparrow in the yard. A few Brown-headed Cowbirds were around for the summer, but only a few. There are usually a couple of Grackles around, and we were briefly invaded by a largish flock of them a week or so ago, but they seem to have moved on. There's a murder of three or four crows [look it up!] that seems to like it here, but apart from sometimes eating too much of the suet we put out, they can't be considered much of a nuisance. A raptor that I'm pretty sure is a Cooper's Hawk is an occasional visitor. I've never seen him make a kill here, or even go after much of anything, though we did see him unsuccessfully chase a Mourning Dove in the air while flying over the front lawn one day in late summer.

Over the summer we hosted at least two, possibly three, pairs of Catbirds, and enjoyed a fairly steady parade of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at our nectar feeders. We also enjoyed the presence of at least one pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They definitely nested around here somewhere as late in the summer young ones began appearing. Of course, I made no notes about when we stopped seeing them; one day I just realized that they had not been around for awhile, and I can't say if there were here into September or not. Other more-or-less regular visitors include a few Flickers and Turkeys--more on both of these in a later post.

Our house borders on some woods, and the trees that are right outside the office windows seem to be a popular spot with warblers, at least during the migrations. In early May we saw Chestnut-sided, Nashville [I think], Black-throated Green, Magnolia, and Northern Parula. Other warblers seen later in the summer and early fall include: Black and White, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia, and Blackburnian. We hear and see Red-eyed Vireos with a fair degree of regularity.

One of the biggest treats came back in early May. On the 10th I noted a total of 25 species in the yard in a single day. This included male and female Baltimore Orioles, male Scarlet Tanagers, male and female Cardinals, and male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. The next day I noted only 21 species, but a male Indigo Bunting joined the fray, giving us five of the most colorful species we could hope to see, all at the same time!

I know I've left numerous species out of this overview. To date we have seen about 65 species of birds in the yard or in our woods, though this includes quite a few seen while on brief visits before moving here permanently.