October 6th, 2009: Recap of Bird-a-thon

It took me a while to write this, and then I forgot about it and forgot ot post it. Here it be!

On September 21^st I stepped out with PRBO’s education team for a bird-a-thon fundraiser for our organization. We called ourselves The Indicators. That is another story. This is the story of our big day.

We started out at 6:30 in the morning. When my coworker and I pulled up to the parking lot at the Five Brooks trailhead in Olema Rich Stallcup was already 10 species deep, his scope set up and his ears vibrating with the sounds of a foggy morning on Point Reyes Peninsula. I already knew how big this was going to be. My supervisors soon joined us, and we had started a short walk around the nearby pond.  The highlight of Five Brooks was finding the perfect spot where the sun hit the trees. Four warbler species posed in tiny windows, sparkling in the early sunlight. They fed with energy and enthusiasm, and I watched them similarly.

We piled into Rich’s car and hit Bolinas Lagoon and Stinson Beach. A keen eye caught a juvenile Peregrine falcon alight in a tree, and I had my first life-bird of the day, a Clark’s grebe. Rich nabbed our first vagrant—a Western kingbird.

An hour later and we were bouncing down Sir Frances Drake Boulevard toward the outer point. We made a pit stop at Olema Marsh, where Virginia rails and Soras gave themselves up before we could even take out a playback tape. Further down the road a Great horned owl juvenile screeched its begging call to its parents. The fog drip and chill of the morning had it holding out its wings and slumping its shoulders. It looked quite sullen.

At Chimney Rock trailhead Rich teased an American redstart (more like “yellowstart” as it was a first year female) out of the douglas firs. It flicked its fan-tail for us. A somewhat familiar sight for me, but a first for one of my Californian coworkers. A few Barn owls floated in and out of the tree tops, but a bird-a-thon is no time for aesthetics. We jumped back onto the winding road and made our lunch stop at Drake’s Beach. No new birds, but as we ate Rich chummed for a Glaucous-winged gull with french fries. Instead, we were surrounded by hungry and desperate Ring-billed, California and Heerman’s gulls. My coworker Cynthia got some excellent shots out of the group.

Rich aimed us toward north beach on the other side of the peninsula. The Pacific was being fairly torrential, throwing white foam on giggling tourists. Mounted on the sand dune above the parking lot with a carpet of ice plan beneath our feet, we shared two scopes to scan the blue for potential new species. Loons grumbled beneath the surf. Rich laid eyes on a Common murre, and I had my big spot for the day and a life-bird as well—a Pomarine jaeger cutting fast across the distant rolling valleys and troughs. Two Sooty shearwaters disappeared and reappeared beneath the rolling sea as they followed a similar path. Another first for me. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find them after Rich found them in his scope, but they are absolutely different from anything I have seen before. The brief experience searching for pelagic with Rich made my mouth water for a pelagic trip.

We determined that we had gotten as much as we would get out of the Point Reyes peninsula that day, so we head toward east Marin County for a different suite of bird fauna. At Stafford Lake we found our third and final nuthatch for the day. Rush Creek gave us a flock of feeding Black-necked stilts. But we were slowing down fast. We had started out the day in 53 degree weather, under a cloudy sky and picking up bird species at an exponential rate. Now it was 95 degrees and the bird species were largely repeating themselves. My brain was melting, but Rich seemed to harden his resolve. Probably from years of experience doing bird-a-thons in Marin County and his phenomenal love of nature. He knew there would be more to come.

At Bahia Reserve we found our fourth tern of the day—a Forster’s tern lilting far in the distance spotted by Rich. Missy, one of my supervisors, found a far away American avocet through the spotting scope. A Nuttall’s woodpecker double-called at us, and my doubting Thomas faded away. There is always more to see on a big day. We were at 135 species.

My two supervisors headed home at that point, but Rich said that he thought we could get 10 more species if we hit Las Gallinas sewage treatment plant in San Rafael. Of course, I could not resist. Just a little further was becoming our mantra. We spent about an hour and managed to pull out 11 more species, including all of our swallows for the day (3 species). As we almost hit the parking lot I asked Rich, “What’s that bird in the bush?” referring to a piece of vegetation not 8 feet from us. I thought it was a silly question as I was asking it; it was probably another Say’s phoebe.

“That’s amazing!” he said. “An Ash-throated flycatcher!” Thus bringing our total to 146 species for the day.

I probably could have kept going, but it was a good time to end. Rich had 2 more bird-a-thons to lead that week, so he needed all the rest he could get. I had seen more bird species that day than I ever had in my life.

I had my first bird-a-thon this past spring, and it is fun to compare the two experiences. Rich has been birding Marin County for many years, and he is a dedicated and talented birder. I’m a newb, and when I did my bird-a-thon in the DC area I was in a new area. I got a much lower count on the east coast, but it was still an incredible day. I knew right away after my first bird-a-thon that planning is key, and that comes with experience. I hope that the next bird-a-thon is on familiar ground, and that I will take note of how well Rich planned our bird-a-thon.

And I’m already excited for the next one, wherever that may be.

Final bird list:

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Cinnamon Teal

Northern Shoveler

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Surf Scoter

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Ruddy Duck

California Quail

Red-throated Loon

Pacific Loon

Common Loon

Pied-billed Grebe

Eared Grebe

Western Grebe

Clark’s Grebe

Sooty Shearwater

American White Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

White-tailed Kite

Northern Harrier

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Merlin

Peregrine Falcon

Virginia Rail

Sora

American Coot

Black-bellied Plover

Killdeer

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Spotted Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Willet

Lesser Yellowlegs

Whimbrel

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Black Turnstone

Sanderling

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Red-necked Phalarope

Heermann’s Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Western Gull

California Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Caspian Tern

Common Tern

Forster’s Tern

Elegant Tern

Pomarine Jaeger

Common Murre

Pigeon Guillemot

Rock Pigeon

Band-tailed Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Mourning Dove

Barn Owl

Great Horned Owl

Anna’s Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Acorn Woodpecker

Nuttall’s Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Pileated Woodpecker

Western Wood-Pewee

Willow Flycatcher

Black Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Western Kingbird

Hutton’s Vireo

Steller’s Jay

Western Scrub-Jay

American Crow

Common Raven

Violet-green Swallow

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Barn Swallow

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Oak Titmouse

Bushtit

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Pygmy Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Bewick’s Wren

Winter Wren

Marsh Wren

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Western Bluebird

Swainson’s Thrush

American Robin

Wrentit

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

American Pipit MacGillivray’s Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

American Redstart

Common Yellowthroat

Wilson’s Warbler

Western Tanager

Spotted Towhee

California Towhee

Savannah Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird

Tricolored Blackbird

Brewer’s Blackbird

Purple Finch

House Finch

Pine Siskin

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

September 10th, 2009: Redwood Weekend

I spent this past weekend travelling with friends. We drove north. North to Eureka. We made plans too close to the holiday, and so instead of camping in a pristine redwood forest we ended up really roughing it at a KOA. Ping-pong, tetherball, and $6 for a bundle of wood. The forest from which we could have obtained logs were kept out by a high fence. Made out of wood. It was strange.

Outside of the KOA fence and slightly north and south on the 101 there were some real trees. Real big ones. We spent a small amount of time putzing around Humboldt Redwoods State Park, home of the Avenue of the Giants.

One of the days we sallied up the 101 to Arcata Community Forest. I must say, it was a real hidden gem. I was thinking originally that we would truck it to Redwoods National Park, but I’m so happy that we ended up at the much less famous community forest. Winding loops of trails were enough to get us into areas where we hardly saw anyone else. It was a small forest in comparison to some other regional ones, but large enough for 6 fairly competent (?) people to get slightly lost in.

It was my first time in the presence of the mighty coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). It was impressive and stunning. It was hard to understand. Sometimes I feel like a stranger in the wilderness, and sometimes I feel as though I am a part of it. This experience was the former. The redwoods were beautiful, but also somewhat alienating. I felt like a small town girl in the big city, but I was really a prairie girl in a towering redwood forest. There was so much going on above my head it felt as though I was being looked down upon. And I don’t mean all of this in a bad way. It was humbling to be in the presence of such ancient giants.

September 1st, 2009: Shorebirds at Schollenberger

Thanks to facebook (wow…) I now know the name of the beautiful plant I featured in my last post. It is Knifolia uvaria, also known as Torch Lily or Red Hot Poker. It is not an aloe, but is in the same family as the aloe genus (Asphodelaceae). Facebook the the rescue?

No facebook necessary today, I figured out my identifications on my own. I took a little stroll outside the PRBO office over lunch. Right in front of the PRBO office is Schollenberger Park, which contains a nice wetland area. Shorebirds were plentiful.

This Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) walked over to me, picking intertebrates out of the mucky muck. Wile I was working in Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska this summer I developed a mild hatred for Lesser Yellowlegs. As the summer field season went on the constant “broken record” drone of the Lesser Yellowlegs calling gnawed on my brain, and the large number of Lesser Yellowlegs took to dive bombing all the members of our crew as soon as we stepped outside of base camp. I never thought I could get so annoyed by a shorebird. That being said, I was lucky to get to see such wonderful defensive behavior.

After encountering the Lesser Yellowlegs a nice group of peeps crossed the path and landed in good lighting within 40 feet of me. I tried a little digiscoping.

The above picture is mostly Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla), but the bird in the upper right hand corner is a Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri). Notice the longer, droopier bill on the Western. The others have shorter bills, although they are also slightly downturned. Least Sandpipers also have yellow legs, unlike the Western Sandpiper, which has black legs. Many of the Least Sandpipers were showing off beautiful rufous coloration on their backs–a hallmark of first year birds.

And lastly, here is an American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana). I’m lucky to work at an office with such beautful shorebirds just out the front door.

August 30th, 2009: Aloe and butterflies

I have to start with bad news. I took a walk to the lighthouse at Point Reyes on Saturday, and saw these beautiful plants. The bad news is that I can’t figure out what they are called. They appear to be members of the Aloe genus, but they do not appear in any of the 5+ California plants books I have access to here at PRBO. This may be because they are non-native. Not sure.  I will crack the case eventually, but for now all I can do is admire their beauty.

In better news…BUTTERFLIES! Hover your mouse over the images to find out the butterfly names. Click on the images for a close-up. (That’s right, I’m tech-savvy).

Oh it was a fun weekend. I stayed at Point Reyes, explored the peninsula and biked around Bolinas, snapping many more photos than I can fit into a single blog post right now.

August 27th, 2009: Bayer Farm

I spent the evening in Santa Rosa, California, at Bayer Farm. 6 acres of a former sheep pasture, converted to community garden plots. We got a nice tour of the farm and ate some delicious heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and plums. The farm is run by an organization called Land Paths. All the volunteers and staff with Land Paths were extremely friendly and welcoming. They helped me forget the unusual heat and enjoy the beautiful setting.

My supervisor gave a demonstration of one of the programs that we do to a group of teachers. I was surprised at the enthusiasm and the positive response we got–a few teachers told us they wanted to sign their classes up right away.

Above is a picture of a group of teachers using field marks and other visual cues to describe the study skin they were given. They were asked to sketch the study skin and make guesses as to its life history and habitat based on visual cues. The same activity we would do with their students.

It’s great to see such excitement for birds, and to work with people who care enough to bring the environment to today’s nature-deprived children. Rock on Land Paths.

August 23rd, 2009: Wow, I’m back.

I have a long line of excuses for why I haven’t updated in so long, but they are mostly lame and don’t really matter. Here I am. New camera, new location. Naturalizing just the same.

I am now living at Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco. I will be here for 3 months, and already 1 week has passed.  Point Reyes is an amazing place to learn about nature. This weekend I wound and unwound California 1, and found myself in the heart of the city.

Dave and I took a long bicycle tour of the city on Saturday, but on Sunday I convinced Dave to accompany me to Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The birds were cooperative, very easy to spot and keep in the scope, which was especially wonderful for Dave, who is new to the birding scene.

Hopefully I got him hooked. After just one hour of birding Dave can now identify a Black-necked Stilt, a Black Skimmer and maybe a Great Blue Heron.  Gulls, terns, cormorants, swallows, peeps and other shorebirds filled the space of our outdoor classroom. Dave found the birds interesting, but was mostly entertained by my own delight at every passing creature.

Don Edwards was different than I expected, as are most new places I encounter on the west coast. The scenery was dry, sunny, a bit hazy. It felt like California to me.

February 7th, 2009: Pohick

Drove out to Pohick Regional Park in Virginia. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, plenty of sun and warm weather. I was prepared for a hike around part of the lake, but found myself glued to the spot, observing more and more wildlife. My catch of the day was Redhead, seen distant from the shore. But perhaps more interesting and far more abundant were the Lesser scaup (Aythya afinis) that dotted the lake. First I saw two of them, then every time I got up to walk further along the shore more would fly in. Here is a shot through my binocular lens (above).

Lesser scaup are diving ducks. They are heavy and compact. According to The Birder’s Handbook, they are usually found at the center of a body of water, although this may not apply to a lake as big as Pohick. They generally concentrate on the center of the water column, sifting out invertebrates. Way cool.

A juvenile Bald eagle gently sailed down to the lake surface, seemingly to dip its toes in the water as if testing the temperature. Amazingly its talons resurfaced with a fish. I have never seen such casual hunting in my life. Kudos Baldy, you make survival look like a day at the park.

I’m excited to return to Pohick to check out more scaup and eagles and all the new things that spring has to offer. With weather as warm as today’s, it’s easy to have faith that a new season is just around the corner.

February 1st, 2009: Great Falls, warm weather

Today was unseasonably warm, so I had the bright idea to go for a walk at Great Falls Park, a US National Park Service property very close to DC. Well, so did half of DC. Despite the crowds, it was a beautiful day. We enjoyed this view of the falls, and took a walk along the river bluffs.

Did I mention it was warm? Yeah, it was really warm. The highlight for me was watching a Common merganser run errands up and down the river, skidding the edge of the water between the two bluffs.

Gratuitous pictures:

January 31st, 2009: AMROs in Rock Creek Cemetery

I took my new touring bike on a test ride through Rock Creek Cemetery. I expected a scenic ride, but I got a robin invasion! Jeepers!

I tried to take pictures of it but failed miserably. Here are a few of them perchered overhead. There were at least 200 robins. I AM NOT KIDDING. Wildlife in cities often gathers in huge concentrations in wooded areas, such as this cemetery. That or the robins are up to something…

January 29th, 2009: Dusk on my city

Everything is blue as I drag my feet home.