tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-190370842023-11-16T00:57:52.512-06:00Midwest BirderThis blog will periodically chronicle the findings and travels of this birder who grew up and went to school in the Midwestern U.S.Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-11237604907598178452009-11-25T14:24:00.026-06:002009-11-25T15:42:33.270-06:00Tiscornia Park - Photo storyTim Baerwald found an Ancient Murrelet in southwestern Michigan on the eleventh (see Caleb Putnam's <a href="http://aviantendencies.blogspot.com/2009/11/ancient-murrelet.html">blog</a> for photos and videos from the day it was found). This is a species that is normally spends the winter in the cold waters of the North Pacific off the coast of Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Kamchatka and Japan (more life history information <a href="http://web1.audubon.org/waterbirds/species.php?speciesCode=ancmur">here</a>). This is an exceptionally rare bird in the Great Lakes (WI has 5 records, this is MI's 9th) and even more exceptional is how confiding and "chaseable" this bird has been (it has been present for two weeks and counting). Most murrelet records are of flybys or just one-day wonders...<br />Tom Prestby decided that he was going to return from Whitefish Point the long way around the lake in order to see this bird and I decided to meet him over there. I got there at about 11:15AM on the 23rd and within 30 minutes the ten or so birders gathered there with myself were enjoying looks at the bird! Tom arrived shortly thereafter and we spent the next few hours enjoying not only the murrelet but two adult Little Gulls, a subadult Parasitic Jaeger that harassed Bonaparte's and Ring-billed Gulls offshore for about an hour, and a fairly close Red-necked Grebe!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaykEisgBWQEpqPXibyqskqyhr0Kyn16hoo84hBCj_l5zrE4EOf4EGwF4y7jcVUc-VSKSE41jGHJBSEhDOG1dFhdzDzazPeuHHdapXkvxFP994g-sTny5PkDoRDywFBezQxlmYg/s1600/DSCN3553.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaykEisgBWQEpqPXibyqskqyhr0Kyn16hoo84hBCj_l5zrE4EOf4EGwF4y7jcVUc-VSKSE41jGHJBSEhDOG1dFhdzDzazPeuHHdapXkvxFP994g-sTny5PkDoRDywFBezQxlmYg/s400/DSCN3553.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408151217672995410" border="0" /></a>My best digi-scoped shot of the Ancient Murrelet through my Kowa 88.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRdfoUy8Sm36_yYJjHEFvhab2kebGe7GjkCwNNmY4BxP7UK_ZAzGtMDNrDPW2BFfOnE_Umjue32qoPMYudn_yAqaWKiLdVYbt586dBAlJAiA_bZ0cevic2ufOuJAhZ9YfKn1amA/s1600/IMG_7272.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRdfoUy8Sm36_yYJjHEFvhab2kebGe7GjkCwNNmY4BxP7UK_ZAzGtMDNrDPW2BFfOnE_Umjue32qoPMYudn_yAqaWKiLdVYbt586dBAlJAiA_bZ0cevic2ufOuJAhZ9YfKn1amA/s400/IMG_7272.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150728781668754" border="0" /></a>A typical view of the bird that seemed to spend more time underwater fishing than above!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPRQjqMBd9o8dbhJRe9PalH1jEVvjqDej4m_ES99deLt29xxohhyphenhyphen0qTcJPl4P0vUHdiI-T1HnWLkStHf8Vr5FnoLYyHUhW488xFRmABFUwbLCmi6y7DmWU3mhQqPK0FzDEgAHeQ/s1600/DSCN3525.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPRQjqMBd9o8dbhJRe9PalH1jEVvjqDej4m_ES99deLt29xxohhyphenhyphen0qTcJPl4P0vUHdiI-T1HnWLkStHf8Vr5FnoLYyHUhW488xFRmABFUwbLCmi6y7DmWU3mhQqPK0FzDEgAHeQ/s400/DSCN3525.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150656496149218" border="0" /></a>Another look at the distinctive way murrelets dive with their wings.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBABoB4rIwtVPdz0eC6HiCAM-kqng8uV7wxnt0gHVjpuebMGODc7IpnTWxvaFIp18dIC6YmVziTAQKPDhCnL9_6DphKd3gGhhkB83kUCM8omUNFH23nSobFU-9YZgSH5JOKPcqA/s1600/DSCN3549.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBABoB4rIwtVPdz0eC6HiCAM-kqng8uV7wxnt0gHVjpuebMGODc7IpnTWxvaFIp18dIC6YmVziTAQKPDhCnL9_6DphKd3gGhhkB83kUCM8omUNFH23nSobFU-9YZgSH5JOKPcqA/s320/DSCN3549.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150512119723794" border="0" /></a>I helped this fisherman net this impressive Steelhead from the pier.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhZSS94sPN7OqKkNvn61Bsr8udQ1-cwik7t-NRcf8j46mQZNAqDuFnAgU3ZjQ_yMYz8c4anq6J5ZbBbkNmbyr9HTQZvq3wngS9G60BigiKLzux4_ZR3nvc74aWZNJoxyRFSBpeA/s1600/DSCN3557.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhZSS94sPN7OqKkNvn61Bsr8udQ1-cwik7t-NRcf8j46mQZNAqDuFnAgU3ZjQ_yMYz8c4anq6J5ZbBbkNmbyr9HTQZvq3wngS9G60BigiKLzux4_ZR3nvc74aWZNJoxyRFSBpeA/s320/DSCN3557.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150410566308642" border="0" /></a>Tim Baerwald, the finder of the Ancient Murrelet holding a young Bonaparte's Gull he helped untangle from a different fisherman's line.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQuEjEz737_IMOvWD35RiZTXNId9MmTQYElh1yK3w6_dhvoVdPh9oRKh_LRIom6-UJC-G5H3B5kqzJEO9_BE6wijFMCCayKPH9qIfMwOJ35RPl9xENGDp5jwQrLsMw_xZ9Eal88Q/s1600/IMG_6871.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQuEjEz737_IMOvWD35RiZTXNId9MmTQYElh1yK3w6_dhvoVdPh9oRKh_LRIom6-UJC-G5H3B5kqzJEO9_BE6wijFMCCayKPH9qIfMwOJ35RPl9xENGDp5jwQrLsMw_xZ9Eal88Q/s400/IMG_6871.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408157461361880802" border="0" /></a>The Red-necked Grebe just north of the pier.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNtfxkZ0aXArvsHDM54xNfOLWgZ44KlNk5_I-mnLyjkb01WVlxeTkrD-kvAKmcJQA8wCZogRlaDICbDDInjwdf3jHm-c9OWoVrXwcMyFMsypzLS6SZptJrgbVF22okvAYkRUirDA/s1600/IMG_7110.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNtfxkZ0aXArvsHDM54xNfOLWgZ44KlNk5_I-mnLyjkb01WVlxeTkrD-kvAKmcJQA8wCZogRlaDICbDDInjwdf3jHm-c9OWoVrXwcMyFMsypzLS6SZptJrgbVF22okvAYkRUirDA/s400/IMG_7110.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150258116750722" border="0" /></a>After Tom had his fill shooting the murrelet and little gulls I borrowed his new Canon D40 and had fun shooting pretty much everything that flew by (like this Little Gull)!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGK_UfQMawTrLcUEJrjtY58FjRZ1U7wTQxRzjZfSRx5-9skQoMPF1DB4RSFzeWoFot26JOF_3qEg-VDAFj-t9oY-RLoIf0dyN4ck8mRxvlqYeqOaZAja2cQUvHoCKXBvigQ0Htaw/s1600/IMG_7106.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGK_UfQMawTrLcUEJrjtY58FjRZ1U7wTQxRzjZfSRx5-9skQoMPF1DB4RSFzeWoFot26JOF_3qEg-VDAFj-t9oY-RLoIf0dyN4ck8mRxvlqYeqOaZAja2cQUvHoCKXBvigQ0Htaw/s400/IMG_7106.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150180893721282" border="0" /></a>Adult LIGU hovering over the water.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsuPpaG-CA_1ixpV-4DIB2OwulbZaQ1AcX6x06cqEmuIg1RI-RxTZ4vfHNVW8nu000iJYQjknKwcKf2cI7MD6C9qoE-2us2XabpEISDw5h1nyQ1B581W5FTBIvcpsTQRxf1_Ck0Q/s1600/IMG_7132.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsuPpaG-CA_1ixpV-4DIB2OwulbZaQ1AcX6x06cqEmuIg1RI-RxTZ4vfHNVW8nu000iJYQjknKwcKf2cI7MD6C9qoE-2us2XabpEISDw5h1nyQ1B581W5FTBIvcpsTQRxf1_Ck0Q/s400/IMG_7132.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408151638618954626" border="0" /></a>Flyby of one of two LIGUs present.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZUQb1QzsTglWHxuXu5NoO5av6Fy68rufd-8mWV0yZdKpEFWFlCjvXiYdSOrE0akrBaZLXlxrJfQCmnCfun1XhJVZU_3bi6hAr8iDya_G6afipkGylbqcGCw08711Sof7esIqdw/s1600/IMG_6973.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZUQb1QzsTglWHxuXu5NoO5av6Fy68rufd-8mWV0yZdKpEFWFlCjvXiYdSOrE0akrBaZLXlxrJfQCmnCfun1XhJVZU_3bi6hAr8iDya_G6afipkGylbqcGCw08711Sof7esIqdw/s400/IMG_6973.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150034539489234" border="0" /></a>First of many Bonaparte's Gull photos.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgalU9Ulx5rKbwdCtrUgJnvZNgRbQdDZhGQ5LNqQPgY1aNKhyphenhyphenYrG6KRFmTeLFUYeWyNhlhwG1yLdhtmYOmlH5HS97y_f70SkyzbWytJt-QvKoWkwLewYOUACJBoHdzX48NGfxXA/s1600/IMG_6947.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgalU9Ulx5rKbwdCtrUgJnvZNgRbQdDZhGQ5LNqQPgY1aNKhyphenhyphenYrG6KRFmTeLFUYeWyNhlhwG1yLdhtmYOmlH5HS97y_f70SkyzbWytJt-QvKoWkwLewYOUACJBoHdzX48NGfxXA/s400/IMG_6947.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408149841486781858" border="0" /></a>BOGU approach.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcpFMorzsMaI71BMpnivhQ5htyBHgUhYenUtNaI8LQnNa2LBytBKRhs6-M4kpb9Km1YEuT0iYepQloCO1Cxqa3WeT9oQ5il4m5-y4xvFWMOvL_LdgfqPEJRd-wnA-H3cMK-ZCRRA/s1600/IMG_6863.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcpFMorzsMaI71BMpnivhQ5htyBHgUhYenUtNaI8LQnNa2LBytBKRhs6-M4kpb9Km1YEuT0iYepQloCO1Cxqa3WeT9oQ5il4m5-y4xvFWMOvL_LdgfqPEJRd-wnA-H3cMK-ZCRRA/s400/IMG_6863.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408149742666446706" border="0" /></a>Another BOGU after grabbing a small fish right in front of us.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKtyo3DjkeSGJ8qbjuScqijqfVn3ASpdazmzjyPbgbjKO0cxZAO0qeFrtv75KO2vD-_q16RyCEtjE4_XRQqJOwjrBfg7HnS3R-I019N-wZdf4NjkaX4qOvBUQ6gC7rsnp_XDtYw/s1600/IMG_6849.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKtyo3DjkeSGJ8qbjuScqijqfVn3ASpdazmzjyPbgbjKO0cxZAO0qeFrtv75KO2vD-_q16RyCEtjE4_XRQqJOwjrBfg7HnS3R-I019N-wZdf4NjkaX4qOvBUQ6gC7rsnp_XDtYw/s400/IMG_6849.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408149635365890098" border="0" /></a>A young Bonaparte's showing off their nice contrasting upperwing pattern.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_6GsEnpvt2QPcP2MIHoztIWYFOMPSttXi6ujNSJUJ24h5FyK-8HpgsaRV7b4mU7t-3Ds2pRny273CvDN2SfguoGE-2O1D7xKVh4pkxava8gXn6Q0n9Imv7fShjMwzRHfqptp1w/s1600/IMG_6821.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_6GsEnpvt2QPcP2MIHoztIWYFOMPSttXi6ujNSJUJ24h5FyK-8HpgsaRV7b4mU7t-3Ds2pRny273CvDN2SfguoGE-2O1D7xKVh4pkxava8gXn6Q0n9Imv7fShjMwzRHfqptp1w/s400/IMG_6821.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408149542897838786" border="0" /></a>Yet another Bonaparte's Gull (one of my favorite species).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWt9A7pXFZKM9nsZVZf0CqJx4qmdOKbpYjSQLaDs4e59mjyELHK7bLhjrlxh7aLzR0pEYoQfGaWZxfc1SD5VXODJUjb25M4RtVc75EpDdkpUJApqNZm4I-QLrkr6g9niVTaI1UbQ/s1600/IMG_7232.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWt9A7pXFZKM9nsZVZf0CqJx4qmdOKbpYjSQLaDs4e59mjyELHK7bLhjrlxh7aLzR0pEYoQfGaWZxfc1SD5VXODJUjb25M4RtVc75EpDdkpUJApqNZm4I-QLrkr6g9niVTaI1UbQ/s400/IMG_7232.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408140545756638034" border="0" /></a>The best shot I managed of the murrelet with Tom's Canon D40.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NmnWYsAvNzgcoR6QW00BxhydtBx52EankURhyphenhyphenUnrbWdSEBV3YqXEJ8h_lUb2Y6kCG-59vNHbT8CT94Doo0tWksfoarP66E0Zn254zTHi0YzvFzTW061Fu__cvzDZHuwyafx6WQ/s1600/DSCN3565.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NmnWYsAvNzgcoR6QW00BxhydtBx52EankURhyphenhyphenUnrbWdSEBV3YqXEJ8h_lUb2Y6kCG-59vNHbT8CT94Doo0tWksfoarP66E0Zn254zTHi0YzvFzTW061Fu__cvzDZHuwyafx6WQ/s400/DSCN3565.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408150800644022674" border="0" /></a>The consolation prize for Tom and I was a stop at New Buffalo where we picked up 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (an adult, 3rd winter, and 2nd winter) as well as two adult Thayer's Gulls (THGU being a Michigan bird for Tom and I)! The adult LBBG is on the bottom left and one of the THGU is on the far right and about halfway up (heavily hooded head, dark eye, and the large white apical primary spot).<br />A beautiful day to be on Lake Michigan in late November!Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-85841735618367763652009-10-28T20:00:00.002-05:002009-10-28T20:05:25.818-05:00Stateline Beach Thayer's GullPresent on October 18th on Stateline Beach (Winthrop Harbor, Lake County, IL) and also observed sitting on Wisconsin waters. It was the only consolation prize for those of us hoping the previous day's glaucous-winged gull would reappear...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpccX5bjVP91ERn7vDXweX-v1fa48ACvE5VZplKLpy6gVHnLVO3A8Rrw4CJInDrm-nMFWTS04iBaAh8uBWdn_57HSLqjTwPKql1vWifjr28qo1x5cXcvmWHsQ593SUvWfEM9b7A/s1600-h/DSCN3189.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpccX5bjVP91ERn7vDXweX-v1fa48ACvE5VZplKLpy6gVHnLVO3A8Rrw4CJInDrm-nMFWTS04iBaAh8uBWdn_57HSLqjTwPKql1vWifjr28qo1x5cXcvmWHsQ593SUvWfEM9b7A/s400/DSCN3189.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397820874513842898" border="0" /></a>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-68705333833862505232009-10-01T18:56:00.003-05:002009-10-01T19:50:41.125-05:00Late migrants in Racine County<div style="text-align: center;">Today I saw my "first of fall" sightings for a whole slew of late migrants, unfortunately signaling that the majority of the passerine migration is coming to an end... Among those was Lapland Longspur, Dark-eyed Junco, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Purple Finch, and Winter Wren.</div><div>Also of note was a young Glaucous Gull that seems a little bit on the early side (poor digiscoped shot on the distant breakwall from Carre-Hogle Park in Racine, WI</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JDryLjbIr-wcdavMqPWa8SJ9qOdT7OZZSMqF0cS6uWCrWdoew3xnOKDRhh6oh_6ikYEvV2xvcWZtUalEoP1vO7TIgLC6WaeLV__LEUYOMz7zfrQi8UXf7o3qGGFbG1yDk3powQ/s320/DSCN3140.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387785047195919218" />Also here is a poor shot of a flock of geese going over my house on Sept 30 that contains Canada, Cackling, and Snow Geese:<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRUSU7HedkKmQ_gTgjwD1RkBVE1RXpLNNamDnOn_QFtzDCjeU6JG0dEQApTyN9TMTtOlVT8AO_eBZGIZpVFuta-bsPzkF3-3uEc3hmMBAUQAcaY1o0Bd7-9EM2suPAJHL3AN-uHw/s320/DSCN3133.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387797731606126274" />Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-6611746860193479902009-08-24T20:35:00.005-05:002009-08-24T21:05:26.468-05:00Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Wind Lake Sod FarmsI haven't been able to get out and bird as much as I would like this August and was getting the itch to go shorebirding since right now is prime time for lots of the more sought after species (Buff-breasted Sand, Western Sand, any large shorebird, or a Eurasian stray). So this evening I decided to go hit the Wind Lake Sod Farm, the traditionally productive spot for "grasspipers". The Sod Farms are rather spread out across several square miles of fields interspersed with soybeans and corn so it isn't a cake walk finding where the shorebirds are here (google earth screenshot below with mapped noteworthy sightings). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPI2zu_t0p3vdn-7x6XJDVfP_7NuSgeijXHjcCzR8gqVCAugIXJnOQf2yyGVNT8r56Uo5KuzjPS4zvqbPiOjGRSBRzrUF07XKvL0A5eLFTo6SMsaNezdaWR92Icsgh43IGtzAKxw/s1600-h/sod_farm_map.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPI2zu_t0p3vdn-7x6XJDVfP_7NuSgeijXHjcCzR8gqVCAugIXJnOQf2yyGVNT8r56Uo5KuzjPS4zvqbPiOjGRSBRzrUF07XKvL0A5eLFTo6SMsaNezdaWR92Icsgh43IGtzAKxw/s320/sod_farm_map.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373715461035961858" border="0" /></a>I purposely had waited until after the tractors and workers who frequent these fields during the day had gone home so I wouldn't have them flushing the shorebirds up or giving me grief for parking along the side of the road... My first stop yielded a nice and close American Golden Plover among some Killdeer, always a treat to see. I continued scanning when I noticed hundreds of birds flushing from a very distant tilled field to my west. The sun angle was pretty rough so it was hard to discern much on the birds but my impression was that most of them were starlings, killdeer, and swallows. I continued panning though in the hopes of noticing some other shorebirds kicked up. Then I got on a tight group of fairly large shorebirds that had the streamlined front loaded look of <span style="font-style: italic;">pluvialis</span> plovers to me. I whistled my best imitation of Black-bellied Plover (acquired while out in Cape May hearing them go over the seawatch multiple times daily) and to my surprise they turned and came flying right over me -- 25 American Golden Plovers! They continued on to the east and I lost sight of them. Just then John Winze pulled up and we decided to work our way down Burmeister Rd. to the east. After four fruitless stops we stopped and were scanning a field of mostly dead sod scraps to the north of the road and we immediately began picking up golden plover and we figured this is where my flyover flock earlier had put down. Then I noticed the lone Buff-breasted Sandpiper out towards the back of the field in the midst of the golden plovers (29 total AGPL in that field). We enjoyed better looks after driving further down the road as it fed. Unfortunately the bird was right at the limit of what can be digiscoped and still be identifiable. Below are the only two images I got that you can sort of tell anything from... <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaVO4KtL27fXgx1c3i6T2dmqhRYSMrOpH9CEoC_SNzlWdWpp9ugNf-x9vv1wVHcI_vSt2Hd7cKDJ92Y-JqBSnonUdrk8iuc6L1lue87-eWcjFyuRnBqaEWMJfXkGqRlULAZp6YFA/s1600-h/DSCN3125.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaVO4KtL27fXgx1c3i6T2dmqhRYSMrOpH9CEoC_SNzlWdWpp9ugNf-x9vv1wVHcI_vSt2Hd7cKDJ92Y-JqBSnonUdrk8iuc6L1lue87-eWcjFyuRnBqaEWMJfXkGqRlULAZp6YFA/s200/DSCN3125.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373716021901524386" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOGD-iKoXpSOd8XD9yYMxSFbtcQxLvKnyT-SWHZHdZ9ro_f_ZP2isNq73KMLxp2F5ct8i116eiLQUu0zjFytD5v031VmBjSg60FvomnbAq-MSr4y9bjJ7YwhooljBEWwfskgoueA/s1600-h/DSCN3129.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOGD-iKoXpSOd8XD9yYMxSFbtcQxLvKnyT-SWHZHdZ9ro_f_ZP2isNq73KMLxp2F5ct8i116eiLQUu0zjFytD5v031VmBjSg60FvomnbAq-MSr4y9bjJ7YwhooljBEWwfskgoueA/s200/DSCN3129.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373716459203938002" border="0" /></a>We also had 3 Common Nighthawks, a Bobolink, and at least 80 Brewer's Blackbirds in the area. I would suggest that people stop and scope every field as it is very easy to just quickly scan over buffies.Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-67228108386220763532009-07-12T20:51:00.005-05:002009-07-12T21:07:45.978-05:00Early July Willet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbegvlfm3u-0Sm7iQoSUWd674ag2iLTs4diP6-OvcxTMlXSQT3N0d0VTQ0jA-ZCzFp_F2unGn0OPjpHQWnAVctIhULGv1zDSlm87oQTYXfJ3StA6StcIUpkg8ulhPcSM8iM9UJg/s1600-h/DSCN2986.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbegvlfm3u-0Sm7iQoSUWd674ag2iLTs4diP6-OvcxTMlXSQT3N0d0VTQ0jA-ZCzFp_F2unGn0OPjpHQWnAVctIhULGv1zDSlm87oQTYXfJ3StA6StcIUpkg8ulhPcSM8iM9UJg/s320/DSCN2986.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357758329716812690" border="0" /></a>After successfully tracking down one of the California Gulls that has been hanging out at Winthrop Harbor (just south of the WI line) on Friday, I headed north along the lake checking beaches. I managed to bump into my second lakefront Willet of the year (the other being a mid-May bird on Bradford Beach in Milwaukee). It's a tad on the early side for large shorebirds to be going south, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this bird. I was even more impressed at how cooperative it was, allowing fairly close approach and staying very still. The harsh mid-afternoon light and heat waves were the main things I had to cope with. Below are a few of my favorite shots of the 40 or so I managed before it was flushed by a couple other people and flew further up the beach.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF74Q2VkkIv7wzcuqrKqJ0zsdZhhFZnPCht06pwxcUxw0UswXXnG5zmEaXqTPVjSoSMfr4A8E0I0b3JbSUHCBPzSxZY1Hj4xu6iiQKa4dIYCOPtDpzSm7M6MnQOjiFeMJ6kx6h1Q/s1600-h/DSCN3013.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF74Q2VkkIv7wzcuqrKqJ0zsdZhhFZnPCht06pwxcUxw0UswXXnG5zmEaXqTPVjSoSMfr4A8E0I0b3JbSUHCBPzSxZY1Hj4xu6iiQKa4dIYCOPtDpzSm7M6MnQOjiFeMJ6kx6h1Q/s320/DSCN3013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357759545686079986" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBQhehgscUciJyzv7TFQRR1W0i0dzmnoe1ISqUijfQZ7nNpwHIii8wSHMqpFNfnRcjCn7g7kYRUGAvRsJTfZmCARPhT0LdXX8vDOHxWYpPYB8MwjZXbmSBNTAwWW4MYxxTboDKg/s1600-h/DSCN3024.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBQhehgscUciJyzv7TFQRR1W0i0dzmnoe1ISqUijfQZ7nNpwHIii8wSHMqpFNfnRcjCn7g7kYRUGAvRsJTfZmCARPhT0LdXX8vDOHxWYpPYB8MwjZXbmSBNTAwWW4MYxxTboDKg/s320/DSCN3024.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357760111733190386" border="0" /></a>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-21468226394857411692009-06-12T22:13:00.009-05:002009-06-15T17:07:47.885-05:00Variation in 1st summer Little Gulls<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGx71SQPxkI1BKvLzA0ruNKtUQtLo1YalT9NwbOyqmw-gnswn4IF1qZQ58K6AnyfYGZENrundiP-5ayJBbFsJfvw5TgI_WLLew2dBJP6jc2gOtb2QFbb49IFzeNw-p3P65RO2aA/s1600-h/DSCN2880.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGx71SQPxkI1BKvLzA0ruNKtUQtLo1YalT9NwbOyqmw-gnswn4IF1qZQ58K6AnyfYGZENrundiP-5ayJBbFsJfvw5TgI_WLLew2dBJP6jc2gOtb2QFbb49IFzeNw-p3P65RO2aA/s320/DSCN2880.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346651491868951330" border="0" /></a>I enjoyed studying two young Little Gulls that have been recently frequenting the Manitowoc Impoundment on June 11th. One of the birds was obviously more advanced in its plumage and showed a mostly hooded head with a prominent white patch on the forehead. This birds dark carpal bars were also much more evident when just scanning over the flock.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoChzDjX6UfHPKbzle9Jsxr93pxwZxHA-zHJbSwEvmXijGHBjnnsIO6JkWZ74NggroQrcvzWJPxTJQ7vKyTnsRheAtd6mhWsIIM1gLRJ0lTjev76LTppEhaqP9Z5bXVtnqdRfyQ/s1600-h/DSCN2924.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoChzDjX6UfHPKbzle9Jsxr93pxwZxHA-zHJbSwEvmXijGHBjnnsIO6JkWZ74NggroQrcvzWJPxTJQ7vKyTnsRheAtd6mhWsIIM1gLRJ0lTjev76LTppEhaqP9Z5bXVtnqdRfyQ/s320/DSCN2924.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346646489684876498" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGRqDVhEmstt_G-9INkr5ZZFk6PZd0V40YET5eKK2mTCQty0VFQ3gzZsztNiDTUKxhag76wd5Z4gkSSjDbH2lRB2Nh5NjWmnK5lcvcbtU-_Fo0pUF-i1DUxB19F0Zg1_-T_fveg/s1600-h/DSCN2923.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGRqDVhEmstt_G-9INkr5ZZFk6PZd0V40YET5eKK2mTCQty0VFQ3gzZsztNiDTUKxhag76wd5Z4gkSSjDbH2lRB2Nh5NjWmnK5lcvcbtU-_Fo0pUF-i1DUxB19F0Zg1_-T_fveg/s200/DSCN2923.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346648636252974274" border="0" /></a>I was able to get several shots of this bird with its wings up (something I failed to get on the other bird). One of the shots is almost head-on, but the comparison of the LIGUs upperwing and the prominence of the carpal bar<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXaRne6gbhj8CQTqTWW8B6HflS9JvEx5NkVP_bAMVReLyuS_oTr6N9YMUSo-BSe79RWBWoeBdHRxaEAGo7fqhI2loBe82FNtHEX-p1Vehrbm7ri28kr9IY7vb9wWwXfGev5l1FnQ/s1600-h/DSCN2922.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXaRne6gbhj8CQTqTWW8B6HflS9JvEx5NkVP_bAMVReLyuS_oTr6N9YMUSo-BSe79RWBWoeBdHRxaEAGo7fqhI2loBe82FNtHEX-p1Vehrbm7ri28kr9IY7vb9wWwXfGev5l1FnQ/s200/DSCN2922.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346648313043916818" border="0" /></a> in flight really contrasts with the adjacent first summer Bonaparte's Gulls (see right). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-rVaOdRxxR_so_cbDLR4HV2lkxdU0HVkLJ3R_MxzT_VS5fK2l2O3bXOKLCO-PQA2ek4X-QLcdwSNp2jROH_9i860Ig0Lp7XxhX-xi7Wxz6zxy6lf3E2fU1C_OY6yL4GhrzE4jww/s1600-h/DSCN2917.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-rVaOdRxxR_so_cbDLR4HV2lkxdU0HVkLJ3R_MxzT_VS5fK2l2O3bXOKLCO-PQA2ek4X-QLcdwSNp2jROH_9i860Ig0Lp7XxhX-xi7Wxz6zxy6lf3E2fU1C_OY6yL4GhrzE4jww/s200/DSCN2917.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346647624244424258" border="0" /></a>And finally, here is a shot of three adult male Aythya species in one field of view (LESC on the right). Not something you see everyday in June on Lake Michigan!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJizOtdCPh0-Cjh0eadydCLqCv5xk9piNpXjbpd8DeJzfQ1ovEFWhLr3mhLnFEf9zrEu9QwrORpy3ULKNfIPZzClAmac1aaGt8rBXe5BFGv6imtfx4qrja5_6koeC_bPDN-EQng/s1600-h/DSCN2877.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJizOtdCPh0-Cjh0eadydCLqCv5xk9piNpXjbpd8DeJzfQ1ovEFWhLr3mhLnFEf9zrEu9QwrORpy3ULKNfIPZzClAmac1aaGt8rBXe5BFGv6imtfx4qrja5_6koeC_bPDN-EQng/s320/DSCN2877.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346651030333521714" border="0" /></a>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-88000688063892804112009-04-13T23:48:00.010-05:002009-06-15T17:12:17.331-05:00Texas trip update<a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8i_VEHpLZOgn6Y1onAHRflflYAgzMIOH9kaG3n6248lM1ehzQXFBTQxgIwiJoFVI5M6rPBwmxLHOoUjKzXepsy3au2xtfS7EhCwjhutpGe42U7lljLY4pWMk_GJPc9hOS-rUxpg/s1600-h/DSCN1719.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8i_VEHpLZOgn6Y1onAHRflflYAgzMIOH9kaG3n6248lM1ehzQXFBTQxgIwiJoFVI5M6rPBwmxLHOoUjKzXepsy3au2xtfS7EhCwjhutpGe42U7lljLY4pWMk_GJPc9hOS-rUxpg/s320/DSCN1719.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324405374927999778" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Currently enjoying a hotel room in San Antonio, TX before embarking on the grueling 8 hour drive out to Big Bend National Park tomorrow morning. Thus far the trip has been highly successful garnering each of us (Caleb Putnam, Tom Prestby, and Sam Galick) many lifers and ABA birds.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Below is Tom Prestby's account of our first eight days:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >I spent</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > the last week birding in south Texas with Sean Fitzgerald, Caleb Putnam from Michigan, and Sam Galick from New Jersey. We saw 258 species of birds, by far my highest trip total ever. The following are the day by day highlights:</span> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sunday, April 5<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Sean and I arrived at the Houston airport a couple hours before Sam and Caleb so we found some green space outside and conducted a stationary count. The biggest surprise was flushing a roosting Chuck-wills-widow from a small hedge nearby, the bird then took shelter in the parking garage of the airport. Doesn’t seem ideal but at least it’s a dark place. A small hawk flight also occurred with numerous Broad-winged and Swainson's and much to my delight a dozen o</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >f my lifer Mississippi Kites. Once the group</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > assembled we headed to Galveston and birded there the rest of the day. Here we saw very</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > good numbers of shorebirds</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">herons, gulls, and terns just about everywhere we stopped.</span> </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Monday, April 6<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We started the day birding at Brazos Bend SP where we camped the nigh</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >t before. We woke up to the song of many southern passerines that would be with us for the rest of the trip and eastern hardwood species like Red-bellied and Pileated Woodpecker that we would not see the rest of the trip. In general, warblers were slow-- the highlight was a Prothonotary singing close to our campsite. From here we slowly birded our way down the coast to Aransas NWR. The main highlight along this drive was great views of several White-tailed Hawks. The highlight at Aransas was 2 lingering winterin</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >g Whooping Cranes seen from the observation tower- a life bi</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >rd for all of us. Good numbers of shorebirds, gulls, terns, and ducks were seen from </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >here as well. Scanning the ocean from here yielded</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >us a couple unexpected species like Common Loon, Red-breasted </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Merganser, and Lesser Scaup. Next, we walked the Rail Trail where we saw our first (of many) Least Grebe of the trip and our only </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Purple Gallinule of the trip along with many other common marshbirds. We camped at Goose Island SP that night and were treated to a choru</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s of Paraque and Barred, Great-horned, and Barn Owl as we pitched our tents and went to sleep.</span><br /></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Tuesday, April 7<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We woke up early and started our birding at South Padre Island. </span><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYlN5XE9AfUum7WlFKcrqWCzgiy9eO-QUUG_M8L_2a4FIF0dqlxXMlxjvzV-xbXAPVrR26RlKsKPipMEBdUDl0LcgDv0X1aNLGrqhvrQ6qazSs6fqsUhFWlGnEfY80yoDBAyoLQ/s1600-h/DSCN2029.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYlN5XE9AfUum7WlFKcrqWCzgiy9eO-QUUG_M8L_2a4FIF0dqlxXMlxjvzV-xbXAPVrR26RlKsKPipMEBdUDl0LcgDv0X1aNLGrqhvrQ6qazSs6fqsUhFWlGnEfY80yoDBAyoLQ/s200/DSCN2029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338003025068822610" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We sa</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >w some new warblers and other passerines but not nearly as many as we were expec</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >ting. We </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >only saw 10</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > species of warblers on the island. Next stop was </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Laguna Atascosa NWR. </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >The main habitat here is very dense</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > thicket which is very reminiscent of the tropics. </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Here we were immediately exposed to many of the south </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Texas specialties</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > with great looks at species such as Green Jay (on the right), White-tipped Dove, Long-billed Thrasher, Olive Sparrow, and Plain Chachalacha. At Alligator Pond we had great looks at the Masked Duck that has been present for several weeks—another life b</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >ird for all of us (it's getting pretty tough for me to pick up new ducks in the ABA </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">area... I think Spectacled Eider is the only other life duck that regularly occurs that I haven't seen).</span> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYACY034YrtJotZw6gY0M8aayTf4WUZK_U7VI_Cs9U1xXN4xLDasesNNtXSh9Y8TszWbtpYYNRiw1qsWqq0x1Z-n3M-eYhG-Z4IsdNg41zG5DJ94CPMl6ELZ-hP7U6orhR0tZaQ/s1600-h/DSCN1867.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYACY034YrtJotZw6gY0M8aayTf4WUZK_U7VI_Cs9U1xXN4xLDasesNNtXSh9Y8TszWbtpYYNRiw1qsWqq0x1Z-n3M-eYhG-Z4IsdNg41zG5DJ94CPMl6ELZ-hP7U6orhR0tZaQ/s400/DSCN1867.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338003543504989810" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Next, we birded the long auto tour where we saw large numbers of shorebirds, herons, gulls and terns including over 100 Reddish Egrets and quite a few Gull-billed Terns. Technically our rarest bird was a male Greater Scaup that we photographed, this species is fairly rare down there this late in spring. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Wednesday, April 8<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >W</span><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gf8GNVnu0q1jO-9C6UivYgTI5gT8lkI64AkCVskgrLxmSEPJ8fLcDHdlVEXulT8UBOeOjcimIeSEmHMzYNtegZEFAuivEi4FSjpvYrpe260ZC2lnZL2B7hT7_awqy0jG__-QNA/s1600-h/DSCN2020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gf8GNVnu0q1jO-9C6UivYgTI5gT8lkI64AkCVskgrLxmSEPJ8fLcDHdlVEXulT8UBOeOjcimIeSEmHMzYNtegZEFAuivEi4FSjpvYrpe260ZC2lnZL2B7hT7_awqy0jG__-QNA/s200/DSCN2020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338004211062125522" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">e</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">started the day on Port Isabel Road where we found o</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >ne of the Aplomado Falcons on its nest, lots of singing Cassin’s Sparrows (left), a very obliging White-tailed Hawk, and good numbers of grasspipers, ducks, and herons. We were stunned to count 43 Least Grebes in just two ponds on this road. We whiffed on Botteri’s Sparrow. Then we went back to Laguna Atascosa NWR where we staked out the no-show pair of</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Blue Buntings. Next we checked South Padre Island again but the birding was even slower than the previous day. After looking for passerines we</span> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITVm4tgAyATVtUzyFImK4adQsN8_rz0nQXL8qatVT-l4C-78bEc1VUx1HzCeN5hk3UuvDv6iTebB_z0bV1zqMFMchMoIF8Zhtb8tQAIdGwOPBCk3l4XpFdZrMSoOIeu-qsbVDOg/s1600-h/DSCN2083.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITVm4tgAyATVtUzyFImK4adQsN8_rz0nQXL8qatVT-l4C-78bEc1VUx1HzCeN5hk3UuvDv6iTebB_z0bV1zqMFMchMoIF8Zhtb8tQAIdGwOPBCk3l4XpFdZrMSoOIeu-qsbVDOg/s200/DSCN2083.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338004785294407394" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">walked out on the jetty on the south end of the island and found the</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Purple Sandpiper (right) that has been lingering with Ruddy Turnstones and </span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Sanderlings. We spent the night at Bentsen SP where we were greeted by Paraques, Lesser Nighthawks, and Eastern Screech-Owls.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Thursday, April 9<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvg8DMsZQqlPtY08iaB9DPS7kPORXuDRZbfUzSWzBlykUg1ZyflsG_DTah4r1_LDosXvPgw87oajwjMvKqvkTd4BT2W_S78feTtjnRVajRpFgNKhPrzCXGW9QUCKaIgjMu_YnxXQ/s1600-h/DSCN2234.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvg8DMsZQqlPtY08iaB9DPS7kPORXuDRZbfUzSWzBlykUg1ZyflsG_DTah4r1_LDosXvPgw87oajwjMvKqvkTd4BT2W_S78feTtjnRVajRpFgNKhPrzCXGW9QUCKaIgjMu_YnxXQ/s200/DSCN2234.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338005327846130930" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We s</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >tarted at Bentsen where </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >we were awakened by a dawn chor</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >us which included Clay-colored Thrush</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > and Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (left) among many of the other valley specialties. The hawk tower had a pretty good hawk flight including good numbers of Broad-winged, Swainsons, and Mississippi Kites. A couple Groove-billed Anis hung out in the area </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">below the tower. We spent the early afternoon birding Estero Llano Grande State Park. Even though it</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">was hot and mid-afternoon we did very well finding our target birds- the young male Rose-throated Becard, the Black-throated Magpie Jay (of captive origin but still very cool to see), the nesting Red-crowned Parrots, and my lifer Green Kingfisher in a </span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >small creek. Other birds present were both species of Whistling Ducks, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, and several species of shorebirds. We finished the day at the Frontera Audubon Thicket. Good numbers of the Rio</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > Grande specialties were present here but we couldn’t find the lingering Blue Bunting or Crimson-collared Grosbeak. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Friday, April 10<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Started the day back at the Frontera Audubon Thicket. After about a half </span><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW6iwb2EPvYV89rsZrUgKsMicT9yJlKgRovwA5VABn8ieWOSvvWp2-tOXk4OzxQBMwSqfpWpfI4tTqmDXuUc42CyFNdtPpcShoHG019WDHIDCZkl2LGwRw8mDyc9rpfqVM7RwwLw/s1600-h/DSCN2212.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW6iwb2EPvYV89rsZrUgKsMicT9yJlKgRovwA5VABn8ieWOSvvWp2-tOXk4OzxQBMwSqfpWpfI4tTqmDXuUc42CyFNdtPpcShoHG019WDHIDCZkl2LGwRw8mDyc9rpfqVM7RwwLw/s200/DSCN2212.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338005791774336034" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >hour of searching we found the female Blue Bunting in the orchard area. It gave brief but very good views as it fed in some</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > of the grasses (allowing me to digi-bin 3 photos of it, only one of which was reasonably in focus - on the right). We tried for the Crimson-collared Grosbeak for another couple of hours but it never showed up. We moved on to Anzaldu</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >as County Park </span><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcHvcMybZRVfImWbfsRqtPJYHMTZpS-QnE3z5Wxv001-Z1H_xOLxEa0K_jnYKAlqOYXYnb8heK0ZWmgILbHOf4EZut3aG8eHJPXj_tao_tN9-RNLvt-UqdRD1UN0m9yTrrdp-zQ/s1600-h/DSCN2266.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcHvcMybZRVfImWbfsRqtPJYHMTZpS-QnE3z5Wxv001-Z1H_xOLxEa0K_jnYKAlqOYXYnb8heK0ZWmgILbHOf4EZut3aG8eHJPXj_tao_tN9-RNLvt-UqdRD1UN0m9yTrrdp-zQ/s320/DSCN2266.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338006291459894914" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >but unfortunately it was closed because of Good Friday. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We decided to go to the restaurant/bar next door (Pepe’s on the River) so </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">we could at least watch the river</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > from there. Nothing much on the river but we witnessed a big raptor movement. We saw tons of Swainson’s Hawks (see left - at a straight kettle of SWHA) and very good numbers of Broad-wingeds, Mississippi Kites, Vultures, and a couple Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks. However, the real surprise came when we were about to leave. As we were opening the car doors we noticed a medium-sized falcon flying at us that </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >was light colored with dark axillaries. We realized this was not a pale large Merlin or small Peregrine but a Prairie Falcon! This was completely unexpected as Prairie Falcon is supposed to be out of the area by the end of March. After this excitement we headed back to bird at Bentsen for the rest of the day but the hot weather put a </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >damper on bird activity. At dusk we heard a pair </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >of Elf Owls but the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl never made a sound. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Saturday, April 11<sup>th</sup></span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We started at dawn on the Rio Grande in Salineno. Much to our dismay</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >, two other birders told us that a pair of Muscovy Ducks had flown by five minutes before our arrival, the worst words a birder could hear. It wasn’t long before multiple Green and Ringed Kingfishers gave close flybys. We also heard several Audubon’s Orioles in the trees near the boat landing and after some waiting a male finally gave us a nice look. Just when the birdin</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >g seemed to be getting dull around 8:30am the group spotted a large black bird with white wing patches flying towards us from the Mexico side of the river- a female Muscovy Duck! She put on a show by circling over us and flying back</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > to the Mexico side to land in a snag across the river. Only minutes later, a pair of Red-billed Pigeons, our other main ta</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >rget bird here, were spotted in the distance on a snag. At first they were very flighty and uncooperative but they eventually settled down on a snag and provided nice scope views. From here we birded the road that cuts north through desert habitat where we picked up Cactus Wren, Black-throated Sparrow and Pyrrhuloxia among others. </span><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1N3izP8iysSIt1ibGOTtlCcSIc49HZKgb7cwvEW1eQqHfRDuQXMxZx8U2uxgctPpdgQLRgkvmI5JTCU2bAVllkQFFVH5abGOUQrs2yUFMmR3OUcWP_rRO83j1F38B26d2mHL_w/s1600-h/DSCN1978.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1N3izP8iysSIt1ibGOTtlCcSIc49HZKgb7cwvEW1eQqHfRDuQXMxZx8U2uxgctPpdgQLRgkvmI5JTCU2bAVllkQFFVH5abGOUQrs2yUFMmR3OUcWP_rRO83j1F38B26d2mHL_w/s320/DSCN1978.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338006794347913282" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >It was neat to see a Curve-billed Thrasher nest along the road as well (adult Curve-billed pictured on right). From here we worked our way north to Falcon County Park where we found a pair of Vermillion Flycatcher and Verdin and Falcon State Park where we saw more common desert-associated species including an entertaining Roadrunner. We couldn’t find seedeaters in Zapata or San Ygnacio but we picked up Black </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Phoebe for the trip. After leaving San Ygnacio at dusk we found a field full of Chihu</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ahuan Ravens which were using the field as a roost site. We counted 963 ravens—a very neat spectacle to witness (Sam clicking below).</span> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KgcOeXtgPZCveNmq4J49pUMX-92UOFxRKwKEOw2wRxsiGUdJHxvO8-2tB21RZTV0GGbC3cnRqmmW33uR7fUoYZasj41zXJeeXzb2nqkuz16Py6mEqo_oi3EyyuZhfjZSEjZUtg/s1600-h/DSCN2277.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 109px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KgcOeXtgPZCveNmq4J49pUMX-92UOFxRKwKEOw2wRxsiGUdJHxvO8-2tB21RZTV0GGbC3cnRqmmW33uR7fUoYZasj41zXJeeXzb2nqkuz16Py6mEqo_oi3EyyuZhfjZSEjZUtg/s200/DSCN2277.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324406878942478866" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sunday, April 12<sup>th</sup></span></span><br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We started at the Zapata Pond but missed Seedeaters again but we did have a nice look at an Ash-throated Flycatcher. Afterwards we tried the Las Palmas trail along the Rio Grande in Laredo but we couldn’t find any Seedeaters here either. We did find my final trip bird though, a male Black-chinned Hummingbird.</span><br /></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgIglFCSgr3xWrQM2JdGrK9jAplazoWhhmcuW0NRR4bdQYZ9OH4e5QbLeGHOs6h3Jd8GRhOYOgzDfDMkDK5NU9Q_p-qZAG1FBgDnf6NSCh5HoIrqKa5WUMqJNWfMw6yQX2IjKww/s1600-h/DSCN2311.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgIglFCSgr3xWrQM2JdGrK9jAplazoWhhmcuW0NRR4bdQYZ9OH4e5QbLeGHOs6h3Jd8GRhOYOgzDfDMkDK5NU9Q_p-qZAG1FBgDnf6NSCh5HoIrqKa5WUMqJNWfMw6yQX2IjKww/s200/DSCN2311.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324407894796006290" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >I flew back from Laredo yesterday but Sean, Sam, and Caleb went on to the hill country just SW of San Antonio (success on both the warbler and vireo!) and Sean and Sam are continuing all the way to Big Bend NP. I’m sure Sean will post a report from the rest of the trip. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >I ended the trip with 10 life birds and another 2 ABA lifers. Congratulations if you made it to the end of this report!</span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Tom Prestby"</span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >The rest of the trip was a resounding success and Sam and I ended up the trip</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > having seen 314 species in just two weeks moving across TX! The most unusual birds we saw were a high flying migrant Common Black Hawk high above the Chisos Mountains while searching for the elusive Colima Warbler. A very cooperative singing Painted Redstart also in that area. One of the most unusual birds were a pair of Carolina Wrens right along the Rio Grande in Cottonwood Campground. Sam and I didn't think much of it at the time, but it is well NW of where the normally occur in TX... The highlight birds for me personally were seeing Colima Warbler and Common Black-Hawks (pictured below) at close range out at Big Bend NP.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeHrZ74gOzn3asuDm8QCCuDQRK9s0aMJ7jR5JkMo0El-qKz75Y5Kgi__CkvVJgAH-0kJqZ7xAJN6QbUE9YeMgetg7uzvdRsG14YZk5T0pyQCDK4u0u1I-B4IasjvY3JV_DeEadQ/s1600-h/DSCN2435.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeHrZ74gOzn3asuDm8QCCuDQRK9s0aMJ7jR5JkMo0El-qKz75Y5Kgi__CkvVJgAH-0kJqZ7xAJN6QbUE9YeMgetg7uzvdRsG14YZk5T0pyQCDK4u0u1I-B4IasjvY3JV_DeEadQ/s320/DSCN2435.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338007615158449986" border="0" /></a></p>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-20848004238086085452009-03-11T21:50:00.004-05:002009-03-11T23:02:53.030-05:00County line waterfowl spotsSpring has definitely sprung here in SE Wisconsin along the Racine and Walworth County lines. This has prompted renewed checking of my various favorite local lakes, ponds, and puddles in search of the latest migrant waterfowl and/or shorebirds that may have dropped in. Today was no exception, and I checked 11 of the highlighted locations below. Many of them yielded nothing, but most held at least something of interest.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wuRdRrNiuHDGPV31AvDkLGbOxPoVNLphyYo_wqAzQSXhBGKvUiB8KIgM17FSEcSW5uxUPxpkxWmQkgly1I4i12ZskR7DC_iDgsBSa1Lme_YWi_dMSb0pE-rVvN1qRAYVDdjb7w/s1600-h/ctyline_waterbirdloop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wuRdRrNiuHDGPV31AvDkLGbOxPoVNLphyYo_wqAzQSXhBGKvUiB8KIgM17FSEcSW5uxUPxpkxWmQkgly1I4i12ZskR7DC_iDgsBSa1Lme_YWi_dMSb0pE-rVvN1qRAYVDdjb7w/s400/ctyline_waterbirdloop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312142713800034386" border="0" /></a>Probably the best bird for this area was a lone Tundra Swan that I actually saw yesterday fly low over my house heading west. Today I checked the large wetland complex between STH 20 and Honey Creek Rd (labeled "Game Farm Wetlands on the above map) and out among the geese was a single swan with a black beak that I presume (bins only) was the same Tundra that buzzed my house previously.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-8HeYl1SuDfw_GPH-SvPuyD4z-ex68N1tAWvcQTlUAxJCKqTfS8h1Ioq5owEl0FjFU_j54nHiOXEQxhuz_8dAoZAazdWymPMXVWpydBZa4p7K3aylxg2DrBxZXuFrXwgQwtUIg/s1600-h/DSCN1224.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-8HeYl1SuDfw_GPH-SvPuyD4z-ex68N1tAWvcQTlUAxJCKqTfS8h1Ioq5owEl0FjFU_j54nHiOXEQxhuz_8dAoZAazdWymPMXVWpydBZa4p7K3aylxg2DrBxZXuFrXwgQwtUIg/s200/DSCN1224.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312129607558887826" border="0" /></a>Other things of note included Northern Pintail at 2 locations, Wood Duck at 3 locations, Hooded Merganser at 3 locations, Common Goldeneye at 2 locations, and Redhead (5), Northern Shoveler (3), Gadwall, Common Merganser (18), and Cackling Goose (2) at one location each. Last week this same loop produced Ring-necked Duck (3) and Lesser Scaup additionally.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnPQjyqDGJMFvu6PAh23MxrBpgbNv6amnuwdweHV51lxPPTP_L-e7Ep74G7HGBjdk4LuLYdeNNrOm4tgDFDdsevQaBa1JuCnrBXbiTateHNOa-BkJ5ArKlGEDH0B-QhSHIbqdiMA/s1600-h/DSCN1216.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnPQjyqDGJMFvu6PAh23MxrBpgbNv6amnuwdweHV51lxPPTP_L-e7Ep74G7HGBjdk4LuLYdeNNrOm4tgDFDdsevQaBa1JuCnrBXbiTateHNOa-BkJ5ArKlGEDH0B-QhSHIbqdiMA/s320/DSCN1216.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312129335024573650" border="0" /></a><br />One of my favorite parts of this season is that the ducks don't really have many places to go so with a little caution you can often get digi-bined shots of these birds without ever having to get out of the vehicle or even have a scope along. Both photos were taken today through my Vortex Razor 8x42s.Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-85802712272038839872009-03-04T21:46:00.011-06:002009-03-04T22:42:58.074-06:00Lesser Canada Goose<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcCpvTlST6ByUi_zoE5fG4VEtzqWbaCqZwWMskbwtPFT0yW533NreR8RSxlJQOpeetMYM4JKNL6vIIXQjim8oXnLNX9pZoxFc9BL-f3cUyQtUb8QaA_NDPcrW8u-QrMdR_lWhZA/s1600-h/DSCN1128_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcCpvTlST6ByUi_zoE5fG4VEtzqWbaCqZwWMskbwtPFT0yW533NreR8RSxlJQOpeetMYM4JKNL6vIIXQjim8oXnLNX9pZoxFc9BL-f3cUyQtUb8QaA_NDPcrW8u-QrMdR_lWhZA/s400/DSCN1128_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309553125655668866" border="0" /></a>I've been checking the same stretch of Sugar Creek near Burlington several times a week in the hopes it will yield more interesting geese. The numbers <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOdgldmvpuhT9_Nf6Qnraegw7fAE-6q6qJxqSNTLV4tDnHpmvRVthvqxMyyQ8WlLBJ_B22v7uzkoKtzRGa9qJlej6Yp1jZX6sGC2lrYKMpviqAkHJfpi2mezdufgkN6aGnQ_JmA/s1600-h/DSCN1129_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOdgldmvpuhT9_Nf6Qnraegw7fAE-6q6qJxqSNTLV4tDnHpmvRVthvqxMyyQ8WlLBJ_B22v7uzkoKtzRGa9qJlej6Yp1jZX6sGC2lrYKMpviqAkHJfpi2mezdufgkN6aGnQ_JmA/s400/DSCN1129_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309553232574552786" border="0" /></a>have been quite impressive for the location (over 4500 yesterday evening) but have been low on diversity since I first found Cackling Geese there a couple of weeks ago. Today I saw a goose that was definitely smaller than the surrounding Canada's but whose beak just wasn't small enough for it to make the cut for a Cackling Goose.<br />It was very interesting when reviewing my photos of the bird of how marked the difference head angle made when comparing the relative length of the beak compared to the width of the head. I cropped in on two images taken one after the other to illustrate this point (both on the left). Not only does the second shot make the bird look smaller beaked but it also appears to accentuate<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucERjpe0bywMEjt1bVVaN-iYciR7A72rd1igL3a0-ZHbIolR34nWITwxP8pFmuHmz5_Cfaw_Aku7WX0XuSsuLHGxWq1KMQHEvvPgI7gT-8hcefwfhZPktgQuTN_IrdkWGVqZCwQ/s1600-h/DSCN1046_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucERjpe0bywMEjt1bVVaN-iYciR7A72rd1igL3a0-ZHbIolR34nWITwxP8pFmuHmz5_Cfaw_Aku7WX0XuSsuLHGxWq1KMQHEvvPgI7gT-8hcefwfhZPktgQuTN_IrdkWGVqZCwQ/s320/DSCN1046_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309557279366940850" border="0" /></a> how steep the forehead is on the bird! Now even the second shot appears to have too long of a beak to be a Cackling, but it is reasonably close (comparison head shot of a Cackling Goose on the right that I photographed at the same location on 2/16)! Here are a few more size comparison shots of the Lesser Canada with other Canada's (presumably Giants).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HXCYzBml2kme7-7_EX4WmLyoh3OWJ-bfOG9Q3soXDQ2MfiFXzcEM_Kd3-z6WwbHdhEsu92pnip0ynRKie4FS2ysHJkFym7DZz-iBk5TSOa3r9Hnj_R9yMllyX7k0bpXQDhp7ag/s1600-h/DSCN1135.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HXCYzBml2kme7-7_EX4WmLyoh3OWJ-bfOG9Q3soXDQ2MfiFXzcEM_Kd3-z6WwbHdhEsu92pnip0ynRKie4FS2ysHJkFym7DZz-iBk5TSOa3r9Hnj_R9yMllyX7k0bpXQDhp7ag/s320/DSCN1135.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309555113170631138" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3h_5Lv95M2ORpCKNJZsli05ama5tJMFtwdDUaMuGhgK07UeoGxojHa7zI4Th7ELCeDKqMR4DYxoPzfwzN-cz3zomMQ0Iap85fWTbIw_nCQ06D2o1cRzg4j9Ibg72LEsljnKL8A/s1600-h/DSCN1138.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 90px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3h_5Lv95M2ORpCKNJZsli05ama5tJMFtwdDUaMuGhgK07UeoGxojHa7zI4Th7ELCeDKqMR4DYxoPzfwzN-cz3zomMQ0Iap85fWTbIw_nCQ06D2o1cRzg4j9Ibg72LEsljnKL8A/s200/DSCN1138.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309555762397260578" border="0" /></a>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-20749727023157533852009-02-19T21:38:00.003-06:002009-02-20T09:49:09.097-06:00Birding southern Dane CtyTom Prestby and I spent the afternoon searching for open water along the Yahara River in Dane County. We ended the day at the UW Arboretum in search of redpolls (no luck on them surprisingly). We did have a Northern Shrike pop up right over us when we were near Teal Pond. Since it was the only bird I attempted to digi-bin in the freezing cold yesterday, here's the best I managed. I was frustrated in my attempts to keep my hands from shaking and the quality of the image suffered as a result... <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zrYcTAEn1kHvtcwx9wntrPR27jv92N9GhDKt9bZnrl0wQqJMfULlk460_HLWCk97KziaEJNdRHZzLOQ-VGMx7SjinUsW2DhEhWd1dFG8eSXrM7JicygUgYKeqTOS862vgAe3zA/s1600-h/DSCN1085.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zrYcTAEn1kHvtcwx9wntrPR27jv92N9GhDKt9bZnrl0wQqJMfULlk460_HLWCk97KziaEJNdRHZzLOQ-VGMx7SjinUsW2DhEhWd1dFG8eSXrM7JicygUgYKeqTOS862vgAe3zA/s320/DSCN1085.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304905912546110706" border="0" /></a>Here's Tom's summary of the day:<br /><pre>Sean Fitzgerald and I birded some areas south of Madison yesterday and found a<br />few fairly early arrivals. We started at Mud Lake where all three species of<br />swans are still present plus the Greater White-fronted Goose and her four<br />hybrid kin. 2 "textbook" Cackling Geese were also in with the Canadas. 5<br />Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Canvasback, and 9 Lesser Scaup joined the large numbers of<br />Goldeneye and Common Mergansers. We also heard White-winged Crossbills and<br />Siskins as we scanned the waterfowl. There was a flock of blackbirds including<br />30 Red-wingeds and 5 Cowbirds on Hwy 51 just south of Mud Lake and a Sandhill<br />Crane in the marshy area where Dyreson road bends. Most of the water on Hwy B<br />east of Stoughton is frozen but there was a Pied-billed Grebe in the river<br />itself.<br /><br />We couldn't find any Redpolls in the UW-Arboretum but we found a Northern<br />Shrike near Teal Pond and heard White-winged Crossbills in the Longenecker<br />Gardens.</pre>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-61019566169182634342009-02-17T22:03:00.012-06:002009-02-17T23:25:31.887-06:00Small geese on the moveThis past week has seen a very welcome retreat from single digit temperatures and snow covered ground and even gave the impression of spring. Nearly all of the snow melted away and the day-time high has probably averaged a little over 35 F for the week. Apparently the birds have taken this as their cue to move as blackbirds and waterfowl (geese in particular) have really begun to move north again. I'm afraid their migration will have to take a hiatus as the majority of ponds and flooded fields froze back over only a couple days after they opened up. This has given us the unique opportunity of finding the streams and rivers that are open and going through really nice concentrations of geese earlier in the year than is usual for Wisconsin (<a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?source=changeLocation&speciesCodes=&reportType=location&bMonth=01&bYear=1900&eMonth=12&eYear=2009&parentState=US-WI&countries=US&states=US-WI&getLocations=states&continue.x=33&continue.y=16&continue=Continue">late Feb through March sees the bulk of these small geese</a>).<br />Yesterday my dad and I swung by Sugar Creek near the Burlington Airport and located a pretty decent concentration of ~600 Canada Geese that also had three very small Cackling Geese accompanying them. I was able to take 7 photos of these guys before they flew, of which, three actually show pretty decent detail.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtofoF3BuvIAFRYEB-8S8e4EgqRCXqfOfEY5UfhTiTExphVv4uQHvqx5ExAiQKpk2oSIemg3rUynmxh_6_tkwyhEz4zWmOGmvqRIdIND2qrUqN-FInn44yA2Iu3l5lSAYL__bGA/s1600-h/DSCN1046.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtofoF3BuvIAFRYEB-8S8e4EgqRCXqfOfEY5UfhTiTExphVv4uQHvqx5ExAiQKpk2oSIemg3rUynmxh_6_tkwyhEz4zWmOGmvqRIdIND2qrUqN-FInn44yA2Iu3l5lSAYL__bGA/s320/DSCN1046.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303986864247102898" border="0" /></a>The identification of Cackling Geese is not exactly straight forward. There are a whole host of characteristics that <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> indicate that the bird is a Cackling Goose but only a few that are relatively diagnostic. The size and shape of the beak is one of the best field marks to use. The Cackling Goose is very small and the length of the beak is 50% or less than the width of of the head (compared to 70%+ for Canada Goose). The forehead on a Cackling is also very steep and almost angular compared to the more smoothed over head of the Canada Goose.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5MbkPSoU9adWJCmTXJRD7L9GyfN8Lm-IahvjVg-3S8xrgCxCoOuMkHQAaEI57LcJ_xvUmqt8Nuowvjaffp6dUHUrZZVPjEswEqOy6C1Dnfd91zRmWrx0Iadlmm_HiDd_dBAUyA/s1600-h/DSCN1048.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5MbkPSoU9adWJCmTXJRD7L9GyfN8Lm-IahvjVg-3S8xrgCxCoOuMkHQAaEI57LcJ_xvUmqt8Nuowvjaffp6dUHUrZZVPjEswEqOy6C1Dnfd91zRmWrx0Iadlmm_HiDd_dBAUyA/s320/DSCN1048.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303987401674844290" border="0" /></a>Other characteristics such as the presence of a white collar at the base of the neck is variable and found in both species. Richardson's Cackling (which is the most likely here in the midwest) also tends to have a lighter colored feathering in the breast.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8QhVvks1C_a6KSKJkEO_BmXxU-74y1HV7qlkGcf0hC0vNADBJHMsm1I8ItAKKeu74vpRcVj_LFi4KRrY4BCtH3PhYMY214FLWNtb9rCi0oCwOVHnBC9RHfWemYQHECsNQRW8BBg/s1600-h/DSCN1049.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8QhVvks1C_a6KSKJkEO_BmXxU-74y1HV7qlkGcf0hC0vNADBJHMsm1I8ItAKKeu74vpRcVj_LFi4KRrY4BCtH3PhYMY214FLWNtb9rCi0oCwOVHnBC9RHfWemYQHECsNQRW8BBg/s320/DSCN1049.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303987989868196338" border="0" /></a>In the above photo it's quite difficult to tell if the left bird has a lighter breast than the adjacent Canada Goose.<br /><br />This afternoon I checked several other locales for geese and turned up (presumably) the same two Cackling Geese along Sugar Creek near Burlington. They were farther away and despite the light being better, I hadn't brought my scope along so a chance to improve on the above images wasn't really there. I continued on and checked an open area on Honey Creek just over the Walworth County line in between the two small "towns" of Honey Lake and Honey Creek. This particular location has an s-shaped bend in the stream that stays open all winter. At least 200 Canada Geese managed to successfully winter on this small area of open water. I figured they would have attracted many more migrant geese and sure enough, over 1000 geese were present in this stretch of the creek. I was lucky and spotted a group of 4 Greater White-fronted Geese roosting on the ice very close to me and edged up to get better photos (still pretty mediocre...why didn't I bring the scope!?). I took ten shots of the birds (below) and didn't think I would do any better at that distance and I didn't want to run the risk of flushing them if I moved even closer so I turned to leave. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPo1vpsEF-2IZ4tKn3BipcJmcMTDipFEpJCISKXikgrySJBkBaM0IDH0SL2ZaYilJFgoqBshRNji_987ZVE0-jxND5hRoe_GtijcuSC-ksruTKRiGYgmw_nsNUgspfyeP5_TXscg/s1600-h/DSCN1059.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPo1vpsEF-2IZ4tKn3BipcJmcMTDipFEpJCISKXikgrySJBkBaM0IDH0SL2ZaYilJFgoqBshRNji_987ZVE0-jxND5hRoe_GtijcuSC-ksruTKRiGYgmw_nsNUgspfyeP5_TXscg/s320/DSCN1059.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303990796371741922" border="0" /></a>A minute later just as I was getting into my car over half the geese irrupted into the air and came flying right over me. I never saw what prompted them to flush, but I located two of the white-fronts and managed to catch them flying over in the midst of a flock of Canada's. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4UuJOyRY7B1rYGhyphenhyphengiXUgWvyRT2kADA2BSWJH5YIvGxDdU7FYYeh19Gyx0uluc-09QM_91KMAenpP5Nkkzjbs87a6rWzPgefYk-5XOrR-Kfa45d50Uof-jTq8w_F2WQelve-sw/s1600-h/DSCN1063.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4UuJOyRY7B1rYGhyphenhyphengiXUgWvyRT2kADA2BSWJH5YIvGxDdU7FYYeh19Gyx0uluc-09QM_91KMAenpP5Nkkzjbs87a6rWzPgefYk-5XOrR-Kfa45d50Uof-jTq8w_F2WQelve-sw/s320/DSCN1063.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303991181663310562" border="0" /></a>It's good to have these guys back, albeit temporarily, now to find some of those small white geese...Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-59462761791140414112009-01-22T21:50:00.000-06:002009-01-23T22:37:18.315-06:00In search of a Wisconsin rosy-finch!?<span style="font-size:100%;">This morning Tom Prestby and I both made our first winter visit to Grant County in search of the wayward rosy-finch that apparently has decided that Wisconsin beats Colorado as a winter destination... It only took a couple of u-turns for possible crossbills in spruces before we did find some on the eastern edge of Finnemore in a small (less than 35' tall) clump of spruces in front of a small trailer park. The six crossbills were both our first in Grant County but it wasn't until I retur</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ned home that I noticed that the male, who had so cooperatively allowed me to digibin him from the car, actually appears to be injured. </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkoMXxz-1JSr9bTEI6eKFZe_hAYAhz-hyzlhL6IvXxG15jUusvy-r9PMQxBWMO7m9odTxQ2ARm4CN8rIHGwIODULoMq6OCwLh0wNMp0BWmG0RGlfEOiJIeTC4a7Jn982H3B8MrA/s1600-h/DSCN1002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkoMXxz-1JSr9bTEI6eKFZe_hAYAhz-hyzlhL6IvXxG15jUusvy-r9PMQxBWMO7m9odTxQ2ARm4CN8rIHGwIODULoMq6OCwLh0wNMp0BWmG0RGlfEOiJIeTC4a7Jn982H3B8MrA/s400/DSCN1002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294713894298323074" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">His upper man</span><span style="font-size:100%;">dible lacks the normal decurved tip and looks as if its beak is flaking (see photo above)... I'm not sure if this is the result of a collision with a window somewhere in southern Wisconsin or if this is inevitable as these guys get old.</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Tom and I arrived at the guy's house who had originally posted the bird on eBird</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecni5ZR-YUkpbZ4_lJXMR1qJByrxEzXmy9ZwK19q7n-dyolg2h7Ofl6t-UUax0vxhviBlcZkVJAlLCouEyx1Ru2E6J6iTjUSnCSYOiYFlPSdkMYKF6uUg7D8l8bwepDS-_tM5Qg/s1600-h/DSCN1016.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecni5ZR-YUkpbZ4_lJXMR1qJByrxEzXmy9ZwK19q7n-dyolg2h7Ofl6t-UUax0vxhviBlcZkVJAlLCouEyx1Ru2E6J6iTjUSnCSYOiYFlPSdkMYKF6uUg7D8l8bwepDS-_tM5Qg/s320/DSCN1016.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294711989163254498" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> at 9AM and we settled in for the potentially long wait to see this bird come to their feeders. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Shortly after we had arrived Chris West showed up, and over the course of the next 5 hour two other birders swung through (Aaron Holschbach and Tom Schaefer). While we struck out on the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">desired finch, we did see quite a diversity of other finches in his yard. Among these was a nice male Purple Finch, a few </span><span style="font-size:100%;">House Finches, good numbers of goldfinch, over 18 Pine Siskins, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">about a dozen Common Redpolls, and a flock of 15 White-winged Crossbills that briefly stopped to check out a small clump of conifers in the neighbors yard. 6 species of finch in the course of five hours in Grant County (furthest county SW in the state) - wow! Here is a photo of just a small glimpse into the almost constant finch buffet line that these guys had spread out (right). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">After we left the rosy-finch location we headed down to Cassville and checked the John Dewey Powerplant in Cassville. The previously reported Trumpeter Swans (12) were still present along with 7 Bald Eagles, 2 Belted Kingfishers, and a goo</span><span style="font-size:100%;">d number of Common Goldeneye (45). Eastern Bluebirds were seen at 4-5 different locations within 5 miles of Cassville totaling at least 14 birds.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">We headed next to Patch Grove where there had been some good recent reports. We found two different flocks of </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYneKCZXK6GpxJ9-_XMSohe0L_kTB203tC8syrEVWZpI4w5K1CeRiob0VBr-tO9HjV0c7bwX45Dvx8R-6Vi5U3bQr_otO4VL5HliYvGvb0F067SEhf-slYvjup9adXb5uLpnB-kA/s1600-h/DSCN1031.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYneKCZXK6GpxJ9-_XMSohe0L_kTB203tC8syrEVWZpI4w5K1CeRiob0VBr-tO9HjV0c7bwX45Dvx8R-6Vi5U3bQr_otO4VL5HliYvGvb0F067SEhf-slYvjup9adXb5uLpnB-kA/s320/DSCN1031.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294711049333572946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">Gray Partridge totaling 18 birds on both the east and west sides of Breuer Rd (north of Lancaster Rd or Patch Grove Rd). Havi</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ng </span><span style="font-size:100%;">only seen this particular species one time in Wisconsin, this was probably the highlight of the day for me (4 of the 18 pictured on the left). The windswept "snowscape" had an almost tundra-like feel to it (closing photo below). The partridge were digging down into </span><span style="font-size:100%;">the snow then using their feet to kick up the dirt presumably in search of corn or small seeds to eat. I have to give these birds props for being so hardy. </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">The large flock of 600+ Snow Buntings (with small numbers of accompanying Lapland Longspurs) reported by Dennis Kirschbaum was still present at the intersection of Hickory and Maine to the southwest of Patch Grove. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">As we made our way back east we picked up a small group of 7 Brown-headed Cowbirds accompanying some starlings and house sparrows near a "messy farm" east of Preston.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">We ended the day with 38 species in Grant County, not too bad for half the day spent staring at a feeding</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> station!</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi368iCwMlPLNYETyOjUZP-72UotP9dTC2IMlBeaVeLe1jjuiS40vLocpPSX4y0kG635ARWf1mV5LGCdW8RU8jpvLcKhgbFnRPyJ8V7GGrtFZfacCzkF5HtMEVnN6u-c0bpwHwB7w/s1600-h/DSCN1038.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi368iCwMlPLNYETyOjUZP-72UotP9dTC2IMlBeaVeLe1jjuiS40vLocpPSX4y0kG635ARWf1mV5LGCdW8RU8jpvLcKhgbFnRPyJ8V7GGrtFZfacCzkF5HtMEVnN6u-c0bpwHwB7w/s400/DSCN1038.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294713253183421922" border="0" /></a></div>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-577012015943912312009-01-21T20:44:00.000-06:002009-01-23T22:37:55.320-06:00The End of a SeasonI've been back in Wisconsin for over a month now, but I feel I should give some closure to the Cape May Seawatching experience. My final few weeks were decidedly colder than the rest of the season and some of the weather was a bit unpleasant to stand out in, but the birds continued to reward. The highlights of my final few w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMBeZ1z0eiizK6RHbDLJXnMruPfqmwzPZSjlRMuw36fWz3Snlfaxg45nd17IpGX3K8r0BP47oL5-6mpVpU82RfmtNb53Yiqn-r_wfuOC74_PEoE2YKP8SLhrQziuL6ylJK2ZeSA/s1600-h/DSCN0810.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMBeZ1z0eiizK6RHbDLJXnMruPfqmwzPZSjlRMuw36fWz3Snlfaxg45nd17IpGX3K8r0BP47oL5-6mpVpU82RfmtNb53Yiqn-r_wfuOC74_PEoE2YKP8SLhrQziuL6ylJK2ZeSA/s200/DSCN0810.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294700632076062466" border="0" /></a>eeks included:<br />A non-waterbird highlight was a very cooperative Ash-throated Flycatcher that managed to stay put for almost a full week after being discovered before I could make it down to see the bird. The duties of the seawatcher don't lend themselves to breaking away for the latest rarity down at the point... It's pictured on 12/3 on the left.<br />A small flock of 4 Redhead mixed in with a larger flock of scaup on 12/5. This was my only observation of this species during my three months in Jersey.<br />Lone Harlequin Ducks on 12/5, 12/8, and 12/14 - all female type birds and only one of them was mixed in with any other species of duck, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.<br />Some pretty good movements of scoter considering how late in the season it was. My peak December count was over 11,000 scoters (mostly Black) on 12/6.<br />I had two days of triple figure White-winged Scoter movement as well (which is nothing for birders from Mass, but I'd never seen numbers like that moving before).<br />A couple of Red-necked Grebes were seen (including a count week bird for the Cape May Christmas Bird Count).<br />I also managed a very tardy young Brown Pelican on December 1st, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KnXdFreCphgLNkxxvfesqtPpb8OgkrJdkjm78eLjnICv0WGxbBm-RTagW-hqCanW9k7nu3RG5AjcG1aBveDsgmvlRaIy1ncbu6_7XCT7mhrR3NL19Sy_l_Sa8ieD57fZ-Jigcw/s1600-h/DSCN0819.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KnXdFreCphgLNkxxvfesqtPpb8OgkrJdkjm78eLjnICv0WGxbBm-RTagW-hqCanW9k7nu3RG5AjcG1aBveDsgmvlRaIy1ncbu6_7XCT7mhrR3NL19Sy_l_Sa8ieD57fZ-Jigcw/s320/DSCN0819.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294699414573412082" border="0" /></a>heading north remarkably enough! This was almost a month after my last prior sighting of this species.<br />A few of the "white-winged" gulls put in an appearance and they included two sightings of a young Iceland Gull (possibly the same bird twice - photo on right) as well as a 1st year Glaucous Gull. While not exactly stop press, a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull (photo below) discovered that I'd feed inquisitive european gulls and actually was a regular in the Avalon parking lot for a couple of weeks! It was a feisty bird, stealing bread from Herring Gulls and not letting them boss him around! Both Cameron Cox and Michael O'Brien spent a fair amount of time photographing this rarely seen plumage (at least in late fall in NJ) while I chummed the bird in for them.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9BTeV0bvhayX726By51P4sb2kAOlYAsHAyJ2G9BRFa-EBQVB2vonvDdRuyPjNlm-8rLViWvrMmDWcJzze4xmzDNBaYIFUyx7z7lTMbyGpZ5gQ0G8gyFwN1_3hICRiBnOPddh-Q/s1600-h/DSCN0903.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9BTeV0bvhayX726By51P4sb2kAOlYAsHAyJ2G9BRFa-EBQVB2vonvDdRuyPjNlm-8rLViWvrMmDWcJzze4xmzDNBaYIFUyx7z7lTMbyGpZ5gQ0G8gyFwN1_3hICRiBnOPddh-Q/s400/DSCN0903.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294699842722658546" border="0" /></a><br />One more young Black-legged Kittiwake and an adult Little Gull were the only other gulls of note for the remainder of the season.<br />Always an exciting group, I had several days when I was lucky enough to spot small numbers of alcids moving past. The majority of these birds were Razorbills (10 of them in December including a new Cape May CBC record count of 7 on 12/14). A few of them were only "large alcid sp" as they were too far to identify with any sort of confidence. And last, but certainly not least (in a figurative sense), the highlight of the entire season for me, was a tiny Dovekie that zipped along the bar on literally my final scan of the season on 12/17! The tiny football-shaped projectile whizzing past on wings beating so fast you can barely see them was a sight to behold. Luckily this bird wasn't that far out, because any farther and I don't think there's any way I would notice such a small bird zipping right between the troughs... This didn't take the title of final bird of the project for me though, a flock of Snow Geese appeared overhead as I was packing up the scope. Still a nice finish to a very fun season!<br />The grand total of the entire season for 2008 was a very impressive 946,935 migrant waterbirds tallied as they winged their way past the 8th Street jetty in Avalon and down to more hospitable clines.<br />I definitely couldn't have spent an enjoyable season here without the many folks who kept me company, kept me well supplied with warm drinks and snacks, and helped me out on the major flight days. Many helped, but I want to especially thank Jon Kauffman, who did a terrific job not only being the interpretive naturalist and interacting with visitors, but also in spotting and counting birds when it got busy. Special thanks also go out to Gail Dwyer and Shaun Bamford for their constant company even on the "slow days", and also to Tony Leukering, Cameron Cox, Glenn Davis, Michael O'Brien, Sam Galick, and Clay Sutton for their assistance on the mega days and for their willingness to drop what they were doing to come help me out. It was an incredible season and I'm extremely honored to have been a part of a truly spectacular migration phenomenon.<br />Final photo of the season is of my visiting birding pal Tom Prestby at sunset overlooking the Meadows.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_Y8jPelTIH0wfVbFaEwZ0EIwIbuslrrwHwyjuxgbMZkEQFth2QHjz7IXmNltxJ3luUFesj9ocAJt8cHbcmdlTEXe-g5mDH77GTOljfc7dFyiNZssLMPk957-TlC9dwYftcBzfA/s1600-h/DSCN0689.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 243px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_Y8jPelTIH0wfVbFaEwZ0EIwIbuslrrwHwyjuxgbMZkEQFth2QHjz7IXmNltxJ3luUFesj9ocAJt8cHbcmdlTEXe-g5mDH77GTOljfc7dFyiNZssLMPk957-TlC9dwYftcBzfA/s400/DSCN0689.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294701099443071458" border="0" /></a>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-13059995724381041012008-11-28T20:20:00.006-06:002008-11-28T20:43:32.183-06:00Raptor BandingI had the opportunity to accompany several of the hawk banders out to one of the sites where they band raptors here on Cape Island. This was actually my first time observing raptor banding, and it was a real treat watching them "flap" (a pulley system attached to a harnessed up pigeon or starling) and the response we would get from various species of hawk. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3Wr3I0Xup1dcL-xLGhId-DPGMGDOl2tNraZkVYzxEr2CH6-kmHOTKZGMNdN7QbY1oH47krTECSQUVJTPhwVfpRFZuga-g4qpTnTwPz-l2Cb-tXEP5bK-snHeuJ7Jr1hn3eS9NA/s1600-h/DSCN0771.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3Wr3I0Xup1dcL-xLGhId-DPGMGDOl2tNraZkVYzxEr2CH6-kmHOTKZGMNdN7QbY1oH47krTECSQUVJTPhwVfpRFZuga-g4qpTnTwPz-l2Cb-tXEP5bK-snHeuJ7Jr1hn3eS9NA/s320/DSCN0771.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273902060817514578" border="0" /></a> They caught three hawks during my two hours there, a pretty good total for this late in the season.<br />My favorite of the three was a young Red-shouldered Hawk that came seemingly out of nowhere (the back side of our blind) and was on top of the pigeon before we even realized! I even got to release this bird, which was also a pretty cool experience. In the photo you can see the pale window that is visible on young Red-shouldered's in the outer primaries (right).<br />The Red-tailed Hawk that we caught was also a young bird and I definitely have a lot of respect for raptor banders because I wasn't interested in tangling with one of these guys as they go onto their back with talons up as you go to extract them from the net... A majestic looking bird (below), I don't appreciate their aesthetic appeal as much as I probably should. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDflI1KY0VRgs4GuHO4hmzdrZhgFgLRZhjDfUQx1AEVGJfIQJqObVGFDDTNinFuQTqg1R5njcLkt5wK5Ufx3p16BtLf-mtikgwxb-FbjiUhNJvr99_5I86vTSgIprrAk3aQ-k-Yw/s1600-h/DSCN0779.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDflI1KY0VRgs4GuHO4hmzdrZhgFgLRZhjDfUQx1AEVGJfIQJqObVGFDDTNinFuQTqg1R5njcLkt5wK5Ufx3p16BtLf-mtikgwxb-FbjiUhNJvr99_5I86vTSgIprrAk3aQ-k-Yw/s400/DSCN0779.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273902762765747842" border="0" /></a>The other hawk they caught was a young male Cooper's Hawk that was interestingly missing several of its tail feathers (a close call with a Peregrine Falcon perhaps?). It was a really fun experience that gave me a further appreciation for a side of birding that I don't often see up close. Bonus birds near the blind were a late (wintering possibly?) Yellow-breasted Chat and a young Northern Goshawk that we observed a couple of times from the blind but that we were unable to lure into the nets...Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-82801612174312707252008-11-26T19:55:00.003-06:002008-11-26T20:22:24.094-06:00"November Sea Watching", the case of the missing fair weather fans...It shouldn't come as any surprise to me, but as the temperature gauge has plummeted over the past weeks, so have the numbers of visitors to the seawatch. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... Some days I'm glad for the solitude or the presence of a couple of the stalwart regulars who know what to expect and whose company I welcome. The days of the "are you watching for whales?" questions have been replaced by the army of contractors that spend their time here fixing up the million dollar mansions that are vacated for the winter once Labor Day weekend rolls around. The birding honestly hasn't gotten any worse. There are still very busy days, and the diversity of birds that move by during a day has definitely increased. But gone are the days of 40,000 scoters, and 30,000 cormorants. The kicker is, this is the season when the really "good" birds pass by here (and the default shorebird is no longer Sanderling, they have been replaced by the more hardy Purple Sandpiper - below). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i-6GmPjdb3Sri71nVx3zSi1VUyvLUUeBOh6inmiiSj1Vrgd-OX70j_DBUBsGlBK55mxP0mArCwuNv_ATV78EWh5LW1AsBh_us4WJJSxmNzweSaxWWQMENZq_SZfSUN8RMrIrcQ/s1600-h/DSCN0758.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i-6GmPjdb3Sri71nVx3zSi1VUyvLUUeBOh6inmiiSj1Vrgd-OX70j_DBUBsGlBK55mxP0mArCwuNv_ATV78EWh5LW1AsBh_us4WJJSxmNzweSaxWWQMENZq_SZfSUN8RMrIrcQ/s400/DSCN0758.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273156737108120866" border="0" /></a>Whether it's King Eider, Harlequin Duck, Black-legged Kittiwake, Razorbill, or (a potential lifebird for me) the diminutive Dovekie; this is far and away the best season to see any of these really scarce birds. The days with high numbers of birds definitely are more interesting now, but the slow days seem to last forever now that numbness begins to set in on my toes or nose. I have to admit, I've asked myself whether I'm crazy on quite a few rather bitter days. That question really came into focus last week when I was just doing a typical scan of the horizon to see if any Red-throated Loons were sneaking by between the troughs, and I pan my binoculars onto this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgn-z8rLg-5Z3l3g2rcxX5LEE1j3SBVJyx7C1xXzfF2kzRAgWx2vg-_0QMBC_iy_ncnlciJ_mXlbDvvA64_QMShSerrbWdKYRjoF_Z5GHYQI_XLnyWanpn6WdDNtHybhyphenhyphenBWQ5FZA/s1600-h/DSCN0703.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgn-z8rLg-5Z3l3g2rcxX5LEE1j3SBVJyx7C1xXzfF2kzRAgWx2vg-_0QMBC_iy_ncnlciJ_mXlbDvvA64_QMShSerrbWdKYRjoF_Z5GHYQI_XLnyWanpn6WdDNtHybhyphenhyphenBWQ5FZA/s400/DSCN0703.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273150736861638802" border="0" /></a>Yep, it is indeed a small canoe, with a pirate-esque sail rigged up and a lone man piloting it on south. Now I shake my head whenever I see small speedboats going out onto the ocean because I've seen how quickly the temper of the sea can change. A canoe, on the north Atlantic in mid-November!?! This guy makes my daily bird vigil in 24 F blowing snow seem positively enlightened! I really wish that I was able to discuss with this man things like the bermuda triangle and the lost marine city of Atlantis, because I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have been able to shed some very interesting little known facts about these topics if he is out in a a "sail-canoe" (I feel I can coin this term) on the open sea at this time of year...<br />Also, this is unfortunately the first Thanksgiving that I will not be back home for. It's going to be kind of weird. But I wish you all the best and enjoy a day with family and friends!Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-48252075381396854242008-11-11T20:22:00.003-06:002008-11-11T20:35:52.637-06:00New daily record for Northern GannetToday I got rewarded for a week of counting very little with quite a spectacle. Northern Gannets were incredible to watch today as they were a cloud literally everywhere I looked along the ocean this morning. Gannets are a type of seabird that fly above the water and dive with great speed into the water pulling their wings in towards their bodies at the last second so that they can dive further under water. They will dive up to 30 feet under water after fish and actually dive so rapidly, that they catch the fish on their way back up from their dive. They will typically form large flock over schools of fish and just bombard them from the sky. Watching feeding flocks of gannets is one of the things I do to keep myself entertained on the slow days, because they dive with such grace and are such proficient hunters. Well today, I ended up counting 16,946 of them as they migrated by. This shatters the previous single day record (7,685) for the fifteen years worth of data collection that the Sea Watch has been conducted. While this photo really doesn't do the bird justice, a small fraction of what I observed can be seen in this photo of a feeding flock over a school of baitfish (Bunker) that were being driven close to shore by larger predatory fish like Bluefish and Striped Bass. The fisherman were having a great day along the jetties as well!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsfBq-EpsOUkQJzdfadjBX1c2Ksbb6AzK-BHMwGqT84QUp1NRzIRT_IoCPLlo5W0l1hsQbtBL5DkdxtjVpPofEJ2fVBnO9FMiy6ONNkbtVSi255dNL29v6AVeuCGBBNdHG8dbnIA/s1600-h/DSCN0558.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsfBq-EpsOUkQJzdfadjBX1c2Ksbb6AzK-BHMwGqT84QUp1NRzIRT_IoCPLlo5W0l1hsQbtBL5DkdxtjVpPofEJ2fVBnO9FMiy6ONNkbtVSi255dNL29v6AVeuCGBBNdHG8dbnIA/s400/DSCN0558.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267593495283761954" border="0" /></a><br />(And in case you're curious, there are 39 Gannets in the above photo which represented just .002% of the total I saw today...)Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-40585991983853456832008-10-23T12:54:00.009-05:002008-11-09T20:04:39.502-06:00Over halfway...So I definitely haven't been keeping up to date on this blog. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that I have to update <a href="http://www.birdcapemay.org/sightings/">Cape May Bird Observatory's blog</a> every night detailing what I counted. This is during my already limited spare time, so this results in me not being overly eager to work on my own blog on my days off. That being said, a brief update is in order. I've definitely settled in and have gotten used to my parking lot <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRn-7tqpKOo3TrwSDLCTt2lZHGnduoXj9RuzSo1mxlNAnz6oFEl0YdGnPNMRqBXQSWoREp-aD5g6k06d-R4ps_bmRdfNU3Jr4rAMiYXAVv0Ss4GfhgjVZ91Ahq2hD3BITJpehsKg/s1600-h/DSCN0482.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRn-7tqpKOo3TrwSDLCTt2lZHGnduoXj9RuzSo1mxlNAnz6oFEl0YdGnPNMRqBXQSWoREp-aD5g6k06d-R4ps_bmRdfNU3Jr4rAMiYXAVv0Ss4GfhgjVZ91Ahq2hD3BITJpehsKg/s400/DSCN0482.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266841813579725202" border="0" /></a>where I stand for 10+ hours five days a week in Avalon. The small town is about 30 minutes north of where I'm living down in Cape May with the other <a href="http://www.birdcapemay.org/seasonals.html">counters</a> (down to 4 from 9 last month). I have to be out and counting at sunrise and I stay until sunset.<br />The count started out quite slow in September (less than a thousand migrating birds total each day). The notable highlight though was a close flyby Leach's Storm Petrel that was seen following 4 days of gale-like winds from the NE. This species is normally a pelagic species (open-ocean) that stays far from land. This was a life bird for me, and an unexpected one at that. Jon Kauffman (the naturalist who is at the seawatch on weekends with me) and I had great looks at the bird as it flew right past us and out to sea. This was actually the first time this species has been recorded in fifteen years of this sea watch being conducted, so it truly was a notable bird for this location and season. Other highlights during that period were mostly passerine in nature, with a surprising number of songbirds flying in off the ocean<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10EBhgVVWTAmpaPU5DBJgzDMwDrj1mrO5rdbzhu78x1-VqytDBZjpeODvjboZyJH8Yx-RJQobi1sfXrQRunDWwdWCGiThIy-Jfj7rIIm4HzNxUzOFceI55E2i_8-q8Czcr1khWg/s1600-h/DSCN0510.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10EBhgVVWTAmpaPU5DBJgzDMwDrj1mrO5rdbzhu78x1-VqytDBZjpeODvjboZyJH8Yx-RJQobi1sfXrQRunDWwdWCGiThIy-Jfj7rIIm4HzNxUzOFceI55E2i_8-q8Czcr1khWg/s320/DSCN0510.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266840211218048994" border="0" /></a> and landing in the four small Black Pines that are in a yard next to the parking lot (the only semblance of natural habitat for birds like this Pine Warbler, in the wall-to-wall 1.2 million dollar+ summer homes that Avalon is made up of). Among these interesting passerine were late Yellow-throated Warbler among 14 species of warblers total, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Pine Siskins, and Dickcissel (just to name a few).<br />Big days at the count usually have me quickly on the phone to get some help down as the sheer volume of birds flying past is staggering. There have been several such days, where I've counted over 20,000 migrant waterbirds in a single hour! (90% of which were <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/2972719496/sizes/o/in/set-72157603872573162/">Black and Surf Scoter</a> - linked photo by Tony Leukering who also happens to be pictured above with me)<br />This is truly a novel experience for me, and I'm grateful for the number of expert birders who are only a call away who can usually drop whatever they are doing to help out (these days typically come less than 4 or 5 times a season).<br />That's all for now, but I'll try to give you a few more updates as I finish up the last five weeks of the job.Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-1130344957215984622008-09-21T19:11:00.008-05:002008-09-24T21:53:25.973-05:00Welcome to JerseyWell I know that I've been remiss in posting to my blog over the past nine months or so... <img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSye5KZ8SxtOXH3FfwvfwlJTQ5vqstKoSjVgfU-8JzSTcPaINltaOaiXwzPeRuhifKSrus6e_CG8HqFWq-KHYvxmTgO-YAfAaPND8eA1q93WeoV6Q6uR-y44sk8RkZJUPylbDPg/s320/DSCN0253.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248639753472952386" />I have lots of excuses, but I won't waste space and time listing them. At least initially, I will attempt to give a weekly update of the season out here in Cape May, New Jersey. I'm the designated counter at the Avalon Seawatch, which has been run for over fifteen years by New Jersey Audubon. <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I arrived out here late on the 19th and I've spent the last couple of days unpacking and getting a feel for the area. The weather has been pretty nice thus far as evidenced by this quite worn Red-spotted Purple (above) still hanging on. The birding has been fairly good with a decent push of passerines which includes a nice mix of neotropical migrants and mid-range, later migrants (Red-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Palm and Myrtle Warbler) just beginning. I've been impressed with the skill level of many of the birders here. Just this morning I continued to learned more about identifying passerines in flight in the not-so-shabby company of Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis (both professional bird guides, illustrators, and authors)!</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I begin the official seabird count tomorrow morning at Avalon, about 20 miles north of the southern tip of New Jersey. Dan Berard (the swing counter), and Jon Kauffman (the interpretive naturalist) and I went up to the point and were given instructions and issued our equipment by our bosses. Not too many waterbird moving today, but a semi-early adult Bonaparte's Gull, a pair of male Black Scoters, and a couple of Black Skimmers kept us interested during our hour of watching. I'll leave you with this very interesting looking spider that I found while walking in the dunes near Higbee Beach yesterday...</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQuFAcP-bpV6y-QQcuJ2t7gyVv6D5AQtWcm4JjnfIGJluGO3QBqPDU-lTJzyzTEgX0RteZOMhCQIqs8H5IWQBxOnJbHipamhGFtoGtngA4OoPq29gtyka9SAiL4JQpKQJuqfKnw/s400/DSCN0258.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248641619706163122" />Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-36564000372321887632008-03-30T20:52:00.003-05:002008-03-30T21:08:47.966-05:00Just in time for 14 inches...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQrytlmrncHPIlAVwGuvUb_gAFIUJ2i9LraNYANQ4CoaVitQNj-OVob-DeGxAGCR6b0fr7vii2xy7RdRh8N_563KFPuRCIgHTwkK5DgoLwCJBUVL-WpxozZ31K3ri0YzgiyyoVQw/s1600-h/IMG_1753.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQrytlmrncHPIlAVwGuvUb_gAFIUJ2i9LraNYANQ4CoaVitQNj-OVob-DeGxAGCR6b0fr7vii2xy7RdRh8N_563KFPuRCIgHTwkK5DgoLwCJBUVL-WpxozZ31K3ri0YzgiyyoVQw/s320/IMG_1753.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183718447158592994" border="0" /></a>I arrived back in Wisconsin last week and quickly began trying to readjust from the 12 hour time difference from Thailand. Imagine my dismay to wake up to a good 7 inches and have it snow the entire next day! I thought I had managed to escape most of the winter...apparently wrong! The saving grace of the tardy snowfall was the large blackbird flock that was attracted to the feeders. Mostly Red-wingeds, but a few grackles, along with a single female Brewer's Blackbirds were also present. This was the first time I can recall ever seeing a Brewer's at the feeders at my folks house. <br />Spent the ensuing week readjusting to the US, presenting my internship powerpoint in Grand Rapids, and visiting with friends and family. I'm posting this from a coffee shop in Yuma, AZ. I begin solo point counts in the morning. Lots of really cool birds that I've only seen a handful of times before. Sleeping out in the open without a tent, something that you cannot do in WI or MI in the summer. The stars are incredible. I'll try to get some pix and I'll also try to do a few back entries of Thailand...photos are lacking though.<br /><img src="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/s0459333/Desktop/1_27_31_08/032/IMG_1753.JPG" alt="" />Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-61088189992344902082008-03-13T08:39:00.002-05:002008-03-13T08:42:05.175-05:00Birding in ThailandI'm currently in day 4 of 10 in a whirlwind birding tour of Thailand and have had almost no time to sleep much less spend time on a computer. I will try to update my final day in India, my transit in Sri Lanka, and some of the highlights of birding here in Thailand when I get a chance... 100 lifers and counting though...this place is incredible!Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-21997701867807140532008-03-07T02:53:00.006-06:002008-03-13T08:39:23.472-05:00Western Ghats: the hillstation of Valparai<div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174930706196650850" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_AgwOhZO9p-X5QXi8_XGoWHyo5bluel9IqokNGLu0CRLEvvpE4GdlBuh9LHVh-vFEiiqD36vd6byABZq-boYR92vcLDoAyT6LUCRNjlPZMpf3TzjhVIW8hru0JglCWDZfb6qgVA/s400/crested_serpant_eagle.JPG" border="0" />The past three days I spent birding the Valaparai area of the Western Ghats with Relton. Valparai has by far some of the best birding that I've experience in the ghats. The elevation is higher than in Topslip (3000m versus 2000m) which provides more moisture and cooler temperatures that in turn support more of the evergreen community. There are a whole host of birds that call this evergreen habitat home, among them some extremely local endemic species. It was these birds that we were primarily targeting during our time in Valparai, and we were fortunate enough to observe the very uncommon White-bellied Shortwing at close range. This is one of the rarest birds that I've seen in my life as their limited habitat is being fragmented and cleared for plantations of tea and coffee. They are listed as globally vulnerable by <a href="http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6449">Birdlife International</a> with an estimated global population between 10,000 and 20,000 birds. This was only the second occasion that Relton had ever seen one while not mistnetting, so I count myself as extremely fortunate to have seen one!</div><br /><p>During our time there, endemics such as the Black-and-orange Flycatcher, White-bellied Blue Flycatcher, White-bellied Shortwing, and some difficult species like Scaly Thrush, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, and Orange-headed Thrush were all seen well and were all new for me. I also saw many other <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWiPmuRSCxZJlqTxwly_JwhIGBX7VCzWK8oMmvIiWCRpdqJ-OZkjri70NynKxV84Gj1LavxDyIWvzr-Xrx76GXA26vWJ4Ii-MWvJZkHCZIqtnea0CPvpR2TUkjGg2BUqn3LsRrQ/s1600-h/greater_flameback.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174929306037312338" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWiPmuRSCxZJlqTxwly_JwhIGBX7VCzWK8oMmvIiWCRpdqJ-OZkjri70NynKxV84Gj1LavxDyIWvzr-Xrx76GXA26vWJ4Ii-MWvJZkHCZIqtnea0CPvpR2TUkjGg2BUqn3LsRrQ/s320/greater_flameback.JPG" border="0" /></a>flycatchers and specialties that I had seen last year, but that are globally quite uncommon; Nilgiri Flycatcher, Indian Swiftlet, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Malabar Whistling Thrush (photo below), and a good raptor in the form of a Common Buzzard (ubiquitous though it may be in the UK and throughout much of northern Eurasia, it’s a rare winter visitor this far south). I also got a nice photo shot with a pair of Greater Flamebacks (left)...unbelievably cooperative!<br />We spent our two nights in Valparai driving roads through the more rural parts of the area in between coffee and tea plantations and isolated patches of the remnant native evergreen forest looking for owls. It was literally in the 11th hour on our second night that we finally saw our first nocturnal bird, an Oriental Scops Owl, perched on top of a small cement post by a grassy ditch. We saw a nice variety of mammals including Sambar Deer, Barking Deer, Porcupine, Giant Flying Squirrel, Black-naped Hare, and Bandicoot Rat (enormous!). <br />On our way back down the famous 40 hairpin turn into the lowlands we stopped when we heard birds and located several nice mixed flocks. Most of the species were the same ones we had recorded at higher elevation, but this was the only time we recorded Black-lored Tit, a brightly colored and crested relative to the chickadees and titmouse of North America. We also had the good fortune of simultaneously arriving at the same large snag as a Crested Serpent Eagle, a widespread bird in the hills and mountains of India, but this bird would have definitely flushed if it had already been present and we had then pulled up and stopped. It was extremely cooperative despite the passing buses and trucks that were politely letting us know that they were present by the incessant use of their horns (opening photo). <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174930835045669746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVDbBLVqeJaALM5PQfFFPnIma77CHpHj4yG-SLxeXdmFN-O-QeP9TTMs78TF_S-iqAN6xSpbz0GpZQlXaacwnvksCrqIFFzyNBtYryItBvGHAY-_Xl92KZ3vmxqlMCljEZ84LZ1Q/s400/malabar_whistling_thrush.JPG" border="0" /></p>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-43170487750971850752008-03-03T05:01:00.004-06:002008-03-03T05:13:52.068-06:00My first Pratincole!Today (March 2) Relton was coming out to Pullambadi to visit and he was supposed to be arriving around 10AM. For this reason I tried to hurry through the survey so I could get back a little sooner. I actually debated not going out as this was my seventh consecutive morning heading out and I was getting a little tired of it (especially after the day before hadn’t yielded much). I’m very glad I did though because I was rewarded with my first ever sighting of a pratincole! Pratincoles are technically shorebirds, but they appear to be sort of a cross between swallows and terns and are extremely long-winged and actually catch insects on the wing much like nighthawks or gull-billed terns. This is a family of birds (seven different species) that are found throughout the old world (Africa, Asia, Oceana, and southern Europe) but that do not occur in north or south america. Ever since I’ve been interested in birds, I would see photos of various pratincole species near watering holes in Africa or see them flying around in the background of discovery channel specials on large mammals in Kenya (yes if you are hardcore enough, bird-watching will have you closely examining any and all videos and photos for any inadvertent capture…there’s no on/off switch…). There is a species of pratincole that is a resident bird in the Indian subcontinent, the Small Pratincole, that had been recorded at Karaivetti in the past but I had not been able to find this particular species despite constant vigilance. Imagine my delight when I looked up, (from my daily search for the crakes) in response to an odd shorebird call, to see a pratincole flying over! I knew that this bird wasn’t the species that I had been expecting because there was too much chestnut on the underwings and the Small is basically black and grey. Two more pratincoles of the same species called and flew over me on their way over the lake following closely behind the initial bird and I rushed to my backpack to grab the field guide to check which species this was. The only other species that was reasonably expected was the Oriental Pratincole which is not common in the southern subcontinent, but they regularly winter in Sri Lanka, so they are transient migrants throughout the rest of the region. Another species, the Collared Pratincole looks similar to the Oriental Pratincole but is quite a bit smaller. This would also be a much rarer record. While they do breed near Pakistan, there are only a smattering of records throughout the rest of India and Sri Lanka. I was fumbling through the field guide and finally got to the page just in time for another two pratincoles to fly over. By their size (similar to the very common Whiskered Terns) and their lack of any white on their wings, I was able to determine that they were definitely the more likely Oriental Pratincole, a new species for me and for Karaivetti! Unfortunately I was unable to get photos of this sharp looking species, but this one so impressed me that I'm going to send you to another site to see this species - <a href="http://www.birdingintaiwan.org/gallery/How-Tang/Oriental%20Pratincole.JPG">gorgeous bird</a>!<br />Later in the day I finally saw a Pied Harrier as well, a species that while not abundant, occurs in small numbers in the more open grasslands and cultivated areas of the subcontinent. Best photo <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtWdfZNcus0DbnaMKoFHjiq48UjVgkePYgxpoBiqyQsn-mokkm0ZZaPKV6kUS2YuP5bTgg49csMMqiOEKMNkrzGqL4PpyWGk4gBbkJQ85FaLfhT4l6HVGHL3HT_pCIcrdxUuvfuA/s1600-h/eur_marsh_harrier.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173469334693366002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtWdfZNcus0DbnaMKoFHjiq48UjVgkePYgxpoBiqyQsn-mokkm0ZZaPKV6kUS2YuP5bTgg49csMMqiOEKMNkrzGqL4PpyWGk4gBbkJQ85FaLfhT4l6HVGHL3HT_pCIcrdxUuvfuA/s200/eur_marsh_harrier.JPG" border="0" /></a>I have to offer is of the much more common Eurasian Marsh Harrier which I typically will see 6-8 of in a morning there (left). A different individual Ruff was present at the other lake, only one prior record excluding my sighting of 24 several days ago. I was able to get some video of the bird as it sat and preened through my scope, but it was beyond the range of still photos.<br />I didn’t realize it at the time, but this actually was my final day conducting the survey at Karaivetti. Relton and I are going to be going up to Valparai in the Western Ghats tomorrow for three days of birding the humid rainforest (should see some nice endemics and other specialties). I will then be back in Trichy for a single day and leave for Thailand on the 8th. So I spent the afternoon packing up my stuff and getting ready to le<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVLF3IbUpnMcGL8CTrpzT_S4AQ4peqoXvSBqrVGvbBFSjkgjOXarZK2IS-LJDsDKscx8nRRBh7w-M6DYKR1vF9Zow2E76Qun3iU1JAzeJen-oSPwtqe1rNZtB1Yi8_LnVOzbpdw/s1600-h/we_buzzard.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173469429182646530" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVLF3IbUpnMcGL8CTrpzT_S4AQ4peqoXvSBqrVGvbBFSjkgjOXarZK2IS-LJDsDKscx8nRRBh7w-M6DYKR1vF9Zow2E76Qun3iU1JAzeJen-oSPwtqe1rNZtB1Yi8_LnVOzbpdw/s320/we_buzzard.JPG" border="0" /></a>ave Pullambadi and my gracious hosts and new-found friends.<br />We actually returned to Trichy via some grasslands and open scrub habitat in an attempt to locate Eurasian Thick-Knee and possibly sandgrouse. We struck out on both counts, but did have some nice looks at Small Minivet, Short-toed Snake Eagle, and White-eyed Buzzard (on right).Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-91978263946641399022008-03-03T04:48:00.007-06:002008-03-03T05:00:54.085-06:00Cricket; an exposé<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173468437045201122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgfYt50xxTxQlybatWxP1MoNCjsFEn6g0AGDV9i3raQtDd4Qxv1BJe8XCcQ6mwvAUSbguvOfu913Z2zGm61Wlz-zOhzCWq2CQI-w1xW8EdFPTNZT0p3c8OVdJ0nBI8VZa21GUg4A/s400/running.JPG" border="0" />While speaking with my parents earlier this week my dad suggested that I ask my hosts to take some action shots of me during the daily cricket match that takes place every evening at 5PM. He took quite a few photos, but here are some of my favs, that capture the spirit of the game here in Pullambadi. We play a fairly highly modified version of the game due to the skill level of the players (not too high, myself included!) and the lack of players to adequately defend against a full field. For this reason we actually play only half a pitch and we can not hit the ball at angles behind the batter like you can in real cricket. We also usually have someone from the same team that is batting be the keeper (catcher) due to a lack of people. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGE4idaehXfKovu3MR0hF11zsHnnXY24uQ1Y62XuiJ2IFGESM7U2latUnlxUKAwMEi8fvxWxEzmfsMKcKyxha6O2_9VYLrJRQ2ViCR8QLvZzYXkce0WJTmAhOYl7-5iN2exxRDZA/s1600-h/shot.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173467058360699058" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGE4idaehXfKovu3MR0hF11zsHnnXY24uQ1Y62XuiJ2IFGESM7U2latUnlxUKAwMEi8fvxWxEzmfsMKcKyxha6O2_9VYLrJRQ2ViCR8QLvZzYXkce0WJTmAhOYl7-5iN2exxRDZA/s200/shot.JPG" border="0" /></a>This takes away a sizable advantage for the defending team as there are many tipped balls that if caught by the keeper are outs. When the keeper isn’t on their team, those don’t count… We also do not play the rule where if the ball strikes the shin’s or foot of the batter on its way to what would have hit the wicket, that would normally be an out. Thus many of the boys stand in front of the wicket and act more like goalies than batters as their shins take the brunt of what should be outs since their batting skills aren’t as good! The bowler is actually standing behind a makeshift wicket that is composed of a footlong section of hollow cement pipe and a large rock. So this is what the other batter is standing behind prior to running after a good hit (or shot as they like to refer to it). I’m amazed at how addicting the game has become during only my month here. When a match is on the tele I actually have to tear myself away. Speaking of which, India pulled off a major upset over Australia (again) in the first of three matches for the championship in Sydney. Very impressive, you should have heard Alan yelling with excitement as India’s star batter broke the coveted century mark of runs for the first time in Australia in his 18 year career! <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uNBbuoGNWNwwQjQx8z-87wlPnQiT0FHKtuUzMMGHgPPD6TApsuQIRyxe-WmH5s5ZhaTFI4Q0Rp1q0DxyDtnKvya__BbqlvuwrMZm7hU-OCjQsNYFUIUZ-EAEF3vgv3TgwAZ7OA/s1600-h/running.JPG"></a>I realize that most if not all of the people who are reading this have almost no idea about the rules and terminology of cricket and I apologize, but I feel that I have to devote at least one blog entry to something that I spent a significant amount of time doing here. I basically went from having only the slightest idea of how it works, to arguing the rules with the best of the boys by the time I was done… I have to say that I think it’s a shame that the game isn’t more widespread in America, I feel that the game is much more fun than baseball. Oh yeah, and due to the fact that each batter can only bat one time, each out is much more significant than in baseball. For this reason the boys will throw the ball ecstatically into the air after a catch or excitedly surround the bowler if he gets a wicket against a batter (like I do against one of the boys below). <div><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173466225137043618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW5Wy4NRo_wPH3ExFBnUAY3LzP2OPxNHpeCN6ZTYlOZ3f8o1HCmu7_sDKlUQiou2mioj8ECiG2No-i4jW9YZZnN6Y8_dNJBvSmHl7n6ExhxJytA-tqYJrTsB-1t_W6P3XrwzLnSw/s400/sean_bowls_wicket.jpg" border="0" />Also, pointing a finger up signifies an out. The boys excitedly yell it as “outaa” and I think that as I look back upon my stay here, that will be one of the first things that will come to mind.<br />I became surprisingly attached to many of these boys during the course of the past month and the look on their faces as I got into the vehicle with Relton and his family on my final afternoon there was rather touching. And that’s as mushy as I’m going to get on that topic. I am going to buy a new bat and send it to the school for them as a final present from their American guest.<br />The birding was surprisingly slow today after the nice shorebird diversity yesterday. A weather system actually had moved through overnight and I had to dodge a few rain showers during the morning. I suspect this was part of the reason that many of the shorebirds had moved out. In America shorebirds typically move out before a front hits, I don’t see why it would be different here. A Temminck’s Stint was still hanging around, the Baillon’s Crake was seen again, and my first Common Iora of the survey was noted today (on the checklist but had eluded me up until now).<br />The closing photo depicts a scene seen all too often as the keeper usually wasn't too good and apparently the concept "let nothing get past" hadn't caught on among these fellows (and there were occasional balls that got away from the bowler)... The backside of the schoolyard or boundary as it's called in cricket.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173467466382592210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMW7UzJZUd7tjAJ7ngGRpv6TTkctWwGS2g-fwi5DpOeNgwhLwu0F64P_ynxSy4Bw0f9_9lw51dmPPrLP0xd7IZWB1B18X-tUvVfyZB3ndjLq-rMW_AdiagfI5fFkZfeYqlJBKiw/s400/boundary.JPG" border="0" /></div></div></div>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-31681576921077746412008-03-03T04:24:00.006-06:002008-03-03T04:48:49.491-06:00Shorebird bonanza!<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173465464927832210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimigegQ8m74z9pdMBMs_5gncfgBwEz6PH4FhG_2unx9hM93i5dev_PK1-XopFr_mFZ3ETaE1S37DurNyaNqmpISSPk0l1BkFg1eqVRQzas-1DWEsOBKAIpVwpETbWX4z2kELX_FQ/s400/waders.JPG" border="0" />While you weren’t able to read my last blog post due to some difficulties with the telephone lines here, my final sentence ended up being prophetic as today (Feb. 29) I definitely saw good diversity and decent numbers of shorebirds for the first time in a month of conducting this survey. I ended today with 20 species of shorebirds represented by a grand total of 322 individuals. The most noteworthy species of these were probably Broad-billed Sandpiper (6), Curlew Sandpiper (11), and Ruff (24) which had all been recorded on just one prior occasion. They are definitely not common at this inland site, but I think that when the habitat is suitable, like this lake is at the moment, they are probably fairly regular migrants through the area. The Broad-billed Sandpiper was doubly exciting for me though because it was the first time I’d ever seen this species! Larger shorebirds were observed roosting on islands in mixed flocks (Black-tailed Godwit, Black-winged Stilt, Common Greenshank, and Marsh Sandpipers). Three species of plovers were present along with both Little and Temminck’s Stints.<br />The species total of 20 species is quite good and I can’t think of too many occasions when I have recorded this many species in one day. To put this total in perspective, here are my best recollections of my highest personal single day tallies of shorebird species from each significant birding locale I’ve been to; 17 in coastal Norfolk, UK during March, 20 at Point Calimere, Tamil Nadu (a coastal site so more expected), 21 in coastal Ecuador in January, 24 at the Salton Sea in CA during Aug, ~25 is my highest in WI in mid-May, and ~30 on the upper coast of TX during late April. All of those totals represent solid day’s worth of effort to find that many species and with the exception of Wisconsin, they all involve salt or brackish water.<br />The rest of the day was fairly uneventful but I relocated the wagtail flock and something flushed the group and they all landed close to each other allowing for 14 of the birds in one frame (below)! Unfortunately, the distance involved with most of these shorebird species prevented me from getting even semi-decent photos, I can offer a shot of the habitat with a flock of Black-headed Ibis probing the deeper water/muck (opening photo). This sort of edge is present around about half of the lake and this is where the majority of the shorebirds are located. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173465207229794434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsovCW5GK-TnIGwSf0cZnuuqioIyPqd7CzYQxrxBEera1qeOrDcxZi2agyLNScz4FpTfIHvwVUisjt22QlTi9WQ4U0eqoJpixK97tL8zLbNDQmeT3zGfh7t52zPoI6_-T95Qlj0g/s400/gaggle_of_wagtails.JPG" border="0" />Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19037084.post-46880574960448741482008-03-02T23:10:00.009-06:002008-03-03T05:15:38.163-06:00Wagtail congregation[Note - due to some technical difficulties including more prevalent brown-outs than normal, the phone line rusting through, and an earlier than expected exit from Pullambadi, I have been delinquint in my blog posts. I apologize. This post was written on the 28th...] <div></div><div>Today was fairly standard day with no truly noteworthy species being noted (and I didn’t see my “reliable” crake after I quoted the high percentage of success yesterday…). The highlight for me was a flock of ~20 Yellow Wagtails I noticed foraging in a series of freshly harvested rice paddies. There were local villagers still working fairly close to where the wagtails were and the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtpioSPm1nch6sZcRVKzkZFrfidfO6KSlSdppC5xcNjpj660fX4-JK-chuLFPom-typOQa8oWhvTqQySx3wqQ4fZl2lRul_XHihqTeeuacrRucvuXak2UX8Icg95HfuO52C1ScQ/s1600-h/yellowwag2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173380282841450514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtpioSPm1nch6sZcRVKzkZFrfidfO6KSlSdppC5xcNjpj660fX4-JK-chuLFPom-typOQa8oWhvTqQySx3wqQ4fZl2lRul_XHihqTeeuacrRucvuXak2UX8Icg95HfuO52C1ScQ/s200/yellowwag2.JPG" border="0" /></a>birds seemed semi-oblivious to the precence of people, so I thought I had a good chance of getting some good photos of the species (which I hadn’t had any luck photographing up to this point). I vaulted the acacia thorn poor-mans fence (piles of extremely thorny branches placed around fields to keep out goats and cows) and made my way out the bund to the edge of the wagtail flock. I then sat down and waited for the birds to get close. After about fifteen minutes several of the birds had made their way sufficiently close to me that I was able to get some pretty good photos of this highly variable-plumaged species. There are three different ages with identifiable differences in plumage (hatch year, second year, and adult), each gender also looks different at every one of these ages. Add in the fact that there are at least seven different subspecies present during the winter in India and variability in plumage that appears to rival gulls, identifying these birds to age and subspecies is proving more than I’m up for! <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ER7G3iyOIT88l_wjW3Qb77Zx2rVUHoRWRs9c8Ncl2vtEjJ5-7iU1lmUXQpSJLXA3HR6yeO3bqarBaAy_A4vsW11t2uKUbVICa7haoQcXjeFRCIZb7sGkW1TNbxHLp7lhZu5b3Q/s1600-h/yellowwag1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173379823279949826" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ER7G3iyOIT88l_wjW3Qb77Zx2rVUHoRWRs9c8Ncl2vtEjJ5-7iU1lmUXQpSJLXA3HR6yeO3bqarBaAy_A4vsW11t2uKUbVICa7haoQcXjeFRCIZb7sGkW1TNbxHLp7lhZu5b3Q/s200/yellowwag1.JPG" border="0" /></a>I am getting more comfortable identifying wagtails at least to species, but thus far I’ve only been dealing with Grey, Yellow, Citrine, and the very different looking resident White-browed. This year I haven’t seen any of the White Wagtail complex that seems to be alternately split into several different species and then re-lumped back into subspecies every few years on both sides of the Atlantic (the Brits and Americans have different listing authorities…go figure eh). All this preamble is just to give some sort of an idea of the complexity of this species group. At the same time, I have to say that I’m quite a fan of wagtails in general. Their behavior, calls, and plumage all are fairly unique. They appear similar to the pipits that I’m accustomed to in some respects, but they are much more vividly marked. They also apparently gather in fairly large flocks during migration (roosting in reedbeds like swallows). I’ve only had the good fortune of observing one such large flock (in excess of 400 birds), which I observed flying north fairly high up over a vantage point near Kamaraj Dam in the foothills of the Western Ghats last year. The flock of Yellow Wagtails I observed today is thus actually the largest flock I’ve noted where I was actually able to study the birds. Their habitat preference I noted was quite a bit different from the Grey and Citrine Wagtails I’ve been seeing with some regularity along the margin of the lake. These birds were foraging in dried out paddy field among dried stalks of rice. Perhaps this apparent propensity for drier habitat has been part of the reason I haven’t seen too many Yellow's thus far.<br />I actually do not have the guide to wagtails (yes they most definitely merit their own field guide!) and the India and Thai guides I have here really don’t do the various subspecies justice… Here are three different individual Yellows I was able to photograph this morning though. Any thoughts/comments as to the age/gender/subspecies of these birds would be most welcome! Side note: the third bird pictured I'm unsure of, it may be a Grey Wagtail, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2PfOaadqy4oSzu6nsRxXPhHtsKLuH0ciJn3YuIpUmzSXKkF3PpgUEE_EsuQLnGfcWt2ZkuAF6kiR_diz9fZ5WOTPDRYxFDjrxXIlLbO6MRrzIohUfG8hrEoDH2UBQFdOWcABmw/s1600-h/yellowwag4.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173380901316741186" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2PfOaadqy4oSzu6nsRxXPhHtsKLuH0ciJn3YuIpUmzSXKkF3PpgUEE_EsuQLnGfcWt2ZkuAF6kiR_diz9fZ5WOTPDRYxFDjrxXIlLbO6MRrzIohUfG8hrEoDH2UBQFdOWcABmw/s200/yellowwag4.JPG" border="0" /></a>but I think the fact that it has a yellow throat puts it more firmly in the Yellow camp. I could definitely be wrong though (on right). <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEica8sY13_3awj8RbMDqaBHjO9mIO2s1PO42xYVgah0fuHjrMNYwmlHLk9NtEsymoQPcJcVm4hzhhKV1pL2RDdG8tl5XeMGlVYucPumlGqFV1-rCunP-IDnmKAA5I5vTolN6KvCsw/s1600-h/yellowwag4.JPG"></a><br />Alan had the misfortune of developing a puncture today so he was only with me for the first hour or so of the survey before he went into the village of Karaivetti to have it patched. He had ridden on the bike too long before he noticed the flat and there were too many holes to actually just patch it. So a new tube was driven in from Pullambadi by one of the drivers at the school. This took the better part of the morning and I didn’t see him again until I returned to Pullambadi at 12:15PM. The water level is rapidly dropping at the other lake and I think I might actually see some interesting shorebirds there before I’m finished with this survey. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173380647913670706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP40PB2j5b4W3CjP9Vb1ZzFgCGCuT_vzJFQ6lM21q6qqc_R06o5o86oOhiR7oKdrvlrjwvIr9GVPaUBQdypvWKhyphenhyphenBoZ5fTcacehQHQHADhPG1_4RylehZm-fNeVMque94XfEME-Q/s400/yellowwags3.JPG" border="0" /></div>Sean Fitzgeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14457249500616280424noreply@blogger.com0