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Adventures in Birding  Trip list from a week in California - coastal counties from Ventura to San Mateo. Mostly birding with David Vander Pluym, also a day with Adam Searcy. ( The birds! ) So much for my resolution to write in this thing more. Well, I did want to post my 2007 year lists at least! Total: 327 Arizona: 277 Lifers: 15 ( Peer below ) I'm so miserably behind on this journal that I can't possibly hope to catch up on posting all the birding I've been doing. So my plan is to talk about my experiences of the summer and a few meaningful events since going to Minnesota. Well, this summer I worked as a nest searcher for the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Unit. I spent every day on my three plots, one an elk exclosure and the other two forming a control plot. At first I spent almost all my time nest searching. I spent quite a bit of time in the field with Tom Martin, the big boss, a great ornithologist who I learned a lot from and I was glad to get to spend so much time nest searching with him. At the peak of the season I juggled nest searching with nest monitoring and videotaping, which was a lot of work spread over three plots! Throw in snag surveys and I was plenty busy. When breeding tapered off we turned to veg, until we weren't allowed to find more nests, we just had to focus on veg and somehow we managed to get it all done by the end of July. In addition to my actual job I did get a few days of bird banding in, and I did just a bit of nestling and egg measurements. As far as birding experiences I had this summer, I guess I was so focused on work that most of what I did didn't really classify as birding. Still, I did find a Kentucky Warbler (singing on plot one day in spring), an Ovenbird (singing on plot one day in mid-summer), and a Northern Parula (singing on plot for weeks in the middle of the season). I also chased my life Black-throated Blue Warbler that a coworker found on his plot. So since there's more to say than I have time to write, I decided to sum up my birdy summer with a list of species whose nests I found (100 total nests, exactly), the number I found and a few notes when they occur to me. ( So many nests! ) I had a long day of birding Minnesota Valley today. It was certainly an adventure and I discovered new areas of Minnesota I didn't know existed...nothing really turned out the way I planned, and unfortunately the day was a letdown overall, but there were some highlights. My first stop was Wilkie Unit, which I found completely by luck, somehow rather easily, although it's completely unmarked. I have a feeling, though, that I was on the wrong side of the river for the birding I wanted. Still, at least there were signs in the parking lot telling me where I was. I walked down the road a short distance before turning off on a small trail (more or less a deer trail but the entire time I didn't see any tracks or droppings, just one bed). I lost the trail now and then but only got neck-high in reeds once or twice before coming back to the road. The avian highlight was a nice Yellow-throated Vireo, which I haven't seen in 5 years! Part of a mixed flock. Another highlight was a Mustelid dancing across the road and bounding through the grass, great looks, even saw the grass twitching for a minute and saw it bound out and across the road with a vole! I haven't decided if it was a mink or a long-tailed weasel. Need to get to my mammal guide. ( Totals for Wilkie Unit ) Next I set out looking for Chaska Lake Unit. I ended up stopping at a state trail that ran along the river, but quickly realized I was in the wrong place. Nothing of interest, but it was beautiful old-growth deciduous forest, a closed canopy with almost no understory except for a uniform blanket of knee-high forbs. Very quiet. It had a strange feeling to it, just not the sort of place I'm used to. I didn't stay long, though, and set off looking for Chaska Lake...a process that took me about an hour. Maybe ordeal is a better word. I drove through Chaska, past Carver, back through Carver where I found a bit of refuge land with no signs indicating where things were or even what unit it was. Went back through Chaska and just decided to go to the place in Carver. I started down the trail (found a dead Paramyscus) and ran into a couple that looked local. I asked them if we were at Chaska Lake and they had no idea what I was talking about...said the trail gave a view of the river but didn't go by a lake, but there was a lake back towards the parking lot that I could walk to. I decided to try that, since I really wanted to do some waterbirding. I bushwhacked my way through a streambed until my foot sank into mud, then climbed out trying to avoid biting plants. I found the "lake", but in order to get a view of it I had to wade through Lauren-high grass and reeds to a dead tree, which I climbed to scan the water. Bank Swallow was something, at least - I think a new MN bird for me. Weaving through orb weavers trying to get back, I tripped and fell into the marshy plants, which bit me and left red welts which are still itching on my arms. I'm not okay with stealthily evil plants - give me Arizonan thorny plants any day! Anyway, I continued to bushwhack my way back through chest-high biting forbs, mosquitos, heat and humidity. Lost interest in counting chickadees. I was just happy to get back to AC. And yes, I discovered later that I had been on the right trail. I was looking at Chaska Marsh - the trail would have taken me to Chaska Lake and Pectoral Sandpipers. ( Totals, Chaska Unit ) Disappointed with the day so far, I decided to make one last stop on the way back at the Refuge Headquarters. Not much going on there - no visible water, so I spent my time trying to pick out forest birds. Only found a few... ( Totals, Headquarters ) I haven't been seeing a whole lot around MN, but I have been seeing a few year birds or otherwise notable MN birds around...Common Grackle, Eastern Phoebe, Green Heron and such. Not much as far as casual birding. This morning I went out to Afton State Park around 9:30, stayed out for 3 hours 20 minutes and hiked 4 miles. I had actually only been there once before, when I was 10 or so and couldn't recognize much except for cardinals. I had a great day today, trying to get some real eastern birding in. I started by walking through the restored prairie habitat, which was very active. Unfortunately by the time I got to forest it was pretty quiet, but I did see some good birds here and there. The most exciting bird of the day for me was Clay-colored Sparrow, which I don't think I've seen since I lived in Wyoming ten years ago! ( Totals ) I missed plenty of birds that I had been hoping to get, but I was feeling particularly sour about missing Eastern Kingbird. Fortunately, I managed to pick one up on the drive back! I got lots of good birds for my year list today, not to mention for Minnesota. This am I went out for my usual walk around the lake. I only actually counted for about half of the way, but I extrapolated for eBird, and added a few species that I didn't see on the count. Several year birds! ( Totals ) Following a phone call from Tom Linda re some good year birds, I took a late evening drive out to Lakes Mary. I didn't actually stop at Lower Lake Mary, because daylight was a serious issue. At various points along Upper Lake Mary I had small groups of Western and Eared Grebes, along with a few Ruddy Ducks. Other birds along the way included Pinyon Jay, Red-tail, singing Yellow-rumped Warbler, etc etc. I stopped at Osprey Overlook where I quickly located my target birds, Caspian Tern and Bonaparte's Gull. A very, very strange duck quickly caught my attention. Imagine the expletive when I realized I simply had no idea what it was. Long story short, it was a Red-crested Pochard - no ABA records for this species but it's apparently fairly common in captivity. It certainly made my heart stop though, and it was quite an adventure to puzzle over a completely unfamiliar bird so close to home. In case you're interested, there are photos here. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to other birds, but as I said I did see Tom's several Caspian Terns and a Bonaparte's Gull, both in breeding plumage. A Willet and some dowitcher or other were hanging out with the gulls. The pochard was hanging out with a bunch of Redheads. Noah and I birded this morning, starting with the Willow Bend Rio survey at 6 am. It was a pretty incredible morning. At Willow Bend, the hordes of birds included a Northern Mockingbird, a Green-tailed Towhee, several White-crowned Sparrows, a Virginia's Warbler, two Orange-crowned Warblers, an American Goldfinch, a Lark Sparrow, and most amazingly, an immature Golden-crowned Sparrow! We had to work a bit to get decent looks at the GCSP, but we ended up seeing it fairly well. Various other birds around: RCKI, NRWS, VGSW, LEWO, SORA, BWTE, CITE, REDH, BTLH, VESP. After the survey we ran out to Rimmy Jim Tank to try for Black-bellied Plover and Pectoral Sandpiper. The former, which has been around awhile, remained, but the latter continues to be one of my primary nemesis birds. Bank Swallow was particularly good, and Merlin was another year bird. For RJT I have totals. ( Here ) Later this afternoon I went horseback riding with Betsy McKellar to and along the rim of Walnut Canyon. We saw quite a few birds around the rim, although we don't tend to stop and look. The pinyon jays were hanging around Herold Ranch. A Barn Swallow made a 5-swallow day for me. A flock of Bushtits near the canyon was notable. Today was my day to scout Mingus Mountain for my trip for the Verde Valley Birding Festival next week. Unfortunately I had to work this morning, so I got a late start, but it was still a decent day birding. Winn was able to come along, and he got several life birds. We generally had a great time! We got up Mingus around noon. White-throated Swifts were really all we saw driving up, zooming above the road. Our first stop was Mingus Lake. Since we heard birds up the hill, we went a little off-trail and climbed the adjacent hillside. We encountered an incredible mixed flock. It wasn't all that diverse, but there must have been about 45 birds in that flock. Most were Yellow-rumped Warblers. A few House Wrens were around, some singing. A female Hairy Woodpecker was associating loosely with the flock, and a few Steller's Jays were hanging around. Both Pygmy and White-breasted Nuthatches along with some Mountain Chickadees were in the flock. Best of all, the flock included at least one male Townsend's Warbler, a singing Grace's Warbler and a singing Plumbeous Vireo. Below the dam, we encountered an Oregon and a Pink-sided Junco, another pair of House Wrens, and 4-5 Band-tailed Pigeons. We then drove up the road to the day use area before the campground (which is closed). At the overlook we saw a Cooper's Hawk soaring with a bird in its talons. We walked up the road into the campground, then when we found one of my flags from last summer, we hiked along my transect a short way then up a wash back to the road and the car. It made me happy to see the flags, although one had fallen on the ground (I put it back up) and all were faded to black-and-white. The wind had picked up and the birds had quieted down, but birds included a Rock Wren and some Spotted Towhees. Finally, we drove up to the hangglider launch point, which I had never seen before. We walked along the rim a short way but didn't see anything. On the way back down we stopped on a FS road just before leaving the forest - I can't remember the number. We hiked the road up a canyon a short distance and found a few more birds, including another Cooper's Hawk, some scrub-jays and a Gray Flycatcher. On our way back down we stopped in Jerome for an early dinner and some touristing. At some point, Painted Redstarts were mentioned. Since Winn had never seen them, I suggested taking the long way home and picking up redstarts in Oak Creek Canyon. Winn was up for it, so our next stop was Cave Springs Campground. First, we headed upstream in search of redstarts. It was very quiet, but finally I heard a singing bird next to the creek. We didn't have to wait long before the male flew to an exposed branch over the creek and sang for us. Satisfied, we headed downstream to the campground, where we saw two more pairs of redstarts and Winn got great looks. We also had another Grace's Warbler, although good looks escaped us today. Otherwise, Cave Springs was pretty quiet. Broad-tailed Hummingbirds are out in force. A great day birding...hopefully we'll do even better next Saturday! Another day with the Wildlife Society banding today! It was exciting, diverse, birdy and non-stop! Morning at the campsite didn't have much that we didn't have last week. White-winged Dove and Brewer's Sparrow come to mind, and on the way out we had a Harris's Hawk, a nice bird for the group. I didn't bring my notebook this week, so I don't remember every bird we had at the preserve. For the most part, ambient birds weren't new or else were reflected in the birds we captured. Off the top of my head, we banded several Lincoln's Sparrows and Wilson's Warblers, a few Pacific-slope and Hammond's Flycatchers, a Warbling Vireo, a Yellow, a Lucy's and an Orange-crowned Warbler, a Black Phoebe, a Brown-headed Cowbird, a few Common Yellowthroats, a Violet-green Swallow and 14 Northern Rough-winged Swallows. We also caught a female Anna's and a female Black-chinned Hummingbird. The swallows were the highlight of the day. I don't think I'd ever handled a swallow before, but this day I had plenty. Since Anne wasn't there, Kurt and I were dividing net runs and banding separately. I did a few runs to the river nets, which meant taking off my shoes and socks and doing most of the run barefoot so that I could check the actual river net. The river was deep, but not too cold. Three birds in the river net the first run was fine. 16 the second time was a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, Josh was there to help (he's pretty good at extracting, without much training) so he took one side of the net and I took the other. 14 of those birds were NRWS, one was a VGSW, and one was a badly tangled WIWA. The really exciting part was that we ran out of bags, so we walked straight back to the table after the river net, me carrying the WIWA in my hand and Mike carrying one bag of Black Phoebe and three or four bags with all 15 swallows. We had to furl nets after that, because it was just too busy. Once we got all the birds processed (in total, we had about 25 waiting to be processed at once), we opened some of the nets again and did a few more runs. Fortunately all the Wildlife Society people were really helpful and we were able to process between 2 and 4 birds at once. It was a really wild and exciting day, with lots of good experience to be had for everyone. I would really like to get down to the preserve more next year. |
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