Blackwater NWR, MD: January 7, 2009

On Jan. 7th, Alex and I drove to Cambridge, MD to do some birding.  Last year at this time, Alex and Mark made this trip, and had a few rare birds, like tufted duck and eurasion wigeon.  This time however, most of the water was frozen, and not many waterfowl were present.  We did however, have a good day.

Near some open water in Cambridge, we found a few ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, canvasbacks, mallards, and two pied-billed grebes, in addition to a common golden-eye.  Great black-backs, herring gulls, and ring-billed gulls were being fed in the parking lot, and fish crows were standing on the edge of the ice in the river.

Along Egypt Road on the way to Blackwater NWR, there was a huge flock of tundra swans.  The flock only got bigger throughout the day.  At Blackwater, in the visitor center parking lot, we picked up carolina wren and white-throated sparrow, in addition to rusty blackbirds in a flock of red-winged/common grackles.  There were also hundreds of canada geese in the fields all over the refuge.

tudra swans flying over Egypt Road

white-throated sparrow at visitor center

There were also tons of bald eagles flying around, including a juvenile that made numerous unsuccessful attempts to capture coots.  Towards the end of the day, we saw this Delmarva fox squirrel (endangered) run out of one of the refuge corn fields, and across the road.  They are pretty large, but also pretty skittish.  This one was, at least.

Delmarva squirrel running away

rusty blackbird with house sparrows

northern shoveler on ice, Wildlife Loop

bald eagles on nest platform, seen from Wildlife Loop

bald eagles roosting on snag

great blue heron and canada geese

mixed flock of rusty blackbirds, eruropean starlings, common grackles, red-winged blackbirds

In the evening we headed for Hooper's Island, where there are usually a ton of waterfowl if the river is not forzen.  There were tons of bufflehead, and Alex also spotted a few oldsquaw and horned grebes (earlier in the day we saw a few surf scoters on the water).  As the sun set, Alex picked out a few loons on the river, and finally we saw a flock of snow geese, bringing the total to 62 for the day, which is good, given the frozen conditions.

2010 Birding: a slow start

The last few birds of 2009 that Alex and I saw were at my parents house near Nicktown, PA in Cambria County.  This included a red-shouldered hawk near the Krispy Kream on 422, and also a goshawk that flew right along with our car near my parents house.  They live on one of the highest ridges in the area, so I assume this bird was just passing through.  On a walk on the Ghost Town Trail on New Year's Eve, we saw many signs of ruffed grouse, and even heard one flush, but didn't see it. 

Unfortunately, Alex rung in the New Year with a stomach virus, which I got a day later.  The next week entailed the two of us pathetically laying on couchs and trying to find rare birds out of my parents window.  We got all of the typical bird feeder birds, including dark-eyed junco, morning dove, downy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, and a few tree sparrows.  We made a drive around a road loop at my mom's house, but this didn't turn up anything new, although we did get some great looks at ravens, that were doing barrell rows.  Keep in mind this week of recovery coincided with a horrible never-ending winter storm, in which it literally snowed 24/7 for at least a week and a half.  No rare birds showed themselves, but we had a ton of hungry songbirds at the feeder for the whole week.  After we left, my dad told us about the local red-tail that came into the yard to eat a leftover turkey leg my mom had thrown outside.  For a red-tail to eat non-live prey is not a good sign, so I'm hoping the recent warmer temps will help the birds get through this winter, which has, so far, been pretty harsh in Cambria county.  During these same weeks, my mom trapped at least 5 mice in her house, one of which was cannibalized by another mouse.  Seems even the mice were pretty hungry?

2009 Birding Summary

Before this year, I didn't exactly keep a "life list", besides in my head. You could also, not call me a birder. My idea of "birders" were crazy people who trespassed on private land to get close to and sometimes try to touch whooping cranes. Much of my time tracking cranes in migration was spent fending off these crazy people and trying to keep crane locations secret (this is part of the idea that in a few years, whooping cranes will be more numerous, and more people will have the opportunity to see them; but in the meantime, they need protected).  I also rarely made special trips to see rare birds, and just birded the different areas where I found myself for work. However this year, I put effort into birding in my free time in new places, and because of this I got 102 life birds, mainly due to my trips to the midwest and to Hawaii.  Alex started this list for me, and even though he probably just did it for competition, it has been really fun. I now have a much happier idea of "birders" in my head, and have made friends with many of them in many states. I now realize that the crazies that do anything to see whooping cranes really have good intentions, and just get caught up in the moment and the checklist.

I started out the year ending my job with the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, tracking saw-whet owls in central PA. This job was one of my favorites so far, because I actually found saw-whets every day on roost. We used radio-transmitters to find them in the day time, and also followed them around at night. It was really fun to be able to see so many saw-whet owls, which are very secretive and hard-to-find birds. Here are a few of the photos I took of owls on roost.

This owl was notorious for roosting in dense mountain laurel.  It is likely that, while crawling around on the ground tracking her, I scared her off roost, onto the ground.  Notice the half-mouse in her talons;  saw-whets eat half of a mouse at a time, and I found them on roost many times with the butt-end of the mouse in their talons as a mid-day snack.

This is the same owl a few weeks later, still hiding in mountain laurel after an ice storm.

In February I travelled to the island of Hawaii, where I spent a month helping clean up the beaches on the southern coast. Unfortunately, this is where much of the worlds garbage ends up. This includes anything from coffee cans, to combs, to shoes, to toothbrushes, on top of thousands of pounds of derilect fishing nets, which are a major hazard to sea life. After collecting the nets, they are sent to a power plant on Oahu, to be burned for energy. Hawaii Wildlife Fund does a beach cleanup every other month on the most southerly beach in the United States, if you are ever in the area.   Thanks to Bill Gilmartin and all of his friends for all of their generosity while I was in Hawaii!!!!  I hope to go back one day soon.

fishing net stuck in rocks near Kamilo Beach; really heavy and really hard to get "unstuck"

Katie sorting through nets at the dump; she hopes to figure out where they come by classifying the different kinds of nets; all were collected on the southern coast

loading the nets onto a trailor to be sent to Oahu

I didn't spend too much time birding while in Hawaii, but I did manage to see a few great Hawaiian birds, including the hawaiian hawk, white-tailed tropic bird, and a magnificent frigate bird, that flew over me while I was hiking in Volcanoes National Park.

white-tailed tropic bird

Apapane in Bill's back yard in Volcanoes, Hawaii

I also spent time helping a grad student at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, with her project, monitoring and recording species of fish during different tide levels.  I am really not the best swimmer, but I still had fun and saw some great fish while snorkeling, like this spotted puffer fish.  It was also a ton of fun to camp on the beach!

In early March, I spent a few days at home in PA. Alex and I looked for and found a snowy owl that had been spending part of the winter near my parents home in Cambria County. This was a life bird for both of us, and we got great photos. We also saw a short-eared owl in the same field, the only one I saw all year.

snowy owl, Cambria County, March 2009

Later that day I purchased and took home my new (to me) 1986 VW vanagon. I didn't take it to Nebraska with me, but used it during the month of September when Alex and I volunteered at the Pulpit hawk watch.

In early March, I travelled to South Dakota for a few weeks of training as a Biological Technician for the USGS Nothern Prairie Wildlife Research Center least tern and piping plover project. Training was on the Missouri river, and it was an excellent time of year to see migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. I spent the rest of the summer in Nebraska on the Platte River, living in Elm Creek, monitoring the nests of least terns and piping plovers. It was a relatively low year in terms of productivity, but at least 5 piping plover nests fledged, in addition to approximately 40 tern nests. One of our piping plover families showed up in Texas in late July, which was really encouraging. We also monitored a snowy plover nest that hatched 4 chicks on the Platte River. In general, the terns and plovers do not nest on the Platte; the sand bars are too vegetated, and the water levels fluctuate too much. Of the 5 tern nests we had on the river, 4 were destroyed by hail, and only one succesfully fledged. There was only one piping plover nest on the river, which was succesful. Terns and plovers seem to have much more success on the Missouri River, and nest there in larger numbers. The ones near the Platte River prefer to nest on nearby sand pits, versus the river, but do forage at the river.

piping plover broken wing display to distract us away from nest

piping plover pair defending territory against another plover, while plover chicks forage nearby (plover chicks got pummelled numerous times but just kept getting up, only to start eating again immediately)

banding one of the first plover chicks of the season

least tern chick, 2 days old

least tern chicks, 1-2 days old

adult least tern with transmitter

least tern chicks from Platte River nest; during observation period, one chick got fed about 90% more than the other...not hard to see which one!

16-18 day old least tern chick hiding during a chick drive on a sand pit

adult snowy plovers

snowy plover chicks on Platte River

The weather over the summer in Nebraska was amazing.  Huge thunderstorms would show up out of nowhere, like this one.

This was the most terrifying storm I've ever been in.  I was home alone in Elm Creek, while my co-workers were stuck on the Platte, hiding under a canoe.

While in Nebraska, Alex visited in early June. We visited some amazing wildlife refuges. Some of my favorites from this trip were Wilson's phalarope, long-billed curlew, burrowing owl, lark bunting, and Mississippi Kite.

common nighthawk that Alex spotted out the window at Valentine NWR, Nebraska

Wilson's phalarope

shrike cache that Alex spotted from the window, near Crescent Lake NWR, Nebraska

lark bunting near Crescent Lake NWR, Nebraska

long-billed curlews near Crescent Lake NWR (my favorite birding moment of 2009) The birds were very territorial and 4 of them surrounded our car, calling out and walking/flying around for 15 minutes.  They are part of a radio-telemetry study at Crescent Lake NWR.

Before leaving Elm Creek, this chimney swift showed up in our house.  It was the second one to do so over the summer; they lived in the basement, and sometimes got stuck in the cobwebs, or found themselves upstairs.   I doubt I'll  have another chimney swift in my house/hand anytime soon!

In August, Alex came back, and we birded north to Wisconsin, where we visited Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. We were able to see many of the whooping cranes I used to track, including 46-07, a DAR bird that I raised in 2007, who was succesfully paired with a mate. I also saw a few of the cranes I took care of in Florida over the winter, who were also paired.

whooping cranes at Necedah NWR, Wisconsin

In September, I spent a lot of time at the Tuscarora Summit Hawk Watch, known as "The Pulpit," in central PA. Alex helped me learn how to ID raptors. Most of what we saw in September were migrating broad-tailed hawks, bald eagles, osprey, cooper's hawks, and sharp-shinned hawks, but I did see two golden eagles before I left in October.

two juvenile bald eagles playing with a stick at the Pulpit

Alex and Dale Gearhart birding and waiting for fog to clear at the Pulpit

Alex and I also found a few (large) baby barn owls in a nest box on Milton-Herhsey property in Hershey, PA.   Dan Mummert of the PA Game Commission came out to band them, and Nate Mckelvey brought out some students to watch the event.  Turns out there were 5 of them jammed into the nest box!  Alex and I also watched them one night, hunting over the field nearby, and the adults caught mice every few minutes for the babies to eat; another one of my favorite birding moments of the year.

                                         

          Dan pulling a barn owl from the box

Alex holding one of the babies

We also went on an trip with the Conococheague Audobon Society to Cape May, and saw about 120 species of birds.

In October I drove to Oklahoma, where I trained for a week to do habitat surveys for the Playa Lakes Joint Venture. While doing surveys in Kansas and Nebraska, I saw more raptors than I have in my entire life. One day, I counted over 150 red-tail hawks, that were migrating in groups of about 20. In late October I started seeing ferruginous and rough legged hawks, and when Alex arrived in South Dakota, we started seeing numerous golden eagles (mainly in Wyoming). One day, we had seen more golden eagles than red-tails. My trip list for the two month trip was 137 birds.

In December, I made it back to PA, and did some PA birding with Alex, including a trip to Conowingo Dam in PA. We ended the year with hundreds of bald eagles at the dam, and also a visit to see PA's first Allen's hummingbird. In general, it was a great year, and I enjoyed all of the jobs I had. It will be a very hard year to beat.

On January 17th I will start my next job as a Wilson's snipe survey technician crew leader. I will be helping out a graduate student who has been working on a survey design to better understand where snipe winter along the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This job will last two months. In late April, Alex and I will start a job through the College of William and Mary, trapping and tracking whimbrels. This job will end in early June. We are looking for another job to fill the rest of the summer.

PA's first Allen's hummingbird, and Conowingo Dam, MD 12/21/2009

On December 21, Alex and I, along with a few friends, went to Conowingo Dam, in Maryland, to see hundreds of bald eagles, and also made a stop in Leola, PA, to see PA's first record of an Allen's hummingbird.  It was banded earlier in the month by Scott Weidensaul.  Apparently it had been around since August, but was only recently reported.  It was not until Scott banded it that he realized it was an Allen's, not a rufous (the two can only be ID'ed as one or the other by meaurements, otherwise they look pretty much the same).  In 2008, I went with Scott to attempt to band two rufous hummingbirds on two different occasions, also in central PA.  Here is one that we trapped near Hummelstown, PA, in October of 2008.

This one near Harrisburg, in November 2008, made numerous appearances at the landowners salvia plants.  It went everywhere around the trap-under, over, on the side-and Scott and I waited a few hours for it to go in.  Unfortunately, it never went in!

Here is the Allen's on December 21st.  We arrived very early, and the hummingbird finally appeared after about an hour.  It barely drank from the feeder, and made a few very quick passes at the feeder, before landing in a nearby tree.  We didn't get great photos, but it was awesome to see the first ever Allen's in PA.   It was last seen at this location on December 27th.

After seeing the Allen's, we headed to Conowingo Dam in Maryland.  There were easily over a hundred bald eagles, both adults and juveniles.  When we got there, at least 4 eagles were flying over the parking lot, while others were trying to catch fish, and chasing eachother over the river.   As soon as we got there, Alex jumped out of the car yelling about seeing a golden eagle. No one really believed him, but later it reappeared, and we got a decent photo for ID.

This adult bald eagle flew over within minutes and sat right over the parking lot. 

Other eagles were also flying around, and within half an hour a peregrine falcon made an appearance.

This eagle is transitioning into adult plumage

peregrine falcon over the dam

While watching the eagles, we spotted at least 4 golden-crowned kinglets flying around the sycamores near the parking lots.

These two adult bald eagles chased eachother over the river for a few minutes.

And finally, the golden eagle reappeared, and was not very welcomed by the other eagles.  However, this gave us a good comparison between the juvenile bald eagles and the golden, to positively ID it.  He eventually sat down on the rocks in the river, and we got great looks in the scope.

(notice white tail with broad black tip)

On our way out, we found this dead shad in the parking lot, a result of an eagle fight with no winner.

On our way home, we stopped by Mt. Gretna to see if the infamous sandhill crane was still around.  This crane has unfortunately become habituated to people, but is miraculously still alive.  Not many people, if any at all, have seen this bird fly, so my guess is that it does not have enough flight muscle to migrate/leave.  It appeared as though the crane was feeding well in the small river, and apparently can still roost in the shallow water that does not freeze.  It will be interesting to see if this crane ever leaves, but I hope that it can survive if it does stay.  Habituated cranes usually don't survive in the wild very long.