Winter birds 2013

     Technically, it's not quite winter yet.  Another 9 days of fall will elapse before we head into the deep chill here in the northeast.  However, with snow on the ground and temps in the 20's, it sure feels like winter regardless of what the calendar says.  We've had a surge of Snowy owls throughout this part of the country this year adding to the wintery aura, and I decided to head over to one of my favorite spots for locating a number of owl species…..Great horned, Long-eared, Short-eared, Barred, and Eastern screech.  Several years ago, a Snowy appeared on the same site, the land fill of Croton Point Park.  I'd hoped to get another look, but alas, there were no owls to be found on this day.  I did find one species of thrush which is known to be a late (very late) migrant, the Hermit thrush.  He was most cooperative and was easy to photograph from the warmth and comfort of my RAV4.

 

      Winter ducks, the Buffleheads, were also on site to add to the portfolio as were a number of quite vocal American crows.

       When I think back to all the "winter birds" we've had over the years, it reminds me of what an exciting season this is up in this part of the country.  It's the main reason we don't head south until the winter is well under way.  I' put together a short slide show set to the beautiful music of Tim Story.  I took one photograph for each day from December 1st through January14 when we usually vacate the cold winds of winter and migrate south to the warmer climes of Florida.  Each day is represented by one image I captured on that day over the course of 7 years.  I'd like to share this with you as kind of an early Christmas present from me to you.  Rather than try to upload it in it's entirety here on the Blog, I'll direct you to the site where I've posted it on YouTube.  I hope you enjoy it.  Have a blessed holiday season!

         To view my "Images of Winter" click on .youtu.be/XH355_VCX_k

Mia Culpa

Regrets, I've had a few.  Most of all, letting this blog lapse for such a long time has worn on me and now it's time to get back to business.  Lots of "stuff" has been going on, but I'll not bore you with the facts or excuses as to why the void has existed for these past several months.  Let's just say, it's time to move on.

     My newest project for the upcoming year will be a "Big Photo Year" with the goal being the capturing of at least 350 species on "film" from January 1st through December 31st of the calendar year 2014.  The ground rules will be simple…..no old photos allowed.  Only images which are readily identifiable as a specific species will be counted.  The shots won't necessarily have to be "great", but I certainly will make every effort to make each and every shot as worthy of publication as possible.  I've had year-lists for at least a decade now and I do keep a life-list as well as a photo life-list.  But the challenge here will be to see how many species I can collect in one single year.  Between now and January 1st, I'll start planning on places to visit to get the most diverse collection of birds to photograph.    As I move along, I'll post interesting shots of places I plan to revisit once 2014 begins.

       One such place will certainly be the sod farms of Orange County New York where I captured this less than brilliant but fine for documentation purposes image of a Snowy Owl. It was overcast, snowing, and the bird was distant, but nonetheless, you can tell it's a snowy.  These birds are not common to our area and would be a welcome addition when trying to amass a decent number of species for the year count.  Keep your screens tuned to natdigital.blogspot.com and I promise not to leave you hanging.

       The Snowy owl of Skinners Lane, Pine Island, NY  captured on 11/25/13:

2013: Week of August 18th – 24th

Bountiful butterflies

       More visuals than text this week as the butterflies are out in full force and in truth are soooooo much more easily photographed than my usual avian fare.  All of today’s images were captured at the butterfly garden at Stonykill Environmental Farm in Wappingers Falls.  The beautiful sunlit gardens were as attractive to this photographer as they were to the butterflies and I ended up spending a fair amount of time wandering through the beds and maneuvering around to get just the right lighting conditions and hopefully finding those specimens that were not too much the worse for wear.  Below is the collection of images from this day’s outing.

Great spangled fritillary

Pearl crescent pair

Tiger swallowtail

Pearl crescent

Gret spangled fritillary

Black swallowtail

Monarch butterfly

2013: Week of August 11th – 17th

Shorebird migration

     

       We spent two days at two excellent habitats in search for migrating shorebirds.  It’s the middle of August, and the migration of these birds should be just about peaking.  Last week, we spent some time in Brigantine Unit of the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Smithville, New Jersey.  Already, it seemed, many of the migrants have moved through.  The Dunlin which were so profuse a couple of weeks ago were not to be found and the Dowitchers seemed to be diminishing in numbers as well.  Others, however, were here in the northeast in big numbers.

       Among those were the Semi-palmated sandpipers which we found by the thousands as the Brig.  This week, however, we visited two other areas of note….. White’s Bogs, where last week we had the Scissor-tailed flycatcher, and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. 

 

White's Bogs, Pemberton, NJ

       At the bogs, we found a nice number of Solitary sandpipers (not so solitary after all!), good numbers of yellowlegs, and quite a few Short-billed dowitchers. 

       

       

The other bird of note at the bogs were the large numbers of Gull-billed terns flying about in large flocks.  It is often somewhat of an arduous task to be able to locate these birds, but this week, they were the default tern at White’s Bogs.  The birds exhibited a great deal of social behavior, working in concert as they hunted the surface of the bog ponds.  What a beautiful sight to see the large numbers flying as if the entire display was choreographed by an avian Twyla Tharpe.

       We were hoping to locate some Pectoral and Stilt sandpipers at this site, but our survey of the property came up empty.

       Later in the week, back in our home state of New York, we checked out what has always been a hotspot for finding migrant shorebirds, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.  Last year’s “Superstorm Sandy” devastated the refuge, breeching one of the dikes which isolated the West Pond.  There were far fewer birds than we have come to expect at the refuge this week, and we could not help but wonder what the future holds for the area.  How long will it take, if ever, for the refuge to once again become the magnet it had been before being ravaged by the storm.

       

       Still, we found some fine birds to hold our attention.  Several first year Black-crowned Night-herons were found including this one which was either bathing or simply keeping cool on this warm day by spending and extended period of time half submerged in “Big John’s Pond”.  Being close to the photo blind made for an excellent opportunity to shoot this youngster.   A group of Glossy ibises were also visible from the blind and remained perched above the Night-heron.

       Short-billed dowitchers were also common and were not afraid to come within great photo-op distance.  These seen below happened to be feeding in the reflection of a mute swan, making for an interesting backdrop.

       Oystercatchers were moving through and we counted over thirty on one sandbar out in the bay. 

 The Stilt sandpiper we had sought down in Jersey was finally found here in Jamaica Bay and gave us nice extended looks as did a less common bird here in New York, the American avocet. 

Stilt sandpiper

       A far more common bird (although not found in great numbers in the refuge today) is the Semi-palmated plover.  This bird gave us a great show as it bathed no more than 30 yards from us in the shallows of the north end of the East Pond.  In an effort to really shake that excess water off, the bird made a vertical leap at one point and shook vigorously in mid-air.  I had the camera trained on the bird at the right time and captured the acrobatic move.

       Well, it is August.  And after a few weeks lull, things are picking up once again as the first waves of fall migrants begin to move through Southeast New York.  We’ll keep an eye on the continuing movement of the shorebirds as well as the “confusing fall warblers” in the upcoming weeks.  Watch for upcoming reports on our finds.

2013: August 4th – 10th Jersey Scissor-tail

        We are wrapping up another enjoyable week with our son’s family here in Long Beach Island and now await the arrival of our daughter and her family.  We’ve been able to squeek in a little birding time between beaching, miniature golf, fishing, and so on and in fact had a successful chase after a Jersey rarity, the Scissor-tailed flycatcher.

       This flycatcher should be in the south-central region of the country during the summer months and around this time of year should be gathering in large flocks to begin their migration to Mexico and points south.  So, why did this bird decide to make an appearance in central New Jersey?  Only God and the bird know.  In any case, the bird chose some pretty nice digs to settle into, making her summer home the cranberry bogs of Brown’s Mills. 

       Having noticed the reports of this elegant flycatcher on eBird, Sharon and I took a brief trip northwest to White’s Bogs, an historical cranberry producing operation about an hour from where we are staying in LBI.  We found a group of Jersey birders on site, but they had already seen the flycatcher and were off on another quest.  We asked where we might be able to locate the scissor-tail and were given explicit directions to “Bog 5” where the bird has been recently sighted.  We were rewarded for our efforts in no time as we drove up to the bog, got out the scope and had the bird fly in and land on a sprinkler head.  As I went for the Nikon, the bird left as quickly as it had appeared and I figured I might have last my one chance for a decent shot at the quarry.

      

         We continued to scout out Bog 5 and surrounding areas with sightings of other flycatchers but not the scissor-tail.  Finally, after another hour and a half, we returned to said bog and found the desired bird perched out in the middle of the bog.  As luck would have it, we were blessed with brightening skies as I began to shoot.  After a day of misty overcast conditions, the timing could not have been better.  Shooting from the portable blind known as the RAV4, I was able to get better and better shots as the bird flew in closer and closer.  Eventually, he departed, but only after giving us a great look for an extended time.

      

Semi-palmated sandpiper

        We ended the week with an afternoon down at Brigantine NWR.  We met a friend of ours who we bird the Brig with each August and headed out onto the wildlife drive in the heat of the day.  Mid-day in mid-summer is not the greatest time for birding, but we did OK with about 40 species.  We noted once again how the cast changes from week to week as we head towards fall.  Two weeks ago, it was all about the dunlin.  Last week, the dowitchers took over.  This week, it was thousands of semi-palmated sandpipers that dotted the mudflats. 

       Probably the best shot of the day was of the grand Caspian tern which we found hunting over the first impoundment.  We watched a shot for at least 10 minutes before leaving the bird behind, still plunging into the depths for its lunchtime meal.

      

        Other terns we found on site included the omnipresent Forster’s terns, a few Least terns, and several Gull-billed terns.  The usual assemblage of herons and egrets were of course on-site as well and this little snowy flew by to check us out as we drove around the impoundments.

       Finally, we had a nice comparison of two of our more common "peeps" which were found together on the jetty off of South 31st Street in Beach Haven.  Both size and plumage differences were evident, but of course the most obvious difference was the bright yellow legs of the Least as opposed to the black legs of the Sanderling (actually a bit too large to be a true "peep")  The Least is one of our really long distance travelers and is likely to be headed down to South America in the immediate future.  We'll keep an eye out for him on the jetty.

Least sandpiper

Sanderling

       We’ll keep track of what develops down here over the next week or so and keep you informed via the blog.  Stay in touch!

2013 - Week of July 28th – August 3rd: Back on the Plains

South Jersey Coastal Plains, that is……

       Can’t get away from the flatlands lately.  After a week out on the great plains of North Dakota, we find ourselves birding the coastal plains of south Jersey.  As we wend our way through the sultry heat of the summer season, we find subtle changes in the natural world.  Young baby birds are slowly maturing and becoming more independent (to a degree).  Small flocks of birds are seen moving south.  Signs of initial migratory movement, or did we just happen to see them when they were flying in that general direction?  When we see groups behaving this way, like the Cedar waxwings flying in mass with a seemingly definitive purpose, we assume migration.  We also found a collection of Tree swallows which had set in for a little rest among the reeds of the marsh.  Once nesting is complete, these birds become very social.

       

       The tree swallows we saw today showed signs of molting, and while most birds do not molt during migration, tree swallows are in the select group which do.  After nesting, groups of these swallows will begin migrating towards Florida and points further south by way of a series of short trips down the east coast, moving in units of up to 200 miles from one large marsh to the next.  These marshes provide a great deal of food in the forms of bugs, and believe me, if you have ever been in the Brigantine NWR in July and early August, you know what we’re talking about.  We found it necessary to bird from the car with the windows rolled up in order to prevent the little green-headed monsters from extracting their pound of flesh as we moved through the wetlands. For more interesting facts on these wonderful swallows, visit http://www.treeswallowprojects.com/cafter.html.

        Other products of the recent nesting period which we had the privilege of seeing this week included Clapper rails, American oystercatchers, and fluffy little Common yellowthroat chicks.

 

Clapper rail

Juvenile American oystercatcher

Common yellowthroat chick

       While the yellowthroats were among the most diminutive birds we saw on the coastal marshes this week, the Great black-backed juveniles were already birds of pretty major proportions.  With the parent looking down from above, these two young birds called plaintively looking forward to their next feeding.  I mentioned these two to Sharon and she looked right past them because I had referred to then as chicks.  “Chick-size” they are not!

      

         As we move through mid-summer, we will gradually note a changing of the cast of characters which make up the population along the north-east regions of the coastal plain.  The default gull at this time of year is the Laughing gull.  Anyone who has vacationed along the Jersey Shore during July and August knows that the raucous call of this part is a major part of the experience.  As the seasons march on, these birds will all but disappear as they head down the coast to warmer climes.

      

       

 Another summer visitor we had the pleasure of watching and photographing were the Blue grosbeaks.  These birds will summer and breed in this area, but will later move on, pretty much vacating the United States for the entire winter season.  For know, we’ll revel in their beauty and be thankful for their presence in these warm marshes and woodlands.

       We'll continue to watch the evolution of the natural world here in Brigantine over the next several months knowing that each time we visit, we can expect to find something new.

      

2013: July 5th-13th – Birding North Dakota

       Off to a new venue for the beginning of July…..North Dakota.  We have never traveled to the “Peace Garden State” and found the idea of birding here with the New Jersey Audubon intriguing.   And so, when we heard of the opportunity to spend a week birding the prairies and the badlands, we jumped at it.

       

       The majority of the trip was spent in the western half of the state.  We flew into Bismarck a day early to get acclimated and spent the next day birding the Dakota Zoo.  I’ve always found zoos to be great places to find native birds which are attracted to the water features, the captive species, and perhaps the excess food found in these places.  Our best finds of the day were our first Black-headed grosbeak and a cute little 13-lined ground squirrel (the first of many!).

       Our birding excursion started in earnest the following day as we headed east towards Dawson.  The plains and the associated wetlands surrounding the potholes (depressions left by the glaciers which are not filled with water to form small ponds) serve as an attractive habitat for quite a few birds we do not regularly find back home in New York.  While we generally find Red-tailed hawks as the “default” hawk back east, here Swanson’s hawks are more prevalent.

 

Swainson's hawk

       Red-winged blackbirds were here in the pothole regions just like back home, but we also had Brewer’s and Yellow-headed varieties here to add to the mix.

       While the Upland sandpipers are somewhat of a “find” back in the Empire State, here it was not uncommon to find them perched on fence posts along the sides of the dirt roads.

      

   

Lark sparrow

    From this day on, we concentrated on the areas of the state west of Bismarck.  North Dakota has more National Wildlife Refuges than any other state with a grand total of 63. The three units of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park adds another 110 square miles of natural wilderness lands to provide birders with a spectacular stage.  During our weeks visit, we birded both the North and South units where our backdrop was the spectacular Badlands of North Dakota.  Golden eagles, Big-horn sheep, bison, and elusive birds like the richly hued Lark sparrow were all visible to the attentive viewer.

      

         Back in the prairies, we spent some time seriously hunting for three of our true target birds…..the Sprague’s pipit, Baird’s sparrow, and the Le Conte’s sparrow.  We found all three species and Sharon and I added the first two mentioned to our Life-lists.  Photographing then was quite a challenge as they tended to stay far off and would only occasionally pop up out of the heavy grasses to give us a short look before dropping down into denser vegetation.  Still, the looks were wonderful and most memorable.

 

Le Conte's sparrow

       One of the most productive areas was the area near Granville, ND known as the Granville Marsh Road.  As with many of the roads in this state, this is a long, straight, and for the most part well maintained dirt road.  Many of these dirt roads have a posted speed limit of 55 MPH, and when the oil tankers which have lately become more and more common in these parts come roaring down the “highway” towards you, it is best to give way and stay out of harm’s way.  In between these trucks, however, there were long periods during which many grassland birds would come out to perch on the roadside fence posts.  Wilson’s snipe were commonly heard and not infrequently seen in such positions.

       The Vesper sparrow, a fairly tough bird to sight in NY, was again frequently seen along the roadside.

     

        In the potholes, Black terns were abundant.  Forster’s and Common terns were occasional, but the Black was definitely the easiest to see and photograph here on the prairie.

      

         We also got used to seeing gulls not common to the east coast in the form of California and Franklin’s gulls.  An occasional Ring-bill would show up, but the “frankies” were by far the most conspicuous.

 

Franklin's gulls

       All totaled, we tallied 157 species by the end of the trip.  Among notable “misses”, we had not found the Prairie falcon or the Sharp-tailed grouse (which was actually reported by one member of the group).  But seeing the Sprague’s pipit doing its aerial display and then plummeting at lightning speed from the heights down to the grassland floor more than made up for those birds we missed.  Watching the Brewer’s blackbirds ride the backs of the hawks they were chasing from their territory, and seeing the spat that arose between a Yellow-breasted chat and a Catbird made for great images in the camera and in our minds. 

      

       

 As we departed at the end of the week, we all agreed that this is an incredibly beautiful region of our country in which to bird.  To see the land quickly being “taken over” by oil and fracking interests concerned us all.  Once pristine landscapes are now dotted with hundreds of drilling rigs, housing for the workers, and signs supporting the philosophy of “Drill, baby, drill.”  Granted, we need to explore and develop our natural resources here in our homelands, but we hope that the time is taken to do so with foresight and wisdom rather than just the desire to make a quick buck.  Montana is also considering the development of their resources, but is carefully weighing the pros and cons of practices like fracking and is waiting to see what the “final word” is on the environmental impact of this method of extracting these resources.  In the meantime, get out and see North Dakota while here is still some of the natural beauty to see!  It may not go on forever.

Eared grebe on a pot-hole pond