Fairweather Zealot

On the first day of my 4-day ‘vacation’, I decided to take some time for myself and visit a favorite haunt, Palmyra Cove. I knew that most of the rest of the weekend would be taken up by work (both my real job and some side work I’m doing), so this might be my only chance to get out and enjoy myself. It turned out that it wasn’t particularly birdy, but there were TONS of butterflies and dragonflies around (although strangely, no damselflies). Continue reading

On my final day in California, I wanted to get a little time for some final birding but I knew that I would have to leave almost immediately after the end of the conference. So, I went out a little early to see if I could see anything of interest such as a picture of an oak titmouse.

While I saw quite a bit in a small wooded area across from Stanford Stadium, the light was tough. Still, I got to see a Spotted Towhee (first of year), a couple of Western Scrub-Jays, Chestnut-backed chickadees, oak titmouse and even a small flock of bushtits.

Eventually, it was time to move on – and the walk actually provided to be very birdy. Along the walk were more bushtits and titmice, and when I got to the conference I was able to have breakfast with a pair of Oregon Juncos who were jumping around the edge of the patio. While I was admiring them, I heard a unique call in a nearby tree. Of course I had to check it out, where I saw a pair of woodpeckers – a pair of Nuttall’s woodpeckers*, a new lifebird. Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone and couldn’t get a picture of either species.

After the conference, my walk back to the car was also full of birds, including two species of hummingbirds (Anna’s (a new bird) and Black-chinned), more oak titmice, another towhee singing at the top of its lungs and several more scrub-jays, most of them flying around the buildings at Stanford. A trio of ravens (which I guess is a traditional resident here, even though they are uncommon in the area in general) were calling from the top of one of the buildings as a I walked past. I don’t often get to see them and even more rarely get a good luck so that was a nice touch.

So, all too soon it was time to head to the airport. But in addition to a nice conference (which I’ll get around to writing about soon), I had a lot of great birding in a short amount of time. You can see my entire set of pictures on Flickr.

Bird List

After my day out with Patty and Al, I had to start the real reason I was in California to begin with: the Mobile Health 2010 conference. It was tough to sit through a two hour workshop after getting up at threw crank of dawn and walking around all day, although I’ll say the presenters did a great job. And the birding was nice as I got to see a black Phoebe doing its thing in the parking lot.

The next day, the conference began in earnest, but since I decided to walk from the hotel, I was treated to a short nature hike. In a short span I saw both red-tailed and Cooper’s hawks, acorn woodpeckers^, chestnut-backed chickadees and a small troop of bushtits^. And I heard a bunch of others I couldn’t ID by voice alone.

After the conference, my walk back was even more fruitful, as I saw many more birds, including my lifelist Oak Titmouse*. But I had places to be, as Patty had told me I was likely to see one of my main goal birds – Cinnamon Teal – at Radio Road, and I was quickly losing light between the hour and the encroaching clouds. Finding the place was pretty simple, but my apprehension was growing as I watched the golden afternoon light flitting in and out grim the clouds, finally I arrived and found that karma was giving me some dues.

Right in front of me – and bathed in a wash of golden light peaking through the clouds – was a gorgeous male Cinnamon Teal in breeding colors. He would turn out to be a single specimen, making it even more beautiful to have seen him at that moment. But he wasn’t alone in the grand scheme of birds in this little retention pond area.

Feeding close by were a few Black-necked stilts and American Avocets, far closer even than they were at the Baylands. Further out, numerous waterfowl including Gadwall, Northern Pintail and Northern Shovelers swam about eagerly eating the bounty in the shallow ponds. But a site in a second pond caught my eye, dragging me away from that gorgeous rust-colored duck – a Ruddy Duck, as a matter of fact. A single male with that unique baby blue bill was courting a number of females. Seeing his beautiful colors close up was great, but the real fun was watching the mating display. He would swim up toward one of the females, put his bill against his breast and then begin this stuttering call as his head jerked up like it was on a gear sprocket. He did this repeatedly though the hen acted as though they’d heard it all before.

After a short while, and numerous pictures, I decided to peer around to see if anything else was interesting. While there was nothing close by, there were a few cool birds, namely single canvasback and Lesser Canada Goose specimens. But it was the teal, avocet, stilt and ruddy duck that were the highlights of the visit.

Bird List

Day 2 started early as I met fellow Flickr birders Photo Patty and her husband Al for a day of birding in Monterey. I have to say right off that Patty wins the “Good Trooper” award for coming along two days after breaking her leg (she insisted).  I was excited to have some locals to show me hot spots, but I couldn’t have expected the pinpoint accuracy they would have with their predictions. Not only were they able to produce many new birds on my list, but they seemed to almost always do it at the first place they tried. Anyway, the trip to Monterey was nice as we caught up since their visit last July, talked about our trips to Arizona (man, I really want to go back), and they filled me in on the places we would be checking out. Continue reading

The end of May was a flurry of activity: lots of work, and then I was asked to fill in for a co-worker at the Mobile Health 2010 conference out in California. It meant missing out on my long- awaited Phils-Red Sox game but I was excited because I’ve been doing a lot of mobile stuff lately. Plus, since the tickets were for Saturday and the conference didn’t start until Sunday, I would have some time to explore the area (read, bird). Continue reading

The day before the World Series of birding, I was really wanting to get out and enjoy the nice weather so I decided to do some birding. When I was asking some of the people on the Jersey Birds list where would be the best place to start, one of the semi-local birders – Yong Kong – asked if I wanted some company. Thinking it’s always nicer to bird with company we made plans to head down to Cape May together. It was a good plan, as our combined skills/knowledge complemented each other to provide for a good day of birding. Continue reading

Had a good time getting out to Forsythe NWR and meeting some of the folks on Flickr (many of whom are also on here). Though the weather was changing constantly throughout the day (overcast gave way to sunny, which then became very windy, then turned sunny again, etc.), it was a really nice day of birding. Continue reading

It looks like migration is still lagging at Palmyra Cove, but it was still a beautiful morning to get out on Saturday. The ponds are all very full around the park, which will hopefully translate into lots of odonata later this summer. There’s a few species out already but the larger group is yet to come. Continue reading

Another year has passed and I get to look back at what I have done throughout the year. In this case, I get to see what I did and enjoyed when looking at birds (and butterflies & dragonflies). It was a slower year for me – I got out a lot less than I had in the past, and was able to enjoy many fewer walks and hikes to search out the peace I get when I’m birding. In the past, even going to nearby Palmyra Cove a dozen times a year and walking the familiar paths after work or on a Saturday morning was a joy – but one that seemed to escape me all too often this busy year. On the other hand, I had the amazing experience of birding in Arizona in April & May – something I would love to repeat someday soon. Continue reading

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to write anything, mostly due to work but in part due to simply being to tired. But this weekend I had a chance to recover a bit, do some fun stuff and be lazy without the guilt.

Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be for finishing up the bathroom: put in the tile, seal it, install the chair rail and do all of the other finishing work. Unfortunately, the drywall guy we hired did a piss-poor job and the walls were so uneven that we have to tear them out and redo them. At least he was smart enough to give us some money back.

But the good news was that it gave us some more time to get other stuff done: we got a new stock pot for making turkey soup, we made another turkey for turkey sammiches, we went to BJ’s for some bulk supplies, etc.

But the majority of my fun was from getting out to do something I have not done nearly lately: bird. Monday took me all the way down to Cape May in search of the four rarities there – IVORY GULL, SWAINSON’S HAWK, EURASIAN WIGEON and RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. I ended up getting 2 of 4, so not a bad day. I followed it up by seeing another eastern rarity – a SPOTTED TOWHEE – at Palmyra Cove the next day.

Cape May

I got up early – really early – in order to make the trek down to the birding mecca of Cape May, only this time the mecca had some extra rarities to enjoy. My first stop was the Bree-Zee-Lee Marina where the IVORY GULL – a rarity normally restricted to the arctic – had made a lengthy appearance and was giving people a lot of chances to see it. I got to Cape May very quickly and had no problem finding the place, and I was treated by the fact that the bird was already there waiting. I wasn’t there more than 5 minutes when the bird decided to give us all a flyby and I got great looks at the beautiful white feathers that were starkly different from almost all of the gulls that normally habitate this area. After about 45 minutes, it disappeared and I decided to move on, but I had my first lifer of the day.

Reports on the hummingbird had been nil because of the cold weather, so I decided to give the hawk a try. Unfortunately, it – as hawks are wont to do – was flying to other places, so I missed that one. From there, it was a trip over the Cape May Lighthouse with some other birders that I met, where we went looking for whatever might be around, but most especially the EURASIAN WIGEONS, which I had missed a few times before. 3 drakes and a single hen had been seen there earlier, but there was only a single, young drake hanging out when I visited – but it was a enough. My second lifer of the day!

To follow up, I went back to the marina to see if I could get another look at the Ivory Gull — and although it took a bit for me to find him, when I did I was treated to some closer up views, such as the picture below. And then, it was time to drive back. Without even looking too hard, I was able to see quite a few species, including two lifebirds – all by about noon.

Palmyra Cove

The next day wasn’t as nice weather-wise – in fact, it was pretty cold – but the destination was literally right up the road, and Shari could join me. We wandered up to the area by the Little Pit where the SPOTTED TOWHEE had been seen, hoping we would make it’s 9:00 a.m. itinerary (the bird seemed to disappear about 9 a.m. every morning). Lo and behold, my luck held from the previous day and it was in it’s accustomed spot almost as soon as we got there. However, getting good looks at the little lady was a little tougher as towhees often enjoy the thickets of brush. But I was able to get a few shots. This wasn’t a lifebird for me – I’d seen them in Vancouver a few years back, but it was a first-of-state bird for NJ for me, and a lifer for Shari (not that she really keeps track). Still, 3 rarities in 2 days was a nice departure from all of the recent work.

Now I just have to look forward to my wife’s annual trip to Barnegat and Forsythe for my wife’s birthday.