Well, 2010 is over and while I didn’t get out as often as I had wanted, I still had a number of chances to bird in new places including an awesome trip to the San Francisco area. Along with a number of new bird species, I got to see some new butterflies and dragonflies, as well as having some great photographic opportunities. Continue reading
Right before my ‘incident‘, I was able to take some vacation time and head to two of my favorite winter birding spots: Barnegat Inlet and Forsythe NWR. I was hoping to see the common winter ducks that come to both places, and while it wasn’t excessively birdy in either spot, it was fun to get out. I needed a vacation (oh, if I had only known) and hadn’t been birding in all too long. Continue reading
On the morning of December 2nd, I had a major health scare. I was getting up to get ready for work and on the way down the stairs, I suddenly felt like gravity had shifted to my right side. I was struggling to open the door and navigate around the pets but struggled to walk straight. I went to the sink to wash my face, but the dramatic loss of coordination I was experiencing made it that I could do little more than slap water at myself. I knew something was wrong, and tried to get Shari’s attention – she asked me what was wrong and I couldn’t complete my sentences. I was dizzy and felt like I was about to black out, so I sat down thinking maybe I was having a narcoleptic moment and Shari got me some juice in case it was blood sugar. Continue reading
Last month, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were coming to town and I wanted to take Shari and I to the show. I’ve bought (or won) us tickets to 3 shows in the past but she hadn’t made any of them yet (including the show we BOTH missed because we were armpit deep in bathroom renovations). Unfortunately, with finances tight lately I had to give up on the plan for getting us tickets for the TLA show.
The morning before the show, I saw an announcement that WXPN was having a contest giving away a few pairs of tickets to the show if you liked their page on Facebook and left a comment. I figured that lighting wouldn’t strike twice (I won a pair of tickets to the show at Bryant Park in NYC a couple of months ago), but what the hell.
Enter a little bit of luck (or karma) – on the morning of the show I got the email that I had won a pair of tickets – and Shari had a cancellation of an appointment in New York, which meant she would be here to go. Fourth time was a charm, I guess. Continue reading
A while back I came across a chance to win tickets to see GRACE POTTER and the NOCTURNALS – one of my favorite bands – in New York City, and figured I’d enter for the hell of it. I never win these things but they already had my email so no big deal.
Then I get an email telling me I won two tickets to a ‘secret’ show being held at Bryant Park for a taking of the PBS show “The Artists Den”. Needless to say I was pretty stoked even considering the drive. It seemed like it was going to be a fairly limited audience and I figured if they were being taped, they’d really deliver (although the only time I’ve seen them at the TLA in Philly, they were pretty extraordinary without being taped).
I came home with the good news, expecting to FINALLY take Shari to see her (the first time she was sick, and we both missed the second show in the midst of bathroom renovations); to my surprise, she said she couldn’t go because of work commitments! I was bummed and considered giving up my tickets, but decided I could pull it off fairly cheaply by bringing my own food/drink and parking in Jersey, taking the subway in. But I had an extra ticket. I tweeted about my extra and got a response from someone who knew someone who wanted to go. We made arrangements to meet up, and up to NYC I went. Continue reading
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.
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.
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
