A Year in Numbers: 2014

"How'd you do?"

You know the question.  It's both sincerely curious and not-so-subtly competitive.  I haven't been birding many years (barely seven, I think, and I entered my first eBird list fall of 2009, for what it's worth), but I have a pretty good idea now of what is a "normal" year for me in numbers:  about 220-30 birds in Massachusetts, but about 180 of them in my town alone.  I am a local birder.  In 2012 I chased a bit and saw 249 in my state, but full time work and a family just don't go together with state-wide listing.  Local is where it is at.

Which is why 2014 was so different.  We traveled.  The kids are old enough to appreciate longer trips, and I had a sabbatical from teaching, so it was a great year for seeing new places and finding new birds.

Early July:  my son and I took a "boreal" trip to northern New Hampshire and Vermont.  Yes, it was a bit late for good activity, but we had a great time exploring bogs and spruce forests.  Perhaps the highlights were Cannon Mountain, where we heard both Bicknell's and Swainson's Thrushes; Pondicherry NWR, where we had goshawk, Philadelphia Vireo, nesting Sharp-shinned Hawks, Bay-breasted and Canada Warblers, and Lincoln's Sparrow; and Moose Bog near Island Lake, VT, where we had Ring-necked ducks and Pied-billed Grebes on territory.  The bugs were ferocious and rain drove us home a day soon, but what a great trip.

Late July/Early August:  Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP, plus Bozeman, MT and the Gallatin Valley.  The kids adored Yellowstone, particularly Hayden Valley, where we saw many bison, wolves, grizzlies, white pelicans, delightful Japanese tourists, and open skies.  Yellowstone netted me 14 lifers Overall, we were less enamored with Grand Teton, but the birding was good, too, with 5 more lifers.  Back in Bozeman, where we were staying on either end of our trip, we lucked into a local guide who showed us some local hotspots in the Missouri Headwaters Area, and we picked up a few more new birds.

Texas:  my marvelous wife sent me to Texas for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in November.  It is a cliche that first-timers really load up on lifers in Texas, but the cliche is true.  It got 49 lifers in 5 days of birding, and saw 167 birds, more than we saw in Montana and Wyoming combined.  Man, it was fun!

Florida:  Finally, a family trip at Christmas to the Orlando area netted my son and I some good birding time.  We missed most of the birds we had targeted, such as red-cockaded woodpecker and Bachman's sparrow, but saw around 90 birds on sporadic trips near where my parent's live.

Overall, I picked up 95 lifers and saw 362 birds in 2014 to get me to a grand total of 419 (300 of which are in Mass.).

Next post will be a year in record shots (some resembling actual photography!).

Back from the (sub) Tropics

My family and I had an enjoyable trip to central Florida, and my son and I got out quite a bit locally around the Kissimmee area, seeing around 110 species over the week.  During winter the retention ponds around my parent's condo complex host Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Ducks, along with many locals: White Ibis, Anhinga, Blue, Tri-colored, and Great Blue Herons, Snowy, Cattle, and Great Egrets, and the ubiquitous feral Muscovy Ducks.  Florida Sandhill Cranes walk the lawns, flocks of Fish Crow fly over, and the trees are full of Palm, Yellow-rumped, and Orange Crowned Warblers.  Sub-tropical birding at its easiest!

Anhinga

However, we had a few goals, one being to try and see Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow, and Brown-headed Nuthatch at the Hal Scott Preserve.  We succeeded only in hearing several of the nuthatches; Bachman's were unresponsive to all means of persuasion, and we lacked time to get deep into the best older growth Long-leaf Pine sections of Hal Scott.  Our consolation was good looks at White-eyed Vireo and four Yellow-throated Warblers (both lifers for Tim).  Hal Scott is really lovely, but it is big, so allow half a day of walking (or take a bike).

Other highlights included a Snail Kite at Riverside Park in St. Cloud (very reliable there), numerous Loggerhead Shrikes (lifer for Tim), Sedge Wren at Twin Oaks Conservation Area in Kissimmee (an excellent new area with great potential), and locally rare wintering ducks, Canvasback and Redhead, also at Twin Oaks.  Finally, after another visiting birder put up an erroneous eBird report for a locals-only communal roosting area (for 240 Fulvous Whistling Ducks, no less!), we visited to find 49 Black-bellied (another lifer for Tim).

Alas, we never got to the Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration Area, where some Groove-billed Ani continued through the holidays.  Nor were we able to get down to Joe Overstreet Rd. to look for Whooping Cranes (introduced locally and now countable).  But all in all, a lovely, warm, and productive trip.

Back to the (sub) Tropics

The holidays bring an opportunity to go south again, this time to the Orlando area to visit family.  I won't be posting long blogs, but perhaps a few pictures.  Here is one for today, a Loggerhead Shrike in a stiff breeze.

Happy Holidays!

A Red-tailed Conundrum

Today while doing some early scouting for CBC in Concord I spotted a brilliant white raptor perched above a field with some pretty active edges.  My first hope, of course, was a Snowy, but instead it proved to be a buteo, and a very pale one.  I am no raptor expert, but I am aware that Red Tails have a Western pale morph, the nearly white high plains Krider's, and an uncommon light morph in the Eastern population.  I don't think this is a western or plains bird, but in my experience it was so unusual—and pretty—I thought I would post my highly-cropped record shots for some comment.

It was 17F, overcast, with snow flakes and a light north breeze, so this bird was really puffed up, with feathers down over its legs.  You can just make out a hint of a "belly band" and some buffiness in the un-banded tail, but overall this is a very pale bird from the throat (typical of eastern birds) through the undertail.  I did not see it fly, so I can't offer dorsal details, but the shoulder suggests light brown wings.  Not a leucistic bird but maybe a light morph Eastern bird.  Comments and corrections welcome.

I have gotten a few comments suggesting that, while pale, this bird is within range for a normal male juvenal bird.  I did not know males tended to be paler. Also, because of the cold, the bird is very puffed up, likely blurring the belly band; additionally, the flat lighting suggested the bird is whiter than it actually is,

Another instance of the great variety and variation in birds.

Birding Along the Border: Some Reflections

The border wall at Southmost Nature Preserve, Brownsville, where the preserve is entirely behind the wall.

Birds have wings, not passports, but birders play by the rules of our society and of our pastime.  Which means, by the listing rules of the American Birding Association, that Mexican birds are not countable unless they are on "our side."  This is the parochial part of our particular game, of course, but it also echoes entrenched political debates on immigration.  Rivers are not arbitrary boundaries, particularly in south Texas, where both sides of the river depend on the Rio Grande/Bravo for irrigation and drinking water, and are bound by a shared history.  Like people, birds depend on the long riparian corridor defined by this river, and so it is that in late fall every year over 800 birders descend on Harlingen, TX to look at birds along the border as part of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival (which is only one of the local nature festivals throughout the year).

The resources of time and money that enable these festivals are no small reason for the economic growth of this region that is fueling strong migration (and the drug trade) across the river.  Across the entire US/Mexico border clandestine immigration is at an all-time low, except for the counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, especially Hidalgo County, where the number of people crossing has put huge strains on border enforcement.  One particular pressure point is a horse-shoe bend in the river below Mission, TX where two parks face each other across the riverine border: on the US side is Anzalduas Park, and on the Mexican side is La Playita, a small beach and picnicking area.

Anzalduas Park.  On the peninsula within the bend of the river is La Playita, nearly wiped out by Hurricane Alex in 2010.  All that remains of the original outline of the peninsula is a small island on the inside of the bend.  Every time the banks recede the international line is redrawn.  My eBird point for a observations during a boat ride above and below the park is apparently in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Anzalduas Park is a lovely grove of live oak and ash trees, and is renowned as a reliable place to see both Zone-Tailed Hawk and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, our smallest flycatcher.  On the sunny afternoon I visited and found both birds, families on both sides of the river were cooking, playing with their kids, playing the same music, and enjoying the warmth after two cold days of rain. Kinglets and warblers zipped through the trees and all manner of flycatchers perched on snags and wires.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Anzalduas Park

As I was strolling by a family preparing a picnic, all speaking Spanish, the man called me over and asked (in excellent English) where I was from and whether I kept track of all the birds I see.  He had read a number of news articles about rare birds, had heard of the Festival, and was really interested in the protection of ocelots.  He offered me a beer and we chatted about the park and the change in weather.  I forgot for awhile that the the only things different about these parks from any others were the river, of course, and the two Border Patrol SUVs patrolling the perimeter road; the Sheriff's Department SUV criss-crossing the park; a Border Patrol boat tethered up river; the huge surveillance installation at the bend in the river; and this permanent line of State Police cruisers at the ready.

Anzalduas Park, Mission TX

Surveillance unit, Rio Grande River, Mission TX

Depending on your politics, these images are reassuring or not, but as always nothing is so simplistic as political ideology where real people and local context are taken into account.  While enjoying the sunshine (and the smell of carnitas wafting across the river from Mexico), I heard loud music and a DJ floating around the bend.

The Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) tour boat is a fixture here (I've seen photos and videos sprinkled across the web), and was rather nicer than the tour boat I took a few days earlier to see birds.  I show this for its poignant mixture of national pride—with a stirring soundtrack celebrating Mexico—and recognition of this place and its many layers of importance.  The DJ is talking about how the recent floods had reshaped this bend in the river, and as the boat turns the bend, he says "and here, for those of you who believe in our saints, is our Patron Saint of Immigrants and Floods, which we placed in the middle of the river to remember them."  More stirring music follows as the boat makes a crisp turn around the small floating statue, and then the DJ turns to Anzalduas Park, "in the great state of Texas, United States," and specifically notes that it is famous as a preserve for birds.  As the boat trails by, we see the flags of both Mexico and the United States.  The saint remains, rocking on her little platform, facing the US boat ramp where, a few minutes later, a massive, black Texas Highway Patrol boat is pulled out of the water.

For various perspectives on Anzalduas and the migrant wave of 2014, see articles in The LA Times,  Texas Monthly, Huffington Post, and The New Republic. On birding the park, see the excellent photo tour by David and Jan Dauphin.

Texas, Day 7: How Ani lost her Groove

Cacti, Hugh Ramsey Park, Harlingen

With a mid-afternoon flight, I had another morning to play with so I managed to get to the SPI Convention Center by 7, expecting to see a number of birders looking for the continuing Groove-Billed Ani.  There was no one. Not another birder until 8:30, but by then it seemed pretty clear that either the Ani had vacated over night or they were lying low until the raucous band of Red-Winged Blackbirds finally left.  But after they did, still nothing.  So, we walked the boardwalk, scoped the Roseate Spoonbills and many shorebirds (including 21 Marbled Godwits) on the mudflats before calling it.

There is a lesson in the fact that I dedicated two afternoons and part of a morning to just a few species, and my readers can draw their own conclusions about the wisdom of chasing rarities when you have limited time on a birding holiday.

Leaving SPI my goal was an inlet and boat ramp on TX-48 between Port Isabel and Brownsville, just off the shipping channel with the mellifluous hotspot name of Shrimp Basin Bridge / Zapata Memorial Boat Ramp / San Martín Lake Outlet. I had spotted an astonishing eBird report from there before the festival and vowed to visit it if I could.  I will let my report speak for itself:

TX48- Shrimp Basin Bridge / Zapata Memorial Boat Ramp/ San Martin Lake outlet, Cameron, US-TX
Nov 10, 2014 10:45 AM - 11:20 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments:     Massive roost of gulls, terns, and shorebirds all hunkered down in a stiff wind. Edited to add: Reviewed photo evidence and added several species not noticed in scoping and corrected some tern numbers.
32 species (+1 other taxa)

Neotropic Cormorant  2
Double-crested Cormorant  2
American White Pelican  X
Brown Pelican  20
Great Egret  2
Snowy Egret  1
Tricolored Heron  1
Osprey  1
Black-necked Stilt  30     counted, and likely more tucked into other wind breaks in the marsh
American Avocet  8
American Oystercatcher  1
Black-bellied Plover  20
Snowy Plover  2
Semipalmated Plover  2
Willet (Western)  66
Ruddy Turnstone  2
Sanderling  2
Semipalmated Sandpiper  6
Long-billed Dowitcher  5
Laughing Gull  150
Franklin's Gull  1     picked out among roosting gulls and terns in photos
Ring-billed Gull  100
Herring Gull  20
Caspian Tern  12
Forster's Tern  4
Royal Tern  8
Sandwich Tern  1     picked out among roosting gulls and terns in photos
Black Skimmer  99     counted, give or take a few
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  X
Barn Swallow  X
American Pipit  1
Western/Eastern Meadowlark  4     singing
House Sparrow  X

Black-Necked Stilts with American Avocets. Everything tall was hunkered down behind wind breaks or lined up bills to the wind.

Black Skimmers with assorted Caspian and Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls, and one Franklin's tucked in.

Terns and Black Skimmers

Prickly Pear, Hugh Ramsey Park, Harlingen

After that extravaganza I happily headed home to Massachusetts.  This was a very memorable trip, and I can see why many birders come year after year (whether they are festival junkies or not) for the sheer pleasure of seeing so many birds so easily, and the hope of finally seeing the hard ones, some day.

Hasta Luego, Texas!

Texas, Day 6: Chasing Cinnamon Teal (and Zone-Tailed Hawk)

The sun is still a novelty.  Today's field trip was to Estero Llano Grando State Park, which I visited a few evenings ago (in the rain) to see the Common Pauraque (and much else).  Estero features some stunning wetland impoundments which are controlled for shorebird or fall/winter duck migration.  Additionally (as our guide explained to us) they cut back the reeds in sections to promote new growth and provide birders with an opportunity to see rails dart across these openings.  Now, why don't we do that that Great Meadows NWR?

The group on the bus today was tired, and perhaps because this trip was labeled as appropriate for beginners, there were many birders who had not seen the basic species.  So, the going was a little slow, but our guide knew what was where, and we saw some juvenile Least Grebe, a single Cinammon Teal (which took some time to find and show everyone), Yellow Crowned Night Heron, White-Faced Ibis, and many, many ducks (including some Ring-Necks!).  Once we got the the "Tropical Zone" in the former trailer park, the passerine birding was a little slow.  Nonetheless, this is one of my favorite destinations this week.  Now, birds get all the attention here, but the valley is a pre-emiment butterly destination, and a major Code 5 butterly was being seen in the parking lot.  Two of our guides were in fact primarily butterfliers, and there was some excitement about getting back to the parking lot to see this very rare creature.  Tropical Duskywing has apparently only been recorded in the US about 5 times (remind you of ABA Rare reports?).

Tropical Duskywing (aka Common Blue-vent)

 With a total of nearly 80 species, Estero was much as I had imagined most of the Valley locations in terms of species variety, but what makes this park extraordinary are the wetlands, and this should be your main reason to go there.

After the rain-soaked debacle that was Wednesdays trip to Anzalduas Park, I vowed to return, so I dedicated the afternoon to driving there and trying for its specialties, Northern-Beardless Tyrannulet and Zone-Tailed Hawk.  Now bear in mind that there is a certain psychology to looking for specific species; that is, if you desire them, you will tend to find them, despite evidence to the contrary.  Which is why my two readers will be skeptical when they hear that in fact I succeeded.  After chasing groups of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers and Orange-Crowned Warblers, I suddenly heard a very distinctive, high-pitched, plaintive "teeee ..... teeee."  I chased this bird for 30 minutes between four ebony trees before it stopped calling, but although I was never able to spot it, I will have to call it my "life" Tyrannulet.  The whole thing about life sightings/hearings is that you have to get them right the second time; that is the deal you make to list it the first time.

As for hawks, I picked through numerous kettles of mixed Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Red-Shoulder (two of them), and Grey Hawk (one, looking very out of place kettling with big black birds).  After an hour and a half of searching I gave up and went to the back of the park to look at warblers (some Black-Throated Greys had been reported in this area).  Suddently, a dark raptor cruised over the park from the south, alone, and I looked up and saw this.

Zone-Tailed Hawk, Anzalduas Park, Mission, TX

Zone-Tailed typically uses the cover of flying with Turkey Vultures, as it shares the distinctive contrast of light light flight feathers and dark coverts.  Except for a distinct white band on its tail and more pointed wings.

Now that sighting was nice, but you know what was nicest?  When searching for warblers I spotted two birds foraging side-by-side.  One was obviously a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, but the larger bird by it was largely yellow with a black back and hood.  Lesser Goldfinch, a bird I had despaired of ever seeing and having to assume I had "seen" in fly-over flocks of finches.

 I left Anzalduas in time to get back to Harlingen in time for a presumably reliable roost of Red-Crowned Parrots.  Except that this evening they did not roost on the lines by Calvary Baptist Church of Harlingen, and a drive through all the surrounding blocks did not turn them up.  Ah, well.

Tomorrow I leave Harlingen on a 2:30 flight, which means I have a full morning, so I am going to return to South Padre Island to try again at the Convention center for the rare birds showing there, among them some Groove-Billed Ani.

For those counting, my trip to Texas has netted 48 new birds and 162 species encountered.  Let's see what tomorrow brings!