Birding in SE Massachusetts

Went out birding yesterday morning to two spots in SE Mass that I've never been to before: Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary and Turkey Hill. Both spots were gorgeous and I saw a good variety of species.I went to Daniel Webster in search of the Sedge Wren that's been hanging around there for the past few days. The wren sang quite a bit, and wasn't all that shy. It came relatively close to the platform on top of Fox Hill and gave me several quick peeks as it flit around in the field. It flapped its wings so rapidly and almost seemed to hover at times, making it appear very much like a hummingbird. Here are a couple shots of the platform on Fox Hill and one of my better photos of the Sedge Wren:
I enjoyed the large numbers of Tree Swallows and Purple Martins zooming around in the sky above me. There's an impressive Purple Martin colony at Daniel Webster:
There were also lots of Common Yellowthroats and Bobolinks in the fields. The whole morning was a lovely symphony of birdsong, I love listening to Bobolinks. I'm still going through my photos and trying to ID a flycatcher, but right now my species count for the day at Daniel Webster is 30, not counting the flycatcher. If anyone has any skill identifying flycatchers, I made sure to record it singing in addition to taking its picture. I know that Empidonax Flycatchers cannot always be identified without hearing their voices, even when we get them in the mist nets at the banding station and can take several measurements, we often have to write down "Unknown Empidonax Flycatcher". Here's the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qxm08sl94

Couple more shots of Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary:There's a cardinal singing over the flycatcher, I had to turn up my laptop volume all the way to hear it at all, but I'm still hoping it will be enough for someone to ID it for me. I already posted on Birdforum hoping for some help. If you've never visited Birdforum.net before, take a peek. It's a nice community of birders. You can get ID help, look at photos, and chat about anything and everything related to birding. Okay, enough of the plug, now for some pics from Turkey Hill:
I added 7 more species to the day's total at Turkey Hill: Eastern Kingbird, Chimney Swift, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, House Wren, and a Cormorant flew by overhead. I likely would have seen quite a bit more if it had been earlier in the day, and I intend to go there again right at dawn when I get the chance. Overall, I had a lovely day, despite the fact that I was silly enough to try to go to Parker River NWR at 3 in the afternoon on Memorial Day Weekend. I grabbed a bite to eat, with some difficulty. [Just wanted something simple, Bob Lobster was packed to the gills. Discovered that they will not make you a grilled cheese sandwich at the Plum Island GRILLE. Was annoyed. Apart from that and my unenthusiastic waitress, it seemed like a nice place, though. ] The refuge lots were full (of course) by the time I got there and finished eating, and I was satisfied with the birding I'd done that day, so I just went home. Too bad that I wasted my time, energy, and gas because I didn't think my plan through, but hopefully it's a mistake I won't make again soon. Until next time, folks:

Take nothing but pictures (and maybe the trash of jerks who came before you), leave nothing but footprints.

How You Know a Birder's "Got It Bad"

I showed up at the hawkwatch last Saturday around 1:30 pm. We had all been expecting it to be a good flight day with SW winds between 10-15 mph, ideal conditions for raptor migration as I understand it. When I approached the top of the ramp with my scope and tripod over my shoulder and bins and camera around my neck, our* hawk counter looked at me and tapped his watch with a teasing look of disapproval. I protested with a hint of a whine, "I know, I know!" I squeezed in on the platform's long bench between the regulars, and they asked why I was so late.

-"Well, it's hard getting out of bed when there's a sweet boy and a nice cat to cuddle with..."
-"You should know better- birds first! Birds before boys!"

And that, folks, is how you know if a birder's got it bad--they opt for more time with that special someone instead of going birding.



*I use the word "our" loosely. BBRR hires someone each Spring to count the raptors that migrate over the Braddock Bay hawkwatch. I volunteer with BBRR a little, and I noticed myself using "us/we/our" recently without realizing it.

Spring So Far

Whew! What a Spring it's been so far. No time to go into much detail, but I've had a blast doing a little work educating the public. Led a girl scout troup on a tour to the Raptor Banding Station and helped out with an event at the Seneca Park Zoo teaching middle schoolers about Raptors. Was rather unsure of myself during the girl scout tour, but don't think I did too terribly for a first time on my own. I know I'll get better at it with more time and experience.

A stop by one of BBRR's Raptor banding stations brought about amazing sights, wide eyes, smiles, and great pictures. I was lucky enough to go out on a day with a pretty steady flow of birds. The BIC (bander in charge) and another BBRR volunteer who's currently a bander in training (how exciting!) were even joking, "Okay, 12 minutes until the next bird." because they were catching something every half hour. BBRR has something called Adopt-a-Hawk; many not-for-profits have similar programs. After banding a Sharpie, we all went outside to take its picture so someone could adopt it later on. After taking it's portrait, the BIC said, "Okay Amanda, now take off your camera..."

Now, I was plenty happy just being there and getting to witness the process of catching a raptor and banding it.

Me-"Are you serious?!!"
BIC-"Well, yeah. Now c'mon, put your camera down and come over here. You're going to grab the legs first, up close to the body just like you would do with a songbird....."

Next thing I knew:A half-hour later (on the dot):
Did I mention that I had spent the morning at BBBO mending mist-nets and banding songbirds? Amazing day. I want to do this stuff everyday, all the time. <3 Birds. :)

Take nothing but pictures (and maybe the trash of jerks who came before you), leave nothing but footprints.

Songbird Banding Season Begins

Songbird banding season has begun and I'm doing my best to get out to RIT's bird observatory 3 days a week and to 3BO (Braddock Bay Bird Observatory) twice a week. RITBO is located near some wetland habitat, so some of the species caught there differ from the ones we generally get at 3BO. So far at RITBO I've discovered just how grabby Red-winged Blackbirds are. Attempts are made to allow the bird to grab a pencil or a straw instead of the bander's finger/s, with varying levels of success (think Indiana Jones substituting the bag of sand for the idol in the often-parodied beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark). Earlier this week a male RWBL I was banding flung the pencil he was holding at us, and then promptly grabbed onto my fingers again.

Tonight BBRR's 22nd Annual Bird of Prey Days kicks off with a live program featuring Liberty the Bald Eagle at 7 pm. I'm excited for this weekend's events, although admittedly kind of bummed that this also happens to be the weekend a couple of friends are coming to town for a visit, haven't seen one of them in months! Sigh. Guess it's not such a horrible problem--having lots of things to look forward to all at once, just wish they didn't conflict with each other.

Daily summaries of the banding operations at 3BO can be found here
and event details for Bird of Prey Days can be found here!

Mom + Dad at the Hawkwatch

Mom and Dad drove out for a little visit this past weekend, and on Saturday I took them by the hawkwatch platform at Braddock Bay. I felt sure that Murphy's law would prevent me from showing them anything other than Turkey Vultures or Red-tailed Hawks, but it turned out to be a great flight day.

a kettle of Turkey Vultures

Birding with Friends

Thursdays are my birding days, since my schedule is wonderfully blank. :) A couple of weeks ago I spent the whole day birding and even brought a couple of friends along, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Both were very good sports, although my afternoon buddy gets the gold for putting up with my ridiculousness as we wandered around looking for a ruffed grouse, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Rob very admirably left the comfort of bed behind and came to join me in the morning at the marina on the west shore of Braddock Bay.
I got to show him a good variety of ducks, then brought him to the hawkwatch for a visit before he had to head off to work. Next I met up with my friend Chris for some more birding.

As for the grouse (which we did not end up seeing, or hearing), I had looked it up on eBird the day before, and written down the name of the road, figuring I'd just get out my map since I knew the general area it was in, but according to my map, the road doesn't exist. After some wandering, we stopped at a gas station and asked for directions. We left with the BEST MAP EVER :P
(and yes, I kept it)
Chris had fun teasing me when I brought him to the hawkwatch.
Hawkwatch regular: "Now, this is a different guy than you had up here this morning, right?"
Chris (jokingly shocked): "How many guys do you bring up here?!"
Me: "I told you I brought Rob earlier!"

Such silliness. :P We ended the day with some good pizza.

Just 9 more days until we set up the mist nets for songbird banding season!

Take nothing but pictures (and maybe the trash of jerks who came before you), leave nothing but footprints.

Halibut Point with Mom

Today's the first day of classes for Spring quarter, so I just got back to Monroe county (home sub 2) after being home (sub 1) in Massachusetts for a week for Spring break. Not much birding, mostly spent time with friends I don't get to see often. However, I did get to go out to Halibut Point State Park to see Harlequin ducks--and Mom even wanted to come along! :)Yea, I know, I look kinda goofy. But I was warm, and besides--who worries about how they look when they go bird watching?!?

It was windy and a bit chilly, but actually fairly warm for the time of year and the fact that it's right on the ocean. I was glad to have a chance to show Mom how nice it is to have a scope, since, you know, my parents are the ones who bought it for me for Christmas. :P Since it was so windy I had difficulty keeping both my camera and the scope steady, which meant that I didn't 100% positively identify my lifer Black Scoter until I reviewed my pictures later that day.
I want to make sure I give due credit to Mom for her birding that day, even if it means admitting my own goofs (cue up keyboard cat).....

I initially set up my scope to look at what turned out to be a buoy. As I was confirming the sighting of my first 2010 Buoy Bird--
Mom: "Isn't that a bunch of ducks over there?"
I turn and look, naked eye. "Yes, yup, those are the Harlequins. Nice work."
Oops. Turns out locking on to the first dark thing you see floating in the water may not be the best duck-watching policy. :P

Take nothing but pictures (and maybe the trash of jerks who came before you), leave nothing but footprints.