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.

Life Bird #101

Saw Life Bird #101 yesterday: Common Redpoll. Tuesdays I only have one class, and since this is week one of Spring Quarter, we got out early--leaving me the rest of the day to bird! I couldn't make up my mind between Braddock Bay (my favorite spot to bird around here, closely followed by Irondequoit Bay) and Hamlin Beach State Park. I decided to definitely check out Hamlin Beach at one point, since eBird had sightings of Common Redpolls there in the past couple of weeks, and I've more or less given up on my chances of seeing Crossbills this Winter. Common Redpolls were another species on my mental list of birds I haven't-seen-yet-but-definitely-could-if-I-just-make-a-small-effort-to-go-find-them. Since Braddock Bay is on the way to Hamlin Beach, I gave in to temptation and stopped by. I've been going to Irondequoit Bay this whole Winter, and was pleased to see large numbers of diving ducks at Braddock Bay--mostly Ring-necked Ducks, scaup, and Redheads, with some Common Goldeneye mixed in. I also saw my first Red-winged Blackbirds of 2009.
I always visit the Marina of Braddock Bay when I go birding there. Now, I don't know if I just never noticed it before or if things have actually changed over the Winter, but the place is a DUMP. I kept thinking to myself, "Funny, it doesn't look like a trash can." [rant alert, consider yourselves warned]

I keep a trash bag in the trunk of my car since a lot of the time when I go birding there will be the ocassional piece of trash in the parking lot or on the trails, and the majority of the places I visit are Carry-In, Carry-Out. I think it's important to do your part, especially if it's a place you frequent--in my mind, once you become a regular visitor to a park, NWR, etc. it becomes your responsibility to look after the place in part. Anyway, the place was a dump. I kept muttering obscenities under my breath as I walked around with my trash bag, picking up beer cans, juice boxes, bottle caps, and a ridiculous number of lottery tickets (Cashwords, specifically. All of them.) Someone must come park their car at the Marina during their lunch break or something, eat their lunch, scratch their cashword, toss it out the window, and drive off. I don't know. Oh, and it was damp and muddy, too, did I mention that? There was even a Bud bottle stuck in a hollowed crevice of a tree.

Now, at one point as I was walking around the trunk of a tree and I discovered [this is a little PG-13] a bright purple vibrator. I just sort of stood there for a moment, nodding and thinking, "Yup. Seems about right given the other stuff around here. I really shouldn't be surprised." No, I didn't pick it up. And as you can imagine, after that I was a lot more careful about what I decided to pick up. If I didn't know what it was, it stayed where it was.

Reminds me of the time I was innocently birding at a park in Rochester and came across a couple having sex in their car. Yeah.....awkward.

That wasn't the rant I was expecting to toss out. I guess I've calmed down since. But let me tell you, I was P.O.ed while I wandered around filling my trashbag. Worst part? I hardly made a dent.

So, after Braddock Bay I continued West on the Ontario Parkway to Hamlin Beach, stopping along the way to get some good shots of Red-tailed Hawks soaring overhead.Upon arriving I noticed a large flock of small birds moving around excitedly, foraging around on the ground. I pulled over to get a closer look, and my suspicions were confirmed.

Then I got my first Brown Creeper of 2009.
If I had to estimate the size of the flock of Redpolls, I'd say around 200? Not sure. I ran into another birder while I was there, he was more experienced and said he saw an unusual number of Hoary Redpolls mixed in with the flock. I decided to stay longer and get more pictures. He let me grab a peek through his scope and tried to describe the location of one of the Hoarys, but I couldn't tell the difference between the Hoarys and the Commons. Oh well. I'm hesitating to check Hoary Redpoll off my list, not because I don't believe the guy, but because I somehow feel like it's cheating if I can't identify it. I'll check it off if I see Hoarys in my pictures, but I haven't studied them closely enough yet.New visitors to my feeders include:
Bluejays
Goldfinches
House Finches
Mourning Doves
For the time being, that's all, folks.

Chimney Bluffs + Letchworth

It's been almost an entire month since I posted last--that's what happens when finals start creeping up on you. Let me see, let me see.....haven't seen much of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker at my feeders since his initial visit, spotted him briefly pecking at the suet a few days ago, but that's all. Juncos have started visiting very regularly, leaving their footprints on just about every inch of snow within a 2 foot radius of the "main" feeder post. At first there were a pair of them, but they must have told their friends, because the last time I counted the visiting juncos there were 7. The junco above is thinking, "num num num num." The downy and the pair of cardinals continue to come regularly, as well. The other morning I spotted the cardinals scavenging for dropped seeds on the ground at 6:30 am. Squirrels are still a moderate problem at my feeders. An invader (Feb 24):
on the approach (Feb 3): They can't climb the two posts I have up, but they do scurry in to get whatever dropped seeds they can, and my regulars don't appreciate that. The juncos put up with such intrusions for the most part, though. That about wraps it up for feeder news.

I'm really starting to itch for springtime now. To keep my impatience at least somewhat at bay, I've been exploring new places to go birding. On February 5th I drove out to Chimney Bluffs State Park. There was a lot of snow on the ground, and I wasn't able to hike the trails much at all (I knew I should have asked for snowshoes for my birthday afterall!), but it was pretty, and I can't wait to see it at other times of the year.
The other evening a friend of mine asked to use my printer, and while I fought with it (it was spewing lies about the new black ink cartridge not being compatible, when it was the exact same as the one I had just removed) he noticed the two big maps I have up on my wall: one of Massachusetts and the other of the Finger Lakes region. He asked if the push pins were birding places, I said yes, and then he asked why Letchworth had been ignored. I had indeed ignored Letchworth, in the bottom left corner of my Finger Lakes map. Odd that I overlooked it, too, considering it's impressive size: it's about 17 miles long and covers 14,350 acres. Well, lucky for me I have observant friends, who also happen to be Environmental Science majors with some knowledge of parks in the area. ;)

So, when I should have been packing to go home for break, I was driving out to Letchworth. It was beautiful outside, wanting so badly to be a spring day instead of a winter one, and trying so hard to fulfill that wish. I didn't have enough daylight to explore as much of the park as I would have liked, but it was a very satisfactory first visit. Even before I arrived I saw three red-tailed hawks hanging around 390 between exits 11 and 9. I hate driving on the highway and spotting a raptor, knowing I can't very well stop the car and grab my camera. Even on the rare occasion when I have spotted one while driving and indulged in the urge to pull over, I've never been able to get my camera out and aimed at the target in time. So, I was a little silly.....after the inital cursing that inevitably follows when this situation arises, I decided hell, I'm on my own schedule, and I don't see why I can't bird on the journey AND at the destination. So, I got off at the next exit, got on 390 northbound, and drove back. Then I "had some car troubles" and pulled over, turning on my emergency lights and thinking the entire time "this is unnecessarily dangerous and stupid" (I'm a sucker for those shocking video shows centered around dashboard camera videos, and I've seen a lot of videos of people innocently-enough pulled over, and then being crashed-into by another motorist). Anyway, I got some nice shots. The red-tail regarded me with slight curiosity before flying off into the woods behind him.
The dam at Letchworth:
I can't wait to see more of the park, which includes the highest waterfall in NY state. The trail ahead:
There were tons of downy woodpeckers and white-breasted nuthatches making their endearing calls, which have always struck me as a little silly-sounding.
Hogsback Overlook:
Better get to bed, if I'm very lucky my dad and I will take the kayak out tomorrow for some birding, although I haven't made up my mind yet about where I'd like to go: Assabet River, Great Meadows, or Oxbow?