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.

SPEAK UP FOR STATE PARKS!

I cannot properly describe the nasty, hollow thing in my gut right now, although it most closely resembles fear, dread.

Please read this brief article.

I urge everyone who reads this to speak up for our state parks, whether you live in NY state or not. I am a registered voter in Massachusetts, but I will very likely remain in the Finger Lakes region after graduation, and begin to make my life here. I spend a great deal of time in government-owned parks--from town and county-managed property to the magnificent Letchworth State Park, and the thought of a single one closing, or diminishing in size, makes me shudder in horror.

NY isn't the only state considering or already planning to close state parks, as the article mentions. Even if your home state isn't considering making changes to its park system, I plead with you to write to your elected officials and to let them know how precious the parks are to you.

Our species continues to rape the natural world, let's face it. There are only tiny pockets that remain relatively unmolested. For the flora and fauna who dwell in these places, for future generations, and for yourself-- speak up!

Click here to email Gov. Paterson

In addition to what I have already asked of you, I ask one more favor: pass the word along. The birding community, I expect, will have a strong voice in this matter.

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

New Social Networking Site for Birders

Heard of WeLoveBirds.org yet? It's a social networking site for birders! NRDC and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology partnered up to create it--check it out :)

No, I'm not dead...just busy

No posts in November, a single post in December, nothing January, and now what is likely to be February's only post (although hopefully not). I have been insanely busy with schoolwork, and my birding--in terms of both the activity itself and networking with other birders--has suffered quite a bit.

I haven't seen a single Redhead or Canvasback all winter. That reflects on the amount of time I've had to go birding, not their presence, or rather, lack of presence. And apparently there are King Eiders in Buffalo, swimming around while I'm stuck doing a CS lab.....grrrr.....

Today as I got got back from class and was walking into my apartment I heard a bird singing, and after going inside to get my camera and snapping its pic, IDed it as a male House Finch. Memories of them singing from the trees in my backyard last Spring crept back into my mind, and I did my best to chisel the song a little bit more into my memory. I'm rubbish with IDing birds by voice and song, haven't had the time to work with my Birding by Ear CDs! Ahhh!

My feeders have been down all winter since the birds were waking my roommate up every morning, so I'm even more birding-starved. I'm sure a number of people can sympathize with me on this: I'm so much grouchier when I don't get to go birding at least 2 times a week!! I'm sure the frequency will vary, maybe some of you get grouchy if you can't bird everyday, or only if you can't bird 3 times a month, I dunno.

But it's okay, because I'm going to bird my brains out in the Spring, and it's going to be AMAZING. I've got it all worked out, you see. I did my best to sign up for evening classes for Spring quarter. That gives me the mornings and at least the beginnings of the afternoons to spend doing bird-related things: dawn to 6 hours after dawn I can be at the banding station/s, and then it's off to the hawkwatch platform! Hours upon hours of birding.....*bad imitation of Homer Simpson drooling*

I've been meaning to post for so long, and I have tons of homework to do for Chemistry, plus studying for Data Analysis (yay?), so I realize that this post is very all-over-the-place and thrown together, little or no proofreading, but blogging is informal, so why am I worrying about it?

The only two other little birding events I can think of were squeezed into my busy schedule:

• driving back to Rochester after spending a weekend in Utica, I saw 3 Bald Eagles at Montezuma NWR, almost drove my car off the road I was so excited (they were flying pretty low at first). Quick detour to the park with my trusty new scope and my camera, and I got some pics. Nothing worth posting, they were too far off, but I got some nice looks nonetheless. Although I do like to get pictures, as long as I can see them with my own eyes, hear them with my own eyes, I can't really complain.
• Walking back to my car after class, I heard a white-breasted nuthatch nearby. Not sure if I've seen one on campus before then, at least not in among the buildings (there's a patch of woods on campus, saw a Pileated there once). I admired him for a few minutes, pointed him out to a random stranger (who I assumed would find it odd that I was standing there looking up at a tree with a goofy smile on my face)

aaaaannd that's about it, although in the first week of January I did drag my brother out to Parker River in the bitter cold, but I'll have to post about that another time.

Finals week next week, perhaps I'll have more time to post, I need to tell you all about how I'm probably going to New Zealand this summer!! :O

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