Ode to a Plov....er

I've been in Florida for a few days and got out to do some shorebirding this morning.  I was hoping to find my Piping Plover that I found two consecutive years in a row, check it out in this post.  I arrived at Bunche Beach while the tide was  fairly low but it meant less birders around and better opportunities to get closer to the birds.  I didn't find my banded bird but I did find a couple of others.

Banded Piping Plover

I'll send in the sightings to the USFS and hopefully will get some more information on when they were banded and where. 

A different banded Piping Plover

One of the issues with birding today was the five Bald Eagles that were moving around.  Every time the eagles took off, the shore birds would all take off too.

One of the Bald Eagles on the beach

LIFE BIRDS.  First up is this Snowy Plover.  I was looking at a Piping Plover and noticed this smaller lighter bird behind it.  The second thing that caught my eye was the gray legs.  Going back and checking the field guide all the characteristics were good for Snowy Plover.  A life bird!

Distant look at the Snowy Plover

As the tide chased me in, I turned and saw this bird; slightly larger than the Piping Plover, darker, and strongly banded.  A Wilson's Plover!  Another life bird!  The Wilson's is not infrequent to this beach according to what I've heard, I just keep missing them. 

Wilson's Plover

Here's another shot of the Wilson's Plover.  I was so focused on the Wilson's that I didn't notice the Snowy Plover in the background until I was looking back over my photos.

Wilson's and Snowy

 

Here's a few more birds for the day.

Marbled Godwit

Semipalmated (?) and Least Sandpiper

Black-bellied Plover

 

Oh I guess I should write a poem about plovers now....

 

When talking of Plovers, where to start

Bodies so small and eyes so wide

They've stolen my heart

while I was watching the tide.

 

I got drawn in by the one with bands

Two years in a row she said Hi

On the beach of white wet sands

But alas it seems she's gone for her final fly.

 

I know, I know... I'll stick to my day job. 

Birds? What birds?

The emails keep coming in about some amazing birdy visitors to my lovely state and I have seen only a few.  I haven't been out birding since the beginning of the year and I don't plan on starting till it's warm.  I'm in hiding!  Fortunately for the few blog readers who keep checking out my pages, I will be heading south to some warm weather and birds.  So, be prepared for some posts coming your way.  Oh and I have a post that's been in draft for a couple of months so I'll add pictures and post that tooo.

Gotta Keep Up

The title of this blog may have you thinking, I'm referring to blog entries or keeping the feeders full or even my species count for my competition.  I wish it was in reference to the fun side of birding, the happy days of searching new species or of simply enjoying the ones I share my yard with and then share with my readers.  Today, I walked out into the courtyard at work and found a horde of birds that were casualties of circumstance.  These birds had simply picked the wrong place to forage and never saw the glass that they flew into. 

 

American Robins from the beginning of Nov.

I can't even count the number of dead or injured birds we have found around work that were victims of window strikes.   If I were to estimate over the last 4 years...  I'd guess around 300.  What amazes me is not the number but the fact that those are only the ones I've seen.  When I think of all the other building in the world and all the other windows, the estimates conservationist make seem beyond real and more like an understatement. 

Fox Sparrow, not all the birds die, at least right away.

Here the abundance of window strikes is without a doubt Dark-eyed Juncos.  These small gray-brown sparrows breed across Canada and into the northern US, including some higher altitude areas farther south.  During the winter they migrate south as far as parts of Mexico to forage for food and survive before heading north again.  There are quite a number of forms of Dark-eyed Junco as would be expected from the large distribution of the species.  To go into any more details about their behavior would require discussing separate forms.  Instead, I just also mention that they are NOT the only birds that have been killed.

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)- 10 in total today from one hall

Window Strike Species (off the top of my head): Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Mourning Dove, Hermit Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Northern Flicker, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Indigo Bunting, Brown Creeper, etc, etc.

Squirt Bottle
filled with soapy water

So back to the title.  I take some of the blame for today's casualties.  We have tried a number of different methods for keeping them from flying into the windows but our options are limited because it is a workplace.  In vacant areas we've put some newspaper up on the windows but that's not an option for the higher traffic sections.  In those areas we try to do non-invasive window soaping.  The basic goal is get soap scum on the windows to breakup the reflection and let the birds know something is there.  BUT I haven't done it in awhile and with all the rain, most of the residue has washed away.  I "Gotta Keep Up" with making sure we're making an effort to reduce the number of window strikes. 

Me illustrating the final product, it doesn't stop the strikes
but it does reduce them.

French Birds!

The French country-side is devoid of internet.  Maybe that's a bit of an over-statement but after having become accustomed to the internet access here in the states, spending a week without checking my email, playing on facebook, or posting a blog was rough!  (insert slight sarcasm).  Anyway, After having promised my faithful blog readers to post pictures and blogs from the trip, I still haven't.  As I've mentioned in other posts, my birding was WAY less successful than I had hoped for.  Here's a few images from the trip all from Brittany region.  Most were in the country but a couple were coastal stops.

Common Martins

Eurasian Collared Dove

Some Turdus

Wood Pigeon

Herring Gulls

Black-headed Gull (I think)

Great Black-backed Gull

Green Finch

Robin

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Barn Swallow

Blackbird (equiv to our robin)

Fall FALL Migration!

I LOVE fall migration and this year is a great one.  This week at work we've had our second all time high for bird species on campus.  That's beating out three spring migration seasons, pretty impressive.  So why is fall migration my favorite (recently decided)?  The weather is nice, the birds are plentiful, and the species hint at how busy feeders will be in a few months.  One of the best parts is how tricky the birds are, leaves on trees obscure views, species are in nonbreeding plummage and those tricky sparrows that have been gone for months suddenly arrive and id's need refreshing.

Clay-colored Sparrow

 

Anyway, recently I've been hawk watching and enjoying the sparrows as they file back into the weedy grassy sections of lawns.  Rather than talk about species and birding adventures, here's a few photos.  As for how my competition is going... I'm not sure.  I'm doing ok but I don't know how the Oregon list is going. 

Northern Harrier- (young bird)

Palm Warbler- Yellow (Eastern)

Palm Warbler- Brown (Western)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Could it be a Lincoln's Sparrow??

Nope, It's a Swamp Sparrow

Black Scoter (female) *LIFE BIRD*

 

Birdy Corner = Great Bird

On Wednesday while driving onto campus I was running a little later than usual and was planning on just heading straight up to my building without taking my usual diversion around grounds.  One corner of one of the parking lots is an edge habitat and lawn, we refer to it as the "Sparrow Nook".  I noticed some decent activity, a migrating flock of American Robins, congregating Brown-headed Cowbirds with European Starlings mixed in, and a few Blue Jays poking around as well.  The activity was too much to just drive by.

I noticed something sparrowy and once I had binoculars out was fairly perplexed...  yes it was a sparrow but one that I hadn't seen before.  With no camera and no field guide, I tried to pick out all the features I could and headed up to my building to do some quick internet research.  I couldn't quite pin down the species before my coworker came in and I tried giving her details that maybe she could ID.  Finally, I just dragged us both out there with a point and shoot camera with a 20x optical zoom. 

We had come up with a tentative ID of Lark Sparrow and with some more internet research it was confirmed.  Sue (my coworker) will probably blog some info about the species on our work blog HERE.  The quick story is that Lark Sparrows are vagrants in Connecticut and only a couple show up in CT every year if that.  Oh and it was a LIFE BIRD for me.  Enjoy the grainy photos!

A Little Off Course

Emails came over the listservs all day of an American Avocet in Stratford, CT near the Birdseye Boat Ramp.  In need of some species for my state challenge and in need of some gym time, I did a quick workout after work and with plenty of light left, I made my way to the boat ramp.  The last email came in at 5:50pm that the bird was still sitting on a jetty near the boat ramp. 

Tough looking into the sun but the Avocet is way in the back.

Yup, a DIGIBINNED CELL PHONE picture.

I managed to find the bird right away, sitting on the jetty just as stated.  An Avocet had been first sighted on Monday, I'm guessing this is the same bird.  No surprise it was far out, easy to quickly pick up with binoculars, not so great to photograph with a cell phone.  American Avocets breed throughout much of the west and can be found year round on the West Coast.  They winter in Florida and according to The Sibley guide can be found up through North Carolina during migration.  This one got a little off track. 

'record shot'- zoom from the cell phone.