Where's the Owl?

Today was the Cape Coral Burrowing Owl Festival and I took a ride over to check it out.  I applaud the efforts of conservationists to raise funds to help preserve habitat and support research of these cute little owls.  The festival though lacked a focus on Burrowing Owls and instead had a general air of chaos with tents of mixed tables of educational resources, vendors, and nonprofit organizations.  There were two Eastern Screech Owls making an appearance and one stuffed Burrowing Owl.  So, after leaving, we drove around town and found our own.

Burrowing Owl

We came across another field with evidence of owls and driving along found this pair of owls sitting on one of the perches put up by conservationists.  Also hanging out on the power lines were a couple of other predators.  An American Kestrel got lucky and caught himself an Anole.  This Loggerhead Shrike was more interested in what I was doing than hunting.



Pair of Burrowing Owls

  

American Kestrel with a snack

Loggerhead Shrike

After returning from the drive over the bridge and back to Fort Myers, I took a quick ride over to the 'canal' behind some near by houses and found a few fun birds.  Here they are, no text included, just a few pictures.

Anhinga



Alligator in the pond



White Ibis



Tricolor Heron



The Transition

In all honesty a combination of work and snow fairly squashed my efforts of making it a truly successful Big January.  I can't even say that I broke my previous years half-hearted effort or that I got out in the field more than two times during the entire month.  Needless to say, having barely broken 60 species, I won't report my findings, although I may add a few photos to this post to lighten the mood.

I can say all this without feeling much remorse because of two reasons.  One is that I did get out earlier this month (Feb) and get a life bird that has been evading me since last winter.  Both this year and last there has been reports of a Eurasian Wigeon spending time at Stratford Point.  Even though I have gone out repeatedly to find the bird specifically I hadn't been successful.  In fact one day I went out, photographed as many wigeon groups as possible to analyze them later without finding it AND someone else reported the bird on the same day.  Finally, a couple of weeks ago I rolled in to Stratford Point and a very nice man, was on the Eurasian Wigeon and let me 'borrow' his scope to see.  That's the second life bird this year I wouldn't have had without the generosity of other birders.

The 2nd reason I can divulge my January failings is that as I type this I am sitting in the 80 degree temperatures of Florida.  Having arrived eight hours ago and spent the majority of my time relaxing in the sun, I've already spotted Wood Stork, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Osprey, Pied-billed Grebe, Mottled Duck, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Anhinga, and Common Ground Dove just to name a few.  January may have not been the biggest success of the year but I'm making up for it in the next five days.  Time to make a plan of attack.  I want to find two life birds on this trip... now to go decide which ones and where I can find them!

Let the Big January Begin

American Coot

When the temperature drops a little extra motivation is often required to get outside and the Big January is just the ticket.  You can compete against others or just focus on your own list and try to find as many species within the state during the month of January.  It had actually slipped my mind until I saw a post from the 'organizer' on the local bird listserv.  So, on Sunday I made it a point to get outside and start my list for real.  I remembered a few birds I had seen while out doing errands on the first and put those down and then headed to the shore in Stratford.

My first stops were at Frash Pond and then the warehouse pond near part of the national wildlife refuge.  A few ducks were in the water (low tide so there wasn't a lot of water at the warehouse).  Once at the warehouse pond, I walked toward the edge habitat and found a couple little passerines.  Then I turned to walk back toward my car and had a hawk flying right over me, we seemed to see each other at the same time and as it veered around me, it turned out to be a juvenile Northern Harrier!

Next stop was Long Beach, the ducks that were present were far out but a couple of nice birders let me take a peek through their scope at the Common Goldeneye through the fog.  As I turned to look at the Song Sparrows across the parking lot a couple of birds in the air caught my eye, nope not a gull, TWO male Northern Harriers!!  Seeing a single gray ghost is exciting but two together is amazing.  I watched them fly over the Great Marsh, where one landed, possibly on lunch!

Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Without a scope stopping at Cove Place with the huge raft of ducks seemed like a waste of time so instead I headed over to Stratford Point.  Battling rain and fog I looked at the ducks near the point, and quickly saw a HUGE group of American Wigeons.  I would estimate there was over 100 birds, although with binoculars, I had to say they were only Americans.  Also, A few Long-tailed Ducks floated by farther out.  When I had driven into the lot I noticed this group of birds sitting on the wire, I assumed they were House Sparrows and didn't check them out.  I did take a look on the way out and watched as they flew to the ground....

Snow Buntings!!!

Short Beach was next on the list and I was rewarded with a small group of Horned Larks, that I followed out onto the beach.  A decent number of Gadwall were hanging out and one Coopers Hawk flew over as well.  Activity wasn't too great, the sun was dropping and I decided to head over to the Birdseye Boat Launch and look for the American Coot.  I found a group of around ten all walking around the boat launch itself.  Stopping to update my list on the way out I pulled over on the side of the road and a group of birds drew me out of the car again, a Hairy Woodpecker and a Downy Woodpecker working on one tree!  Altogether a two-day total of 43 species!!  Well on my way to beating the 71 I had last year (first real year of birding) and the 90 species minimum to submit my birds to the 'official' competition.  Wish me luck!

How many Horned Larks can you see?

Above picture zoomed in on a few.

40 Mourning Doves and What Do You Get

Sharp-shinned Hawk

The post-blizzard birds at the feeder this morning was pretty consistent species-wise.  The numbers were slightly higher than normal however with a total of 40 Mourning Doves (usually only 12 are feeding) making an appearance.  Those pesky House Sparrow had brought some friends as well totalling another 50 birds.  After scaring away most of the birds while I did some additional shovelling the first birds to come back were a group of 5 Dark-eyed Juncos.  All the action brought a curious Red-bellied Woodpecker in to the suet, a visitor who hasn't been here in a couple of weeks, along with the one White-breasted Nuthatch who has been missing for about a week. 

Sharp-shinned Hawk- close up

I came back in to the house to warm up and peaking out into the backyard the neighborhood Northern Mockingbird stopped in to eat some sad looking Pokeweed berries that are still hanging on.  A peak back out the front window had me stopping quickly in my tracks and grabbing the camera.  This little visitor had come in looking for those Mourning Doves.  The hawk appeared to have been unsuccessful as it flew back toward the feeder and then off across the street a few minutes later.  The feeder are now silent.

Stratford/Milford CBC 2010 aka. the blizzard

I headed out with Chris L. to tackle the north part of Stratford on Sunday morning for the Straford Milford Christmas Bird Count.  We had a very quiet day, not even able to break 40 species.  We started the day with decent weather with a few random snow showers before the weather totally degraded into solid snowfall with poor visibility. 

The highlight of the day for me was a Common Redpoll feeding on catkins of a few birch trees at Wooster Park.  The bird (a lifer for me) was giving some great views as it even flew down to the water to grab a drink with some Am Goldfinch.  I tried stopping by for a picture on my way home in the snow but couldn't relocate the bird. 

A stop at the community gardens didn't produce the Monk Parakeets we were looking for but we did find an odd looking Canada Goose.  Sibley mentions in his Guide to Birds that variation in the white cheek pattern is normal, although this one goose few found also had short neck in comparison to the others around it. 

The Half Way Point

It's not even officially Christmas yet and I'm half way through my Christmas Bird Counts.  As I've been doing for the past 12 or 13 years, I spent this past weekend out in the woods, fields, and roadsides with my friends fellow birders.  Frank Gallo, from the Milford Point Connecticut Audubon Center was once again leading our usual suspects in search of those elusive and not so elusive birds.  The New Haven circle took place on Saturday, Dec 18th and the Oxford circle was the next day on the 19th. 

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 2:30am to grab my gear, find the warmest clothes I own, and hit the road.  I know it looks like that's probably a typo.... maybe she meant 6:30 you might say to yourself.  But no, we did in fact meet up at 3:30 am to make a circuit of our search area looking for owls.  Crazy?  Maybe.  Fulfilling?  Absolutely.  How can getting out of the car at the first stop, playing the tape for two seconds, and having TWO Eastern Screech Owls fly at Frank's head not be fulfilling?  They even sat up to give us great looks at them and as a bonus one was the gray phase and the other the red phase.  In total, we rounded up 10 Eastern Screech Owls and 1 Great Horned Owl who responded to the Long Eared Owl calls Frank was generating.

With frozen hands and toes, Frank, Vanessa, and myself headed over to DnD's to meet up for the dump run.  5 of us went up on the dump and 6 of us came back down.  It's amazing what people will throw away.  We had already gotten the Horned Larks and Snow Buntings that we were aiming for and Julian came up with the American Pipit too.  An added bonus was a Green-winged Teal tucked into one of the streams in the marshy areas. 

The rest of the day was running around town with birders coming and going throughout the day just like the birds we were trying to find.  Mike Carpenter was again our diligent records keeper allowing the rest of us time to run around wherever we wanted without that extra burden.  Highlights of the day included a 2nd year Bald Eagle, Hermit Thrush, and a decent group of Bluebirds. 

Sunday dawned at a later hour, and we leisurely met at 8 am to begin the Oxford Count.  Our search area is right along the Housatonic River and we finish off at Schreibers Farm.  It's amazing habitats and we go through them all.  Our total for the day ended up at 52 species, which is pretty consistent with most years.  One stop along mature Oaks that line the river yielded a nice group of Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Juncos, White-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and making a special appearance, a Brown Creeper. 

The farm, as usual, found something to keep us occupied.  Large groups of sparrows, White-throated, Tree, Song, Juncos and Cardinals, and Blue Jays kept us searching for the one rare species.  Only to be outdone by a flock of approximately 500 blackbirds that kept moving to different spots.  Our final numbers for the group were 481 Common Grackles, 10 Red-winged Blackbirds, 8 Brown-headed Cowbirds, and one separate Rusty Blackbird.  If they would have let us any closer to them, who knows.... maybe there was a Brewer's in the mix....

Anyway, An amazing day spent outside without a hint of a snow flake!  A great day sharing laughs with the  boys (Frank, Jeff, and Trevor).  Almost too much fun for one weekend.... nah.

Stratford-Milford CBC is coming up next Sunday, where two of us will tackle half of Stratford.  Then, our unofficial CBC at Yale's West Campus during the week after that.  I'm available Jan 1st or 2nd if anyone needs a spare body on a count that weekend.  LOL.  Great Birding!

Around Town

While running some errands today around town I stopped at Booth Park and also the community gardens.  I quickly walked to some of the prime sparrow habitat at clearings along the perimeter of the open areas.  While diversity wasn't outstanding, the Northern Juncos were flying everywhere making some of the amazing noises only they can.  To me these 'cute' little birds have calls that sounds like they were made by a synthesizer.  Two immature hawks were looking for meals, a Red-tailed Hawk and beautiful Coopers Hawk.  Many more birds were present that one would expect to see, although the one standout species was Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working in a cherry tree. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The community gardens have been the source of a few good species in the past couple of months.  Today was nothing too unusual but it afforded me the chance to take a couple of nice photos.  More practice for when I get a better lens.

Savannah Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow can be superficially misidentified as Song Sparrows but you can quickly learn the differences.  The best way is to get out there and look!  Savannah Sparrow lack the spot in the chest, reddish colors are restricted to the wing, and heads and face are whiter vs. gray in Song Sparrows and that's only needed when you can't see the yellow lores.

House Finch

This bird took me a few extra minutes to identify because of its strange appearance.  It appears to have swollen eyes and possibly some missing feathers around the eye.  This female house finch is probably infected with an eye disease they are commonly known to contract.  Although, fewer and fewer birds are being found infected, it obviously still around.  Hopefully, this bird will be able to make it through the winter with this problem.  For more information on this disease and recognizing it, check out this link.  http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/science-stories/past-stories/house-finch-disease/

Palm Warbler

Any time you can find a warbler at this time of the year is a pleasure.  At the gardens this afternoon were two Palm Warblers working around the small plots.  Altogether it was a nice little stop and I was lucky enough to find a gardener who could answer some questions about renting space for next year!