Christmas Bird Count

Just before leaving for a holiday break, I was able to get out on a Christmas Bird Count, or CBC, with Mark and Allison in Jackson County Mississippi.  Our portion of the survey had us out on a boat with Mark as our captain through the marshes.  The day started out at dawn and before long we were lucky enough to come across a Merlin sitting in a tree near the Louisiana border.  We had some trouble scrounging up some winter warblers and other song  They are quite amazing little falcons, and this individual lets us sneak up fairly close for some decent photo opportunities.

Merlin

For our portion of the count we were particularly on the lookout for ducks and marsh birds that others on land may not be able to find.  We managed to scrounge up some Black Scoters fairly early in the day, which was a great surprise as they are fairly uncommon and sparsely distributed in the area.  We were all a little confused at first since they seemed so dark and flew pretty strangely compared to everything else we were expecting in the waterfowl category.  Mark spotted a Common Goldeneye as well, which was a nice find!  We continued through the marsh with stops to look for Seaside Sparrows and LeConte's Sparrows, as well as shorebirds on mudflats, and songbirds in patches of Live Oaks.  Along the bay side of the marsh we also spotted some River Otters, which was a new sighting for me on the Gulf.  The ragged Seaside Sparrow below wasn't shy about foraging for insects on the shell piles right in front of us!  Usually these birds are a bit more secretive, and stick to the grasses and shadows, but this bird even snatched insects up from right in front of our feet and wouldn't stay still for a second.

River Otters in the salt marsh

Seaside Sparrow in pretty ragged condition

Wilson's Snipe skulking at the water's edge

Peregrine Falcon flying away

Dunlin pair

The highlights of the trip were a Long-tailed Duck and a Western Kingbird.  The Long-tailed Duck was a lucky spot as we were rushing back to try to pick up a duck decoy we found in the marsh, but forgot to clear out.  We had some pretty amazing close up views of a duck that I have never seen closer than 50 yards. Perhaps one of the best quotes of the day was said by Mark just after viewing the Long-tailed Duck, "There's nothing better than TatoNuts and Long-tailed Ducks!" For those who have never experiences TatoNuts, they are a doughnut maker in southern Mississippi that uses potato flour in the making of their doughnuts.  Mark is always kind enough to bring some along for the big days of birding!  This bird appears to be an adult female in winter plumage.  As we raced the sunset back to the boat ramp and to find a few more species for the day, Allison spotted a bird perched conspicuously at the top of a tree.  At first she thought it was an Eastern Phoebe, but the breast was very yellow and the bird looked a bit too big.  After some serious looks and guesses, it was clear that is was a kingbird native to the western US, but it took us some scoping, pictures, and consulting of our field guides to be sure that we had seen a Western Kingbird.  We spent most of the rest of daylight checking this bird out, which was a lifer for me.

Long-tailed Duck

Western Kingbird (we think!)

Back to the Gulf

My adventures, and now my studies, have led me back to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.  I will be spending a good deal of time here, so be ready to see plenty of shorebirds, gulls, and ducks over the coming months.  I have been able to get out on the boat to learn how to drive through the marshes and see some of the local hot spots that require a boat to bird.  I am looking forward to another winter here on the coast for some more of the best birding I've ever done.  The first few weeks reintroduced me to some shorebirds and waterbirds I hadn't seen in a while, but aren't rare in any sense of the word down here on the gulf.  Dunlin, dowitchers, and black skimmers were some of the first with which I was happy to get reacquainted.  Black skimmers are truly strange looking, but amazing to watch as they glide above the water with their mandible skimming through the surface.  When they feel the mandible collide with a fish they dip their head and close their mouth for the capture.

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer foraging

Dowticher species, most likely Short-billed Dowitcher

Ruddy Turnstone

A line of Laughing Gulls

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull

Forster's Tern

Marbled Godwits at sunset

Lesser Yellowlegs

Willet

Most likely a Short-billed Dowitcher foraging

I have been undergoing boat training in the marshes, which has been a lot of fun.  I feel very fortunate to be spending so much time out on the water and getting to bird along the way.  There have been huge rafts of Redheads and Lesser and Greater Scaup which will move out to sea now that the hunters are giving them reason to be wary of the marshes and shallower shorelines.  Bufflehead, Pied-billed and Horned Grebes are also around in some numbers, flying away from the boat with their stubbly little wings and their desperate looking wing beats.

This past weekend I went birding with the local Audobon chapter and my advisor, Mark, to look for shorebirds along the coast.  Along the way we went through some brackish ponds a little ways in from the shore.  A stop to look at a few ducks and terns on the water resulted in a surprise for me, however.  As I got back into Mark's car and we began driving away, we flushed up a dark little bird from the drainage at the side of the road.  I had a similar situation happen before, so I immediately jumped out of the car and began hoping the bird would stick its head out from the marsh grasses into which it had run.  It was certainly my second sighting of a Black Rail!  I was extremely excited, well, I still am extremely excited, to have had another chance to see such a uncommon and secretive bird.  Although there were no new surprises on the shorebird front on the trip, this Black Rail certainly made the end of my year on the birding front.  

An ending to Maine

Maine, Maine, Maine.  I don't think there is a bad thing about the areas I visited during my time in Maine.  I may have been apprehensive about living out of a tent and trailer at first, but the peninsula won my heart very quickly.  It was great to be able to hear the ocean all the time, especially at night in the tent.  Although it gets old living out of a tent, a rainstorm on the coast in a tent, on occasion, makes it all worth it.  It seemed so strange to have gulls constantly flying over the spit of land that we inhabited as they moved to the water on the other side, but it really helped my gull identification to have such constant flyovers.  There were also lots of raptor flybys with sharp-shinned hawks and merlin actively hunting as the strong ocean breeze blew them along.  The few peregrines that could be seen moving through were really a special treat.  Watching raptor aerobatics on such strong winds and so close was just like being at a hawk watch, though with a view much closer to sea level.  The peninsula is bisected by a length of private property where some amazing folks spend their spring, summer, and fall.  I was lucky enough to meet many people who have loved the point for much of their lives, and who's families have had their houses there for generations.  It was easy to see why they would keep coming back, and work to keep the point as undeveloped and as untouched as possible.  While we were taking down nets, we were given an amazing look at a spruce grouse that walked right up to us without hesitation.  Spruce grouse are notorious for showing no aversions to humans.  I unfortunately left my camera at the trailer, so after freaking out and actually enjoying how close this grouse was to us, I ran as fast as I could back to the trailer.  After riding my bike back down, I had to try to sneak up on the grouse, rather than just watching it walk right up to us.  Sadly, I couldn't get as close as the initial encounter, but I did still manage to get a couple of pictures with one of my shorter lenses.

Spruce Grouse

Spruce Grouse, about an arm's length away

Sadly, this is the last post I'll have about my time in Maine, but it was the best project and place I could have spent my last months before starting graduate school.

Otters in the Ocean

The Schoodic Peninsula contains a part of Acadia National Park that is disconnected from the main portion that is located on Mount Desert Island.  The peninsula is only 45 minutes away, and since we have a receiver tower set up there we frequently pay the park a visit.  The roadways run slowly along the rocky shoreline, providing amazing views of the water, waves, and of course birds.  This visit provided an amazingly unexpected surprise, however!  As we were leaving the park, I spotted some heads on the water.  I immediately yelled out, "Cetaceans! Wait, no! Pinnipeds! Wait. Holy crap, those are otters!," or something along those lines, and certainly with excitement.  I don't remember ever seeing an otter in the wild, let alone a river otter in the ocean.  We ran down to the water on large rocks, and got really close to the otters.  As I followed them along the shoreline, I managed to slip and fall into a tide pool and get soaking wet, but it was worth following the four otters across the water's edge and watching them dive, eat, and play.  The lighting was difficult to get good photos, but I still managed to get a few to share.

 The season is winding down, and we only have one transmitter left to attach.  Sadly, this will mean a swift drop off of photos on the blog.  I'll still be trying to get out and get photos as usual, but birds are much easier to photograph when you can hold them!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

White-crowned Sparrow

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Ruby Crown of the Kinglet

Acadia and the Stars

Last week, I took a brief but extremely worthwhile trip into Acadia National Park.  The view from the top of Cadillac Mountain was spectacular, and there were even a few raptors moving along the ridge such as Sharp-shinned Hawks, Northern Harriers, Bald Eagles, and even a Peregrine Falcon.  I may have planned my trip to the park a little early for peak leaf coloration, but the trees that were already in flux highlighted the forest throughout the park.

These  "bubble rocks" at the far end of the lake in the photo above provide the beautiful view seen in the picture below.

 After hiking to the top of the "bubble rock," I ended up joining up with my co-worker Jess to watch the sunset before she reminded me that it was the Night Sky Festival in the park.  The park closed down Cadillac Mountain so that astronomers could set up their expensive telescopes and equipment to share with the public for an amazing event.  There were buses to take us to the top of the mountain where we could mill around among at least 50 telescopes and 70 astronomers, professional and amateur.  Each had their scopes set to some of their favorite formations and stars, all excitedly explaining how many light-years away the cluster, galaxy, or star was away.  It was really interesting to be shown the Andromeda Galaxy, which I learned is barely visible with the naked eye.  The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest neighboring galaxy.  It was a lot of fun to have experienced star gazers sharing their knowledge of the universe and their great equipment.  The park did a great job of setting up rangers who did constellation tours with powerful laser pointers, as well.  It turned out to be a perfectly clear night that illustrated how Acadia could be the only park east of the Mississippi River where the Milky Way Galaxy can be seen clearly (Though I would wager you could see it from within Great Smoky Mountains NP, since I know I have in the summer).  

The receiver tower at sunset, seen every morning on the walk to the banding area.

Red Eft

Porcupines are everywhere on the point.  We can hear them making their whiny calls at night, and frequently cross paths with more than one a day. 

Some kind of fuzzy caterpillar that appear to be similar to the "wooly buggers".  I'm unsure of the species.

 Above and below are a spring peeper that was found in one of our nests the other morning.  The "X" on the back identify this species.

Great-crested Flycatcher

Black-capped Chickadee

 Above and below are a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

 Above and below are a Savannah Sparrow

 We have also started to help with a Northern Saw-whet Owl banding effort at Petit Manan Point.  The late nights don't exactly line up with our early mornings, but how could you not want to try to see one of these up close?