American Bittern in SWAMP

 Last week I was out in the Duke University SWAMP helping lead a field trip for the Wetlands Ecology and Management class.  I had just explained to the students how we are keeping track of bird sightings in the SWAMP using ebird when not a minute later we stumbled upon a new bird to add to our site list...

American Bittern

 ...to my surprise an American Bittern was prowling around in the aquatic vegetation not 30 feet in front of the bird blind!

American Bittern

It's pretty rare to see one of these away from the coast. 

 And usually they do a better job staying hidden!

American Bittern

The bird seemed pretty unconcerned about curious birders and strolled out into the open to hunt crayfish.

American Bittern

 After gobbling a few small ones, it caught a huge bright red one that looked like a lobster

Blood red legs...

But it proved to be too much for this bird to handle and the bittern had to throw this one back...

a whopper!

 As of posting, this bird has been around for 8 days. It seems to be finding plenty of food and has already weathered some assaults from the resident Great Blue Heron. I wonder if it will stick around through the winter?

A gorgeous morning of birds in SWAMP

I led a group of students from the Duke Student Association of Wetland Scientists (SAWS), Nicnats and the Duke Natural History Society (DNHS) out on bird walk in SWAMP yesterday.

Awesome people (from left Kai, Katie, Tong, Paul)

The weather and leaves were equally gorgeous and birds seemed especially active as if wanting to make the most of the warmth and sun.  Every dense patch of grass and bushes seemed to be saturated with calling sparrows.  The resident Red-shouldered Hawk cooperatively posed for photos by the dam.  

Fall SWAMP count with SAWS

A whopping 14 masters students woke up early last Saturday morning and came out to tag along for a bird count with me in the Duke University Wetland Center (DUWC) Stream and Wetland Assessment and Management Park (SWAMP).  This shows that bird watching is exploding in popularity!  That, or that graduate students will do just about anything for free donuts and coffee, which were graciously provided by the Student Association of Wetland Scientists (SAWS) Duke Chapter.  But probably the real draw was celebrity leader Jeff Pippen who took time out of his busy schedule of finding rare seabirds in Durham to educate us all about everything natural that was to be found.

Jeff Pippen distilling wisdom in SWAMP

The Al Buehler fitness trail runs right through the SWAMP site and gets lots of traffic.  During our count we happened to be sharing space with an actual collegiate cross-country meet.  Obviously this isn’t the most conducive setting for birds and birding and we weren’t able to find any exciting fall migrants. 

A Belted Kingfisher at the pond was a crowd-pleaser.  But the best wetland bird came after everyone had left and I stole off on my own to count one final section of the site that is inaccessible to the public.  At a small vernal pool I stumbled upon a very agitated Green Heron that kept flaring its crown feathers, croaking and flicking its tail.

Green Heron

Here's a video of the tail-flicking part:

I was happy to see the Green Heron, but I think it was upset I hadn’t brought the others.  Even if the birds weren’t spectacular, it was a gorgeous morning and nice to show the restoration areas and new board walks and platforms to the group.  For me it was also more data for my bird study and I learned some new wetland plant species from Jeff.

Check out that Dodo!

 A big thanks to Jeff and all the SAWS participants for making such a great day!

Spring Bird Counts

Northern Waterthrush

Last week I led the inaugural spring bird count in the Duke University Wetland Center (DUWC) Stream and Wetland Assessment and Management Park (SWAMP).  Randy Neighbarger from DUWC, as well as two Nicholas School masters students, Rachel Workin and Laura Mendenhall, and Robert Meehan all helped with the count.  We were unfortunate to end up counting on a gray drizzly morning, so bird activity was a bit slow, but we did get 40 species in a little over an hour, which isn't bad at all.  The best find was the site's first record of Northern Waterthrush heard chipping just below the dam.

Solitary Sandpiper

The weather and birds were actually much better the couple times I happened to be out at the SWAMP site in the week leading up to the official count.  I already mentioned the Prothonotary Warblers (new bird for the site) I had there in my last blog post.  But the morning before the count I also had two Solitary Sandpipers at 'Richardson Lake' (a new bird for SWAMP and for me state bird #249!).  It was the first time I had been able to put the new bird blind to good use;  I got a great video (see below) from it of the SWAMP in top form: both a  turtle and wetland bird are happily foraging, while pollution (represented by the large plastic bottle) is kept from reaching Falls Lake.



I also took this video of a Great Blue Heron catching and then losing a fish right by the dam.  A few minutes later it scooped up and swallowed a large crayfish before flying away.

Summer Tanager

Over the weekend I helped out with the Durham spring count up in the northernmost reaches of the count area at Quail Roost (which, ironically, was devoid of any sign of quail).   It has been Tom Krakauer's count territory since 1985 (coincidentally, the year I was born) but his hearing and hiking ability are not what they once were and he needs help to count the area effectively.  I was happy to be of assistance as this is truly a unique part of Durham, which I had never visited despite being born and raised just 20 minutes to the south.  The farmland and open fields have not yet been tainted by development and suburban sprawl and are habitat for a few birds that can be seen essentially nowhere else in Durham County: Grasshopper Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow for sure, and probably Purple Martin too.  Those three species were added to my county list along with Eastern Meadowlark, Louisiana Waterthrush, Orchard Oriole and Cliff Swallow.

Tom and I picked up just over 80 species for the day, though we missed some relatively easy stuff that we probably could have found with more persistence.  A 90-species day is easily within reach and will be a goal for next year.  Reaching the century mark should be a real challenge, though certainly achievable.

Purple Martins nesting in Durham County
(my first digiscoped capture!)

At our last stop of the day, a Purple Martin box near Tom's house, I captured my first digiscoped images just by holding my Droid X up to my scope.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how effective this crude technique proved to be.

This may be my last blogpost for a few weeks as I'm gearing up for a big trip to the southeastern corner of Europe to attend my brother's wedding on a Greek Island and see some remnants of ancient civilizations (as well as some migratory birds of course!).  I leave the US while on the doorstep of several list milestones: my NC state list is at 249, my ABA list at 298 and my Durham County list at 147.  But this trip to Europe should push my life list well over 1500.  My top targets are Bee-eater, Roller, Elanora's Falcon and Griffon Vulture.  Can't wait!

Spring has arrived!

This is my first spring in North Carolina since 2003 (long before I started birding) and boy am I excited!

Spring!

It is, of course, the time of year for finding singing spring migrants sporting their best breeding plumage, but also the time of semester when school work piles up at an alarming rate.  I have been lucky to be able to steal myself from the office for a few mornings to get outside and see what's around.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Last weekend I went out to Butner Game Lands with Robert Meehan and Mark Kosiewski.  Along Brickhouse Road trails we found all sorts of spring migrants.  The place was littered with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

The best bird was probably a Northern Waterthrush, one of nine warblers we found. 

More surprising than the new arrivals were the amount of singing winter species that still lingered.  We heard two Hermit Thrushes and Ruby-crowned Kinglets singing away and watched a Sharp-shinned Hawk just miss nabbing a Morning Dove.

We ended our morning at Flat River where we found a couple Green Herons and a Palm Warbler to make it an round 10-warbler day for a total of 67 species.

Six species turned out to be birds I had not previously reported seeing in Durham County.  This was partly due to sloppy reporting in the past.  All this birding with Matt Daw and Robert Meehan has made me focus more on county lists.  My 136 Durham species puts me at 6th on the ebirder rankings; more birders really need to get on the ebirding boat! 

Kentucky Warbler

Yesterday I went out birding, again with Robert Meehan and Mark Kosiewski, but this time on a longer trip to Howell Woods in Johnston County.  We were hoping to find a Swainson's Warbler, which Norm Budnitz had reported seeing at this spot a few days ago.  Unfortunately by the time Robert and I were able to talk to Norm about more specific instructions we were already on our way home.  Mark, who had gotten a later start and stuck around for a bit more afternoon birding, was able to see the bird where Norm had indicated. 


Dang!  Another missed opportunity to see a life bird.  Robert is still cutting himself over the miss, but it really shouldn't take anything away from what was a phenomenal morning for birds.  We found 14 warblers, best of which was a Kentucky Warbler that sang in the open for great views.

Loggerhead Shrike

In fact by the time we sat down for lunch there were very few boxes left on our checklist to tick and we had one write-in species, a Common Raven that we saw being chased by a couple American Crows.  We also found several Loggerhead Shrikes (NC bird #248!) perched on power lines along the road coming in.  Shrikes have been declining over recent decades to the point of relative scarcity and this species had eluded me all winter. 

Me and Robert ended the day stuck on 79 species; one Swainson's Warbler away from essentially what would have been perfect day (15 warblers; 80 species; a life tick).  Instead we had to settle for merely an excellent day.

Meanwhile every serious birder in the state has been flocking to the South Carolina border to see the state's first record of a Cassin's Sparrow.  It's hard for me though to justify the time and gas consumption (it's a 3.5 hour round trip from Durham) required to go see what is such a classic example of a Little Brown Job (LBJ).  And as far as I know there wouldn't be much else to do or see nearby, so it would be a full "chase" with a miss representing a total failure and waste.  That said if anybody from Durham is going and wants to carpool, let me know!

Prothonotary Warbler

My next scheduled birding activity is a bird count I'm organizing for the Duke Wetland Center's SWAMP this coming Wednesday.  In scouting the area a few days ago I found a couple singing Prothonotary Warblers, a new species for the SWAMP list!  I also saw a pair of Eastern Kingbirds and a House Wren, two species I had not personally found at this site in the past.  Hopefully more bird milestones will come for SWAMP this wednesday.