In whose hands lies the future for birds?

Last month Nate Swick, Natalia Ocampo-Penuela and I led the inaugural "Introduction to birding for young birders" trip for the Wings Over Water National Wildlife Refuge. 

south dike of North Pond, Pea Island NWR, photo by Natalia Ocampo-Penuela

We had an enthusiastic group of 7 local area grade school students, most of whom had very little experience with binoculars.

Observation tower at the north pond of Pea Island NWR, photo by Natalia Ocampo-Penuela

Pea Island, with its abundant large and conspicuous birds, is the ideal location for getting youngsters interested in birds.

birding the beach and ocean across from Pea Island NWR visitors center

 Including seabirds spotted on the far side of NC-12 the kids were each able to see at least 50 species.

group shot, photo by mom

A fun morning!

After birding so much in North Carolina, it gets harder and harder to see new birds; with a NC list of 360, I've definitely gone beyond the point of diminishing returns.  Showing birds to younger folks is an opportunity to re-experience the novelty of birding and the excitement of each newly encountered species. 

Besides the future of these birds lies in these kids' hands, right? Let us hope that some among them may become advocates for birds and their habitats. 

Rare birds for Christmas

When I was trying to come up with a Christmas wish list I jokingly included a couple birds I wanted to see: Evening Grosbeak and Golden Eagle.

No luck yet on the grosbeak, but I've crossed paths with a Golden Eagle twice since making the list!

Golden Eagle, Hyde County, NC

Both were in the Lake Mattamuskeet area, but this distant one I found and photographed down in the Gull Rock Game Land territory on the Mattamuskeet Christmas Bird Count.

And the previous day Ed Corey, Kyle Kittelberger and I were able to chase down this Lapland Longspur that Jeff Lewis found on the beach during the Bodie/Pea Christmas Bird Count.

Lapland Longspur, Dare County, NC

Lapland Longspur

And then during the Alligator River Count, we dipped over to Wanchese to see this Eared Grebe that Edmund LeGrande had found sitting right in the harbor.

Eared Grebe, Wanchese, NC

Eared Grebe

Horned and Pied-billed Grebes were in the same area for nice comparisons.

Eared Grebe and Pied-billed Grebe

Together over the course of 4 days and 4 Christmas Bird Counts we saw about 158 species.  Not a bad haul!

My best bird, however, was a Black Rail that I flushed in the marshes in the Gull Rock Game Land.  It was one of those lightning-strike birding moments, when you're just at the right place at the right time.  I wasn't expecting to cross paths with a Black Rail here (and this was the first I've ever seen), but fortunately in my brief view I was able to see white on the bird's back.  That field mark plus it's behavior, like a mouse with feathers and wings, left me without a doubt about its identity.

It was in a narrow strip of marsh bordered by the sound on one side and a channel on the other, so I gathered up the others in my party (6 people total) hoping that if we walked in a line through this area we might be able to flush it into the open.  But these attempts failed.  And we got no response to tapes when we returned at dusk hoping to hear it call. 

I found out later at the Mattamuskeet countdown dinner that John Fussell had surveyed this marsh for Black Rails for years and never found a one. 

This is one of those rare birds that birders hate to report.  There's no hard evidence and, in this case, not even any fellow witnesses.  Reviewing parties will be skeptical (as they should be) and it may not make it into the Christmas Bird Count records even though I submitted a detailed report (it would be a new species for the Mattamskeet CBC, I think).  Frequent reports like this, especially if they aren't accepted and made into "records," are liable to earn one a reputation as a "loose canon."

That's why digital cameras have become almost obligatory for birders and why so many people avoid reporting rare birds altogether. 

Now if I can just find an Evening Grosbeak this winter...is it too much to ask for one that will pose for a photo?

My first summer trip to Hatteras

I had so much fun on my last Hatteras trip that when a friend invited me down to his house in Frisco for the weekend, I just couldn't say 'no.'

Hatteras is a whole different world of birds in summertime.  But vacationers also flock from all over the place for the abundant sand, warm water and legendary fishing.

Before I even got there though I saw a couple Gull-billed Terns while crossing the bridge over Oregon Inlet.  My 250th bird in North Carolina!

And then less than an hour later I found a group of Black-necked Stilts at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge for my 300th United States (and ABA) bird!

White-winged Dove

Far more unusual than the stilts (which are, afterall, featured on the Pea Island NWR logo) was a White-winged Dove I found in the Live Oak tunnel that covers part of the nature trail.  On my trip back through on Sunday I stopped in again and found the White-winged Dove again, this time at the bird feeders by the refuge office.  It was doing its best Mourning Dove impression, but the grackles weren't buying it. 

I last saw a White-winged Dove just minutes away, as the bird flies, during the Pea Island Christmas bird count last December (see my post for the photo etc.). But seeing one in June is probably even more unexpected than in December.  As far as I know (though I admit I don't know all that much; somebody set me straight) this is the first June record for NC.  I did find a record for June in South Carolina from 1998 on the Carolina Bird Club Website.

Anyway, I seem to have an affinity for finding this species.

On to Hatteras...

Great Shearwater

I was able to get a last-minute spot on Brian Patteson's boat and go out to the gulf stream on Saturday.  Conditions where perfect: partly cloudy with mild seas, though I have been told that a rough ocean often seems to bring out better birds.  Indeed, the birding was pretty average.  It could have been worse, but we certainly didn't see anything super-rare (3 White-tailed Tropicbirds were seen on the Sunday trip for example).  But these pelagic trips are always a roll of the dice, and given that this was my first one in summer, I really couldn't lose.  Great Shearwater, Audubon's Shearwater, Black-capped Petrel and a Pomarine Jaeger were all life birds for me, while Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm Petrel and Corey's Shearwater were added to my ABA area list.

Short-finned Pilot Whale

Unfortunately, my camera is pretty terrible at taking pictures of things against the ocean, so I didn't get any great bird photos.  I found napping passengers made for much more easily captured subjects (see Ali Iyoob's facebook page).  My luck capturing marine mammals wasn't that great either, especially given that many came swimming right up to the front of the boat to ride the bow.  We saw Bottlenose and Spotted Dolphins; and Cuvier's Beaked and Long-finned Pilot Whales.

After we disembarked Ali, Nathan Swick and I checked the salt pond near cape point hoping to see the Red-billed Tropicbird that had been reported there the day before.  We found no sign of any ABA logos, but there were Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Short-billed Dowitchers, a White-rumped Sandpiper, Piping Plovers, Black Skimmers, an American Oystercatcher and Least Terns all over the place to name a few of the more interesting birds present.  I checked for the tropicbird again the next day (three times just to be sure) without luck while Ali and Nate were out at sea busily seeing a few White-tailed Tropicbirds.

My stop to refind the White-winged Dove at Pea Island NWR earned me one final life bird (#1510!) for the trip in a pair of Red-necked Phalaropes on North Pond.  How convenient.  This was a pelagic species I was disappointed not to see from the boat.

Black Bear

In hopes of seeing a Glossy Ibis, I stopped into Alligator River NWR on my way back towards Durham.  Access to all the impoundment areas seemed to be blocked, but I was rewarded for my trouble by my first ever sighting of a wild Black Bear.  As I was watching in through binoculars from my car I glanced forward to see an adult Wild Turkey hustling across the road in front of me!

What a great trip: 6 new life birds and almost as many new mammals!  I'm sure I'll be back for another visit before long.

This weekend I'm off to the NC mountains where I have never before birded.  Getting 6 life birds may not be possible, but I hope to find at least a few!

Christmas Bird Count highlights!

I signed up to help out with four Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) in North Carolina this year: Durham, Chapel Hill, Bodie/Pea Island and Mattamuskeet.

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of work to go out and count every single sparrow and chickadee, but it helps contribute to a long-running data set. And these counts are also a great chance to get out with some fantastic birders who have fantastic scopes, which greatly increases the odds of seeing rarities.

An unusual early snowstorm made for an especially wintery feel to the counts this year. And I was among the many people who skipped the Chapel Hill CBC to go sledding; Yahoo! I did see some decent birds on the Al Buehler Trail on my way to the Duke Golf Course--a CBC no man's land stuck between the Durham and Chapel Hill count circles.

I can't even remember if I participated in the Durham CBC last year, but the memory of this years' should last awhile! The above comment about scopes didn't hold true as Doug Shadwick and this professional birder from France took their fancy scopes off to some wind-sheltered field leaving Robert Meehan and me to cover the frozen windswept section of Falls Lake by the railroad grade using Robert's "Parkinson's disease" tripod to attempt to count unidentifiable "ducks" several miles away.

Despite this handicap we found quite a few lingering shorebirds including these Dunlin who were out ice-skating.

But the most unusual find was a blue form Snow Goose that flew over us early. After we finished counting we went on a short wild goose chase and found the flock by a nearby pond where it had already been spotted by another birding party.
Brian Bockhahn has way better pictures from when the goose was much closer.

Of course a Snow Goose goes from being a highlight in Durham to becoming merely one of several thousand "Down East."

One odd Cackling Goose hanging out with a flock of snows was the celebrity goose of the Bodie/Pea Island CBC and a new NC bird for me.
(Hooray for two awful goose pictures!; see Ali Iyoob's way better photo)

Our party's best find was this White-winged Dove we stumbled upon at North Bodie (Life bird #1446!). I've been double-checking every Mourning Dove since.

But our rarity was eclipsed by other ridiculous sightings of Black Rail, Long-eared Owl and two Saw-whet Owls! Unfortunately only a few people got to see these rare and impossible to see species and I was not among them.

I did catch a fleeting glimpse of a Virginia Rail, which I'll count as a state bird, since I had previously seen one in Vermont. I also saw my first Sedge Wrens in NC by the Bodie Lighthouse at dusk. My "Grass Wren" sighting in Ecuador kept this from being a life bird.

I did get a second life-bird (#1447) for the day in an Orange-crowned Warbler at North Pond. I had poorly seen, but not counted one last year at Mattamuskeet, so I was glad to finally get a good look at one.

Fittingly, Orange-crowned Warblers seemed to be all over the place the next day at the Mattamuskeet CBC. But my best warbler there was definitely the Yellow-throated I found with a flock of Pine Warblers near the south end of the causeway.

Other state birds for the day were Common Moorhen, Canvasback and Common Merganser, but after hours of birding I had not seen a life bird; no Eurasian Wigeon or Golden Eagle. But just before sunset Brian and his party told us about a couple Clay-colored Sparrows nearby in a yard. Ali kindly showed us the spot and my 1448th life bird (thanks Ali!; his photo).

On our way back down the causeway we spotted an American Bittern standing awkwardly by the roadside away from cover for #1449. I was pretty excited about this since Robert had seen three invisible bitterns over the past couple days while I was standing next to him.

So in just two days I was able to see four life birds and 12 state birds (those mentioned above plus Merlin and Black Scoter, which should bring my NC list up to 230); not bad at all!

It's amazing how ubiquitous the snipe are in the Mattamuskeet area as it seemed like there was one in every front yard.
A quick shout-out to Ali, Matt Daw and Kyle Kittleberger. It's great to see young people into birding and at 16(ish), these Raleigh kids are metaphorical zygotes to the birding world. Yet they are already such knowledgeable, intelligent birders. Their exuberance is infectious and their nonstop bird story-telling made the drive home go quickly.

Before I end I have to reprimand everybody for losing my nest quiz from last time by not guessing.

In fact hardly anyone even read the last post. I guess the septuagenarian backyard bird-feeder theme is revolting to the modern birder hoping to shed such stereotypes.

But for all zero of you who were curious, the answer was Band-winged Nightjar.
Here's the follow-up shot up of the fledgling starting to resemble mom. I did find this nest around 1300 meters elevation--about 500 meters below its altitude range (Ridgley and Greenfield) so its identity was a bit of a surprise once I finally worked it out.

Coming very soon... My top ten bird sightings of 2010!

Stay tuned...