Birding and Listing

Okay, how can someone look at this photo and still say that birding is geeky? Seriously, going up a mountain with your digiscoping equipment is geeky? That's my buddy Clay Taylor from Swarovski. He and Bruce Webb took me out in Utah to help me get to my goal of 500 birds.

Here's a lifer Clark's nutcracker. I needed so many basic western birds, it was easy for me to get twenty lifers on a trip--not too many places I can do that anymore. Alas, I only made it to 497, but I'm sure I will hit 500 before the end of the year. I'm going to Rhode Island at the end of July and the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival in November and there are a few species I can still get in both places. Once I reach 500, I may have to give Ben over at 600 Birds a run for his money...he wants to reach 600 by the January 2010. I'm booked for the Space Coast Festival and San Diego Festival next year already...there are several pelagic species that I need...hm...

There are some challenges to me being a lister. For one thing, I can be kind of picky about how I like to experience bird species. One of the target birds was a black-rosy finch. And the way to find it was to scan the mountainside in the above photo for the flocks. If you're lucky, you might get to see a flock of blackish birds against the snow. But I'd rather have this kind of look at a black rosy-finch. And I don't know how much of an effort I wanted to put up for glimpse of tiny blackish birds.

Bruce, Clay, and I scanned the mountainside for well over an hour. I didn't see rosy-finches but I did get a look at a lifer mammal--mountain goat! Whoot. The longer we were there, and the less we saw the rosy-finches, I decided it wasn't worth it and we moved on. I think I lack the singular tenacity that many listers have and that will prevent me from really getting my list up to where it could be.

Another thing that can slow me down is digiscoping. Take this beautiful black-billed magpie. We have a small pocket of black-billed magpies that live in Minnesota. I've seen them several times and enjoy them. However, this one was perched so perfectly and in such good light that Clay, Bruce and I decided that we couldn't pass it by without trying to photograph it.

When I do see a new bird, like this red crossbill, I want to digiscope the crap out of it too, perhaps spending too much time with the species and "wasting" valuable minutes getting photos missing the chance to see other new species.

Here's a female crossbill--they were so much fun to watch fly in and take apart all the pine cones on the trees. There were so many and they were so close, it almost sounded like a strange bowl of Rice Krispies as they would snap apart the cones to get at the nuts on the inside.

This photo is blurry, but check out that scary looking bill!

You can really see that strange bill that so perfectly designed to get between the teeth on the cones and access the nut meat. And I couldn't just get photos, I had to digivideo the crossbills too:



We found my lifer crossbills when we arrived at the mountainside for the rosy-finches. Clay pointed out the crossbill and we spent quite a bit of time digiscoping and digivideoing them. Perhaps, the rosy-finches were all over that mountain side while we were focused on the much closer trees loaded with crossbills and moved on by the time we went to look for them. No matter, another bird for another day, I always say.

I've always thought that any day with time spent on a boat automatically felt like an adventure, but I think I'm going to have to amend that to include mountains too. Utah is an awesome state and I hope I get to back. The lowlands are beautiful and the mountains spectacular.

Plus, it's fun to be out and about in snow but not bundled up. I had on some pants and a short sleeved shirt and my Keens with no socks and was perfectly comfortable. I think this might finally be my last Utah entry...Have I blogged it out of my system?

Although, I forgot to mention the zip line that was outside of the Cliff Lodge where Amy and I were staying. I really wanted to do it, but I do have a fear of heights. But being the pack animal I am, I knew if I stuck with Amy, she would get my scaredy cat butt up there and on the ride. It was so much fun and I totally felt like a goshawk zipping in for prey--I even held out my feet as if trying to capture unsuspecting prey...

Good times.

Seeing How The Other Half Lives

I think my favorite organized field trip that I took at the 2008 American Birding Association Convention was the Upper Deseret Ranch Field Trip, in part because there was a double Bill for field trip leaders: Bill Fenimore and Bill Schmoker. They are two of my favorite Birding Bills and was excited to watch them as field trip leaders. Fenimore leads trips regularly to Deseret Ranch, so if you are in or near Layton, UT, I highly recommend contacting him for his daily guiding rates. He's pleasant company and he knows the area and birds like the back of his hand--also, it's privately owned by the Mormons and you're really not getting in without him. However, it is SO WORTH IT--absolutely gorgeous.

Here is a life bird that I got on the trip--a MacGillivray's warbler. I decided to see how the other half lives on this trip--I became a lister for this convention. I've always just made little checks in my field guides for new birds and about a week before the con, I decided to count them. I learned that I was 25 species away from 500 birds on my North American bird list--who knew? I also did some research and found that there were close to 40 potential species I could get in Utah. I decided to go for it.

Check out this pack of birders, focused and ready on a cool bird. One of the cool things about going to an ABA event when you are close to a birding goal is that EVERYONE comes out of the woodwork to help you. Even though I was there helping at the Swarovski Booth, some of the Leica guys came over to go my bird potential list and give tips on where to go--heck they even invited me on the flammulated owl posse. The man who organized every field trip for the convention came by to offer pointers on my list, field trip leaders made it there personal goal to get me to my 500--it was wonderful camaraderie and really reminded me of why I love the birding community. Listing is not bad and I wish more listers and casual birders would get along. They are two different types of birding but each fun in their own way.

There were some familiar birds around, like cedar waxwings. I wasn't paying much attention as everyone was watching them and Fenimore came over to me and said, "Sharon, these birds are so close and a great shot, can you get a photo?" I think that because I was so focused on getting as many species as possible this trip that my digiscoping suffered a bit for it. Thanks for the reminder, Bill.

It cracked me up that super colorful birds like this western tanager always managed to be just out of reach for a great photo...

...but the brown birds like this nesting cordilleran flycatcher were up close and almost seemingly eager to pose.

But where many of the birds lacked color, the Deseret Ranch landscape more than made up the palette. I sat in the back of the bus with Father Tom (well known Texas birder and one of the organizers of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival that I'll be going to this fall). FT and I had both been on the owl posse the night before and were both operating on three hours of sleep but each kept pointing out the magnificent views and colors of the landscape.

For lunch, we stopped by a mountain stream to relax. The stream was made up of freshly melted snow and ice in the surrounding mountains. It was 90 some odd degrees out, so after lunch, I stepped in the water.

It was toe numbing cold, but felt so, so good.

Here's a golden eagle chick. Golden eagles in Utah were about as common as bald eagles in Minnesota. It was fun to scan the cliffs for patches of white--indicating lots of poop and raptor nests. We also found a prairie falcon aerie too. You really felt like you were on some sort of adventure riding around in these mountains.

Funny Moment In Sundance

One of the funniest moments I witnessed during the ABA Convention was at Sundance Resort. Our field trip had the option of wandering the property or taking a 45 minute chair lift ride to get a lay of the land. I opted to do the chair lift--despite my fear of heights but I had WildBird on the Fly with me and Gail (the woman who is in charge of repairs at Swarovski) with me to keep me focused on the natural beauty.

The view from the chairs was spectacular and many were aiming their cameras to get the mountain landscape and even try to get shots of birds flitting around the tops of trees, including western tanagers.

I was watching the birders in front of me snap photos and watching the people on the opposite chairs. Some on the other chairs were leisurely reading, others were coming up with mountain bikes to ride down the side of the mountain, and others were on their way up for a hike. I noticed a young attractive couple coming towards us on the opposite chairs. They were completely decked out in skin tight spandex bicycling wear. The birders in front of me were aiming their cameras towards the mountain vistas. The young woman of the biker pair struck a pose worthy of a sage grouse. She puffed out her chest, stretched out her arms and stuck one of her shapely legs high in the air, the chair moving her right into the birder's field of view of the camera. The birder put down his camera, and young attractive bike girl relaxed her pose and said with a disappointed giggle, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you wanted a picture of me!" while her male companion shook his head.

Interesting Sign In Utah

What Really Happens At American Birding Association Conventions

Bill Schmoker sent this video--note that they are all wearing Swarovskis--that binocular can really take a beating:

Watch Where You Step!

I helped out at the Swarovski Optik booth at the American Birding Association Convention. I was out with a couple of the guys from the booth--Clay and Bruce. As we were going down a mountain road, Clay put on the brakes and said, "That looked like an interesting woodpecker!"

We found a place to pull over and walked in. I was hoping for a Williamson's sapsucker, but we weren't seeing anything but robins. Bruce picked up a stick and started pounding a nearby tree, doing his best sapsucker territorial drumming. We heard some soft drumming and eventually found:

...a three-toed woodpecker. Not a lifer, but always a cool woodpecker and fun to see it outside of Minnesota. Clay then said, "Hey, Bruce, check it out." and pointed to Bruce's feet.

From Clay's excitement, we thought there was a snake. We looked down and couldn't really see anything, Clay kept pointing and then Bruce finally saw it. It's in the above photo with Bruce. Can you see it? Don't worry if you can't, I was there and can barely see what Clay was point to. Here is a hint:

There in the center of that circle is a tiny young robin! We had been there for several minutes, watching the trees, talking, banging sticks against trees and yet this young robin stayed stock still, using it's fledgling coloration to camouflage with the surrounding vegetation. I wanted to digiscope it, but the young robin was too close to focus in my scope, so I had to back up a few feet:

"You can't see me!" Fresh from the nest and already this bird knows what to do, instinct told it to just sit and hide, and the big lumbering creatures would move past, hopefully without stepping on it. It was strange that we did not hear the adult robins give their warning and freak out call. We could hear that they were busy feeding another fledgling nearby. Since we'd seen the woodpecker, we decided to move along and let the young robin be and commence to learning how to care for itself under the tutelage of its parents.

On our way out of the woods, I found a second fledgling. Like its wise sibling, this young robin also stayed stone still as I walked past. Moments like these always make me wonder how many birds (especially owls) have I walked past when focused on something else. How many birds have been just a foot away and I just didn't see it?

Cliff Swallow Swarm

I ended up having a day off today that I didn't realize I had--bonus day! I thought I would catch up on all my ABA blogging...then realized that after some sorting...I have it narrowed down to 92 photos. So, while I'm sorting, here is a video of cliff swallows swarming over mud to add to their nests:

For Non Birding Bill--Brown Mammals!

Here is a post from the American Birding Convention for my dear husband, Non Birding Bill:

I stayed at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird, Utah for the American Birding Association Convention. As you can see in the above photo, they keep a tidy lawn. What's the secret to this well kept lawn?
Why the lawn services of Nosey Q. McFurryPants aka a family group of yellow-bellied marmots.

The marmots were a popular attraction outside the lodge. They pretty much looked like what we in the east call a woodchuck, but I think this is a higher elevation species. At any point during the day, you could see six to ten marmots feeding on the grass.

Even the babies were a part of the family business of keeping the lawn nice and trim.

After all that lawn service work, rest is good! Several mammals could be found around the lodge including various types of ground squirrels, moose, mule deer, and I heard that if you took the lodge tram up another two thousand feet, pikas!

WildBird on the Fly and I took the tram up to see what we could find. Note the snow? I must say that this Minnesota girl felt right at home in the still snow covered Utah mountains.

It was interesting to note the hardcore locals, like the above young woman. Note that she is about to ski down the side of the mountain in a mini skirt. Get down, girl, go 'head get down!

The view from the top was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! As of yet, Utah remains the most beautiful state I have visited. Alas, the bird life and the mammal life was a tad on the sparse side.

I searched and searched and did not see any pikas--bummer, but we did find a few golden-mantled ground squirrels who looked quite similar to the chipmunks we have in our yards in the east.

The view was so good, I told WBOTF that it would be perfect for one of those bird author poses. You know the ones I mean, where the bird author is toting a spotting scope and looking over their shoulder, ready for adventure. So, Amy took the photo and called me a Cheese Ball. Here is the Pete Dunne as an example. Above, I tried to do my best Pete.

Alas, no pikas, but he marmots were cute. Here's some video of the yellow-bellied marmots. Here is the adult marmot (FYI, the sound behind the wind is the raging river from the snow melt):



Here is the baby marmot:

American Dipper

One of the target birds for me on this trip was an America dipper. I've always wanted to see one of these guys and no, not because in the photos it looks like the dullest bird ever. It's super cool.

First, you look for dippers in this type of stream. They actually move around the water's edge and even walk under water to get at all sorts of aquatic invertebrates. I'm actually standing on a bridge, taking this photo and a dipper nest is under my feet. The water is incredibly cold, full of freshly melted snow.

One of the striking things is that you will notice a white eyelid. They use this when they are in the frigid water looking for food to keep insulated. One of the cool things about the American dipper is that they kind of fit their name: they dip...they constantly dip. I went to Cornell's BNA to see if I could find out what the dipping is all about and under the "Priorities For Further Research" it reads, "Why do American Dippers dip? This remains one of the biggest mysteries about the species, with many theories but no answers. Why do South American species not dip or dive? How does the American Dipper compare with other stream birds in North America (Spotted Sandpiper, Louisiana Waterthrush [Seiurus motacilla], wagtails [Motacilla spp.]), in Europe, and in Asia?"

Some things that even Cornell doesn't know. I can't wait until some hard working graduate student unwraps the code of all the bobbing birds out there--what is that all about? And here are some videos I took with my digital point and shoot camera and spotting scope of a dipper dipping and preening and scratching. You can hear our field trip group in the background. If you click on the YouTube link, there's a link under the video that gives you the option of watching it in high quality and see the dipper in more detail:



As if that isn't cool enough, it even dips on one foot:

Flammulated Owl Adventure

Ah, a few minutes to blog at the Salt Lake City Airport.

One of the best parts of an American Birding Association Convention are the sub parties. There are field trips, but there are people who may have missed birds or need birds that are not part of the offered field trips, so people come together and form little posses to get target birds. A target bird for me (and several others) that was not offered on any of the trips was flammulated owl--a tiny dark eyed owl that would make screech owls look big. They are in the mountains and are best found at night. I can understand why the ABA may not want to risk a night time mountain hike...but that doesn't stop some of us from doing it on our own time.

The guys working the Leica booth went out and scouted it the night before. Jeff Bouton came back the next day with dizzying tales of how close this hard to see owl was--it could be digiscoped! Another posse was assembled. Now, here's the kicker to this story. We were driving out to see an owl after dark and may of use had field trips meeting the next morning at 3:45 am or 4:00 am. But, this is a once in a lifetime bird for many of us, so off we went.

We loaded up three vehicles (thanks, Barb, from Borderland Tours for letting me ride with you), drove to the mountain the canyon that was about 45 minutes away, then up we went--we had to cover five switch backs and for those of us not used to that altitude, it was strenuous.

We made it up there and I found myself surrounded by good friends and soon hooting flammulated owls. There were at least four surrounding us in the dark. Soon, one came in, we shined the flashlight and viola:

Isn't it cool! Now Jeff would like to clarify:

"The autofocus picked up the stick above and in front of the bird (it is perfectly focused). Too bad, I had one shot though and it is at least a documentation shot. If I’d gotten one more shot off I would have nailed him! maybe next time…"

He doesn't need to apologize, it's an INCREDIBLE shot considering he was digiscoping on the side of the mountain in the dark with only a flashlight to show the owl. It's a cool, cool shot. When I saw the owl I shouted, "Holy Crap!" and a sixteen year old birder named Erick said, "Holy Crap is right!"

We both got lifers. Flammulated owls are birds of mountain pine forests and eat almost entirely insects (although a few tiny mammals and birds are possible). They are a unique small owl because they have brown eyes (like a barred owl) so that makes them look freaky and according to Cornell's BNA the "specialized syringeal anatomy in these small birds (males < 60 g) produces hoarse, low-frequency notes sounding like those of much larger owls." It's true, they have a bass voice.

What a trip life is! Going up a mountain, in the dark, on trails that have a steep enough drop off that one mis-step could garner you an injured limb, being surrounded by tiny, tiny owls hooting, not hearing any human traffic (apart from the group), a distant breeze, the mountain air, fragrant wildflowers, and great old and new friends.

I love birding. Although, I did not love only getting three hours of sleep before meeting my field trip. But hey, flammulated owls are worth it.

I must get to my gate, I am so looking forward to some sleep tonight. Hope their are not too many typos in this...

At Work Trying To Get Black Swifts

Bird Uganda Safaris (is here with their primo give away) and got a shot of me and another convention participant trying to get our lifer black-throated swifts:

Beats the heck out of "swift neck."

Word On The Street At The ABA

Above is a beautiful Bullock's oriole we saw on a field trip in Vivian Park yesterday. See, Non Birding Bill, they aren't all brown and gray out here. So, here are some of the topics birders are discussing at the American Birding Association Convention in Utah:

Falcons are more closely related to parrots than other raptors??

Yes! That is the word on the street here at the ABA Convention and on the birding listservs and blogs. There's an article about at the Chicago Tribune and Grrl Scientist has a bit more detail here in her blog.

So, what does this mean to you? Your field guide orders are going to change. But aren't they always changing anyway. I still get confused seeing waterfowl up front instead of loons and grebes.

The other interesting deal going down is that a man attending the convention has scanned in his National Geographic Field Guide and placed it on his iTouch! He said that it took him three weeks and he showed me how he can zoom in on the illustrations and you can easily view the text. He also used the Thayer Software for birding and has all the North American bird calls to go along with it. Now, because it's proprietary to National Geo, he can't sell it, but he has offered to mail a disk of the scanned guide to anyone who wants it--for FREE! He doesn't want money and he just seems to enjoy getting a good guide on an iTouch.

I was going to blog out loud to National Geographic and say: "Yo, dudes, why aren't you doing this--getting a good field guide onto an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone? You did such a fun job with the Palm Pilot thing." And when I checked email yesterday, I got this in my Inbox:

Introducing National Geographic Handheld Birds Online

Now all of the power in National Geographic Handheld Birds™ is available Online! Access Handheld Birds™ from any full-featured web browser on a computer or mobile device such as the iPhone. With the new online features Handheld Birds™ is a must-have for any bird enthusiast!

Here are just some of the new Online features:

-Compare species side-by-side
-Search on multiple selections for criteria
-Search with new “family” criteria
-Add notes to checklists and individual species observations
-Manage your checklists and lifelists
-Set date ranges for checklists for a single day or over months
-Order species in checklists by name, taxonomic order, and count
-Download checklists to your desktop or store them online
-Set personal preferences
-Manage up to 100 checklists at a time

For a limited time only, you can get a full 1-year subscription to Handheld Birds Online for only $25. That’s a 50% savings off the regular price!

This now makes it compatible with an iPhone or iTouch when you are online.

Techno Birding is getting interesting folks.

Now That Is A Hardcore Birder

Double binocular harnesses!

Birds Non Birding Bill Won't Understand

Just a quick and dirty entry:

Got some exciting life birds today (and just in case there is still a question, a life bird or lifer is a bird that you observe for the first time in your life and add to your life list):

A cordilleran flycatcher--I can hear how overwhelmed he is in my head. Check out that buffy/olive goodness.

And an American dipper. This bird was nesting under a bridge and would come out and swim around in the water and periodically dip its tail while grabbing who knows what for food.

And though the birds were brown, the views were spectacular. This was from our stop at Sundance--it's not just for movie festivals and skiing. I've enjoyed Robert Redford movies, but I've never been so grateful to him as I was today looking at the beautiful land that be bought and preserved.

Wednesday In Utah

When I first arrived, I tried to do a quick blog post and kept getting error messages. I called Non Birding Bill and he looked into it. Apparently, I had used up all the space on the server. Ooopsie. He cleared some space and I should be good to go over the weekend, but we're going to have to change next week.

I have the potential to get many lifers on this trip. So far, I've been too overwhelmed saying hello to old friends and hanging out at the Swarovski booth to really dig in. Clay, the Swarovski Rep when to a local bird store (which also does not have mealworms at the moment) and picked up a droll yankee feeder, some sunflower hearts and hummingbird feeder for people to test scopes on. Two key birds that I needed were showing up to them (Cassin's finch and black-headed grosbeak). However, they had the knack of showing up when I wasn't looking. Every time I went out, it was just pine siskins. I eventually did get one (above). Here's an even better shot:

It's hard to tell from the light in this photo, but you can tell them from purple finches by this little brown mark on their cheek that resembles a mutton chop style beard. Tomorrow, I get to go out on the reasonably timed 5:45am field trip and will surely rack the lifers up. Saturday, I have a brutal start time of 4am...ah well, it could be worse, there is a field trip leaving at 3:45am too.

Hey, if you are interested in some up to the minute updates, Born Again Bird Watcher is blogging from the floor to his blackberry.

Look Out ABA

I just checked into my room for at Snowbird for the American Birding Association Convention. Check out the view:

I think this is the fanciest place I have ever stayed at for a birding convention. Also of note: my first bird in the state was a black-billed magpie. Beats the usual house sparrow, starling, or rock pigeon.

The place is packed with birders. Everywhere I turn there's either floppy hats or khaki.

Chum Chuminy Chum Chum Churry

Today was a triumph of the human spirit on many levels. First, I had to meet my field trip group at 3:30 am. That's not a typo folks, that is 3:30 in the am. I don't know how, but I managed to get my stuff together to meet the field trip.

When I met up with the group, I was reminded of a flock of blackbirds coming to roost. The hotel situation in Bangor, ME is a little wonky; we're spread out over three different hotels, and for some reason I'm at the hotel with all the field trip leaders and not participants/exhibitors, so I have to take a shuttle bus to meet the buses that take us on the field trips. When the shuttle bus arrived with all of us, there were about 250 birders waiting in that hotel parking lot. Our crowd joined them and we began milling about trying to figure how who was going on what bus.

Then, just like someone tossed out a peanut butter suet cake to a flock a starlings, someone opened up the breakfast boxes too early. The original plan was that we were to get our boxed breakfasts as we boarded our respective buses, but there appeared to be some sort of bus snafu going on. I'm not sure if someone in charge just left the breakfast boxes unattended and people started going for them or if someone in charge was worried the crowd was getting ugly and decided to throw food at us as a last means of defense.

Once we finally got on the road, things seemed to have calmed down. However, the adventure was just beginning. The sea was angry that day, my friends! I learned later on that our boat was the only one allowed on the water, the swells were six to eight feet and our tour group felt it. I would say that at least half the participants ended up barfing at some point from motion sickness. I don't know how I escaped it, I used a combination of Dramamine, ginger ale, oyster crackers, wristbands and focused on a fixed point on the horizon when I wasn't watching birds. I felt that I won the battle of the bilge. It wasn't easy, especially when they started chumming.

For those who don't know, chumming is tossing in smelly fish stuff to attract sea birds that have a terrific sense of smell. Our chum consisted of fish oil mixed with popcorn (the popcorn helps keep the oil at the surface of the water) and chunks of fish. Shearwaters and storm-petrels came right in.

The second floor of the boat was loaded with everyone who was feeling a tad queasy. I did find these two towards the end of the trip. They looked exhausted, happy about the birds they had seen and a tad in love...awwwwww.

I had a day I haven't had in ages! I got 13 life birds on one trip, I've never been on an eastern pelagic so it was easy to rack 'em up. So many birds were being seen in different directions, I didn't know which one to look at first. Behind me was a gannet, to the right of me was a shearwater and to the left was a razorbill. AAAAARGH! Sensory overload.

Needless to say that in high swells, getting photos of the birds is challenging to say the least. Okay, this isn't anything to write home about, but the above photos is a souvenier to remember puffins and razorbills.

Here are a couple of razorbills flying by. I really enjoyed those birds more than I thought I would. I was ready to go away from this trip with puffins being my favorite birds, but I couldn't take my binos off of the razors.

It was a great day of birding, well worth the early morning rising. One thing about ABA trips, you get your money's worth with birds. The trip leaders are generally top notch and often there are so many leaders on one trip, you can pick the personality you're most comfortable with and hang with them for the day. I chose Jim Danzenbaker, not only because he's a great birder, but because he had a whole Richard Dreyfuss look (from the Jaws movie era) going on. After returning from the trip at 3:30 pm (12 hours after we started) I headed to the vendor area that was opening up at 4pm to work the binocular booth until the banquet at 6pm. Am I bushed? You betcha. Was it a great day? Totally. Did it make up for the Legionnaire incident? So, so very much!