Pelagic Birding Off The Florida Coast

NOTE: I just noticed on the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival that they have some items that attendees left behind. If you attended the festival, check it out.

My final day at the Space Coast Bird Festival in Florida involved a 12 hour pelagic birding trip with the Explorer Fishing Charters. Above is a photo of our boat heading out to sea with a large flock of gulls following us (because we were chumming the water). Pelagic bird trips involve taking a boat out into the ocean to try and see birds that only come to land for breeding. You watch for birds with crazy names like petrels, jaegers, fulmars. Pelagic birding isn't for everyone--and yet for many people, it' the only way to get certain birds on your list. Even if you're not prone to seasickness, watching birds through your binoculars on a bobbing boat can make you barf. It's also a challenge for me because I can't really digiscope from the boat and we have to rely on what ever my little point and shoot can do all on its own.

The other challenge to pelagic is that there is a lot of gross stuff around. You need to attract birds to the boat and a great way to do that is to dribble some fish oil behind the boat. If you do feel yourself getting sick on a pelagic trip, it's best to go to the back of the boat and blow chow there. If you do it in front or from the side, people behind you could get some residual spray. But it you go in back, you barf can contribute to the chum, but if you're back there with the oil and the fish, it might make you vomit some more.

Also, along with the fish oil, the crew chops up chunks of fish to toss out. Once you get a large flock of common gulls following you, it attracts the attention of other birds. There are several thing you can do to ward off from seasickness. One, the day before don't go out drinking lot alcohol. Have a good dinner--you may think having an empty stomach will make so you have nothing to hurl, but you need a good dinner so you body can function at it' best. The night before take a Dramamine or Bonine. About an hour before you're on the boat, take another Dramamine or Bonine--you need it in your system before you're on the boat for the med to work. If you take it on the boat, chances are good you could just barf it back up. There are also patches, ginger chews, ginger ales that you can use too.

I myself like to tempt fate on a pelagic. I was going to get a shot of me holding one of the frozen fish, when one of the crew put one in his mouth and dared me to do the same. He said not to swallow any ice on the fish and I would be fine--so I went for it. I actually take Bonine, it makes me less drowsy. I do have some motion sickness issues - I can't read in a car or I get nauseous. But I'm fortunate in that the few times I found myself getting woozy on a pelagic, I notice that if I focus on the horizon for a minute, it goes away.

We got some fun birds mixed in with the gulls. Above is a young northern gannet. I love these guys, especially when they dive for food. I have a dream of someday visiting their nesting colony in Newfoundland. I tried to find video of them diving (there's great footage on the Life of Birds). But I found one homemade video here (you may need to hit mute if you're at work, there's a fun little song along with it) and there here is a video of a crew watching sardines. About a minute and twenty-five seconds into it, you see the gannets from underwater--I didn't realize how much they swim once they dive in!

We also saw sandwich terns - note how this tern has a black bill (with a yellow tip) and not orange like some of the others you may have seen in the blog.

I was hoping for some jaegers and we got them. We saw quite a few pomarine jaegers. These are predatory birds that only come to land to nest up in the Arctic and spend the rest of the time out at see. On their breeding territories, they eat mostly lemmings, but when out to sea they will follow ships for scraps and steal fish from birds like black-legged kittiwakes.

Part of the fun of a pelagic trip is seeing other species besides birds, like the sea turtle above. We did see one leatherback and some Man O' Wars, so it wasn't all about the birds. Unlike birding in the landfill, it was a little more challenging pointing out critters on the ocean--there weren't too many landmarks. The Man O' Wars look almost like blue plastic bags floating on the surface--"Hey see what looks like a blue plastic bag at about 2 o'clock? That's a jellyfish!"

We had a big pod of dolphins, both bottle nose and spotted come check out boat out. I'm sure they were interested in the bit of fish trailing out boat. It was fun to watch groups of about seven line up side by side and swim along with out boat.

They came in quite close to the boat, you could almost see them smiling.

As we started the day, it was still chilly. As the boat got closer and closer to the Gulf Stream to look for birds, it got a bit warmer and some of us shed our layers. Most people kept them on. The front of the boat was very crowded and being short I headed towards the upper deck to get a view of the birds. We were lucky in that the seas were quiet and we didn't have too much rocking, blowing, or waves crashing.

But periodically, waves would splash up--especially if the captain was turning to get a the group a better look at a bird. Notice how wet Leica Rep Jeff Bouton got. He loved it, it's a chance to demonstrate how Leica bins can take a water beating and appeals to his adventurous spirit. Jeff also brought his young son, Austin along for the ride. Austin was my savior at a couple of points when he would head down inside to get me coffee. I paid him in donuts. It was and awesome partnership. If you read WildBird Magazine, Jeff has a column about his birding adventures with young Austin.

As it got warmer, I too shed some layers, one being my earmuffs, which were more for keeping my hat on. Now that I have short hair, I don't have the long ponytail to help hold the hat in place. Two minutes later, the wind blew my hat and gave it to the ocean.

I was a tad bummed, it was a hat from the Rio Grande Valley bird fest--black with an embroidered green jay. I have twenty other hats, so it wasn't that big of a loss, but I felt terrible about accidentally littering the ocean. Before I knew what was going on, the boat turned around...the captain was going back for my hat!

We went around, both Bouton from Leica and a shipmate tried to fish it out with long hooks. They missed, the captain circled again for the hat. I was shocked at the effort that was being put forth for my hat. I didn't ask for them to go back, they just did.

On the second turn, the got my hat! I was stunned. I think I now have an official lucky hat. It was dripping wet when they handed it to me...

Here's the crewman who fished out my hat. I put it on right way for a photo. I told the captain, "I can't believe you went back for my hat." He said that I looked so sad when it flew off that he had no choice. Bouton told me that he has lost several hats on pelagics and no captain has ever fished one out for him.

Pete Dunne asked, "Hey, Sharon, are you going to blog about the carbon footprint left from going back for your hat?"

I asked, "Would you rather that I littered the ocean there, Pete?"

*On a side note, I just noticed that Pete Dunne has an entry on wikipedia--who knew??? Birder making strides in the mainstream.

After a full day on the ocean of great sea birds and no vomiting, the group headed back with a large parade of laughing gulls following us.

The brown pelicans started following us in too. I love this shot, it looks like the pelican is standing right on the water's surface.

As we got closer, the captain announced that we had to stop chumming the water. We couldn't go into harbor with hundreds of birds following us, no matter how cool those gannets are. They were a great crew and worked really hard to get us better looks at the fast moving birds on the water. We were all exhausted from the adventure at sea, but it was a great time. To me, any day that involves a boat on open water seems like an adventure.

Laughing Gulls

Heads up: I'm going to Guatemala at the end of February. Mike from 10,000 Birds and Patrick from Hawk Owl's Nest should be there too. Since it sounds like internet access might be iffy while I'm there, Swarovski is going to help me hold a guest blog contest! More details are coming but if you are a blogger who would like to introduce some of your material to my readers or if you have read my blog and thought, "Hey, I can do this, I'd like to give that whole blogging thing a try," this contest will be for you.

Details will be up tomorrow (Friday).

I'm wrapping up all my coverage of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I think I have about 2 or 3 more things to blog about. It was an action packed festival, I was there for a full seven days. Even if you can't do a full festival schedule, just doing 2 days gives you a lot of bang for your buck. Right now, I'm compiling all my photos for our pelagic birding trip (birding by boat to look for seabirds)!

Here's a video of some laughing gulls that were following out boat out to sea. The crew was tossing out chum and what amazes me is that even as we're bookin' it out, and the gulls are pumping their wings to keep up--they still manage to catch fish chunks thrown at them:

The Gulls At Daytona Beach

I got to debut one of my favorite new birding shirts while at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival. Can I say how much I love the shirts at Magnificent Frigatebird? I blogged about some of these shirts around the holidays. I love the sense of humor that the company has and I love that they don't just carry the Hanes Beefy Tee. On behalf of female birders every where, thank you for carrying a variety of sizes and styles and for not making female birders look like a sack of potatoes with a bird logo. Check out their shirts, there's something for everybody. If you can buy a shirt, please do, we need to support companies that add some hip to the birder wardrobe, because Tilly hats are not helping. FYI, the new way to id a birder is not by the vest with pockets, but by a Tilly hat with the cord strapped firmly under the chin). Above I'm wearing the Birding Slut t-shirt (I got lots of compliments for it--even from a Dunkin Donuts employee).

Speaking of Dunkin Donuts, some may remember my rant a couple of years ago about how many Dunkin Donuts quit making the flavor I loved. When I'm in a new state, I usually stop at one. I love the coffee and a small part of me hopes that I'll find the one DD still carrying the vanilla creme donuts. After birding at the landfill and taking a break before heading to Daytona Beach for some hot all-gull action, I found a Dunkin. I walked in and found that they had both vanilla creme and chocolate creme. It took a photo and sent it to Twitter. I even got a reply from for the Dunkin Donuts Twitter Feed: "@birdchick, we are glad, when you are glad. Please report back when you see a White-tailed Tropicbird or an Antillian Nighthawk."

Wait, DD watches birds?? No wonder I love their coffee and their donuts! Probably just as well that the creme donuts are harder to find, makes it easier for me to fit in the cute birding t-shirts.

Word on the street among gull watchers was that Daytona Beach in late afternoon was the place to be. It's near the Tamoka Landfill. I'm sure many of the gulls we saw there ended up on the beach. The gulls are staging along the beach before flying out to the ocean to sleep at night. Rumor had it that there could be 50,000 gulls coming into the beach. And if you were in the mood for a game of Where's Waldo, you could pick out some interesting gulls among the many common ones like the ring-billed gull above.

Some were easy to pick out right away. Above is a tern and not a gull, this is a royal tern. Other fun ones we picked out included that famous lesser black-backed gull and also the Iceland gull that I blogged earlier.

One of the challenges of birding along the beach was the public. We had joggers plowing though the gulls oblivious to the dozen or so people with scopes aimed where they ran. Kids also thought it was a great time to run through the gulls to watch the flock swirl around them. I can't say that I blame them. Having walked through a few clouds of birds myself, I can totally understand the excitement.

I did have one tense moment. I could see a girl who looked to be about 8 - 10 years old running down the beach scaring up birds. She was running towards us and we had just gotten the Iceland gull into our scopes after working the beach for some time. I tried to signal to her to stop. The two older women with her (I assume one was her mother) were oblivious. The young girl slowed her pace at my hand signal, but got a mischievous glint in her eye stopped right in front of where my scope was aimed, blocking the gull. I turned my scope to the side and stared at her. I figured if I moved my scope, she would move on. She had slowed enough so the flock wouldn't move, but she stayed, and the battle of wills had begun. I heard one of the women call behind me, "Baby, you keep dancin', ignore those people, it's okay."

A confrontation was out of the question, the two women could have easily pummeled me had I said, "Oy! We're trying to photograph a bird here." The young girl stayed put, smiling at this odd game of wills. I was surprised she stayed, "Seriously, you just gonna stand there and be a stinker?"

Then, it suddenly hit me, "Duh, Sharon, now is your chance!" I called to the girl, "Hey, you want to see a super rare bird through my scope?"

She smiled and shook her head yes and ran over.

I got the Iceland gull centered in the scope. I told her that this bird came all the way down from the Arctic to Florida and it was very rare to see one here. She peered through the scope and turned to look at me with wide eyes. She seemed genuinely wowed. The two older ladies came over and looked too. They were very excited. They said that they had noticed many people with scopes and wondered if we were a photography club. I told them about the different gulls and they were surprised.

I also pointed out the glaucous gulls. There were a couple and they were such a stand out to the naked eye. The women took down the name of both the gulls and told the little girl that they would have to learn more about them on Google when they got back home. Who knows, maybe that little girl will be a future birder, or worse, gull watcher. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner when she first came down the beach. I came dangerously close to being the cranky old woman who shakes her fist at the young kids who don't understand and didn't do it as well as when I was a kid.

The glaucous gulls were quite helpful for our gull watching. Since there were so many birders out with their scopes and some of us were digiscoping, many people on the beach came up to ask what we were doing. Since the glaucous gulls stuck out even with the naked eye, I just said, "See that big white gull, it's not supposed to be here."

That almost always did the trick. It's so much easier to point to a big white bird and say, "See that one that's obviously different, we birders are really excited about that." It's the young first year gulls where you say, "See all those brown looking gulls that are all the same size? Well, the one in the middle has wing tips that are slightly less dark brown than all the others. We birders are really excited about that one!" That's when a non birder backs away with that frightened look in their eye that they have just encountered someone who is either high or relatively unstable or both.

I must say, I had a lot of fun with the glaucous gulls, there were two of them and both were fairly light. It had finally warmed up at this point and we were enjoying the breezes on the beach. What a difference to watch a glaucous on a balmy beach in a t-shirt instead of bundled up in sub zero weather on a patch of open river near a power plant.

As the tide started to come in, the gulls came closer to us. This glaucous gull got so close, I couldn't fit the whole body in my field of view. I took the opportunity to take some head shots. The glaucous gull really is beautiful. You have the white frosty look, and the beak and feet are a pretty pink. See it in the bill?

I don't know if I'm going to be jumping onto those hardcore birding listservs where they discuss an unusual gull for about three weeks, but I'm not going to shy away from them either. I once met someone who said he tried to learn 3-4 warbler species each spring. Then after ten years, he'd have them down. Perhaps I should treat gulls the same way. Just learn a few each year and then in a decade, I might have them down.

Certainly having them up close did help.

More Birding Fun At Viera Wetlands

We take a small break from gulls to talk about a few other species.

I have a few more birds to share from our second field trip that we led to Viera Wetlands while at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. One of the funny things was after I got my lifer limpkin earlier in the week, I kept getting them again and again and again. I could not escape the limpkin. It's funny how some birds are like that: so tough to get in the first place and then once you have them on your list, they're everywhere! I even got to hear their crazy loud calls, which was a bonus.

I was doing a bit of reading on limpkins on Birds of North America Online and I must have been making sounds while reading because Non Birding Bill asked what was so interesting. I read to him, "Limpkin has previously been allied with a wide range of bird families, including with ibises and spoonbills based on bird lice. Relationship of finfoots and sungrebes to other gruiforms and Limpkin has caused confusion."

To which he started laughing. I'm not sure if he was laughing about birds having allies, or birds being classified based on lice, for the idea that there is a bird species out there called finfoot or just laughing at birding in general (as is his usual fashion). Anyway, the bottom line is that no one can seem to agree as to where this apple snail eatin' bird fits taxonomically. Is it a rail, is it a crane? Who can say?

Oh, I've been asked to clarify something about Viera Wetlands. It's not a sewage treatment area, but the wetlands filter for the St. Johns River. Years ago, this area was drained for crops and cattle. The wetlands' plants absorb metals and other contaminants, a cheaper way to filter waste water than mechanically at the sewer plant. Whatever it is, if I were going to introduce someone to birding, this would be a great place to take someone, great birds, crazy looking birds, close and easy to see. Many bird photographers love it because the birds are accessible and the lighting is fabulous.

Check out this little sora. It crept out of the reeds and put on a show for a good portion of the morning. I couldn't take my digiscoping equipment off of it. How often do you get a sora posing for you out in the open. They're nothing but a bunch of Lurky McLurkLurks up in Minnesota. These are amazing little rails that walk about in marshes eating mostly vegetation, although they do eat some invertebrates. Their feet are about as big as their bodies. It's legal in some states to hunt them, but I can't imagine that you would A. get very much meat to eat and B. that they would not taste very well.

We had a film crew that was out with this particular field trip and they even got some sora footage. Not being birders, they didn't have an idea of how hard it can be to see a sora, much less film one. While watching the sora, I looked up and noticed some movement in the reeds not too far away...

...low and behold, it was an American bittern. I think I've been to Viera about four times now and every time I go, I see a bittern. This was kind of a bonus bittern, we saw one earlier in the morning but didn't get a great look. We only saw it when it flew and then it buried itself proper into some reeds. This one had the sun right on it and was easy to get in the scope. The American bittern was nice, but when we asked our group in the morning what bird they'd like to see, almost the whole group answered, "least bittern." Word had spread through the festival about our success earlier in the week at finding a least bittern and this group hoped for the same. While our group was going around the ponds, we ran into my buddy Clay Taylor. I told him to give me a call if he happened to see the bittern so we could bring our group over.

Later in the morning we got the call. Clay had the least bittern and our group should drive over. After a few missed directions, we made it towards Clay, he had stayed on the least bittern for us. He instructed me to stop the bus an for all of us to get on the opposite side of the bittern and approach him slowly, the least bittern was a bit nervous. The group snuck over about as well as a group of anxious 20 twenty birders could sneak and we got he scopes on the least bittern.

And there was the tiny bittern yet again. It was nice of Clay to stay on the bird for us, even though he wasn't part of the field trip. I joked to everyone that if this was a life bird, it was sponsored by Swarovski. I made sure to treat Clay to dinner at Dixie Crossroad later as a thank you. Check out the crazy yellow eye that least bittern has going on. Awesome bird!

The whole trip wasn't just about rails and herons, we did have some sparrow action. If you had never experienced a savanna sparrow, Viera wetlands was a great place to go, these birds were everywhere. If you stood in one spot, you could easily find one foraging near you in less than two minutes. As we were winding up our trip, we noticed Clay had his digiscoping equipment up on another bird...

...he loaned me the photo of the great egret trying to eat a huge frog, isn't it awesome?! And now that I think about, Clay has a knack of digiscoping birds trying to eat food that's too big for them. There was the recent anhinga vs fish and a while ago there was the ring-necked duck trying to eat a large snail. I didn't get to see the egret finish eating the frog, too many eyes were watching it. It's hard enough to eat large food, but this egret must also contend with other birds that would want to steal the food from it. I kind of giggled watching the egret. When you looked at it without binoculars or a scope, it looked kind of like it had a little man in its beak.

One of the pleasures of this trip was that we also had Jonathan Rosen along with us. He was a keynote speaker for the festival. I unfortunately missed it, I had to meet a field trip at 4:30am the night he spoke and went to bed way early. He was very understanding and it was great to spend some birding time with him. I haven't read Life of the Skies, but I really want to now. I hope we get to see him more on the bird festival circuit.

I Digiscoped A Famous Lesser Black-backed Gull!

While doing some gull watching at Daytona beach during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, some of the more experienced gull watchers were super excited about a lesser black-backed gull. It's not so much that it was there, it's not out of the realm of possibility for a lesser black-backed gull to show up, but this one was banded, and one of the gull watchers (Michael Brothers) knew where this bird came from--and we all know how much I love a good bird banding story!

Lesser black-backed gulls breed in Europe. They have been showing up more and more in North America and the suspicion has been that it's a matter of time before they start breeding in on this side of the Atlantic, if they have not already, but no one had documented a nest. That is, until the last two years. In 2007, a lesser black-backed gull was paired up and tending a nest with a herring gull on an island off of New Hampshire.

A same pairing was observed in the summer of 2008 and it is presumed that this is the same lesser black-backed gull, but this time, researchers were able to band the lesser black-backed gull and the herring gull and they also witnessed the copulation between the two--determining that the lesser black-backed was the male. They gave him the usual metal band, but also a green plastic band that is easier to read in the field: F05!

F05 apparently likes to spend his winters in Florida--this is so exciting! It's rare to get a recovery when it comes to banding, but the chance to track one while it's alive is such a treat. Thanks to the internet we can find his history and have some answers. You can read the whole story of the pairing, the banding process, and the hybrid chicks at this website. If you check it out, you can see that the bird I digiscoped above is wearing the same band as the lesser black-backed on the island off of New Hampshire.

Also, if you are frustrated with gulls and the fact that there are wacky hybrids that make gull id even more difficult, you can blame this dude, he's not helping.

Alvaro Jaramillo On Learning Love Gull Watching

Alvaro Jaramillo one of the field trip leaders at the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival speaks on learning to love watchin' the larids (aka gulls):

Landfill Birding

Before I went to Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, I listed all the field trips that I would be on and one of them was a gull id workshop at at Tomoka Landfill. See all the gulls in the above photo, that landfill was jam packed with birds! I had a bit of a panic, gulls are not my strong suit and let's face it, if you are on the outside looking in at people who enjoy watching gulls, it seems kinda nutty and impossible to do. I used being on the workshop as an incentive to learn my gulls (at least in Minnesota) and I have increased my gull power but fortunately on this trip there were several great local guides and one brought in from the big leagues--Alvaro Jaromillo, author and professional guide for Field Guides.

Now, in the above photo, Alvaro almost looks like he's saying, "Yeah, gull watchers are cuckoo." However, he is describing facial features to look for on herring gulls. One of the awesome things about this particular birding trip was that all of the guides were nice, acknowledged that gull watching was hard and if you made an error, they nicely helped you hone your skills. There was no attitude of "I can't believe you thought that was a herring gull, give back your birder card, loser." Alvaro strayed from the traditional terms used for gull id like "primary projection" and used phrases like "does the face look kinda goofy" or "does it look angry like it would kill you if it could." He admitted that these were not terms that you would find in gull guides, but they work. All of us begged him to write a beginner gull guide to give us hope. He did such a great job of making the identification of gulls approachable and more importantly, fun. In truth, all the guides made it fun.

So, essentially gull watching and identification is really a cross between Where's Waldo and logic problems. You look at all the common ones and really learn them and learn them well. Above is a large flock of laughing gulls with a few ring-billed gulls thrown in. There were also quite a few herring gulls hanging out at the landfill as well.

So, you look through all those common ones and you try to find that Waldo, that one gull that isn't quite like the others, that is different. Note the above, we have several large adult herring gulls and smaller adult ring-billed gulls, but then we have someone in the middle who is different. Now the logic problem end of this comes in. You ask yourself why this isn't one of the common gulls. First you can tell by it's plumage that it's a younger gull. It's large, so why is this not a young herring gull? The legs are pink like on a herring gull...but Alvaro told us to look at the beak, it was all black, chunky...not quite herring gull. Another guide, Mike Brothers mentioned that this bird didn't have the "smudgy look" on the back like a young herring gull, it was more patterned (it's hard to tell in this photo). So this was identified as a young lesser black-backed gull.

If you don't see it, don't worry, you'll get there when you're ready. Here is one that might be easier:

We have some smaller laughing gulls on the left, a large herring gull (with a ring-billed gull right behind it) and a large lesser black-backed gull. Again, you're looking for the Waldo, the gull that is different from all the common ones. So you see already that there are two large gulls. One is light gray on the back (that is the herring gull) the other is darker (that is the lesser black-backed gull). Also, note the leg color too. The herring has pink legs, the lesser-black backed has yellow legs. Alvaro and the other guides freely admitted that there will be weirdos that don't fit the books, they could be hybrids or they could just be weird, some will have to go unidentified and it happens to the most expert of gull watchers. My buddy Clay Taylor told me about some herring gulls that were observed at a fish processing plant and all had yellow legs (how exactly were those fish being processed if the herring gulls were eating the leftovers and turning their pink legs yellow?).

Besides all of the gulls, there were TONS of other birds hanging out at the landfill. When you looked at the piles of trash with your naked eye, you saw movement that you thought was maybe some white plastic bags waving in the wind, but looking through the scope, it was thousands of birds of several different species. I posted a video of it earlier. I expected gulls, vultures, crows, starlings, grackles and even a few bald eagles. The surprise to me were all the ibis, herons, and egrets. Earlier I blogged about how Florida is a study in specialist birds like the Florida scrub-jay who need a very specific and exact habitat in order to survive. Species that learn how to expand their food foraging ability are the ones that will continue to survive.

Earlier someone commented on the blog about how sad it is to see these birds crowding for food at a landfill eating food that is bad for them. I'm not sure how bad it is. These birds have been eating at the landfill for decades and a quick glance at Birds of North America Online showed that most of the species we observed are experiencing a population increase. The few that were on the decline were down more for water management issues disturbing nesting habitat. I'm certainly not saying that this is the best idea ever for birds to be eating at a landfill. Sure a bird like a turkey vulture has the digestive system to be able to eat that rotten chicken tucked away in the garbage bag, but what may have spilled on that chicken? Old chocolate sauce? Did that old bottle of detergent that didn't get recycled leak a bit on there? Tough to say, we don't have the answers at the moment.

And as we were enjoying all of these birds (like this cattle egret above) and trying to learn from the wise Alvaro, we had a challenge from not only the din of calling gulls, crows, and eagles but the Dayton 24 race was going on nearby and roaring cars rivaled the sound of thousands of birds. One birder mentioned allowed that race fans must not be that bright to sit and watch cars go round and round in a circle. I thought that was fancy talk coming from a man spending a sunny Sunday morning in a landfill to watch birds.

One of the pluses of birding with a group at a landfill is that it's super easy to point out birds. You could point out the oddball gull quick and easy by the many landmarks. You could say, "From about two o'clock of the pile of boxes is a bright green piece of plastic, it's just to the right of the plastic. It was also interesting to note things like a pile of cardboard boxes with a bald eagle perched on one side and a great egret on the other.

There were dozens of bald eagles all over the landfill and they perched on anything that wouldn't move. Periodically, young thug eagles would fly over the gulls and cause them all to fly into the air in a tizzy.

When we drove around in the morning, the trees were chock full of birds from black vultures to grackles to cowbirds to starlings. This must be a popular roosting area, not too many people come in at night to disturb them.

The birds had a relatively aloof view of humans. These black vultures were not digiscoped, I took this photo right off the road from my car window. To them, humans (especially in vehicles) brought more trash/food. So unless you were running right at them, they were too concerned with you.

This trio was watching us as were watching the gulls, almost wondering what could we be doing if we weren't delivering food.

And though I should have been taking photos of gulls, I could not keep my digiscoping equipment off of the turkey vultures. Even if you are not into gulls, if you go to the Space Coast festival in the future, sign up for the landfill trip, you get close to some crazy birds. And though there is a viewing area specifically for birders, the landfill made a special exception and we were allowed to go on top of areas that birders are not usually allowed on, like Mount Trashmore a high hill of covered garbage (that leaks out methane so absolutely NO SMOKING there). The methane from that his is also channeled to help run the landfill and the leftover energy is added to the local power grid.

As the day got later, many of the vultures, crows, and gulls took flight and circled on the thermals (warm currents of air that spiral upwards). With so many scavengers overhead, you couldn't help but feel a little like a dying animal.

Overall, I had such a great time with the gang and watching gulls, I wasn't ready for it to end. Word from the local guides was that Mike Brothers had discovered that about 50,000 gulls came into the nearby Daytona Beaches to stage before flying out to see to roost for the night. The show started at about 3pm. It was already a little afternoon 12pm. I was supposed to head the 45 miles back for a social at the festival, but the guys had me hooked on gulls, so I decided to relax a bit in Daytona and watch the evening gull show.

That is for another blog entry.

Skywatch Friday Florida

It's Skywatch Friday! You can create a blog post with a photo of sky and then link on over to their site and share in the magic. The above photo is from the pelagic birding trip offered at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. We were heading out on the boat to see some seabirds. We started at dawn and as our boat headed out to see we started dropping some chum and whirlwind of laughing gulls and herring gulls followed our boat.

I had another fun moment at Space Coast. While co-leading a trip to Viera Wetlands, a man approached our groups and asked me, "Are you Birdchick?" I said that I was and he introduced himself as Klaus--one of the guys behind Skywatch Fridays. I geeked, but only a little.

So, head on over to Skywatch Friday and check out all the forms of sky people have submitted this week.

Gratuitous Turkey Vultures

Okay, this post was meant to be about a field trip to a landfill to see gulls and a few other species at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival but I did not realize how many turkey vulture shots I took at the landfill. I never get this close to them where I live (well, apart from the education turkey vulture at The Raptor Center).

It's easy to understand why so many turkey vultures are attracted a landfill, they find food by smell. Human waste is stinky and smells edible to them and they must find quite a bit to eat in our refuse based on the sheer number of turkey vultures present.

This bird was sunning itself near our group. They were not terribly bothered by humans, most of their human contact at the landfill is by the workers dump and moving the trash. Usually a human is a source of food. I've heard two different theories of why vultures sun themselves. One is to get rid of feather parasites, the other is that vultures can soar so long and the feather tend to flatten out. Holding the feathers in the warm sun puts them back into the proper curvature. Not sure which one is true.

Okay, back to sorting landfill photos.

A Preview For Landfill Birding

I'm trying to corral my photos to use in a future post about birding in a Florida landfill (I tell ya' that Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival takes you to some highfalutin places). Here is a video that I took with my Fuji E900 attached to my Swarovski spotting scope just to give you an idea of the sheer number of birds and the sound they create. You'll hear a din of several species including fish crow, laughing gull, bald eagle, and boat-tailed grackle. Now, here is a question, how many species can you make out in both sound and the video? I'm not sure I know the exact number, but I think you will be surprised at what all you can find at a landfill!

Wilson's Snipe Probing and Feeding

Here is a video of the mythical snipe probing the wet earth for food:

Four Endgangered Species Day

When you go birding in Florida, frost is not what you expect to have to deal with. Before I headed to Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, I was sent emails regarding the weather. I noticed that the lows were in the thirties with highs in the 50s, but after dealing with -21, I figured I could take it. However, Florida ended up being a bit colder than I expected, apparently it was a record cold snap, the likes of which haven't been seen for 14 years.

The field trip I signed up for was called the South Brevard County, and the timing was brutal: the bus left at 4: 30 am and returned at 4:30 pm--couple that with temperatures in the twenties, it made for a rough morning. I needed to be on this trip, there were two birds in particular that I wanted to see: Florida scrub-jay and red-cockaded woodpecker. I think sometimes people assume birders love getting up early to watch birds. I think for quite a few of us, we don't love getting up early. The hotel had a breakfast area set up for us starting at 3:30 am, but who wants to eat at that hour? At 3:45 am, I found myself staring into a bowl of Raising Bran, thinking, "What the hell am I doing with my life, why the hell am I here? What is wrong with me?"

But we had to bundle up. I did not bring my winter coat with me, but I did have a sweater and a couple of fleeces. I also stopped in to the local big box store's hunting and fishing section and picked up some hand warmers and proper gloves. Keep that in mind, folks, when you travel--if you need gloves or other outerwear to keep warm and the stores are telling you they have clearanced out winter because it's spring (even though the calendar reads January), you kind sensible outdoor gear in the hunting and fishing section.

Our tour bus headed to St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, a small patch of habitat suitable for both of my target species. When we arrived, they let the group into the visitor center. The naturalists said that with the cold temperatures, even the woodpeckers found it more sensible to sleep in a little later, tucked into their tree cavities. As the sun started to peak up from below the horizon, it was time to head out. Because of the rough terrain, the tour bus could not take us to the red-cockaded woodpecker spot, it was quite a distance to walk and not all of our group would have been able to make the walk, so they loaded us into the backs of pick up trucks and we bounced our way there in the cold air.

We stopped at a group of trees known to be cavities of red-cockaded woodpecker. After about 10 minutes, one poked its head out, looking as though he felt the way I had felt a few hours earlier. This woodpecker is an endangered species. The cavity above is actually a "human made" cavity. The naturalists explained how the woodpeckers will reuse previously made cavities for years and they have devised a way of implanting a fake cavity into a live tree--without killing the tree. The red-cockaded specializes in mature open pine forest. Most of the woodpeckers we see in the US tend to go after dead and dying trees, this ambitious species makes it roost and nest cavity in a live tree (although the pine needs to have red-heart fungus, that does make it a bit softer). Now, that would not be a big deal if the bird had a beak like a pileated woodpecker, but this bird has a tiny beak, not unlike a downy woodpecker.

Above is a cross-section of a cavity pecked by an actual red-cockaded woodpecker. It's kinda tiny. The tree came down in a storm and the park uses it as a display. The tree needs to still be alive because the adult will peck holes around the cavity entrance, causing sap to flow, and making it harder for predators like snakes to slither up to the cavity.

The woodpeckers eventually came out of their cavities, but did not seem to want to stay in one spot. Much like humans, it's easier to move around and stay warm than just stand still. I didn't get the best photo, but it was still a treat to see this endangered species and you get an idea of what it looks like. Now, if you're like me, you might be wondering what the heck the red-cockaded means in the birds name. Boy-oh-boy-oh-boy, it's up there with the red-bellied woodpecker! First, a cockade is a knot of ribbons, usually on a hat. So, where is the red that would indicate the red-cockade on the woodpecker? Well, if you hold a red-cockaded woodpecker six inches from your face, you can see a tiny dot of red on the edge of the white cheekc patch where it meet the black on its nape (only on the male).

After watching the red-cockaded, we headed to more open scrubby area with shrub oaks and palmettos, habitat of the Florida scrub-jay. This particular species needs very specific habitat that Birds of North America Online describes as, "Extremely habitat-restricted, occurring only in scrub and scrubby flatwoods of Florida." Some of the essentials include: myrtle oak, runner oak, rusty lyonia, and Florida rosemary. The ground cover needs to be sparce, dominated by palmettos. The open sandy patches are needed for the scrub-jay to hide its cache of acorns. Very, very specific needs for this particular species.

But a very beautiful and cooperative one! The scrub-jays would pop up and just pose in the sun--much easier to digiscope than the red-cockaded woodpecker. The sun was getting higher at this point, the air was getting warmer. Looking at this gorgeous blue creature, I found myself answering the question I asked at 3:45 am, this is what I'm doing with my life. As I was watching my second endangered species of the day, I started to think about how it's incredibly unsafe to be inflexible. Florida is a study of inflexible creatures. Red-cockade woodpeckers have carved our a niche in a specific type of tree--so specific, the tree must have a specific type of fungus. The scrub-jay needs specific shrubs, but also specific spacing to store their food. Or think of the snail kite that only eats a certain type of snail. For species survival, it does not pay to be inflexible. It's important to get out of that comfort zone and generalize--hence the rock pigeon.

We did see several other species on our trip, like great views at a red-shouldered hawk above. If it looks weird, that's because its nictitating membrane is over the eye. Our local field trip leader was David Simpson and he was a good low key guide. Since it was a long field trip, he did a great job of setting our pace and birding so we could get good looks at the birds and more importantly, not get completely worn out. If you're ever looking for a good Florida bird guide, you should check him out.

Because it was so cold, the naturalists told us that we would probably see manatees if we went to the canal, the water was deeper and would be warmer. We headed over that way and there looked to be at least 60 manatees in the water, bobbing up and down, spraying water, and occassionally splashing their tails. That was the third endangered species of the day! After our field trip was done, I was heading back to my hotel and a wood stork ran in front of the road (well, as much as a wood stork can run). That was endangered species number four. I did not get a photo, because I was driving and concentrating on not hitting the stork or surrounding vehicles. But I do think that this is the first time I have seen four endangered species in one day.

Anhinga vs Fish

Well, my adventure in Florida is winding to a close. This morning, I'm packing, starting to deal with email, and sorting photos for blog entries about the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I have over 1300 to sift through from the festival from beautiful places like scrub oak habitat to unique places like a landfill in Daytona. Many more blog entries about the magic of birding in Florida are to follow in the coming week.

For the moment, I share these FABulous photos from my buddy Clay Taylor took of an anhinga trying to eat a fish that is entirely too big for it:

I ran into him during one of our field trips to Viera Wetlands. We were trying to get our field trip a least bittern. I saw Clay up ahead photographing like crazy and wondered if he had it. When I approached, he pointed our on the water and I could see what had peaked his interest. Check ou the above anhinga and the size of fish between its beak! Here's a zoom in:

Our field trip had watched a few anginga and cormorants with fish seemingly too big for their mouth and eventually swallow them. Clay had been on this anhing for quite some time and it was getting tired. The fish flipped wildly to escape being eaten, but the anhinga was determined not to give up such a prize catch.

The anhinga valiantly tried to swallow the enormous fish, several times, but alas, the fish would not be swallowed. No matter how wide the anhinga would make its mouth, the fish would simply not fit through. The anhinga held on to the fish and put it under water to try and get a better grip, but the fish won out.

Here is an upclose shot of the Gulp FAIL. Clay got some fantastic shots of this scene digiscoping with his SLR camera and scope!

Breakthrough In Gull ID

I have so much to blog about the Space Coast Bird Festival, but I'm still here in Florida and birding like crazy. Monday is my final leg of the festival: a pelagic birding trip.

Sunday, I had a major breakthrough in my gull identification ability. Part of it was really great teachers (who don't make you feel bad for misidentifying a gull). I'll go more in depth about that later but here is the moment where I realized I don't completely suck at gull id:

The beaches at Daytona are an evening staging area for thousands of gulls. They congregate there before roosting offshore. Several of us were combing the beaches for lesser black-backed gull, Thayer's gull, and Iceland gull. My buddy Clay had just arrived when someone reported an Iceland gull waaaaaaaaaaay down at the other end of the beach. Several of us booked it there on foot as fast as we could. In the distance, we could make out one birder frantically taking photos, we figured he had the gull. As we approached, we saw people running towards the gulls (it's a public beach) and the whole flock flew up and away. The birder who had been taking photos was in a vehicle, so he drove over to us. He said that he watched it take off and had a general idea of where it landed. His vehicle was packed with equipment, but he offered to let us stand on the floorboards and hang on as he drove to the far end where it landed.

Above is a reenactment. Four of us clung to the vehicle as it headed down the beach. We all watched and scanned for a lighter gull that could be an Iceland gull amid the darker laughing, herring and ring-billed gulls. Then, as we were coasting down the beach, with my naked eye, I spotted it. The vehicle came to a stop, we jumped off and...

We got some great looks and great shots of the Iceland gull. I can't believe I picked it out with my naked eye. Gulls are not so scary after all! I blogged about this particular species of gull earlier this winter, only it was much colder and in Minnesota. The gull was also much further away. Having one so close on a balmy beach was so much better. This is a first cycle (hatched last summer) Iceland gull, it is very pale and frosty looking, note that it does not have dark wingtips, making it easier to distinguish of many of the other gulls out there.

I promise this won't be an all gull all the time blog, but let me assure you, it is possible to gradually learn your gulls.

Now, here's hoping I don't barf on the pelagic birding trip.

Cracker The Crested Caracara

One of the super cool things on display at Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival was an education crested caracara from Audubon Of Florida's Center for Birds of Prey. The bird was found flailing around on the ground as a fledgling. Examination revealed that the caracara had no wing bones on one side--just a few feathers that grew out of its side. The bird most likely hatched with this deformity. Since this caracara cannot fly, it's an education bird, and a very charismatic one was that.

Cracker was incredibly chatty...unless I had my video camera on on it! He would chat for everyone but me and I tried a lot! Below is a video where I try to get Cracker to talk to no avial (note the great horned owl in the back who rouses and startles Cracker). Finally, Steve Moore of Bird Watch Radio fame came over and only his mellifluous voice could coax Cracker to make his crazy caracara noise...that bird must really enjoy Steve's podcasts!

Holy Crap, Flying Coot

Only in Florida.

I just do a a blog entry about never seeing coots in flight and what happens? Tonight I'm driving around Merritt Island NWR and check it out:

A coot flies in front of my car. Go figure!

Painted Bunting, Nemesis Bird No More!

The painted bunting has long been a nemesis bird for me: I'd go to where it was reported and get someone saying, "Oh, it was just here 10 minutes ago!" And it would never be seen again. I knew Space Coast would be my chance to see one but didn't want to put forth too much effort since it's a bird that has a knack of disappearing when I appear.

Word on the conventional hall street was that a local guide for the bird festival lived very close to where the main headquarters of the festival was held. He had bird feeders that were frequently visited by painted buntings. Could I do it. I grabbed WildBird on the Fly late in the afternoon to give it a shot. We played it cool. We didn't rush there, we just happened to drive by.

The gentleman graciously let us in to his home. We watched. In less than five minutes, I saw movement in the surrounding vegetation. Cardinals were coming in, but one flash of red seemed to small. I got my bins on it: it was a male painted bunting! The bird actually exists. After seeing this wondrous creature for years in photos, it was now breathing and moving in front of me--the do exist!

I asked earlier if there were photo requests. How about a video of the male painted bunting:

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Random Sandhill Crane Head

On the off chance anyone needs a cleansing bird, how about a sandhill crane head? Check out that red patch of bare, red skin. Look at the nares (nose hole) you can see right through it, just like you can on a turkey vulture. Those yellow eyes are mesmerizing.

You can get so frickin' close to the birds here in Florida. I'm now asking myself why I have led trips for the past ten years to Nebraska (to an incredibly cold blind) to watch a several thousand mostly at a distance who freak out when you get too close. Here in Florida at the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival, they kind of look at you and almost seem offended if you only take a few photos.

Granted, it is a tad chilly right now, but nothing like some of those mornings on the Platte River in March.

A Double Bittern Day!

I think this male red-bellied woodpecker was feeling what quite a few of us were feeling Tuesday morning at Viera Wetlands (aka Viera Sewage Treatment Facility) during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. BRRRRRRR (a cold snap has hit Florida creating temperatures in the low thirties with wind chills in the twenties) Br! I left a good chunk of my hardcore winter gear at home and kind of regretted it. My toes and fingers suffered. Most of the stores were out of winter gear, but you can usually find some good winter stuff if you look in the hunting section of a Walmart. Reluctantly, I headed to the Big W and I was not disappointed. I found some sensible gloves and even my favorite Hot Hands warmers in the hunting section. So, all should be good when it's the same temperature in Florida on Thursday morning as it is in Minneapolis and I'm out hunting for red-cockaded woodpeckers.

But it was not all cold and suffering, how could it be when our field trip group ended up having a double bittern day and I even got a lifer - a limpkin (above). Of course, now that I have finally seen a limpkin, a bird that has eluded me at all previous opportunities--I'm seeing them regularly now. At one point, we passed someone's yard in a trailer park and it there was a limpkin having a stand off with a black-bellied whistling duck on their dock. That's not the only bird that was in this person's yard--there was also a big flock of sandhill cranes. How's that for a yard list?

We saw quite a few great birds, but the highlight for many was the least bittern that Jeff Gordon found for the group--it was so, so tiny. Looked to be about the size of my fist. Because we were so close and there were many cars jockeying for position around our tour bus, we opted to stay inside to get a look at the bird.

I was amazed that I was able to contort my scope's tripod in my seat to get a somewhat in focus photo, but I did manage. It's a young one, since the back is not black, but he was a cutey.

Another participant on our trip managed to find the larger American bittern blending in perfectly well with the surrounding vegetation. I put my scope on it for others to see and at first they would say, "I don't think it's there." Then a few seconds later, much like looking at a magic eye puzzle, they would exclaim, "I SEE it!"

I'm writing this post on a Wednesday night to be published on blogger Thursday morning. I have to meet our next field trip bus at 4:30am and looking at my clock, I need to hit the hay.

Apparently, It's NOT A Piece Of Snake

UPDATE: THANKS TO MY KNOWLEDGEABLE READERS, THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED!

Warning, this post might be a tad gross for some! For others who are a bit like me and love to examine a piece of dead animal...well, this is right you your ally.

As I was doing some digiscoping around Merritt Island NWR, I glanced down at something interesting. At first glance, it almost resembled a huge talon. As I bent down for a closer look, I realized that it wasn't a claw or a talon, but a piece of snake...or so I thought!

It was a bit dried up. I do not know my reptiles and had no idea what this snake was. I originally blogged that this was a snake, but N8 (aka The Drinking Bird) noticed that this reptile piece had eyelids (insert dramatic music) which meant that it is not a snake at all. I did not know this, but snakes do not have eyelids (more dramatic music). I had made an id mistake (insert sad trombone).

A few more readers wrote in agreeing with N8 that this was a glass lizard and I had to go ye olde google and find out about it. After a rant on my part about scientists being nuts for doing things like this (ie calling a bird a red-bellied woodpecker when you barely can see the red) and now we have something that is cold blooded, doesn't have arms or legs, and slithers BUT it's not a snake, it's a lizard. Aaaargh!

So, here's the skinny on the glass lizard. It is not a snake because of they have movable eyelids, their head shape is not what it should be for a snake, they have ear openings on the outside, and some species so have little stunted legs near the vents.

Who knew? Not me, that's for sure!

But I can tell you that it was a meal for some creature. I wanted to get a feel for size and I picked it up for scale. Big mistake, it was rather stinky. But you could see the tiny teeth it had. You also could see a puncture wound. Was that from a talon of some raptor or a beak mark left behind by some harrier that tried to eat it. Many questions left behind, but at least did receive the answer on the id and learned about a new creature!

Thank you to all the readers who wrote in and clued me in. I really appreciate it!

On a side note, since we're talking gross here. I got a new animal for my road kill list. On Tuesday, I passed a dead wild boar on the highway into Titusville.

Minnesota Girl Just Happy To Be In Florida

I arrived on Tuesday for the annual Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival. It's my first time for the festival and word on the street is that this is one huge mama jama on the bird fest scale. Rumor has it that over 4,000 people are expected to attend (how's that for a rough economy). People are coming from all over the word. I met someone who came all the way from China for the festival, and I'm fairy certain the four Japanese guys in the room below mine are here for the fest too--Sweet!

I did a little pre-festival digiscoping. After being cooped up in the sub-zero weather last week, I'm just happy to be here...even if the temps are between 40 - 50 degrees Fahrenheit--I'll take it! Before our trip leader meeting on Tuesday night at the fabu Dixie Crossroads restaurant, I dashed over to Merritt Island (a mere hop, skip, and jump from my hotel). That's where I took the photo from the previous entry asking you how many birds are in the photo. There are 2:

Not sure what other birds some people were seeing the photo--or drinking while looking at the photo ;)!Spotting the snipe was the weirdest thing. First I saw some killdeer (that's one in the above photo, bottom left). When I pulled over and scanned (without binoculars, I saw the lump behind and thought to myself snipe). I dashed for my scope to try and get a photo.

It as challenging to get a photo because it was super windy. But I did manage to get a few without the snipe taking off for the hills. I've said it before and I'll say it again--birds in Florida are just more mellow and laid back than in Minnesota. You pause for just one second on a snipe in Minnesota and there off. Here, they sit there and wait for you, like it's expected. I even found three more snipe lurking in the surrounding grasses.

I love this shot. The way the grass is bent in the wind, it almost looks like this snipe has a mustache its about to twirl while it tells you its nefarious plans. As I took the photos and stood in the cold wind, I asked myself how I knew these were snipe. I'm in an entirely different state, different habitat, but I just knew at distance these were snipe, deep in my gut, no question. I think it was the size in relation to the surrounding killdeer, the general shape, the lurking, the big head and long bill. GISS birding strikes again.

But back to the pleasures of birding in Florida, the birds just don't care. I was able to get some reasonable shots of pintails, even with wind and explaining my digiscoping setup. As I was just snapping away, a couple came up to ask about my set up. They had the same Swarovski scope that I use, but weren't sure about the adaptor. I put the scope on the northern pintail and took several shots.

Look at that sassy duck! It's as if he knows he's the hottest piece of pintail on the lagoon. Here's hoping that a red-cockaded woodpecker will do the same for me on Thursday!

While on the Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island, I came across a huge raft (folk name for a flock of coots) of American coots. That's not even all of them. There were two more smaller rafts gradually joining this large one.

They were feeding on something and it almost looked as though the large group was driving at some kind of prey just below the water's surface. You can see all kinds of splashing was going on in the above photo.

I tried to get a shot of the coots from smaller rafts, scurry/flap across the water's surface to join the larger group. You can see by the large splashes, that one has already left, and the second one is chasing after it. You know, I've never seen a huge flock of coots fly. The closest I have ever seen a coot fly is the splashy run they do across the water. They must fly. In Minnesota in the fall, you'll be on a lake one day and there's relatively few waterfowl. The next morning, tons of coots. They seem to stick around until the water freezes, then magically disappear. They must only fly at night. I wonder if they are messy and haphazard flyers. Taking wing high in the sky only in the cover of darkness, because they would be easy targets for eagles, hawks, and falcons. What do they look like when they fly? How high can they go? Are they in formation?

So many cooty questions. Have any of you seen coots fly--like above tree level?

How Many Birds Are In This Photo?

Taken on a brisk Tuesday evening in Florida. How many birds do you see in this photo?