Life bird or breeding bird survey? That is the question

so, Saturday I will go birding again. I have only been birding once since I got back from my honeymoon, due to household commitments. I've been reading on Ohio-birds about two species of birds currently being seen in Ohio that aren't native to the state (not yet, anyway), and I want to see at least one of these birds: Mississippi Kite in Logan, Ohio; and Eurasian Collared-dove in Celia, Ohio. Seeing either would add another life bird to my list.

However, I also should put in some time for the breeding bird atlas, as I have 3 blocks I have signed up for and it's near the end of the season. What to do?

Also on Saturday, my wife E. B. is cooking pancakes for breakfast. That sort of rules out the survey option. I think I will go for one of the potential life birds, then maybe get up early Sunday morning and do some work in my newest survey block.

The thing about my new survey block, is that I didn't realize how urban and blighted it is when I signed up for it. I asked for it because it is a "priority block" - that is, it's a block that was surveyed during the first atlas in the 1980s and they want all priority blocks surveyed to ensure comparative data. The list of birds from the 80s survey seems amazingly diverse for how the area looks now - mainly neighborhoods of closely packed houses of low-income families. One park has a decent woodlot, but I am pretty unsure of the safety of bushwacking through these woods by myself in this location. There is also a public golf course, and next season I will ask permission to survey on its property. American Kestrel and Wood duck were confirmed breeders in the 80s in this block, and if they are going to be present now, that's probably where they will be.

Thoughts on Maine birding

While the main reason I spent a week on Mount Desert Island in Maine was not birding, but honeymooning, I still paid attention to bird life. Here's a few of the things that really stood out to me, a Midwestern birder.

I think the first thing I noticed was the regional difference in the songs of Song Sparrows. I was awoken on the first morning on the island by one outside the window of our cottage, about 4:30 am. At first, I had no idea what it was, but after listening for a while, I thought that while the pattern wasn't the same as Midwestern sparrows, the timbre of the song was pretty much the same. Later, I saw a Song Sparrow singing this song, which clinched it.

Another thing was of course all the breeding warblers, especially the Black-throated Green Warblers which seemed to be everywhere. Northern Parulas and Ovenbirds were also pretty common, as well as Yellow Warblers.

What wasn't very diverse were ducks and raptors. I had two species of each: Common Eider and Mallard for ducks, Osprey and Bald Eagle for raptors. I saw no hawks of any sort while on the island, not even a Red-tailed Hawk.

It was also interesting to not have Ring-billed gulls around. I'm used to the Great Lakes, where they are the most common gull. Instead, Herring Gulls and Great Black Backed gulls were the norm.

Sparrows, besides the Song Sparrows, included Eastern Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco and White-throated Sparrow.

All in all, it was pretty good birding, with 70 species for the whole trip, including the seabirds I posted about earlier.

Some of my latest lifers

Sooty Shearwater

Mixed flock of shearwaters

Greater Shearwater

Atlantic Puffins

Arctic Tern

Back again - brief post

I'm back in town from my three-week wedding/honeymoon/vacation blitz.

This will be a brief update on my birding in Maine, with pictures to come soon.

The best birding was the whale watching trip, which nabbed me 8 life birds - Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, Common Murre, Arctic Tern, Greater Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Wilson's Storm-petrel, and Northern Fulmar. I also added Black Guillemot to my list the day before the whale watching trip, for a total of nine life birds (bringing my life list up to 361). We also saw finback and humpback whales and harbor seals.

The land birding was also good, although I only got about 2 hours of serious, stand-alone birding on Mount Desert Isle. The rest of my birding was done on an"as-encountered" basis. I notched up 70 species in 5 days of casual observation, which isn't bad.

More later when I get my photos online.

Going away for a couple weeks

I'm headed out to Massachusetts tomorrow night (getting married next Saturday) and then it's a week in Bar Harbor Maine for the honeymoon. So, no posts for a while.

But I should have some good bird stories when I get back!

Atlasing in Sharon Woods

Today I spent about 3 hours in the morning before work in one of my Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas blocks, which contains Sharon Woods Metro Park. I had a pretty good morning, confirming breeding for Downy Woodpecker, Tree Swallow, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Field Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Baltimore Oriole. I also had a number of new "probables" - Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Chipping Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, American Goldfinch, and last and least, House Sparrow.

Sharon Woods is a mix of habitats, including somewhat mature woods, streamside habitat, open fields, a lake, and lawns with trees scattered here and there. I should be able to get a great deal of confirmed breeders here in the next couple of breeding seasons. I will be missing out on the rest of June due to my marriage in two weeks - I leave for Massachusetts on Friday and won't be back until July. Hopefully some other folks who bird there will also add observations while I am gone.

Willow Flycatcher singing

Wood Thrush on nest with young

Orchard Oriole between songs

A Baltimore Oriole Fledgling, calling in the open and pissing off its parents, which were trying to get it back into cover.

Blockbusting weekend in SE Ohio

I spent this last weekend camping with my bird group in Lawrence County, Ohio. We were participating in an activity called "blockbusting" - which is when a group of birders volunteer to go out and survey a large number of survey blocks for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas that would otherwise get little coverage. We had a great weekend. The camping was good and the birding was excellent.

I was teamed with John Habig, a birder I had not met before but recognized from his posts to the Ohio Birds email list. We surveyed six blocks in 15 hours of birding over two days. We confirmed breeding for 22 species of birds out of 76 observed, including interesting birds like Blue-winged Warbler, Ovenbird, and Orchard Oriole. Our two highlights were a territorial White-throated Sparrow and a territorial Black-and-white Warbler.

The absolute highlight for the group, however, was a find of four Yellow-crowned Night Herons at a farm pond in Gallia county. There are only two other records in the atlas of this species and only one of those is a confirmation (strangely, it seems that the breeding colony in Columbus has not yet been entered into the atlas website application, so that's a total of two confirmed breeding locations). Hopefully, someone will be able to go back a little later and see some fledged young.

I highly recommend participating in breeding bird surveys - it's as fun as birding during migration, and maybe even more of a challenge.