Ohio bird # 306 - Spotted Towhee

Got my latest Ohio lifer on Saturday - a female Spotted Towhee up in Holmes County. Also got a Eurasian Wigeon for the year list in Newark. My year list is definitely doing better than last year - I'm up over 70 species right now, which is about 20 more than at this point last year. Of course, last year I had a newborn baby in the house which limited birding.

2009 in review

Well, 2009 was the year of birding with baby for me. Not my top year of birding, but not too shabby considering I probably averaged getting out to seriously bird once a month, whereas in the last couple of years it was more like once a week. No major birding trips like last year as well, as I did not attend any family reunions or conferences in new birding regions for me. Here's the numbers and highlights:

Year list: 226 ABA area, 214 for Ohio
Life list: ABA area is up to 464 species.
Life birds added: ABA area-6 (Smith's Longspur, Golden-winged Warbler, Trumpeter Swan (countable in MI), Northern Wheatear, Harlequin Duck, Dovekie).
Ohio birds added: 5 (Smith's Longspur, Golden-winged Warbler, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White Ibis, Northern Wheatear)

Last year, in comparison, I had 416 ABA area birds, 277 Ohio birds, 137 life birds, and 15 Ohio birds. Of course, last year was my top year birding so far, so it's perhaps not a fair comparison...

In addition, I added 26 birds to my Massachusetts list this year through being out in the woods doing fieldwork in September and October, plus my one day of birding in December during the holidays. I also added 19 birds to my Michigan list, 7 birds to my Indiana list, and kicked off a Connecticut list with 16 birds.

My goals for the coming year are to work on my Ohio list, with my main targets being Ruffed Grouse, Little Gull, Connecticut Warbler, Cattle Egret, and Pomerine Jaeger. I'll be going to a family reunion somewhere this coming year as well, and if it's in St. Louis, I'll be going after the Eurasian Tree Sparrow for my life list. Otherwise, it's pretty much up in the air, as I have no major travel plans ahead.

Finally going birding tomorrow!

Through a combination of work and family responsibilities, I haven't really gotten out much in the last couple of months. I am finally going on an Avids trip tomorrow. Won't matter what we see, it's being out birding with friends that I'm really looking forward to.

Highlights of the last couple months:

• I saw the Northern Wheatear that was in Holmes County (Life bird 462, Ohio bird 305!)
• Added about 30 birds to my Massachusetts list when I spent a month working in south-central Massuchusetts
• Twitched after a Yellow Rail in Holmes County, but missed it
• Showed my son his first birds that he actually saw at the new Grange Insurance Audubon Center at the new metro park (American Goldfinches)
  

Woodpecker humor

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/woodpecker.png

Ohio Bird number 304 -White Ibis!

There's been a big post-breeding dispersal this summer, it seems. While not getting the rarities that Indiana has to our west, Ohio hasn't been completely overlooked: we've had two Brown Pelicans in the state (which I didn't see) and a juvenile White Ibis -which I did get to see!

The White Ibis was found in a little wetland along some old RR tracks in Guernsey County. The day it was posted to the Ohiobirds listserve, I was invited by my friend Brad to accompany him and Bill to go see it after work. I picked up Bill and we sneaked through rush hour traffic to get to Brad's house. Brad then took up driving duties and we headed off to Guernsey County. To make a long story short, we got there, saw the bird, and spent another hour birding this location, which was pretty productive - about 41 species of birds were present.

Sadly, it appears that the RR may be private property (Although not posted as such) and many people will not get the chance to see the bird.

New tripod, finally!

I've been wanting a new tripod for a while. The one that came with my Nikon is somewhat flimsy and has been missing a foot for over a year, and tends to tip over in a stiff breeze. My lovely wife has purchased for me a Manfrotto tripod - a low end model for about $130, but still a vast improvement over the current one. I hope to test it this weekend at some point - perhaps on Sunday, when I would like to do a little atlasing for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas. There's a couple "Priority Blocks" about 50 miles north of here that aren't getting coverage, and while I don't have the time to really devote to covering them, I can at least get some observations recorded for them.

That's about all, really. Haven't had a chance to get out much, what with the current family schedule. There's a possibility I will be spending a good chunk of the fall doing archaeology around marshy areas in Massachusetts, which would have the side effect of providing good opportunities for adding to my Mass. list. And of course, I'm going to the UP this August for a week, and hope to get some good birding in then as well.

More Magee birds

I had my best day ever for bird photography last Sunday, I think. Here's a couple of the highlights:

Black-throated Green Warbler

Cape May Warbler


Tree Swallow

Nashville Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler

Bird gets its own private beach

Check this out. The Maleo, a bird that only breeds on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, has been given it's own private beach for the nesting season. This bird buries its eggs in volcanic sand which incubates them, and when the young hatch, they are able to fly immediately - talk about precocious!

Here's the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090515/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_bird_beach_3

Golden-winged Warbler at Magee Marsh

Finally - one of the last warblers on my Ohio list, and a life bird to boot! I saw this guy on Sunday at Magee Marsh. At first it was fairly far out, but then came in really close and I got halfway decent photos. This bird in number 460 for ABA, 303 for Ohio.

Wow -two months between posts!

I guess fatherhood will do that to you. I didn't do a whole lot of birding in the last two months, but I have done some quality birding! First off, I picked up another life bird last Saturday, Smith's Longspur (ABA 459) near Rockford, Ohio (Making it Ohio 301). A good sized flock of birds was feeding in a corn field and many birders got to see them. On the same day, I finally got my Ohio Eurasian Collared-Dove (302) and as a great bonus, the bird we saw was carrying nesting material. This observation, it turns out, is the best breeding evidence yet for these birds in Ohio, so there's a little bit of ornithological history that I got to be a part of.

Of course, there's lows with the highs: I was unable to get away to see Ohio's first record Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Ohio's second Mountain Bluebird. Funnily enough, it was pretty much work that got in the way of me going after these birds, not parenthood!

Tomorrow is the big warbler day for me - the Columbus Avids annual end of April trip to Shawnee State Forest near Portsmouth. And we're going to have a nice sunny day. AND - there's been a huge wave of migrants that just showed up last night, so they should be dripping off the trees down there! I'm nearly giddy with anticipation, especially since I haven't seen even a Yellow-rumped Warbler this year.

Well, hopefully I will get off my ass and post some more this weekend about the Shawnee trip, and perhaps not let months go by between posts again!

Birding into history

I've signed up to transcribe data for the USGS Bird Phenology Program (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/index.cfm). Here's the project summary from the website:

"The North American Bird Phenology Program houses a unique and largely forgotten collection of six million Migration Observer Cards that illuminate migration patterns and population status of birds in North America. These handwritten cards contain almost all of what was known of bird status from the Second World War back to the later part of the 19th century. The bulk of the records are the result of a network of observers who recorded migration arrival dates in the spring and fall that, in its heyday, involved 3000 participants.

Today, those records are being processed and placed into a modern database for analysis. This information will be used, along with recently collected arrival times of migrant birds, in conjunction with historical weather data to show how migration is affected by climate change. The information from this analysis will provide critical information on bird distribution, migration timing and migration pathways and how they are changing. There is no other program that has the depth of information that can help us understand the effect that global climate change has on bird populations across the country."

Essentially, you enter in data from scanned observation cards dating all the way back to the 1880s. You can come across some really interesting observations, too. Today I transcribed a card that was documenting a Great Grey Owl specimen taken in NW Indiana in 1897, for example. It's also neat to see the old names for birds, such as Long-billed Marsh Wren (today just the Marsh Wren), and it's easy to start feeling a connection to these long-ago birders.

One big advantage for me in doing this is that I feel that I am doing some form of birding at this point in my life where birding on a regular basis isn't really an option, so that helps cut back the birding fever. Hopefully by the time spring migration is in full blast, I'll have less problems getting back into the field, but for now, it's the lab!

Checking in

Well, no new bird news to report on the home front - mainly because I'm the father of a baby boy!
Ian Michael Sewell was born January 30, 2009 at 2:41 in the afternoon. His first bird was a starling!

I don't foresee myself getting out to bird this month, as we're still settling in with Ian and trying to get caught up with errands and chores, since he decided to come a week early. I think I will be able to get out more in the coming months, though, and even go on a few Avids trips, which will be all the more fun since I won't be going on as many of them. My work on the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas will probably come to a standstill this year, though. I just don't think I'll have the time and energy for concentrated survey work.

Anyhow, I'm still alive, and looking at the neighborhood birds, and thinking of spring!

Starting off a little slow but steady

So far I have been birding twice this month, once for the Kingston Christmas Bird Count and then again last Sunday. I've seen 51 species, highlights being White-winged Crossbill, Barn Owl, Black-legged Kittiwake, Dickcissel, and Greater White-fronted Goose. My birding is going to be taking a back seat pretty quickly here, as my baby will be arriving very soon. My posts will probably be more sporadic for at least the part of the year. I think the theme this year will be "Birding with Baby!"

2008: My Best Birding Year Ever (Yet?)

Well, 2008 was a heck of a year for everyone - stock markets going nuts, gas prices up and down, and a historical presidential election. For me, it was also quite active - learning I was going to be a dad was the most momentous part for me. But this is a birding blog, so 2008 was big for birding in my life. Lots of milestones - first trip to Florida for birding, first experiences in Southeast Arizona, ABA milestones of 400 and 450, and finally hitting my major goal for the year - making it to 300 on my Ohio state life list. So let's start with that.

I posted back in February, after seeing the Hoary Redpoll, that I had 14 species left before hitting 300 in Ohio, and speculated what those species most likely would be. Here's the original list:

1. Least Flycatcher
2. Marsh Wren
3. Cattle Egret
4. Franklin's Gull
5. Eurasian Collared Dove
6. Golden Eagle
7. Little Gull
8. Connecticut Warbler
9. Clay Colored Sparrow
10. Least Bittern
    
11. Chuck-wills-widow
12. Marbled Godwit
13. Golden-winged Warbler
14. Pomarine Jaegar

And here's the list of what I actually saw:

1. Golden Eagle, March 16
2. Red-necked Grebe, March 22
3. Least Flycatcher, May 6
4. Chuck-will's-widow, June 7
5. Black Rail, June 9
6. Common Raven, July 12
   
7. Upland Sandpiper, July 12
8. Western Meadowlark, July 19
9. Clay-colored Sparrow, July 19
10. Marsh Wren, July 19
11. Marbled Godwit, August 25
12. Wood Stork, August 27
13. Franklin's Gull, October 18
14. White-winged Crossbill, December 13

I only saw half of the birds I thought I would see. Four of the birds are really rare for Ohio: Black Rail, White-winged Crossbill, Wood Stork, and Common Raven.

I also added a ton of birds to my life list - 135 ABA area birds and 137 in total (two exotic birds are state countable but were not on the ABA list when I saw them). My year list for the ABA region was the best ever - 412. My Ohio list was not as good as last year, since I never made it up to the Lake Erie marshes for spring migration, but still a respectable 255 (I also had 155 species in Florida and 131 in Arizona!).

My big challenge for next year is to balance fatherhood with birding. I suspect I won't hit 255 birds in Ohio next year, but having hit the magic number of 300, I don't feel I have to get out all the time either. I think my theme for this next year is to just see what I can see, birding serendipitously as I am out and about with a new baby. I will probably have some good opportunities to sneak off now and then when we take the baby on family visits, so we'll see what happens!

I Did It!!!!

May I present Ohio Bird 300:


White-winged Crossbill! After three unsuccessful tries at this species, I finally found this stunning male bird at Oak Hill Cemetery, located south of Upper Sandusky. We waited for about an hour before it showed up, calling as it flew. Once it started foraging in the hemlock, however, it clammed up, emitting not a sound. We speculated that if there were other crossbills around, it would be calling. Hitting 300 in Ohio was my goal for the year. Next week, I will post an end of year roundup on what has been the best birding year of my life (so far!).

Crossing fingers for 300

I'm going birding on Saturday with the Avids. Our big goal is to get to experience the White-winged Crossbill irruption that is going on across Ohio right now. If we are successful, then I'll hit 300 birds for Ohio. Depending on where else we go, there's a decent chance to go over 300 birds, since there are still reports of Pomarine Jaegers and Black-headed Gulls, and there's always a chance for Little Gull. The Harlequin Duck that was up in Cleveland was unfortunately shot by a hunter, though.

We'll see what happens, and I'll report back.

Jaegers and horrible weather

Went up to Lake Erie today with Bill and Brad to look for rare gulls and jaegers. We got lucky with good looks at what I think may have been three different Parasitic Jaegers, including one I tried to turn into a Pomarine Jaeger (and Ohio Bird Number 300), but it was not to be.

Oddly, no out of the ordinary gulls were present. We did have some late shorebirds, including a Ruddy Turnstone at Lorain Harbor and a juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher at the Cedar Point Chausee.

The weather got progressively worse during the day, and we left the lake early, just ahead of another cold front that turned the driving rain to snow. Another good day of birding!

Arizona, Day 2

Black Phoebe, Sweetwater Wetlands

Most of Day 2 in Arizona was spent at my conference. As I left in the morning to go to the conference, I did pick up ABA#419, Lesser Goldfinch, in a willow tree outside the hotel. After the conference was over for the day, I headed up to the Sweetwater Wetlands, where I had a number of very good birds, starting with Harris's Hawk flying up onto a telephone pole as I was driving towards the wetlands.

I spent about 2 and a half hours exploring the wetland, which was teeming with birds. Ducks included Mallards, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck and my target duck, Cinnamon Teal. Passerines included Barn and Tree Swallow, Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, Black Phoebe, Abert's Towhee, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Cassin's Kingbird, GIla Woodpecker, and Marsh Wren. Other birds I observed included Killdeer, American Kestral, American Coot, Common Moorhen, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-crowned Night Heron, Sora, Starling, and, just after dusk fell, Lesser Nighthawk - ending my day by occupying #425 on my ABA list. Satisfied, I left the wetlands and drove back to my hotel.

Arizona, Day 1

9-25-08

I began my first day in Arizona with two life birds over breakfast at the Riverpark Inn in Tucson: Anna's Hummingbird and Gila Woodpecker, which got me to ABA #400 before I had two sips of coffee. The day was sunny and clear, and I was headed to the northeast of Tucson, with the morning planned for Sabino Canyon and the afternoon at Mt. Lemmon.

I spent 3 hours hiking around Sabino Canyon, which wasn't as birdy as I had hoped, but it was birdy enough. I started out with Cooper's Hawk, House Finches and Mourning Doves, and then started hitting the desert birds. I had great looks at Cactus Wren, Gambel's Quail and Cassin's Kingbird.

Cactus Wren

In a riparian corridor, I picked up Green-tailed Towhee, Verdin, more Anna's Hummingbirds, a Costa's Hummingbird, and another couple of Cooper's Hawks. I followed a gnatcatcher's scolding hoping for Black-tailed, but had Blue-gray instead. Further hiking gave me more birds, such as Common Raven, Turkey Vulture, Northern Cardinal, Gila Woodpecker and Northern Mockingbird, and I added Black-throated Sparrow, Gilded Flicker and Greater Roadrunner to my life list.

Black-throated Sparrow

Mt. Lemmon

At 11:30, I felt I had probably seen all the birds I would at Sabino Canyon and headed up to Mt. Lemmon, stopping frequently to bird. I spent a little over 6 hours at Mt. Lemmon, birding up the mountain. Mt. Lemmon was fairly productive, especially in a rocky dry creek bed at a campground, where I had Canyon Wren, Bewick's Wren and House Wren; Summer Tanager; Brewer's Sparrow; Painted Redstart; Western Wood-Pewee, Canyon Towhee, and Nashville Warbler.

Summer Tanager

A little further up at a picnic area I came across the only Yellow-eyed Junco I would see, along with Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Spotted Towheeeand Red-naped Sapsucker. Finally, I made it up to the top and had a very late lunch/very early dinner at the Iron Door restaurant. I was the only customer at that time and had excellent service, enjoying German food and beer while watching the Broad-billed and Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds feed next to me. Then, I headed to the very top, picking up Hermit Thrush, "Red-shafted" Northern Flicker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Yellow-rumped ("Audubon's") Warbler, Stellar's Jay, and Hermit Warbler. Light was beginning to fail and I could see rain clouds rolling in, so I headed back down the mountain, stopping to enjoy the scenery and feeling pretty good - having added 20 ABA birds in one day!

Detailed AZ posts coming, I swear

I've been pretty busy with work and life since getting back from AZ. But I promise, I'll have a summary of each day up here soon, with pictures!

In the meanwhile, I just saw my 458th ABA area bird this last weekend - Franklin's Gull, at East Fork Lake State Park. The gull also happens to be my 299th state bird!