Birding is my Mistress

A neighborhood friend of my wife recently expressed to her, "So this 'birding' thing that your husband does...it sounds kinda fishy, like something a man would say as a cover for cheating on you."

When Jessica told me about this conversation with her friend, I chuckled and wanted to say, "She'd certainly know better if she'd ever read my blog!" But judging by the look in my wife's eyes and her body language as she related her friend's comment, I had reason to be nervous. She was serious. Then Jessica reminded me, as only a scorned wife can, of a recent poor choice I had made - that I had hoped she had already forgiven and forgotten - but had cemented in her mind forever that birding is my mistress.

Here's what happened...

On a late-September afternoon, I saw an email appear on my smartphone from the local listserv reporting a Harlequin Duck being seen at the Antelope Island Causeway. Oh baby! A much-sought-after potential life bird and a Utah rarity in my home county! My racing heart started pumping adrenaline through my veins. Mentally, I was already seeing this bird through my binoculars and about to do the life bird dance when I glanced at the clock...and then I remembered...that darn Wednesday conference call meeting. Grrr! My excitement was deflated...popped like a balloon.

At work we have this standing Wednesday afternoon meeting, scheduled right at my normal going-home time. So I have to stay late for a generally ineffective conference call and I feel like a kid in after-school detention while all the other kids are out playing. Now I never had detention back in my school-boy days as I was a little "Peter Perfect", but I can imagine what detention might feel like, right?

At the appointed hour of the meeting another email notification appeared on my computer monitor: "CONFERENCE CALL CANCELLED". I was out the door in a flash. Oh joy of joys! I was on my way to see a life bird...and an inland Harlequin Duck at that!

As I zipped north from Salt Lake City on I-15 at a "safe-from-the-state-troopers" cruising speed of eight mph over the posted speed-limit, the thought occurred to me that I should call my wife and tell her that the meeting was cancelled and that I was on my way to see a freakin' awesome bird. Then the little devil on my shoulder told me that calling her was unnecessary and justified it with the logic that my family knew I was always late on Wednesdays. They'd never know...and what they don't know won't hurt them. The little angel on my other shoulder suggested that I should take advantage of this unexpected early arrival home for some quality family time. I rebelliously flicked that little angel right in the mouth and drove on for Antelope Island and that cool duck...Peter Perfect no longer.

Finding the Harlequin Duck was easy. Almost too easy. I didn't experience that extra thrill of finding a life bird after a lot of mental, physical and sometimes financial effort. It was right there on the rocks at the edge of the water at the first no-swimming bridge as indicated in the birding listserv email. But seeing a life bird is cool...even with a case of lingering guilt, right?

Even before I had driven off the causeway, my Peter Perfect guilt ridden conscience had me on the phone dialing the Mrs. to confess my sin. (Ironically, "Mrs." is a contraction of the once honorable title of Mistress) The phone call didn't go well. In fact, it took a few more days before we actually had a conversation about it. I had broken my wife's tender heart because I showed a lack of trust in her support of my birding obsession by trying to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Not that our relationship is one that requires me to get "permission" from my wife for any little thing I want to do, but you know what I mean.

Here's the lesson learned:  I should have allowed her to share in my excitement of the chase and to express her support...I owe her that. But instead, I had ignored the "better angels of [my] nature" and had done something behind my wife's back, almost like having a mistress. Maybe I do have a bit of Bostick Syndrome that needs to be monitored and kept in check.

So dear fellow birders, have you ever cheated on your loved ones with that seductive mistress "birding"? Have you ever played hooky from work or school to chase a rare bird? Come on! It's time to come clean. Father Rob's confessional is now open in the comments section below.

So ya think ya want to be a Bird Photographer?

Posted by Mia McPherson

Dancing white morph Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 250mm, natural light

Awhile ago a question was asked by a new member and aspiring bird photographer on a nature photography critique forum where I am a member that struck my funny bone and I just had to reply to their inquiry. The person basically wanted to know what the secret is to photographing birds and after thinking about it for a few moments I replied to their question, not just once but three times and honestly I could have posted much more to answer them.

I’ve taken the liberty of editing my own words to present this topic here on Birding Is Fun. Some of what I have written is serious and a few statements are tongue in cheek. I'll let you be the judge of when I am serious or not.

Landing adult Long-billed Curlew, Antelope Island State Park, Utah
Nikon D200, lens resting on my Noodle, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 400, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

The most important thing is this:

There is NO magic or undisclosed secret to help with bird photography, it takes skill, it takes patience, it takes time in the field plus it takes tons of practice, hard work and determination.

American Coot, Salt Lake Couny, Utah
Nikon D200, on tripod, F7.1, 1/500, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

Some important points:

The first thing I would suggest is to get a good bird guide or reference book.

The “Children's Golden Guide to Birds” is great for its intended audience but if you can afford to pay for your gear by yourself then you should look for a more grown up field guide. The illustrations, pictures and contents can help you enormously with bird identification.

Some of the bird guide books I would recommend are (in no particular order):

The Sibley Guide to Birds – David Sibley
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds
American Museum & Natural History - Birds of North America
The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America - Donald & Lillian Stokes
Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America - Kenn Kaufman
The Birder’s Handbook – Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye

There are many more excellent bird guide/reference books.

Read up on species in your local area, find out when they are there and what geographical locations they may be present in. Some birds do migrate, some don't. Some migrating birds are more abundant in spring migration in certain locations than they are in the fall and vice versa.

Learn to recognize birds by sight and sound and find out what season you might expect to see them. And even better, study their behavior in the field because that can help you take some great action photos.

Remember this phrase "You won't know if you don't go", get out in the field as often as you can.

Practice good birding ethics:

Know when you are getting too close to your subject by observing the bird's behavior, you can tell when you get too close because they become alarmed. You don’t want to pet the bird, you want to photograph it.

Don't mess with nesting birds. Don’t remove leaves so you can get better shots of nestlings, the adult used that spot for a reason; for instance, protective cover. Watch where you step, some ground nesting bird’s eggs are so well camouflaged you might step on them or the chicks. Don’t disturb nestlings or cause the parents undue stress. Remember that we won’t have subjects to photograph if we don’t look out for their welfare today. Take a bigger crop than usual to stay a good distance away from chicks or young birds.

Follow local, state and federal guidelines & rules about how close to approach your subjects and about what lands you need to stay off of. Signs that say “No trespassing”; well, they mean it.

Pack out what you carry in. Even better; carry out trash that may have been left behind by careless people for the sake of birds and other wildlife. A pelican with a soiled disposable diaper in its bill isn't a pretty sight and a bird with a missing foot caused by fishing line cutting it off is utterly disturbing.

American Oystercatcher juvenile in low light, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1/160, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
25% of the original frame

Two places to read about good field ethics: Principles of Birding Ethics published by the American Birding Association and NANPA's Ethical Practices (pdf)

There is NEVER a case where a photograph of a bird more is important than the safety, health and well being of the subject. Ever.

Swainson's Hawk juvenile, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Montana
Nikon D200, lens resting on my Noodle, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

Become intimate with your gear:

I’ve heard other experienced bird photographers jokingly tell aspiring bird photographers to “sleep” with their gear to become familiar with it. Maybe they weren’t joking!

You can probably learn quite a bit from books on bird photography, photo workshops or instructional CD's but they are no substitute for "Practice, practice, practice". Then when reviewing images, pick them apart to find out why they didn’t work.

I'm self taught so I can't speak about taking workshops but they do seem to help some people. Learn your camera & gear intimately, know when you are pushing it to its limits.

Know the level of your own skills and keep striving to improve them. With the advent of digital photography you don't have to pay for film or developing so fire away!

Landing Black-billed Magpie with nesting material, Antelope Island State Park, Utah
Nikon D200, lens on my Noodle, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR at 380mm, natural light

By becoming intimately familiar with your gear you can develop instincts for the settings you will need in almost any situation which will increase the likelihood of getting better images. You need to be able to change your settings very quickly as birds aren't high paid fashion models strolling down a runway, birds are wild and move whenever, however and where ever they want. An added plus is that birds are not Prima Donnas.

Be aware that light can be your enemy or your friend when it comes to bird photography. Learn to work with it rather than fighting it.

Practice, practice and practice some more.

Remember that your digital camera has a buffer and it will fill up exactly when the bird strikes an amazing pose. Been there and done that and I have missed too many shots to count because of a buffer filing up.

I shoot a lot without a tripod, I handhold my 70-300mm VR and my 80-400mm VR, most of the time I am resting my 200-400mm VR on my Noodle or shooting handheld in bursts. Perhaps less than 5% of my images are taken using a tripod. I know plenty of bird photographers who shoot handheld and get sharp images. Tripods can be handy though if you don't have IS or VR or if you expect to be on the birds a long time and don’t want to be a regular visitor to a Chiropractor.

Bathing Laughing Gull in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/750, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR a 400mm, natural light

 If the techs aren't good, the image is soft and the exposure is bad nothing you do in Photoshop is going to make a poor image great. 

Seriously, would you rather spend two hours trying to fix an image in Photoshop that is poor in quality which even after that amount of time invested still isn't going to be great or spend that two hours in the field trying to create that great image right out of the camera?? That is an easy answer for me, I would rather be in the field. Getting it right in the camera saves time on post processing later.

Review each of your images prior to deleting and ask yourself "What could I have done to make this image better?" Learn to develop a love/hate relationship with culling. Mistakes are merely learning opportunities. I love it when I nail shots all day long, I hate it when I have messed up more images than I care to count and then spend the rest of the day kicking my own behind.

Learn about proper exposure, white birds should look white and not muddy or gray in appearance. Black birds should look dark but not so dark as to not show any feather detail.

Know what the color a bird actually is for post processing later. An American Kestrel; for instance, shouldn't look like it lives at a nuclear power plant by glowing far too brightly or if it is WAY too colorful to be natural and realistic. A Snowy Egret should not look like it fell into a vat of pale grey paint. A Double-crested Cormorant should be dark but not so dark that you cannot see fine feather details.

Develop a callus on your behind because when you mess up (and you will) you'll spend a lot of time kicking your own butt. Or invest in a pillow which you can carry at all times while photographing. Those semi-circular travel pillows work well, I’m told.

Feeding Roseate Spoonbill, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

Bird photography is NOT glamorous. Trust me on that.

All of the photos you see where a bird photographer is smiling into the camera wearing clean, dry clothes were probably taken before they started photographing that day. I often look like a wreck after a great day of bird photography.

If you want to get that "low angle" bird photographers so often talk about be prepared to get dirty, learn how to belly crawl through mud, sand, grass, bird poop and things you don't even want to think about. And when there is an algal bloom in the shallow water get some nose plugs or a portable oxygen tank. That is “if” you want to breathe.

Think of sand crawling as a free or low cost Dermabrasion. Get your tetanus shot updated.

After laying in the sand whether it is wet or dry you will end up looking like a sugar-covered donut. You will have sand on your face, in your ears and in places sand is not supposed to be. Think of it as a bird photographer’s equivalent to adorning oneself with glitter or tribal paint.

When it is hot while shooting you will sweat, NO amount of antiperspirant is strong enough. Your brow will sweat and it will run down into your eyes blinding you temporarily. Carry a kerchief, wipe your eyes as needed or you might miss some great shots.

Carry an extra set of clothes and shoes for days you really get down & dirty shooting or you may have to make the drive home smelling like seagull poop. At the very least carry a heavy towel to toss over your car seat or it may end up stinking like an old tuna can.

If you are shooting handheld or pointing your gear up towards birds in the sky for long periods of time invest in a heating pad because your shoulders will scream at you. Or buy a partnership into a local massage parlor.

Hoar frost covered Bald Eagle, Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area
Nikon D200, lens resting on my Noodle, f7.1, 1/400, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, +0.3 EV, natural light, not baited

Get long johns, great gloves, heat packs and the warmest coats you can get if you are going to photograph in cold weather or you might freeze something off. Warm, waterproof hiking boots are an essential if you want to be able to wiggle your toes are after hours of standing in snow, on frozen ground or ice. Protect your digits from frostbite or you will be clicking the shutter button with your nose. I’ve sat for two hours in 20 degree weather waiting for hoar frost to melt off of the plumage of a Bald Eagle just to get a few lift off shots. Yes, I am addicted to bird photography.

Remember to wear sun protective clothing in the summer or you might toast your buns... or something else.

You may end up at the end of a shoot appearing to others like you have rolled around in the mud. If you got great shots that day, would it really matter?

There seems to be a "uniform" that pro photographers wear, ignore that. Wear what you are comfortable in. Impress them with your photos not your clothes. I could wear a clown suit and still photograph birds.

Resting Red-breasted Merganser, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/640. ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 360mm, natural light

Be prepared:

Be prepared to be frustrated. Be prepared to get many more blurry shots than you get that are sharp.

Be prepared to get numerous images where you clip the wing tips, feet, bill, head, etc.  Your sharpest shots from that series will be those clipped images. I kid you not.

Be prepared to sit for hours waiting for "the" shot. Be prepared to have missed it because you reached for your travel mug of coffee (or other beverage) at the precise moment the bird did something fantastic.

Get a bumper sticker that says "Caution, Frequent Stops - Bird Photographer on Board" or be prepared to get rear-ended. Realize that non bird photographers don't know why we drive erratically at times, they just think we are insane.

When photographing birds flying directly over your head be sure to keep your mouth closed as you never know when they might decide to flush out their systems.

Be prepared for biting insects, buy cases of repellent, it is no fun to be eaten alive by nasty little critters. In some locations you may need pepper spray and not just for 4 legged animals.

Look before you sit, fire ants are not fun. Neither is sitting in goose poop or a mound of poison ivy. While keeping your eye on the sky for birds please do watch where you are stepping, I had a close call recently that can be seen here because my eyes weren’t watching where my feet were going. Carry Benadryl, bandages and you may even need some wet wipes to clean up scratches or cuts. I repeat, update your tetanus shot.

Carry something to snack on or your stomach grumbling will scare off the birds. I'm serious!

Don't leave your spare batteries or memory cards in the car, you will be sorry. I have been. The birds will fly into view in huge flocks just as soon as you have filled up your memory cards or your battery goes flat.

Juvenile Burrowing Owl parallaxing, Antelope Island State Park, Utah
Nikon D200, lens resting on my Noodle, f5.6, 1/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

Interactions with Non-bird Photographers:

People might think you have “shifty eyes” when in fact you are simply scanning the sky, ground, grasses, trees, shrubs, lakes, rivers, fence posts, clotheslines, brush piles, hedgerows, compost piles, beaches, sand dunes, marshes and even the city dump looking for potential subjects. I think you get my drift.

When a non-bird photographer shouts “Duck” you might be looking for waterfowl as a ball bounces off of your head.

Non-bird photographers will say "That camera must take good pictures" and what they don't realize is that without us behind the viewfinder clicking the shutter button that the camera would just be an expensive paperweight.

Be prepared for non-bird photographers to look at you like you have horns growing out of your head. They don't understand bird photographers. You may as well be an alien.

Bird photographers do speak a different language, conversations are sprinkled with words like bokeh, aperture, depth of field, ISO, shutter speed and so on. Non-bird photographers don’t understand it and that doesn’t even take into consideration the terminology about the birds themselves. Eclipse plumage, juvie, molting,  primaries, coverts, supercilium, vent,  orbital rings, etc.. Say Harrier to a non-bird photographer and they might think “airplane”, say primaries and they might think of “political elections”, mention vent and they might just vent to you about something non-bird related.

If you talk to a non-bird photographer for five minutes about the ID of a bird their eyes will glaze over. If you talk to a non-bird photographer for 10 minutes about the technical difficulties of settings, light, composition and the other aspects of bird photography their pulse will slow and their breathing will become shallow, call 911 because they are certifiably bored to death.

American White Pelicans, Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area, Utah
Nikon D200, lens on my Noodle, f7.1, 1/1500, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light

Other FYI’s about Bird Photography:

Be prepared to see the MOST amazing things while out photographing birds. Also be prepared to make a lot of lifelong friends with other bird photographers and birders.

Be considerate of other bird photographers when you approach them while they are on birds. I've spent long periods of time getting close to my subjects just to have some rude person walk up quickly to "grab a shot" who flush the birds I had so patiently approached.

Most bird photographers are great people who won’t mind if you approach in a slow manner and don't flush the birds. Ask them about approaching them in a quiet voice, but if you yell I sincerely hope that you have good traction on your shoes.

Don't jump in front of another photographer to get your shot. Or be prepared... for anything. Just saying...

Be aware that you may have to sell your first born to be able to pay for your "dream" lens. Just kidding... well… Ok, maybe not.

If you hear someone say "I'd kill for that lens"... run like the wind. Seriously.

Calling Willet on mangroves, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 4oomm, natural light

When your spouse or significant other asks why there is a second mortgage on the house immediately pretend you have lost your hearing completely and quickly hide that expensive lens.

Get used to getting up at o'dark hundred, you want to be there for early morning light. Early birds get the worms or in this case the early photographer gets the bird.

You will dream about birds, it won't be as bad as the movie "The Birds", but it might get scary night after night. If you wake up after one of those dreams with a tickle in your throat do check for feathers.

Weather forecasters lie. If they predict "partly sunny" you'll get thick heavy clouds with little light. If they predict a mostly cloudy morning chances are the sun will be shining. I wish I could get paid to be wrong so often!

If you don't have patience bird photography might not be for you.

A sense of humor helps. Without it you may go batty and bats do not have feathers despite their ability to fly.

Red-tailed Hawk in flight, Tooele County, Utah
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 400, +1.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

 Be prepared to become addicted to birds.

Once you have been bitten; or is that “beaked”, there is NO turning back.

You will have withdrawal symptoms if you don't go out to photograph often enough. The symptoms will include your shutter button finger developing a nervous twitch and your left eye lid closing whenever a bird flies by. There are more but I don’t want to scare you.

There is no such thing as Bird Photographers Anonymous. I don't need support for my addiction thank you very much! Just point me towards the birds.

Hi, I am Mia and I am a bird photography addict!

So, do ya still wanna be a bird photographer?

This Week's Best in Bird Blogging

White-crowned Sparrows are one of my favorite winter birds. I love their striking appearance and their winter song. I obtained the photo above by sitting on the cold sidewalk for a half hour at my new lunch-hour birding patch where a flock of White-crowns were foraging in the Russian Olives.  This handsome adult posed nicely for me just feet away. Bonus points if you can name the subspecies in the comments.

Here is my list of This Week's Best in Bird Blogging from the BiF! Contributors:

*  I really enjoyed Laurence Butler's post and photos of birds he found at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ; especially because that was my lunch-hour birding patch for about a year.
*  All of Scott Simmons posts this week had wonderful bird and nature photography. Don't miss any of them!
*  Kathie Brown got to hang-out with Julie Zickefoose at the Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center. Cool!
*  Lillian Stokes offers up some fun facts about some of your winter feeder birds.
*  Kelly Riccetti shares some close-up photos of an Anhinga on a nest.
*  Greg Gillson photographed a Golden Grebe in Beaverton, Oregon...not some new species, but rather a Pied-billed Grebe in a golden setting. Nice!
*  In addition to Jeremy Medina's Sparrow Anticipation post here at BiF! that got some ABA Blog love, he also posted on his own site a nice little Belted Kingfisher profile, his 200th bird species in Pima County.
*  Speaking of blog love, A DC Birding Blog mentioned Steve Creek's Bird Hygiene here on BiF! Steve's Birdtog has a nice assortment of bird photography posted this week too that you need to check out.
*  Dan Huber recently had a fowl day, so give why don't you stop by his blog and give him some love too.
*  Mia McPherson always comes through with amazing bird photography. You've got to see her Great Horned Owl, Rough-legged Hawk, and Prairie Falcon images. Very nice!
*  A trip to Florida gave Rob Ripma the chance to enjoy and photograph some awesome birds.
*  Pat Bumstead has a share-worthy guest post from Janet Plante sharing photos of finches in the boreal forests of Canada.
*  The ABA Blog also shared Rob Fergus' adventuring taking his kids to see the Snowy Owl in New Jersey.

More of This Week's Best in Bird Blogging:

*  Eagle Optics and the ABA partner up - buy certain binoculars from Eagle Optics and you can get a discount on ABA membership or gift the discount to someone else that is not yet a member. Cool idea!
*  Brownstone Birding Blog's Keys to Proper Misidentification of Birds was a fantastic and fun read!
*  Birding Bro's had a cool post about 10 Prehistoric Birds you didn't even know existed (but were totally awesome!)
*  Chris Petrak in Tails of Birding has thought-provoking post entitled Birding with Mudman
*  Bill Schmoker's post on the ABA Blog Playing with Food was a really good one. I'm such a sucker for photos of birds eating stuff.
*  I'm really enjoying following John Vanderpoel's Big Year. He's at 734 right now and most certainly chasing this week's North American rarities.
*  Alex Vargas never ceases to impress with his awesome bird photography from all over the globe being shared at BirdingBlogs.com.
* Linda Rockwell's bird photos from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival make me anxious to go there in the future.

 

Breaking News! Big Sibley revision coming

I just heard from an inside source that the "Big Sibley" is being updated...but we'll all have to sit tight for a while.  The new edition is expected to be released in Spring 2013.

In the meantime we can all continue to enjoy our other guides like Stokes, Crossley, NatGeo6, and Kaufman. Funny thing is, I don't see them as competition for each other. I like 'em all for various reason.

The Dunlin

From October2011

From October2011

As I learn more about birds, and see new species, I find I have a special affinity and pull towards shorebirds. Gulls and peeps alike are fun to watch. One of my favorite times in fall when the peeps are hungry and not so shy, allowing one to be surrounded and closely approached by these cute little birds. I am often amazed at how small these birds really are, when you get close to them.

My wife took this as I inched up in the muddy sand to get closer to the peeps - From October2011

Another fun and sometimes frustrating part with shorebirds is the plumage. Many plumages on many similar looking birds, can make the identity tough to sort out sometimes. When watching a group of the same species this can be very helpful as there is often a variety or spectrum of plumages. In October, you expect the fall plumage, but some are early or late molters and we see some with full dull plumage and others with still quite a bit of color from the breeding or juvenile plumages.

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

From October2011

These back shots give a good look at the differences in coloration.

From October2011

From October2011

Finding a New Birding Patch

Sandy Urban Fishery's resident Great Blue Heron

Recent changes at work have me spending more time at our office in Sandy, Utah...so I had to find myself a new lunch-hour birding patch. Now finding a new birding patch isn't all that hard, but you want to find one that is productive, right?! Here is a link to a previous post about How to Pick a Patch. A nice mixture of habitat is always nice and helps increase the diversity of bird species.  So, straight to Google Maps I went to look for water and green space on the satellite image near my new location. Easy enough!

Turns out that the Sandy Urban Fishery is just down the hill, west of my new office. This is also along the Jordan River Parkway Trail, just 60 blocks south of my old lunch-hour birding patch. Similar habitat to my old patch, but with the nice addition of the fishing pond providing a whole new ecosystem and a whole new set of birds that I didn't have at my old patch. So far I've been delighted with it as I've seen 38 species already...which is great considering the time of year. I even saw a Palm Warbler there on my very first visit...a nice rarity in Utah (though we had three Palm Warblers earlier in the year).

Other birders had previously discovered this nice little birding location as it was already an eBird hotspot entered as "Sandy Fishing Pond". Visiting birders have not been consistent throughout the year and only 64 total species have been reported to date. As always, my goal is to eliminate all those grayed-out columns of unreported weeks on the eBird bar chart for my birding patches. Let's see how long it takes me to get to 100 species here!

The aerial map below shows my office location relative to my new birding patch. I can take the Jordan River Parkway Trail either north or south depending on where my birding mojo leads me that day.

Inspired by the awful species labeling during the Attu fly-over on the movie version of The Big Year, below is a close-up map of my new lunch-hour birding patch with labels of where I regularly see certain species.

The Jordan River runs along the west edge of my patch. The pond hosts a variety of waterfowl. The area is surrounded on three sides by golf course and creeks. Most of the trees are Russian Olives, but there are some Cottonwoods.

I'm looking forward to photographing Terns from this dock next year! There are always several fisherman at this regularly stocked pond during the lunch-hour. I stopped by before work recently while frost covered the ground and fog clung to the pond, and it had way more ducks and geese on it. Sharing with the fisherman will have its disadvantages, but I've already had a couple of them ask me about what birds I was seeing, so I suppose its worth it from the birding-outreach aspect.

Below is the view looking north. Mostly Coots on the water.

I had this Red-tailed Hawk fly over the other day. One fisherman informed me it was a female Red-tail. I asked him how he knew, and he just grinned. I don't know how to determine gender on Red-tailed Hawks. Jerry Liguori, can you confirm what the crazy fisherman said?

Bird Hygiene

Post by Steve Creek

I hope you enjoyed last month’s article that I wrote about observing birds and their behavior.  To carry forward with that series, I would like to share a few photos of a Red-winged Blackbird removing the fecal sac from their young.   This is not a strange behavior, but one that many people do not know about.

A fecal sac is a mucous membrane, usually white or clear in color with a darker color on one end.  The sac surrounds the feces excreted by the nestling. Fecal sacs are usually excreted after the nestling has been fed, but this varies with the different species of birds.

Some parents will eat the sac until the nestlings get a little older and some will remove the fecal sac by grasping it with their beak and taking it away from the nest.  Both parents usually help with this task.

There are several reasons why parents remove fecal sacs from the nest, but the main reason is for safety for their young.  The scent of the fecal matter could attract predators to the nest.
 
Not all species of birds generate fecal sacs and young birds usually stop producing them before they fledge.

You can visit my site to see a Robin doing the same thing: A Robin Removing Fecal Sac

Review: National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America

Fellow birders, I propose we refer to this guide as "NatGeo6" as an easy way to communicate the long title of "National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America - 6th edition". 

A few years ago I picked up a copy of the NatGeo4 to have as second guide to my Western Sibley, and as my one guide that covered all of North America. I didn't use it all that much and was surprised when some of my birder heroes mentioned that it was their preferred guide. With much more field guide experience under my belt, I've come to appreciate what a quality field guide this is. Now with all the really nice updates and enhancements in NatGeo6, this will be one of the most popular field guides in the hands of North American birders.

This edition sports a "Quick Find Index" on the front cover fold out - my favorite and most frequently used look-up tool. The inside of the front and back covers have a "Visual Index to Bird Families". Most visually appealing to my field guide sensibilities are the less crowded illustration plates, including improved and additional illustrations. You can still kinda tell which illustrations are the old ones, but they work.

I often judge a field guide by its range maps. NatGeo6 now includes migration ranges on their maps. Good for NatGeo! Some species maps even display the different Spring and Fall migration patterns. A whole section of subspecies maps is very cool, especially as my birding interests have been increasing in that direction. With the increased space on the illustration plates, there is also more room for descriptive text and information which is excellently written. NatGeo's features are now better than ever and is the most up-to-date field guide on the market. NatGeo6 has gained a firm place among the best field guides in North America. Kudos to Jon Dunn, Jonathan Alderfer and their staff. Well done!

Sparrow Anticipation

This monsoon season was Tucson's 10th wettest on record.  From June 15th to September 30th we received 8.62 inches of rain!  That's a lot for the desert.  The official measurement is taken at the airport only 2 miles from my home.  Why is this significant, you ask?  Well, all that rain turned my neighborhood birding patch into prime sparrow habitat.  Different grasses started growing all over, reaching four feet high in some places.  Red, orange, yellow, and purple flowers even popped up.

Farther away from the houses the grasses thin out and give way to cholla cactus and creosote bush.

This is my second fall in this neighborhood.  But before this September I had only birded this patch a few times.  The only two types of sparrows I had seen were White-crowned Sparrows in winter and Rufous-crowned Sparrows in May.  So I was thrilled at the beginning of September to find Rufous-winged Sparrows, a Southeast Arizona specialty.  Their accelerated trill seemed to be coming from everywhere!

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Rufous-winged Sparrow

A week later I found this adorable fledgling.  I think I did a little dance after seeing it.

Rufous-winged Sparrow

I started to wonder what else would show up here, maybe a Clay-colored Sparrow?  They are listed as rare in September and the first half of October (Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona).  But every fall a few are reported around Tucson.  My only sighting of one was four years ago along the Rillito River.  So I studied my Sibley guide until the head pattern was etched in my brain.  I continued to turn up different sparrows in the following weeks.

Lark Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

I even saw this beautiful coyote!

One evening during the second week of October I found a mixed flock of Chipping and Brewer's Sparrows.  I knew I had a chance for a Clay-colored Sparrow since they're usually found with these other Spizella sparrows.  I found a cooperative Chipping Sparrow and quickly snapped a photo:

Chipping Sparrow

I searched carefully through the flock for another 30 minutes without any luck.  The sun was beginning to set and I was about to give up when I detected some movement through the branches.  I raised my binoculars and... there it was, a Clay-colored Sparrow!  I took a photo through the branches, but the lighting was bad and the branches were obstructing the view.  The bird flew off and I wasn't able to relocate it.  I did a little fist pump, yeah!  But darn!  I was excited about finding this rare bird, but at the same time disappointed about not getting a clear photo.  I stuck around and watched the full moon rise as the sun set.

 
But I didn't give up.  And last Sunday morning I was rewarded:

Clay-colored Sparrow

Yes!  This sighting was even sweeter since they're considered "casual" after mid-October.  I flung open the front door and did a little dance.  Three sweet little faces turned away from the TV and looked at me like I was crazy.  "Dad!  What are you doing?" they asked.  "I just got a good shot of a rare sparrow!"  They laughed at me and went back to watching TV.  Maybe they didn't like my dance, but at least they said the photo was "cool".

Here are some other cool birds from my patch this fall:

subadult male Anna's Hummingbird

Green-tailed Towhee

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Curve-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Sharp-shinned Hawk

 Last, a Black-throated Sparrow on my mailbox this past July:

-AZ Birdbrain