On Sunday, I searched in vain for a Barnacle Goose that was being reported just across the Massachusetts border. There were several ups to the trip though, such as finally meeting Jacob Drucker, another New York young birder, and adding Black Vulture and Killdeer to my year list, bringing it up to 103. When I got home from the trip with Dad, I discovered that the IOC had put out version 2.4 of their world bird list. This update involved a few changes for my list. First and foremost, the Yellow-rumped Warbler was split into four different species: Myrtle Warbler in the east; Audubon's Warbler in the west; Black-fronted Warbler, a non-migratory species from north-central Mexico; and Goldman's Warbler, also non-migratory, but this time living in western Guatemala. So, despite missing the Barnacle Goose, my life list increased to 653 on Sunday. The other change that affected my list was the recently split American Scoter was changed back to Black Scoter because the European species was switched from Black Scoter to Common Scoter.
On Monday, yesterday, I picked up my first Fish Crow of the year while down at RCDS for AP European History review. When I came home, I started putting in the changes from the IOC update to my lists. While opening various documents, I stumbled across my trip list from my first SCA crew to Dinosaur National Monument. On it I found a bird that I had never put on any of my other lists, yet casting back in my memory I could remember our truck stopping to let eight female Greater Sage-Grouse cross the dirt track. But it wasn't on any of my lists! I checked the IOC world list, and found that ABA's "Greater Sage-Grouse" was simply called Sage Grouse. This addition brought my life list up to 654 and my ABA list up to 495, only five away from my goal of 500 by June 11th.
Today, on my way down to school to take the AP European History exam, I picked up a flock of five Common Grackles, bringing my year list up to 105.
I got into Williams College (early in the regular round) just yesterday, and I'm leaving for Spain with my choir on Friday! One heck of a week.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Northern Bound
It is a family tradition of ours to spend President’s Weekend up in Ottawa each year, skating the Rideau Canal and having a fun time in a beautiful city. I had only gone birding on this trip once before, searching in vain for a Great Gray Owl (which I saw in Alaska later that year) and Gray Partridges but getting my life Snow Buntings in the process. This year, I promised myself that I’d go birding.
At 3:00 in the afternoon on Friday, we picked mom up from the local high school she works at and struck north. Between our house and picking her up, I had already picked up dozens of Canada Geese on a pond, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in a creek next to the road, a flock of House Sparrows in someone’s yard, and a Turkey Vulture flying over the road. After picking mom up, dad realized he had left his bathing suit at home, so we drove back to our house to pick it up. On our way home, I added several species to the trip list: a Blue Jay on a fencepost, half a dozen Dark-eyed Juncos along the side of the road, two Hooded Mergansers under a bridge, and three or four flocks of Common Pigeons. After picking up dad’s bathing suit, we headed north on I-684.
Just north of Katonah, the pond I usually rely on for Mute Swans was fully frozen over, which dropped my hope for a swan on the trip. Just as I was remarking to dad about the lack of hawks, I spotted a perched Red-tailed Hawk east of the interstate. Another mile or two further along, we found some open water west of the highway with hundreds of Mute Swans swimming about. Up until nightfall, the only two new species I got were American Crows and Common Starlings.
We grabbed dinner at the Golden Corral in Saratoga Springs then continued up into Canada, crossing the border right around 11:00. We reached Delta Ottawa (our hotel) at around midnight, and caught some Olympics before going to bed.
Saturday morning, we woke up around 9:00 to the sound of an American Crow, my first bird for Canada this trip, calling and went down to the breakfast buffet. I finished earlier than the others, so I went to check the bird reports for the Ottawa region. I found out about two good landfills for Glaucous Gulls, a lifer that didn’t show two weekends ago on the Superbowl of Birding. The two other reports on there were for Gray Partridges in Kanata and winter finches in the Gatineau Hills. This was a problem, since I was unlikely to get another shot at winter finches this winter, but Gray Partridge and Glaucous Gull would both be life birds for me. The issue was that they lay in different directions, and I only got a single afternoon of birding for the whole trip. I opted to try for the life birds.
After I had checked the bird reports, all four of us headed up to the room to get dressed for skating the Rideau Canal. Wrapped in warm clothes, we headed down the elevator and out of the hotel into a light snow. Walking to the canal took about twenty minutes, in which I picked up my first Common Starlings and Common Pigeons for Canada this trip. We skated the first four kilometers of the Rideau Canal, with a stop for beavertails, but then Sarah’s skate broke. While waiting for mom and dad to come to a decision about what to do, I heard a Black-capped Chickadee call from a conifer next to the canal. A little while later, mom and dad agreed that the best course of action was to head back to the start of the canal, and we started back.
After changing into our boots, we split up. Mom and Sarah went shopping while dad and I planned to get stuff to repair Sarah’s skates then go birding. We stopped off at a hardware store to pick up some epoxy, and then continued on to route 417 west towards the Trail Road Landfill. We turned south on 416 and then got off at exit 66. A mile later, I picked up a single Rusty Blackbird in a leafless tree by the side of the road. Five minutes of snow-covered fields and four Dark-eyed Juncos later, we turned onto Trail Road. The snow had picked up greatly, and I saw no birds at all in the air. The landfill was closed to the public, so dad continued driving along the road as I searched for an overlook. Half a mile further on, a large pile of refuse appeared on the ridge with crows flying about it. Just as I set my eyes on the pile, a bulldozer shifted it and white bids swirled into the air. Gulls. Most of these were Great Black-backed Gulls, but I saw several very pale gulls that were just as large. We pulled up to a good view of the heap as the gulls settled back down, and I leapt out into the wind-blown snow. Battling the gusts, I set up my scope and started scanning the birds. The second gull I set eyes on was pale. It had white wingtips. Pure white wingtips. It was big. As big as a Great Black-backed Gull. A Glaucous Gull! My six hundredth and fifty-second life bird!
Glaucous Gull
After snapping a picture of the gull, I leapt back into the car, my fingers numb. Dad and I then continued on a loop through the frozen agricultural lands in search of Snow Buntings. The only birds we saw for the entire loop were crows. Disappointed in the lack of buntings, we struck north again, this time headed for the Kanata maintenance yard where Gray Partridges had been observed. As we turned onto Eagleson road, a flock of Snow Buntings took off from the gravel shoulder, flitted alongside the car, and dropped down into the white snow, vanishing instantly. Happy with this surprise, we stayed on course to Kanata. As we pulled onto Maple Grove Lane, dad spotted four Wild Turkeys next to the pavement. The maintenance yard, however, was a bust, with nothing besides crows moving.
Our last stop for the day was on the Ottawa River at Bate Island, just inside the Ontario border. Here, I was searching for overwintering ducks and anything else I could find. We pulled across Champlain Bridge and down into a parking lot only to find diving ducks bobbing in the rapids right in front of us. I leapt out of the car and whipped out the scope. All three of the birds up right then were Common Goldeneyes, two females and a male. Two more birds surfaced, both of them Common Goldeneyes. Another bird floated down the rapids right in front of me, and I trained my scope on it. With its high forehead and all-orange bill, it was a female Barrow’s Goldeneye, only the second Barrow’s I had ever seen, and the first female one!
Female Barrow's Goldeneye
After a few more good looks at the bird, I headed around to the other side of the island, where I found a flock of Mallards and two distant Common Mergansers. With the light fading, I reentered the car, and dad and I drove back to the hotel. That night, the four of us went out to dinner at Zak’s, our favorite local diner, and watched the Olympics on TV.
Sunday, Valentine’s Day, dawned crisp and clear. The epoxy hadn’t worked on Sarah’s skates, so we planned to check if a local store (the one we bought them from) could fix it. The problem was the store didn’t open until noon.
After breakfast, all four of us headed across the Ottawa River into Hull, Quebec. Here, we went to the Museum of Civilization and I picked up an American Crow, the only bird I saw in Quebec for the entire trip. After visiting the museum, with its amazing hall of totem poles and cool special exhibits, we drove back into Ontario to the skate shop. It turned out that they couldn’t fix Sarah’s skates, so we bought a new pair that we hope will be reimbursed by the skate company. While Sarah, mom, and dad were getting the skates, I called my girlfriend back in New York, since I couldn’t see her that day, Valentine’s Day.
With Sarah’s new skates, all four of us skated the canal up and back, a full twelve kilometers. From there, dad and Sarah headed directly back to the hotel while mom and I went up to Parliament Hill. The two of us enjoyed the sweeping views of Hull that we got from the hill overlooking the river and the architecture of the amazing Parliamentary library. On our way back down to the hotel, however, I looked up to see a Peregrine Falcon flying over our heads. Arriving at the hotel, we relaxed and watched more Olympics, got dinner at Zak’s again, and then came back to even more Olympics. The two best moments were when Canada won men’s moguls, their first gold medal at home, and when the Canadian figure skating pair used Clint Mansell’s “Requiem for a Dream,” one of my favorite songs, in their routine.
Parliament Library
We woke up Monday morning and packed up to leave. On our way out of town, we had some gift shopping to do, which we did at Byward Market. We picked up breakfast there too, and then headed east. We planned to make one stop, at yet another landfill, on the way home for me to look for more gulls and other birds. The landfill, luckily, was less than a mile off our route.
Pulling down Lafleche Road towards the dump, several small birds took flight from the fields on either side of us. One flew next to the car long enough for me to recognize a Horned Lark, and large flashes of white in some of the wings signaled the existence of Snow Buntings. There was a group of gulls on the field next to the landfill where I counted six Glaucous Gulls, and then there were six more over the landfill itself. Try as I would, I could find nothing else of interest either over the dump or in the fields. With time ticking away, we headed south towards New York.
Horned Lark
Just before the bridge into my own country, I spotted a hawk flying right over the car. By the time we had pulled over and I had hopped out, it had disappeared behind a line of trees to the east. Dad and mom both saw a hawk fly over our car a few minutes later, but I didn’t get even a glimpse of it.
On the bridge into the US, we were stuck in line for customs when I spotted an American Crow in a distant tree. I brought my scope up to look at it, and as I did a Great Gray Shrike (Northern Shrike for those of you who use ABA over IOC) landed in the top of the tree next to the crow! It was the first one I ever saw in New York.
We made it through customs no problem, and just on the other side of the booth mom spotted four Wild Turkeys, the first I had seen in New York this year. Driving south, we stopped to fill up on gas in Fort Covington, and a Cooper’s Hawk flew right overhead. We entered the Adirondacks, and I picked up a Northern Raven in Paul Smiths, getting another just outside of Saranac Lake. The last two birds of the day were a Downy Woodpecker that flew in front of our car somewhere just west of Lake Placid and a Black-capped Chickadee at an Elizabethtown feeder.
The sun dropped down behind the western horizon as we got take out from a pizzeria in Saratoga Springs. The miles fell away beneath the tires of our car as we traveled down the Northway to I-90 and then the Taconic River Parkway. We arrived home from our long weekend at 8:30 Monday night.
The List:
1. Canada Goose
2. Red-breasted Merganser
3. House Sparrow
4. Turkey Vulture
5. Blue Jay
6. Dark-eyed Junco
7. Hooded Merganser
8. Common Pigeon
9. Red-tailed Hawk
10. Mute Swan
11. American Crow
12. Common Starling
13. Black-capped Chickadee
14. Rusty Blackbird
15. Great Black-backed Gull
16. Glaucous Gull
17. Snow Bunting
18. Wild Turkey
19. Common Goldeneye
20. Barrow’s Goldeneye
21. Mallard
22. Common Merganser
23. Peregrine Falcon
24. Horned Lark
25. Great Gray Shrike
26. Cooper’s Hawk
27. Northern Raven
28. Downy Woodpecker
This trip increased many of my lists:
Life: 652 (previously 651)
ABA: 494 (previously 493)
Canada: 62 (previously 55)
New York: 194 (previously 193)
Year (ABA): 100 (previously 94)
Year (NY): 83 (previously 80)
Slowly but surely, my New York, ABA, and life lists are inching towards the goals I have for them: 200 before graduation, 500 before graduation, and 700 before the end of 2010.
At 3:00 in the afternoon on Friday, we picked mom up from the local high school she works at and struck north. Between our house and picking her up, I had already picked up dozens of Canada Geese on a pond, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in a creek next to the road, a flock of House Sparrows in someone’s yard, and a Turkey Vulture flying over the road. After picking mom up, dad realized he had left his bathing suit at home, so we drove back to our house to pick it up. On our way home, I added several species to the trip list: a Blue Jay on a fencepost, half a dozen Dark-eyed Juncos along the side of the road, two Hooded Mergansers under a bridge, and three or four flocks of Common Pigeons. After picking up dad’s bathing suit, we headed north on I-684.
Just north of Katonah, the pond I usually rely on for Mute Swans was fully frozen over, which dropped my hope for a swan on the trip. Just as I was remarking to dad about the lack of hawks, I spotted a perched Red-tailed Hawk east of the interstate. Another mile or two further along, we found some open water west of the highway with hundreds of Mute Swans swimming about. Up until nightfall, the only two new species I got were American Crows and Common Starlings.
We grabbed dinner at the Golden Corral in Saratoga Springs then continued up into Canada, crossing the border right around 11:00. We reached Delta Ottawa (our hotel) at around midnight, and caught some Olympics before going to bed.
Saturday morning, we woke up around 9:00 to the sound of an American Crow, my first bird for Canada this trip, calling and went down to the breakfast buffet. I finished earlier than the others, so I went to check the bird reports for the Ottawa region. I found out about two good landfills for Glaucous Gulls, a lifer that didn’t show two weekends ago on the Superbowl of Birding. The two other reports on there were for Gray Partridges in Kanata and winter finches in the Gatineau Hills. This was a problem, since I was unlikely to get another shot at winter finches this winter, but Gray Partridge and Glaucous Gull would both be life birds for me. The issue was that they lay in different directions, and I only got a single afternoon of birding for the whole trip. I opted to try for the life birds.
After I had checked the bird reports, all four of us headed up to the room to get dressed for skating the Rideau Canal. Wrapped in warm clothes, we headed down the elevator and out of the hotel into a light snow. Walking to the canal took about twenty minutes, in which I picked up my first Common Starlings and Common Pigeons for Canada this trip. We skated the first four kilometers of the Rideau Canal, with a stop for beavertails, but then Sarah’s skate broke. While waiting for mom and dad to come to a decision about what to do, I heard a Black-capped Chickadee call from a conifer next to the canal. A little while later, mom and dad agreed that the best course of action was to head back to the start of the canal, and we started back.
After changing into our boots, we split up. Mom and Sarah went shopping while dad and I planned to get stuff to repair Sarah’s skates then go birding. We stopped off at a hardware store to pick up some epoxy, and then continued on to route 417 west towards the Trail Road Landfill. We turned south on 416 and then got off at exit 66. A mile later, I picked up a single Rusty Blackbird in a leafless tree by the side of the road. Five minutes of snow-covered fields and four Dark-eyed Juncos later, we turned onto Trail Road. The snow had picked up greatly, and I saw no birds at all in the air. The landfill was closed to the public, so dad continued driving along the road as I searched for an overlook. Half a mile further on, a large pile of refuse appeared on the ridge with crows flying about it. Just as I set my eyes on the pile, a bulldozer shifted it and white bids swirled into the air. Gulls. Most of these were Great Black-backed Gulls, but I saw several very pale gulls that were just as large. We pulled up to a good view of the heap as the gulls settled back down, and I leapt out into the wind-blown snow. Battling the gusts, I set up my scope and started scanning the birds. The second gull I set eyes on was pale. It had white wingtips. Pure white wingtips. It was big. As big as a Great Black-backed Gull. A Glaucous Gull! My six hundredth and fifty-second life bird!
Glaucous Gull
After snapping a picture of the gull, I leapt back into the car, my fingers numb. Dad and I then continued on a loop through the frozen agricultural lands in search of Snow Buntings. The only birds we saw for the entire loop were crows. Disappointed in the lack of buntings, we struck north again, this time headed for the Kanata maintenance yard where Gray Partridges had been observed. As we turned onto Eagleson road, a flock of Snow Buntings took off from the gravel shoulder, flitted alongside the car, and dropped down into the white snow, vanishing instantly. Happy with this surprise, we stayed on course to Kanata. As we pulled onto Maple Grove Lane, dad spotted four Wild Turkeys next to the pavement. The maintenance yard, however, was a bust, with nothing besides crows moving.
Our last stop for the day was on the Ottawa River at Bate Island, just inside the Ontario border. Here, I was searching for overwintering ducks and anything else I could find. We pulled across Champlain Bridge and down into a parking lot only to find diving ducks bobbing in the rapids right in front of us. I leapt out of the car and whipped out the scope. All three of the birds up right then were Common Goldeneyes, two females and a male. Two more birds surfaced, both of them Common Goldeneyes. Another bird floated down the rapids right in front of me, and I trained my scope on it. With its high forehead and all-orange bill, it was a female Barrow’s Goldeneye, only the second Barrow’s I had ever seen, and the first female one!
Female Barrow's Goldeneye
After a few more good looks at the bird, I headed around to the other side of the island, where I found a flock of Mallards and two distant Common Mergansers. With the light fading, I reentered the car, and dad and I drove back to the hotel. That night, the four of us went out to dinner at Zak’s, our favorite local diner, and watched the Olympics on TV.
Sunday, Valentine’s Day, dawned crisp and clear. The epoxy hadn’t worked on Sarah’s skates, so we planned to check if a local store (the one we bought them from) could fix it. The problem was the store didn’t open until noon.
After breakfast, all four of us headed across the Ottawa River into Hull, Quebec. Here, we went to the Museum of Civilization and I picked up an American Crow, the only bird I saw in Quebec for the entire trip. After visiting the museum, with its amazing hall of totem poles and cool special exhibits, we drove back into Ontario to the skate shop. It turned out that they couldn’t fix Sarah’s skates, so we bought a new pair that we hope will be reimbursed by the skate company. While Sarah, mom, and dad were getting the skates, I called my girlfriend back in New York, since I couldn’t see her that day, Valentine’s Day.
With Sarah’s new skates, all four of us skated the canal up and back, a full twelve kilometers. From there, dad and Sarah headed directly back to the hotel while mom and I went up to Parliament Hill. The two of us enjoyed the sweeping views of Hull that we got from the hill overlooking the river and the architecture of the amazing Parliamentary library. On our way back down to the hotel, however, I looked up to see a Peregrine Falcon flying over our heads. Arriving at the hotel, we relaxed and watched more Olympics, got dinner at Zak’s again, and then came back to even more Olympics. The two best moments were when Canada won men’s moguls, their first gold medal at home, and when the Canadian figure skating pair used Clint Mansell’s “Requiem for a Dream,” one of my favorite songs, in their routine.
Parliament Library
We woke up Monday morning and packed up to leave. On our way out of town, we had some gift shopping to do, which we did at Byward Market. We picked up breakfast there too, and then headed east. We planned to make one stop, at yet another landfill, on the way home for me to look for more gulls and other birds. The landfill, luckily, was less than a mile off our route.
Pulling down Lafleche Road towards the dump, several small birds took flight from the fields on either side of us. One flew next to the car long enough for me to recognize a Horned Lark, and large flashes of white in some of the wings signaled the existence of Snow Buntings. There was a group of gulls on the field next to the landfill where I counted six Glaucous Gulls, and then there were six more over the landfill itself. Try as I would, I could find nothing else of interest either over the dump or in the fields. With time ticking away, we headed south towards New York.
Horned Lark
Just before the bridge into my own country, I spotted a hawk flying right over the car. By the time we had pulled over and I had hopped out, it had disappeared behind a line of trees to the east. Dad and mom both saw a hawk fly over our car a few minutes later, but I didn’t get even a glimpse of it.
On the bridge into the US, we were stuck in line for customs when I spotted an American Crow in a distant tree. I brought my scope up to look at it, and as I did a Great Gray Shrike (Northern Shrike for those of you who use ABA over IOC) landed in the top of the tree next to the crow! It was the first one I ever saw in New York.
We made it through customs no problem, and just on the other side of the booth mom spotted four Wild Turkeys, the first I had seen in New York this year. Driving south, we stopped to fill up on gas in Fort Covington, and a Cooper’s Hawk flew right overhead. We entered the Adirondacks, and I picked up a Northern Raven in Paul Smiths, getting another just outside of Saranac Lake. The last two birds of the day were a Downy Woodpecker that flew in front of our car somewhere just west of Lake Placid and a Black-capped Chickadee at an Elizabethtown feeder.
The sun dropped down behind the western horizon as we got take out from a pizzeria in Saratoga Springs. The miles fell away beneath the tires of our car as we traveled down the Northway to I-90 and then the Taconic River Parkway. We arrived home from our long weekend at 8:30 Monday night.
The List:
1. Canada Goose
2. Red-breasted Merganser
3. House Sparrow
4. Turkey Vulture
5. Blue Jay
6. Dark-eyed Junco
7. Hooded Merganser
8. Common Pigeon
9. Red-tailed Hawk
10. Mute Swan
11. American Crow
12. Common Starling
13. Black-capped Chickadee
14. Rusty Blackbird
15. Great Black-backed Gull
16. Glaucous Gull
17. Snow Bunting
18. Wild Turkey
19. Common Goldeneye
20. Barrow’s Goldeneye
21. Mallard
22. Common Merganser
23. Peregrine Falcon
24. Horned Lark
25. Great Gray Shrike
26. Cooper’s Hawk
27. Northern Raven
28. Downy Woodpecker
This trip increased many of my lists:
Life: 652 (previously 651)
ABA: 494 (previously 493)
Canada: 62 (previously 55)
New York: 194 (previously 193)
Year (ABA): 100 (previously 94)
Year (NY): 83 (previously 80)
Slowly but surely, my New York, ABA, and life lists are inching towards the goals I have for them: 200 before graduation, 500 before graduation, and 700 before the end of 2010.
Search for the Yellow-headed Blackbird
Two Saturdays ago, February 6, I woke up fairly well rested for the first time in a while. A little ways into the day, I brought up the idea of trying to see the Yellow-headed Blackbird, which would be a lifer for me, at the Pruyn Sanctuary in Chappaqua. Mom said that she wanted to come and we could leave at around 1:00 in the afternoon if I got my room picked up and did my laundry. With a life bird on the line, I set myself to cleaning. I was done well before one, and had some time to print up directions to the sanctuary and locations of where it was recently seen. At around 1:10, we left for Pruyn.
After a fifteen-minute drive, we pulled into the parking lot for the sanctuary to find two birders already there. They, though also looking for the blackbird, had a Fox Sparrow in their scope. I snapped a few pictures of it with my camera and then started scanning the blackbird flock up in the trees.
Fox Sparrow
There were plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds, the first ones I had seen in New York this year, and a lot of Brown-headed Cowbirds, the first ones I had seen anywhere this year, but no Yellow-headed Blackbird. The only thing to do was wait. At one point, the entire flock flew down to the ground, but all the birds had dark heads. After about an hour, another car pulls into the lot, and who should get out but Tom Burke and Gail Benson, friends of mine from the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. Tom told me that it was their eighth time looking for the bird. Within moments of their arrival, however, the blackbird flock flies back up into the trees from out of sight, bringing with it the coveted Yellow-headed Blackbird! Everyone got looks at the bird, and then the flock moved again, but this time to the open field right in front of us, giving us amazing photographic opportunities of my six hundred and fifty-first life bird.
Yellow-headed Blackbird
About a half-hour later, the entire blackbird flock lifted into the air, circled around twice, then dropped back down into the trees. This time, however, we couldn’t relocate the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Mom suggested that head out, so I folded up our scope. As I was saying goodbye to Tom and Gail, Tom asked me if I had been over to Croton Point park for EagleFest. I had completely forgotten that it was that day, so I asked mom if it would be ok for us to head over there to search for Bald Eagles, a bird still missing from my New York year list, though I had picked one up in Massachusetts for my ABA year list. Saying farewell to the other four birders who stuck around to keep searching for the bird, mom and I drove west.
Reaching Croton, we picked up signs to EagleFest and headed out to the park. When we reached EagleFest, mom headed into the information tent and I went out to where there were people with spotting scopes. One of them happened to be Megan Aitchison, who was my camp counselor for two years, worked with me at Ward Pound Ridge this last summer, and went out on the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. I said hello to her, and she introduced me to her dad, who was standing next to her. Though Megan told me they hadn’t had an eagle at their spot yet, there were three Buffleheads and a single female Common Goldeneye swimming just offshore. The Goldeneye, amazingly enough, was a New York year bird for me.
After about half an hour of no activity, I said farewell to Megan and her father and went up to the tent. Here I caught up with mom and saw two other people I knew: Jason, who ran Marshlands up until this year, and Scott, who had been one of my counselors at Ward Pound Ridge even before I met Megan. With daylight rapidly fading, mom and I headed off in search of eagles at the Croton boat launch.
Pulling into the boat launch, I spotted an adult Bald Eagle flying over the water. Moments later, an immature rose up to join it, and mom and I took good looks at both through the binoculars. Continuing on to the little station further down the lot, we discovered that, besides the two eagles that were already gone, there was nothing of interest. The man working at this station, however, told us about the night roost up at George’s Island. With even less light remaining than when we left for the boat launch, mom and I sped north.
Reaching George’s Island, I found that another person I knew was there: Bill, who had also participated in the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count. On the island itself were twelve Bald Eagles, and while we were watching four more, including two adults, flew in. The biggest excitement, at least for me, was not the eagles; instead, it was the small flock of Canvasbacks in the bay. As we were leaving, four Mute Swans drifted up the Hudson, looking like slabs of ice with long necks.
Canvasbacks
We reached home just as the sun was setting, and the orange light illuminated a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a branch that reached out over the road. The day had yielded several year birds, two state birds, and a life bird. After my pretty productive day, my lists stood as such:
Life: 651 (previously 650)
ABA: 493 (previously 492)
New York: 193 (previously 191)
Year (ABA): 94 (previously 89)
Year (NY): 80 (previously 72)
After a fifteen-minute drive, we pulled into the parking lot for the sanctuary to find two birders already there. They, though also looking for the blackbird, had a Fox Sparrow in their scope. I snapped a few pictures of it with my camera and then started scanning the blackbird flock up in the trees.
Fox Sparrow
There were plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds, the first ones I had seen in New York this year, and a lot of Brown-headed Cowbirds, the first ones I had seen anywhere this year, but no Yellow-headed Blackbird. The only thing to do was wait. At one point, the entire flock flew down to the ground, but all the birds had dark heads. After about an hour, another car pulls into the lot, and who should get out but Tom Burke and Gail Benson, friends of mine from the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. Tom told me that it was their eighth time looking for the bird. Within moments of their arrival, however, the blackbird flock flies back up into the trees from out of sight, bringing with it the coveted Yellow-headed Blackbird! Everyone got looks at the bird, and then the flock moved again, but this time to the open field right in front of us, giving us amazing photographic opportunities of my six hundred and fifty-first life bird.
Yellow-headed Blackbird
About a half-hour later, the entire blackbird flock lifted into the air, circled around twice, then dropped back down into the trees. This time, however, we couldn’t relocate the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Mom suggested that head out, so I folded up our scope. As I was saying goodbye to Tom and Gail, Tom asked me if I had been over to Croton Point park for EagleFest. I had completely forgotten that it was that day, so I asked mom if it would be ok for us to head over there to search for Bald Eagles, a bird still missing from my New York year list, though I had picked one up in Massachusetts for my ABA year list. Saying farewell to the other four birders who stuck around to keep searching for the bird, mom and I drove west.
Reaching Croton, we picked up signs to EagleFest and headed out to the park. When we reached EagleFest, mom headed into the information tent and I went out to where there were people with spotting scopes. One of them happened to be Megan Aitchison, who was my camp counselor for two years, worked with me at Ward Pound Ridge this last summer, and went out on the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. I said hello to her, and she introduced me to her dad, who was standing next to her. Though Megan told me they hadn’t had an eagle at their spot yet, there were three Buffleheads and a single female Common Goldeneye swimming just offshore. The Goldeneye, amazingly enough, was a New York year bird for me.
After about half an hour of no activity, I said farewell to Megan and her father and went up to the tent. Here I caught up with mom and saw two other people I knew: Jason, who ran Marshlands up until this year, and Scott, who had been one of my counselors at Ward Pound Ridge even before I met Megan. With daylight rapidly fading, mom and I headed off in search of eagles at the Croton boat launch.
Pulling into the boat launch, I spotted an adult Bald Eagle flying over the water. Moments later, an immature rose up to join it, and mom and I took good looks at both through the binoculars. Continuing on to the little station further down the lot, we discovered that, besides the two eagles that were already gone, there was nothing of interest. The man working at this station, however, told us about the night roost up at George’s Island. With even less light remaining than when we left for the boat launch, mom and I sped north.
Reaching George’s Island, I found that another person I knew was there: Bill, who had also participated in the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count. On the island itself were twelve Bald Eagles, and while we were watching four more, including two adults, flew in. The biggest excitement, at least for me, was not the eagles; instead, it was the small flock of Canvasbacks in the bay. As we were leaving, four Mute Swans drifted up the Hudson, looking like slabs of ice with long necks.
Canvasbacks
We reached home just as the sun was setting, and the orange light illuminated a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a branch that reached out over the road. The day had yielded several year birds, two state birds, and a life bird. After my pretty productive day, my lists stood as such:
Life: 651 (previously 650)
ABA: 493 (previously 492)
New York: 193 (previously 191)
Year (ABA): 94 (previously 89)
Year (NY): 80 (previously 72)
Superbowl of Birding VII (The Dinner)
At 5:00, twelve hours after we started birding, we drove towards the final gathering, which was to be held at a nearby church. We arrived to find my dad and the Lawrences saving us a table down by where the pizza was set out. While Hope, our captain, signed the checklist and went to turn it in, the three of us boys went for the pizza. Other birders where already there, and more started arriving as the 5:30 deadline loomed closer. One of these birders was Andrew Baksh, a guy I had met on the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count and then saw again on the Southern Nassau count. He came over to say hello, and I learned he was one of the Bloggerhead Kingbirds, a team of bird bloggers who had never met each other until the competition.
Three members of our team of four (everyone except Ben) won door prizes; I got the book Falconer on the Edge. As a team, we, the NYSYBC Ninja Nighthawks, won the newbie’s award, the prize for the youth division. At that point, Ben and I had to head south in order to be home that night, so we exchanged farewells with Greg, Hope, and Mrs. Batcheller then hit the road, arriving in Katonah at around 10:30 that night.
I added seventeen year birds to my list during the competition, raising my ABA region year list to 89. My Massachusetts state list also increased dramatically, finally breaking the 100 mark with a final total of 101 species.
Three members of our team of four (everyone except Ben) won door prizes; I got the book Falconer on the Edge. As a team, we, the NYSYBC Ninja Nighthawks, won the newbie’s award, the prize for the youth division. At that point, Ben and I had to head south in order to be home that night, so we exchanged farewells with Greg, Hope, and Mrs. Batcheller then hit the road, arriving in Katonah at around 10:30 that night.
I added seventeen year birds to my list during the competition, raising my ABA region year list to 89. My Massachusetts state list also increased dramatically, finally breaking the 100 mark with a final total of 101 species.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Superbowl of Birding VII (The Competition: Part II)
We left Lynn heading north for the Gloucester/Cape Ann area. Along the road we picked up our first Red-tailed Hawk. Our first stop in Gloucester was the State Fish Pier. We drove to the end of the pier to look for gulls and some other stuff. Despite our best efforts, we could find only Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, but we did pick up our first Common Eider. Hope also managed to relocate the Peregrine Falcon she had found the day before across the water on a tower. We also had more Common Goldeneyes and Buffleheads off the pier, and several pigeons were strutting around near the car. This was the first time we ran into the young birders from Vermont, a group Hope had told us about earlier in the day. We watched one of the Vermonters follow the Peregrine in his binoculars without alerting his teammates, which caused great amusement once we made it back into the car.
From the fish pier, we headed out along the shore to Eastern Point. We pulled aside at a little lot when Ben spotted a bird sitting on the bay we were driving around. It turned out to be a Black Scoter, and Hope picked out two White-winged Scoters a little further out beyond a red buoy. Just as Mrs. Batcheller started up the Subaru, a female Red-breasted Merganser surfaced. About half a mile further on, I spotted a Common Merganser just offshore. Our scouting notes said to check for Wild Turkeys in the last mile before Eastern Point. Almost to the point and with no turkeys yet, Hope found one sitting up in a tree, our only Wild Turkey, worth three whole points, for the day. Eastern Point itself was a wash, with no new species added to the list and only two species there at all: Herring Gulls and Buffleheads. Mrs. Batcheller turned the car around and we headed off for Neils Pond.
Up until three days before the competition, Neils Pond had held a Thayer’s Gull, but when we got to it, there wasn’t even a single Herring Gull flying around the small opening in the ice, just a few Canada Geese and Mallards on the far shore. Continuing down to Brace Cove, we slipped out onto a dyke (past a “no trespassing” sign of course) and picked up three Gadwall swimming right along the shore. The five of us headed back to Fort Hill Avenue, our second shot for songbirds. Mrs. Batcheller pulled all the way to the end of the avenue as American Robins flew across the road, where she parked amongst some conifers. Rolling down the windows, we instantly picked up Black-capped Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Tufted Titmice. A few moments later, Greg heard a White-breasted Nuthatch call, but the rest of us did not hear it. Just before Mrs. Batcheller turned the car back on, Ben and I heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker at the same time. Unfortunately, it didn't call again, and neither Greg nor Hope had heard it. Driving a few yards back down the avenue, the four of us birders hopped out of the car to walk a little ways along the road. Within moments, we had five White-breasted Nuthatches on the two trees in front of us. Titmice, chickadees, and juncos flitted about as the nuthatches crawled back and forth over the trees, but our real target species here was seen about two minutes later: a Gray Catbird, worth four points. Greg spotted a House Finch, but it dropped down before the rest of us could get our binoculars on it. Popping back into the car, we headed north towards Bass Rocks.
Ft. Hill Avenue
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Bass Rocks are several rock outcroppings just offshore along the eastern edge of Cape Ann. We drove along the shore with our eyes to the water, and pretty soon we came across a rock dotted with cormorants. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be Great Cormorants, but I managed to pull an immature Double-crested Cormorant, another four point bird, out of the Greats. Ben spotted our first Red-thraoted Loon for the day, and we valiantly tried to pull a Barrow’s Goldeneye out of the Commons near the rocks, but to no avail. The best shot at our other target species for the day was a little further along the shore at Elk’s Club. We reached the lot, and the four of us grabbed our scopes and headed across the road to start scanning the ocean. Within moments, we had picked up a Common Loon and a few Horned Grebes. Search as we may, all the gulls turned out to be either Herring Gulls or Great Black-backed Gulls. Though there had been a juvenile King Eider reported nearby, we couldn’t locate it, though a slightly differently-patterned immature Common Eider gave us a pause until it showed it’s beak to be greenish instead of orange. The highlight of Elk’s Club, however, was a Black Guillemot, a lifer for both Greg and Ben. Pretty satisfied with the alcid, we headed north again, this time towards Cathedral Rocks.
Watching the Guillemot
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
On our way to Cathedral Rocks, we noticed a group of cars out at the end of a jetty, and people standing with spotting scopes. Making a quick decision, our fearless leader Hope decided to investigate what was out at what we discovered was Granite Pier. Great call. Our first Ring-billed Gull bobbed by the lot as the four of us exited the car. As we were getting out our scopes, an elderly couple came over to tell us about the four Harlequin Ducksthat were right on the other side of Granite Pier. After seeing the beautiful ducks (two were males), Hope and Ben started scanning the ocean with their scopes as Greg and I set up next to the big group of birders with scopes. As we set up, the two of us heard one of the women in the group relaying directions to some Purple Sandpipers on rocks a fair distance away. Once we had our scopes set on the birds, we hustled Hope and Ben over to see them. All four of us got the sandpipers, then it was back into the car for another drive along the Cape Ann coast, this time up to Andrew’s Point.
We pulled into the lot at the northern tip of Cape Ann only to find two stunning male Surf Scoters bobbing right in front of the windshield. Because of the strong, biting winds from the day before, Greg and Hope had dubbed this area “Hell,” and it was even written into our schedule as “Andrew’s Point/HELL.” This day, however, it was anything but. The four of us headed out and set up our scopes to start scanning the ocean. Within a minute, Greg called out “I need someone to ID this alcid for me!” Amazingly enough, I had the most experience with Alcids out of the whole team, so I zipped over to Greg’s scope to take a look. My initial ID of the bird was a Common Murre, due to the markings. Hope, however, took a look and called it a Dovekie based on behaviour. Sure enough, it was lying low in the water in the traditional Dovekie shape. I raced back up to the car to grab Greg’s trusty Sibley, and, after a few minutes of debating back and forth, we all agreed that it was in fact a Dovekie, a bird that wasn’t even on the official checklist! Another group of people showed up as Greg called the bird in to Joppa Flats, and Ben and I tried to get them on the elusive alcid. Time was ticking away, and we hadn’t relocated it when we had to leave, already an hour behind schedule. Wishing the other birders good luck, we took off for Salisbury, finally leaving the Gloucester/Cape Ann area.
Andrew's Point Crowd
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Salisbury was about an hour away, and I had the front seat for the entire drive. I took off my boots and thawed out my feet in front of the vents from which issued blessedly warm air. Ben pulled out a loaf of garlic bread, our first food for the day, and the five of us tore into the bread, devouring it within moments. On the drive, we picked up several more Red-tailed Hawks, Rock Pigeons, and European Starlings. We met up with my dad in the town of Essex and he pulled in behind us, following us north. Finally, we reached Salisbury, where we headed straight for Salisbury Beach State Park, where a Sage Thrasher had been reported on and off prior to the competition. We struck out on the thrasher (it wasn’t seen by anyone that day) and pretty much everything else except an American Tree Sparrow. The RV area was dead with the exception of a Bald Eagle that flew over the car, saving us a ten-minute detour upriver to find them around Cashman Park. At the beach itself, the coolest thing was the ice flowing out of the river, where it ground against other pieces of ice and created what looked like a vast field of pack ice, prompting us birders to joke about Ivory Gulls. On our way out of Salisbury, we checked a blackbird roost in the marsh along the road, but there was nothing there. Crossing back over into Newburyport, our next destination, suggested by me the night before, was the sewage treatment plant.
None of the others had been to the sewage plant, but I had gotten seven species of gulls right off it, including my life Iceland Gull and my ABA Black-headed Gull. Ben’s iPhone got us in the general area, and then I managed to find the entrance where I had gotten in a few years before. Sure enough, we pulled into the single parking space, scoped the gulls, and found an adult Iceland Gull, our only one for the day. We searched around for more birds, but didn’t come up with anything new. From the sewage plant, we headed out for Joppa Flats. We pulled in there to check the rare sightings and use the restrooms. The first thing we noticed on the board was that another team, the Bloggerhead Kingbirds, had also found a Dovekie off of Andrew’s Point, making us feel more secure about our sighting. We had also gotten the three-point bonus for finding it first, something the Bloggerheads didn’t get. We found out about the most recent Snowy Owl sighting and then continued on to Plum Island and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
Iceland Gull
Photo Credit: Ben using his iPhone
We decided to drive straight on down to the south end of the refuge, a place where I had found Long-tailed Ducks before, and then work our way north. On the drive south, we picked up a Northern Harrier, but no Short-eared or Snowy Owls. We pulled in to the southernmost lot and trekked out to the beach. Scanning the water resulted in the usual species: Common Eiders, the typical gulls, Great Cormorants, Horned Grebes. While checking the eiders for King Eiders, I found a single Long-tailed Duck. I got the other three on the bird then we rushed back to the car and drove north towards Hellcat Swamp.
Arriving at Hellcat Swamp, a Hairy Woodpecker called as we opened the doors of the Subaru. Marching out along the dyke, which was sadly devoid of larks, we set up our scopes to search for a Snowy Owl. There was a man up in the observation tower, and my dad went up to talk with him. A few moments later, he called us up to tell us the other man had found the Snowy Owl. He directed us to the bird, and soon all four of us had the pure white Snowy Owl in view.
Snowy Owl
Photo Credit: Ben digiscoping with his iPhone
Leaving Hellcat, my dad stopped to talk with a trio of birders headed out onto the dyke. He gave them the location of the Snowy Owl, and they told him about a Short-eared Owl that had flown in front of their car. Dad hurried up to tell us this news, and we set off in search of the Short-eared Owl and some other birds.
We pulled into Lot 3 without getting a Short-eared Owl. I looked up the road as the others were pulling out their scopes, and a bird took off from a fence post near the curve in the road. It was a Short-eared Owl! The others got on the bird, and we added it to our list. The four of us then jogged out to overlook the ocean. Ben and I misidentified a Horned Grebe as a Red-necked Grebe, but aside from that single bird and a few gulls, there was nothing out there. On our way back to the car, we met up with Greg’s parents, and they fell in behind my dad, forming a little caravan. From Lot 3, we drove north to Lot 1, where we once again headed for the ocean. This time, however, there were two Red-necked Grebes floating close to shore. We were up to fifty-eight species for the day.
Without any likely birds left on Plum Island besides Horned Larks, we drove back towards Salisbury, where we planned to check out the blackbird roost when the birds were actually coming in to roost. Just as we were passing the airstrip, Hope and I called out at the same time. We had seen a flock of small birds settle on the tarmac. Mrs. Batcheller pulled over, and we leapt out of the car, binoculars blazing into action. Horned Larks! A small plane taxied down the strip, spooking the birds into flight. With all of them in view, we could tell that there were only larks and nothing else in the flock. One bird shy of sixty, the four of us dove back into the car and our little caravan continued on to Joppa Flats. Here, we reconvened with Greg’s parents and my dad, but then the three of them headed off to the church where the lists would be compiled and the winners announced. Mrs. Batcheller and us four young birders continued on to the blackbird roost.
With only one more species needed to get sixty, the four of us were alert as anything, without which we would have never caught the Downy Woodpecker flying over the car. At the blackbird roost, we waited for a little bit, tossing stones at the frozen river, until the birds started flying in. Hope picked out three Red-winged Blackbirds, taking us to sixty-one species. And we still didn’t have a House Finch. With half an hour left for the counting period, we drove along the roads of Newburyport and Salisbury in search of our little brown nemesis, but it was not to be. We ended the competition with sixty-one species and one hundred and one points; the only one point species that we missed was a House Finch.
The Blackbird Roost
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
From the fish pier, we headed out along the shore to Eastern Point. We pulled aside at a little lot when Ben spotted a bird sitting on the bay we were driving around. It turned out to be a Black Scoter, and Hope picked out two White-winged Scoters a little further out beyond a red buoy. Just as Mrs. Batcheller started up the Subaru, a female Red-breasted Merganser surfaced. About half a mile further on, I spotted a Common Merganser just offshore. Our scouting notes said to check for Wild Turkeys in the last mile before Eastern Point. Almost to the point and with no turkeys yet, Hope found one sitting up in a tree, our only Wild Turkey, worth three whole points, for the day. Eastern Point itself was a wash, with no new species added to the list and only two species there at all: Herring Gulls and Buffleheads. Mrs. Batcheller turned the car around and we headed off for Neils Pond.
Up until three days before the competition, Neils Pond had held a Thayer’s Gull, but when we got to it, there wasn’t even a single Herring Gull flying around the small opening in the ice, just a few Canada Geese and Mallards on the far shore. Continuing down to Brace Cove, we slipped out onto a dyke (past a “no trespassing” sign of course) and picked up three Gadwall swimming right along the shore. The five of us headed back to Fort Hill Avenue, our second shot for songbirds. Mrs. Batcheller pulled all the way to the end of the avenue as American Robins flew across the road, where she parked amongst some conifers. Rolling down the windows, we instantly picked up Black-capped Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Tufted Titmice. A few moments later, Greg heard a White-breasted Nuthatch call, but the rest of us did not hear it. Just before Mrs. Batcheller turned the car back on, Ben and I heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker at the same time. Unfortunately, it didn't call again, and neither Greg nor Hope had heard it. Driving a few yards back down the avenue, the four of us birders hopped out of the car to walk a little ways along the road. Within moments, we had five White-breasted Nuthatches on the two trees in front of us. Titmice, chickadees, and juncos flitted about as the nuthatches crawled back and forth over the trees, but our real target species here was seen about two minutes later: a Gray Catbird, worth four points. Greg spotted a House Finch, but it dropped down before the rest of us could get our binoculars on it. Popping back into the car, we headed north towards Bass Rocks.
Ft. Hill Avenue
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Bass Rocks are several rock outcroppings just offshore along the eastern edge of Cape Ann. We drove along the shore with our eyes to the water, and pretty soon we came across a rock dotted with cormorants. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be Great Cormorants, but I managed to pull an immature Double-crested Cormorant, another four point bird, out of the Greats. Ben spotted our first Red-thraoted Loon for the day, and we valiantly tried to pull a Barrow’s Goldeneye out of the Commons near the rocks, but to no avail. The best shot at our other target species for the day was a little further along the shore at Elk’s Club. We reached the lot, and the four of us grabbed our scopes and headed across the road to start scanning the ocean. Within moments, we had picked up a Common Loon and a few Horned Grebes. Search as we may, all the gulls turned out to be either Herring Gulls or Great Black-backed Gulls. Though there had been a juvenile King Eider reported nearby, we couldn’t locate it, though a slightly differently-patterned immature Common Eider gave us a pause until it showed it’s beak to be greenish instead of orange. The highlight of Elk’s Club, however, was a Black Guillemot, a lifer for both Greg and Ben. Pretty satisfied with the alcid, we headed north again, this time towards Cathedral Rocks.
Watching the Guillemot
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
On our way to Cathedral Rocks, we noticed a group of cars out at the end of a jetty, and people standing with spotting scopes. Making a quick decision, our fearless leader Hope decided to investigate what was out at what we discovered was Granite Pier. Great call. Our first Ring-billed Gull bobbed by the lot as the four of us exited the car. As we were getting out our scopes, an elderly couple came over to tell us about the four Harlequin Ducksthat were right on the other side of Granite Pier. After seeing the beautiful ducks (two were males), Hope and Ben started scanning the ocean with their scopes as Greg and I set up next to the big group of birders with scopes. As we set up, the two of us heard one of the women in the group relaying directions to some Purple Sandpipers on rocks a fair distance away. Once we had our scopes set on the birds, we hustled Hope and Ben over to see them. All four of us got the sandpipers, then it was back into the car for another drive along the Cape Ann coast, this time up to Andrew’s Point.
We pulled into the lot at the northern tip of Cape Ann only to find two stunning male Surf Scoters bobbing right in front of the windshield. Because of the strong, biting winds from the day before, Greg and Hope had dubbed this area “Hell,” and it was even written into our schedule as “Andrew’s Point/HELL.” This day, however, it was anything but. The four of us headed out and set up our scopes to start scanning the ocean. Within a minute, Greg called out “I need someone to ID this alcid for me!” Amazingly enough, I had the most experience with Alcids out of the whole team, so I zipped over to Greg’s scope to take a look. My initial ID of the bird was a Common Murre, due to the markings. Hope, however, took a look and called it a Dovekie based on behaviour. Sure enough, it was lying low in the water in the traditional Dovekie shape. I raced back up to the car to grab Greg’s trusty Sibley, and, after a few minutes of debating back and forth, we all agreed that it was in fact a Dovekie, a bird that wasn’t even on the official checklist! Another group of people showed up as Greg called the bird in to Joppa Flats, and Ben and I tried to get them on the elusive alcid. Time was ticking away, and we hadn’t relocated it when we had to leave, already an hour behind schedule. Wishing the other birders good luck, we took off for Salisbury, finally leaving the Gloucester/Cape Ann area.
Andrew's Point Crowd
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Salisbury was about an hour away, and I had the front seat for the entire drive. I took off my boots and thawed out my feet in front of the vents from which issued blessedly warm air. Ben pulled out a loaf of garlic bread, our first food for the day, and the five of us tore into the bread, devouring it within moments. On the drive, we picked up several more Red-tailed Hawks, Rock Pigeons, and European Starlings. We met up with my dad in the town of Essex and he pulled in behind us, following us north. Finally, we reached Salisbury, where we headed straight for Salisbury Beach State Park, where a Sage Thrasher had been reported on and off prior to the competition. We struck out on the thrasher (it wasn’t seen by anyone that day) and pretty much everything else except an American Tree Sparrow. The RV area was dead with the exception of a Bald Eagle that flew over the car, saving us a ten-minute detour upriver to find them around Cashman Park. At the beach itself, the coolest thing was the ice flowing out of the river, where it ground against other pieces of ice and created what looked like a vast field of pack ice, prompting us birders to joke about Ivory Gulls. On our way out of Salisbury, we checked a blackbird roost in the marsh along the road, but there was nothing there. Crossing back over into Newburyport, our next destination, suggested by me the night before, was the sewage treatment plant.
None of the others had been to the sewage plant, but I had gotten seven species of gulls right off it, including my life Iceland Gull and my ABA Black-headed Gull. Ben’s iPhone got us in the general area, and then I managed to find the entrance where I had gotten in a few years before. Sure enough, we pulled into the single parking space, scoped the gulls, and found an adult Iceland Gull, our only one for the day. We searched around for more birds, but didn’t come up with anything new. From the sewage plant, we headed out for Joppa Flats. We pulled in there to check the rare sightings and use the restrooms. The first thing we noticed on the board was that another team, the Bloggerhead Kingbirds, had also found a Dovekie off of Andrew’s Point, making us feel more secure about our sighting. We had also gotten the three-point bonus for finding it first, something the Bloggerheads didn’t get. We found out about the most recent Snowy Owl sighting and then continued on to Plum Island and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
Iceland Gull
Photo Credit: Ben using his iPhone
We decided to drive straight on down to the south end of the refuge, a place where I had found Long-tailed Ducks before, and then work our way north. On the drive south, we picked up a Northern Harrier, but no Short-eared or Snowy Owls. We pulled in to the southernmost lot and trekked out to the beach. Scanning the water resulted in the usual species: Common Eiders, the typical gulls, Great Cormorants, Horned Grebes. While checking the eiders for King Eiders, I found a single Long-tailed Duck. I got the other three on the bird then we rushed back to the car and drove north towards Hellcat Swamp.
Arriving at Hellcat Swamp, a Hairy Woodpecker called as we opened the doors of the Subaru. Marching out along the dyke, which was sadly devoid of larks, we set up our scopes to search for a Snowy Owl. There was a man up in the observation tower, and my dad went up to talk with him. A few moments later, he called us up to tell us the other man had found the Snowy Owl. He directed us to the bird, and soon all four of us had the pure white Snowy Owl in view.
Snowy Owl
Photo Credit: Ben digiscoping with his iPhone
Leaving Hellcat, my dad stopped to talk with a trio of birders headed out onto the dyke. He gave them the location of the Snowy Owl, and they told him about a Short-eared Owl that had flown in front of their car. Dad hurried up to tell us this news, and we set off in search of the Short-eared Owl and some other birds.
We pulled into Lot 3 without getting a Short-eared Owl. I looked up the road as the others were pulling out their scopes, and a bird took off from a fence post near the curve in the road. It was a Short-eared Owl! The others got on the bird, and we added it to our list. The four of us then jogged out to overlook the ocean. Ben and I misidentified a Horned Grebe as a Red-necked Grebe, but aside from that single bird and a few gulls, there was nothing out there. On our way back to the car, we met up with Greg’s parents, and they fell in behind my dad, forming a little caravan. From Lot 3, we drove north to Lot 1, where we once again headed for the ocean. This time, however, there were two Red-necked Grebes floating close to shore. We were up to fifty-eight species for the day.
Without any likely birds left on Plum Island besides Horned Larks, we drove back towards Salisbury, where we planned to check out the blackbird roost when the birds were actually coming in to roost. Just as we were passing the airstrip, Hope and I called out at the same time. We had seen a flock of small birds settle on the tarmac. Mrs. Batcheller pulled over, and we leapt out of the car, binoculars blazing into action. Horned Larks! A small plane taxied down the strip, spooking the birds into flight. With all of them in view, we could tell that there were only larks and nothing else in the flock. One bird shy of sixty, the four of us dove back into the car and our little caravan continued on to Joppa Flats. Here, we reconvened with Greg’s parents and my dad, but then the three of them headed off to the church where the lists would be compiled and the winners announced. Mrs. Batcheller and us four young birders continued on to the blackbird roost.
With only one more species needed to get sixty, the four of us were alert as anything, without which we would have never caught the Downy Woodpecker flying over the car. At the blackbird roost, we waited for a little bit, tossing stones at the frozen river, until the birds started flying in. Hope picked out three Red-winged Blackbirds, taking us to sixty-one species. And we still didn’t have a House Finch. With half an hour left for the counting period, we drove along the roads of Newburyport and Salisbury in search of our little brown nemesis, but it was not to be. We ended the competition with sixty-one species and one hundred and one points; the only one point species that we missed was a House Finch.
The Blackbird Roost
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
The Superbowl of Birding VII (The Competition: Part I)
At three, Ben, Greg, and I woke up and started getting ready for the long day in front of us, leaving dad to sleep. Hope's mom was going to drive the four young birders around for the morning, and then we were going to meet dad and Greg's parents somewhere along the road in the afternoon. At 3:30 in the morning, we headed up to the main house, finding Hope and her mom all set to go. We were each in at least four layers on top (I had on polypro, a waffle shirt, a flannel shirt, and a winter jacket) and two or three layers on bottom (polypro under flannel-lined pants). Fitting the five of us into Mrs. Batcheller's Subaru Outback was not particularly easy, but by 3:45 we were headed east towards our owling rendezvous along Cutler road. Without windchill, it was 5ºF. With windchill it was around -20ºF.
Temperature as recorded by Mrs. Batcheller's Subaru
Photo Credit: Hope using Ben's iPhone
We reached Cutler road at 4:58 (the competition didn't technically start until 5 in the morning). Two minutes later, we started driving along and listening for owls. We spent over an hour and a half listening in vain, and then set off for Flax Pond in Lynn. We reached the pond just as light was beginning to creep over the horizon and picked up our first birds for the day. We quickly nabbed Mallards, Canada Geese, American Black Ducks, and Mute Swans. Our real target here, however, was the American Coot (worth four points) that had been reported from the area. As we were scanning through the flocks of waterfowl, Ben picked up roughly 15 Hooded Mergansers, the only ones we had for the day. Just as a large flock of American Crows flew overhead, Hope picked out the American Coot just behind a small group of Canada Geese. I found it seconds after, but it took a few moments longer to get Ben and Greg's binoculars on it. As soon as all four of us had it, we sprinted back to the car, piled in, and took off for the next destination. In the car, Hope added the birds we had gotten to the official checklist (the job of whoever sat in the passenger seat). We already had seven species, with no owls, before the sun had even broken the horizon. Onwards to Nahant!
Just over the causeway to Nahant, we piled out in a small parking lot overlooking an expanse of water. Just as we tumbled out of the small car, a Song Sparrow gave a chip in the brush to our right. Scanning the water with our scopes yielded a Buffleheads, Common Goldeneyes, and a small flock of Greater Scaup. While we scoped the water, Herring Gulls flew overhead.
Ocean off of Nahant
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
We left the little parking lot in search of a new target: passerines. To this end, we visited the "stump dump" thickets of Nahant, just a minute or two away from the little lot where we got the scaup. We pulled into the area just as birds started singing. As we got out of the car, a Northern Cardinal sang out. American Goldfinches called from overhead as White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows darted in and out of the high brush. Our first Rock Pigeons flew by while we were searching for more birds, and I spooked two Mourning Doves into flight. A Blue Jay brashly scolded us from a nearby tree when Greg noticed a Northern Mockingbird skulking in the thicket. We picked up a Carolina Wren but missed the Winter Wren that Hope and Greg had the day before. Awash in passerines (roughly half of what we got all day), we crushed back into the car with Ben sitting up front. Birding out of the windows as we drove out of Nahant yielded our first Great Black-backed Gull for the competition. Driving through Lynn on our way to Gloucester/Cape Ann yielded five European Starlings.
Nahant Stump Dump
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Temperature as recorded by Mrs. Batcheller's Subaru
Photo Credit: Hope using Ben's iPhone
We reached Cutler road at 4:58 (the competition didn't technically start until 5 in the morning). Two minutes later, we started driving along and listening for owls. We spent over an hour and a half listening in vain, and then set off for Flax Pond in Lynn. We reached the pond just as light was beginning to creep over the horizon and picked up our first birds for the day. We quickly nabbed Mallards, Canada Geese, American Black Ducks, and Mute Swans. Our real target here, however, was the American Coot (worth four points) that had been reported from the area. As we were scanning through the flocks of waterfowl, Ben picked up roughly 15 Hooded Mergansers, the only ones we had for the day. Just as a large flock of American Crows flew overhead, Hope picked out the American Coot just behind a small group of Canada Geese. I found it seconds after, but it took a few moments longer to get Ben and Greg's binoculars on it. As soon as all four of us had it, we sprinted back to the car, piled in, and took off for the next destination. In the car, Hope added the birds we had gotten to the official checklist (the job of whoever sat in the passenger seat). We already had seven species, with no owls, before the sun had even broken the horizon. Onwards to Nahant!
Just over the causeway to Nahant, we piled out in a small parking lot overlooking an expanse of water. Just as we tumbled out of the small car, a Song Sparrow gave a chip in the brush to our right. Scanning the water with our scopes yielded a Buffleheads, Common Goldeneyes, and a small flock of Greater Scaup. While we scoped the water, Herring Gulls flew overhead.
Ocean off of Nahant
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
We left the little parking lot in search of a new target: passerines. To this end, we visited the "stump dump" thickets of Nahant, just a minute or two away from the little lot where we got the scaup. We pulled into the area just as birds started singing. As we got out of the car, a Northern Cardinal sang out. American Goldfinches called from overhead as White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows darted in and out of the high brush. Our first Rock Pigeons flew by while we were searching for more birds, and I spooked two Mourning Doves into flight. A Blue Jay brashly scolded us from a nearby tree when Greg noticed a Northern Mockingbird skulking in the thicket. We picked up a Carolina Wren but missed the Winter Wren that Hope and Greg had the day before. Awash in passerines (roughly half of what we got all day), we crushed back into the car with Ben sitting up front. Birding out of the windows as we drove out of Nahant yielded our first Great Black-backed Gull for the competition. Driving through Lynn on our way to Gloucester/Cape Ann yielded five European Starlings.
Nahant Stump Dump
Photo Credit: Mrs. Batcheller
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Superbowl of Birding VII (The Road North)
Two Saturdays ago, 1/30/2010, I participated in the Superbowl of Birding VII with a team from the New York State Young Birders Club (the NYSYBC Ninja Nighthawks) consisting of myself, Hope Batcheller, Benjamin van Doren, and Greg Lawrence. The Superbowl of Birding is a twelve-hour-long birding competition in Essex County, Massachusetts and Rockingham County, New Hampshire. The goal of the competition is to get as many points as possible, since each species has a certain point value (1-5) depending on it rarity.
The story of this superbowl actually starts the day before for me, a day where I had to sit in school while Hope and Greg scouted the area for potentially good stops on tomorrow's route. As soon as last period ended, I was in the main hall of the Pinkham Building waiting for Ben, who was catching a ride up to MA with us. Even better, Hope had extended an invitation for the whole team to stay at her grandmother's house in Brookline, NH. The upside of this was free lodging and meals, but the downside was that the house was an hour from where we wanted to start the day. We took the offer. Ben and his mom showed up in the main hall right around three, and we transferred his scope and bags from his car to ours then hit the road for NH. We passed through Hartford at the right time to see thousands of crows flying in to roost and grabbed some snacks at the Charleston rest area. After a little over three hours, we made it to Hope's grandmother's house.
At Hope's grandmother's house, we took all our bags directly from the car down to the guest house where the three of us would be sleeping that night along with Greg Lawrence, a junior from Rochester, NY. We then walked back up to the house where Hope, Greg, and the adults were. I hadn't seen Hope since attending High Pond Audubon camp in Vermont, and I had never met Greg before, so introductions were made all around. The adults then started working on dinner (pasta) while us four young birders gathered around maps and scouting notes to plan the next day's route.
Dinner was great, with talk revolving around school and birds, then we finished planning the route, played the description game with Greg's Sibley, and then headed off to bed at around 11 at night. Wake up time was three am the next morning.
The story of this superbowl actually starts the day before for me, a day where I had to sit in school while Hope and Greg scouted the area for potentially good stops on tomorrow's route. As soon as last period ended, I was in the main hall of the Pinkham Building waiting for Ben, who was catching a ride up to MA with us. Even better, Hope had extended an invitation for the whole team to stay at her grandmother's house in Brookline, NH. The upside of this was free lodging and meals, but the downside was that the house was an hour from where we wanted to start the day. We took the offer. Ben and his mom showed up in the main hall right around three, and we transferred his scope and bags from his car to ours then hit the road for NH. We passed through Hartford at the right time to see thousands of crows flying in to roost and grabbed some snacks at the Charleston rest area. After a little over three hours, we made it to Hope's grandmother's house.
At Hope's grandmother's house, we took all our bags directly from the car down to the guest house where the three of us would be sleeping that night along with Greg Lawrence, a junior from Rochester, NY. We then walked back up to the house where Hope, Greg, and the adults were. I hadn't seen Hope since attending High Pond Audubon camp in Vermont, and I had never met Greg before, so introductions were made all around. The adults then started working on dinner (pasta) while us four young birders gathered around maps and scouting notes to plan the next day's route.
Dinner was great, with talk revolving around school and birds, then we finished planning the route, played the description game with Greg's Sibley, and then headed off to bed at around 11 at night. Wake up time was three am the next morning.
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