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2012 Birding Highlights

by Amy Posted on 29 December 2012

I added 19 birds to my life list in 2012. All but two came here in Florida; I saw a cagey Hooded Warbler in Tennessee in October, and then there was a flycatcher on the wrong side of town in Illinois (see below). Besides adding to my life list, I had some great birding experiences over the last twelve months, most of them in my new home state. Here are some of my favorite birding moments of 2012.

The first lifer of the year came on the first day of the year. Arthur and I took a New Year’s dip in the ocean at Port Orange, then settled down for some birding. Northern Gannets were not unexpected; this was a bird we whiffed on multiple times in the Netherlands but hadn’t really sought out in Florida until that day. We were rewarded with mediocre looks which have since been much improved upon.

On March 23rd we twitched a pair of Whooping Cranes in neighboring Lake County. Though these reintroduced birds are not technically “countable,” we enjoyed seeing our first truly wild Whooping Cranes just a short drive from our home.

Whooping Crane in Lake County, 23 March 2012

I had a fabulous time following a Barred Owl family at Gemini Springs throughout much of April and May.

Barred Owl pair at Gemini Springs, 27 May 2012

In May Arthur and I had the opportunity to help out a family of Cooper’s Hawks. We rescued the fallen chicks after their nest fell apart, and later assisted tree climber extraordinaire Jim as he constructed a new nest platform and reunited the babies to their attentive parents.

Cooper’s Hawk babies a few days after nest replacement, 26 May 2012

In September Arthur and I enjoyed an educational field trip to learn about Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. We got our lifer birds and also learned a great deal about the work being done to save them from extinction.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity maintenance, 28 September 2012

I saw my lifer Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Illinois in October, then added it to my Florida list a couple of weeks later. Both gave pretty good looks but I couldn’t add either to my county lists of choice.

The last lifer of the year came a ten days ago when a Razorbill swam into the inlet at Lighthouse Point. They seem to have been hit-or-miss at the park in the last few days; I hope this will be one of my first birds of 2013. 🙂 In just a couple of days they will ALL BE NEW BIRDS MWAHAHAHA!

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Posted in Florida, Gemini Springs, Life List | Leave a comment

Results: Birding Goals for 2012

by Amy Posted on 28 December 2012

At the end of last year I came up with some bird-type goals for 2012. How did I do?

1. I wanted to keep a BIGBY list for the year, with a target of 100 species. This was a huge success as I was able to find 115 species for my BIGBY list in 2012. W00t! I want to try this again next year, but I’m not sure I can do much better than this year’s total. There are 5 birds on my 2011 list that I didn’t find in 2012, but they were all hit-or-miss migrants.

2. I looked to add a few Florida specialties to my life list. Of the four species I mentioned, I added two of them: Red-cockaded Woodpecker and American Oystercatcher. I also added Bachmann’s Sparrow and White-crowned Pigeon… so I am calling this one a success too. Snail Kite and Burrowing Owl can wait.

3. I had hoped to review 20 books. Unfortunately this was year two of epic failure, with only FOUR (!) books reviewed (on MagnificentFrigatebird.com). I think I will set a goal again for next year, but if I fail again, that’s it. :\

4. My fourth goal was a free choice of three different activities. I wanted to volunteer with a rehab center and handle birds of prey again, or volunteer at a bird banding station, or get involved with a local bird club. Well, I’m well on my way with the first option. I started volunteering at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland back in February. So far I have been able to handle a pair of new little friends.

Newton the American Kestrel; photo by Susie Warren

Buzz the Eastern Screech Owl; photo by Robert Stalnaker

I’ve also been able to help out with birds in rehab a lot more than I expected. I’ve been able to catch up a few birds, weigh them and hand feed, and do a couple of releases. I hadn’t included this in my goal but these are activities I very much enjoy at my volunteer position.

Local banding stations are welcoming of volunteers, but none are as close to our home as I’d like. I’ve also been on a couple of bird walks and attended some club programs, but I haven’t joined a birding club yet. I really miss my old club (Lake-Cook Audubon) — but they may have spoiled me for any other bird clubs. Anyway, the objective here was to do one of these things, so I’m calling this goal a success.

5. Finally, I set an extremely modest goal of 23 birds for the Bird-a-Day Challenge. This was another huge success as I made it all the way to May 24th, reaching 144 birds.

Coming up: my bird-type goals for 2013. Did you have any goals for 2012? How did you do?

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Posted in Books, Green Birding, Life List | Leave a comment

Razorfail*

by Amy Posted on 24 December 2012

*Spoiler: I did see a Razorbill.

In case you haven’t heard, Florida is having an unprecidented Razorbill invasion. They have been seen all up and down both coasts, as far west as Pensacola on the Gulf coast. They usually don’t venture further south than coastal North Carolina or so. Florida had a handful of records prior to this invasion.

On December 12th I went to Lighthouse Point Park in Ponce Inlet, where Razorbills had been reported in earlier days. When I arrived at about 12PM it was drizzling steadily. I decided to walk out on the jetty without my scope. The rain came on and off, and though I didn’t see any Razorbills, there were birds around. I even saw a sea turtle.

Great Black-backed Gull

Snowy Egret

I think this is a Green Sea Turtle

I headed back into the inlet for a while, where I saw a huge flock of Black Skimmers fly down to land on a sandbar. I added a few other birds to my day list and watched some dolphins playing by a marina. The skies cleared a bit and I walked back out onto the jetty, this time with my scope. When I arrived at the end, birder Michael Brothers was there and informed me that a Razorbill had been seen about a half hour prior. Well, I stepped away just in time then, didn’t I? D’oh. I looked for another 45 minutes before I had to leave. It started raining again on my way back in and I got soaked. Sad, sad Razorfail. A half hour later I went back out on the jetty again with Arthur for a short look, but we didn’t see a Razorbill. We did see a flyover Roseate Spoonbill, though. Big pink birds are always good, even far away and in the rain.

Roseate Spoonbill, artsy ediiton

Last Wednesday I went out to Ponce Inlet again. Now the weather was spectacular — cool but sunny, with a bright blue sky and relatively calm waters. I collected my scope, binoculars, and camera, and headed out onto the jetty. A large group of Black Skimmers was loafing on the beach. They seemed quite photogenic so I stopped to take some photos, but my camera didn’t react. The card door was open and the card slot was EMPTY. After ransacking the car it became clear I had another case of Razorfail — there would be no photos this day. I consoled myself by thinking that such an error probably guaranteed I would see a Razorbill. I was right.

I set up my scope and looked. And looked. And looked. A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers, a Common Loon, and a large flock of scoters all went by. Good birds, but no Razorbill. After about two and a half hours, Mr. Michael Brothers came out onto the pier. And about 20 minutes after that, he pointed out my lifer Razorbill to me. It appeared in the mouth of the inlet, actively feeding. It would bob up momentarily before disappearing underwater for extended periods. Michael left after a short while, but I stayed on the Razorbill for another half hour or so. After the feeding frenzy, it had an extensive period of preening, giving me very nice looks and letting me snap some terrible iPhonescoped shots. I didn’t take any nice photos but I’m happy I got to spend some quality time watching this special visitor. Good luck, Razorbill.

My lifer Razorbill

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Posted in Florida, Life List, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

The Field Museum’s newly refurbished Hall of Birds

by Amy Posted on 9 December 2012

The Field Museum’s fabulous Gidwitz Hall of Birds reopened after a long refurbishment back in September. I visited in October with my family. This was just about three years after our previous visit, and the exhibit looked fantastic.

seabirds with wall projection behind

ratites

gulls

Paradise Tanager

vultures, kites and falcons of the world

taxidermy

The birds were all cleaned up, and the exhibit was modernized with interesting wall projections, interactive screens, and a great short video about birdwatching, featuring local birders and some birding celebrities.

sad

Golden Eagle & Bald Eagle

waders and Andean Condor

owls; notice Snowy Owl skeleton at bottom center

Birds of Paradise displaying

wall projection

new touch screen

video screen shot

A Passion For Birds video from The Field Museum

The birds all looked great, but it’s always more interesting to see them in a natural kind of pose or surrounded by the type of environment you’d expect to find them.

Chimney Swift nest

Horned Lark at nest

Piping Plover nest

benches at the end of the exhibit

The Field is a spectacular museum with a lot of interesting exhibits, but we usually linger in the bird hall the longest. It’s always great to see Sue, too.

Sue

Yep, everything about the Field is outstanding!

no comment!

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Posted in Illinois, Museum | Leave a comment

Red-heads and orange leaves

by Amy Posted on 8 December 2012

Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve in Highland Park, IL, is a pretty reliable spot for Red-headed Woodpeckers. There were several flying about during my visit back on October 15th. At least two striking crimson-topped adults were caching acorns.

I also noticed a juvenile making sorties from the path in front of me to a certain tree over and over. It was picking up acorns from the path and then using the tree trunk to work on them.

This youngster has some red coming in; look at the lower cheek in the last picture above.

The trees were kind of pretty, too.

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Eagle Dancer Bear

by Amy Posted on 4 December 2012

Back in early October, Arthur and I passed through Cherokee, North Carolina, on our way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Throughout the town there are life-size statues of bears.

There are 25 statues in the Bears Project. Each fiberglass black bear statue has been individualized by an artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee. The designs tell a story; this wonderful blog post showcases many of them.

I especially liked “Eagle Dancer Bear” by Lora Powell. I bet you can guess why. It stands in front of the Mountainside Theatre right along Tsali Boulevard, Cherokee’s main drag.

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Birding Gemini Springs November 2012

by Amy Posted on 1 December 2012

I’ve missed doing my regular round-up posts about Gemini Springs, my local patch, since my last report for May 2012. I didn’t get out too much during the summer and I was gone for the entire month of October, but I managed six checklists for November. So it seems like now is a good time to start up once again.

During the month, I saw 57 different species at Gemini Springs, compared to 48 species during November last year (also six checklists). I’m up to 102 species for the year at Gemini Springs. During November I added Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, and Loggerhead Shrike to my patch year list. The complete list is below.

On November 10th I saw a large pile of scat along the path I call “warbler alley.” I took a photo with my keys in it for some scale and posted on Facebook using my smartphone. Within minutes some online friends confirmed that it was indeed bear poop, my first at Gemini Springs. The next time I went out, I found a bunch more. I don’t know if bears are suddenly hanging around the park (they are certainly in our town but I thought there were more on the other side of US17/US92) or if I just never happened to notice piles of bear scat around before last month. I also noticed two raided nests in the area, which I suspect may have been raided by bears.

Florida Black Bear scat, 10 November 2012

Eastern Phoebe, 10 November 2012

On November 21st I saw one of the Bald Eagles fly in to land on a utility pole. Her (guess) talons were empty but as soon as she landed on the pole, she started to eat something. Maybe a gift cached there from her mate? Later that morning I saw her perched on a different pole. Her mate flew over and I was hoping very badly that they might fly together, because I’m just dying to see this.

Bald Eagle eating cached food, 21 November 2012

White Peacock, 21 November 2012

Sharp-shinned Hawk, 21 November 2012

Fiery Skipper, 21 November 2012

Preening Limpkin, 21 November 2012

Bald Eagle, 21 November 2012 | I edited out a utility wire from the background of this picture

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher hummingbird impression, 26 November 2012

Tricolored Heron, 26 November 2012

Levitating Pileated Woodpecker, 26 November 2012

Northern Flicker silhouette, 28 November 2012

Distant Loggerhead Shrike, 28 November 2012

Desaturated Northern Mockingbird, 28 November 2012

Gemini Springs bird list, November 2012
Pied-billed Grebe – Podilymbus podiceps
Wood Stork – Mycteria americana
Double-crested Cormorant – Phalacrocorax auritus
Anhinga – Anhinga anhinga
Great Blue Heron – Ardea herodias
Great Egret – Ardea alba
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula
Little Blue Heron – Egretta caerulea
Tricolored Heron – Egretta tricolor
Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis
White Ibis – Eudocimus albus
Black Vulture – Coragyps atratus
Turkey Vulture – Cathartes aura
Osprey – Pandion haliaetus
Sharp-shinned Hawk – Accipiter striatus
Cooper’s Hawk – Accipiter cooperii
Bald Eagle – Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red-shouldered Hawk – Buteo lineatus
Red-tailed Hawk – Buteo jamaicensis
Common Gallinule – Gallinula galeata
American Coot – Fulica americana
Limpkin – Aramus guarauna
Sandhill Crane – Grus canadensis
Killdeer – Charadrius vociferus
Caspian Tern – Hydroprogne caspia
Mourning Dove – Zenaida macroura
Belted Kingfisher – Megaceryle alcyon
Red-bellied Woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – Sphyrapicus varius
Northern Flicker – Colaptes auratus
Pileated Woodpecker – Dryocopus pileatus
American Kestrel – Falco sparverius
Eastern Phoebe – Sayornis phoebe
Loggerhead Shrike – Lanius ludovicianus
White-eyed Vireo – Vireo griseus
Blue Jay – Cyanocitta cristata
American Crow – Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow – Corvus ossifragus
Tufted Titmouse – Baeolophus bicolor
House Wren – Troglodytes aedon
Marsh Wren – Cistothorus palustris
Carolina Wren – Thryothorus ludovicianus
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – Polioptila caerulea
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – Regulus calendula
American Robin – Turdus migratorius
Gray Catbird – Dumetella carolinensis
Northern Mockingbird – Mimus polyglottos
Common Yellowthroat – Geothlypis trichas
Palm Warbler – Setophaga palmarum
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata
Swamp Sparrow – Melospiza georgiana
Northern Cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Painted Bunting – Passerina ciris
Red-winged Blackbird – Agelaius phoeniceus
Common Grackle – Quiscalus quiscula
Boat-tailed Grackle – Quiscalus major
American Goldfinch – Spinus tristis

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Posted in Gemini Springs, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

Super Shield

by Amy Posted on 29 November 2012

Back in October I got to spend just a bit of quality time with Zen, FCWR’s education Cooper’s Hawk. Due to their high-strung nature, Cooper’s Hawks aren’t often kept as glove-trained education birds.

Sitting with beautiful Zen, I couldn’t help staring at his piercing eyes and his super-cool superciliary ridges.

The superciliary ridge is also known as the supraorbital ridge. It’s that bony shield above the eye, kind of like a brow line on steroids, that gives many raptors a sort of “angry bird” look. The ridges serve to block out glare from the sun. They also provide protection to the eyes. Pretty neat to see close-up, yes?

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Key West’s Audubon House

by Amy Posted on 28 November 2012

Audubon’s Brown Pelican detail

The Audubon House in Key West is a bit of an odd attraction. The home was built in the late 1840s by Captain John Geiger, a pilot who became rich by salvaging vessels that wrecked along the Florida Keys. The home was saved from demolition in the late 1950s and eventually became a public museum, dedicated to commemorate John James Audubon’s visit to Key West. That visit took place in 1832, when the artist apparently met with Geiger and other Key West notables. He could not have visited the house, but he may have been on the grounds.

Audubon House exterior from the garden

It’s a lovely home, restored to how it may have been during its prime in the mid 1800s. The rooms are furnished with period furniture and Audubon prints. The link to John James Audubon may be a bit tenuous, but we did enjoy our visit back in September. It’s always nice to see original Audubon prints, anyway.

Dining area, ground floor

Arthur looks at prints

VIP first guest

Upstairs bathroom

More prints

Audubon’s American Coot

We had a brief guided tour of the first floor of the house, with a self-guided tour of the upstairs gallery rooms and of the lovely gardens.

Audubon’s Florida Keys birds are on display on the third floor

If you are planning to visit the Audubon House, be sure to print out this coupon to save $1 on your admission. Hours and prices can be found at the link, too.

John James Audubon and blogger reflection

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Mystery Leftovers

by Amy Posted on 24 November 2012

Arthur spotted something on the railing as we were walking along the boardwalk at Lake Ashby the other day. “What’s that red thing?”

Click on any of the photos to embiggen via Flickr.

A pellet, that’s what! I wanted a closer look so I picked up a stick and went back to the pellet for a little dissection. It was reddish-orange. It looked like there was some shell or exoskeletal-type material. And crab legs?

There were two tiny round white shells. At first it seemed like the bulk of the red-orange stuff was plant-based, but as I sifted through it seemed more like it all consisted of crustacean exoskeleton. That makes sense… plant stuff would more likely just pass on through, I suppose. There were quite a few tiny crab legs.

I wish I had taken a photo with a coin or something to show scale. I guess the intact pellet was about 5cm long.

The pellet was in a very exposed area, on boardwalk railing over Lake Ashby. I took this picture after opening up the pellet — see the reddish area on the railing?

Here’s another view of the boardwalk at Lake Ashby.

So my big question is: what bird cast this pellet? I had a few guesses so I looked up some species accounts on Cornell’s Birds of North America Online (BNA). In many species, information regarding pellet-casting is not mentioned or it is acknowledged as being unknown. What would eat a bunch of crabs and then hang out on an exposed boardwalk railing long enough to produce a pellet?

After checking the species accounts of several duck species (not much data or no pellet-casting), various water birds (Double-crested Cormorants tend to cast pellets at roosting sites), and a bunch of waders (Great Blue Heron pellets tend to have hair in them; Tricolored Herons eat mostly fish; etc), the pellet-casting data of the White Ibis kind of jumped out at me: Non-digestible hard parts, such as fish bones, arthropod exoskeletons, and crayfish gastroliths are cast in pellets.. Did someone say crayfish gastroliths? That’s what those little white “shells” in the pellet appear to be. I can’t be sure, but White Ibis seems to be good candidate. We saw a few Little Blue Herons during our walk, so that species was my first guess, and I still think that is also a likely candidate. Both species of Night-Heron are also possible. I would love to hear suggestions from anyone else, though. Have you ever found a pellet like this one? Do you know who cast it?

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Posted in Mystery, Offbeat | 1 Comment

2012 Birding Highlights

Results: Birding Goals for 2012

Razorfail*

The Field Museum’s newly refurbished Hall of Birds

Red-heads and orange leaves

Eagle Dancer Bear

Birding Gemini Springs November 2012

Super Shield

Key West’s Audubon House

Mystery Leftovers

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