let's talk about birds, baby
I slightly regret not starting a birding blog last year when I started birding, but do I really have time for another blog? One full of blurry pictures of barely identifiable birds? Probably not.
I had a good day, though. One of my 2013 goals is to get my birding list up to 200, which is an average of 10 birds per month over the course of the year. This is only going to get more difficult as the year goes on and I see most of the area's common birds. However, I am now underemployed, which means that I have more time to bird. I have been going birding nearly every day. My dream goal for March is to see a new bird every day so I can end the month with 30 new birds. (This would be ideal but so far I am at 9 birds for March, so I'm behind already.)
Today I went on not one but two bird hikes. I had lots of other things to do, but it's hard to beat myself up for going on two gorgeous and relaxing hikes in 70-degree weather. It's good exercise, it's great to get outside, it's really fun. As far as hobbies go, there are worse ones! (Plus, I actually got a lot done today otherwise, so maybe the hikes were energizing.)
I subscribe to two very important lists: one is East Bay Birding, where local birders post reports from around the area, and one is eBird Alerts, which is reports of rare birds around the area. (I actually have alerts set up for three different counties.) This helps me with rule number one, which is, have a target bird. I don't know birds well enough to just aimlessly go someplace and look around. I need to identify a target bird and then look it up so I know what it looks like, what it sounds like*, and what its preferred habitat is.
(*I am terrible with bird songs. It would be a really useful skill to have, because you hear birds long before you see them, and it would be good to at least be able to say "yeah, that's yet another Yellow-Rumped Warbler and I've already seen thirty of those today, so maybe I won't stare at this tree for another half an hour hoping for views of this bird" but I am not musically inclined and I don't really have an ear for it, so it's difficult.)
Ideally I will have more than one target bird, because sometimes you "dip" on the bird you are looking for (i.e., you don't see it). Both today and yesterday I went to the MLK, Jr. Regional Shoreline to look for a Tropical Kingbird that has been reported there. This is because of rule number two, which is go for the rarities right away. I missed out on an Indigo Bunting last year because I was under the mistaken impression that it would stick around for longer, and despite like half a dozen recent trips to see the Emeryville Gray-Throated Black Warbler, I was too late on that one too. So I jumped on this Kingbird report.
That being said, I dipped anyway. Yesterday there was a birder there who said it had been on the reported telephone wire "an hour ago," but I didn't find it. Today there were four birders with big scopes and cameras, and they hadn't seen it either. On top of that, yesterday when I went specifically for the Kingbird, I got there and realized there were hundreds of birds there that I didn't recognize! I kicked myself for not checking eBird to see what I could target. Today when I went back, I had researched some backup target birds. I saw four "lifers" (new birds for my list): Cinnamon Teal and Black-Necked Stilt yesterday, Short-Billed Dowitcher and Green-Winged Teal today. Here are some pics from that location.
Dark-Necked Stilt:
Got to see lots of singing Song Sparrows; not a new bird but I have seen a ton of them this week and have gotten better at identifying them, and even their song somewhat:
This Green-Winged Teal kept sticking its head in the water:
My other hike for today happened slightly by accident. Usually, in the morning after I drop Mina off at daycare is a good time to go see birds: I'm already out of the house, and it's fairly early in the morning so the birds tend to be active. I was going to immediately go try for the Kingbird again, but the traffic report said there was a huge accident on the freeway where a truck crashed and spilled a bunch of wine bottles on the road. So I remembered an email from the other birding list, where someone wrote that he had seen 30-40 Varied Thrushes at Jewel Lake. That's a nice little hike that I'm familiar with, I don't have to take the freeway, and I didn't have a Varied Thrush on my list! So I went there instead. (My day went: Jewel Lake hike, home to do some grading and writing work, do some housework, and then be unable to stand it and go look for the Kingbird again.)
This would have made for a lovely morning except there were not one, but two school groups hiking around the lake. One of them was fairly well-behaved, the other one was incredibly loud and annoying, even when their guide repeatedly was like "YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES, SHUT UP SO YOU STOP SCARING AWAY ALL THE BIRDS." So I missed out on some peacefulness. It wasn't until the very end of the hike when the kids were finally all gone that I spent a nice few minutes watching a Black Phoebe hunt insects on the lake and enjoyed some blessed silence.
That being said, I did see some good birds! The very first bird I saw was my target Varied Thrush. Despite the reports of 30-40, I only saw this one. It held still for a long time and I took a good look with my binoculars. (My third rule is picture first, binoculars second.)
I also saw a Song Sparrow, some chickadees, juncos, and vireos, turtles and ducks on the lake, a wild turkey (!) foraging in the leaves...
...and the most gorgeous Stellar's Jay I've ever seen.
If I had the fancy zoom lens, this would have been an amazing picture. That bird was gorgeous.
Tomorrow night I'm teaching, and I have two appointments and a lunch date in the afternoon, so no birds for me. (Except last week I left late and I heard owls right outside the classroom, so I might just take a tiny peek for owls.) (According to ABA rules, you can count a bird if you hear it but don't see it. That really seems like cheating to me, though.)
Wow, this kind of turned long. BUT I DON'T CARE BECAUSE I LOVE BIRDING OKAY THERE I SAID IT. As if you hadn't already figured that out.
I had a good day, though. One of my 2013 goals is to get my birding list up to 200, which is an average of 10 birds per month over the course of the year. This is only going to get more difficult as the year goes on and I see most of the area's common birds. However, I am now underemployed, which means that I have more time to bird. I have been going birding nearly every day. My dream goal for March is to see a new bird every day so I can end the month with 30 new birds. (This would be ideal but so far I am at 9 birds for March, so I'm behind already.)
Today I went on not one but two bird hikes. I had lots of other things to do, but it's hard to beat myself up for going on two gorgeous and relaxing hikes in 70-degree weather. It's good exercise, it's great to get outside, it's really fun. As far as hobbies go, there are worse ones! (Plus, I actually got a lot done today otherwise, so maybe the hikes were energizing.)
I subscribe to two very important lists: one is East Bay Birding, where local birders post reports from around the area, and one is eBird Alerts, which is reports of rare birds around the area. (I actually have alerts set up for three different counties.) This helps me with rule number one, which is, have a target bird. I don't know birds well enough to just aimlessly go someplace and look around. I need to identify a target bird and then look it up so I know what it looks like, what it sounds like*, and what its preferred habitat is.
(*I am terrible with bird songs. It would be a really useful skill to have, because you hear birds long before you see them, and it would be good to at least be able to say "yeah, that's yet another Yellow-Rumped Warbler and I've already seen thirty of those today, so maybe I won't stare at this tree for another half an hour hoping for views of this bird" but I am not musically inclined and I don't really have an ear for it, so it's difficult.)
Ideally I will have more than one target bird, because sometimes you "dip" on the bird you are looking for (i.e., you don't see it). Both today and yesterday I went to the MLK, Jr. Regional Shoreline to look for a Tropical Kingbird that has been reported there. This is because of rule number two, which is go for the rarities right away. I missed out on an Indigo Bunting last year because I was under the mistaken impression that it would stick around for longer, and despite like half a dozen recent trips to see the Emeryville Gray-Throated Black Warbler, I was too late on that one too. So I jumped on this Kingbird report.
That being said, I dipped anyway. Yesterday there was a birder there who said it had been on the reported telephone wire "an hour ago," but I didn't find it. Today there were four birders with big scopes and cameras, and they hadn't seen it either. On top of that, yesterday when I went specifically for the Kingbird, I got there and realized there were hundreds of birds there that I didn't recognize! I kicked myself for not checking eBird to see what I could target. Today when I went back, I had researched some backup target birds. I saw four "lifers" (new birds for my list): Cinnamon Teal and Black-Necked Stilt yesterday, Short-Billed Dowitcher and Green-Winged Teal today. Here are some pics from that location.
Dark-Necked Stilt:
Got to see lots of singing Song Sparrows; not a new bird but I have seen a ton of them this week and have gotten better at identifying them, and even their song somewhat:
This Green-Winged Teal kept sticking its head in the water:
My other hike for today happened slightly by accident. Usually, in the morning after I drop Mina off at daycare is a good time to go see birds: I'm already out of the house, and it's fairly early in the morning so the birds tend to be active. I was going to immediately go try for the Kingbird again, but the traffic report said there was a huge accident on the freeway where a truck crashed and spilled a bunch of wine bottles on the road. So I remembered an email from the other birding list, where someone wrote that he had seen 30-40 Varied Thrushes at Jewel Lake. That's a nice little hike that I'm familiar with, I don't have to take the freeway, and I didn't have a Varied Thrush on my list! So I went there instead. (My day went: Jewel Lake hike, home to do some grading and writing work, do some housework, and then be unable to stand it and go look for the Kingbird again.)
This would have made for a lovely morning except there were not one, but two school groups hiking around the lake. One of them was fairly well-behaved, the other one was incredibly loud and annoying, even when their guide repeatedly was like "YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES, SHUT UP SO YOU STOP SCARING AWAY ALL THE BIRDS." So I missed out on some peacefulness. It wasn't until the very end of the hike when the kids were finally all gone that I spent a nice few minutes watching a Black Phoebe hunt insects on the lake and enjoyed some blessed silence.
That being said, I did see some good birds! The very first bird I saw was my target Varied Thrush. Despite the reports of 30-40, I only saw this one. It held still for a long time and I took a good look with my binoculars. (My third rule is picture first, binoculars second.)
I also saw a Song Sparrow, some chickadees, juncos, and vireos, turtles and ducks on the lake, a wild turkey (!) foraging in the leaves...
...and the most gorgeous Stellar's Jay I've ever seen.
If I had the fancy zoom lens, this would have been an amazing picture. That bird was gorgeous.
Tomorrow night I'm teaching, and I have two appointments and a lunch date in the afternoon, so no birds for me. (Except last week I left late and I heard owls right outside the classroom, so I might just take a tiny peek for owls.) (According to ABA rules, you can count a bird if you hear it but don't see it. That really seems like cheating to me, though.)
Wow, this kind of turned long. BUT I DON'T CARE BECAUSE I LOVE BIRDING OKAY THERE I SAID IT. As if you hadn't already figured that out.