ABA Blog

On the importance of a good perch for feeder photos...

I'm scrambling to get everything squared away before heading off to the 2013 Colorado Field Ornithologists Convention in beautiful Cortez, Colorado, so I'll let these two pictures do the talking...  Bottom line: If you want better snaps at your feeders, give your avian subjects some nice-looking perches to pose on.

Ughh... Beauty and a Beast!

 

Ace!

Open Mic: A Record-breaking Bahamas Big Year

At the Mic: Woody Bracey

Elwood D. Bracey, MD, is a retired physician who now lives in Treasure Cay, Bahamas, where he is very active in the birding community.

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January of 2012 started auspiciously. The early part of the month saw several productive Christmas Bird Counts and some rare birds in The Bahamas. And I watched the film The Big Year. Those circumstances persuaded me to challenge Tony White's single-year record of 198 species, and by the end of January, I was already up to 155, a new monthly record for me.

The Grand Bahama CBC tallied Western Kingbird, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Louisiana Waterthrush, and White-throated Sparrow, all very rare in The Bahamas.

A rough road trip to Hole in the Wall in southernmost Abaca gave us three Kirtland's Warblers. And the good birds just kept popping up.

All the expected wintering species were joined by a Swainson's Hawk (a first for the Caribbean, well photographed by Bruce Hallett at left) and a Horned Lark. The Horned Lark required a trip to Nassau, where the bird was feeding in the short grass of a golf course with Palm Warblers and Least Sandpipers.

A highly unusual Greater Scaup was well documented on Hobby Horse Lake, and the lone Anhinga on Paradise Island, later photographed by Linda Huber, may have been the last survivor among the birds that once bred there. I also added a Gadwall at Harrold and Wilson Ponds, a female Shiny Cowbird at Rainbow Chicken Farm, and the Cuban Grassquits and Pied Imperial Pigeons of central Nassau; those latter two species, introduced many years ago, are now well established, as is the Caribbean Dove, originally imported from Jamaica for hunting—and smart enough now to spend most of its time hiding in the dense understory of the Bahamas National Trust Botanical Garden.

The free-flying exotic waterfowl kept by Pericles Maillis in the western suburbs of Nassau often attract wild migrants, among them the beautiful male Northern Pintail that joined the Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal and White-cheeked Pintails on the pond.

More controversial was the Caribbean Coot, with its high white frontal shield, found on the abandoned Shark Golf Course; though the AOU recognizes this species, others, including David Sibley, have their doubts. I counted this species, and in fact found another good candidate later in the year on the pond at the Treasure Cay Golf Course; both were photographed by Tony Hepburn. A Black-headed Gull, present as an immature in 2010-2011, returned in 2012 as a handsome adult, molting into its dark-headed breeding plumage during its stay.

Back on Abaco, the Organic Vegetable Farm maintained its status a the best place to see Bahama Yellowthroats (hundreds!). We also had a Chipping Sparrow, a second White-throated Sparrow, American Pipits, and a young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Nine Barn Owls crowded into a single large ficus tree overlooking a recently plowed field, attracted by the same mice and rats that kept the Swainson's Hawk there all winter, too.

Several early February deepsea fishing trips turned up Magnificent Frigatebirds and Audubon's Shearwaters, but no Manx, which are possible at that time of year. A favorite spot for sparrows, the Big Bird poulty Farm south of Marsh Harbor produced such good wintertime finds as Lincoln's, Savannah, and Grasshopper Sparrows, along with American Robins, American Pipits, Dickcissel, Blue-headed Vireo, Nashveille Warbler, and a Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Most frustrating was a Swainson's Warbler that popped up for Bruce Hallett to photograph while I, just ten feet away, missed it. Nothing would bring that skulker back out again.

Spring migration can be a non-event in The Bahamas. But 2012 was different. I'd never seen so many migrants, especially thrushes and seed-eating birds. After a cold front with rain on April 24, I counted 20 Veeries, 24 Gray-cheeked Thrushes, and 2 Swainson's Thrushes at Angelfish Point. Later that day I had a Wood Thrush along the Treasure Cay sewage outfall. Four migrant thrush species in one day is a once-in-a-lifetime thing in The Bahamas!

Swallows were numerous, too, including Bank and Cliff among the commoner Tree, Barn, and Bahama Swallows. A lone Chimney Swift was seen high above the coppice, where I found Red-eyed Vireos and Eastern Kingbirds and yet more thrushes along a narrow trail. Our backyard feeder was a riot of color with Painted and Indigo Buntings galore, two Blue Grosbeaks, and a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The grosbeak stayed for a week, but a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird was a one-day wonder. That same last week of April saw such summer residents as Gray Kingbird, Black-whiskered Vireo, and Bahama Mockingbird return and set up territories, while Blackpoll Warblers continued to pass through until mid-May.

In early May, Bridled, Sooty, Roseate, and Common Terns followed the Least Terns back to The Bahamas. Then came the White-tailed Tropicbirds, the Antillean Nighthawks, and the Great, Cory's, and Sooty Shearwaters. Finally, on May 12, after hearing the birds deep in the coppice, I saw my first Key West Quail-Dove for the year at Angelfish Point.

June is the month for fishing tournaments and deepsea trips. We continued to see good numbers of pelagic species, including a Black-capped Petrel fifteen miles off Munjack Cay. Most exasperating was the mid-afternoon revelation one day by the mate that he had seen a "Jesus Bird" cross our wake earlier in the day; I never saw a Wilson's Storm-Petrel on a single one of the ten or more deepsea trips I made in 2012.

Abaco was quiet for the rest of the summer, but trips to other islands really helped my list. With the help of Ed Rahming and Lewis Phillips, my late-June adventure on South Andros added Great Lizard Cuckoo, Indian Peafowl, Bahama Oriole, and eleven Cave Swallows. In July, my wife, Betsy, and I added Pearly-eyed Thrasher and Red-footed Booby on San Salvador, where surprises included a Purple Martin, an American Avocet, and lots of Gull-billed Terns.

The expected Snowy Plovers were nowhere to be found, but the endangered subspecies of the West Indian Woodpecker was easy to find along Jake Jones Road. 

A storm in late August brought some unusual fall migrants to New Providence. Most notable were the Arctic Tern and the two Black Terns seen on the stony shores of Lake Killarney by Paul Dean and Tony White and photographed by Tony Hepburn. By the time I got there, two other much-needed birds, a Sandwich Terns and a female Boat-tailed Grackle, had left: I would have to wait 'til later in the year for them.

Back on Abaco, we had the pleasure of the company of a young American Flamingo on Maillis's Pond through the summer.

Unbanded and not yet entirely pink, this was most likely a second-year bird. The flamingo departed at the end of September, but a Wilson's Phalarope, the first for Abaco, appeared on the very same pond October 2, spinning and feeding with several Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.

At the Poultry Farm we had an Empidonax Flycatcher, an Eastern Wood-Pewee, two Blackburnian Warblers, and a tantalizing thrush. Browner than a Gray-cheeked Thrush, the bird did not vocalize, and though we suspected a Bicknell's Thrush, we did not count it. The farm near Treasure Cay gave us several sightings of a Philadelphia Vireo and a Great Crested Flyatcher, a Blackburnian Warbler, several Tennessee Warblers, and a lone Cedar Waxwing were at Robert's Nursery. Most exceptional was the second Bahamas record of a Warbling Vireo, seen on October 18 near Marsh Harbor with Becky Marvil, who got diagnostic photographs of the bird.

The arrival of Hurricane Sandy on October 26 was much worse than predicted. Three days later, I met Bruce Hallett and Margo Zdravokovic on Grand Bahama to look for birds blown in from the continent. An Eastern Bluebird, perhaps only the second record for The Bahamas, was feeding at West End among the distressed swallows, pipits, and Palm Warblers. The 25 Common Terns at West End Point were exceptional; among them were two Sandwich Terns, the only ones I saw all year. At McClean's Town, on the eastern end of the island, we found two Clay-colored Sparrows, well photographed by Hallett.

Back on Abaco, an Orange-crowned Warbler was in the Avocado Grove at the Big Bird Poultry Farm in mid-November, and a House Wren and a Swamp Sparrow, both extreme rarities, were photographed at the always interesting Cooperstown Dump. The next day I found a Wilson's Warbler at Robert's Nursery, and on November 23 I had a Swainson's Warbler in the exact spot at the poultry farm where Bruce Hallett had photographed the bird in the spring. That same day I watched a seemingly large, silent Myiarchus with a pronounced yellow belly. Brown-crested Flycatcher? Maybe, but it did not call, and I did not count it. 

I thought I'd missed the Chestnut-sided Warbler for the year, but on November 28, one emerged from the deep coppice into plain view. Another miss avoided!

A visit to Great Inagua was essential for several species, so Hallett and I met in Nassau and went on to Matthewtown, the only settlement on the most southerly island of the The Bahamas. It had rained for two weeks straight, roads were flooded, the mosquitoes were ferocious. But we could watch thousands of courting American Flamingos, and we added Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Plover, Burrowing Owl, and a bonus American Wigeon to my year list. 
The most amazing sight was of a Peregrine Falcon nailing an exceedingly rare Greater Scaup on the ponds; the scaup survived, dazed. We were interested to find a population of Red Jungle Fowl living in the woods far from any human habitation; Warden Henry Nixon told us they had been there for years, but I listed Gallus gallus as an exotic, uncounted species.

Back in Nassau, on November 28 I saw a Caspian Tern from Tony White's deck. Tony, competitive as he is, congratulated me on breaking his Bahamas big year record—a real friend!

The end was in sight, and I made a big push in the last two weeks of the year with three Christmas Bird Counts. First up was South Abaco, where we located another House Wren. Nassau was next, with another Wilson's Phalarope loafing with the Black-bellied Plovers; a female Boat-tailed Grackel flying in front of my vehicle finallly checked off a bird I'd missed several times during the year. Two Bahama Mockingbirds, seen with the CBC compiler Neil McKinney, were also good finds for the early winter.

A sunny Christmas Day was made even more joyous when I saw my first Red-breasted Mergansers in over two years. The Green Turtle Cay mudflats were alive with shorebirds, including 52 Red Knots, an all-time high count for that species anywhere in The Bahamas.

Next morning I flew to Grand Bahama for one last shot at the scarce Brown-headed Nuthatch, which had eluded me three times during the year. On December 27, at our third and final stop, when my friend Bruce Purdy had already got back into the vehicle, I heard the call; not one but two of these little tree creepers came in close to pose for pictures, going up and down and upside-down on the Caribbean pines. What a delight, and what a brilliant end to my big year of 242 species!

New Year's Eve was a welcome end to the frenzy: it was our anniversary, and I promised my wife that she would be a bird widow no longer. Many thanks to her and to all my good birding friends for their help. 

 

DSLR Bird Vids

I'm easing myself into a new realm of bird photography, dabbling with videos to supplement my core interest of shooting stills.  Three primary factors influenced my decision to try this.  First, I enviously watched my buddies Brian Sullivan and Chris Wood shooting video with their DSLR rigs and thought it would be fun to try it.  Second, I finally upgraded to a DSLR body capable of video (putting my trusty Nikon D300 into a backup role with my new D7100 stepping into its place.)  Finally, I've seen the power of video to tell stories though experiences like my PolarTREC expedition and I know the attentive way my middle school students engage in topics with short movie clips.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, how about a movie?? 

Anyway, I'm still figuring this game out but I'd like to share three short bird videos I've made this spring and a lesson or two I learned from each.  I hope experienced bird videographers will leave their best tips in the comments to help get me and anyone over the learning curve faster!

 

Case 1:  Wilson's Snipe, Weld County, Colorado, 1 April 2013.  

Scenario:  First serious bird video I attempted.  I was shooting from my car along a roadside ditch with the feeding snipe (& nearby vocalizing male.)  

Lessons learned:

•  I shot this with the camera resting on my car's windowsill but still had trouble with shake and smooth panning.  I'm spoiled shooting stills with hand-holding teqnique, using high shutter speed and image-stabilization but with video it is important to use good support.  I resolve to have my bean bag on hand for windowsill work and my sturdy tripod & gimbal head for field work.
• The audio here is from the built-in microphone, far from terrible, but any breath of wind really scours the mic and trashes the sound recording.  I resolve to get an external mic with a wind muff to dampen wind noise and get better bird vocalizations and ambient noises.

 

 

Case 2: Short-eared Owl, Boulder County, Colorado, 16 April 2013.

Scenario:  After a significant spring blizzard there was an amazing fallout of longspurs along the plowed edges of eastern Boulder County rural roads.  When swapping notes with some buddies about what we'd seen I got wind of a Short-eared Owl a few roads over.  I shot from my vehicle which worked great as a blind- once I stopped and shut down the owl dismissed me after an initial keen look-over.  Sparse traffic didn't seem to bother the owl, either, and the drivers didn't even notice the bird as they passed it mere feet away (in fact, I missed it on my first transit, looking out along fencelines instead of roadside where it was sheltering on the leeward side of the roadside ditch.)

Lessons learned:  

• The beanbag on the window sill worked great for steadying the camera.  
• The addition of a RODE VideoMic Pro with a wind muff really helped to un-harsh the effect of wind.  HOWEVER...
• I left my image stabilizing on, and the mic picked up the sound of the gyros in the lens as a steady high-freqency whirring.   If you have a VR (Nikon) or IS (Canon) lens or similar system you can hear this if you put your ear next to the lens when the stabilizing feature is on, and the mic is right over the lens, ideally situated to capture this noise.  I resolved to turn off the VR when I'm shooting video.  For this vid I scrubbed most of the whirring out in post-production using the equalizer function in iMovie but if I had high-freqency bird vocalizations I would have lost them.

 

 

Case 3: Foraging Bonaparte's & Franklin's Gulls, Weld County, Colorado, 21 April 2013.

Scenario:  A midge hatch on a pond attracted a few dozen Bonies along with a Frankie or two.  I shot hundreds of stills, trying to capture some of the birds' amazing aerobatics and ability to nab midges without slowing down.

Stills like this are neat but only capture 1/2000 sec. each of a bird's behavior.  Amongst my still shooting I tried to keep up with their flights to put a little clip together.

Lessons learned:

• Here I felt like I was somewhat finally getting my act together- I set up my sturdy photo tripod rig (Gitzo 3541L+ Wimberly Gimbal Head), switched off my image stabilizing, mounted up my RODE mic with the wind muff, and let 'er rip.
• Even with the gimbal mount, keeping up with these birds was tricky.  I put the lens into continuous focus mode so I could just worry about trying to keep the birds in frame.  I also backed off the zoom a bit to have a wider image and thus more easily track the birds and lessen the jerkiness factor.  It did pretty well, although a high percentage of the footage was crappy.  As with stills, I learned to shoot a lot of video and be willing to look for the good stuff among the throwaway footage.  

 

 

Avian Interlopers

I hope that you enjoyed Noah Strycker's latest ABA Blog entry about camera trapping as much as I did.  Like Noah, I'm really enjoying the addition of motion-activated trail cameras to my bag of tricks. One of Forrest Gump's trademark quotes may well apply to camera trapping: "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."  Just substitute "checking a trail camera memory card" for "Life" and I think the comparison is apt.

Anyway, in my last ABA Blog installment I mentioned that I was experimenting with a couple of Bushnell TrophyCam HD units, with a primary appeal being their ability to shoot motion-activated infrared movies at night.  One is still pointed at my Barn Owl box, and I repositioned the other to face down a log downed by beavers along Boulder Creek in Weld County, Colorado.  One issue I've noticed with the TrophyCam is that close subjects get overexposed by the IR illumination, even when it is set to low power.  Commentator Mike Patterson responded my post by suggesting I use copy paper as a diffuser, a technique he successfully used to build a virtual pitfall trap.  I liked the idea and it worked well in a short test but I was worried about the effect of wet weather on the paper over long unsupervised deployments.  Following the similar advice of the Camera Trap Codger I tried a homemade IR diffuser made of a thin sheet of closed-cell packing foam, which I taped to the inside of the metal security housing in front of the IR array.  I like the results- the bright levels I experienced center frame in earlier trials seem toned down and didn't require post-production adjustments to moderate the exposure.

I was expecting mainly mammals at this set, particularly the beavers that chewed the tree down, but in a week of camera trapping I had many birds join the mix.  I edited some highlights of the week into the video below to show the surprising diversity of mammals and birds that triggered the camera.  

This time I have a challenge for my faithful readers. In the comments section, list the bird & mammal species as they appear in the video (heard-only detections count, too!)  I know the audio isn't the greatest, but it does add an interesting aspect to each clip and I know you'll recognize several species making noise.  The first person to list them correctly will win a copy of Brian Kimberling's new novel, Snapper.  There is a birding theme in the story- here's the publisher's synopsis: 

A disastrous love affair between a man and a place, Snapper relates the brief career of a professional bird researcher in Southern Indiana. While conducting surveys and censuses of the same songbirds John James Aubudon painted in Indiana two hundred years ago – now in catastrophic decline – Nathan Lochmueller traverses a deeply dysfunctional society. He encounters an enormous concrete Santa Claus statue at a remote highway diner, white supremacists, the nation’s oldest Dial-A-Prayer service, Vietnam vets, and a discarded human thigh bone. And, of course, a woman who won’t stay true and a pick-up truck that won’t run.

Both a short story cycle, and a fully-formed novel, Snapper is a lyrical portrait of a rural wilderness and its very dark, very human, heart.

So good luck to any challengers for the prize!  Remember to list all of the mammals and birds in the movie including heard-only detections- first correct list in the comments gets the book.  Even if you don't want to play along, I hope you enjoy the little vignettes of streamside life captured by the trail cam (you might want to embiggen it by clicking the full screen icon in the lower left of the video frame.)

  

Albuquerque Rally Bits

I've had the honor and pleasure of leading at the recently concluded ABA Winter Birding Rally in Albuquerque this week, and thought I'd share a few personal photographic highlights.  It is really nice to see the growing lineup of upcoming ABA offerings, and even more tantalizing events were announced at the final evening's dinner so stay tuned to this blog and/or check back on the ABA Events Page frequently for the news!  I'd like to thank ABA Events Coordinator George Armistead for inviting me and also thank the crew of ABQ experts for having me along on their trips (Andy Bankert, Steve Cox, Ashli Gorbet, Michael Hilchey, and Raymond VanBuskirk.)  Thanks also to John Puschock for his leadership on the Bosque del Apache trips, and to Jennie Duberstein, Jeff & Liz Gordon, Nancy Hawley, Jane Kostenko, and Tyler Bell for completing the A+ ABA staff roster.  I feel very fortunate whenever I can be a part of such a keen crew!

The birds were great but the birders were even better- one of my favorite parts of these events is meeting folks from all corners of North America and I look forward to crossing paths again out in the field!   If you haven't yet had the pleasure of attending an ABA event I hope you'll consider giving one a try soon.

One of the three destinations in the rally's daily rotation was the world-famous Bosque del Apache NWR.

Pursuing the elusive Sage Sparrow on one of Bosque del Apache's desert trails.

No winter trip to the Bosque would be complete without a study of light geese such as this swanky Ross's Goose.

Scads of other waterfowl call Bosque's network of wetlands home for the winter including these dapper Northern Pintails.

A covey of Gambel's Quail near the Bosque del Apache Visitor Center gave crippling views in the early morning sunlight.

Neotropic Cormorants catalyzed a nice discussion on cormorant ID along the Bosque Tour Loop road.

 

This brilliant but angry-looking Pyrrhuloxia is a denizen of the Bosque Visitor Center's lovely cactus garden.

 

Our trip to Bosque del Apache didn't disappoint in the Northern Harrier department.

 

 

Another day found ABA Winter Rally birders at Albuquerque localities, including Embudito Canyon on the east side of town where we sought the elusive Crissal Thrasher.

Embudito Canyon also had its share of confiding Canyon Towhees.

Embudito Canyon offers wilderness trails and excellent birding habitat right above Albuquerque.

Curve-billed Thrashers and Cholla Cactus- a match made in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque's Valley Nature Center offers excellent riparian birding habitat along the Rio Grande River as it courses through town.

I'd say this Canada Goose has the Valley Nature Center feeder program figured out...

A Greater Roadrunner kept watch on us while visiting the Valley Nature Center.

Further downriver near Tingley Beach (yeah, that's a thing in ABQ), our group found an inert porcupine in the woods.  Discussion and debate ensued about whether it was still in the land of the living, but when it stretched and yawned the issue was settled.

The bosque at Tingley Beach hosted more nice birds in good riparian and pond habitats.

 

 

 The third trip in my rotation was up to Sandia Crest, famous for hosting all three North American Rosy-Finch species.  We were treated to all three, plus the Hepburn's subspecies of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.  To compliment their evening Rosy-finch talk, Michael Hilchey and Raymond VanBuskirk were atop the Crest to demonstrate their research project methods and show us a few in-hand birds.

Raymond VanBuskirk with a fine Brown-capped Rosy-Finch about to be released.

Another treat high above Albuquerque on Sandia Crest was a flock of Red Crossbills tearing through Douglas Fir cones.  

On the lower flanks of Sandia Crest we saw hordes of Mountain and Western Bluebirds.  

Winter birding above 10,000 ft. involves snowy hiking!

Thanks again, everyone, for making the ABA Winter Birding Rally such a huge success!!

Do You See What I See? A New Visual Search Tool from Google

 

Here are two truths:
1.Some people are always looking for easier ways to do hard things.
2.Technology can be amazing.

There are a lot of people anxiously waiting for WeBIRD, the promised birdsong equivalent to Shazam and MusicID, but they may have to wait a little bit longer. Music databases can make a match to a digitally produced song, but they can’t match you singing exactly the same song. The variations in the human voice make that kind of analysis a less than exact science. A person can recognize that you are singing Happy Birthday; Shazam can’t. Similarly, there is enough variation in birdsong that it’s very difficult to get a computer to recognize the nuances. You can teach one to recognize some of the songs some of the time, but a reliable tool is not available yet.

But can we use technology to recognize visual cues and help us to ID birds? New birders are being encouraged by some to post their birding photos to the Internet in order to get an ID, instead of using field guides or birding mentors. Crowd-sourcing identification is certainly one way to handle it, but it would  be much “cleaner” if we could somehow get the computer to do the work for us, wouldn't it? Enter Google Search by Image. Seriously! You can upload an image or provide a URL to images.google.com, and Google will search for similar images. How cool is that! Just click on the little camera at the right of the search field and follow the instructions.

When I learned of this, I knew an experiment was in order! I uploaded a picture of a Hermit Thrush, clicked “Search” and waited to see how Google would handle the difficult Catharus species challenge. My uploaded image shows at the top of the screenshot below:

Can you say “Epic Fail”? None of these pictures is even close, except for the background colour tones. None were even of birds, let alone thrushes. I guess I should have expected that. Maybe it was much too challenging. How about something simpler, like a Barred Owl? The Internet is crawling with owl pictures. This should be easy!

Sigh… Not even a little bit better. More diversity in the selection of “matches”, but still no birds and certainly no owls. Maybe the whole bird has to be visible. Here’s a Burrowing Owl, Google. What can you do with this?

Um, no. But it’s interesting to see how many celebrities resemble Burrowing Owls. Brangelina? The algorithm seemed to be focussing on color-matching. What about a bird with a distinctive color and shape? Easy--Great Blue Heron!

Eureka! It matched one! Admittedly it’s the fifth image the program chose, and it somehow thought that a better match for my heron was a staged suicide scene ( in the top row), but at least it got a bird, and the right bird at that!

I was prepared to completely dismiss this function as useless, but then an interesting thing happened. A birder from Ontario sent me a picture he took while visiting Vancouver to see the Red-flanked Bluetail. It was a great photo of a bird that he (and those I showed it to) identified as a Veery, an almost unimaginable bird to be in Vancouver this time of year. But with a Brambling and a Bluetail around, never say never, right?

People send me pictures all the time, but there was something about this report that made me suspicious. Spidey-sense, some people call it. I asked for more information, which did not come. I did a little online detective work and didn’t find anything reassuring. So I posted the report--along with my reservations--on the Vancouver birding bulletin boards, mindful of those who think that all rare birds should be reported and not wanting anyone to miss out on this potential rarity. Then I remembered the Google Search by Image tool. I uploaded my suspect image--another Catharus--and guess what? Here are the results:

Epic win! The person reporting this bird was a prankster (very funny-not!), my spidey-sense was on the mark, and within seconds, Google found the image in an almost-two-year-old blog post from Massachusetts. I don’t know what motivated the hoax, but I’m delighted that the perpetrator was found out before an onslaught of inevitably frustrated birders wasted their time.

For bird ID, Google Search by Image has a very long way to go. There are some things that humans can still do better than our current technology. But today, I, and all my lookalikes below,  are giving a big alula up to Google!

Are your windows ready?

Today's installment is a quick check to see if your windows are ready for special visitors.  In this case I'm not talking about the serious issue of bird strikes (but if you are having problems with this please review these excellent strike-prevention posts by Julie Zickefoose and David Sibley.)  Instead, I'm talking about how to be ready when neat birds show up outside your windows, either to visit feeders, water, or habitat near your abode.  

Some steps are probably obvious, but nonetheless here's what I do during the winter feeding season.

1) Remove window screens.  Viewing and especially photographing birds through screenless windows is ideal.  Shooting through the glass this way is good, and opening the window, even if only wide enough for the camera lens, is ideal.

2) Wash your windows.  It is amazing how grimy the outside of my windows get, and my sliding glass door gets really smudged from kid height down.  Clean glass = better viewing & photography.

3) If there is a bird that you really want to photograph, start by shooting through the glass.  If the bird sticks around you can always try to open the window later.  If you flush the bird away by opening a window you should then build a time machine, go back in time prior to your unfortunate window-opening decision, and photograph the bird through the glass first before attempting to open the window.

4) If you have the opportunity, turn off the indoor lights to cut glare from the inside of the glass.  You will also then be hidden in what amounts to an apartment/condo/home-sized photo blind.

5) If the bird's position and your indoor arrangements permit, shoot with your lens close to the glass (or even touching your shade hood to the window), as perpendicular to the glass surface as possible.

6) If it is really cold out and you open your window, warm indoor air escaping can cause image-blurring heat distortion.  If you are in a small room such as a bedroom, close the door to reduce airflow.  Otherwise, time your shots and/or shoot many pictures to try to get some sharp images amongst the blurry ones.

Here are some of my favorite shots taken from inside my house.

Male American Goldfinch, photographed out my sliding glass door.  Water brings in lots of great birds- here I opened the door and sat on the living room floor to photograph birds hitting my Bird Spa.  

 

Once I caught a glimpse of some strange movement out in my dripper bath and noted this American Kestrel having a splash.  This time I photographed the small falcon through the sliding door glass, not wanting to scare away the bird.

In April of 2005 hundreds of Bohemian Waxwings choked the trees in my back yard, waiting for a turn at my water features.  Here we see some shoulder-to-shoulder waxwing drinking along the rail on my back porch, shot through my kitchen window.

This past January, an immature Northern Shrike made an appearance (and apparently had a meal to judge by the blood on its breast feathers) in my back yard.  It flew up to the ornamental cherry tree that shades the back porch, sitting up high and only offering belly views from the first floor.  But much to my delight, the view out of the second-floor office window was eye-to-eye.  After snapping a few images through the glass I quietly eased the window open enough for my lens to get unobstructed views in the cherry tree.  When the shrike flew over to a nearby cottonwood I opened the window all the way and carefully leaned out a little to shoot again from the elevated position.

 

In December our yard was blessed with a two-day visit by a flock of redpolls.  Since this thistle feeder is off to the side of our back porch I leaned out the sliding door just enough for some record shots like this before getting a more serious photo blind setup in place out back.  

Join Me at the 2013 Point Reyes Birding Festival!

I'm honored and excited to be the keynote speaker at the 2013 Point Reyes Birding Festival, April 26 - 28.

Point Reyes is hallowed ground for birders. So many great people and so many great birds have come together there that the place has an undeniable magic. I haven't spent nearly as much time there as I'd like, so I'm greatly looking forward to soaking up more of its ambience this April.

Here's a quick review of some of what awaits at the festival from the good folks who host it. Hope to see you there!

--Jeff Gordon       

 Pt. Reyes Festival group by Jane Hart

The 2013 Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival is shaping up to be as great as ever and is not to be missed! This will be the Festival’s fourth year and it is well worth the trip to rural West Marin, just north of San Francisco.

What makes this Festival special? It’s the magical combination of the height of spring migration at the Point Reyes National Seashore and surrounding region plus the outstanding naturalists who give their time and expertise to guide the field outings and present workshops and lectures.

The Point Reyes and West Marin county region is endowed with unique geography and extensive wildlands and ranches. Its pristine coastline, beaches, dunes, mudflats, bays, estuaries, freshwater wetlands, forests, grasslands, coastal bluffs and chaparral together support one of the highest levels of bird diversity in the country. Added with the high point of spring migration, it’s a mix too good to pass up!

Hermit Warbler by Jeff Gordon
 

During the Festival weekend, you can easily see migrating shorebirds, lingering wintering waterfowl, resident and migrant landbirds, raptors, alcids, and other seabirds. Add to that the stunning wildflower displays and migrating whales, and you’ve got an unmatched birding and nature experience! Point Reyes also happens to be home base for some of the nation’s top birders and naturalists, offering an ideal setting for a spring festival for bird and nature enthusiasts of all levels.

West Marin hike by Jane Hart

This year’s Festival lineup includes over 70 field trips and indoor presentations guided by such top birders as Jules Evens, Lisa Hug, Keith Hansen, David Wimpfheimer, Peter Pyle, , Sarah Allen, Dave Shuford, Bob Power, Terry Colburn, and John Muir Laws. American Birding Association president Jeff Gordon is making the trip to Point Reyes to give the keynote address at the Saturday evening banquet. The Festival also has events for beginners and kids.

Those coming from out of state can expect to see west coast specialties such as black oystercatcher, pigeon guillemot, surfbird, wandering tattler, Brandt’s and pelagic cormorant, snowy plover, red-necked and red phalarope, lazuli bunting, white-throated swift, hermit and black-throated grey warblers, rufous-crowned and grasshopper sparrows, rock wren, bushtit and wrentit. One outing that will venture into Sonoma County can be expected to yield American dipper, sooty grouse, and mountain quail.

Point Reyes Station, where the Festival is based, is located in the heart of West Marin, a charming and scenic area loaded with attractive lodgings and good restaurants, all within about 60 minutes northwest of San Francisco and near the wine-growing regions of Napa and Sonoma counties.

Not only is this Festival a fantastic birding opportunity, the funds generated support a great cause: the habitat conservation work of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin (EAC). You can read about some of EAC’s conservation work at www.eacmarin.org

Visit http://www.pointreyesbirdingfestival.org to see the full listings and register. The field outings fill fast, and tickets go on sale in late February so don’t delay! Inquiries can be sent to prbnfestival AT gmail.com.

The Best Christmas Count

Sunday, December 18, 1977. The week had started out dreadfully cold in the Chicago area. It was -12° during count week, and there was a good amount of snow on the ground. In the days running up to the count, a warm front pushed in, bringing some more snow with it, and temperatures that climbed into the 40s.

I was 14, and this was my second Christmas Count, ever. My friend Alan picked me up in the black hours of early morning, and we made the hour-long drive to the Morton Arboretum without incident ... well, with one incident, actually.

The day before had been well above freezing, but with all that snow still on the ground, it got quite cold at night. As we came down a gentle hill on Route 53 at some unheard-of hour of the morning, Alan's trusty Datsun B210 hatchback decided to do some figure skating. He completely lost control of the car, and we wound up sailing through a red light at a big intersection, backwards. Luckily, even the cops were safely snugged in their beds that early on the Sunday morning before Christmas.

Okay, so except for that, it was a pretty sleepy ride. We did some owling, and then just after dawn, met the rest of the counters at the visitor's center parking lot to get handed our assignments for the day. The Lisle Arboretum Count, started in 1937, is one of the oldest, and some of the people participating have done so for decades. They get the best areas assigned to them. Places with intriguing names like "Hemlock Hill" or "Thornhill"—two spots locally famous for winter finches and other good birds. And December of 1977 was shaping up to be a good finch year.

I got assigned to the far east side, which is almost completely monotonous deciduous forest. My day would be relegated to counting Chickadees, Nuthatches, Blue Jays, and maybe a Brown Creeper. So be it. I was out birding.

The 1,700-acre arboretum has a 9 mile driving loop through the grounds. I was to be dropped off on one side of the loop, where I would make my way cross-country to a parking lot on the other side. I was assured that someone would then pick me up, and take me to my next assignment.

I've mentioned in other posts that I didn't come from a family of means ... so, well, let me take a moment to describe my winter gear that day.

On my feet were heavy cotton duck "snow boots", with 3 pairs of cotton socks inside. Layer one was cotton "waffle-knit" long underwear. My pants were heavy brown corduroy (this was the 70s, after all). Up top I had a heavy polyester sweater, and a reversible "snorkel" parka (navy and blaze orange) ... topped off with a polyester knit cap. The entire ensemble cost $22 at Wieboldt's.

The Chicago area had seen some record cold and heavy snowfall during the week prior, but the morning of the count, temperatures were headed well into the 40s. My route took me through knee-to-waist-high snow, and I think I made 50 yards before I was soaked to the skin. But I was 14. 14-year-olds are indestructible. Unstoppable, even.

Trudge trudge trudge. Stop. Look. Listen. Trudge trudge trudge. Stop. Mark down a chickadee. Trudge trudge trudge.

I had made it to the midway point and was faced with an open area and a hill. I was approaching the hill from the south, and the snow drifts were up to my pubescent chest. I plowed into the first one, determined to go straight up the hill, and I was stopped dead. The snow was so full of water, so heavy, that when I compressed it, it turned into a wall.

I stood thinking for a moment and catching my breath...

...when a bird call that I had never heard before came tinkling out of the heavens. Sweet, soft little notes. I looked up, and out of the blue sky a flock of birds appeared and landed in the trees crowning the hill.

I put my binoculars on them and, even though I had never seen one before, I knew instantly what they were: Pine Grosbeaks!

I counted. 53 of them!!

The trees at the top of the hill were a collection of Ash, and they happily settled in and began stuffing their cute little rosy and gray faces on the millions of dangling seeds.

I knew this was a good bird, but I didn't really know just how good. I continued on my route, and eventually made my way back to the loop road where I found no one waiting for me. So, I began walking back toward the visitor's center. Soon Alan came along and picked me up, and on the short drive to lunch I told him about my birds.

The little cafe at the visitor's center was full of bird-counters, and I was telling everyone there about my 53 Pine Grosbeaks. Some smiled. Some asked where. Some couldn't be bothered with the rantings of a kid who found a flock of Purple Finches (in the 1970s, House Finches would have been even more rare than Pine Grosbeaks).

A couple people decided that it was worth checking on, so after lunch I took them out to show them. We followed the trail I had plowed, and when we got to the hill discovered that the flock had grown to 80 birds.

And pandemonium ensued.

Within an hour or so, everyone had forsaken their assignments and was making it over to "Ash Hill". They needn't have worried. The flock stayed for nearly a month, and remains to this day the largest gathering of Pine Grosbeaks ever recorded in Illinois. It was also the last flock of any size of this species ever recorded in the state. There have been 15 records—28 individual birds—in the 35 years since the winter of 1977.

The countdown dinner was held that evening in a banquet hall (now a landmark) called The Sabre Room. Everyone was there ... and for one night, I was a hero. It was the best Christmas Count, and maybe the best Christmas, ever.

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What's your favorite Christmas count memory? Please share in the comments below!

PhoneSkope Mods

I'm pleased that several manufacturers are producing phone scoping adapters, giving folks a stable option for recording distant birds with their smart phone through their scope.  Meopta and Kowa have nice models that work well, and I'll have a detailed review of these coming up in the Feb. issue of Winging It.  Their main limitation for now seems to be that they are only made for iPhone 4/4s and only come in adapter diameters matching their scopes and bins (though they will work on other optics if the eyepiece diameter matches closely enough.)  

Another outfit, PhoneSkope, has a much more universal solution in their phone scoping adapter.  They have many stock smart phone options beyond the iPhone 4/4s (including iPhone 5, Samsung, and Motorola) and will also custom fabricate a phone adapter if it works within their production specification limits.  The adapter portion that connects to the scope is also customizable, locking onto to the phone bracket via a bayonet mount.  

The PhoneSkope adapter has interchangeable, customizable components- the phone bracket and the eyepiece adapter, which connect by bayonet mount.

The team at PhoneSkope went out of their way to mill me a custom adapter to use with my Nikon EDG scope so I could review the product, but the large diameter of the eyepiece was slightly beyond their machining capabilities.  But I've always believed that digiscoping (or in this case, phone scoping) is pretty experimental, so I dug around my garage to see what might work.  I found an unused shop vac connector that fit my eyepiece like a glove and decided to go for the mod:

First, I knocked off the needed end of a shop vac adapter with my band saw (a hacksaw would have worked just as well but hey, Power Tools!)  Still had all of my fingers when I was finished, which is good...

Next step was to clean up the cut on the belt sander.  (Hand sanding would work as well but hey, Power Tools!)

Size check looks good!

The scavenged tube fits like it was custom-made for the task.

And the adapter tube looks like it will fit well on the phone bracket!

Convinced it would work, I decided to to glue it up.  Unfortunately, this took away the great PhoneSkope feature of interchangeable eyepiece adapters but you gotta do what you gotta do.  (Epoxy would work well but hey, Super Glue!)

To the field!!  The PhoneSkope gives a nice centered image and stable mount.  On my zoom eyepiece it starts somewhat vignetted at full camera wide, but by zooming in the phone a bit a full-frame image is obtainable.

Another look at the rig, & what's that bump on the branch? 

Hey, it's a distant 2nd-year Bald Eagle brought into iPhone range with my spotting scope and PhoneSkope adapter!

 

Smart phones shoot video too.  My iPhone won't zoom when filming movies so the side vignetting is there, but it isn't too distracting and opens the possibility of capturing behaviors in a way that still photos can't.