Ammodramus - Exton Park

Oh yeah, I just dropped some Latin on you! Boom goes the dynamite...at least I think it's Latin. Yeah, I have an ego. I hide it better on some days but it's there. I hate it when I don't know as much about a topic or subject. I don't want to be the student, I want to be the teacher. I want to be put on a pedestal, receive trophies and told over and over again how wonderful I am. Then I start my day and that's over...

Birding is humbling for me too. Almost all my birding friends are better birders than I am. While that's good in most ways it's also a frustrating, humbling place to be. I have to defer to them because they are usually right. I'll catch myself saying something stupid like "Hey what is thatt?" When I should probably know. So, sometimes my joy is tempered by the fact that I'm not the alpha dog.Oh, my bird buds are very cool about it. Indulging me in my barrage of questions and tolerating my insecurity. It's all good really.  Besides, I'm better now than I was a year ago and I keep getting better. Blah, blah, blah, this is an self indulgent post but, then again, blogging is self indulgent. 

Back to my Latin lesson. 

"I swear it was a Le Conte's sparrow! It had to me. I've seen Nelsons' and...arent' they done migrating yet. And...what other sparrow is orange like that and...it's just like the book photo!". 

This is what I say to my friend Brian Raicich.  He saw the bird too but I got a better look. He's agreeing with me but I can tell he's not as excited as I am. I think his excitement is tempered because we can't really be sure especially when the Le Conte's Sparrow is really rare in PA. Only 11 documented sightings ever I think. This is a really secretive bird so getting another look, or a photo is tough. Not a whole lot is known about the bird since it's hard to see. Only a few hundred have been banded and none of those have been recovered. 

After some time and discussions with the Chester County eBirding compiler, Holly Merker, we decide to post it as "An Ammodramus sparrow". An Ammodramus sparrow is a nice way to say "we don't really know". There is a small win in our uncertainty. Some people would post it confidently as a Le Conte's even if they weren't 100% sure. Most birders know that the "game" as well as some real research can be compromised if we aren't completely accurate about what we see. So we can take pride in our ethics and honor. 

As you can see below the two likely candidates are really similar. 

Le Conte's Sparrow

Nelson's Sparrow

The full description of Brian's post on our behalf to eBird is below. 



An Ammodramus sparrow with bold white crown stripe, very fine streaking along the side of the breast, and overall yellowish orange tone in the face and top of the chest, buff sides and white belly. Located on south side of Exton Park, along "Sparrow Alley", south of main pond and east of beaver ponds, on the south side of the hederows that meet the meadow north of the Chester Valley Trail. The bird was observed skulking low in grasses and weeds when it briefly perched on the sediment fencing. It gave a second view perched in weeds. The brief observations gave field marks consistent with Le Conte's Sparrow however it dropped out of view before photos could be taken. It was not relocated after considerable time was spent in the area.


And yet...in all this somewhat frustrating study and observation I am exhilarated  Brian and I go back again the next morning and are joined by our friend Arthur. We don't find it so we may never know but the chase is half the fun. 

Hey, if this was easy it wouldn't be fun.

Bird Geek Heaven - Chambers Lake and Exton Park

Birding, like many things, can mark the time. Please indulge me for a sentence or two.

I've recently have had an epiphany. That word is so dramatic, but I don't know what else one would call a deepening spiritual understanding. This ties to my birding in a really ironic and...dare I say "blessed" way.

In the same timeline as my epiphany,  I've seen the following fantastic, rare, uncommon, lifer birds during a handful of visits to Chambers Lake and Exton Park.

1. Nelson's Sparrow
2. Clay-colored Sparrow
3. Sandhill Crane
4. Stilt Sandpiper
5. Pectoral Sandpiper
6. Vesper Sparrow

Do non-birders realize that some of us birders will actually high-five, fist-pump and/or literally hoot and holler when we get a new or rare bird? That's how I celebrate it. I imagine it looks odd when some car is driving by and they see a guy making karate chop motions at his thighs toward a lake. What can I say, I'm emotional. I can't help but thinking that this is God's way of giving me a reminder. (Not to mention the miraculous win that my Nittany Lions had in 4 overtimes against Michigan.)

Back to the birds...

The bird most folks would get excited about is the Sandhill Crane. The reason? Because it's big! Big birds are dramatic and surprising. This guy below is about 4 feet tall with a wingspan of 7 feet.They are bigger than Great Blue Herons.

Sandhill Crane - photo by Brian Raicich

I'm pretty sure that all of the other birds on my list wouldn't get much of a second glance from a non-birder. I'll admit, if they weren't rare or uncommon in my neck of the woods I probably wouldn't be as excited. But in my game the uncommon makes it so much more fun an exciting. This also forces me to slow down, take a closer look and remember (again) about the beauty in the details and the beauty in the mundane.

The Nelson's sparrow sighting took on an extra meaning too. I ran into a guy I met once before. Jeff Loomis is an amazing photographer and I've been following him on Flickr for a couple of years. I hadn't seen him in awhile and we struck up a conversation about our kids and their special needs. It was one of those random chats that can occasionally happen with people where you dive immediately into something meaningful and person. During this chat Jeff spotted a suspicious looking sparrow. After 45 mins of waiting it popped out and showed us that it was a Nelson's sparrow. Karma?  (I should note that this bird popped out 10 seconds after my friend BQ showed up. That's serious karma!).

My photo above isn't great, but you can see the yellow/orange on the head, throat and chest. It's subtle but it's still beautiful. To truly appreciate it take a look here http://www.jimburnsphotos.com/pages/nelsonssharptailedsparrow.html

Yes, I felt lucky, blessed and surprised once again by the beauty under my nose.

Who gets up this early to look at birds? - Exton Park

Met my Brian's the other morning at 6:30 am to bird. The first thing I said to Brian Rachich when getting out of the car "What kind of whack job gets up this early to look at birds?" He proudly retorts "We do!"

Yes, we do.

Our other friend George reported hearing a Sora the previous day. This time of year they aren't giving their full blown mating call. Just a short, "weep" sound. Not a very exciting thing to search for but it "counts" as a Sora so we all wanted it. Which leads me to an awesome fact my friend BQ told me.

Fun fact: Birds sing more in the spring because their gonads are larger. In the fall they shrink so they don't sing as much.

I giggle at this fact like a 10 year old boy. The word "gonad" is funny on it's own but this fact makes it even better.

We hung out quietly waiting for the small gonad "weep" call of the Sora in the fall. In the spring, when their gonads are massive, they give a loud sound that many people think sounds like a dolphin. I guess breeding makes men do crazy stuff. After some intense listening we hear it in about 15 minutes. Pretty amazing that it was so reliable. But that's it. Just a distant "weep". It was very anticlimactic. But it still counts as "Sora". I almost feel guilty about it. I didn't see it. I didn't hear it's full, enlarged gonad song. Just a "weep". But it's unmistakable especially in this area where they are seen semi-regularly.

Sora - photo by George Tallman

Still we have a muted celebration and move on.

I've birded Exton Park several times in the last couple of weeks and it's been amazing. It's such a diverse ecosystem in a small area. It includes marshy, swampy areas, a stream, young stands of trees and 2 acre pond and open shrubby fields. Part of the park even has thick mature deciduous forests. I've seen Cape May Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Marsh Wren, and many others.

One of the more exciting sightings was during a Birds and Brews walk with some friends at Exton Park. We go birding then we have beers at Victory Brewery.

My friend George again finds this rare bird called the American Bittern. This bird has been on decline in the area and it is exceedingly hard to see. Note the photo below. Can you see the bittern? It will sway in the wind with the reeds to stay hidden. Take a look at the 3 photos below and you can get a sense of how hidden they can be.

Bittern pretends to be a reed

Can you find the bittern?

Bittern next to a Great Blue Heron

It's interesting to see the contrast next to the obvious Great Blue Heron. 

Warbler migration is almost over..stay tuned for waterfowl and winter residents of Chester county. Sometimes the birds can carry you over during the blah winter months. 

Subtle - (Chambers Lake)

It's easy to get people excited about a Bald Eagle or a a bright red Scarlet Tanager. Even a flock of migrating geese will even get the casual observer to turn their head and at least acknowledge their presence. But sometimes the "new" bird is what we birders will occasionally refer to as an LBJ (Little Brown Job). Many sparrows fit this category. On the surface they are the common little brown bird that barely gets a second thought when they visit a feeder. The Song Sparrow is such a bird. It's brown and it's small and it's ....well it's got streaks. Yeah they are brown too. Boring? Honestly...yeah, a little boring. Ironically, as I started really thinking about it. This is where things start to get interesting.

This brings me to yesterday I was chasing for a Lincoln's Sparrow. The Lincoln's sparrow is about boring little brown bird. It looks so much like the common Song Sparrow that it's often overlooked. Add the fact that it's much more shy and less common than a Song Sparrow and it's very often missed.

At this time of the year the Lincoln's passes through our area and can be reliably seen in a corner of Chambers Lake where there is brushy, weedy habitat that they enjoy. Due to family and life schedules I can't make it out there until 3:30 pm (basically the worst time of day to bird). I am staring through my binoculars for about 30 minutes looking for it and I start to wonder what's wrong with me. I'm standing here staring at a patch of weeds just so I can check off another bird. And for what? So I can try to be in the top 10 of birders in Chester county where only about 15 people take it seriously? That's like being a small fish in a small pond.

And yet...I can't stop. No, it's more than that...is it some sort of OCD quality? As I said before it's not like I can rationalize that I'm going to see some super rarity or some fantastically beautiful thing. As I continue to search I notice the familiar teal of my friend BQ pulling up. This makes me smile inside because it's always fun to bird with him and I feel less like a lunatic because I know he's chasing the Lincoln's sparrow too.

BQ immediately dispels my negative spiral. "Dude, check this out. Chester County is beautiful! Look at this light! We should do a calendar of all the spots we bird!".  BQ is extremely upbeat and optimistic all the time but I turn around and take in the scene with fresh eyes. Holy crap he's right! Sure, I still want the bird but I'm missing the simple fact that I'm outside and it's beautiful.

 Back to the sparrow.

We prowl around the edge of the lake, no luck. We head back to the car and I have to get back home shortly. About 10 minutes before I have to leave BQ spots one. I get my binoculars on it. Sometime interesting happens to me. I can really see it! Sometimes I see a bird and another birder will tell me what I'm seeing. But I can really see the subtle differences. Not just the text book comparison but I feel like I "get" the Lincoln's sparrow now. It's shy and it's back deeper in the brush than the other sparrows. It has fine, cleaner breast stripes. It has a slight peak on it's crown. I've actually seen this species before but now I know what I'm really looking at. I get it now. See below and you can see what I mean. Very subtle.

 

 

 So as I see this bird and I look at this picture I start to appreciate the subtle differences. I'm also guessing that to a Song Sparrow, a Lincoln's must look REALLY different. It's not like they have babies with each other.

Zen Birding - Cape May Point State Park

Don't worry. I'm not going to get too pretentious about the Zen thing. Some people might hear that word and immediately picture a monk on a mountain in Tibet levitating. To me it's just the ability to be fully in the present. To exclude all thoughts except for one. Spirituality 101 = be in the moment, be present, blah, blah, blah. It's not a complex or new idea but I think it's hard to do.

Sometimes when I walk or hike I'm perseverating over past events or worried about the future. Birding is my refuge from wasteful thoughts and brings me into the now.  I was reminded about this by my new friends Joe Polumbo and Elizabeth Bender.

It's early on a Saturday morning and I head out to Cape May Point State park. My kids have been cat sitting for a neighbor who has a home in Cape May. They generously offer us their house in Cape May as thanks! A weekend in Cape May in September. Jackpot! Hell yes we'll take it! Cape May is one of my favorite places.




Cape May Point Light

I am a lister. I like to list things like birds. When I was a kid I used to list all the trolleys, model and number like some sort of OCD lunatic. I also collect people. At least that's what my mom calls it. Yeah, I love people. It sounds so stupid when I say it but it's deeply true for me. When I bird I always introduce myself to other birders. It's almost always rewarding too because I'll get tips, told where to find the warblers in the area or even make some lasting friends. This morning in Cape May was no different. I had a great walk and saw many birds but equally as fun was talking with Joe and Elizabeth. They were long time friends who had travelled all over the world birding, exploring museums, eating in fun restaurants and enjoying culture. I felt like it was an image of the life Tracy and I will live as we get older and that pleased me. In many ways it was also like looking into a mirror and seeing how we already live that way...I'm so freaking blessed it's stupid. Anyway, full circle, Joe said "Birding is so Zen" as we looked at another American Redstart. It wasn't as if I was like "oh wow I never thought of that" because I HAVE thought of that before. But it was nice to be reminded. It's like when someone states the obvious to you and  you are just reminded about a thing and it's brought back into focus.



American Redstart

Cape May is a world famous birding spot. It's close to Philadelphia, New York and DC so it gets tons of birders. It's at the tip of New Jersey and "funnels" migrating birds into Cape May, especially during fall migration which makes it get tons of birds. My new friends and I were able to ID almost 50 species in a 3 hour period. Highlights included Solitary and Least sandpipers, many warblers including Black and White, Magnolia, Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Nashville and really good looks at  Red-eyed Vireos which usually hangs out high in the canopy. The Red-eyed Vireo is one of those really common birds that are easy to overlook. This day I was able to really see the bright olive green back and appreciate it even more.

Red-eyed Vireo (I didn't take this shot but wish I did)



Bald Eagle flyover

Later that day at the house I saw a Bald Eagle flyover. These birds are way more common now that most people realize but I still think they are one of the most majestic and beautiful birds. Then again, I'm am American so I'm programmed to like the eagle.





At the beach we saw an Osprey with some food. That seems like a lot of fish for one bird.


Osprey with breakfast

Birding is a game, a refuge and even spiritual. I swear I'm totally levitating right now.



Lead or Follow? - (Rushton Farms)

It's easy to cheat if you want to cheat.

If you ever played golf you know what I mean.  You hit the ball into a pile of raked leaves. "Oh that's a leaf ball I can get a free drop." or "it's winter rules" on a course that's in a little rough shape. You can even start to rationalize in your head why it's not cheating.  But in the end you are the only judge.

This holds true for birding too. The classic "cheat" is to ID a bird without being truly certain. Sometimes it's hard not to rationalize what you saw into something you want to see.  To help this some folks use try to have at least 2 identifying characteristics that make the ID.  But this isn't always the case. I know what a Cardinal sounds like. I can ID that just by hearing the call and I know for certain. But if I see a new bird, especially one that's harder to ID, I'll try to get photo evidence and get confirmation from other birders.  Many of the flycatchers that are common in the Northeast are so hard to tell apart you can only do it by hearing the call or getting DNA evidence.

Then there is the in between stuff.

My friend Brian Raicich contacted me with great excitement the other day about tons of warblers in Rushton farms. "Mike, I used to hear people say that the trees are dripping with warblers and I never really knew what they meant until yesterday at Rushton. We have to go there tomorrow morning". Of course I was up for it, so the next day I met him there at about 7 am. Brian told me he was going crazy with his camera and took hundreds of shots of the many warblers he saw the other day. He said there were so many that he had to use the photos  to ID them later. He confessed that it felt a little like cheating.

Personally I don't think that's cheating at all. He saw the bird and was able to provide evidence. Plus, warblers in the fall don't have their full breeding plumage and it makes their differences very subtle. Take a look at this link and you will see what I mean.

Link to fall warbler guide

Sadly that day we didn't get much. It's like that sometimes. Some days are amazing and rich and some days...with the same circumstances it's nothing.

But I'm obsessed so I show up the very next morning alone to try again. I arrive at 7 am again and start walking and looking. I wait at the same tree where Brian original had his warbler fest. Nothing.

I walk all over the property for 45 minutes. Nothing. I take a few photos of the golden rod to amuse myself. But I want warblers.

Sometimes the nothing times allow me to be introspective. That's not always a good thing. Today I start questioning myself about following Brian's discovery. Shouldn't I blaze my own trail? Shouldn't I try to find my own sightings instead of just chasing where others have gone? Is that cheating? Wouldn't I rather be a leader than a follower. Of course I start to globalize all my thoughts and think about how this applies to all my interactions. Then again, I have been a leader. I've made the discoveries and I have been first before!

So I mentally smack myself in the head. "Stop beating youself up Mike!"

I start to think about leaving and then they start coming. It's around 7:45 am and in the same area Brian showed me the previous day the warblers start coming in. It only lasts for about five minutes but I'm frantically trying to ID and shoot some photos.

- Black and White
- Black throated Green
- Redstart
- Magnolia
- Chestnut sided
- Common Yellowthroat

It's not as rich as Brian's day but pretty amazing for me none the less. I mistakenly IDed some of these birds at the time but was able to clarify later with my birding friends.

Magnolia Warbler - fall

Chestnut-sided - fall

 

I walk away from the morning of birding very satisfied. In the end who cares how you see these interesting beautiful creatures. It's about the appreciation and the game.

 

 

I love migration.

 



That was a fast 6 hours - (Chambers Lake and Hibernia Park, Chester County)

I was sick the day before I was going to get up at 5:45 am. I'm guessing most people would have "tapped out" but it's fall migration and I need to be outside.

I meet Brian Quindlen (BQ) at his house at 6 am with coffee and we zip out to Chambers Lake to meet the other Brian (Raicich). Having both of these guys with me is great not only for the extra pairs of eyes and ears but they are better birders than I am and I am learning a lot from them. Plus they are funny. Yes, I value people more for their comedic value than most other attributes. I'd say that's a life value I can easily defend.

Anyway...

I ignore the last vestiges of my cold and lack of sleep and the stupid, sick humidity and we gather at the Chambers Lake "curve". Often during migration you will see birders sitting at this corner of the lake by the road looking for shorebirds. We take our thorough scans of the lake and BQ picks up a Pied-Billed Grebe. As I write this he just texted me of a "Black Crowned Night Heron" in this exact spot. Damn it! 


Caspian Tern - photo by Brian Quindlen

We start skirting the edge of the lake for a little while and pick up a few of the usual suspects. For me the female Bobolink is pretty cool. But we just get hotter and it gets quieter so we double back.

Suddenly 4 large Caspian Terns swoop down over the lake. The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world with a wingspan that's about 4 - 4.5 feet. These big birds fly into the place calling and swopping and diving and basically taking over. Their call is a rough and aggressive sounding like a combination of a bark and  screech mixed in with high pitched sounds you'd expect from a gull-like bird. Even the handful of fishermen and kayakers seem to take notice. It appears that one of the birds is immature and the others are helping it. I read later that the young will stay with the adults often a long time to learn  how to fish. Makes sense to me. Learning how to dive 30 feet down into the water and catching a fish can't be that easy. We spent a long time watching the birds. The splash down periodically and come up with fish. They seem to intimidate 2 Great Blue Heron's and circle and dive.

Raicich breaks us out of our reverie and we drive a few hundred yards down the road the entrance for Hibernia Park. We've seen reports of some birds that we "need" for our Chester County list. To those of you unfamiliar with this idea, some birders like me enjoy the game aspect of birding. I keep a life list and a county list and many other lists. One of those lists is the year total for Chester County. It's a lot like a golfer. Golfers compete with other golfers but primarily compete against themselves. For me, birding is similar in the scorekeeping aspect.

We don't get far up the driveway/entrance to Hibernia before pulling over to the side of the road. There are a log of birds in a little copse of trees over the roadway. For a moment I wonder if this is a legal parking spot but I stop caring when I see how much activity is happening. We nab many species in this spot including Chestnut-sided warbler, Black and White warbler, Red-eyed vireo, Hummingbird, Chickadee's, an unknown flycatcher and,  my favorite, a really good look at a pair of Canada Warblers. Someone once said "birding its like going to an art museum where the paintings hide." The Canada Warbler with it's mane makes me think or that quote. Click here to see it ==> http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Warbler/id it's very cool.

What's crazy is that we probably spent over 1 hour standing in this one area looking up so much our necks hurt. I think birding is a good way to exercise my patience and tenacity...and my neck. I hope all this looking up doesn't give me a stroke.

BQ and I headed back home but scouted out a few corporate ponds and retention ponds for migrating shorebirds. Nothing special but we feel good about the scouting value. I check the clock and I've been out for 6 hours.
I guess time flies when you are birding.