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.