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.



In Nashville (Bells Bend Park)

Work travel bites.

But like most people I try to make the best of it. In the past I'd make sure I explored something that seemed unique or special. Now I try to bird.

I just got this new app called "hotspots" from Birdseye. The idea is that it shows the closest parks and latest sightings. I noticed that a Black Tern was seen on the river near this park about 10 miles from my hotel. I'd never seen a Black Tern so that was enough for me to explore Bells Bend Park.

I ended up passing the main park entrance and got some guidance on the side of the Cumberland River from a guy fishing with his kids. Scanned the river but no Black Tern. Finally I pulled into the main park lot. No one else was here. "That's weird", I thought. But I pressed on and started walking what is supposed to be a 2.3 mile loop. Today that feels really long.


Bells Bend Park, Nashville TN

It was hot and I was hearing a ton of bugs. I think they were cicadas. This was a foreshadow of what would be my brief foray. Finally saw one of these buggers. Bugs can be awesome, beautiful, alien and creepy  at the same time. Add to this scene the heat and humidity and add to this scene sweat pouring off me and the mosquitos that start to bite me each time I stop to look. Few birds and all bugs. I am hating these bugs.  However, I don't hate this guy below. He's big and cool and isn't biting me.

Cicada?

I'm walking and stopping and swatting bugs and not seeing much of anything. "Just make it to the river", I think to myself. Maybe I'll see a Black Tern or something. Still no one else is out in this park. A few sparrows shoot by. I hear a Field Sparrow. I hear a Song Sparrow. I can't ID some others.

 

I'm sweating.

 

A sign says that a pond is about a half mile away. "OK, forget the river I'll just peek at the pond then get away from the bugs".  But I stop.

 

Here's the part where simple activities start to press into my psychology. I want to stop and turn around. My multiple personalities kick it. "Press on don't be lazy!" then my mind goes to "Who cares it's just a walk in the park, literally, why so hard on yourself" then to "You are going to miss something rare, something worthwhile, no pain no gain".

 

I finally get a grip and turn around. I must be mad.

 

Sometimes it's nothing special and sometimes I have to look harder for what is special. This time I decided to make up a new game. Submit a bird list from every state in the US. I'm a lister so listing games are fun.

 

I did manage to see a pair of Magnolia Warblers on the way out, a pair of hummingbirds and some Killdeer on the drive in. Plus I have successfully resisted the urge to stay in my hotel and click around on the TV for hours.

 

 

 



Am I really allowed to go here? (Westtown Lake)

I admit it. I'm not afraid to trespass on someone's property if I think I can see a new bird. Does that make me a bad person? Selfish? I'd rather think of myself as irreverent and a rebel. I better think about this some more. Damn it, all my baggage even comes up during birding!

Westtown Lake early

I went to Westtown Lake to bird with some friends (Brian Raicich and Chad Hutchinson).  Westtown School owns the property and decided to close it's property to the public but Brian has a special letter of permission to bird there. I guess they are worried about us as a menace.

I've been working on converting Chad to birding. It's pay back to him for making me try good beers, thus costing me more money.  So, up at 6 am and we slink into the parking lot. Chad is driving so I'm afraid to tell him that I'm not 100% sure we are allowed to be here. I figure it's probably fine. We immediately see Northern Oriole, Kingfisher and Green Heron. Chad's never seen a Green Heron and this pleases me. I really love birding with someone who is just starting to become aware of the many species nearby. He's interested enough to get up at 6 am on a Saturday morning so it's nice to see him rewarded with something cool.

It's a really nice morning and we walk about 3 miles. Brian is dazzling with his ability to hear and identify birds. He's got a lot of knowledge about nature and it's always fun to hang with him. Chad is soaking it all in and occasionally making a joke.  It rarely gets better than this, hanging with some cool people and experiencing nature.  We manage to see 41 species in about 2 hours, including a wood frog.  Brian says the wood frog sounds like a duck being strangled. Here's a link to the sound. I have to agree. http://youtu.be/tSLInPZkLH8

Highlights are a pair of Black and White warblers, 6 hummingbirds  including one that perched on top of a tree to pose for us, a Redstart and one warbler we couldn't ID. Fall warblers are sometimes hard to identify and this was a classic case. We saw this bird. Yes, look down. Brian managed a few decent shots. We still have no idea what it is other than "warbler". Our guesses range, mostly to birds we want it to be. Brian shared the photo with our expert friend Holly who cleared it up. Pine Warbler.

Pine Warbler (I wanted it to be more rare)

Oh well, if this was easy it would be boring.

Mid-day birding and patience (Ashbridge Preserve and Rushton Farms)

I must be a little crazy. I was out of my mind happy today to be outside. Isn't wild mood swings a sign of crazy? But it's just so damn nice outside and nature makes me happy. If you don't enjoy flowers, butterflies and birds on some level you are either totally lame or a complete liar.


Ashbridge Trail Map

Patience is hard. Typically I will move through a park very quickly, looking as I go, listening and only slowing or stopping when I see or hear something interesting. Today, for some reason I felt less restless and was able to slow down. Some things came into focus for me as I slowed.

1. When you sit still and listen it's amazing how much human sound you hear. The traffic in the distance airplanes overhead.
2. When I stop and look for 10 or 15 minutes in one good spot, you are able to see more and more detail about that spot as time goes on.

Yeah, not exactly earth-shattering, Yoda-like wisdom. But today I feel like I translated this knowledge to something more real.

Today I was able to spend about 2 hours birding. It was in the middle of the day which is the worst time to bird, but sometimes you take what you get. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I was able to see at Ashbridge and Rushtown. I saw 24 different species of birds in Ashbridge in about 1 hour. Probably 6 different types of butterflies as well.

Migration is so on! I was excited to see several warblers today. Black and white, Black-throated blue, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart and my first Blackburnian Warbler.


Common Yellowthroat

Ashbridge Preserve is a really cool little park near my house and part of the Williston group of parks. They do a nice job taking care of these parks. It's a very quite place and oftentimes I go there and don't see other people.

Sometimes that's a good thing.

I didn't have to sneak in this time (Longwood Gardens)

We have a family membership to Longwood Gardens and I think it's well worth it. But it wasn't always that way. When I was 16 my buddy and I were into 35mm photography. We thought Longwood would be a great place to practice our "art". Mostly our photos were attempts at art, humor or something surreal. Longwood seemed like a perfect place. Even then I leaned toward nature photography trying hard to capture wildlife photos with a 80-200 mm zoom on my Canon AE-1. However, when we tried to enter imagine our surprise when they actually wanted money! I was 16 and barely had money for film and processing, let alone paying to see plants. We did what most red-blooded men children would do. We hopped the fence.

Me in the 80s, don't judge



 

 

After a nice, free afternoon of snapping wise ass shots like the one above, we left. I'm sure we were smug about our discount.

 

Fast forward to 2013.

 

It's a beautiful Friday and Tracy wants to have a date. I'm stressed about work, and even want to work a little that night but being the most excellent husband I say "sure". I was trying hard not to selfishly focus on birding. Sure, I'll look at the plants, sure I'll have dinner on the patio area, sure I'll listen to the bluegrass concert a little. So we went. Tracy is pretty cool about my crankiness and birding so she indulged me as we walked around.

 

Longwood is pretty cool. Obviously it's got the wild diversity with plants, but it also has a neat, international/hippie with money vibe. So, it culturally stimulating. And birds.

 

On the birding side, we saw a Scarlet Tanager among other birds. I barely reacted. Tracy was excited. This bird holds a special meaning. When Tracy and I were dating I turned her on to birding. She saw a photo of the Scarlet Tanager and wanted badly to see one. We listened to recordings of it's song. which is often described as a Robin with a sore throat. So, whenever we see one it's a big deal. Never mind that it's a truly beautiful bird.

 

Anyway, I finally chilled out as we walked and looking back realized that I must have been PMS or something NOT to appreciate that one. Here's a link to the bird if you don't know it. The male is bright, bright, red, with black wings. It's one of those birds that is common and turns someone into a birder when they see it.

 

Scarlet Tanager

 

 

My only Scarlet Tanager shot. I'd love to get a good one

 

I have to also admit that walking around, sipping beer, having dinner on the patio and listening to a little blue grass was cool too.



More birders than birds...almost - (Exton Park - Church Farm School)

I don't just love birds I love people. This last week I had a chance to combine both. I was originally planning on birding with my friends George and BQ and to meet a new birder names Art (alias Temujin).  I'll just leave that alias thing alone for now.

George and I decided to make it a party. So we invited away.

I think we ended up with 20 plus people showing up. All those people loving nature and many of the better birders in Chester county in attendance. I'm slightly obsessed with the top 100 in the county, so it's always fun to meet someone else on the list. I guess it's of my obsessive compulsive listing.

The birding didn't disappoint. We saw 45 different species that evening. The highlights were several bank swallows, indigo buntings, little blue heron and a handful of peeps that included lesser yellow legs, solitary and least sandpipers. The peeps pumped me up. It's a sign of migration which is always fun.

 

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

 

The walk wrapped up for a nice view of a goldfinch. A supremely common bird. Sometimes birders almost miss the common beauty too. "It's just a gold finch" can be heard sometimes on a walk. I've even said such things. Sometimes it's good to be reminded.

 

 

American Goldfinch

 

 

After the walk about 10 of us went to Victory Brewery in Exton to have a few pops and some dinner. Birding, beers and friends (old and new) is basically a perfect night for me.