Ice Birding

I am a fair weather birder. I'll admit it. I don't like birding when it's too cold. Or too windy. Or too hot. Or too rainy. I do have my limits in the love of my hobby.

But sometimes, after I've been holed up inside for too long and the sun hasn't shown for two weeks, I do get rather antsy to bird. I recently decided I couldn't take one more day of cabin fever, and headed up north to Confluence State Park in north St. Louis County.

It was the first time in my short birding career that I birded in 23 degree weather. Brrrr. But, thankfully, the sun was nice and shiny which made the birding great! I had two main target birds that day, the Snow Bunting and the Lapland Larkspur.

Horned Lark

Only one Snow Bunting had been seen around the open field of the Park, but it had been seen pretty regularly. I went for a try. Sadly, I never did see the Snow Bunting, but did see hundreds of Lapland Larkspurs, and probably thousands of Horned Larks. I think most people blow off large flocks of LBJ's thinking they are just sparrows, but if you actually stop and look, they'd see Larks. Everywhere! I was so surprised to see so many!

It was so cold out! I could only keep my glove covered fingers out in the cold wind for a minute or two, and then they got too stiff to adjust my binoculars! I did a lot birding from the warm car, and ended up a happy girl!

Mississippi to the left, Missouri to the right...rivers, I mean

The best part of the day, though, was getting to see the iced over confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. It was interesting to me at the time that the Missouri was heavily iced, but the Mississippi was nearly free of ice floats. Hmmm, I'll tell you why later!

The river was filled with these really cool ice floats

Anyway, great day driving around in the sunshine! And a new species, too!

Salton Sea, Part Deux

What started as a very cool morning, turned into a gorgeously warm afternoon. I couldn't have asked for a better day to bird in California.

Most of our group left at lunch, with five of us remaining to count the vast number of birds along the northern shore of the Salton Sea. It was about this time that my camera ran out of battery. Pooper! All of the photos you are seeing were taken by Richard Filley, one of the other birders I met that day. Thanks for sharing, Richard!

I joked this afternoon that if the Salton Sea wasn't filled with amazing birds, I would have thought I was in Hell. Doesn't get any more barren than the coast of the Salton Sea.

The five of us marched across the beach of thick-caked salt to count the thousands of birds lining the edge of the sea. THOUSANDS I SAY! The experts among us (aka Darrell and Dan) counted over 3000 Gulls (various species,) 1200 White Pelicans, and nearly 600 Great Blue Herons. I literally got tears in my eyes seeing so many Pelicans.


At one point the White Pelicans, who were nestled down, took notice of our presence. All at once they raised up and turned their heads toward us, ready to move at any moment. Do you know what it feels like to have 1200 White Pelicans turn their heads at you and give you the stare down?


Though I felt inadequate to count the thousands of gulls and pelicans, I could do something. I volunteered to count all the Great Egrets lining the shore. I counted 63, and I was proud to have contributed to the count that afternoon.

One of the best things I witnessed (I was the only one who saw the whole thing,) was seeing a Peregrine Falcon try to take down a Shoveler Duck. All of sudden I see this bird of prey swoop down and pin a duck down to the ground. I couldn't believe my eyes! But just as quickly as the Falcon took down the duck, it was scared off by some parachuters nearby. The poor duck limped to edge of the water, seemingly dazed by his near death experience. I still can't believe I saw what I saw!

What a great afternoon! I ended up with only 26 species that afternoon, BUT of the 26, FIVE were new species for me! My new species were the Glaucous-winged Gull, the Black-bellied Plover, Common Goldeneye, Clark's Grebe and the Snowy Plover.

Snowy Plover

I was exhausted when we finished counting at 5pm that evening, but I was one happy girl! My legs hurt, my face and neck were sunburned but I was happy! We joined the larger N. Salton Sea counters at Denny's to add to the greater CBC compilation. The entire group ended up with like 141 species total, with 90 of them being from our specific group. I'm very satisfied with our efforts (especially since we found 2 rarities.)

I can't wait for next year's count!

Swift Girl Tired

Swift Girl worked a 60 hour week.

Swift Girl tired.

Swift Girl will be back soon.

:)

CBC, At Last!

I am saying with an immense joy (I'm actually jumping up and down!) "I GOT TO BE A PART OF A CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT THIS YEAR!!!!! Yee-haw!

On my last full day in California, I got to be a participant in the North Salton Sea CBC. I've visited the Salton Sea before, so I knew what great birds I'd get to see (and count.) But what I didn't expect was the great number of birds I would be seeing. OMG....thousands. I mean it, thousands of birds. Took my breath away.

Our morning started out with 40 degree temps in the early hours (7am.) That was cold to be birding. I was looking forward to the sunrise and the heat that it would produce. I'm glad I had brought my winter coat with me to CA.


We broke up in teams, mine being a team of about 9 participants. Our leader had prior experience counting Salton Sea birds (he already does it voluntarily several days a month) so I felt we had a Salton Sea expert on hand. This was my first CBC and I was nervous about my counting abilities. I got a great lesson on quick counting large flocks and just went with what I could do. I was looking forward learning a lot that day.


During the morning hours, our team did the ponds within the Torrez-Martinez Desert Chuihilla Indian Reservation, which I considered a privilege, because you can't bird there without permission from the Reservation. It was here that I became part of CBC history!


While everyone was watching and counting hundreds of Double-Crested Cormorants flying over, my eye caught something else flying lower and in the opposite direction of the Cormorants. It was big and white and honestly, I thought I was looking at a White Pelican as first. But with closer examination (I'm talking within a second,) I figured out that it was a Swan.

I yelled Swan and everyone found it quickly. I mean it is a very large bird. I was able to grab my camera and got some fuzzy photos of it (it was quite a bit away.)

Tundra Swan

What I had found was a Tundra Swan. It was one of only a couple dozen seen at the Salton Sea in the last hundred years, and not sure, if ever, during a CBC. In other words, I found a rarity. A report was filed on my sighting, which included witnesses, what type of binoculars I used and a full narrative on how I (we) found it. I am so humbled by my teams experience in helping to identify what type of species the Swan was (the photos helped.)

Maybe I should change my nickname to Swan Girl. :)

The Eurasian Green-winged Teal Pond

The rest of the day wasn't without more excitement. Fellow BMCP birder Dan Baumann found a Eurasian Green-Winged Teal, which is a MAJOR rarity. He got reported, too. :)

Our Team Leader, Darrell

My morning count came to 55 species, with 5 lifers for me. The additions to my life list are Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Tundra Swan, Eurasian Green-Winged Teal, Spotted Sandpiper, and Least Sandpiper. There were more species seen by my team members (they went bushwacking,) but I only count the birds I actually see with my own eyes.

The day had just begun...more about my incredible afternoon in the next post.

Whitewater Canyon Preserve

One of the many beautiful spots of the lower desert is the Whitewater Canyon Preserve. Absolutely, breathtaking....

There was a Female Hooded Merganser seen on one of the trout ponds, and she wasn't to be missed. Sure enough, there she sat...all by herself. What she was doing up there is a mystery, but it seems she made the place her home.



I love female Hooded Mergansers because they seemingly have bad hair days. Their head feather are all wonky, sticking straight on end, like she just woke up. Love it!

Butter Butt!

Other special species I saw this afternoon were the Rock Wren, the Canyon Wren and a female Common Yellowthroat. There were also A LOT of Yellow-Rumped Warblers, referred to in the birding world as Butter Butts. Isn't that fun to say? Butter Butts...tee-hee!

Rock Wren

I also saw a Red-tailed Hawk totally whacking on a Cooper's Hawk that must have encroached on a territory. The RTH was screeching and diving on the CH. Awesome!

Bird Search

While I was in the desert, I got to take some photos of some interesting birds. Now I realize that some of these photos are not all that great (because most of them were pretty far away,) but I had fun searching for the birds and getting shots of them, especially the Burrowing Owl. Check it out!

Here's the Burrowing Owl, as far as my 200mm camera could get him.

Here he is when I digiscoped him. Digiscoping is when you point your camera though the lens of a scope. Amazing difference, eh?

Prairie Falcon

American Wigeon (New species for me!) By the end of the week, I got an other new species; his cousin, the Eurasian Wigeon. Whoo-hoo!

I assisted in searching for a Guinea Fowl, that was seen wandering beside Hwy. 111. We never found him. Bummer! He's obviously been around....

Leucistic Finch

One the greatest avian treats of my week in California was getting to see a leucistic House Finch at Mike and Betty's home in Joshua Tree. I have never seen a leucistic bird before, so this was special.

Leucism is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals and humans. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. You can tell a leucistic animal from an albino by its eye color. A leucistic bird will have a normal eye color.

The sweet little bird made its way around the feeders at Mike's house, just doing what normal House Finches do....eating. Mike and I noticed, though, that it didn't really seem part of the normal group. It stayed on its own. Of course, that could just be our interpretation, but it was interesting to observe, nonetheless.

Birding Back Home

Shew, I'm feeling better. Finally was able to catch up on my sleep!

One of my favorite things to do in California is birding with the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve group. It's like a family reunion every time I visit.


This Wednesday morning nothing of the extraordinary species showed up in my binoculars, but it was a sweet relief to see my favorite desert birds like the White-crowned Sparrow, California Thrasher and Roadrunner. Oh, and, of course, the Gambel's Quail. I've missed its soft chi-ca-go-go, chi-ca-go-go.

White-crowned Sparrow

One thing I enjoyed on this bird walk was introducing the desert species to a visiting birder from Guatemala. Every bird was new to him. That is always fun (that was me just over a year ago.)

Juan adding new lifers to his worldwide list.

Gorgeous San Bernadino Mountains to the North

I'm Not Dead

I'm just tired.

Had a great time in CA, but my flight back to StL was four hours late, getting me in after 2am on Monday. I have not been able to catch up on my life since then.

Until I get back into the swing of things, here is a beautiful sunrise in Joshua Tree, CA. I was staying with my good friends Mike and Betty in Joshua Tree, and Mike always invites me to watch the sunrise over the mountains every time I stay with them. GORGEOUS!