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1. Watch where you walk and place yourself: Keep in mind that in group settings, bird watchers could be on all sides of you, carefully setting up a scope view. When getting on a bird, avoid walking in front of the scope and if you can’t, please don’t stop and block the whole view.

2. Get on that scope! If someone says to you, “Here, let me get you this bird in my scope,” and then immediately lines up a bird, get in there and look at the bird. Don’t dawdle, birds rarely stay in one spot and a few precious seconds of hesitation could cause you miss the bird.

3. Don’t be a scope hog. If there is a large group and you get a look at the bird, try to count to 3 and step to the side so those behind you can get a chance at their life bird. Once everyone who needs it as a lifer as seen it, you can go in for a second look and perhaps longer if the bird is still around.

4. Careful with your digiscoping. I teach people how to take photos with a digital camera or smartphone through my scope. But don’t always assume that your field trip leader is on board with that. Digiscoping takes practice, especially if you are doing it with an adaptor and it’s the first time you’ve tried the technique. It’s incredibly easy to scratch a scope eyepiece with a camera lens.

This is my 25-20 zoom eyepiece. All those dots? Those are nicks on my scope’s eyepiece from people who tried to hand hold their digital camera up to my scope’s eyepiece.

Many scopes have lifetime warranties, but those warranties do not always cover a scratch on the eyepiece and the cost to repair it could be in the neighborhood of $250. On top of that, it can take a few weeks to get that repaired, nothing is as heartbreaking as discovering that you need a lens repair in the middle of spring migration and you’ll be scope-less for 4 to 8 weeks.

These are four rules that I have, what would you like other birders to know about scope use?

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Visitors to Sydney will be familiar with the Australian Magpie and the Grey Butcherbird, but it wasn’t until I went to Queensland that I got to meet the Black Butcherbird. The species is typical of many northern Queensland specialities, being common across New Guinea and just occurring in Queensland (and in the case of the Black Butcherbird, the fringes of the Northern territory as well). Like its sibling species it generally feeds on invertebrates and small vertebrates, generally in the understory but sometimes on the ground. It didn’t take me very long to find one either, in fact I found a pair on my first day. I was walking through the Cairns Botanical Gardens when close to the road I found a pair of them killing a snake on the ground. This was actually a stroke of luck, as Black Butcherbirds while common, are shy and can be hard to see. This pair were far too preoccupied with the snake they were killing to be interested in me, which allowed me to sneak up very close to them and take some photos.

Black Butcherbird (Cracticus quoyi)

Hammering the head

I watched them for a while, and am fairly sure the snake was dead very quickly (it may have been dead when I arrived). But the Black Butcherbirds were pretty suspicious and would regard the snake critically before hammering it again. I think that perhaps one of the birds would hit the snake, causing it to twitch, which would make the other think there was some life left in it. I am not sure what kind of snake it was but I think it was a harmless python.

My other encounter with a Black Butcherbird was at Cassowary House, the location I had my rather exciting encounter with a cassowary. I’ll do a post on the place one day soon, but one of the nice features is the veranda on which you can sit with a cup of tea and watch various birds come down to the feeders. And one of the regular visitors, enticed with pieces of cheese of all things, is a Black Butcherbird.

Watching me before swooping down

Cheesy treats

VBirders visiting new regions don’t always understand the significance of what they see, and this case illustrates it perfectly. Although it was very cool to see a pair of birds beating on a snake, I had no idea that the species was a shy one that would normally just afford quick views. It’s nice that along with nemesis birds there are birds that go out of their way to give you a good look.

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If you liked this post and want to see more great images of birds make sure to check out 10,000 Clicks, our big (and growing) page of galleries here at 10,000 Birds.

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Before we go any further I will share the predictions from the last three times I played this game and put an asterisk next to the birds that I subsequently spotted in my home borough:

3 July 2010                                  31 October 2010           11 April 2011

1. Cory’s Shearwater              Snowy Owl*                 Purple Martin
2. Eurasian Wigeon*               Short-eared Owl*         Eurasian Wigeon*
3. Yellow-breasted Chat*        Long-eared Owl           Cory’s Shearwater
4. Marbled Godwit*                 Snow Bunting*            Greater Shearwater
5. Brown Pelican                     Lapland Longspur       Sooty Shearwater
6. Royal Tern*                         Common Eider*           Buff-breasted Sandpiper
7. Eastern Bluebird*                King Eider*                 Whimbrel
8. Long-eared Owl                   Harlequin Duck*         Connecticut Warbler*
9. Turkey Vulture*                  Eurasian Wigeon*        Black Vulture
10. Purple Martin                      Western Tanager        Brown Pelican

As you can see, my last set of predictions weren’t so good, with only two out of ten guessed properly, below my previous rates of 33% and 40%. (The first time I did this I accidentally added twelve birds to my list before reviewing it. Also, it looks like I had higher rates of success on my earlier lists in the chart above because some birds were seen after I had already added ten.)

Before I guess my next ten I think that I need to figure out what happened with the last ten I guessed and what ten birds I actually did get.

1. Purple Martin - The darned birds keep avoiding me. Of course, the fact that more Cave Swallows have been reported from Queens than Purple Martins since I moved here means that Purple Martin is actually a very difficult bird to get in Queens.
2. Eurasian Wigeon - One of only two birds I guessed correctly and the last of the reasonably expected waterfowl – save Greater White-fronted Goose, which hasn’t been reported since I moved to Queens - that I needed in the borough.
3. Cory’s Shearwater - I did not seawatch enough and what seawatching I did mostly stunk.
4. Greater Shearwater - I did not seawatch enough and what seawatching I did mostly stunk.
5. Sooty Shearwater - I did not seawatch enough and what seawatching I did mostly stunk.
6. Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Shorebird season was lousy this past summer and I didn’t get lucky.
7. Whimbrel - Shorebird season was lousy this past summer and I didn’t get lucky.
8. Connecticut Warbler - The next-to-last of the expected wood-warblers to get added to my Queens list. (The last was also spotted.) Now all I need are vagrants like Townsend’s Warbler and Black-throated Gray Warbler. (The link for Connecticut Warbler, by the way, leads to a bird I wasn’t sure about but that same day I had one that left no doubt in my mind.)
9. Black Vulture - Despite a marked increase in Turkey Vulture sightings – nine since March of 2011 when I had my first in Queens - Black Vultures remain stubbornly absent from the borough (only two sightings reported to eBird in Queens since 2008).
10. Brown Pelican - Though two have been reported to eBird since 2008 this bird is even more of a long shot than Black Vulture.

Two of the four Lark Sparrows I have seen in Queens

Two out of ten is not good enough, leaving me smack-dab on the Mendoza Line. I must do better! But I can’t leave you wondering what ten birds I did see, can I? Here they are in chronological order:

1.  Grasshopper Sparrow - 21 May 2011 – A bird I wasn’t even thinking of until I found one singing at Edgemere Landfill. Sadly, it did not stick around to breed though I thought that it might.
2. Lark Sparrow - 26 August 2011 – Also at Edgemere Landfill, the first of four I saw in the borough last fall.
3. Connecticut Warbler - 25 September 2011 – The aforementioned bird at Kissena Corridor Park during a period where it seemed that every good migrating passerine was being found there.
4. Clay-colored Sparrow - 25 September 2011 – As I said, Kissena Corridor Park was really hopping at the time. I wish I had put three sparrows on my last list instead of three shearwaters.
5. Eurasian Wigeon - 05 November 2011 – The bird I mentioned before, at Jamaica Bay’s East Pond.
6. Harlequin Duck - 01 January 2012 – A great way to start the year at Fort Tilden, and it made up for missing several the previous winter.
7. Snowy Owl - 04 February 2012 – A bird that was long overdue and one that I had predicted on my previous list but not on the most recent. The Snowy Owls at Breezy Point also ignited a firestorm on the state listserv.
8. Red-headed Woodpecker - 10 March 2012 – A bird that I had not predicted seeing, oddly, and the last of the expected woodpeckers of Queens to meet the business end of my binoculars.
9. Yellow-throated Warbler - 05 April 2012 – I had inexplicably missed this bird in 2011 when one spent a couple of weeks in Forest Park. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again and I had a great time seeing the one that showed in Alley Pond Park.
10. Parasitic Jaeger - 13 May 2012 – I spotted this bird off the coast of Breezy Point chasing a Common Tern on Sunday. The only seabird of the group and it figures it is one that I hadn’t predicted!

my first Queens Snowy Owl

What will be the next eleven birds that I see in Queens that will finally get me to the magic 300? It will likely take me over a year from now to get there so I can’t take the strategy that I did previous years and try to guess by what season is coming. Some of the birds I have already predicted but some will be new. An added wrinkle is the fact that occasional pelagic trips are being organized in Queens waters lately which tempts me to go seabird-heavy again though I will try not to go overboard…

1. Cory’s Shearwater – It is time I got one
2. Greater Shearwater – Ditto.
3. White Ibis - Two juveniles were spotted last year at Jamaica Bay but they turned out to be one-day wonders. After the sheer number of birds that vagrated to the northeast last year I have to think that I will find a post-breeding juvenile wandering, probably at Jamaica Bay.
4. Rough-legged Hawk - One of these will finally cross my path in Queens this fall or winter, probably along the coast or at Edgemere Landfill.
5. Whimbrel - I really need to see one of these. It will probably be as a flyover at Jamaica Bay or along the coast.
6. White-winged Crossbill - I have a feeling that they will irrupt this coming winter and I will be waiting to check them off of the box next to the already checked box for Red Crossbill.
7. Long-eared Owl - The last of the expected owls that have not yet been checked off. I am sure that they are present every year but they are remarkably difficult to find, with only one bird reported to eBird in the last five years in Queens.
8. Alder Flycatcher - I am not sure how I have never had one in Queens but I better get one soon because if I don’t get one singing in spring I certainly won’t be able to identify a silent one in autumn!
9. Western Kingbird - I have missed several of these vagrants over the last couple of years and don’t want to miss another!
10. Wilson’s Storm-Petrel - This is another seabird that should have been checked off long ago.
11. Brown Pelican - I refuse to acknowledge the unlikeliness of my finding one.

What do you think? Any other suggestions as to what I might add to my list? When do you think I will reach the magic 300?

I hope to add a young White Ibis like this to my Queens list

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We in the south are stuffed silly with kites.  Way down in the Florida they have the bizarre Snail Kite and the gorgeous Swallow-tailed Kite, both of which have made their way up as far north as North Carolina, though the former only once.  But the default kite for this part of the country, as well as parts of the southern plains as well, is the Mississippi Kite, Ictinia mississippiensis, unparallelled aerial acrobat and merciless devourer of katydids.

Last week I was leading a field trip for the spring meeting of the Carolina Bird Club at Howell Woods, a patch of bottomland hardwood forest in Johnston County just southeast of Raleigh.  It’s a spot where Mississippi Kites have nested before, but they’re never really expected, and I was busy managing expectations while encouraging sharp eyes.  It’s just like a bird to prove me a liar, though, and when my group emerged from swampy trail, we found a single bird soaring over an expansive field not more than 50 feet from us.  It was soon joined by another, and another, until three birds circled lazily, kitely, over our heads.

They seem bigger in the air, as kites both avian and amusement, tend to, and it wasn’t until a Common Grackle took offense to a passing bird that we were dealing with raptors barely larger than a mockingbird, though proportioned a bit differently of course. The Kite easily evaded the Grackle and continued its circuitous route, seemingly keeping an eye on the group watching below.

When suddenly one of them plummeted to the ground.

It made contact behind a row of pines, but when it came up it appeared to be feeding on something in mid-air.  There were plenty of large grasshoppers throughout the field, no doubt one had met its demise to the fearsome predator, torn limb from limb from limb from limb from limb by the dainty bill.  This is a bird that does not mess around.

It’s hard to walk away from a show like this – easily my best experience with Mississippi Kites since I’ve lived in North Carolina – but restrooms were calling and the responsibility of a field trip leader to his charges is not one to take lightly.  As it was, the kites appeared sporadically for the next hour or so, working the field until the grasshoppers were stuck to the ground in fear and the birdwatchers were stuck to their bins in wonder.

Kites will do that.

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In late January this year we were commissioned by Florida’s Space Coast to produce an episode on the birding of the area and the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I have been to this festival for the last 5 years and have watched it grow and develop into arguably the best birding festival in North America. Not only does the festival have an incredible line-up of speakers and exhibitors, but it also gives festival-goers the opportunity to go birding in the field with some of the world’s best known birding personalities. We had scheduled one of our afternoons to go and look for Barred Owls in the Palm Bay area of Brevard County. Palm Bay is a fairly typical piece of Florida suburbia and is the most populous city in the county. But the suburbs, with their substantial stands of oak trees, are home to a healthy population of these beautiful owls.

Barred Owls love old growth trees with good cover                  Richard Crossley

Prior to this excursion I had read that studies have shown that populations of Barred Owls increase faster in suburban neighborhoods than in old growth forests. However, the increase in offspring is offset by other factors affecting owls in suburban environments, including impacts with cars and disease. Additionally, I learnt that Barred Owls are more likely than most North American owl species to be active during the day. Inspired by this knowledge, our crew drove the suburbs slowly with the windows down, looking for suitable patches. Our first stop failed to produce but eventually we came to a nice little neighborhood fringed by mature oak hammocks and interspersed with dominant trees in the backyards of the local residents.

Typical Barred Owl habitat              Richard Crossley

We set up the sound equipment and gave it one quick blast. That’s all it took and immediately a pair of Barred Owls flew in and started calling right above us in a giant oak tree. I’m always in two minds about using tape to call in birds. Its controversial for sure and rightly so. So please excuse me going on a quick tangent here. My take on using tape is that its ok as long as it is used in moderation and with ethical consideration for the situation at hand. In others words, don’t play tape around nesting birds, especially raptors. Don’t overplay the tape. As soon as the birds come in, resist the temptation to play the call more to lure them in closer. Often this has the opposite effect as the birds figure out that you’re a mimic and they disappear. And, it goes without saying, NEVER play tape in National Wildlife Refuges or National Parks, where the practice is illegal.

Barred Owls are one of the few true owls that have brown eyes       Richard Crossley

So back to the situation at hand…Both owls flew in and began calling. Now, for those readers that haven’t heard a Barred Owl call before, it is truly is a wonderful and irreplaceable sound. Barred Owls are known by two other names and, not surprisingly, these names reflect the sounds that these large owls produce – “Eight Hooter” and “Hoot Owl”. A well-known national restaurant chain in the United States loves Barred Owls. Amazing that they named their restaurants for these lovely owls. Just shows how far-reaching birding is.

The two birds called to each other back and forth, a particularly vigorous display of avian duets. And then it happened without warning in full daylight. Whilst I was filming the female calling, the male flew in and mounted her briefly, before jumping off and disappearing from view. No prizes for endurance. I couldn’t believe what we had just witnessed and recorded for posterity. To be fair to the male and save him some face, I’ve slowed down the incident in the below video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSKEYCslZbc

To watch the full episode on the Space Coast of Florida, please click on the below video. Enjoy! I’m off to Hooters to find out more about how the restaurant chain got its name.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIPMxztu-Cc

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I recommend What the Robin Knows to naturalists of every level of ability. But that’s not the point of this post!

In his book, the author shared a striking quote from a San Bushman, one that resonated with me for what should be obvious reasons…

If one day I see a small bird and recognize it, a thin thread will form between me and that bird. If I just see it but don’t recognize it, there is no thin thread. If I go out tomorrow and see and really recognize that same individual bird again, the thread will thicken and strengthen just a little. Every time I see and recognize that bird, the thread strengthens. Eventually it will grow into a string, then a cord, and finally a rope. This is what it means to be a Bushman. We make ropes with all aspects of the creation in this way.

Very few of our readers reside in the Kalahari or live a subsistence lifestyle, but we all share something rather profound. What it means to be a Bushman sounds an awful lot like what it means to be a birder, doesn’t it?

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I stayed for two hours during which I logged an even twenty species of warbler, many of which I managed to digiscope despite the light being against me. Add those twenty to the species I saw before work and I totaled 23 species of wood-warbler for the day! Not bad!

During the peak of spring migration the Forest Park waterhole is one of the best places to see a whole pile of birds. Get there before the season is over so you can see twenty species of wood-warbler in two hours!

All of the images in this post were taken in that two-hour period on Saturday – and I left out several species of wood-warbler, to say nothing of the Scarlet Tanager, Red-eyed Vireo, and Baltimore Oriole…

Blackburnian Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler wanting a Worm-eating Warbler to give up the bath

Black-throated Green Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Nashville Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Canada Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

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I blitzed Cobb’s Hill Park for a taste of migration, coming away with some lovely, lovely birds. While spotting six thrush species in a morning–four at once visiting a long puddle in the path–was a treat, I was most pleased to see Great Crested Flycatchers. I know these birds are fairly common and hardly the cream of the migratory crop, but I dig the Myiarchus. Of course, Corey trumped me, and perhaps you as well, with Parasitic Jaeger, yet another addition to his daunting Queens list!

What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

(In honor of Mother’s Day, you get bonus points for sharing links to your own photos of mother birds on nests.)

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