Author Archives: Amy

January Florida pelagic fun

I had a lot of fun on last week’s pelagic trip, the final event of the annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I managed to track where we went just fine, but I missed a couple of great birds. Oops!

drawbridge
Going under the causeway

Shortly after we left the inlet, the boat slowed down and we heard over the loudspeaker that there was a possible Razorbill being seen at 3 o’clock (the opposite side of the boat from where I stood). I stumbled over, but the bird never resurfaced and we moved on. I had missed the bird but at least I heard and understood the announcement.

For the rest of the trip I swear I couldn’t understand anything coming out of the loudspeaker! Sometimes other birders would call out so the rest of us could get on a bird. At one point I honestly think I heard it announced that there was an “Audubon’s Bridled Phalarope at 3 o’clock.” WTH!?

shrimp boat
Shrimp boat with no gull groupies

I missed seeing a Brown Booby that was spotted from the opposite side of the boat. I ran over but the bird was gone by the time I got word. And during a comfort break I missed seeing a Bridled Tern perched on a buoy which was apparently giving crippling views. I had seen a distant but clear Bridled Tern earlier in the trip so this miss didn’t sting too bad — even though it was a lifer. The Booby would’ve been, too. Bummer. But really, I have to save some good looks and lifers for the next pelagic, don’t I?

preparing the chum
Chopping up fish for chum

Mates prepared chunks of fish to use for chum (pelagic standard operating procedure). For most of the trip, a disgusting slop was tossed out behind the boat to attract birds.

chumming
Chumming

backlit gulls
Gulls attracted to the chum

Laughing, Ring-billed, Herring, and both Black-backed Gulls followed us several miles out.

Ring-billed Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull
Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull

Northern Gannets joined them, and we had the opportunity to study these large seabirds in their various plumages. The previous link goes to a slideshow of fabulous gannet photos taken by Laura Erickson, who was also on the pelagic trip. I was glad to have the pleasure to visit with Laura, albeit very briefly, before we reached port at the end of the day.

Royal Tern
Royal Tern

We were also treated to nice views of Royal Terns as they soared behind and beside the boat.

When we were at about 40 miles out, but on our way back in, we slowed to release a very young Loggerhead Sea Turtle. The turtle had been in the care of the Marine Science Center for the past several weeks and Arthur had the chance to look after it during some of his volunteer shifts. The youngster was released among some clusters of sea grass.

baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle
baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle

The rest of the trip back in was rather uneventful, bird-wise. People got to chatting and I moved around the boat, talking with some of the nicest birders I’ve ever met. Bruce Anderson brought out a small collection of study skins and gave an impromptu lecture on the identification of birds like kittiwakes, phalaropes, and the like. He even had a specimen of a young Razorbill, a casualty from the recent Florida invasion.

pretty sky
pretty sky

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

All in all, it was a fun day out on the water. I got sunburned (will I ever learn?). I got one lifer. I got a bunch of new county birds (number one on eBird, baby!). I got to talk to some of the best of the best in Florida birding. Oh, and I got to meet and bird with Greg Miller. Yes, the Greg Miller.

THE Greg Miller & me
THE Greg Miller & me

Yes, it was a great pelagic trip that will be hard to beat! Until next time! Haha!

Posted in Festivals & Events, Pelagic | 2 Comments

Ecdysis & Exuvia

I am not holding a crab in this photo. I am holding an exuvia.

exuvia

I found this exoskeleton at Canaveral National Seashore. I was looking at a huge horseshoe crab shell when I almost stepped on this neat little thing. Ecdysis is the process of molting the exoskeleton in invertebrate species. I wish I knew what kind of crab this specimen came from.

Posted in Florida, Not Birds, Offbeat | Leave a comment

My visitors came from *where* in January 2013?!?!

Last year I split this personal blog off from MagnificentFrigatebird.com. With the split, I thought it would be fun to revive this monthly series where I examine some of the more interesting or outrageous search terms found in my statcounter. You can see previous posts in this series, which ran during 2009 and 2011, here. So, what brought people to my blog last month?

I was happy to see searches for Gemini Springs Bald Eagles, gemini springs bears, and Barred Owls in Gemini Springs Park. Glad to see my favorite place get some love from the internet.

Someone wondered, can you own an owl in illinois? It’s not simple. For education purposes, one may apply for a permit to keep an owl. In addition to any state requirements, a permit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must also be obtained. Someone else wondered how to obtain an illinois owl permit. I wish them well with their search because I had a hard time finding any type of wildlife rehabilitation or education permit information on the Illinois DNR website.

Some silly typos or spelling mistakes came up: sawette owl; colonial of Bank Swallows; euroasian spoonbill chicks; wanxwings in netherlands;

I just love that someone searched for sharm el sheikh sewage and found this blog! Hopefully this post was helpful.

The most intriguing search term of the month: endangered bird that travels in small flocks digs holes in trees next to nest. Anyone know what this might be? Someone else was looking for skinny white bird with pure white feathers and orange bill with orange legs – I’m thinking White Ibis, maybe?

Posted in Search Terms | Leave a comment

Tracking a pelagic journey

Last Monday I joined the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival pelagic trip out of Ponce Inlet. This was my second trip on the Pastime Princess, following my first pelagic back in September 2011.

I wanted to try to track the trip on a map, so I looked into how to use the GPS on my iPhone without having network connection. I learned that if the area to be visited is cached in the iPhone’s native Maps app, the GPS will be able to find the present location on the map. (I am still on IOS 5.1.1 so I was using the iPhone Maps app powered by Google maps.) The day before the pelagic, I spent a few minutes zooming in and out of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Volusia and Brevard counties on my iPhone to get as much information into the cache as possible.

There are applications that can use cached maps in coordination with GPS to make a line that tracks a journey, but I figured this might be a battery drain. So instead, I planned to drop pins on the map as we went. However, I learned just a bit too late (on the boat, at sea!!) that the app won’t hold more than one pin. I could have saved locations as bookmarks, but that seemed cumbersome.

So, plan B. I checked our location every hour or so using the Maps app. It takes a few moments for the phone to fix a location using just GPS, so I had to be patient. Once I knew that our location was found, I went to the native Compass app and took a screenshot. At the end of the day I had a list of coordinates that I plugged into a Google map when I got home.

_mappies

This map shows how we went. We actually started at Ponce Inlet which is by point N, but I didn’t start taking coordinates until we turned out to sea. For the first part of the trip we hugged the coast (so from N to A).


View Larger Map

This may be a very roundabout way of tracking the trip, but it worked great and I was pleased to see for myself how we went. Trip leaders often give out a very general idea of how the boat will travel, or the final mileage and approximate distance from the shore, but I think it’s neat to see more precisely how we traveled. The total journey from port to port was about 123 miles; at our furthest point we were about 48 miles offshore. And of course I was most pleased to see that we did not travel into Brevard waters, as was first indicated! 😀

Posted in Festivals & Events, Pelagic, Space Coast Fest | 1 Comment

Mini Big Green Day

Listing has become part of my enjoyment of birding, and BIGBY listing is a major component. BIGBY birding is “green” birding – getting around without the use of fossil fuels. I spent a great deal of today birding and covered about 35 miles on foot (9) and bike (26). Covering that ground I found 61 species. The Volusia Big Day high count is 95 species, so my total is nowhere near the record, but I’m still well pleased – especially considering my inland location.

I had some big misses, including birds I have seen in recent days at locations I visited today: Belted Kingfisher; American Kestrel; and Loggerhead Shrike. I’m also skunked for the year on some relatively common birds that I had hoped to pick up today, but didn’t: Black-and-white Warbler; Limpkin; Barred Owl; Green Heron; ugh, the list goes on. And if I had been thinking, Rock Dove and House Sparrow would’ve been gimmes at the grocery store parking lot, but I forgot to make that little detour on the way home.

I biked to Gemini Springs in the morning, and walked a much longer route than I normally do, including the entire stretch of the Spring-to-spring trail. I came home at lunchtime with 50 species.

Ospreys at Gemini
Ospreys, Gemini Springs

In the back yard I added Chipping Sparrow and Downy Woodpecker.

Downy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker, our back yard

In the afternoon I biked to the East Regional Rail Trail, which winds through Enterprise and Deltona. I stopped at Audubon Park where I added 7 species to the day’s list. Biking home I heard American Crows flying overhead and then I had bike around a Wild Turkey in the path — my last bird of the day.

Hooded Merganser
Hooded Merganser, Audubon Park

My pace was quite leisurely; my impressive-to-me total leaves me with a target to beat on a future outing! Here’s my list for today:

Blue-winged Teal – Anas discors
Green-winged Teal – Anas crecca
Hooded Merganser – Lophodytes cucullatus
Wild Turkey – Meleagris gallopavo
Pied-billed Grebe – Podilymbus podiceps
Wood Stork – Mycteria americana
Double-crested Cormorant – Phalacrocorax auritus
Anhinga – Anhinga anhinga
Great Blue Heron – Ardea herodias
Great Egret – Ardea alba
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula
Little Blue Heron – Egretta caerulea
Tricolored Heron – Egretta tricolor
Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis
White Ibis – Eudocimus albus
Glossy Ibis – Plegadis falcinellus
Black Vulture – Coragyps atratus
Turkey Vulture – Cathartes aura
Osprey – Pandion haliaetus
Bald Eagle – Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red-shouldered Hawk – Buteo lineatus
Red-tailed Hawk – Buteo jamaicensis
Common Gallinule – Gallinula galeata
American Coot – Fulica americana
Sandhill Crane – Grus canadensis
Killdeer – Charadrius vociferus
Greater Yellowlegs – Tringa melanoleuca
Lesser Yellowlegs – Tringa flavipes
Wilson’s Snipe – Gallinago delicata
Ring-billed Gull – Larus delawarensis
Forster’s Tern – Sterna forsteri
Mourning Dove – Zenaida macroura
Red-bellied Woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Downy Woodpecker – Picoides pubescens
Pileated Woodpecker – Dryocopus pileatus
Eastern Phoebe – Sayornis phoebe
White-eyed Vireo – Vireo griseus
Blue-headed Vireo – Vireo solitarius
Blue Jay – Cyanocitta cristata
American Crow – Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow – Corvus ossifragus
Carolina Chickadee – Poecile carolinensis
Tufted Titmouse – Baeolophus bicolor
House Wren – Troglodytes aedon
Carolina Wren – Thryothorus ludovicianus
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – Polioptila caerulea
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – Regulus calendula
Hermit Thrush – Catharus guttatus
American Robin – Turdus migratorius
Gray Catbird – Dumetella carolinensis
Northern Mockingbird – Mimus polyglottos
Orange-crowned Warbler – Oreothlypis celata
Palm Warbler – Setophaga palmarum
Pine Warbler – Setophaga pinus
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata
Chipping Sparrow – Spizella passerina
Northern Cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Red-winged Blackbird – Agelaius phoeniceus
Common Grackle – Quiscalus quiscula
Boat-tailed Grackle – Quiscalus major
American Goldfinch – Spinus tristis

Posted in Florida, Green Birding | Leave a comment

Two and a half B-A-D Weeks

Painted Bunting
14-JAN: Painted Bunting | our back yard in DeBary, Volusia Co. FL

I had hoped to share frequent updates and photos from the Bird-A-Day challenge this year, but several days of gloomy weather, a new camera I’m not sure of, and a generally unlucky start to the birding year have all conspired against me.

That said, I’ve survived the first two weeks plus of the challenge, even if I don’t have fine photos or exciting stories to show for it.

After a fun night ringing in the new year at Epcot, Arthur and I got a late start on January 1st. We hit a couple of birding spots on our way to our second annual New Year’s Day dip into the Atlantic Ocean. I ended up with just 39 birds at the end of the day; for my first B-A-D I picked a species I didn’t use at all last year: American White Pelican.

The week rounded out with birds found in our back yard (Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and American Robin), one at my volunteer gig (Wood Duck), at Gemini Springs (Wilson’s Snipe and Blue-headed Vireo), and around town (Wild Turkey). The robin and Wood Duck were a bit painful to cross off, but they were the besties for their days.

Week two started off with a bird at my local patch (Ruby-crowned Kinglet). Last year I got 41 out of 144 birds at Gemini Springs, a pace I expect to continue into this year.

just an eBird record shot
09-JAN: Purple Sandpiper | Lighthouse Point Park, Ponce Inlet, Volusia Co. FL

Arthur volunteers in Ponce Inlet each week, and I tag along when I’m able. While he heads to his good work, I take off to watch birds at spots along the coast. The car’s going there anyway, ya know?

In this way I was able to use Purple Sandpiper on the 9th and Red-breasted Merganser a week later. Three of the remaining birds of week two were found in our back yard (Baltimore Oriole, American Goldfinch, and Painted Bunting). Three weeks ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of using American Goldfinch as my B-A-D so soon, but about ten days ago our goldfinches scattered and we only see one or two a day, if any.

American Kestrel
13-JAN: American Kestrel | Brickyard Slough, Volusia Co. FL

An American Kestrel at Brickyard Slough, a Hooded Merganser at Magic Kingdom, an Orange-crowned Warbler at Gemini Springs, and a Little Blue Heron round out the first 17 days of the challenge.

Hooded Mergansers
11-JAN: Hooded Mergansers | Magic Kingdom, Orange Co. FL | photo by Arthur de Wolf

Posted in Bird-a-Day Challenge | Leave a comment

Meme Monday: Hitler Reacts

If you’re not active on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you may be missing out on the joy of Internet memes. A meme (rhymes with cream) is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” An Internet meme can be as short as a catch-phrase or as complex as a video clip. A lot of memes are simple graphics which are altered to suit different topics. When a meme is hot, you can be sure there will be variants related to birds or birding.

Der Untergang (US: Downfall) is a 2004 German film about the last days of Adolf Hitler’s life. The success of the film reached meme proportions in August 2006 with the release of the first parody “Hitler Reacts” clip. Since then, one particularly heated scene from De Untergang has been used countless times to parody Hitler reacting to everything from the U.S. mortgage crisis to Usain Bolt breaking the 100 meter dash world record. And now, Hitler Reacts to Missing Hoary Repoll in Colorado:


Hoary Redpolls are typically found much further north; the recent Colorado sighting is the state’s first.

UPDATE September 18, 2013

Here is a brilliant version of the meme uploaded in September, 2013: Hitler gets 700.

UPDATE January 25, 2014

Wren ID problems make the Führer angry in Hitler Reacts to a Stub-tailed Wren in Boulder:

Posted in Funny, Internet Meme, Video | Leave a comment

Birding Gemini Springs, December 2012

In December I birded at Gemini Springs 7 times. My species total for the month was 63. Four of these were new for my year list, which ended at a total of 106 species. The new birds were Black-crowned Night Heron, Ring-billed Gull, Field Sparrow, and Baltimore Oriole. Only Field Sparrow was new for my all time Gemini Springs list, which stands at 110. Field Sparrow was a new Florida bird for me as well. The complete list is at the end of this post. Here are some of my favorite photos from the month.

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird | 01 December 2012

Red-bellied Woodpecker feathers
Red-bellied Woodpecker feathers | 01 December 2012

Baldies
Bald Eagle pair; female on right | 02 December 2012

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 02 December 2012

Florida snow
gone to seed | 02 December 2012

misty morning
misty morning | 10 December 2012

On December 10th I stopped to watch an Eastern Grey Squirrel busy in the treetop above me. I think she was gathering nest material. She would grab a leafy branch and then bring it into a large clump of vegetation that I think she was shaping into a cozy nursery. She would disappear into the clump and then each time she emerged, she would spend a moment washing her face and sides before proceeding to gather another branch. The below photo is awful but you can see she is working with a twig.

busy squirrel
busy squirrel | 10 December 2012

Cooper's Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk | 10 December 2012

Grey Catbird
Grey Catbird | 10 December 2012

young gator
American Alligator | 10 December 2012

Osprey
Osprey | 10 December 2012

Tricolored Heron
Tricolored Heron | 10 December 2012

On December 28th Arthur and I went to the park in the afternoon for a short walk. We were surprised to see a Gopher Tortoise close to some picnic tables in the lawn area across from the dog park. A family was using the closest table, and a little boy was interested in the tortoise and watching it from a respectful distance. This was the second time I have seen a Gopher Tortoise at Gemini Springs. The park does not have the kind of sandy scrub or longleaf pine habitat where I would expect to find them, but obviously I am no expert.

OM NOM NOM
Gopher Tortoise | 28 December 2012

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker | 30 December 2012

Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal | 30 December 2012

Pied-billed Grebe – Podilymbus podiceps
Wood Stork – Mycteria americana
Double-crested Cormorant – Phalacrocorax auritus
Anhinga – Anhinga anhinga
Great Blue Heron – Ardea herodias
Great Egret – Ardea alba
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula
Little Blue Heron – Egretta caerulea
Tricolored Heron – Egretta tricolor
Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis
Black-crowned Night-Heron – Nycticorax nycticorax
White Ibis – Eudocimus albus
Black Vulture – Coragyps atratus
Turkey Vulture – Cathartes aura
Osprey – Pandion haliaetus
Cooper’s Hawk – Accipiter cooperii
Bald Eagle – Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red-shouldered Hawk – Buteo lineatus
Red-tailed Hawk – Buteo jamaicensis
Sora – Porzana carolina
Common Gallinule – Gallinula galeata
American Coot – Fulica americana
Sandhill Crane – Grus canadensis
Killdeer – Charadrius vociferus
Ring-billed Gull – Larus delawarensis
Forster’s Tern – Sterna forsteri
Mourning Dove – Zenaida macroura
Belted Kingfisher – Megaceryle alcyon
Red-bellied Woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – Sphyrapicus varius
Downy Woodpecker – Picoides pubescens
Pileated Woodpecker – Dryocopus pileatus
American Kestrel – Falco sparverius
Eastern Phoebe – Sayornis phoebe
Loggerhead Shrike – Lanius ludovicianus
Blue Jay – Cyanocitta cristata
American Crow – Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow – Corvus ossifragus
Tufted Titmouse – Baeolophus bicolor
House Wren – Troglodytes aedon
Carolina Wren – Thryothorus ludovicianus
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – Polioptila caerulea
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – Regulus calendula
American Robin – Turdus migratorius
Gray Catbird – Dumetella carolinensis
Northern Mockingbird – Mimus polyglottos
Black-and-white Warbler – Mniotilta varia
Orange-crowned Warbler – Oreothlypis celata
Common Yellowthroat – Geothlypis trichas
Palm Warbler – Setophaga palmarum
Pine Warbler – Setophaga pinus
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata
Yellow-throated Warbler – Setophaga dominica
Chipping Sparrow – Spizella passerina
Field Sparrow – Spizella pusilla
Savannah Sparrow – Passerculus sandwichensis
Swamp Sparrow – Melospiza georgiana
Northern Cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Red-winged Blackbird – Agelaius phoeniceus
Common Grackle – Quiscalus quiscula
Boat-tailed Grackle – Quiscalus major
Baltimore Oriole – Icterus galbula
American Goldfinch – Spinus tristis

Posted in Gemini Springs | Leave a comment

Goals for 2013

It’s that time of year! Here’s what I hope to accomplish, bird-wise, in 2013.

  • I’ll be keeping a BIGBY list again. With 115 birds last year, I surpassed my goal. That total will be hard to beat; I will be happy to get 100+ again in 2013.
  • I will be participating in the Bird-a-Day Challenge once again. My target is to beat last year’s total of 144 birds. I also strive to not stress about it too much. It’s a lot of fun but it messed with my head a bit last year. 😉
  • I would like to crack 200 birds in Volusia for the year. My Volusia life list is at 180, my 2012 list was 167 (#1 on eBird), and the eBird total for Volusia in 2012 was 249 (all as of December 30). The Big Year record for Volusia is 278 birds set by Michael Brothers in 2007.
  • I will try really, really hard to review at least 20 books this year. I post my reviews on MagnificentFrigatebird.com and last year I was a huge slacker.
  • I’d like to fill in the missing weeks for Gemini Springs on eBird. Right now there are three eBird hotspots for Gemini Springs (I have suggested these be merged, but I am not sure how this process works). I use Gemini Springs and there are just two greyed-out weeks: the second in February and the second in May (from my own checklists, there are 7 weeks missing). The hotspot Gemini Springs County Park has more checklists over fewer months; between May and November there are only two weeks of data. This location appears to be used heavily by a snowbirder! 🙂 Combining all of the Gemini hotspots leaves just the second week of May missing.
  • I would like to improve my raptor handling skills at my new volunteer place, but I feel moving forward here isn’t in my hands as much as I would like. So I would consider it a “nice-to-have” if I could handle 4 more birds in 2013.

Do you have any goals (bird-related or otherwise!) for the coming year? Let me know in the comments! And best wishes for a fantastic and successful 2013!

Posted in ACBOP, Bird-a-Day Challenge, Florida, Green Birding, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

Favorite Photos from 2012

Here are some of my favorite photos taken over the course of 2012, in random order. Click on image to see details and view larger on Flickr.com.

BCNH06
Black-crowned Night Heron

Laughing Gull
Laughing Gull

baby Red-shouldered Hawks
Baby Red-shouldered Hawks

Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants

Sedge Wren
Sedge Wren

Indigo Bunting
Indigo Bunting

Green-winged Macaw
Green-winged Macaw (captive)

Barred Owl
Barred Owl

Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker

Great Crested Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher

Posted in Florida, Gemini Springs, Illinois | Leave a comment