Where in the World?

If I gave you 100 guesses, you would never guess where I am this week. Hints: they love the US military, it's really hot, and the language is Arabic. Answer: Kuwait. Yup. Kuwait. A random work trip popped up and after some careful thought, I said yes. Of course you know that I don't go anywhere without the binoculars and camera. In most places, I am pretty comfortable going birding on my own using eBird hotspots as my guide. Not when I am in a very different culture though. Lucky for me, my friend George knows a birder who lives in Kuwait so I hired him as my guide.

Linda and Mike

Mike is originally from South Africa but transferred to Kuwait for his real job and is now an expert in Kuwait birding. Check out his blog at http://kuwaitbirding.blogspot.com/ for more info. We started the day early and headed north of Kuwait city into the desert to begin our day. Let me tell you, there is NOTHING out there for miles and miles except rocky, sandy desert. And, giant electric power lines.

There are more power lines running through this desert than  I've ever seen in my life. This photo is only one row of them.  The other very interesting thing that fills the desert are huge camping areas. Apparently, the Kuwaitis love to camp on the weekends in winter. Not my idea of camping but . . . 

Camping Kuwaiti Style

Oh, and if your going to be in the middle east in the desert, you gotta make friends with the locals. All I had to do was hold my hand up and this big fella walked right over looking for a handout.

Linda and friend

Kuwait is experiencing a very interesting natural phenomena in the desert. Can you see all of the vegetation in the camel photo? The entire desert is "green" due to rain of biblical proportions in November. The middle east was flooded and the desert came to life with grasses and flowers and - butterflies. We saw a million Painted Lady butterflies - not an exaggeration. They were literally covering the desert on every flower and little tree.

Painted Lady

It was very windy and much colder that I thought it would be in the desert. Glad I had my jacket with me. We finally got to our first birding destination which is a "farm" in the middle of the desert. Mike says that the farm is out here due to a natural spring that allows the farmer to have animals like cows and exotic pets plus trees and vegetables. Our first bird of the day was actually a shorebird - Green Sandpiper which was hanging out at the little man-made pond.

Green Sandpiper

Other birds used the pond for catching dragonflies. Here are 2 different types of wagtails with dragonflies. First is Gray Wagtail.

Gray Wagtail

This one is White Wagtail on the platform that the farmer uses to shoot ducks.

White Wagtail

I know, I know. It gets worse. Here is a Eurasian Kestral dead in a tree. The red flag is used to tether the Kestral to train the other falcons to kill it. Once it is caught, the Kestral is left to die in the tree. This is the trade-off with birding in other cultures. You can't be offended by the property owner's traditions if you want access to the land. Maybe the culture will change in the future. 

Dead Kestral

On a brighter note, one of my target species to photograph is the Eurasian Hoopoe. What a cool bird. We saw about a dozen during the day. I was able to capture a few photos.

Hoopoe

We saw many other birds at the desert farm including a few species of shrikes but the photos are not that great. The birds were pretty far away. I did manage to catch a shot of this Tawny Pipit. Talk about camouflage. We would never have seen the bird if it wasn't perched on a bush at first. Once it hopped onto the ground, it almost disappeared. 

Tawny Pipit

We spent a few hours at the farm and then headed back towards the city to explore other birding spots.

View From The Window

I'm lucky enough to work from home. You wouldn't be shocked to hear that my home office is set up so that I can see the back patio and pond from the window. I enjoy watching our yard birds everyday however some days are better than others. I learn a lot by watching the behaviors. For instance, I never knew that Robins would eat seed. I observed this a few years ago when one Robin stayed in the yard all winter and ate the seeds under the feeder. He must have taught his friends about it because there are at least 3 Robins in the yard this week gobbling up the seed.

Today's surprise seed eater was a Pine Warbler! He snuck in there with the House Finches. I noticed something more yellow. That's him on the right.

Pine Warbler with House Finches

The finches would chase him away but he stayed close waiting for an opportunity to get back to the seed. 

Pine Warbler

He also took a quick drink in the pond but the photos were terrible. I have to shoot through the window pane which doesn't produce great photos. Except when the bird is literally 2 feet away like this Downy Woodpecker. This is not cropped.

Downy Woodpecker

Yes, I should be working all day but keep in mind that I work through lunch and long hours so I feel OK taking a few minutes to enjoy the birds.

Pine Siskin Photo Shoot

In case you haven't heard yet, there is an "irruption" of Pine Siskins and other northern finches this year.  An irruption happens when birds that generally stay north in winter decide to move south en mass.  The reason is usually simple - no food up north.  Last year, we had Snowy Owls all over the place.  This year, its Pine Siskins and (hopefully) Crossbills.  These birds rely on the pine cone crop to supply food for the winter.  The bad news is that the pine trees didn't produce enough cones this year for the birds, so they are high-tailing it south.  You should have some at your bird feeder mixed in with Goldfinches any day now.

We have been seeing lots of Siskins on our bird walks lately. They are usually up in the trees when we see them but not this gal.  This bird was literally 3 feet away from me and Diane on Sunday chowing down on flower seeds along the trail at Cape May State Park.  She didn't flinch when the camera came out or when the flash went off or when we were talking.  She stayed right in front of us for at least 5 minutes - probably longer until some little brats came running along the trail and scared her into a nearby tree.  Sigh.

Anyway, none of these photos are cropped except for the second one.  That's how close the bird was.

 Pine Siskin

Look how freaking cute this is!  The photo even has a nice reddish background from the fall foliage.

 Pine Siskin

Then she moved to another flower that had a darker background.

 Pine Siskin

Then she posed.

Pine Siskin

I'm telling you, this bird was close.  Check out the iPhone video that Di shot of the situation.  I had to back up to the other side of the boardwalk to get the bird in focus.

Prevent Window Strikes

Most of the time, birdwatching is a joy.  We get to watch colorful or powerful creatures with the magical/mystical capability to fly. That captures our heart and imagination and transports us (well, me anyway) away from our human lives for a moment, hour, or longer (well, me anyway).  But sometimes, the cold hard world steps in and puts a damper on that magic.  Sometimes, birds die and we have to witness the death or the aftermath.  Don't worry, I will not show you my photos of dead birds. Rather, I wanted to report that sometimes, we can do things to help birds not die and we can help scientists learn more about birds if they do die.

First, let's discuss helping birds not die. One of the major causes of bird death that homeowners can prevent is window strikes.  Birds see the reflection of the yard in the window and think that they can fly to it.  Instead, they fly into the window and end up dead.  Sometimes they die right away and we find them under the window and sometimes they fly off seemingly unaffected.  The bad news is that most of those birds will probably die too from internal bleeding :-(  How can we help prevent this?  We can put things on the windows so that birds understand that it is not OK to fly there.  There are stickers available at most bird seed stores which have mixed reviews.  Here is a link:
Window Alert Stickers

There are industrial strength coverings like this one which are pretty much outside window shades that you can see through from inside:
Window Screens

This method seems like a winner to me.  It uses mesh, like the kind you use to protect fruit trees stretched across the outside of the windows to act as a "trampoline". 
Love Hollow - 100% Bird Proof Windows

Here are a few links that have really good information and include ways to help on a larger scale:

Wisconsin Birds
EarthEasy
David Sibley's Blog
Birdwatchers Digest Blog

Next on the list is House Finch conjunctivitis.  This is an eye disease similar to our "pink eye" that weakens the birds and they eventually die. To make matters worse, this disease is just as contagious as pink eye and ends up infecting all of the other finches at your feeder. This problem is harder to deal with for a number of reasons. The first thing that you need to do is take down all of your feeders so that the infected bird(s) are not in close contact with others. Wash the feeders with bleach and don't hang them up again for a loooong time. The infected birds will eventually die and hopefully not infect many other birds.  This is tough to do, but it is best for the common good.  Second, if you can capture an infected bird, you can save that bird by taking it to a wildlife rehab center.  Conjunctivitis in birds is just as treatable as our pink eye but it takes special care from trained professionals to cure the disease.  Ask that the bird be returned to you so that you can return it to its flock in our yard when it is cured.  (Also, give them a donation).

Finally, what can we do if we find a dead bird?  Simple.  Put it in a sealed plastic bag like a Ziploc and put it in your freezer and call your local Audubon.  They will usually take the dead birds and get them to scientists that can use them to learn more about birds.  Or, you can contact me.  I can take them to the Academy of Natural Sciences which is where the DVOC meetings take place.  In fact, I dropped off a frozen Ovenbird at last night's meeting that Barbara found on Penn's campus.

That's all for now. I hope that you take action to make your windows more bird proof. There is nothing worse than hearing that sickening "thump".  I promise a happier topic tomorrow.  I will be going to John Heinz NWR with the DVOC field trip and will hopefully have something fun to share. 

NUTS!

I have never seen so many Red-breasted Nuthatches as this week. They are everywhere!  The experts counted 213 of the little buggers flying past Higbee in one morning.  We had 4 of them in our yard on the big Tulip tree on Sunday.  Here is a good photo of one showing what it does best - which is picking under tree bark for bugs. Look at the color of his breast.  Connie wants a blouse in that color.

 Red-breasted Nuthatch

Another little cutie showed up on the same tree while I was trying to get a shot of the nuthatch.  A Black and White Warbler.  This photo is enough to make your eyes cross. I can't look at it for too long without feeling like a seizure is coming on. It wouldn't be so bad if he would pose in the same direction as the bark. Cute little bird though.

Black and White Warbler

Farmstock 5 or 6

Last weekend was Mark's annual Farmstock weekend at Dove Harbour Farm. This is my 3rd one and they are always a great time. Check out posts from past years. 

View of the cabin and barn from the lower field

This year as in the past, he volunteered me to lead the "Bird Walk" which is really a nature walk where we hopefully see some birds.

Here is a recap of this year's walk:

• Weather - spectacular!
• Time - way too late for a card-carrying member of any bird club but late enough to make it palatable for most of the group.
• Participants - only the fun people and the cool kids.
• Trail - down through the woods, through the marshy meadow on the newly blazed path and along the train grade to the Buffalo Lick.  Click here for the map.

As for the birds and nature - well we did pretty well. We started with well, Doves sitting on the wire. Next, we spotted a few Field Sparrows and headed into the woods.  Everyone got hear the Eastern Wood Pewee calling - "pee-wee" by the boy's camp.  Once we got into the field and marsh, the insects were our focus.

 Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

We also saw and heard alot of Goldfinches which made me hungry.  Not because I wanted to eat the Goldfinch, but because they sing "potato chip, potato chip" when they fly. And because it was getting near lunchtime.

Goldfinch

Other interesting birds that I was able to get photos of:

 Common yellowthroat skulking in the bushes

 Eastern Kingbird

Juvenile Swamp Sparrow

Check out this wasp.  It's a female Ichneumon (say that 2 times fast). Follow the photo all the way down to the bottom to see her tail.  This wasp is about 6 inches long which is mostly her tail.

 Ichneumon Wasp

From an article titled The Amazing Ichneumon by Connie Hjelmeng-Johnson:

Ichneumon wasps are truly a study in contradictions. They look frightening, but they are harmless to people. They are highly numerous, but seldom seen. They are great allies against insect pests, yet few people know about them. Females penetrate wood with tiny ovipositors, but scientists don't fully understand how. And while they are common in the world of insects, they are certainly "uncommon" to those of us who have observed their amazing behavior first hand.

The female has an extremely long ovipositor capable of piercing through several inches of insect-infested tree trunk to the caterpillars and other larvae within. When the eggs hatch, the ichneumon larvae feed on the body of the host. Eewwwww!

Most of the group got to see a Woodcock on the way back through the woods even though I missed it. I think people had fun and we got to eat potato chips at lunch! 

Now Entering the Jump Circle

The trip was originally planned for today which I couldn't make but was rescheduled to yesterday - hooray.  I had to send a copy of my driver's license and car registration and swear that I was a U.S. citizen to even be allowed on the trip. We had to meet the Conservation Officer at 0700 (that's 7 AM) outside of the base.  We carpooled to reduce the amount of traffic through the checkpoint.  We remembered the Hindenburg disaster. Then, we entered the "Jump Circle".

What am I talking about?  The DVOC birding trip to Lakehurst Naval Air Station to see Upland Sandpipers, of course.  Each year, Upland Sandpipers nest in the Jump Circle at Lakehurst because it is one of the only places in NJ that has an expanse of low cropped fields which is the perfect habitat.  The only reason that this exists in the middle of the Pine Barrens, is because the military keeps it mowed for parachute jumpers to practice.  After all, you wouldn't want the paratroopers to land on pine trees.

If you are old enough, you may have heard the famously chilling radio account of the Hindenburg disaster.  You have probably seen the 8mm film footage of the disaster no matter how old you are.  Well, guess where that happened?  Yep, Lakehurst Naval Air Base.  Here is a link to more information www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster .  Here is a photo that I took of the hangar that housed the giant airship. The hangar is enormous.

Once we made it to the Jump Circle, we basically got out of the cars and started looking for our target grassland birds.  We were immediately met with flying, singing Upland Sandpipers.  These are shorebirds that never see the shore and don't act like shorebirds at all.  They soar like hawks and live like songbirds for the most part.  The weather was very overcast, so I didn't get a very good photo of any of the "Uppies", which is what the other group members kept calling them.

 Upland Sandpiper in flight - terrible photo

Click here to hear the call. It sounds like a construction worker whistling at a pretty girl walking past.  Honestly.  www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Upland_Sandpiper/sounds

Once the Uppies settled down, the star of the show became this Grasshopper Sparrow who refused to quit singing from this stem despite the wind:

 Grasshopper Sparrow close-up

Singing away

Wind blown from behind. We were all surprised to see yellow on the wings which does not appear in the field guide.

This is the basic habitat that attracts the Upland Sandpiper, Grasshopper Sparrow, Horned Lark and Meadowlark which we also saw on yesterday's trip.  Pretty barren, but they all seem to like it.

Still singing!

Dismissed!

Pre Game

We are all fired up for the Big Day tomorrow.  We have been scouting for a few days now and we think we have a good a good game plan.  We will start at 4 AM at Higbee beach - sitting in the car listening for a Barred Owl and any other birds that are chirping at that hour of the morning.  We spent a few hours there this morning (not before dawn) and got alot of birds.  We can only hope for the same tomorrow. 

It has already been exhausting, so we are off to bed in a few minutes.  I thought I would share a few colorful photos with you to get you ready for spring.  This guy was singing full force at Tinicum on Tuesday.

Yellow Warbler

Here is Indigo Bunting.  There are alot of these guys on our World Series "route".  They sing really loud from almost every field in the area.  We are sure to get one of these for our list.

 Indigo Bunting

Another really colorful bird that has arrived from his winter home is the Summer Tanager.  These birds turn greenish yellow in winter and then shed all feathers and go red for summer.  We like to think they go Phillies Red!

Summer Tanager

Wish us luck by commenting on the blog!

It's That Time of Year Again . . .

 

The World Series of WHAT?

The World Series of BIRDING, that's what.

Here is an excerpt from "Opposable Chums" - a film about the event by Jason Kessler:

"Equal parts scavenger hunt, science expedition, and endurance test, The World Series of Birding is also a fundraiser, generating millions of dollars for conservation. The more bird species tallied, the more money raised.

• One team mounts a paramilitary operation replete with infrared scopes and GPS devices.
• Another team does the event on foot, jogging almost 50 miles.
• After scouting for weeks, one team has the entire 24 hours planned literally to the minute.
• A Seniors team counts only the birds that fly by the bench it sits on all day.

Past participants have included some of the most renowned birders in the world, such as Roger Tory Peterson, David Allen Sibley, Kenn Kaufman, and Pete Dunne. "

As for us, the Philly Bird Nerds will be participating again this year trying to beat those 8th graders again.  We are limiting ourselves to Cape May County again this year and hope to get 140 species.  We are raising money for NJ Audubon again this year. If we get enough sponsors, we may split the money and send some to another organization (hint, hint). We raised $260 last year.  We would really like to raise at least that much this year and are really hoping to raise more.  I will send instructions for sponsorship in another post.  For now, just start saving your pennies.

We are scouting beginning this weekend for nesting birds so that we can "pin them down" as they say.

Barbara and I are most interested in owls right now.  We haven't been able to get Barred or Screech owl in past years, so we have been out at night listening for them.  We have a lead on a Screech Owl down in West Cape May and will be heading there this weekend to listen again.  We are also considering turning the tide in our favor by hanging a Screech Owl nest box in the "wetlands" across the street from the Blue House for next year. What's wrong with that?  I didn't read any rules about that.

More updates later.

Nevermore

I work a block away from the Edgar Allen Poe house in Philadelphia.  There is a bronze Raven sculpture in the front yard of the house where he supposedly lived for a few years.  Ironically, there are no Ravens in Philadelphia but there are lots of Ravens in California.  Lots.  We encountered Ravens on each outing from San Francisco down to Pasadena but a few are blog worthy. 

The first Raven we photographed was hanging out on a fire pit at Muir Beach.  California allows dogs and fires on almost all of their beaches which is pretty cool.  This Raven was obviously used to both of those things.

Common Raven

Check out the big beak and thick neck on this bird that distinguishes it from a Crow along with the size difference.

The next notable Ravens were seen at Mt. Wilson observatory outside of Pasadena.  Di and I took a drive up to the top of the 5,000 foot mountain where they have several really large telescopes on Sunday.  One of the workers noticed our binoculars and camera and asked if we would be interested to see a Raven's nest.  Hell yeah!  He said "see that cliff over there?" "Um, which one?" "the one with the missing rock" "Um, which one?".  Well, you get the gist of it.  He was patient and we finally saw the nest:

 And then we got to see the birds fly out of the nest and soar around the canyon.  Trust me, the soaring photos were terrible!  Here is the best shot I could get of the Raven leaving the nest:

They were quite cooperative and landed on a tree snag right along the path to the telescopes for these photos.

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

To Sur with Love!

I know I spelled Sir wrong.  Or did I?  After a brief set back at the McDonald's in Monterrey where the Iced Tea dispenser broke and soaked both of us and made me bleed in 2 places, Di and I hit the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) on Friday en route to visit our uncle in Pasadena. Some of the best scenery is along Big Sur.

I got 8 life birds and Di probably got 20 or more.  The biggest life bird for both of us is coincidentally the biggest bird in North America - the California Condor.  The sighting is also a cute story . . .

The PCH is a twisty-turny-uppy-downy road with constant breathtaking views of the Pacific ocean and mountains for over a hundred miles.  It is almost too much to endure without taking a break.  So much so, that we pulled into a State Park for a rest and to look for a bandaid to help stop the bleeding from what is now know as "the iced tea incident".  As soon as we got out of the car, we were met with a flurry of bird activity including this Stellar's Jay.

 Stellar's Jay with acorn

The ranger on duty obliged with a bandaid and was happy to give us directions to good birding locations. He told us that the best birding location on the whole Big Sur coast was back north on the PCH about 5 miles - where we just came from.  Diane hesitated to go back 5 miles but then he asked us where we were from and reiterated that it was only 5 miles up the road, insinuating that we were already 3,000 miles out of our way so what was another 5?  Good point.  Off we went - back north on the PCH to Andrew Molero State Park for great birding.

The ranger at the Andrew Molera gate was a peppy young woman who just oozed happiness.  I told her that I would pay the $10 entrance fee but I wanted it back if we didn't see a Condor.  She said that she couldn't make that deal but proceeded to tell us that we could see Condors down the road about 20 miles.  That would be 15 miles south of the other guy's park.  We parked and hiked at Andrew Molera and saw great birds and great scenery:

 Diane with Big Sur Coast

Why does Di keep telling me to take another step back for this photo?

 Orange-crowned Warblers were singing and posing

So was this Wilson's Warbler - I love the little black cap

 Surfbirds were picking along the rocky shoreline

We headed south again to Julia Pfeifer State Park where our park ranger told us we may find Condors.  She said that there were 2 fledged babies along the ridges and that the parents were often seen there too.  What she failed to mention is that there was also beautiful waterfall that went right to the beach and water that is a color of blue that I can't describe:

 Waterfall and turquoise water

Linda posing

Even though we were both mesmerized by the water, we kept scanning the skies for big birds - without luck.  On our way back to the parking lot across the highway, I stopped to scan the canyon and thought that I might have spotted something.  Take a look:

 I put red arrows in the photo where I thought I saw something that looked like a big black bird (maybe a baby Condor)

That is when Diane started scanning the skies and said "I think I got the Condor", or something like that.  I looked up, way up, no farther up than that, waaaaay up there and saw a tiny dot in the sky.  It could have been anything, but just then it turned around and viola!  Condor.  You can tell this is a giant bird even at that distance. The photo below is zoomed way in and cropped. That is how high this bird was soaring when Di picked it out of the thin blue sky. Literally.

 California Condor

If it wasn't 20 miles back in the wrong direction, I was going to go give that young woman another $10!  Her tip really paid off.


More later.