How do I know Spring is here?

Pussy-willows send out their downy canary blooms in otherwise empty forest edges.  The hooded mottled flowers of skunk cabbage emerge from muddy banks.  Early brown stoneflies crawl to shore, molt, and take flight, hovering over riffles as trout eagerly devour those that stray to slack water.  I become so absorbed in the movement of the stream that the swift whistling flight of two male common mergansers catches me off guard.  Song sparrows and red-winged blackbirds drown out the sounds of blaring canada geese in wetlands still cluttered with dormant cattails.  These are the first novel colors and movements of the year, revealed only by the absence of foliage, yet to conceal.

Rough-legged Hawk at Old Crow Wetland

Observers:    Ian Gardner 
Location:     Old Crow Wetland
Observation date:     4/7/11
Time:    7:00-9:30am

Notes:    After a successful, yet cursory, excursion to Old Crow Wetland yesterday, I took a more in depth look this morning.  I parked the car just after sunrise, but with the continuing cloud cover the birds kept their dawn chorus and activity at peak levels until 9am.  Right away I noticed the Blue-winged Teal, Green-Winged Teal, Mallard, Hooded Mergansers, Wood Duck, and Canada Geese in the lower pond.  I even had a surprise Horned Grebe that usually inhabits larger bodies of water.  Swallows filled the air in dense configurations, even colorfully decorating a White Ash.  Tree Swallows held the majority with Barn and Northern Rough-winged filling in.  During my walk around the ponds, 7 Wilson's Snipe flew up from their vegetative cover.  Sparrows were diverse today with 5 species present (Fox, Savannah, Song, Swamp, and White-throated).  On my walk to the "Goldenrod Field," I identified the same juvenile light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK flying off past the hotel construction.  7 Eastern Meadowlarks were also singing and flying between the remaining stems.  Just as I cleared the peak of the hill, 12 Fish Crows flew overhead.  That marks a high count for that corvid at the wetlands.  Bufflehead pairs remained in the Walmart-side pond as they have since February.  Again, I wandered back down to the lower pond, avoiding mother goose and the flighty Wood Ducks.  I would focus on the Quaking Aspen forest today.  After reading of Joe Verica's reports of sapsuckers and kinglets, I thought I might have some luck and I was correct.  7 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in all hopped up the silvery trunks while nearly a dozen Golden-crowned Kinglets and Black-capped Chickadees sorted through the spent aspen catkins, adorning trees and honeysuckle shrubs below.  A few Yellow-rumped Warblers joined the flock while an invasion of Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches filled the canopy for a minute or two.  By about 9am, the sun appeared and the chorus quieted (all except for the Brown Thrasher and Eastern Towhees).  By the end of the 2+ hours I spent in the wetlands, I identified 50 species, which might be a personal high count.  I guess persistence (and afternoon classes) pays off.  Enjoy the weather!

Number of species:     50

Species List:   
Canada Goose     50
Wood Duck     4
Mallard     2
Blue-winged Teal     6
Green-winged Teal     2
Bufflehead     9
Hooded Merganser     8
Pied-billed Grebe     1
Horned Grebe     1
Great Blue Heron     3
Turkey Vulture     2
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK     1     Light-morph
American Kestrel     2
Killdeer     1
Wilson's Snipe     7
Ring-billed Gull     1
Mourning Dove     4
Belted Kingfisher     1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     7
Downy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     8
Eastern Phoebe     5
Blue Jay     3
American Crow     2
Fish Crow     12
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     2
Tree Swallow     50
Barn Swallow     10
Black-capped Chickadee     7
Tufted Titmouse     5
White-breasted Nuthatch (Eastern)     1
Carolina Wren     1
Golden-crowned Kinglet     11
Eastern Bluebird     6
American Robin     20
Brown Thrasher     1
European Starling     4
Yellow-rumped Warbler     4
Eastern Towhee     2
Savannah Sparrow     4
Fox Sparrow (Red)     1
Song Sparrow     18
Swamp Sparrow     8
White-throated Sparrow     2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     35
Northern Cardinal     9
Red-winged Blackbird     14
Eastern Meadowlark     7
Common Grackle     3
American Goldfinch     11

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

          Ian Gardner,
 Juniata College class of 2011

Cerulean Warbler: Riverside Nature Trail (Raystown Spillway)

Location:     Riverside Nature Trail
Observation date:     4/21/11
Time:    10:30am-12:00pm

Notes:    With spring upon us, it's time to look for incoming warblers through the forests.  I took a walk through the Riverside Nature Trail along the Raystown Dam spillway this morning.  Even without birds, the forest was full of life.  All the maples were blooming: Red, Silver, Sugar, and Box Elder.  This is one of the few places I can see all four species blooming together.  Underneath their canopy, the Spicebush shed a yellow glow to the shrub layer with occasional Serviceberry dotting the understory.  Trout Lily, Bloodroot, Cut-leaf Toothwort, and Dutchman's Breeches, creating an ephemeral carpet, were in full bloom and the Virginia Bluebells and Mayapples were right behind them.  Amid all the colors of burgeoning botanicals, several species of migrating birds made an appearance.  At the very beginning of the trail, even at the parking lot, the wheezing songs of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers echoed around me.  They constantly flit through the branches, like kinglets with longer tails.  Another abundant species was the Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler.  Their subdued warbling was constantly in the background as the Eastern Towhees, Louisiana Waterthrushes, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Carolina Wrens, and Black-capped Chickadees sounded off.  After scanning across the stream and canopy for a few minutes, I noticed a warbler gleaning through the understory.  It looked like a Black-and-white Warbler at first glance, but its behavior was completely wrong.  BWWA tend to cling to tree trunks in more similar fashion to nuthatches than warblers.  This bird was flying between branches and even hawking occasionally.  After looking through my binoculars, the blue hues of its feathers gave it away.  It was a bright male CERULEAN WARBLER, a first of the year for me.  After attempting to identify what ended up being an immature Double-crested Cormorant at the Raystown Dam for 30 minutes this morning, this wood warbler definitely brightened my day.   The CEWA was located just past the powerline cut at the beginning of the trail.  The rest of the hike added a few more species to the list including Eastern Phoebe, Pine Warbler, Wood Duck, White-throated Sparrow, and Hairy Woodpecker.

Number of species:     36
Species List:
Canada Goose     2
Wood Duck     1
Turkey Vulture     4
Sharp-shinned Hawk     1
Belted Kingfisher     2
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Hairy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     2
Eastern Phoebe     1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     4
Tree Swallow     20
Barn Swallow     10
Black-capped Chickadee     12
Tufted Titmouse     2
White-breasted Nuthatch (Eastern)     1
Carolina Wren     3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     6
Eastern Bluebird     1
American Robin     2
Northern Mockingbird     1
Brown Thrasher     1
European Starling     4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     14
Pine Warbler     1
Cerulean Warbler     1
Louisiana Waterthrush     4
Eastern Towhee     8
Chipping Sparrow     3
Song Sparrow     2
White-throated Sparrow     4
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     2
Northern Cardinal     3
Red-winged Blackbird     2
Common Grackle     13
American Goldfinch     4

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

                     Ian Gardner,
         Juniata College class of 2011

LIFE LIST: Bird is a Verb

Okay, so now you know a little about why I bird.  For the next several posts, I'll show how I bird and what the tangible goal is for this hobby. 

The name of the game is Listing.  Originally there were Life List (all bird species you see in your lifetime), but when you have limited frequent flier miles, the Life List tends to plateau after a while.  So the lists got more complicated:  Hemisphere Lists, Continent Lists, Country Lists, State/Province List, County List.  That makes sense, start with the world, and make smaller areas to find birds in.  More fun to be had. 

For instance, here are my lists that include my trip abroad to Ecuador two years ago, my two Florida Spring Break trips, and one sojourn to the West Coast:

Life List:  490
Country List (USA):  360
State List (PA):  215
County List (Huntingdon):  175

This is where you can get creative.  After you list your birds by the spatial category, you can add birds seen this year, this month, this week, this day.  So now we have temporally.  These lists lead to many sleepless nights and long drives for the Big Year and Big Day goals.  Doesn't sound creative enough?  How about only counting birds that are seen on wires (telephone, barbed, cables, fence)?  Ever seen a wild turkey on a telephone wire?  Yeah, neither have I, but that's when I'd start a Wire List (really helpful list for the long drive through Kansas).  Other lists include Dream List (birds of your dreams:  I'm at 30 with a couple repeats), Roadkill List, Singing/Calling List, and No Fossil Fuel List (cannot use transportation fueled by fossil fuels to find birds). 

Welcome to Bird Muse!

Hi, my name is Ian,

and I'm addicted to bird watching,

or as more serious enthusiasts refer to it, "birding."

There is no monetary reward (although networking for jobs may be included), no awards (though a Birding Cup tournament occurs at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center annually), no scorekeepers (well, other than the "Top 100" posting on eBird.org), and no division of interests or classes of "birders."

Alright, nevermind, the last one isn't really true either (there are "feeder watchers," duck hunters, and rarity chasers).  I guess birding is just like every other hobby.  Some people are addicted to it and even name their pets after avian interests (Mergus [the genus name for New World mergansers]), while others walk their dog with eyes to the skies.  Some record birds in their yards without even leaving their house.  To the opposite end, rarity chasers drive/fly/walk hundreds of miles at a time to see Caribbean specialists and Southern Texas rarities like LaSagra's Flycatchers and Bare-throated Tiger-herons, respectively. 

Where do I fit into this picture?  I started as an opportunistic birder with cursory intentions.  As I walked through the forest along Lake Raystown, I would notice the Worm-eating Warblers and Scarlet Tanagers caroling through the canopy, Carolina Wrens and Black-capped Chickadees quarreling at the feeders, and the ubiquitous "name-sayers" (definition should be obvious) like Eastern Phoebes and Red-eyed Vireos flitting through the understory.  I never wrote down the species with the temperature, cloud cover, and relative humidity, let alone the date and location.  Life was enjoyable with the seasons moving unobtrusively through my senses.

All of that changed when I traveled to Ecuador for a semester abroad in the Fall of 2009.  Two things augmented my outlook on birding that semester.  First of all, I opened a book on the incoming flight that I didn't close for a month.  The title is "Living on the Wind: Across the Hemispheres with Migratory Birds" by Scott Weidensaul.  After studying the science of Ornithology at the Raystown Field Station with Juniata College, this text brought the inspiration.  As Scott floated through a tropical river on his back watching ornate flycatchers, kingbirds, exotic parrots, and wintering wood warblers, I sat on a life vest viewing Yellow-tailed Orioles, Kiskadee Flycatchers, Scarlet Macaws, and Water-tyrants.  On a pelagic trip in the North Atlantic Ocean, he witnessed storm-petrels, shearwaters, and skua, while I sat on the bow of a scuba diving vessel scoping out Galapagos Petrels, Blue-footed Boobies, and Elliot's Storm-petrels.  I could repose in a hammock on my host family's roof and envision Eskimo Curlews blocking out the sun with beating wings as well as Brant and Red Phalaropes courting on the Alaskan coastline.  When the book closed, my binoculars never left my neck.  I would hike for miles along coastal cliffs watching hundreds of Swallow-tailed Gulls gather at their nests, covering every "crook and nanny" along the lava-based vertical landscape.  Occasionally I sat, avoiding cryptic Marine Iguanas, and glued my pupils to the horizon to glimpse a Red-billed Tropicbird with it's lengthy plumed tail.  Thus, the addiction began.

The second stimulus for my avian awakening was the realization of my unique situation.  I was in Ecuador for a 4 months.  When would I ever spend that much time in another country?  Beside that, when would I travel here again?  So, I started recording every bird I could identify.  Wake up every morning by 7 am for a 9 am class and watch the colibri (hummingbirds) in the Eucalyptus trees.  Euphonias, Beardless-tyrannulets, Brush-finches, and Flower Piercers perched on the chain-link fence beyond the Lemon and Avacado trees of the backyard.  Then a breakfast of fresh papaya and strawberries and a fast-paced slalom a la Universidad (Fast and Furious is entertaining on a student-sized TV in Central PA, a 50 year old Marketing Professor squealing tires through rush hour on a downhill Andes freeway is a whole 'nother movie).  After class, I found the book store and bough "Aves del Ecuador" (en Espanol) from local advice for $65 (best purchase of the semester).  I spent the next month on the mainland, visiting cloud forests, lowland rainforests, alpine meadows, and talus slopes.  I saw Carunculated Caracara, Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, Squirrel Cuckoo, Rufous Motmot, Great-horned Owl, Paradise Tanager, Shining Sunbeam Hummingbird, Many-banded Aracari, Black-tailed Trogon, and Hooded Siskin.  Then I flew to the Galapagos Islands and spent 3 months studying the minute differences between Small and Medium Tree Finches on Isla Floreana, diving patterns of Blue-footed Boobies, and diameter of personal bubbles of Galapagos Penguins.  4 months in Ecuador, surrounded by birds.

Next thing I know it's Christmas Eve in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and I'm sorting through booby oriented souvenirs from the Galapagos.  Now what?  I've been inhaling an exotic feathered world for 4 months.  I did what felt natural:   drive to Little Buffalo State Park and search through pine plantations and scrubby forest edges for Red-breasted Nuthatches, Winter Wrens, Long-eared Owls, and American Tree Sparrows.

Addiction is back . . . stateside.