2000 Miles For A Collared Plover! #birdinginsanity #yolo

Hola desde un lugar muy caliente!

Leaving SFO yesterday afternoon, our hearts were filled with trepidation and anxiety. We had spent a good chunk of change for a 48-hour, whirlwind trip to lovely McAllen, TX, in search of a rare bird that hadn't been reported on eBird or email lists in 48 hours. Would we find it, or was this plover just another windmill at which we were jousting?

As the plane climbed to 36,000 feet and the drink cart rolled by, we experience several changes of perspective, summarized thusly:

"It's not going to be there. Stupid bird. I hate Collared Plovers. In fact, I hate all Plovers. F-U Plovers. Look, Buddy, just hang around for a few more hours, say Hi, and we'll bring you some nice Plover-Treats. Dammit, why are we doing this? This is a stupid waste of time. Oh, well, it is what it is. Excuse me, ma'am, may I have another glass of wine?"

When our flight from DFW to McAllen was then delayed for an unspecified period of time because, "Your plane was broken, so we needed to bring over another plane, but now it needs to be inspected", our level of hope was almost at an all-time low. The nadir would be reached when we finally arrived at our hotel at 1AM, only to be told by the desk clerk, "Hmm... I don't see your reservation here."

Fortunately, that got resolved easily, and after a solid 5 hours of sleep, we were up bright and early to avoid the sweltering, humid heat and find our boy.

Did we find him? After a whopping 2 minutes of searching at the specified location, YES!

Snowy Plover in the front, Collared Plover on the shoreline. Did I mention that I hate Snowy Plovers, too? But, that's a rant for another time.

This is only the third record in Recorded North American Avian History of a Collared Plover here. They normally range from South America to southern Mexico, but one was reported in Texas in 1992, and the second was last year at this exact same pond, on the exact same shoreline. So, this bird is probably the same one that was here last year. I find it interesting how specific birds will end up somewhere completely out of their range, leave for a season, and then return back to exactly the same place.

What a relief!

Now, I need to figure out what to do with an extra day in South Texas...

Seeking Air Conditioning,
Me

Adventures On The High Seas, or How I Learned To Love Dramamine

Ahoy, me mateys!

Your intrepid mariners have returned from a voyage to the edge of the Earth, and--spoiler alert--we did not fall off! Really, we actually traveled to the edge: we sailed out of Half Moon Bay, CA, to the Continental Shelf, which is about as edge-like as you're going to get, and then back again.

Unlike the February trip, where we were fog-blind much of the day, this trip was fairly clear. But similar to that trip, the swells were fairly strong at times (to my land-lubber eyes anyway), and so about a half-dozen of our fellow sailors offered their breakfast to the sea in what I can only assume was an effort to attract fish and birds. Seriously, people! Seasickness medicine costs less than $5, and it works! Take it!!!

That said, the stream of chum did make me wonder: why is it that Birders persist in doing something that makes people puke? If somebody next to me in a restaurant ate the soup and then immediately started projectile vomiting, I would definitely not order the soup! Yet, in a few weeks, we'll be on yet another boat, so therein lies the clinical insanity of this activity.

But enough talk about bodily fluids.

The birds and sea life were amazing. We added five new Life Birds plus one familiar bird that we hadn't seen on the year, which was our biggest day in quite some time.

Baby Common Murre (left) with Daddy. In Common Murres, the female is responsible for laying, hatching, and caring for the chick until they're ready to swim. Then, the male takes over as sole guardian until Junior matures, while Mom recuperates back at the nest and then presumably flies to Cabo for spa treatments and margaritas. Because, dammit, she deserves it.

But seriously, our local Murres nest in the Farallon Islands, more than 30 miles away from where we saw them. So, this little guy, in his first outing, has swam at least that far! Tell your kids that when they bitch about having to take out the garbage.

Ocean Sunfish, which is not a bird. They like to bask near the surface, where gulls pick parasites off them. Eww! This fellow was fairly good sized, and apparently big ones can be nearly 2000 lbs!

Black-footed Albatross! Their wingspan can be as large as 7 feet! Almost all of them nest in the Hawaiian Islands, so there's a good chance this guy flew well over 2,000 miles, just to greet us on our boat.

Said an excited young woman from Michigan, taking a break from her summer job in Yosemite to take this trip, "I never thought I'd ever see an albatross!" I hear ya, sister.

So albatross can walk on water. Big deal. But if he can turn that water into wine, then... well, that would fundamentally challenge some assumptions.

And herein lies one of the many challenges with birding on the ocean. Not only are you moving, and the bird moving in a different direction, but the ocean isn't flat!

Leatherback Sea Turtle!!! The Pacific subpopulation likely numbers only a few thousand individuals, so seeing one is a rare experience. They nest from Indonesia to the Solomon Islands, so this fella may have swam over 7,000 miles! When asked why, the turtle blinked several times, and a small tear may have run from his left eye.

Laysan Albatross!! A Double-Albatross Day! These guys also breed mostly in the Hawaiian Islands, and so also traveled thousands of miles. I'm beginning to feel like I should go jog around the block or something.

She flew right by the boat, and I managed to capture this image. You can't tell from this angle, but the wings are nearly 7 feet wide!

One final tip, aside from the seasickness warning: if you ever decide to go on one of these trips, get a good night's sleep the evening before your trip, or you might fall asleep standing up! Like I did! Again! While leaning against the railing, again! What is wrong with me???

Next up, we're doing our first first chase in some time! We're leaving Wednesday night for a 48 hour trip to Texas in search of a very rare visitor to North America, a Collared Plover that has been reported in South Texas for the past week! Cross your fingers that she stays there for a few more days!

By the way, how do you say, "Plover"? Does it rhyme with "over"? "lover"? "mover"? Discuss!

Sweltering in me timbers, because it's 94F outside,
Me

Mid-west Adventure 2015, Part 2

Hola desde un lugar muy plana,

Tucked away in a tidy, modern hotel room with blazingly fast WiFi, sipping a cold IPA, I could be in any number of urban environments. Instead, I'm in Steele, North Dakota, population 715 give or take, about 50 miles east of Bismarck.

This hotel is conveniently located near the plains and glacial lakes where we are birding, and across the street from a truck stop with a Caribou Coffee store. CC is the North's answer to Starbucks, and I've decided that it is, without doubt, the best chain coffee store in America. Hey, CC, if you need a spokesperson, give me a ring!

After 24 hours here, I find that I like ND better than I thought I would, for one key reason. It's not the hotel or CC, but I'll reveal it shortly.

When last we spoke, the Wife and I were about to go night birding. We were successful in hearing an Eastern Whip-poor-will, although the mosquitoes were vicious and drove us back to the car almost immediately after it called!

The next day, we spent four hours (!) walking paths near streams with adjacent dense brush, in hopes of finally landing a Mourning Warbler. Having only about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport, we finally heard a "chip", and a little coaxing from a recording on our phone (I know, we are bad, bad birders!) caused the warbler to pop up briefly out of his bushes. And with that, we now have seen every warbler that regularly visits North America!

We arrived at the hotel at dusk, greeted at our hotel by this amazing sculpture, which we honestly had no idea was there:

It's the World's Tallest Sandhill Crane! As the late, great Huell Howser would say, That's Amazing!

FYI, in case you're planning a visit, a town down the road claims to have the world's largest buffalo. Did not check that out. But, it's on the short list for a future visit.

And, somewhat surprising to me, there might be a future visit, because ND has a key attribute (at least in the part we visited) that makes it superior to many other states.

Is it the scenery? The gently rolling plains are beautiful, and the quality of the light here is great for photography, but that's not it.

Is it the hospitality and dining? I'm sure there are fine establishments somewhere in the state, but not near us.

Is it the birding? Well, we did find some great birds that we've only seen a few times before, like Sprague's Pipit and Black Tern, but that's not it either.

The reason? Because there aren't any of those annoying Michigan flies, and I haven't had to use DEET the whole time! As I always say, an absence of bugs makes the heart grow fonder.

That said, we did miss the birds we came to ND to find. Looks like Baird's Sparrow and Nelson's Sparrow have already hit the road, and so we'll have to find them elsewhere this year. Sigh.

But, next stop is a boat! After a couple days at home, we head over to Half Moon Bay for another pelagic trip, hopefully with less fog and smaller swells than our last trip!

Later!
Me

Mid-west Adventure 2015, Part 1

A todos los amantes de la cerveza,

Greetings from the Mitten of Michigan!

We are currently hanging out in Grayling, MI, the gateway to "up north" of Michigan, the self-proclaimed Canoe Capital Of The World, and home to the Camp Grayling, the largest National Guard training site in the country. You have now learned more about Grayling, MI than most Michigan residents know.

Our Mid-west Adventure 2015 began a couple days ago in Minneapolis. Our main targets for this trip are an endangered sparrow that is easiest to find near Minneapolis, an endangered warbler that is only found in a small part of Michigan, and a few other birds we missed during spring migration that summer up here.

This also marks our first visit to Minneapolis and to Michigan, so the trip has been filled with First Impressions. To assist those readers who may be planning a visit, or could be inspired to plan a visit by the sanguine words of this blog, here are some tips informed by these impressions:

• If you ever come to this part of the country, do bring an industrial-sized container of DEET. Gangs of mosquitoes hold several large territories, giant ticks hang from branches to fall silently on unsuspecting blood-filled tourists, and blinding clouds of flies surround you at all moments. Actually, I exaggerate; the flies just obscure your vision and don't follow you inside. Usually.
• Minneapolis has an inordinate number of excellent brew pubs making their own beer, charcuterie, and other delectables. You will not go hungry here, but I do advise planning some gym visits else you may be shopping for a new belt before you leave!
• Summer weather has been surprisingly warm and a bit humid; 75F-80F temps at 11PM don't seem that unusual, so fashionable Mid-westerners can saunter the streets at night in their Bermuda shorts and Birkenstocks in comfort. But beware midnight thunderstorms that dump buckets of rain and keep your rain jacket close!
• Prince apparently does not busk on street corners here, and contrary to popular belief, Andrew Zimmern's ghost does not haunt the restaurants of Minneapolis at night. The city offers many entertainment options, but those are not two of them.
• You may find a White Castle restaurant. If you are from the West, you probably heard of this from the famous movie, "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" or from your Eastern friends who lament that they can't find these restaurants out West. My advice after one visit: keep driving.
• Don't make the same tragic mistake we did, and fail to reserve time to visit Mall of America. This Temple to Capitalism is the second-largest mall in the US and gets more visitors than any other. It even has its own hotels and an amusement park! How could we miss this??!?!? 

Enjoy your trip, and maybe we'll see you there!

Oh, and if you're looking for birds, we can tell you that Murphy-Hanrehan Reserve south of Minneapolis is still a good place for Henslow's Sparrow, although expect to walk miles of grassy, wet, mosquito-y trails through the fields to find one. And, if you failed to sign up for a tour to find the endangered Kirtland's Warbler in May and June, do not despair! Come to Grayling, wander through the right kinds of stands of Jack Pine in the morning, and listen carefully, and you will find your bird!

Next up: night birding for Whip-poor-wills and then off to North Dakota!

Cheers,
Me

Carolina In My Mind

This post is coming to you from 32,000 feet in the air, as we’re returning from NC to CA. Our pilot is Matthew McConaughey, or at least his voice is a dead ringer for the actor’s. I’m going with MM as the pilot, even though he SAYS his name is Robert. 

The trip was a major success, in that we found our targets as well as a few other birds we weren’t necessarily expecting. The focus was a boat trip from Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks (OBX, y’all!) out to the Gulf Stream to look for ocean birds. Here’s a map for you geographically-challenged readers.

Boat Day was Saturday, fewer than 24 hours after landing in Norfolk, VA. To reach the boat on time, we woke at the obscenely early time of 430AM EASTERN, at which point some of our friends back home hadn’t even gone to bed yet!

We met the Captain at the dock before 530AM, boarded and stowed our gear, and chugged into the bay as the sun rose. Why so early? Because in the Atlantic Ocean, there is nothing to see except other boats until you reach the Gulf Stream, which from dock is about a 3-hour trip. Why is there nothing to see? Let’s ask our old friend, Dr. Sayornis. Lay it on us, Doc!

My pleasure! Simply put, prevailing winds on the Pacific coast tend to blow offshore, and the friction produced from wind on water surface pushes surface water away from the coast in a process identified by the great and underappreciated Vagn Walfrid Ekman. This motu aquae causes water below the surface to rise up, and because the Continental Shelf is close to shore, the water that rises is from very deep in the ocean and brings up nutrients from decaying materials on the ocean bottom. Nutrients are consumed by organisms, who are summarily consumed by other organisms, and the circulus vitae continues.

In the Atlantic and generally on the Eastern edges of all continents, prevailing winds blow onshore, and as these waters generally don't contain many nutrients, there isn't a similar rich source of food and thus fewer organisms. The Gulf Stream, however, is full of nutrients brought up from the Tropics, and so is a magnet for life of all types. Including silly humans on boats. 

Quod erat demonstrandum.

My brain is stuffed fuller than last Thanksgiving’s Turducken, but I think I get it. Thanks!

Now, this boat was WAY smaller than expected. We’re used to trips on large boats that can take at least 50 passengers, but this boat was comfortable for 6 so we were VERY close to the water. And, we went 30+ miles on the ocean in this little thing! And, on our way out, in a moment of terrible foreshadowing, I noticed one of the other passengers starting to doze off. More on this later.

The first ocean life we saw was one of the coolest critters of the day. Flying Fish!

When threatened, they leap out of the water and glide 150 feet or more in the air, before plopping back into the sea. They’re gorgeous, silvery fish and very fun to watch.

At about 830AM, we reached the Gulf Stream. How did we know we were there? First, the water temperature rises significantly, as you can see from the NOAA image below (OBX is at the bottom-left):

Clumps of sargassum (seaweed) began floating by, in what was otherwise pristine water, and of course the current picked up so the Captain had to do some extra work to keep us on course.

One of the most frequently seen birds on the Gulf Stream was the adorable Wilson’s Storm-petrel.

Probably my favorite bird of the day, they have a striking black-and-white pattern, funny-looking face, cool name, and are very active. Their preferred hunting technique involves delicately dancing on the water, using their wings to almost hover as they dip in their toes. But when a curious fish comes up to check it out, the storm-petrel stabs her curved bill below the surface to catch it. This picture comes close to capturing the dance:

The best moment of the day was a feeding frenzy. A large school of small fish was being hunted by tuna, who were attacking so aggressively from below that the tuna launched themselves out of the water, into the air! And on the surface, seabirds from our dainty storm-petrel to huge Great and Cory’s Shearwaters were plucking off fish driven near the surface by the tuna. The size of this spectacle was hard to gauge without reference points, but I guess the battlefield was about 1/4 mile in diameter.

Great Shearwater doing the Electric Slide in front of the Wilson's Storm-petrel Dancers

Cory's Shearwater gliding above it all.

After this and lunch, the Captain worked valiantly to find new birds, sailing back and forth across the Stream. However, the hot weather (mid-80s with intense sun), rhythmic bouncing of the boat, and early morning began to take effect, and sleep grasped everybody except the Captain and his Mate.

Sailing must be an especially powerful soporific, as never before have I fallen asleep standing up. Doing this on a boat was probably not a good idea. Doing it while learning against the railing of said boat, a bit worse. And falling asleep standing up, leaning against the railing, while the boat was bouncing up and down as it cut through the waves at full speed probably wasn’t the best choice! But somehow we returned to dock safely.

Now, we have a quick turn-around: After doing laundry and checking in at work, our next journey begins on Thursday(!) with a return to Minnesota, and first-time-ever stops in Michigan and North Dakota.

Sail on, 
Me.

Seven Ways to Know You're in Carolina

Note that some of these may not be specific to Carolina, but they were discovered within that state.

1. "Suh" used in a sentence, as in you say, "Excuse me" and he says, "Yes, Suh!"
2. A jar of Moon Pies by the cash register at a restaurant. 
3. Giant, green lawns in front of every house. Lawns the size of football fields.
4. "Sup" used in a sentence, as in "Join us for kayak and sup!"
5. Brick. All buildings apparently must be brick and boxy with columns. I hear they call this style, "Colonial", but I think of it as, "Frat House".
6. New Jersey accents. I hear they have these in New Jersey, too, but they really stand out in the Carolinas.
7. Monster trucks! The home of Grave Digger! Yes, THE Grave Digger!

And, there were birds. More on that later.

Think Like a Hummingbird

Los fans de la lógica,

Starting today, our schedule gets crazier!

We are headed to North Carolina tonight for a pelagic trip this weekend, and the trip entails a number of firsts: our first red-eye, our first time to NC, and our first East Coast pelagic trip, among others. There will probably be other firsts involving real Carolina BBQ and visiting some historic places, time permitting, but the focus is the boat.

But first, more birds!

The season of Fall migration is fast approaching for many birds, despite Summer being officially only a few weeks old. So, we have to use all our available time to track down birds in our area before they vanish to some other Spanish-speaking country.

This morning, for instance, we woke at 5AM (8AM in the East!) to chase an Allen's Hummingbird. There was a report yesterday of two of them at a park in the Oakland hills, so we beat traffic down there and spent a few hours looking around in a misty drizzle. Alas, it was in vain.

Then, the wife gets an idea: "Where else were they seen?" she asked, pensively.

A quick check of eBird said that there was a report a couple weeks ago at other local parks and at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.

"Well, " she asked, "if you were a hummingbird, would you rather be in a suburban neighborhood with feral cats, or in a manicured garden filled with lush flowering plants?"

Good point.

A short but hair-raising drive through the Berkeley campus and we're in the Gardens. We start in the California area, but all we find are Anna's Hummingbirds. Next, we tried the Mediterranean area, thinking that their climate was similar to ours, so maybe the birds would find something to their liking there. But, no hummingbirds at all.

"Hey, " says the brilliant wife, "There are no hummingbirds in Europe! So, maybe the plants haven't evolved to humminbird tastes, which explains why none are here! What other areas are nearby?"

Good point, part deux.

Down the path a bit was the South American section. And guess what? It was covered in Allen's Hummingbirds!

So, just remember...if you want to find a bird, you gotta think like a bird.

Now, off to Sacramento and our 10PM flight east!

Happy trails,
Me

The Final Countdown?

As of last night we were at 597 birds for the year. What happened today?

We struck out all morning, driving miles and miles down bumpy dirt roads trying to find any of 10 birds reported in the Truckee area that we needed for the year. But, to no avail.

Then...at 4:15pm, we climbed 200 feet up a dusty slope in the area of a past forest fire, and after an hour of looking, stumbled upon a White-headed Woodpecker! #598!

At 6:30pm, we drove the roughest, rockiest road of the day to Sage Hen Campground because of a recently reported Calliope Hummingbird. Thunderstorms were building and the sky darkened, so we had to move fast. Reaching the parking lot, we made a beeline for the nearby creek, and within 5 minutes found a beautiful male Calliope hovering over some willow bushes! #599!!

Jubilantly, we returned to Truckee for dinner, believing our night was done but satisfied in finding two birds on the day. Then, over dinner and a glass of wine, we reviewed the list of recent sightings and found that one of the campgrounds we visited had four recent reports of a Flammulated Owl. Should we try for it? Our first instinct was to turn in for the night and resume early in the AM, but then again, how badly did we want our goal?

Driving back north, we arrived at Cottonwood Campground at 9:45pm. To a dead silence. Except for the nearly constant stream of traffic that sped by for some unknown reason (seriously, people, what is so important in Sierraville, CA that everybody in Truckee needed to go there?).

At 10pm, nothing. 10:15pm and 10:30pm, likewise. 10:45pm, we began to wonder why we wasted the gas, and started whispering about how much longer we were going to sit there.

Then, at just past 11pm on July 6, 2015, a distant single "hoot"! A few seconds later, "hoot" again! And then several more! Flammulated Owl!

Please press Play on the video below:

Not only did we hit 600, but we hit it out of the park with a Life Bird!

Tomorrow, we'll try to push our total past 600 with a few other birds near Tahoe, then back home to prep for a weekend in Carolina.

Sipping on scotch but no cigars (the hotel is non-smoking!),
Me

Blowin' In The Wind

A mis compañeros de ratas del desierto,

Perhaps nobody was more surprised than the tumbleweed.

Just moments before, it had been rolling along the desert contentedly, bouncing off fences and cactus and the occasional derelict building like tumbleweeds are wont to do. Then, it picked up speed as the heat-driven winds accelerated, bounded across three lanes of traffic, and was now milliseconds from being obliterated on the grill of my car.

While my surprise was no match for the tumbleweed's, I admit that I was not expecting the impact that shattered the poor tumbleweed into literally one billion pieces. Then again, I probably shouldn't have had quite so much faith in my ability to play Frogger with tumbleweeds during a blinding dust storm, surrounded by other cars and the occasional semi-truck, and with everybody else (not me!) driving just a bit too fast.

Here, we have captured this moment for your viewing pleasure:

A moment of silence now for the tumbleweeds that met their untimely demise somewhere around Casa Grande.



Thank you.

Now, the evening didn't start with a dust storm. We deplaned in Phoenix to a beautiful, sunny, 105F evening with perfectly clear skies. Only 30 minutes into our drive to Tucson, the skies started darkening as thick clouds of dust were blown up from the desert floor, and eventually we hit nearly black-out conditions.

The desert is a study in contrasts like these: bright, azure skies transition quickly to dark, brown dust. The landscape of rock and sand and thorny cactus that looks nearly uninhabitable is full of plant and animal life. And the time when the temperatures are hottest is also when most of the annual rain falls.

Monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert usually begins in July and continues through August, but it arrived early this year. So, days typically begin calm and clear, puffy clouds form around mid-day, and then thunderstorms attempt to batter you into submission from mid-afternoon until evening. Each day of our short trip south followed this pattern.

The good news is that we found our main target, an extremely rare Tufted Flycatcher! Not one, but two! Fewer than 10 have ever been recorded in the US, but this summer, two flew up from Mexico and decided to try to raise a family here. Can anybody say, "Anchor Baby"?

Tufted Flycatcher, sadly eyeing the throng of birders below, wondering when they will just GO AWAY, and whether he made the right choice to come to America.

The clump on the left is their nest, and you can just see the top of Mom's head peeking out!

The bad news is that we missed all the exotic hummingbirds we had hoped to see, and we got rained out the one evening we had to find a nocturnal bird, the nightjar. Sad face. So, we get to take another trip to Arizona in the next 6-8 weeks, as the birds will move back south to Mexico after August.

Our count is now at 594, just 6 shy of our original goal for the year (which we are thinking we should reset to a new target, since we still have 6 months of birding to go!). Next up: a long weekend in Tahoe! There are far, far worse places one could go birding, and with 10 birds in the area that we need for our year, there's a reasonable chance we could hit our goal soon!

Stay frosty,
Me