Birding the Atlantic Coast 2: Patteson Pelagics

On Saturday and Sunday (30 and 31 July 2011) of my quick four-day trip to the Atlantic coast, we joined Brian Patteson on two of his famous pelagic trips out of Hatteras, North Carolina. Hatteras is the point of land in the U.S. that is closest to the Atlantic continental shelf and to the warm tropical waters of the Gulf Stream, so it is the best place to search for tropical seabirds.


NOAA image, accessed from wikimedia commons.

The first pelagic bird of the trip, a Cory's Shearwater, was a lifer for me, as were most of the species we saw on the open ocean. Craig Fosdick and I estimated a total of about 200 of this species on the first day and 100 on the second day, but we did not actually keep a count. In reviewing my photographs, I found that most of the 20 or so birds I photographed were of the Scopoli's subspecies, which breeds in the Mediterranean, rather than the borealis subspecies, which breeds in the Atlantic Ocean. Note the white tongues on the primary feathers, where a borealis bird should have primaries that are entirely or mostly black with small, diffuse white tongues at the most.



Two other shearwater species were much less common, but we estimated 10-30 of each of these on each of the two days. Audubon's Shearwater nests in the Caribbean and is the smallest shearwater regularly seen in North American waters.



Greater Shearwater breeds on islands of the southern hemisphere and migrates into our northern waters when it is not breeding. Despite its name, it seemed to me to be a little smaller than Cory's. My field guide says that it has a longer body, but a shorter wingspan.



The most common seabird species we saw was Wilson's Storm-Petrel. We estimated 300 or so on each day, but it was tough to make an accurate estimate because there were always a few of them following the boat. We were constantly watching out for other, rarer species like Band-rumped, Leach's, White-faced, or European Storm-Petrels, but I never saw any of these. (The trip leaders spotted two Band-rumpeds quickly flitting past the far side of a large flock of Wilson's, but neither Craig nor I were able to pick them out before they disappeared into the distant waves).


One of the highlights for me was also a specialty of this area, the Black-capped Petrel. This is the only regularly-occuring member of the genus Pterodroma in North American waters. It breeds in the Caribbean and forages in the Gulf Stream. We saw about 12 of these on our first day and about 20 on our second day.




By far the rarest bird of our pelagic adventures came on the second day. We had just come into a big flock of shearwaters and there were fish all around the boat. Others had told me that tropicbirds are attracted to activity of fish, boats, and other birds, and will often fly in high over the boat, so they can sometimes be missed if you're watching the birds on the water too closely. Each time we got into a situation like this, I tried to remember to also check the sky above us. As I peeked up from the shearwaters off the bow and looked behind me over the captain's wheelhouse, I saw the distinctive shape I was looking for. I yelled out, "TROPICBIRD!!!!" and before I could finish the word two or three other people were yelling the same thing. A beautiful adult White-tailed Tropicbird graciously made several circles around the boat before heading off towards the horizon.



All images copyright 2011 by Ryan P. O'Donnell except the illustration from NOAA.

Birding the Atlantic Coast 1: Dismal Swamp and North Carolina's Outer Banks

Last week I took a short trip with Craig Fosdick to do some pelagic birding off the coast of North Carolina. We arrived on Thursday night and were anxious to start the birding. After a quick stop to drop off some gear at the hotel, we headed straight to the Great Dismal Swamp, a famous birding location in southeastern Virginia. Although it was hot - 98F and very humid - some birds were still active. My first lifer of the trip was a singing Acadian Flycatcher, the first of several that day. Not much longer, we spotted a few of one of my most wanted species for the trip: Prothonotary Warbler. Other typically eastern birds were seen and heard, including a Wood Thrush, several Yellow-billed Cuckoos, several Carolina Wrens, and many Eastern Wood-Pewees. For the full list from eBird, click here. We went to bed early in preparation for more birding on Friday morning, along the 3 hour route to Hatteras, where our pelagic trips would start on Saturday morning.


The next morning, our first stop was at the Palmetto-Peartree Preserve. This private land is a preserve for the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker, our target species of the stop, and is also excellent habitat for Brown-headed Nuthatches. We got a little lost from a poorly-drawn map, but still managed to find both of these species near the Preserve, although at the time we thought we were in the preserve. I saw my lifer Prairie Warbler the day before at the Great Dismal Swamp, but got good looks at a few more here. One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing my lifer Southern Leopard Frog here, a species that is closely related to the one on which I'm writing my dissertation. Here is a link to all the species we saw at this location.



We stopped at a few more Outer Banks birding locations on the way down to Hatteras, and I picked up my lifer White Ibis and Tricolored Heron at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Pond and then my lifer Piping Plover at Pea Island NWR. It was another early bedtime in preparation for the boat trip the next morning, the main point of our trip.


(To be continued . . . )

Macro Flash: a Homemade Diffuser

I just bought a new macro lens (Nikon 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor). Stephanie and I have been having a blast using it to take spider photos. We've been getting some nice ones, like this photo of a Pelegrina aeneola jumping spider taken last weekend at Wood Camp, up Logan Canyon.



As happy as I am with this shot, I don't really like the sharp shadows under the spider. I think it looks too obvious that a flash was used (which it was, of course). So yesterday I bought some cardboard and some vellum from the USU bookstore, and tonight I made my own flash diffuser. Sure, you can buy a pre-made flash diffuser. They're not too expensive - starting around $5. But I didn't see any that were as large as I would like them to be, so I made my own.

I should have taken some pictures of the process of making the diffuser, but I just didn't think of it. So, here's a photo of the finished product:


And here's a photo of the finished product mounted on my flash.


Now, instead of having harsh shadows, I get a soft, even light - almost like shooting under an overcast sky. Compare these two shots of a key. Can you tell which shot used the diffuser and which one didn't? All the other shooting conditions were the same.




Finally, here's a photo of a Platycryptus jumping spider on the wall of our house taken with the new diffuser. Check out that natural-looking light!

Field Trip this Saturday: Cache County's High Mountains

This Saturday, 16 July 2011, join me and the Bridgerland Audubon Society as we hike around Cache County, Utah's Tony Grove Lake and towards Naomi Peak in search of the specialties of our high mountains. Target birds include Red Crossbill, American Three-toed Woodpecker (above), Clark's Nutcracker, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Steller's Jay, among others. Rarities seen in this area in previous summers include Band-tailed Pigeon, Red-headed Woodpecker, and White-winged Crossbill (below). Pack a lunch and lots of water, and be prepared for a strenuous hike, but at a slow birding pace. The trip is free, but bring a few dollars to help cover the $5 parking fee. Meet at 8 a.m. in the parking lot between Caffe Ibis and the Logan Fire Station (50 East, 150 North, Logan). All skill levels are welcome. We will be back in the mid-afternoon.

Vagrant Dickcissel and Birding Slump

Last week, Tony Jones heard a bird singing from the fields behind his house in Farmington; a bird he didn't recognize. It took him three more days to be able to see the bird, and then he was able to identify it as a Dickcissel. Dickcissels are typically an eastern species, so he knew this was a big deal. He sent word to the Utah birding community via the Utah Birders website, and many avid and excited birders soon arrived in his neighborhood to look for the bird. Today, I was one of those birders. I got this photograph, and some audio recordings (which I will share here later).

Only three previous records of Dickcissel have been accepted by the state Bird Records Committee. With the excellent photographs that have already been taken, it is almost certain that this bird will stand as the fourth accepted state record. What a great bird!

The timing of this bird is a bit of a surprise, as most vagrant records of this species, and the majority of vagrant records in general, come during spring or fall migration. This is the time when more birds are moving, and hence more birds are likely to get lost. But the fact that this bird was found in what is ornithologically-speaking the dead of summer supports the old axiom that anything can turn up anywhere. It is always a good time to go birding.

Birders in Utah have submitted fewer records to eBird for the first week of July than for almost any other week of the year (exceeded only by the second week of December). July is typically the start of a mid-summer birding slump. Spring migration is done, and fall migration hasn't picked up yet, so the motivation to go birding, and to enter those records in eBird, declines. But as the recent Dickcissel shows, rare birds can be found in mid-summer, too. And, the distribution and abundance of breeding birds is arguably the most important data that eBird can collect - especially now that the new data input pages allow you to record breeding indicators such as parents carrying food and the presence of fledglings. So don't let July get you down - go birding, and go eBirding. You never know what you might find.

Red-necked Grebe in Utah

On Saturday I got a call from Bob Atwood that he had just found a Red-necked Grebe at Hyrum Reservoir, about 20 minutes from my house in Logan. I was out of town at the time, but as soon as I got back the next day, yesterday, I headed down to see if I could find it. I set up my spotting scope on the dam where he had found the bird, and saw a tiny speck on the water about a quarter mile out. There were probably lots of other specks on the water, but luck was on my side and the first one I noticed was the target bird, my first Red-necked Grebe in Utah and my first anywhere in breeding plumage.

I drove around to the closest point on the shore to the bird, and couldn't find it. I was afraid it might have flown while I was driving, but it was also swimming pretty fast and I thought it might have just swam out of my view from that point, where trees were on either side of me and I could only see straight out from the shore. I drove back around near the dam, and saw the bird closer to me than I expected, and getting closer to shore. I climbed down the shore and scanned again for the bird. Just when I thought I lost it again, it resurfaced right in front of me! I got a few good shots then, and several more by running down the shoreline each time the grebe dove, and lying still on the rocks ahead of it before it resurfaced.

Red-necked Grebes have been seen several times in Utah, but they are very rare here. There are about a dozen previous records for the state, and most are of immatures or non-breeding adults in the winter. This bird was unique not only because it is so rare, but especially because it was in full breeding plumage. What a great bird!

(Photos copyright Ryan O'Donnell 2011)

Adventures in Bingham County, Idaho

This year I've taken a part-time job doing bird point counts and other bird surveys for a local consulting company. We're studying the birds that are using the site of a future wind project near Blackfoot, in Bingham County, Idaho. It's been a great job for me because it has given me professional bird experience, it's kept me in the field in a time when my PhD work is all in the office, and it is only every other weekend, so it hasn't interfered too much with my PhD work. The best part, though, is that it has forced me to explore the birds of a rarely birded part of Idaho. (Oh, and I get paid!).


I started off with the goal of seeing 100 species in the county, but then a casual conversation with my friend Craig ended up raising the bar. Craig is going to try to see how many species he can see in Cache County this year (like I did back in 2008). So I made a bet with him that I could see more than half as many birds on my eight or nine work trips to Bingham County as he could in a year in his home county. At stake is a six pack of the winner's favorite beer from the Logan liquor store, plus a little bit of bragging rights.


The record for the most species seen in a year in Cache County is 242. I think if I can see over 120 species in Bingham County, I'll have a very good chance of winning the bet. If I can see over 130, Craig is pretty much sunk. So far, I'm at 108, but there's plenty of easy ones still to find. . . .

These photos are from Bingham County, Idaho. The scenery was photographed at our study site. The Cedar Waxwing was photographed in Blackfoot, and the Cinnamon Teal pair was photographed at American Falls Reservoir, both in Bingham County.

Urban Mushrooming

The frequent flipping between rain and warm weather has been tough on us Utahns waiting anxiously for summer. But there is one thing it is good for: mushrooms. And you don't need to search deep in the forest for the tastiest wild mushrooms, the kind that will make you want to give up those store-bought buttons. They can even be found in your own yard.

Last week Stephanie and I found a Shaggy Mane (below) on the way home from school, and tonight I found another in the driveway. One mushroom hardly makes a snack, but where there's one there's often more, so we'll keep an eye on the gravel for the next few days. Shaggy Manes are very distinctive, and very safe. There aren't any dangerous mushrooms that really look like them (but don't take my word for it - don't eat any mushroom if you're not sure what it is!). The only catch with Shaggy Manes is the narrow window of opportunity. They grow fast, and go bad fast, turning to an inky gooey black from the bottom of the cap up in just a day or two.

I like to cook Shaggy Manes very simply - I dip them in beaten egg, then fry them in a little butter. That's it. Yum!

Shaggy Manes are well known for preferring disturbed soils like the kind that can easily be found in cities, but they aren't the only urban mushroom that you can eat. We've also recently found and eaten Black Morels, including the one above from the front of a hotel on Main Street. In wetter climates (but not in northern Utah) you can also find Chanterelles and perhaps others in your yard. Take the time to learn your mushrooms, and you could be rewarded with tasty treats from as close as your driveway!






Here are two books I highly recommend if you would like to learn mushrooms:

Budget Bird Songs CD

I'm proud to announce today the release of a project I've been working on for quite some time: my budget bird songs CD. If you want to learn to recognize bird songs AND save money, this is the product for you! Take a minute to listen to this short promotional clip, including audio samples, for Ryan's Budget Bird Songs CD.

Lesser Sandhill Crane?

While out this afternoon, I photographed a Sandhill Crane in Benson, Cache County, Utah that was significantly smaller than its 20 or so companions. I've been under the impression that the only subspecies of Sandhill Crane expected in Utah is Greater (Grus canadensis tabida). This one looked to me like a Lesser Sandhill Crane (G. c. canadensis). However, I don't know whether I've ever seen the third migratory subspecies, Canadian Sandhill Cranes (G. c. rowani), which are intermediate in size between Greaters and Lessers. eBird is of little help here because apparently no Sandhill Crane records from Utah in eBird have been identified to subspecies. Does anyone know anything about subspecies of Sandhill Crane in Utah? Does this (left-most bird) look like a Lesser to you?