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rebeccathenaturalist · 5 years

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Hey, everybody--this one’s pretty important, and time sensitive. Reblogs are REALLY appreciated to help get the word out!

I think the comic pretty much sums it up, but here are some relevant links in easy-to-click form:

Information on the Public Comment Period, including how to make said comment by email, snail mail, or hand delivery: http://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=u.s.-fish-and-wildlife-service-solicits-public-input-on-proposed-rule-and-&_ID=36517

How to contact the President, your Senators and Representatives: http://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/

Information on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918: http://www.fws.gov/birds/policies-and-regulations/laws-legislations/migratory-bird-treaty-act.php

List of Protected Species: http://www.fws.gov/birds/management/managed-species/migratory-bird-treaty-act-protected-species.php

A Seattle Times article on the proposed changes: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trump-administration-moves-to-ease-rules-against-killing-birds/

The three organizations I mentioned in the last panel:

The Audubon Society - http://www.audubon.org/

The Natural Resources Defense Council - http://www.nrdc.org/

The American Bird Conservancy - http://abcbirds.org/

Species portrayed: brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna), Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), red-tailed hawk [feather] (Buteo jamaicensis), American bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus), great blue heron [eggs] (Ardea herodias), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis), blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), great egret (Ardea alba), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), American robin (Turdus migratorius)

Transcript under cut

Title: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

[Panel 1: A brown pelican covered in oil stands forlornly on an oil-covered landscape.] If you’ve been paying attention to environmental news lately, you may have read that U.S. Fish and Wildlife weakened protection for almost every wild native bird in the country. Until recently, companies that killed birds in the process of oil drilling, mining, and other operations were subject to fines and other legal actions. Now, they can devastate bird populations with impunity.

[Panel 2: A black shadow breaks up into several flying passenger pigeons; the one on the farthers right falls to the ground.] The law that helped protect these birds is the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The United States passed itin 1918 after several species went extinct, and many more very nearly so, due to overhunting for feathers and meat at the turn of the century. We lost the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet, and Laborador duck, among others, while the great egret was one of many that came close to total extermination. In addition to the pressures of hunting, habitat loss prevented species from having places to retreat to, leaving them less able to recover from our attacks, and causing even more endangerment and extinction.

[Panel 3: A northern flicker sits next to a red-tailed hawk feather; there is also an Anna’s hummingbird sitting on a nest, a mallard tail feather, a blue jay feather and great egret eggs, alongside a male northern cardinal and an American bushtit.] The MBTA makes it illegal to hunt, trap, kill, injure, sell or buy, or transport listed species, live or dead, as well as their feathers* nests, and eggs. Almost all wild native birds are listed, from raptors to songbirds, corvids to waterfowl, gulls to shorebirds. Certain exceptions are made for some game birds, and non-native species are not protected.

*This does include naturally shed, or molted, feathers, since otherwise plume hunters post-MBTA could just say “I found these on the ground!” when in fact they had poached the birds the feathers came from.

[Panel 4: Three hats are arranged in a row, each with feathers, wings, or an entire taxidermy bird on them. There are also two dead passenger pigeons, and a dead eastern bluebird and blue jay hang from their feet by cords on the right side.] Why so strict? The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a huge trend in feathered hats, some even displaying entire taxidermy birds. No species was safe. Ornithologist Frank Chapman counted 40 species represented on over 500 hats during two visits to New York City’s shopping district. This included a wide array, from blue jays to eagles, waxwings to woodpeckers. Some species were also hunted extensively to provide meat to restaurants. The passenger pigeon was a famous example, going from numbering in the billions and creating flocks that could block out the sun, to completely extinct - in the space of just a few decades.

[Panel 5: A great egret in breeding plumage feeds a fish to its two young in a nest in a tree.] The passage of the MBTA led to the end of the plume trade outside of a few domestic and other non-native species, and stopped the wholesale hunting of non-game birds for the table. It also required companies to factor in their impact on birds and penalized them when their activities led to incidental killing of protected species.

[Panel 6: A bald eagle lands on a piece of driftwood while another perches on a dead tree, while overlooking a landscape of dune grass, beach, and ocean.] Unsurprisingly, birds began to rebound just a few years after the MBTA was passed. Later laws like the Bald and Golden Eagle Act of 1940, and 1973′s Endangered Species Act helped add layers of protection to specific species. But the MBTA remained a wide-spanning defense for native birds in the United States.

[Panel 7: Three dead mallards lay alongside a polluted stream, while a metal pipe leaks toxic liquids into the water.] Industries that pollute, destroy habitat, or otherwise injures and kill birds and other wildlife have long sought to weaken the MBTA. The Trump Administration’s recent actions will hand these companies a free pass to kill MBTA-listed birds with impunity. As long as they can’t be proven to have killed the birds on purpose, they’re in the clear.

[Panel 8: A robin fledgling sits with its mouth open.] The birds that our country spent a century bringing back from the brink are now threatened with extinction again. Here are some ways to help them:

--The public comment period for these changes to the MBTA opened February 3 and goes until March 19 at:

tinyurl.com/uzroquj (scroll down for directions)

-Write to your federal elected officials, including the preseident, urging them to restore the MBTA. Tell your House representatives to support H.R. 5552, the Migratory Bird Protection Act, which restores what would be taken from the MBTA.

--Support organizations working to save the MBTA, like the Auduon Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the American Bird Conservancy.

--Educate your friends and family about this issue. Show them this comic and accompanying links at:

wyntkan.com/comic/mbta

#birds #wildlife #endangered species #animals #nature #mine

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digiscoped-warbler · 7 years

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Big Week Day 3 - Central Texas (Jan 03, 2018)

The third day of the year and week! Last night I got back to Austin and early tomorrow morning I fly to Seattle, so today I focused on trying to knock out as much Southwestern US and Central TX specialty stuff as I could while I was here! To that end I went to Pace Bend first thing in the morning, and then swung by both Commons Ford and the little Peninsula Trail in Lady Bird Lake, where some interesting rarities have been recorded lately.

Pace Bend

The big targets here were the few southwestern species which can be found here and which I wouldn’t be able to pick up this week in Seattle. Pace Bend’s bird habitat is mostly scrubby mesquite/grass savannah mixed with other shrubs, on rocky coastline over twenty foot dropoffs to the Colorado River. I’ve never had too much luck here in terms of watery birds (although this was notably the site of an extended visit by a Common Merganser all last winter) - sometimes a handful of ducks and usually a few herons and cormorants, but not too much activity. Maybe this is because of all the water traffic and waves from boats?

The scrubby land stuff itself can be fairly productive though, in particular for sparrows! Today I had dozens of all the expected normal sparrows, but also some pretty good less-common finds. I had a Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata) almost as soon as I got out of the car at the first campsite stop. Then I headed up to the higher elevation pure juniper woods at the hiking trails at the north end of the park, and found surprise Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) and a Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)! I’m continually noticing that birds which I typically associate with rocky mountain pine forests also seem to show up most often here in Travis County in otherwise often sparsely populated thick juniper woodlands. I wonder whether these are birds from juniper woods higher up in the hills of New Mexico and Arizona, or if they’re from montane pine and if there’s just something about conifers that they like.

Coming back down from the juniper and back into the scrubby savannah campsites I kept searching for a while longer and managed to find a Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps), a pair of Canyon Towhees (Melozone fusca), several Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma woodhouseii), a flock of Lesser Goldfinches (Spinus psaltria), a Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), and a Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps)! The last was actually a personal first for Travis county, and definitely not something I came here expecting. All in all, I really cleaned up on pretty much all the southwestern stuff I was looking for.

Pace Bend is definitely my favorite place in Travis for these kinds of birds - and the fact that it’s such great sparrow habitat in general definitely adds to its charm. I still haven’t ever actually been here in summer, though - I should try it at some point this year! I hope the wintering sparrows turn nicely into breeding Cardinalids.

Commons Ford

This trip was mostly to clean up on woodsy things that I’d hereto missed out on - I managed to snag both our Melanerpes woodpeckers, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris), (finally) Carolina Chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) and Black-crested Titmice (Baeolophus atricristatus), and Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum).

I also got another good look at the continuing female Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) which has been hanging out here the last few times I’ve visited! It usually forages with several of its Spotted Towhee congeners (Pipilo maculatus) - I wonder if we ever get any hybrids wintering in Texas. I hadn’t ever heard of this, but it looks like the two breeding ranges overlap very slightly more or less directly north of Austin in CO, NE, MO, and parts of south central Canada. This website also documents the occurrence of regular hybridization in CO! How confident can we be that silent, slightly out-of-range birds are pure individuals? And how much individual variation is there within each sex towards the appearance of the other species? These two were only very recently split from the old ‘Rufous-sided Towhee’, after all!

Peninsula Trail

The past couple weeks, a number of very interesting birds had been recorded here - a Townsend’s Warlber (Setophaga townsendi), a Cape May Warbler (S. tigrina), and a Chestnut-sided Warbler (S. pensylvanica)! None of these birds should winter in Austin, and the first two are very rare here even as migrants (I’ve never seen either in Travis County).

I wasn’t expecting too much, because I was getting here pretty late in the day, and because they hadn’t been reported in the last several days - and I didn’t actually see any of these birds. I did see a Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata), which are uncommon but regular along the Colorado River in this area. I also saw feral Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I flushed an American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) right off the edge of the trail! I didn’t see a single Woodcock in all of 2017, so I was pretty happy to pick one up so early in 2018. One fewer bird to worry about for listing purposes, especially since there’s not really anywhere I’m aware of in Central Texas where this species is really reliable.

I ended the day at 146 species - a big jump up from the previous day, with 33 more birds! As of the morning of Jan 04, eBird states that I’ve reported more birds in Texas than any other person in 2018. It won’t last when I vanish out-of-state for the next six days, but it’s an exciting screenshot to lock away for posterity. My goal of breaking 200 species in the first week of 2018 is still alive. :)

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brucestambaughsblog · 7 years

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Male Red-breasted Grosbeak and Male House Finch.

By Bruce Stambaugh

I knew when we moved from our home in Ohio’s Amish country to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley that my backyard birding experiences would change. I just didn’t know how much difference there would be.

Our Virginia ranch home is one of nearly 500 in an established housing development west of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County. Mature trees, shrubs, and well-manicured lawns surround the many-styled houses. However, none of the vegetation is as dense as we had had in Holmes County.

Over the years, I tried to create an inviting habitat around our rural Ohio home for birds of all species, whether they nested or just needed the cover to approach the feeders. Neva complemented my efforts with beautiful flowerbeds all around the house. Birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife thrived.

Male Northern Cardinal.

The wide variety of cover and available water and food sources for birds near our home enhanced the variety of species seen on or near our Holmes County abode. White-winged crossbills, bald eagles, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, pileated woodpeckers, various warblers, barn owls, long-eared owls, and screech owls were just some of the amazing birds we had seen in the 38 years we lived there.

I wondered what birds would find their way to our Virginia home. I hung birdfeeders and placed birdbaths in the front and backyards not long after moving in. Our one-third acre only had two red maples, one in the front yard and one in the back. Nearby properties held sycamore, white pine, wild cherry, pin oaks, sugar maple, mimosa, and various shrubs and flowerbeds. The closest stream was a half-mile away.

The rolling hills and broad valleys are reminiscent of those in Holmes County. But they are not the same, and I didn’t expect the birds to be the same because of that. They haven’t been.

I was thrilled when red-breasted grosbeaks and northern cardinals showed up at the feeders soon after I erected them last May. I had the ubiquitous house sparrows and house finches, too. But once the common grackles arrived with their new fledglings, the more desirable birds were crowded out. Even the bossy blue jays headed for cover. I took the feeders down for the summer.

I rehung the feeders in early fall, including the suet feeder, in hopes of attracting some woodpeckers and other suet-eating birds. Again, songbirds found the food quickly. The northern cardinals and house finches returned. A small flock of American goldfinches followed, too, along with mourning doves.

American Goldfinch.

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Dark-eyed Junco.

Male White-throated Sparrow.

Carolina Wren.

Cedar Waxwing.

As the weather cooled, more birds arrived. A red-bellied woodpecker found the suet and often came early morning and late evening. A male downy woodpecker appeared irregularly. Dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows scratched at offering on the ground below. I was especially ecstatic with the latter. Their melancholy song seems to linger in winter’s frosty air.

Other yard birds included flocks of American robins. Unlike Holmes County where robins seek shelter in dense woods or migrate altogether, robins in Virginia linger longer. They forage on berries, crabapples, and grubs they find in yards and beneath mulch in flowerbeds. The robins particularly enjoy the birdbath for drinking and bathing.

A troop of European Starlings replaced the grackles as the rascals of the feeders. They’re pretty birds, but they can devour four cakes of peanut butter suet in a day. The woodpeckers shared my disapproval.

My bird feeders may not have attracted the variety of birds we had in Ohio. I keep them up anyhow to enjoy the ones that do appear. It’s a pastime that both my wife and I find more than worthwhile.

Gathering around water hole.

Beginning anew with feeding the backyard birds By Bruce Stambaugh I knew when we moved from our home in Ohio's Amish country to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley that my backyard birding experiences would change.

#backyard birds #bird watching #feeding birds

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josephkitchen0 · 6 years

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Building Planter Boxes for Strawberries

By Sue Robishaw – It wasn’t that the old chicken wire covers we’d constructed five years ago didn’t work, they did. I had an idea for building planter boxes that would keep the Cedar Waxwings out of the strawberries or we humans would get none unless we wanted to eat green fruit. So first, we came up with and constructed fairly simple chicken wire tunnels. With a bit of adaptation on my part, they’ve kept the birds out.

They didn’t keep the raccoons, skunks, or gray squirrels out but then, I hadn’t asked for a lesson in deciding what you really want before you design. Those first covers did a pretty good job of keeping me out too, however, at least for casual grazing. Building planter boxes for our strawberries meant that we had more ripe strawberries to harvest and have eaten many delicious and luscious fruits since then. (Once I remembered to put up the small electric fence around the strawberry patch, that is.)

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But what’s the use in growing strawberries in your garden if you can’t easily nip a berry now and then? I decided I wanted something easier to manage. I knew that planting vegetables in pots was a way to minimize predators, but didn’t want to put my strawberries in pots. Besides, the chicken wire was showing significant dents and dips from use and animal incursions. It was a good temporary solution but it was time for something that would last for many years. My plan for building planter boxes for our strawberries was for open wood boxes with hinged fence wire tops for easy access.

The boxes are of simple design but it’s the details that make them work well. As is often the case, I came up with an idea of what I wanted then handed it over to Steve to design and figure out how to put it together so it would work. They had to be easy to open and close, easily dismantled to store out of the garden and off the ground, made of materials we had or could easily get, be amenable to strawberry plant growth and harvest, be aesthetically pleasing, and keep the critters out while allowing me in without a lot of fuss. Happily, building planter boxes for our strawberries has done all of that.

An unanticipated benefit of building planter boxes for our strawberries was that during the unusually cold July we had that first year, the extra protection from the height of the boxes encouraged our strawberry plants to grow lusher and taller. After we installed our boxes, we had to add several inches to the height to accommodate them.

The units were designed to fit my garden and strawberry growing method. I have permanently mulched plots about four feet wide with four rows 10 inches apart, and plant spacing about 12 inches between strawberry plants. I replace one row each year in rotation, so we made the boxes four feet across. The next time we find ourselves building planter boxes for our strawberry plants, we’ll make them wider to give the plants more room inside.

This would be particularly important in a humid climate, but keep in mind that in a warmer, more humid setting you probably would not want solid wood sides on your planter boxes. A wood frame with wire netting would be better for more air circulation. Since we’re more often dealing with cold weather than hot, the solid sides are good, and it made construction easier.

Strawberries are pretty hardy creatures and I grow old varieties that do particularly well in our cold northern Midwest climate. I seldom have to do anything other than keep the plants well mulched and they come through and produce fine. However, building planter boxes for our strawberries made it easier to throw a layer of hay over the plants if and when an untimely freeze occurs.

Before we began building our planter boxes for the strawberries, we drew up plans. (That sounds much more impressive than the roughly penciled 3 x 4 actual scrap of paper and what is that phone number written in the middle of it all?)

Happily, my strawberry plot was already a convenient 4′ x 32′, and by moving just a few plants it easily accommodated construction with readily available eight-foot softwood lumber. How nice (and rare!). We decided on two 16 foot boxes with sets of 4′ x 4′ lids hinged in the middle. The two varieties of strawberries that I grow mature at different times, so the two boxes needed to be independent of each other. I wanted to be able to move the boxes out of the garden when harvesting was done to make them last longer both for working in the beds and for aesthetic reasons.

Sides

The next step in building planter boxes for our strawberries was cutting eight foot long 1 x 8s for the sides, hinging sets together for a foldable (for storage) 16-foot length. After the strawberry plants decided they needed more height, Steve ripped 1 x 6s in half to add three inches. The addition was attached by drilling through the three-inch width and screwing down to the 1 x 8s with long deck screws. Although in the photo you’ll see this piece on the top of the box, but when they go back in the garden this year, I’ll put it the other way down. This way, the part of the planter box that is most vulnerable to rot because of its contact with the moist soil/mulch will be easy to replace. Since we used finished lumber, the actual depth of the planter box is 10 inches.

Four-foot long ends were cut and attached to the sides with loose-pin fold-back door hinges which worked quite well. To take the unit apart, you just have to remove the pins. We made use of an odd assortment of salvaged hinges we had on hand or found at the Habitat ReStore for the project. They were made “loose-pin” by cutting off the bottom pin nubbin, removing the hinge-pin, and replacing it with a suitable nail. For extra stability, we added a four-foot 1 x 2 piece near the top where the eight-foot side boards are hinged.

Tops

We constructed the tops of the planting boxes with 1 x 2s. The end pieces going across the box are four feet long. Each of the side pieces (going along the sides of the box) are four feet minus the width of the two end pieces, butted-up to make a four-foot square that is flat on the top. On the underside of the side pieces is a 1 x 2 edge into which each end of the cross pieces is attached with screws. This lip connects the top pieces and keeps the lid in place when closed. We also added a 1 x 1 piece down the center for added stability. Two 4 x 4 lids are hinged together so they can be flipped open on top of each other.

Netting

We decided to use chicken wire from our previous attempts at keeping out predators when we were building our planter boxes, cutting it to size and stapling it on top of the frames. Hardware cloth or similar fencing would make a sturdier top if you have that. The chicken wire has held up well after being walked on by cats and raccoons, and I’m happy with the light weight and ease of use.

When we were finished building our planter boxes and adding the netting, they looked substantial and secure enough to keep the strawberries safe from every predator (except me). I happily harvested a bumper crop of strawberries, with more coming. Then someone let the word out.

Diggers

It was peak strawberry harvest time with both varieties of strawberries putting out lots of ripe fruit. I thought that maybe I would make a batch of sauce from the abundance of berries for winter eating, or try some new canning recipes. Out I went one morning with baskets in hand but was greeted with not a single ripe strawberry. There were several entrance holes dug underneath the nice secure boxes. Raccoons. Of course.

That was it. Since we had just finished building planter boxes that were working beautifully, it was time to come up with a way to get and keep those unwelcome visitors entirely out of the garden. Meantime, there were more strawberries to ripen, so I moved the path mulch, took pieces of leftover chicken wire and stapled it to the sides of the boxes, laying the fencing down the side of the plot and across the path. Strips of lathe screwed over the stapled chicken wire ensured it wouldn’t be pulled off. Then I replaced the mulch over the wire for my comfort and grumbled my way back to the house. It was a temporary fix but it worked well, and I got to harvest the final crops myself. The raccoons went elsewhere. And the birds turned their attention to my blueberries.

When the last strawberries were harvested, the boxes were dismantled and stored away. It was now easy to work in the bed removing the oldest row of plants, adding compost and mulch, setting new runners, readying the patch for winter and another season.

Electric Fencing

Raccoons. You have to respect these animals — their tenacity, intelligence, skills and sheer exuberance is awe inspiring. For years, I’d been putting up a temporary short electric fence around the corn, usually after the first invasion in spite of my repeated garden notes to put the fence up early. And when the raccoons started helping themselves generously to my strawberries, another little electric fence went up around that plot. It worked but was quite a bother. After we finished building our planter boxes for the strawberries and the raccoons managed to get into those, I decided it was time to get things under control.

Though not an easy project, we planned an electric addition to the regular fence around the entire garden. I don’t know why but we tend to gravitate to odd shapes, (I don’t think our house has one truly 90-degree angle in it) and our once nicely rectangular garden and orchard fence had morphed over the years to an 11-sided shape. Although tempted to just start over, we figured we could adapt to what we had, especially since we had recently replaced this fence.

Steve made a big pile of long staples using rebar and a torch to which we attached electric fencer offsets. These were pounded into drilled holes in the cedar fence posts. We carefully mowed and hand pulled the vegetation underneath and strung three electric fence wires. The installation around and over the gates was quite a study in human tenacity but I was sure no raccoon would get in. We weren’t crazy about the look of all those yellow insulators marching around our garden fence, but I was looking forward to wonderful harvests of everything, particularly sweet corn.

Growing Sweet Corn

The corn was really nice that summer, in spite of an extra dry June and an extra wet, cold July. The new electric fence was ticking along nicely. We checked it often and circled the fence to pull errant grass and weeds that might short it out. We relished the first ears of corn, and I harvested and dried a big batch. The next harvest would be ready soon but there was time to take the weekend off and head to a music festival downstate. We came home from a wet, cold weekend to wet, cold piles of corn cobs scattered across the corn beds. Somebody had had a very good time. I had a rare moment where I seriously considering giving up gardening. It didn’t last, of course. We checked and adjusted and fussed with that electric fence the rest of the short harvest season, but we never figured out how the raccoons got in, or how to keep them out. I did feel like giving up, but in spite of myself, ideas kept popping into my mind. This summer there will be a different reincarnation of raccoon- (and rabbit and deer and gray squirrel and moose and elephant) proof fencing around our active and interesting garden. Maybe we’ll be building planter boxes for our corn next?

And I’m looking forward to the best strawberry harvest ever.

Originally published in Countryside May / June 2010 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

Building Planter Boxes for Strawberries was originally posted by All About Chickens

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dansnaturepictures · 7 years

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13/01/18-Fantastic Finches of Blackwater in the New Forest

Choosing where to come this afternoon was an interesting task. As I’ve said the location of my surprise 21st birthday trip has been revealed as Scotland and we head there via rail on Wednesday. Unfortunately I’ve developed a cold so am really having to look after myself a lot. I concluded that if today were a working day I would still be going into the office, so I may as well wrap up and go out. But somewhere on the coast would be risky and with the cold keeping me up somewhat last night there would likely be an energy issue if we selected an athletic walk. So one of the New Forest locations I’ve known longest Blackwater was what I came up with as I knew there were a good few potential bird year tick targets there to keep that ticking over. Obviously I can potentially have the next three days to go places down here as well but if I decide not to do that on any or all of the days you know why.

When doing our usual Blackwater circuit today soon into the first bit of the walk on the other side to the arboretum I saw one of the birds I’d hoped I might today. A small flock of Crossbills flew into trees in front of us, I managed the record shot in the 1st picture in this photoset from today, and I was very happy to see these impressive birds. I think the Crossbill personifies why the last few years have been amazing for seeing birds for me, being one of many species where I had big gaps between seeing my first (here at Blackwater in October 2009 in the Crossbill’s case) and second (Milkham in 2015) ever but then go onto see loads. That’s four consecutive year lists of mine the Crossbill has appeared on now and I am thrilled with that.

After walking on I would notice another finch at the top of a tree, a Siskin the star of my New Year’s Day Lakeside walk. As I said then I often see these birds at Blashford Lakes only in a year and over my life have only seen them at a handful of other places. So if you’d have told me a month ago by the 13th January that I’d have seen Siskins twice but not seen any at Blashford this year (where I went a week ago today) I would have been amazed. As usual we crossed the road and walked all the way back to arboretum on the path and joined it at the back. Just before getting into the arboretum I took the 2nd picture in this photoset of one of my dogs Missy.

As it was getting darker and darker in there another finch was on my mind, the Hawfinch which it doesn’t seem long ago I was getting as a year tick here last year in a pivotal November weekend for my record year list, and just about everyone seems to be seeing or talking about lately. I just caught sight of one briefly at the top of the tree before seeing the unmistakable relatively large jizz of one fly around these trees. Getting a clearer and for longer view of another in a different tree soon after. This also was one of my greatest birds of 2018 so far and I was glad I actually got both the Hawfinch and Crossbill as year ticks at Blackwater in one day as both were life ticks here and I saw both on my last visit so they just are Blackwater’s star birds. Definitely for the Hawfinch and probably for the Crossbill now I’ve had the majority of my sightings of them here and they are just lovely birds to see always.

Hawfinches certainly seem to be in the UK in numbers this winter and they’re becoming a big a thing this winter as Waxwings were in the last one I think. 2018 has been the year of the finches for me to begin with, but so has this winter as a whole so far. Like the Siskins in places I’m not used to seeing them I saw my first Brambling ever outside Blashford Lakes at Milkham in the New Forest in November. Like the Siskins over Lakeside a late 2017 sighting of a Hawfinch there made personal history for me at my local country park. An unexpected Bullfinch was also a star of my New Year’s Day at Denny Wood in the New Forest and a Lesser Redpoll in December at Blashford joined Crossbill and Hawfinch in the rarer and most impressive finches category. I have enjoyed this colourful family a lot this winter and year already.

Wildlife Sightings Summary for today: My first Crossbill and Hawfinch of the year, Siskin, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Robin and Song Thrush.

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rantsandaves · 7 years

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Owls & the Mid-West

After departing the Jersey Shore, I traveled north a bit to snag the Barnacle Goose hanging with a bunch of Canada Geese and one Cackling Goose near the Massachusetts-Connecticut border. As I drove, I stopped to admire Connecticut's amazing foliage. It was almost too fall to bear. I spent the first night in my truck in a long time and was rewarded with the familiar aches and pains that come with sleeping in the ranger bed.

On my way west, I paid a visit to Niagara Falls because, hey why not? I just had to see what the fuss was about America's largest waterfalls. I arrived close to 5pm and it was windy and frigid. I missed the last tour on the Maid of the Mist by five whole minutes. While I was mildly disappointed, the looks on all the faces of the people coming off the last tour was enough to convince me that it was for the best.

I followed the outline of Lake Erie and was able to meet up with my old roommate Dave. We lived together at the very first house I ever rented on my own in Arcata, California, and we oddly met up in his hometown in Erie, Pennsylvania. His folks warmly welcomed me into their home and we enjoyed a hearty exchange of bird puns. I made Dave go birding with me in the morning. The wind and chill may have been a factor, but we only saw maybe three or four individual birds at Presque Isle. Dave then made me go to Sheetz where I was able to confirm that Sheetz is indeed inferior to Wawa, and this is a statement I will not back down from (fight me.)

From Erie I found my way to Cuyahoga Valley National Park for no other reason than that I could. There were waterfalls, it was cold, and there were juncos everywhere. I ended up getting bird number 600 unexpectedly, although looking back I probably could've expected it. I enjoyed an American Tree Sparrow for the first time in my life on my way out from viewing Brandywine Falls. The look was fleeting but definite, and I smiled as I drove on the Ohio Turnpike to find a place to rest for the evening.

To celebrate 600 (finally!) I spent Halloween at a swanky hostel in Chicago. Conveniently, the hostel had a popular bar downstairs. I met some amazing and kind people (thank you, Sarah, John and Judy!) who let me party the night away with them, and I certainly paid for it the next morning. On my hungover walk through Montrose Point on November 1st, I saw the White-winged Dove that had wandered away from its more southerly range. Cold, tired and with my head pounding, I trudged my way to Milwaukee.

Feeling much better on November 2nd, I read reports of a Snowy Owl hanging out by the Milwaukee Port of Lake Superior. I grabbed my scope and set it up at Cupertino Park. I almost instantly was able to find it. It was far out on the jetty but it was absolutely 100% Snowy Owl.

I sat and watched it for awhile, admiring this creature that I previously had only ever seen in books and movies. I looked around in hopes that I could share this moment with someone--birder or non-birder-- but there was no one around except for the flitting of Yellow-rumped Warblers in the bare tree next to me. So I shared in the success with the butter-butts and took in the moment.

Even though it was only the very earliest days of November, the winter birds that I had yet to put on the list for the year were starting to make their way down to the southern portion of their range in the northern United States. I hopped up to Horicon National Wildlife Refuge for the second time this year to find Snow Buntings, an abundance of Rough-Legged Hawks and finally some Tundra Swans.

For at least a day, I debated going further north to Duluth where I knew I could easily find Common Redpolls and Northern Shrikes at this time in the year, but I kept checking the weather reports which called for a serious snow storm. Having never driven during snowfall, I was absolutely terrified of the thought of driving in the snow and getting stuck, but the one thing that actually got me up to Duluth was the prospect of one very special species of bird: Bohemian Waxwing. I am a huge fan of Waxwings, and the chance to see the only other species of Waxwing that occurs in North America besides the Cedar Waxwing was just too good to pass up.

I arrived in Duluth on a Friday and checked into an Airbnb on a farm just fifteen minutes away from Downtown Duluth. The very next day my fear came true. I woke up early after a light snow (not the dangerous snow storm that was predicted) and drove to the famous Hawk Ridge. Having no clue what the hell I was doing and with a head full of niave optimism, I drove down the road, past the Hawk Watch platform about half a mile down Skyline Parkway. I had hoped to turn around right before the first bridge and drive back up the hill, but of course the newly fallen snow had other plans. I got stuck. There was no going forward or back. It began to snow.

I allowed myself to be upset for exactly one second and got to work trying to get myself unstuck. I was not about calling a tow until I had exhausted all my options. I put on my snow gloves (lovingly given to me by Paula) and put on my game face. I took the toilet trowel and used it to scrape away the packed ice so I could roll the car back just enough to get the snow chains on. I laid on the ground and my entire outfit of jeans, a base layer, a hoodie and a puffy coat got soaked in ice water and mud. I couldn't feel my fingers as I tried to hook on the chains, but maybe it was to my advantage since later they felt as though I had bent them in ways I shouldn't have. As I worked on digging and chaining, the noise called a flock of curious Black-capped Chickadees to see what the fuss was about. I felt as though the "dee-dee-dee" calling they did was an equal mixture of cheering me on and heckling. After accidentally flinging the right chain into the woods only one time, I was finally able to work my way out of the mess I had gotten myself into. As the chains thumped, I drove on out of there feeling the strangest mixture of embarrassed and proud.

Over the course of four days I was able to get the bulk of my targets: Glaucous Gull, Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, Northern Shrike, Northern Goshawk, and of course Bohemian Waxwing. There were also so many Crossbills and Pine Grosbeaks! I went to Two Harbors twice to try to get photos of a Hoary but on the second day I ended up getting photos of a second Snowy Owl instead.

Three mornings at Sax-Zim Bog were spent looking ever-so-hopefully for more owls: Northern Hawk-Owl and Great Gray Owl, both of which are sensitive species and deserve the utmost respect. On the first day, I saw extremely briefly what I was 95% certain was a Great Gray, but only because there should be nothing else in the area that is quite that big and quite that gray. But weird things have turned up in weird places before, so I wasn't completely happy with the sighting.

On the third morning, at around 8am, I was almost resigned to giving up. I was driving on Highway 7 when ahead of me on the right-hand side I saw a great gray figure on the top of a conifer. Running parallel and to the right of the highway is a ditch and then railroad tracks. The highway has no real shoulder, so the only place to pull over was a little raised road crossing the ditch to get over the tracks into gated private property, which is exactly where the conifer was located. I pulled over and stopped to the left of the train tracks and in front of the figure. The figure took note. I saw the figure move to the other side of the tree. As it turned I saw it well-- great, gray, and an owl with a face that looked like it had run into a sliding glass door.

After three days, I thought to myself that I could wait forever to get a picture of this bird if it ever comes out from behind this tree. Just as I finished the thought and pulled out my camera, I heard the horn of a choo-choo chugging my way. The train pulled up much quicker than I thought and passed right in front of me, between myself and the owl obstructing my view of the tree top. The roaring of the train caused the bird to take off, and through the breaks in the train cars I could see the owl flying away, almost in a strobe effect. After that I quickly gave up on the idea of waiting forever.

Although I had been hopeful for an early sighting of a Northern Hawk-Owl, I felt I had given it my personal best. After spending the day in 10 degree weather at Sax-Zim, I decided it was high time to head south for the winter, the birds definitely have the right idea.

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