Flock Friday

While many Americans were out shopping on Black Friday in crazy crowds, Dave and I were among the flocks of water in Cape May.

Last Sunday we went to Barnegat Lighthouse SP with the goal of seeing the winter waterfowl. It turns out we picked the windiest day to go (40+ mph winds!). We didn’t see much more than Brants, many gull varieties, Forsters Terns, and a few Sanderlings hiding from the wind behind rocks. No waterfowl to besides Brants to be seen, and I don’t blame them for not being around with the rough waters and high winds. It was still a fun trip, but we more than made up for the lack of waterfowl last week with today’s trip.

We started the morning at Cape May Point State Park (CMPSP) where we saw 7 species of waterfowl. They were Mallards, Gadwalls, Mute Swans, Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, American Wigeons, and Canada Geese.

Handsome Mallard drake (Image by BirdNation)

Gadwalls (Image by BirdNation)

Interspersed between the waterfowl were American Coots. Many people think that Coots are similar to ducks, but these species are not even in the same family. Coots belong to the family Rallidae (while ducks are in the family Anatidae) and are more closely related to rails and cranes. American Coots also lack webbing on their feet and instead have comically large lobed toes. Other birds at CMPSP included Yellow-rumped Warblers, an Osprey, Pied-billed Grebes, a Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Double-crested Cormorants, and Dark-eyed Juncos.

Showing off its Yellow-rump (Image by BirdNation)

We took the connector trail into South Cape May Meadows, where we saw even more waterfowl. Waterfowl included Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, a drake Northern Pintail, 3 female Surf Scoters, and more of the other species observed at CMPSP. At this location we spent most of our time walking on the beach instead of through the meadow itself. On the beach there were large groups of Greater Black-backed Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls. Sanderlings ran along the crashing waves and a few Black-bellied Plovers joined them. Out over the ocean large rafts of Scoters flew by, though it was hard to identify which kind with how far out they were. We also saw a few Red-throated Loons. Like CMPSP, we found a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers on the trails to and from the beach.

Sanderlings (Image by BirdNation)

Surf Scoters (Image by BirdNation)

After exploring the Point and the Meadows, we tried a new birding area: Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. Cape May NWR is actually split into 3 units. The Great Cedar Swamp Division is near Upper Township, the Delaware Bay Division is in Middle Township, and Two Mile Beach Unit is in Lower Township. We decided to check out Two Mile Beach. At Two Mile Beach we saw tons of Dunlins, Sanderlings, gulls, some Black-bellied Plovers, and some Red-throated Loons. I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a nice way to end our day. I would certainly like to check out the other two units during future trips.

I’m so glad that we were able to spend some time with the birds down in Cape May. I certainly enjoyed spending my time among the large waterfowl flocks than with the crazy shopping crowds!

Thanksgiving 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for you, my dear readers, who inspire me to make this blog. The Big Listers post was my 200th post, and I wouldn’t have gotten this far without your support.

I’m also extremely grateful to have birds and nature as such an important part of my life. I am thankful for every moment I get to spend with birds and how they have profoundly touched my heart and soul.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

Wild Turkey (By Vince pahkala (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)

Barred Owl Wednesday

Exciting news before I start the feature: Dave and I saw our first Short-eared Owl a few weeks ago! We were walking along the Delaware River at Palmyra Cove when Dave spotted a male soaring over the river near some gulls. It was pretty overcast so we didn’t get any good pictures, but we watched it for about 10 minutes before it flew over our heads and into the wooded area of the park. It was amazing!

This week’s featured owl is the Barred Owl. Although we have not yet seen one, we did hear a Barred Owl when we hiked at Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve in the Pinelands.

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Description:

Barred Owls are medium-sized owls that are a little smaller than the Great Horned. These beautiful owls are brown to brown-gray on their upperparts and heads. As their name suggests, their necks, nape, back, wings, tails, and crowns feature white/buffy barring. Barred Owls are tuftless with round heads. Their blacks eyes stand out against their gray facial disks. Juveniles have white natal down until about 2-3 weeks when their adult flight feathers start to develop.

Barred Owl (By Peter K Burian (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)

Range: 

Resident of the United States from the Great Plains to the East Coast. In Canada, found in the southern regions of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba; through central Saskatchewan and Alberta; throughout British Columbia expanding south to Washington, Idaho, Oregon and northern California. Also found in parts of Mexico.

Habitat: 

Woodlands and wooded swamps, including deciduous, mature conifers, and mixed forests. Also does well in older suburban neighbors with a lot of shade trees.

Diet:

Opportunistic hunters. Mainly eats small mammals such as mice, voles, rabbits, shrews, rats, and squirrels. Also hunts small birds, frogs, snakes, lizards, some insects, and aquatic prey. Barred Owls watch prey from a perch or glide low through the forest. They mainly hunt at dusk and dawn. Sometimes they will hover over prey before grabbing it. These owls usually swallow small prey whole, but tears large prey into pieces.

Breeding/Nesting:

Referred to as a “duet”, mating pairs will court by raising wings, bobbing heads, and calling while perched together. Males may also feed the females during courtship. Scientist are unsure whether Barred Owl pairs stay together in the long term, but pairs begin to form in late winter/early spring. Pairs will choose the oldest tree they can find since they are likely to have large cavities, which Barred Owls depend on. Sometimes they will evict other occupants, such as Red-shouldered Hawks, if needed. Barred Owls may also use nest boxes.

The female will incubate a brood of 2-3 eggs for about 28-33 days while the male provides her food. Egg hatching is asynchronous, so the eggs hatch a few days apart. The female will stay with the owlets much of the time while the male feeds them. The young will begin branching (exploring the area around the nest) at around 4-5 weeks and take their first flights at 6 weeks.

Sleepy Barred Owlets from Wild Birds Unlimited/Cornell Lab’s 2015 Barred Owl Cam (Screenshot by BirdNation)

Vocalizations:

Extremely vocal and instantly recognizable. Their loud calls, which are typically described as “Who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-aaaaaallllllll!”, are made by males and females. Female’s calls are higher-pitched than the males. Scientists have recently started to study a suite of 13 complex vocalizations.

Conservation:

Still common and widespread. Their range is expanding into central Quebec. These owls were originally only found in the East, but over the past century have dramatically expanded their range into the Northwest. While this may be good for the Barred Owl, it’s having a detrimental effect on its close relative, the Spotted Owl.

Fun Facts:

• The Barred Owl’s most dangerous predatory threat is the larger Great Horned Owl. Barred Owls will try to avoid Great Horns since they usually live in the same habitats.
• One study done on on Barred Owls in Oregon found that the birds had 95 different species represented as prey items.
• They mainly are active at night, but may sometimes hunt during the day more than other owls.
• Studies on banded Barred Owls have shown that these owls do not travel much. They are usually found living no more than a few miles away from where they were banded.

Big Listers

Many birders, myself included, like to keep lists of the birds we’ve seen. We refer to them as life lists, where you record each new bird species you observe in the field. There are a number of reasons why somebody would want to keep a list of bird species seen. I use eBird from the Cornell Lab to track my birding data. Personally, I like eBird because scientists use the data collected from around the world to track bird populations. The program also makes it easy for me to keep track of my observations. (I am notoriously bad at making lists of things I have to remember to do, but I’m great at keeping my life list. Go figure.) 

The level of detail in which birders keep lists varies by individual. Variations of lists include state, country, location/park, county, yard, year…the list goes on. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist! I’m corny as heck lol). Some birders keep no lists at all. But then, there’s the extreme of all birding lists: the big list.

Big listers don’t want to just keep track of birds…they want all the birds. There are around to 10,000 bird species world wide, and big listers want as many of those birds on their list as humanly possible. These individuals will go at great lengths to add a bird to their checklist. Here a few of the most well known big listers.

• Jon Hornbuckle, a retired metallurgist originally from England, currently holds the record the most birds ever observed at 9,600 bird species. If you would like to learn about him you can check out his website, where he documents his bird trips, species lists, and photos. Jon Hornbuckle website
• Tom Gullick  of England was the first person in the world to see over 9,000 birds species back in 2012 at the age of 81. His 9,000th bird was the Wallace’s fruit dove in Indonesia. He started birding in 1971 after he retired from being a navy officer and moved to Spain. One of his accomplishments was helping to discover the São Tomé grosbeak with a group of birds. It was thought that the grosbeak was extinct. He has since retired from big listing, and doesn’t want to try for 10,000. His current record is 9,096 bird species.
• Phoebe Snetsinger, an American birder, was the first person to observe over 8,000 bird species. Phoebe started birding when she observed her first Blackburian Warbler in 1961. She found out in 1981 at the age of 50 that she had a melanoma, which inspired her to start birding aggressively. By the time Phoebe died in Madagascar in 1999 (from a car accident, not cancer) she saw 8,398 species. Her memoir, Birding on Borrowed Time, was published posthumously in 2003.
• Arjan Dwarshuis is a Dutch birder who broke the world record for most birds seen in a calendar year in 2016 (referred to as a Big Year) with a total of 6,852 species. This total breaks the previous record that was set just the year before in 2015 of 6,042 species by Noah Strycker. While doing his Big Year, Arjan started raising money for BirdLife International’s “Birdlife Preventing Extinctions Programme”. His goal is to raise 100 thousand Euros for the program. You can find out more at his website: arjandwarshuis.com

Seeing a majority of the world’s bird species in a lifetime is an amazing and fascinating feat. It’s interesting to read about the people who dedicate their lives to finding and documenting birds. I don’t plan on becoming a Big Lister, but it’s exciting to know that there are so many possibilities out there in the world of birds. My current goal is to reach 200, but who knows where my birding adventures will take me! The sky’s the limit! 🙂

Do you keep a life list? What’s your current total? Tell me in the comments below!

 

 

Island Beach State Park

Dave and I spent Sunday exploring Island Beach State Park, a popular birding hotspot in Ocean County, NJ. Island Beach State Park (IBSP) is a 10-mile long preserved barrier island that extends along Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The southern tip of the island runs along Barnegat Inlet, where you can view Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. IBSP also includes the Sedge Islands Marine Conservation Zone. The park is a popular recreation area used for ocean swimming, fishing, birding, and kayaking, especially in the summer months.

IBSP is easily one of the best birding spots in Ocean County, with 330 species of birds reported over the years. The park is also known for its elusive red foxes. We didn’t see any foxes on our trip, but we did see a decent number of bird species.

We started our trip walking the trails around the Visitor’s Center and the Interpretive Center. There we saw a Hermit Thrush, a Gray Catbird, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Song Sparrows. From there were took a short maritime forest trail to the ocean. There were numerous gull species throughout the beach, as well as Dunlins, Sanderlings, and Black-bellied Plovers. The Dunlins were standing around on one foot and tucking their bills in their wings to stay warm from the wind. They kept making be giggle because when they wanted to move they would hop on their one little leg. They are such cuties :-).

Black-bellied Plover nonbreeding (Image by BirdNation)

Dunlin (Image by David Horowitz)

Sleepy Dunlin (Image by BirdNation)

Sanderling (Image by BirdNation)

Some of the other trails we explored were the Johnny Allen’s Cove Trail and Spizzle Creek Trail (which has a bird blind that overlooks Osprey Pond). We found Red-throated Loons, Double-crested Cormorants, Bufflehead, Carolina Chickadees, Eastern Phoebes, Brant, a Great Blue Heron, juvenile Little Blue Herons, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, American Goldfinches, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and our first Blackpoll Warbler (life list #1 for this trip). Along the way we enjoyed beautiful views of the tidal marshes.

Brant (Image by BirdNation)

Black-backed Gull (Image by BirdNation0

Osprey Pond (Image by BirdNation)

View from the Blind (Image by BirdNation)

Our last stop on IBSP was the beach near the south end of the island. There were mainly gulls on the beach, but all the action was happening in the water. Large rafts of scoters were rapidly flying across the ocean. Our second life list birds of the day were Northern Gannets who were flying by with some gulls. We saw both juveniles and adults. Gannets are usually found pretty far into the ocean, but are sometimes able to be spotted off shore. I was waiting so long to observe these seabirds, so I was so excited to get a quick glimpse.

We had a really enjoyable trip to IBSP. I hope to visit again in the winter when more waterfowl arrive.

Short-eared Owl Wednesday

Time for the second owl post of the week! Today’s featured owl is the Short-eared Owl, one of the most widespread owls in the world. It’s Latin name is Asio flammeus, translated to “flame-colored horned-owl”.

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)

Description:

Short-eared owls are sandy-colored, medium-sized owls. Their short ear tufts are so tiny they are almost impossible to see unless you are close to the owl and it’s alarmed or agitated. Their underparts are heavily streaked and their upperparts are brown with white and buff. Males are grayer than females with whiter undersides/underwings. Their facial disks are lightly streaked and whitish with blackish triangular spots around the eyes. Short-eared Owls have very short tails and round heads. Juveniles are downy, and as they start to get adult plumage, their facial disks are black with white crescents with a white “mustache” chin.

By Shantanu Kuveskar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Range:

Short-eared Owls live throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. They are also found in the southern part of South America and on islands including Micronesia, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Galapagos. In North America they are residents in the American West, parts of Canada, and Cuba. They spend the summers throughout Canada and winters in the Midwest and Northeast. Irregular irruptions can be found in the Southwest and Southeastern United States. The Caribbean population regularly invades Southern Florida.

Habitat:

Open country, such as grasslands, marshes, prairies, farmland, dunes, and tundra.

Diet:

Mainly meadow voles, but other small mammals such as mice, muskrats, moles, rabbits, pocket voles, and weasels. Also known to eat large insects and small to medium-sized birds. Short-eared Owls hunt most actively during dawn and dusk, but can be found hunting in daylight. They soar low to the ground and hover over their prey before landing on it.

Breeding/Nesting:

Males perform a “sky-dancing” display which include impressive spiraling flights, diving, calling, and wing-clapping. They will start courting in late winter, but pair bonds don’t usually last for the season. Nests are usually just a small depression in the ground, but Short-eared Owls have be occasionally known to also nest in trees with Long-eared Owls.

Short-eared Owls have one brood per year with the average clutch size of 5-6 eggs. However, when prey is abundant, it’s possible for the female to lay up to 11 eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 21- 31 eggs and hatching is asynchronous (meaning the eggs hatch over a number of days, not at the same time). The male will bring food to the female who will feed and brood the owlets. The owlets will usually leave the nest on foot at 12-18 days and can start to fly around 27 days.

Vocalizations:

Bark calls are given by both females and males, a nasal and harsh eee-YUURK! that can be short or drawn out, or a short rik-rikr-rik!.  Males hoot during courtship activities.

Short-eared Owl (Image by Gregg Thompson via birdnote.org)

Conservation: 

Still widespread, but have declined by 50-80% in its North American range, mainly due to the fact that these owls are grassland specialists. They are listed as “endangered” or “special concern” in 26 states. They are still relatively widespread in other parts of their range. The Caribbean populations of Short-eared Owls have been expanding. Habitat restoration program have help populations improve.

Fun Facts: 

• They are one of the few owl species to construct their own nests.
• Hawaii’s only native owl is the Pueo, a subspecies of the Short-eared Owl.
• Males can be extremely aggressive towards other males in the territories. They will duel by flying towards each other, locking talons and tumbling to the ground. They let go right before they hit the ground.