Birder's Journal 2007 - Building a "Year List"

[QuikSand]

Birder’s Journal – The Year List

I have documented here, from time to time, my interest in birdwatching. I find ti a great combination of interesting and relaxing, and while I don’t really fit the profile of the typical birder very well, I still like to get out a bit. I am not a deeply committed birder – I don’t plan my vacations and recreational opportunities around birding hotspots and so forth, but I enjoy it. More on that over time, as it’s warranted.

Anyway… one of the things some birders like to do is make lists. The “life list” is the capstone to this effort -- many birders keep careful track of every species they have ever identified/seen in the wild, and become very interested when opportunities present themselves to expand the life list. Personally, I keep a life list (it’s getting close to 300 species) but it’s not all that impressive in the big picture. I am, incidentally, at the point now where for me to see a life bird in the mid-Atlantic region probably requires either going out of my way to specific and unusual habitat, or else traveling to find some sort of oddity transient bird (occasionally birding groups pass around word that a stray bird has been sighted at a certain place, and the serious list-builders rush to try to see it).

In addition to the life list, many birders do things on a smaller scale – like keeping a state or county list of those they have seen in a certain area. And many like the list-building process enough to renew it every so often… making something like a “year list.” That’s what I intend to do this year (getting a slightly delayed start), and I want to get it together as the main spring migration season gets underway.

So… without further ado, I will detail my solo walk this weekend, and then recap the list as I have it for the year so far. I don’t even know what is a reasonable goal for the list for year – it likely depends on where I travel and how frequently I get out to go birding. But anyway…here goes.

[QuikSand]

April 29

I got away early this morning for a solo walk at Terrapin Park, a pretty nice area on Kent Island, right in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay (basically the western landing of the Bay Bridge, for those familiar with the area). I have been here plenty of times before – it’s not as great a birding hotspot as some places out along the ocean coast, but it’s not bad, and this setting has a really nice variety of habitats – pretty good for birding efficiency, which is important to someone like me, who isn’t going to get a lot of trips out all told. So, I get a decent walk around the main path, about 2 miles worth, and take my time to pick up what I can.

For the day, I have a pretty nice time and rack up a number of nice species – nothing all that glamorous, but a very enjoyable day. Here’s the list of what I saw in my 90 minutes or so on the trails at Terrapin Park:

Common Loon
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Wood Duck
Mallard
Bufflehead
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Least Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
Palm Warbler
Eastern Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow


That’s a pretty respectable list, considering I wasn’t even out to the ocean (the primary corridor of the Eastern migration) and it’s still really a bit early for the serious migrants to be coming through. In under two hours, racking up 56 species isn’t too bad – just the sort of day that I was hoping for, and it was just gorgeous outside as well.

Among these birds, there might be a few that I won’t see again this year – the cuckoo is a fairly unassuming bird that it’s easy to miss, even though they are reasonably common in this area through the springtime. So, this might be the only one I see this year – that’s possible. The coot is another hit-or-miss bird… I see them fairly often on this particular pond here at Terrapin park, but if I only get out ten times in a year, I could easily go a year without ever seeing one. So – good to have that notched for the year list as well.

Past that, mostly these are fairly common species that it would be pretty tough to go all year without seeing at all. It was nice to be mobbed by Palm Warblers during one stretch of the walk – they are tiny, flitting little tail-bobbers and I saw about 20 of them in the space of 15 minutes – they are early migrants, and among the first bellwether birds of the year. If the numbers here are any indication – this might turn out to be a bountiful spring.

[QuikSand]

May 1

I took the morning off, and traveled to Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware, for a guided morning walk. It was billed as a “Warbler Walk” but that wasn’t really the strong suit for what we actually saw that day.

I frequently find myself to be an anomaly in the demographics of birdwatchers – and this group was no exception. Among the three groups who are usually heavily concentrated in the birding circles, this group was heavy with senior citizens – well, who else has the time to go birding on Tuesday morning? The other two main demographics – hideously ugly people and obvious lesbians – were in relatively short supply this trip.

Anyway – here’s the list for the day, with a few comments to follow:

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Ring-necked Pheasant
American Coot
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Greater Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Screech-Owl
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Eastern Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow


That’s a pretty solid list – getting out to Delaware and along the coast (sort of, we’re technically on the Delaware bay there, but still close to the Oceanic flyway this time of year) makes a pretty big difference.

A few noteworthy birds for the day:

There are quite a number of birds that have exactly two different variants, with one being much more common than the other. Seeing a Black Billed Cuckoo is a fairly uncommon thing for me – this is probably the third or fourth time I’ve ever seen the bird. So, it’s pretty likely that seeing a couple of them pretty close up today will be the only time I get to add them to the “year list.” Nice bird.

The array of wading shorebirds that frequent this location is staggering – we’re a little early for the peak, but there’s basically no other placve along the East Coast where you can reliably see either Avocets or Stilts is right here. Sizable numbers of both species spend the whole summer right here in Delaware, but no place else south of New England. Odd, but they are the signature bird of this location – May 1 was too early to see the Avocets, but we did see a dozen or so stilts. A trip back in June or July would likely turn up scores, or even hundreds, of each. Anyway – that wasn’t the focus of this trip, and we didn’t really spend any time looking over the ponds, but I did catch a handful of species that I won’t see inland.


So – a solid daily tally of 76 species, and definitely a few additions to the year list. One or two more specific outings to report before I tally up the year list to date – which I reckon will be up over 100 species by now (even with the great overlap that shows up across visits).

I’m still hoping to see a good set of warblers this year… not sure when that’s going to happen, though. Tougher to get away than it was a few years ago.

[QuikSand]

May 5

I get away on the morning of Derby day for a guided walk at Jug Bay Wetlands Center – I have been on these walks a number of times, and know the area fairly well. As it turns out, the migration timing brought in way more people than usual – instead of 3-10 people, we had maybe 25 on this walk, and it got a bit noisy and crowded, not ideal for quietly walking the woods and listening closely for birds.

During this season, it’s tough not to see a fair number of birds, but overall not a lot that was really noteworthy. And hardly any warblers here, either, to my dismay.

The list for the morning:

Double-crested Cormorant
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
American Black Duck
Mallard
Osprey
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Daily species count -- 63


A few comments here – the Least Bittern is a bird that I very likely will never see this year. We heard one calling from off in the marsh as we walked a nearby trail, so it makes the list (yes, heard birds count – the goal is to confirm their presence, and that Least Bittern was just as surely there was were the 10-15 Yellow Warblers we saw all day). So, that’s one bird that I almost surely won’t get another chance to put onto the yearly list.

Best bird of the day was the Prothonotary Warbler, which I found my leaving the group and chasing the call I had heard from some ways away. It’s a stunning bird, really – the yellow coloring is one of the most beautiful anywhere, and it makes a great case study in “perfect colors found in nature.” Actually, you could assemble a pretty good array of said perfect colors just using springtime migratory birds – the yellow form the Prothonotary, maybe the red from a Scarlet Tanager, and the blue from an Indigo Bunting would be an excellent start.

Here’s the breathtaking Prothonotary Warbler, for your viewing pleasure – but you only get about a quarter on the dollar to its presence live.




And, finally, one semi-entertaining story (this thread clearly needs more entertainment):

We saw a nondescript little bird, and it took a few minutes to identify it as a female black-throated blue warbler. I mentioned to the group around me that it was ‘a shame it’s the female and not the male” – which was quickly met with sneering contempt by a couple of obvious lesbians. My point, I explained, wasn’t meant to be political or sexist – but just practical. Judge for yourself – here is a picture of the female of the species:



That’s a pretty decent likeness of the bird that we actually saw. Pretty pale, mostly grayish to olive colored, with the main field mark being the faint ring around the eye. Nobody gets terribly excited about seeing a female black-throated blue.

Here, by way of contrast, is the male:



A completely different-looking bird – and an eye-catcher at that. When you see them (fairly uncommon, but they’re around) they are very noticeable and memorable –the blue is a very striking color.

So… it took a little bit of “damage control” effort on my part to parse out my sexist comment, and explain that all I meant was the female wasn’t much to look at, while the male is. And, begrudgingly, the claws were retracted as my point became fairly clear and dramatically less controversial.

[Izulde]

I take it warblers are your favourite species overall?

[QuikSand]

Warblers are justifiably considerded by many birders to be the "crown jewels" of birdwatching. There are around 30 different species in North America, and across that spread they include a nearly universal range of colors -- many are really, really strikingly beautiful. They also tend to be pretty active birds, especialy during the migration (right now, the time when they are most visible in this area) so it's fairly easy to spot them when they are around -- they tend to flit from point to point in trees, some bob or dip their tails when on the ground, and so forth. Their calls are all over the place, but many are a genuine gurgling-like "warble" that makes for at least interesting (though sometimes puzzling) listening.

So, yes, I'd probably rank warblers right at the top of my most-enjoyed families of birds. The last few years, I have gotten really interested in the much more somber and difficult-to-identify shorebirds and waders -- sandpipers, plovers, and the like -- but it's pretty tough to deny the tiny, beautiful warblers, which are really crowd pleasers.