Christmas Break Birding: Episode 3

Christmas Break Birding

Episode #2

South Shore, Nassau County, NY

For this third and possibly final* episode of Christmas Break Birding, I decided to cover two ponds/lakes on the South Shore of Long Island.

First up was Massapequa Lake, a large lake on the southern end of Massapequa Preserve. Upon arriving the first thing that was evident was a large grouping of Ruddy Ducks, forty-five to be exact. A closer scope scan revealed innumerable amounts of Hooded Mergansers and American Black Ducks, with Mute Swans, Northern Shovelers and a Great Black-backed Gull mixed in with the Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. Some American Coot were also present, and while not rare, they do have unusually cute looks for any bird, not to mention lobed feet. I also located a bunch of Ring-necked Duck on the other side of the pond, though the Gadwall and Common Mergansers also present in the same vicinity did not seem interested in socializing. A Downy Woodpecker called from a nearby tree.

Further up along the trail that leads around the lake, a Black-capped Chickadee called incessantly, though it was almost drowned out by the calls of the exciting, amazing, super-rare House Sparrow. On the water, the ubiquitous Canada Geese and Mallards quacked and honked and made a ruckus. A Great Blue Heron flapped heavily across the water, landing on the other side of the lake in some reeds, where it proceeded to sit down and not move.

I had somewhere to be at 4:30 and it was already 3:00, so I moved back down the trail, where a Song Sparrow hid very well in the bushes, though I saw it anyway. 

I detoured along the way to the next stop and drove through Robert J. Burns park, which is situated next to a canal of the Atlantic Ocean. There was nothing at all there except nine Hooded Mergansers, all females, which provided great photo opportunities, as they were so close. Several Ring-billed Gulls were also very close to the car, which allowed for good shots.

The final stop of the day was a place called Unqua Lake, where one had to be careful where one stepped so as not to tread upon Canada Geese and Mallards. My counts, as reported to eBird, were 200 for the former and 150 for the latter. However, there were a bunch more American Black Ducks and Hooded Mergansers, as well as two Northern Shovelers and a nice surprise in a tree across the lake, two Black-crowned Night-herons. 

Speaking of night, the sun was setting, and I had an appointment. Enjoy the day's photos!

*I say final tentatively, as I have no further plans for birding over Christmas Break, but am prone to SBI (Sudden Birding Impulse).

Ruddy Ducks

Gadwall

Common Mergansers

I guess she took off...

The Ladies Club--Hooded Mergansers

"I see you looking at me..."

Common birds are beautiful too!

Incoming!  Canada Geese

A Look Back (on 2014) and Forward (to 2015)

As I write, there are three days left in 2014. With the year drawing to a close, I feel the need to sum up 2014's birding and give a preview of 2015.

This has been, without a doubt, my most serious year of birding yet. I have gone birding too many times to count, participated in several large birding-related festivals/conferences, and gotten seriously into this blog, writing a total of twenty-two posts since January 1, 2014.

I have, as I intended, done lots of eBirding, with exactly 45 checklists as of the writing of this post. I am planning on keeping it up into next year, on a quest to get to the top five Nassau County eBirders.

Right now, my year list for 2014 stands at 114. However, I have three days, and would like to add a few more before the end of the year.

In 2015, I am attempting a very leisurely, relaxed Big Year. Most big years are limited to county, state, Lower 48 or North America, but I am going to try a Big Year in Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, Kings, Richmond, New York and Bronx counties. I will probably not cover some of these counties, but I include them because I would hate to see a bird by accident in one of aforementioned counties and not be able to count it on my Big Year total.

The areas I'll be covering in my 2015 Big Year

I know of one NYC Big Year that reached 307 species, and I know that one New York Big Year reached 361 species. I don't have such huge ambitions for mine; my goal is 200 species.

2014 was a fantastic birding year, so let's hope for an even better year approaching. Here's to good birding in 2015!

Good birding in 2015! 

Christmas Break Birding: Part 2, Searching for Nemesis Birds

Christmas Break Birding

Episode #2

Jones Beach State Park, Nassau, NY

Last year, as most of you probably know, there was a massive irruption of Snowy Owls. Unfortunately, I figured I could always see the bird later and waited until February, when it was Too Late, at which point the Snowy Owl became a nemesis bird, one that everyone else sees but I always miss. 

And so I chose to set this next episode of Christmas Break Birding at Jones Beach, an Atlantic Ocean beach on the South Shore of Long Island, where the Snowy Owl turns up every year. I was also looking to pick up some other nemesis birds, such as Purple Sandpiper and Horned Lark.

Upon arriving at the beach, I found some gulls in the parking lot, including some that were a Black-backed Gull sp., though I was unable to put them to a single species. I briefly scanned the dunes with binoculars, but instead of an owl, I found guys with a gun. I hopped in the car and my dad drove rapidly to the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center, where we reported the men with the gun to the park police. 

I took a brief walk in the dunes behind the nature center, but found only a rude photographer walking over the protected habitat where he was expressly forbidden not to, flushing up huge numbers of Canada Geese and duck sp..  However, there were good sized flocks of Snow Bunting in the air, their wing patches flashing in the blue sky. A Northern Harrier skimmed the grass and pounced and twirled.

As there was nothing else to see in the dunes, I headed over to the Coast Guard Station and surveyed the water. Here, some other birders had already found five Long-tailed Ducks, a bunch of Brant, and four Great Black-backed Gull. Three Double-crested Cormorant dried their wings. 

After the Coast Guard Station, I headed back to the dunes in the hopes that something had changed and there were now birds all over. There weren't. The flock of a hundred Snow Buntings was still there, but that was it. 

Earlier in the morning, my mother had called the nature center to ask if there were any owls there at the time. The man who worked there said that there weren't, but that some other good birds sometimes hung out in the median and the scrub between the road and parking lot. I went in there, and stumbled upon a flock of House Finch and Yellow-rumped Warblers, which I enjoyed in the fading light. 

At this point, it was too dark to bird any more, so I got in the car and headed home, the gulls circling and a Peregrine Falcon sitting on a light post on a bridge, silhouetted in the sunset.

Enjoy the photos from the day and look out for the next episode of Christmas Break Birding!

Gulls! Greater Black-backed and Ring-billed. There might also be a Herring in there somewhere,
but not sure.

Double-crested Cormorants dry their wings

Long-tailed Duck grabs some lunch and keeps it away from
Herring Gull that kept trying to steal it 

Snow Buntings

Christmas Break Birding: Part 1, Testing the New Camera

Earlier this year, my camera broke.

My Canon Elph 100 HS had a lens error shortly after returning from the NY Birder's Conference and was unable to work. This was very disturbing news, as this had been my very first camera and I had done some good digiscoping with it. However, that particular camera was also my third replacement due to lens errors and so this gave me an excuse to upgrade my camera a bit.

You can't see it here, but trust me, it's broken.

And so, on Christmas, a replacement magically appeared. It is a superzoom camera, the Nikon P600, with 60x optical zoom and many of the manual controls of a DSLR. What's more, it is smaller and lighter than my D3100, making it easier to carry.

Nikon P600

And so, in order to test out this new camera, I began today a new series for this Christmas break...

Christmas Break Birding

Episode #1

Nassau County, North Shore

For winter waterfowl that like to hang out in saltwater, Stehli Beach on the Long Island sound is a great place. I needed to get some first-of-season saltwater ducks and besides, it would be a good place to try out the new camera. So I went.

There was nothing doing in the swamp on one side of the parking lot, so I pulled out the scope and checked the sound. I found a Long-tailed Duck. Then I found another. And another. This kept up until my count was 64. 

Popping out from the masses of Long-tails came two Horned Grebes, which I easily identified by their weird shaped heads.  A Red-breasted Merganser was also bopping along the waves, and soon came very close to shore, allowing good looks and photos. A whole bunch of duck sp., actually probably scoter sp., stayed way far out with the skyline of the Bronx behind them, and with the wonderful looks I got, I officially identified them as Black Blobs.  A Great Black-backed Gull floated in the water. Two Sanderlings landed on the shore.

At this point, it was getting dark, so my parents drove to another location, Mill Pond. One of the numerous places called Mill Pond on Long Island, this one is a relatively small pond situated right next a road, so that one must stand behind the guardrail to view the pond. Here there where the ubiquitous Mute Swans, as well as a whole crew of scaups, which I called Lesser Scaup due to the pointy head. Some Hooded Mergansers hung out on the other side as Buffleheads came in closer, and Northern Pintails stayed far far away. Three American Wigeon hung out and acted cool.

And now, I leave you to take a look at the pictures, all taken with the P600. Enjoy, until tomorrow's episode!

Red-breasted Merganser

Horned Grebe

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling. Yes, I took a lot of pictures of that bird.

Canada Geese

Long-tailed Ducks. Yes, the photo's bad, but these birds were invisible to the naked eye, and were
only slightly more visible in an 8x binocular.

It's CBC Season!

Once again, it has returned to that magical time of year, Christmas Bird Count season. This season has a special meaning for me, which I'll get into later. But right now, let's take a quick look at the history of the Christmas Bird Count.

Up till the late 19th century, a Christmas tradition was the side hunt. After Christmas dinner, rich guys with guns would go out, form teams, and see who could shoot the more birds in an allotted amount of time. These guys were not discriminating either: if it had feathers, they wanted to kill it. What's more, they had no real need for dead birds and often disposed of many of the corpses afterwards.

In 1900, Frank Chapman proposed a more humane activity. It was very similar to the side hunt, except for one important detail: after being seen, the birds were recorded, rather than shot. The first year, twenty-seven people participated. This became the Christmas Bird Count, which the National Audubon Society now sponsors.

Counts are conducted in count circles of 15 miles or 24 kilometers. Teams split up to cover the entirety of the circle, then bring their records back to be compiled. That data, with exact numbers of how many of each species were found where, is sent back to the Audubon Society, where it is stored for scientific purposes.

The CBC proves that science can be fun. No, ignore that. The CBC proves that science can be really  fun! Last year was my first year, and I still believe that experience inspired the transformation to a hard-core birder that occurred in the winter of 2013.

Now, it's been a year since then, and I have far more experience and passion in the field. So I'm going back. This year, I shall be counting on December 14, 2014, with circle NYQU, Queens County, NY. This count is organized by the Queens County Bird Club. The compiler is none other than the esteemed Corey Finger, writer for 10,000 Birds and now field guide author.

So wish us luck on December 14!

Last year's CBC

What's on the Feeders Today?

 In my post on Things to do when you're stuck at home, I recommended that birders who can't get out birding watch their backyard feeders instead. Unfortunately, I am currently going through another can't-go-birding period. And I am taking my own advice, putting serious attention into my feeders.

It is now November. Trees are turning bright red and orange all over, it's getting cold and blustery, and the rest of America is just starting to return to reality from the sugar-induced high that set in after Halloween. But more importantly, winter birds are returning.

Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows are pouring into my area in ridiculous numbers, bringing my backyard count from none to ten in just over two days. Three Blue Jays have been hanging around and taking the peanuts I feed them. Black-capped Chickadees are coming almost every day, a female Downy Woodpecker came in yesterday, and a White-breasted Nuthatch was hitching up and down some spruce trees in my yard yesterday. Finches, both House and Purple, have been coming regularly as well.

Blue Jay

Starting around now, most of my spare time during daylight when I am not birding is spent photographing birds at the feeders. I hang out with either my DSLR or my digiscoping setup and shoot through holes in the anti-window collision screen on my picture window.

What happens when I get bored

Another thing I like to play with in winter is my WINGSCAPES BirdCam Pro. This camera is automatically motion activated by any movement on the feeder it is aimed at, and I have captured some great shots with it. Mine is clamped to a pole several feet from my tray feeder.

And so now I'll stop talking and show you what you've been wanting to see: the pictures. Enjoy!

Northern Cardinal taken with WINGSAPES Birdcam Pro

Blue Jay with Birdcam Pro

Blue Jay Fight

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Blue Jay and Mourning Doves

"I WILL swallow this peanut..."

New York Birder's Conference 2014 and Ithaca Birding

As I write this, I have just arrived back home from five wonderful days birding and attending NYSOA'S annual New York Birder's Conference at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.  I wish I could have written daily updates from Ithaca but this was unfortunately not possible. To catch up, I shall now attempt to give a brief summary of each day.

Day 1

Wednesday, September 17

My first full day in Ithaca was rather uneventful. I was not able to do much birding as my father had a business event for much of the day, but when he returned, I did manage to get over to Stewart Park, a major hotspot, for a little while. Stewart Park looks out over Cayuga Lake, the largest of the five Finger Lakes. The scenery was beautiful, but the place was oddly devoid of birds. The highlights of this quick trip were Belted Kingfisher and Common Merganser. Other more common birds included Mallard, Canada Goose, Ring-billed and Herring Gull, American Crow, and Double-crested Cormorant.

Cayuga Lake, as seen from Stewart Park

Day 2

Thursday, September 18

Thursday, my only free day for birding and nothing but birding, was very busy. The first stop was the Freese Road Community Gardens, a community garden run by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Parts of these gardens are overgrown with wildflowers and tall grasses, making it great for sparrows and the like in fall. Arriving there, I found the flowers to also be very attractive to butterflies, and I observed several different species there, including Clouded Sulphur and Eastern Tailed-Blue.

Birds, too were abundant, but it was somewhat frustrating the way the kept popping up and flying away to the opposite side of the field, then waiting till I got over there to fly back to the other end. But I got good looks at Song and Lincoln's Sparrows and American Goldfinches. American Crows were also present. 

Clouded Sulphur

Lincoln's Sparrow

American Goldfinch

I made a brief stop at the Johnson Visitor Center of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and then it was on to the Fuertes Sanctuary, which is a bird sanctuary named after famed bird artist and Ithaca native Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Here, too, birds abounded; a list of some of the species I observed there include Red-eyed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Carolina Wren, Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Black-capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker.

Ithaca Falls, another location I visited on Thursday

Day 3

Friday, September 19

Friday marked the beginning of the New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) conference, hosted this year by the Cayuga Bird Club. It was also the day I got to bird a place I had heard so many great things about, the Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary. The Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, or simply Sapsucker to the locals, is situated behind the world-famous Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Some notable birds observed there included the sanctuary's namesake, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwing, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher and Wood Duck. There was even a Mallard x American Black Duck Hybrid, which, appropriately enough, looked like a combination between a Mallard and Black Duck. 

Sapsucker Woods Pond

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Great Blue Heron

That night, I got to go to a reception and some other events at the lab. These other invents included a presentation on Cornell's website All About Birds, a look at a display of commemorative Passenger Pigeon Artwork and the personal study of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the lab and the Macaulay Library.

The originals by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Passenger Pigeon by Charlie Harper

Friday was also the day I finally saw Big Red, one of the Cornell Hawks. Two Red-tailed Hawks, nicknamed Big Red and Ezra, have nested on the light towers at the Cornell Athletic field for many years now. Thanks to the Lab of Ornithology, viewers around the world have been able to watch inside their nest on a livestreaming cam. I have watched for two years, and by around the second week of my first year I was helplessly addicted. 

Big Red

Cornell Hawk Cams

Day 4

Saturday, September 20

Day four was, unfortunately, not a day of birding. It was a day of sitting inside a conference center listening to fascinating talks about birds, including one extremely intriguing presenation by Bridget Strutchbury on migration tracking in Purple Martins and Wood Thrushes. I also got to hang out with some other members of the New York State Young Birder's Club (NYSYBC), where those of us who had not traveled to far-flung (at least from New York) locations to bird where awed by photos and stories from those who had.

Day 5

Sunday, September 21

Pack up, get in the car, and go. After an eight-hour drive through New York City traffic, it was done. It was, though, a remarkable trip, one that I will most likely always remember.

I'm Going to the 67th Annual New York Birder's Conference!

Every year, the New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA), with the assistance of a local bird club, organizes the Annual New York Birder's Conference. This conference is great fun, three days of interesting presentations, posters, booths, birding and socialization with other birders. Last year, the 2013 conference was in my home county, hosted by my local club, the Queens County Bird Club. This year, the conference is hosted by the Cayuga Bird Club and will take place in Ithaca, New York.

Me at 2013 NYSOA Conference with New York State Young Birder's Club (NYSYBC)
and Jim Currie, host of Nikon Birding Adventures TV

Ithaca is a place that I have dreamed of going to for a while now, partly because of the great birding I hear about up there and partly because of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their various resources for nutty birders like me. Their live-streaming Red-tailed Hawk Cam, which has partially taken over my life, has also contributed to this intense desire.

Interestingly enough, my father, the cofounder of a New York City software company, has a business event on the campus of Cornell University only a few days before the conference. Due to this fact, my parents decided to just go up there for both events and stay an extra two days. This was a decision I approved of. It gives more time for birding in a new area. 

So in mid-September, I shall depart my house, sit in the back of a car for five hours and get out of said car in Ithaca, NY, in order to bird like mad for five days and attend the 67th Annual New York Birder's Conference. 

I hope to see some of you there!

Jamaica Bay Shorebird Festival

If you've read this blog before, you'll remember from my last post that I had been stuck in the house for almost two months, unable to get out birding. Luckily for me, this last weekend in August provided a splendid opportunity to break that disturbing trend: the Jamaica Bay Shorebird Festival.

Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge is one of the best birding spots in New York City; indeed, one of the best in the state. Every year in July and August, astounding numbers of migrating shorebirds land on the mudflats there to refuel for their journey south. And every year, just like the shorebirds, astounding numbers of birders trudge through the muck on the East Pond in order to observe the shorebirds.

For nine years, New York City Audubon and the American Littoral Society have organized an annual shorebird festival. This years included presentations on shorebird identification and photography from the likes of Lloyd Spitalnik and Kevin Karlson, as well as walks around both ponds.

Arriving at Jamaica Bay on Saturday, I instantly went into the photography workshop and marveled at some lovely shorebird photos, in addition to learning more than a few things about how to photograph shorebirds and birds in general. After a brief conversation with Mr. Spitalnik, I slipped out the back door and onto the shorter of the two trails around the West Pond, hoping for some great birds (many rarities have shown up on the West Pond in previous years).

Not only did I not get great birds, I got hardly any birds at all. A Killdeer, Osprey and Canada Goose were the extent of birdlife on the West Pond. 

Turning over to the bay, several Great Egrets stood serenely and surveyed the marsh and the water beyond, watching the American Oystercatchers and Laughing Gulls to make sure they didn't do anything naughty. Double-crested Cormorants stretched their wings, Barn Swallows swooped about and an Unidentified Tern flew over. 

Nothing fantastic was hanging around the West Pond, so I turned around and came back. The East Pond and shorebirds were calling.

After getting the car parked in front of a rentable portable toilet storage area, I took a short trail down to the pond, squelched in some mud, got whacked in the face by a reed, and joined up with a group of scope-wielding shorebirders. This group was led by Kevin Karlson, one of the authors of The Shorebird Guide. If anyone knows anything about shorebirds it would be him, and he certainly proved his knowledge with his ample guidance on the fine points of shorebird identification.

As for the birds themselves, as soon as I got out of the reeds and onto the pond, they were there: about ten or twenty juvenile peeps, scurrying this way and that upon the mudflats and busily feeding. Upon closer examination, these birds proved to be Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers. 

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Moving along the shoreline of the pond, we came up right next to them. Mr. Karlson explained to the group that because these birds were juveniles, they have not yet learned fear of humans. They therefore let us come and stand only around ten feet from them and point gargantuan lenses and scopes at them.

Hopping from reed to reed came a Northern Waterthrush, an un-warbler-like warbler. Three Short-billed Dowitchers drilled in a distinctive way--just like a sewing machine on legs. A Lesser Yellowlegs paid no heed as we stood watching it from five feet away. 

Short-billed Dowitchers: sewing machines on legs

Further down, the group focused intently on the challenging task of picking a single Western Sandpiper out of a flock of Semipalmateds. This was not an easy task, but one that the group accomplished in the end, not paying too much attention to the Cedar Waxwings and Eastern Kingbird in nearby trees. A Snowy Egret danced in the water, dwarfing the Least Sandpipers that scurried about his yellow-booted feet.

It was getting late, and there was another great presentation to attend at the visitor center. However, I could hardly tear myself away from an odd Least Sandpiper: it had only one leg. It hopped along the mud, moving at a surprisingly rapid pace, and then flew off, looking like a normal Least. 

Over to my right, a Great Black-backed Gull landed on the water, but kept away from the Laughing, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls; it also maintained a respectful distance from some Mute Swans. Checking out some more of what I assumed to be Short-billed Dowitchers, we found among their midst three Stilt Sandpipers, a nice treat. 

Can you pick the Stilt Sandpiper out from the Short-billed Dowitchers?

After watching a Peregrine Falcon swoop low over the pond and freak out all the shorebirds, I grabbed a little food before heading back to the visitor center and attending Kevin Karlson's helpful presentation on shorebird identification by impression. A brief summary of the method of identification he presented can be found here, and his book can be bought here. He also spoke about the upcoming book on birding impression that he is coauthoring.

And that was it, the conclusion of a remarkable day of shorebirding and workshops. As the car slid gently over the bridge leading over and out of Jamaica Bay, I took a last fleeting glimpse of the refuge and promised to come a-shorebirding again someday soon.

Least Sandpiper