Green Valley AZ

I flew Southwest from Norfolk through Nashville and Los Angeles to Tucson.  Yes, that's right.  You go to LA to get to Tucson!  The flight from LA to Tucson was a half hour late, but that didn't impact anything in AZ.  The rental car was ready and I drove it to Green Valley south of Tucson where I got a room and got out of the 100F out-of-doors.  The sun felt like it looks in the web photo.  There wasn't enough time to do anything useful today, so I got setup to go to Montosa Canyon tomorrow morning very early to look for Black-capped Gnatcatchers.  John and I had spent an early morning here in July.  In fact it was the last morning before we flew back home.  Obviously since I'm going back, we didn't get the bird.  I hope that changes tomorrow.  It will be hot again, and get there very quickly, so it will have to happen in the first hour or so.  After that, I'll seek someplace that has a little elevation and the cool that goes with it.  It's always exciting to be birding in SE AZ.

Still in Norfolk, but Not For Long

On Monday no good news came in from around the country about yet-to-be-seen yearbirds that were being seen by someone.  That meant that I didn't revise my travel plans and leave early.  So I stayed at home and enjoyed the buckets of rain pouring down on our house (web photo).  Early on when the rain was a bit lighter, I did see a few birds around the yard.  But after the deluge set in, it was difficult to see anything moving except the rain.  So for now the plans are to fly to Arizona on Wednesday, continuing on to California on Friday for a two-day pelagic over the weekend, and on to Barrow next week.  I'll be back in Norfolk on October 12

Bethany's Birthday

Today is my daughter Bethany's birthday.  She's a very young how ever old she is.  After all, she can't be very old since I'm so young.  Joyce and I drove down to Raleigh to spend the middle of the day with her and her family (shown in the photo at a friend's wedding last fall).  Last night they had held their highly successful backyard oyster roast so there was a little cleaning up still going on when we arrived.  We packed everyone up in their van and went to the restaurant of her choice where we all enjoyed the food and conversation.  When we got back to their house, she packed up a care package of some locally grown vegetables for us to take home.  We had brought a batch of chocolate-chip cookies.  I'll let you decide who won on that exchange.  On the drive home we ran into several horrendous thunder storms.  Along the way several cars had skidded off the road or had hydroplaned since there was a large amount of water on the highway.  We did make it home safely.  I found out from the rare bird website that a Yellow-Green Vireo had been seen today in San Diego.  I made a quick check of the airline schedules and saw that it would be possible for me to rearrange my Arizona, California trip to start in California.  But I'll wait until tomorrow and check with my contacts to see what the status is then before making any changes.  And from another part of the country comes a report of a La Sagra's Flycatcher in Florida.  Such are the ups and downs and tugs and pulls of a Big Year.

Kiptopeke Challenge

Ah yes, the Kiptopeke Challenge.  As has been the case the last few years, the day has started with an Eastern Screech-Owl at the Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR.  And as has also become the norm, we didn't follow that success with a Great Horned Owl although there are many of them around.  As it got lighter and the wind picked up, it was apparent that today was going to be an uphill battle to get landbirds.  The usual spots turned up no activity, no chips or tweets, and indeed a struggle it was.  But at Ramp Lane on the refuge we encountered about 250 Sandwich Terns with a few Royal Terns mixed in moving past in the predawn light.  This is by far the largest group of Sandwich Terns I've seen away from the breeding area on Wreck Island.  Overhead there were a few Sharp-shinned Hawks hunting and the sought-after White Ibis made their appearance.  A nearby perched and singing Marsh Wren was a bonus.  At GATR tract we actually encountered a few nice landbirds including a Summer Tanager, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and the gem-of-the-day, a Golden-winged Warbler, a bird we have actually gotten once before during a previous Challenge at Chincoteague NWR.  When we reached Kiptopeke SP, we saw friends Bob Anderson, Harry Armistead, and Zach Poulton who were participating in the Challenge while they manned the hawk platform.  At Oyster we caught the high tide, but still found a nice bunch of Greater Yellowlegs and an Eastern Meadowlark and some Savannah Sparrows on the shore.  The dump had a few Pied-billed Grebes, many Fish Crows, both night-herons, and our first Little Blue Herons, plus a lone American Black Duck.  Eyre Hall was quiet but we rousted out a Black-and-white Warbler plus Harry and Downy Woodpeckers.  Then it was on to Chincoteague with a not-so-brief stop at the Coffee House on the way.  There was open admission to get into Chincoteague, so the place was a bit crowded especially the beach.  The wildlife drive had a nice scattering of shorebirds including Pectoral and White-rumped Sandpipers and a few ducks.  A Peregrine kept the birds a bit on the jittery side.  At that point I left David Clark and Andrew Baldelli (photo including David's new Prius) to drive back to Norfolk so I could attend the performance of the Virginia Symphony.  I just couldn't stand to miss another concert this year.  I managed to make it to the performance and enjoyed it immensely.  David and Andrew persisted after I left and got quite a few more birds for the day including a couple Buff-breasted Sandpipers and a few warblers along the pony trail.  Our final total for the day was 111, symptomatic of the heat and southwest wind.  Maybe next year without the distraction of a Big Year, we can put our collective minds together, plan a good route, and win this thing.

Getting Set for the Kiptopeke Challenge

I returned to Norfolk today a bit zonked.  It was, however, good to get home where a Blue Jay was bathing in our bird bath (Charles Harper web snatch).  I celebrated by taking a little snooze since my day had started at 4:30am with the airport shuttle in Ft. Lauderdale.  This coming Saturday David Clark, Andrew Baldelli, and I will also have an early start, this time on Virginia's Eastern Shore as part of CVWO's fundraiser, the Kiptopeke Challenge.  I hope you've made a pledge or have contributed to CVWO by clicking on the link in the upper left of this blog and following the directions there.  I don't think I'll get any new birds during the day to increase my year's list (except maybe the White-cheeked Pintail, if I choose to count it), but it will be a fun day and we plan to obtain a good count.  Dare I hope for over 130!  That might happen if Mr. Weather gives us a break this year and drops a big wave of migrants.  That would be fun to sort through all those birds.  Tomorrow I'm finalizing my plans for the couple of weeks after the Challenge.  It will involve a multi-day pelagic out of San Diego and possibly a run to Alaska to see the Ross's Gull migration at Barrow, if I can find the airline miles to cash in.

They're So Cute!

I was prepared to spend the whole day if necessary to keep from repeating the negative outcome of our April try at the Budgies. The location was the same as it was then. I knew how to get there. I just felt if I was a little more persistent, things would work out. You'll see that I didn't need to worry. The motel I fell into last night was a Hampton Inn, about three cuts above my usual level of overnight accommodations. It was so nice, I just couldn't get myself away from the high thread count sheets, the thick towels, the warm breakfast. Eventually I did leave and drove to the Budgie spot arriving before 9:00am. I took a walk around the neighborhood and as soon as I turned the corner, there they were, all lined up on a telephone wire. There were eight of them in all which has to be most of what's left of this population. In a few years there won't be any and ABA will remove Budgerigar from its list just as it did the Crested Myna, the Blue-Gray Tanager, and the Black Francolin. I recall when I saw my first countable budgies. It was in the 80's. I waited several years to go see them, because you had to go to St. Petersburg and I wasn't all that hot to check off an exotic. But around that time my folks acquired a place in Sarasota where they went for the winter and my sister and I alternated visiting them at Christmas. So it became a little more reasonable thing to attempt. One year, on our way back to Norfolk, I drove somewhat out of our way to the local streets in St. Petersburg where you were supposed to find the Budgies. Before you got to the area where they were, you could hear them screeching. When you did get there, the telephone wires were loaded with them by the hundreds and hundreds. Most of them were green, but there were a few of the varietals that aviculturists created for the pet trade. It's hard to believe how quickly that scene became a thing of the past, and we're indeed reduced to a couple of handfuls. The current last stand is a location where an individual supposedly fed a large group of them up to a few years ago. A neighbor told me today that the flock was over a couple hundred birds. He wasn't sure whether the person feeding them was alive any longer, but I suspect he/she has passed away or moved. I'm happy to say that I've now added them to the year's list (#704). After taking a satisfactory photo, I got back in the car and set the gps for Ft. Lauderdale where I arrived five hours later, checked in my car two days early, changed my return airline ticket to a flight tomorrow, got a motel room, wrote this blog, and planned to watch a baseball game on TV. You're right! It won't be the Cards.

A Day in the Everglades

 After a nice Denny's breakfast, I returned to Gate 3 on Long Pine road in the Everglades NP where the couple, Ron and Carol from west of Austin TX, whom I had met last night,was looking upward but (for the moment) not at the Cuban Pewee.   Another birder there, Mark Berney from Ft. Lauderdale, heard a call which he tracked down and it turned out to be the Cuban Pewee which obligingly landed on a bare branch for a photo.  Everyone got good views and I got a photo.  The call is a series of slightly upturned...wheeeet...notes.  It gave this call repeatedly even though many of those times we couldn't see the bird.  However we did get several nice views of the bird.  After satisfying myself with views of the pewee, I spent a little time looking for the Western Spindalis which had been reported not too long ago.  But nothing much was calling or moving, so I hopped in the car and motored slowly southward toward Flamingo where I was to meet Pete Frezza.  While I was waiting for Pete at Flamingo, I found a young Lark Sparrow hopping around near the marina store.  There were also a couple of Manatees swimming around near the boat launch, the best views I've ever had of that mammal.  After Pete arrived, he launched the boat and we took off over Florida Bay toward the section known as Snake Bite which has nothing to do with getting bitten by a reptile!  It took about twenty minutes to get to the area where a few American Flamingos had been seen, but when we did arrive, there they were - four beauties that spent most of the time with their heads tucked.  However, when we were at some distance, they did pick up and fly low with their heads and legs extended, turn around, and return to their original location.  All of that so I could see that beautiful deep pink and black wing pattern.  To get close enough for a photo, Pete had to pole the boat over the shallows.  After much poling, I was able to get the photo shown here.  Very exciting since this was the first time I had seen them in the ABA area since my first time in the 70's.  After we got back to the dock at Flamingo, I set the gps for Hernando Beach FL, the site of the few remaining countable Budgerigars.  I was shocked to see that it was 400 miles away.  Oh well!  A yearbird is a yearbird, eh?  About 9:30pm I checked into a motel and crashed.  Tomorrow is budgie day.  The two birds today brings the total to 703.