Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival

Above is a picture of the Homer spit taken from the hills above Homer Alaska. The spit is a 1.5 mile peninsula of land that juts out into the Kachemak Bay. I'm writing this blog from the very tip of that spit, at a place called Land's End. Here on the spit, there is a Bald Eagle or two on almost every lamp post, Halibut fishing is king, and this time of year, the shorebirds are coming in thickly. It's a great place to host a birding festival.
While not a regular visitor to this part of Alaska, these Emperor Geese were a delightful surprise to find at one of the local birding hot-spots, Beluga Slough.
Even though it's not a shorebird, these geese will be a highlight of the festival for many of the participants, as well as a new species to add to their bird checklists, mine included.

Hummingbirds

Here is Bill Thompson III with a Ruby-throated hummingbird he caught with his bare hands.

Bill loves hummingbirds, especially with a slice of tomato and some mayonnaise.

Backyard Birding in San Benito Texas

After last Sunday's Big Sit, I took the day off to get some rest at a friends house in San Benito, TX. As it turned out, I didn't have to go any further than her backyard to witness the spectacular migrant fall-out after Sunday night's front went through.

I couldn't resist the urge to get out of the house and do some digiscoping in the backyard!

An Eastern Wood PeeWee

A rare find anywhere in the US, this female Cerulean warbler was the highlight migrant of the day!

This Nashville warbler looked a little travel weary.

Summer Tanager

Yellow Warbler

GTBC Big Sit Round Up

As the afternoon progressed yesterday, there were certain birds that decided to join us on our big sit. Among them was this White-eyed Vireo.

Passers by saw our signage and asked questions about the big sit.

As a front was moving in, Jeff was prayin' for a good fallout.

The front brought a few new birds, and a lot of rain.

Here are the Groovy Billed Anis, seeking refuge in the Men's room of the South Padre Island Convention Center. As the rain came so did evening and we were forced to call it quits as the sun fell. We had a great time and ended up with a total of 127 species, beating the previous Big Sit record at this location.

South Padre Island Big Sit: Part 2

Above is Jeff Gordon, manning the spotting scope sometime around 8:00 this morning. Right now it's about 10:40 and we're sitting around 105 species and Jeff is napping. The action had been fast paced though it's showing signs of slowing down now, as most of the birds we are seeing have already been counted. If we can pull out 30 more species for the day, we will be doing very well. I'm crossing my fingers that one of the birds that I will set eyes on before the end of the day is a Magnificent Frigatebird. That's the most likely candidate for a new bird that will get me another species closer to my goal of 600.

South Padre Big Sit

For those of you new to the concept of a Big Sit, I recommend watching the following quick and informative video:


Right now, in addition to blogging, I am big sitting! It's 5:51 in the morning here on South Padre Island and The Groovy Billed Anis have recorded 25 species thus far. Who are the Groovy Billed Anis??? That would be the all-star birding team sponsored by Eagle Optics and Birdwatchers Digest that is competing in this years Great Texas Birding Classic. Team members include myself, Jeff and Liz Gordon, Terry and Marci Fuller, and Bill Thompson III.

Bill, Jeff, and Liz have been here at the South Padre Island Convention Center, where we are headquartered, since approximately 2 A.M. Currently, our birding is limited to species we can hear, hence I can blog and bird at the same time.....

I'm hoping to update 600 Birds with pictures and tales of our Big Sit throughout the day. Stay tuned for more riveting action, Live from the South Padre Island Convention Center!

The Booby and the Brit

So I'm just getting around to processing all the experiences and photos from Florida's Birding and Fotofest in St. Augustine. The digiscoping seminars and birding experiences were only enhanced by the great camaraderie among the exhibitors, attendees, and guest speakers.
I ended up returning from this trip with 3 new bird species, bringing my quest to 600 up to 535. Among the more notable of these sightings was my unanticipated encounter with a Brown Booby (Sula lecuogaster). The reason that I say this sighting was unanticipated is that Boobies are sea birds, seldom seen from shore. When I heard that I could go to the St. John's county pier and see one, I imagined myself setting up my scope at the end of the pier and scanning out into the ocean for a distant bird diving in the water for food or maybe perched on a buoy or some other marine structure. To sum it up, I was expecting a distant, barely identifiable view of this bird.
As it turns out this was a bizarre booby.

I pulled into the parking lot to the pier and was soon accompanied by Steve Ingraham and Paul Hackett from Zeiss. Paul was a featured guest at the festival, visiting from the enchanted land of Britain (Manchester to be exact). I was excited to play the role of hospitable American and show Paul the Booby, which was a life bird for him as well. It turns out that we were able to garner fantastic views and photos of this Booby as it lounged at the end of this fishing pier, oblivious to the fisherman and sight-seers. We birders were the only spectacle to behold as we donned our cameras and floppy hats, exclaiming what a wonderful bird sighting this was, etc....

The fishermen thought we were crazy, of course, but that didn't stop us from having our fun. It's very likely that the Booby thought we were crazy too.

Here Paul trys to tempt the Booby with a piece of shrimp. The bird acted like it knew better than to take seafood from an Englishman.