King Rail!

I'm blogging from the Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival on Jekyll Island, GA right now. The island is one of Georgia's many birding hot spots and a favorite destination of mine. This time of year the monsoons come in and make for some magnificent storm fronts. The photo above was taken last night right outside the exhibitor hall as one of these fronts was moving in. In years past, these storms have brought migrating birds into the beach area while I've waited out the weather. I've seen the beaches on this island loaded down with Peregrine Falcons on every perch and piece of driftwood available. Once I was even lucky enough to catch a Long-tailed Jaeger fly in and land on the sand less than 15 meters from me.

I didn't hit the beach this morning, however. I was on a mission for one of the few new birds in this area that could get me closer to that 600th species. My colleagues Jeff Bouton, Cameron Cox, and I drove inland to search for a King Rail. We hit the jackpot at the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area.



Like most rails, King Rails are extremely elusive and more often heard and not seen. While traversing a raised dyke road along these wetlands we first heard this bird's distinct call. Jeff, being the talented birder that he is, responded back with the perfect imitation. We played this game with the rail, calling back and forth, as we walked along the trail to an open area where we were hoping the bird would reveal itself. Fortunately for us, this bird was cooperative. The bird pictured above is the smaller female, which we set eyes on first. Shortly after she made her presence known, another rail showed up. This second bird was a larger male, presumably coming in to see who was checking out his mate.

Here is a short video of the King Rail, which Jeff digiscoped through his Leica spotting scope. Another new bird that we spotted on this journey was a Purple Gallinule, bringing my new total of North American species sightings up to 572!

Thick-billed Kingbird

On my last trip to the border region of Arizona, I was able to clean up on some life birds, bringing my total North American list nine birds closer to my goal of 600 species. As of today, the list stands at 555. I know those remaining 45 species will not come easy.

On my last day in Arizona, I had a flight to catch around 11 a.m., which gave me time to detour to Patagonia on my way back to the Tucson airport. I was attempting to add one more lifer to the list: the Thick-billed Kingbird. I wasn't certain when I would be in this part of the country next and didn't want to leave without pursuing every new bird that I could.

After striking out on this bird earlier in the trip, I felt my odds of picking it up dwindle as my chances to get out and look got fewer and farther between. This was my last-ditch effort.

In North America, this bird's range is limited to the riparian corridor along the San Pedro River, near Patagonia, Arizona. After searching high and low for an entire morning, I came to the conclusion that this bird's range is actually limited to the sycamore tree at the picnic area on the east side of the road between Patagonia and Nogales. That's where I found this guy, thanks to a tip from a local birder.
The Thick-billed Kingbird is a foliage-loving kingbird that prefers the vegetation of a giant cottonwood or sycamore over a high, open perch, where we find most North American kingbird species. I found this out after spending the better part of a day scanning open perches along the San Pedro, and only finding Tropical Kingbirds and Grey Hawks.

Birding SE Arizona

Right now I'm in Sierra Vista, AZ at the Southwest Wings Birding Festival. This is one of my favorite places to bird in the entire country. The birds are fantastic and the landscape is absolutely stunning. I managed to do some birding near Tucson yesterday before getting ready for the festival and it was productive to say the least.
Thus far I have seen 8 lifebirds on this trip, and managed to digiscope 4 of them. Pictured above is the only image I was able to get of a Common Blackhawk. Not the cleanest of shots, though enough to identify the species. The Flame-colored Tanager (above) was a great find, as it's normal range is limited to mountain ranges in Mexico. This particular individual in Madera Canyon could very well be the only one currently in the US. A fantastic bird indeed!
I know this looks a lot like a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher but it's actually a female Black-capped Gnatcatcher. It can really only be distinguished by differences in range and a slightly different vocalization. The males are more readily differentiated by a prominent black cap.
The Varied bunting is another one of the new birds I saw. It's found in the same habitat as the Black-capped gnatcatchers, lower elevation desert scrub. One of the factors contributing to the fantastic birding here is the variation in habitat, primarily based on elevation. In the mountains you will find trogons, Olive Warblers, and Montezuma Quail while lower elevations provide habitat for a whole host of other specialty species including Rufous-Winged sparrows, Gnatcatchers, and the Varied Bunting.
Here's the list of new birds for those who care:

• Common Blackhawk
• Gilded Flicker
• Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher
• Flame-Colored Tanager
• Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher
• Hepatic Tanager
• Varied Bunting
• Rufous-Winged Sparrow
  

Roseate Tern

I just returned from a fantastic trip to Rhode Island where I got a tour of the Swarovski Optik facilities (more on that later) and had a chance to spend a day birding on Cape Cod. The birding was fantastic and I managed to pick up another lifebird getting me one more closer to my quest of 600 birds.

The Roseate Tern (pictured above) can be distinguished from the Common Tern by checking out a couple of key features. First note that the mantle (back of bird) is more pale along with the lighter, white edged outer primary feathers. Also, the tail extends well beyond the wing tips.

You can also see the darker colored wing tips of the Common Terns in the background, compared to the paler tips of the Roseate Tern. These two species often nest together in colonies. Soon, both of these species will begin their southern journey to overwinter along the northern coast of South America.

I will begin my own journey south tomorrow as I board a plane to Tucson for the Southwest Wings Birding Festival. I've got more tales to tell about my recent trip to New England as well, so stay tuned.

Marbleseed Prairie

Recently I made the 15-minute trek from my house to Marbleseed Prairie in search of Bell's Vireos. A short grass prairie remnant with scattered thickets of dense shrubs, Marbleseed Prairie is the ideal habitat for this bird.


Bell's Vireo is one of those birds on my "target list" that has managed to elude me for a number of years, despite the close proximity of nesting sites to my home. It always seems much easier for me to find time to bird in Texas, Florida, California, etc. while I'm on the road than it is to pry myself away from family, work, and household obligations that inevitably pile up when I'm home.
A few weekends ago, in between dropping the kids off at birthday parties and swimming lessons, I had 2 hours to myself to get out on the prairie. When I arrived, I was delighted to see one of my favorite prairie plants in bloom, Creamy False Indigo (Baptisia leucophaea).
This Willow Flycatcher and its mate were not shy about informing me that they had staked a claim somewhere in the vicinity of the parking area. The loud "Fitz-bew" cry was the first call to greet me as I stepped out of my car.
Another shortgrass prairie plant that caught my eye was this Hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens).
This House Wren caught my attention for a moment with a call that was very Bell's Vireo-like, so much so that I stopped to find the bird for a quick confirmation. While I was disappointed that I had this common wren in my binos rather than the vireo, my birding diligence paid off as a Bell's Vireo flew into the tree directly above me and began belting out it's distinctive call, said to resemble the sound of a squeaky marker on a dry-erase board. This shy and elusive bird didn't stop for long as it quickly flew off, presumably in search of creatures more interesting than I.

Like the vireo, I had places to be and obligations to my offspring. Swimming lessons and birthday parties were drawing to a close and we had a date in Madison to forage with some friends at a pizza place.

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.

Ammodramus Caudacutus

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, or Ammodramus caudacutus as it's known to my bird-geek friends, is one of my target birds on an upcoming trip to St. Augustine, Florida. I'm very excited about attending Florida's Birding and FotoFest from April 10-13th, and not just because I may catch a glimpse of this adorable orange-headed sparrow.

I consider this event to be one-of-a-kind not only for birding, but because of its emphasis on photography. Two of my favorite things! For the purists, there will be lots of workshops and seminars on capturing images with the traditional, high-dollar super lenses for today's digital SLR cameras. For those with a sense of adventure and an appetite for something new and innovative, there will be more information and experts about digiscoping here than at any other event of its kind. Swarovski, Leica, and Zeiss will all host world-renowned digiscopers from the US and abroad, including Paul Hackett, Bill Schmoker, and Neil Fifer. I'm looking forward to not only meeting and hanging out with these guys for a few days, but teaching seminars and showcasing photos alongside them at the annual Digiscoping Image Shoot Out!

Now back to the Sparrow, Ammodramus caudacutus. The Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow spends a great deal of its time foraging for insects while close to the ground. In general, birds that live in dense habitat and spend most of their time near the ground are difficult to find and see.

This sparrow is closely related to the more widespread Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, which I have seen a few times here in Wisconsin. At one time, these were considered to be the same species. The image below was captured at a local sewage treatment facility by my friend Mike.

Unlike the Nelson's variety, the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow is found almost exclusively in coastal saltmarshes (imagine that!). I don't know if my legions of readers have spent time around saltmarshes. If you haven't, we have to add to the level of bird-finding difficulty the fact that you can't exactly walk up to these birds. When birding in thick and wet vegetation, one is often left to wait for the birds to come to them. All of these challenges will nonetheless make my first sighting of this delightful, little bird that much more gratifying. Let's hope that by this time next month, I'll be one bird closer to 600.

Welcome!

So I guess this would be the first post of my blog. Welcome fans and readers! Why blog??? Well I guess I was encouraged by my colleague, friend, and blog mentor Mike McDowell who convinced me that the things I do and the places I travel may be of interest to others.
Thanks Mike! (pictured below)

As I travel I'm often birding and digiscoping. 600 Birds, the name of this blog, is a reference to the challenge I have placed before myself of having seen and identified my 600th bird species in the US by January of 2010. As of this posting, I've got 67 species to go. Those next 67 birds will be elusive, though with help from some friends, I'm certain that I'll get there.