Birthday Trip, County Bird #100!

Today is my birthday! I turn the ripe old age of 16, which means a lot of things. I can drive legally, have a job (well, I got a head start), and basically be a teen. I actually can't believe it; time has passed so fast!

Anyways, today was a gloomy and rainy day, but I decided to make the best of it. I visited Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, one of the best birding spots in the Piedmont (or so I'm told). It was a bit chilly but the rain earlier made it very humid. The forest was very flooded down on the boardwalk. Some of the birds I first heard and saw were Pied-billed Grebe, Rusty Blackbird, and Brown-headed Nuthatch. Northern Flickers and a Pileated Woodpecker called out too. I investigated the boardwalk/pond area and found Chipping, Song, and Field Sparrows in the marsh. On the lake were more grebes and many unknown ducks flew very high. In the flooded forest were plenty of Red-headed Woodpeckers, calling out repeatedly. Pine Siskins flocked deeper in the forest, probably eating gum tree seeds. Wood Ducks wailed deeper in the forest, and although they were tough to see I did see some. I heard them throughout the day.

Here is some interesting fungi I found growing on a stump.

It was very fun but honestly I didn't find anything too interesting. I was hoping for Northern Bobwhites, Wilson's Snipe, or more ducks, but I found the usual assortment of resident and winter birds.

http://ebird.org/ebird/ybn/view/checklist?subID=S21071746

So I did not see any lifers on my birthday, but I did see something interesting! Near where I live is a movie theater with a man-made pond. It's a quiet pond that is rather large, and every once in a while I ask to go check it out. It paid off today, for I found a lone male Lesser Scaup! It was pretty dusky when I found him, though, so the pictures are bad.

This makes me at 100 species for Union County! I was very pleased to find him here and hopefully he brings some friends over! I was concerned that I would never find ducks there... but I'm glad I have!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Visit

I haven't been able to bird lately, with school and work consuming most of my time. But I was extremely pleased when I noticed something scaling up our pine tree in the backyard. A female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker wad circling the trunk, delicately drilling her sap wells! I actually have never seen a sapsucker... suck sap, so this was a first. After she left I went out and investigated the wells she had drilled. They weren't in neat rows like pictures I had seen, but instead in a row spiraling up the trunk. Many were pretty fresh, with the sap flowing pretty constantly.

This isn't the same exact individual (this is a male), but I never get tired of these winter woodpeckers!

She makes Woodpecker Species #3 for my backyard- I have a Downy who comes almost daily and once a Red-bellied Woodpecker landed in my neighbor's yard. (I count those too!) I think she showed up once last year, for I did see a pretty ratty sapsucker once, and she's not the prettiest sapsucker I've seen. But she's pretty, I think- her belly is mottled with charcoal-like smudges and a wash of yellow. She has a red cap that reminds me of a Hairy Woodpecker juvenile and her back is a mosaic of black, white, buff, and some yellow.

I hope to get some pictures of her soon, and hopefully she comes back next winter! I really enjoy watching her drill wells in the bark. If I'm lucky I'll get a Rufous Hummingbird checking out the wells!

In other news, I finally got some pictures of a Pine Siskin! I've seen them before but that was while waiting for the bus at the bus stop. This time is was at Cane Creek Park, where they were foraging in gumball trees with American Goldfinches.

They remind me of European Goldfinches in that their wings have hidden flashes of yellow. The American Goldfinches also sometimes sound like their European counterparts so sometimes I have to double-check to make sure!

I also snagged a great picture of a Cooper's Hawk at Santee NWR! It was taken a while ago, and I forgot to make a post about it, but I really like it!

He was perched on a Speed Limit sign- we drove right next to him!

Hopefully you're having better birding trips than I. I'm hoping over Winter Break I can convince my parents to go check out a Western Tanager! That would be a life, state, county (although I have barely birded in McDowell County), year, season... you get the idea. I'm not crazy about listing (I mainly care about Union County, my home county, year list, and life list) and I'm waayyy too lazy to keep up with all that.

If I don't make a post before Christmas, happy holidays! I know I'll make a post on/after my birthday, though! Here's to hoping to go to Pee Dee NWR!

Duck Survey and a Bird Show

So, this is a very late post for the duck survey, but whatever.

Two Sundays ago I went on a duck survey around Concord Mills. We started at 7:30 at the well-known 'HHGregg wetland', which is a wetland behind... an HHGregg! I have seen a good variety of ducks there before, getting my lifer Northern Shoveler and American Wigeon there in previous trips, and it turns up some good birds like Wilson's Snipe (haven't seen one), Red-necked Grebe (during last winter's big irruption season- I saw it!), and an American Bittern that had been reported a few days earlier. We couldn't find the bittern but we did see some Pied-billed Grebes, Green-winged Teal, and the best views of male Hooded Mergansers I've seen. There wasn't too much there, though.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495499

Next we went across the road to the other well-known duck spot, a retention pond in front of the Concord Mills Mall. It's right between the parking lot and the highway, but for some reason the ducks don't mind. We had three Buffleheads, some American Coots, and a well-worn male Northern Shoveler. I'm a big fan of Buffleheads, they're really cute and the males are very handsome.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495506

Next we went to a few places I haven't gone to. One was behind a Target; the only duck there was a male Hooded Merganser. There were quite a few sparrows, including White-throated, Field, Swamp, and Song, and we listened to the bubbly song of a House Wren- in late fall!

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495505

We checked out Coddle Creek Reservoir, both north and south ends. The south end as usual was more productive, with American Wigeon, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Horned Grebes, American Coots, Common Loon, Northern Shoveler, and Bufflehead. The best duck for me was a handsome male Northern Pintail, a life bird for me! The north end and a small pond by the reservoir weren't as productive.

South End- http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495504
North End- http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495502
Pond- http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20495503

It was a good day of duck-watching and I had a lot of fun!


Now, onto the bird show.

I took the day off work Saturday to go to a bird fair, which was in Belmont. This is for pet/domestic birds; if you aren't interested, don't read!

I saw a wide variety of parrots, ranging from your normal Budgerigars and Quakers to Canary-winged Parakeets (now very rare in aviculture), Bourke's Parakeets, and Painted Conures! I got a lot of pictures, which I'll update with soon.

Lady Gouldian Finch

Wild-Caught Violaceous Euphonia. :(

Painted Conure

English Budgerigars

Baby Budgies!

Blue-crowned Conure preening a yellow Quaker.

Sleepy Linnies. The turquoise one looks like my own, Steve!

European Goldfinch

Young White-capped Pionus

Happy Umbrella Cockatoo

Male Paradise Whydah

Look at that tail!

Sleepy Scarlet-chested Parakeet (Male)

Baby lovebirds!

Intense Kakariki eyes!

As for my doves, the babies hatched 11/14/14.

Taken on 11/16/14

Here are the babies; you can still see the eggshell which the mother appears to eat from. The babies are almost always covered by the parents, so this was one of the rare times I could take a picture of them. They make little peeping noises when they're awake and the parents feed them crop milk, which sounds very liquid. I watched the mother feed the babies up close, it was pretty weird! The babies grow fast though; in about a week they'll be out of the nest, trying to fledge with their parents.

Happy birding and/or bird raising!

Fun with Scientific Names

Lately, I've been looking at the name meanings of birds. Scientific names always interest me, for some reason. Sometimes the names fit perfectly, others, not so much.

Let's start with some really easy ones.

Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera)

For starters, Vermivora is easy to guess. When you hear 'vermi', you might thing of vermin (in this case, caterpillars and insects). 'Vora' means eat, as in carnivore, insectivore, and so on. So the Blue-winged and its close relative the handsome Golden-winged are both vermin-eaters. Nice to know!

The species name is cyanoptera. 'Cyano' is cyan, blue, cerulean, and so one. 'Ptera' means wing (think of pterodactyl, which means 'wing finger'). So it's blue-winged vermin-eater. Not bad! (The Golden-winged's name is similar- chrysoptera. Chryso is gold in Greek.)

Now, here's the next word: catharsis.

According to Google, this is the definition: "the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions; purgation"

This word is pretty interesting. I found it in two names!

If you're familiar with thrushes and eBird checklists, you'll notice 'Catharus'. Catharus is a genus of thrushes, including Swainson's, Hermit, Gray-cheeked, and Veery. All of these have beautifully haunting songs.

Hermit Thrush

I'd assume they went all poetic and decided that these songs were the birds purging themselves of their strong emotions. It's nice, though. At least they aren't stuck in a genus like Turdus. 

The second catharsis-related one is about a very common bird with a cool story- the Turkey Vulture. 

Releasing a soul into the afterlife with a tremendous bellow!

The turkey vulture's name is Cathartes aura. As Wikipedia states, Cathates means 'purifier'. Aura means 'gold'. I don't have the exact source on this, but I've heard that vultures were considered the passage between the earth and sky in some Indian cultures, and so if the vultures ate your body, they would help your soul into heaven. Thus, 'golden purifier' (the golden comes from 'golden wind', I think that's what they called the vultures. But then again, I can't remember where I picked that one up.)

Onto some even more familiar birds!

I'll focus on to wrens- the House and the Winter Wren. Both are in the same genus, Troglodytes. This means 'hermit' or 'cave dweller', which describes the rather skulky , well-camouflaged wrens well. The House Wren's species name is aedon. Looking it up, it seems to refer to some Greek mythology. A lady named Aedon was turned into a nightingale, which I assume the House Wren reminds the Old World scientists of in either looks or song.

The Winter Wren isn't as interesting. Its species name is hiemalis. It means 'winter'. So we have ourselves a little winter hermit!

I hope this was interesting to somebody and I didn't spend half an hour typing it all up. I might have a part 2 since there's a lot of scientific names out there, we'll have to see! In the meantime, boast to your friends you just saw your first-of-season Winter Hermit and that you got amazing looks of the Blue-winged Vermin-eater!

More Neighborhood Birding

I really must be boring my nonexistent readers with talk of my neighborhood. After all, I'm the only one who really birds the place. But I'm so proud of it, too! I'm also starting to shamelessly copy 10,000 Birds on bolding the species names- every bird is important!

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

After school I decided to go for a walk. Little did I know it would pay off with some good birds!

Normally I start at the soccer fields, which are across the street from the trails. I like to pick up Red-winged Blackbirds, Eastern Bluebirds, and maybe a few sparrows from the adjacent field. The shrieks of a Blue Jay made me look up and gasp! A Merlin flew over! I snapped a lot of pictures (but the SD card will not cooperate, so you'll have to wait) which confirmed that this was not a Cooper's or Sharpie- those wings are pointed alright. Overly pointed. The bird didn't stop and continued flying southward. What luck!

Next I checked out the field; nothing too special other than a female American Redstart. I walked into the greenway and was greeted by a bright Magnolia Warbler in a privet bush. More redstarts flitted and fanned but apparently this wasn't all. A Red-tailed Hawk zoomed over my head, screaming. Woodpeckers abounded with a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, and Red-bellied Woodpecker. Noisy, too! It had rained earlier so there was many puddles and mud.

I finally hit something interesting- two handsome male warblers, a Black-throated Blue and a late Hooded Warbler. Both gave me amazing looks, with the Hooded landing within feet of me! Hoodeds are my favorite warblers, hands down. They're stunning and beautiful, with a beautiful song and interesting habits. It's funny, I've never seen a female Hooded before, only males. Maybe this is why?

Peek-a-boo!

The Black-throated Blue gave me some of the best pictures I've ever gotten on the species, too.

Later on I found First-of-Season Palm Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Near the end I heard some Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and found another lifer- a male Black-throated Green Warbler! He was up in an oak.

Palm Warbler

Black-throated Green

I have more too talk about but I'm lazy. Lucky for you guys!
http://ebird.org/ebird/ybn/view/checklist?subID=S20242512

Kentucky Warbler!

Here's a game of Find the Bird!

You may or may not be wondering why there's a blurry picture of leaves here. This is a Kentucky Warbler, a life bird for me found in my own neighborhood! If you look close enough you can see the yellow body and black face mask distinctive of a Kentucky. Now, many birders say they love all the warblers, and I do, but Kentuckies are like top five for me (other than Maggies, Hoodies, Swainson's, and Golden-winged). This is an awesome bird. Just had to share it.

Why Common Kestrels are One of the Coolest Birds, Ever

So maybe you're curious as to why my little avatar picture is a starting-to-stoop kestrel. Well, for one thing it was a female Common Kestrel dropping in close on her hunt for food. I photographed her and a few others of the beautiful Italian isle Isloa dell'Elba. Don't believe me?

On top of Elba

The castle next to the mountain of the kestrels

Anyways, this was a stunning island. Richer with birds anywhere else I've found in Italy- not that I visited very many. Spotted Flycatchers and mysterious warblers abound.

One of the many Spotted Flycatchers I saw on Elba, with a little feather out of place

Anyways, this is about kestrels, not boring flycatchers. So as you may know, Elba is super scenic. Scenic to the power of scenic. We (my uncle, brother, and I- me being the only birder present) pulled over on top of some mountain to get a picture. Anyways, across the road is a hill, with an electric thingy on the top. It's devoid of any trees, just some scrub and grass. But something quickly catches my attention- birds. And they're hovering into the wind!

Here's one, being kestrel-y

The wind was very strong up there, so strong that about eight or nine of these little guys hovered in the wind, perfectly still. The pictures don't do it justice. These birds were perfectly still, only a few feathers twitching. I'll never forget how amazing they were.

Taken a few seconds after the one below; she starts to dive a bit.

My profile pic. Notice the alulas and tail!

I took a crap ton of pictures but not many turned out good; mainly out-of-focus. It's a bit tricky since you have nothing else to go by; they're just hovering in the air.

Really awesome birds.