Today was a day of no field trips. There was a presentation to attend in the morning and the afternoon, but I skipped out on the afternoon session to just relax. I took the opportunity to ride the ski resort's tram up to Hidden Peak (a two-handed, sweaty, grip-of-death ride up to eleven thousand feet). After the tram ride I then took advantage of some above average wifi bandwidth to enter bird sightings into my account at eBird, and to work through some of the photos I have taken out here in Utah.
After I had entered all my bird sightings, I came to the happy realization that I had seen a lot of species for the first time this week. Some bird watchers like to keep lists of what birds they see, where they saw them and when (I use eBird to track mine). The "master list" is their individual Life List: the list of species they have seen in their life. The number of species on your Life List is a convenient (although misleading) measure of how much bird watching experience you have. I say it is a misleading measure because counting seen bird species does not mean that you are good at finding birds, or at identifying birds, or at understanding birds. Usually you do get better at those things over time, and consequently the number of birds on your Life List will increase, but the opposite is not necessarily true. So, although I am about to reference my Life List, and revel in the fact that it has grown significantly this week, I understand it for what it really means.
When I left home and traveled to Utah, my Life List was at 364 species. People who are not birdwatchers think that number is huge. But when compared to the approximately 1,000 birds that you can see in the United States and Canada (excluding Hawaii), and the approximately 10,000 birds you can see worldwide, my 364 is put firmly in perspective. I knew my 364 would grow this week. This is only the second time I have focused on birdwatching in the western half of the country, so there were going to be easy birds that do not occur anywhere near Virginia that would be first time birds ("lifers") for me. I did not think, however, that I would see as many lifers this week as I have.
As I write this, my Life List has grown to 395! That's right, I have seen 31 new species of bird this week. That is a very large number of new birds. If I manage to see 5 more new species, then I will hit a nice milestone (multiples of 100 are considered relevant in the birding community). I have two more field trips (tomorrow and Sunday) to get those 5 new species before I travel back home. It is entirely possible that I will get those 5 and hit the milestone of 400. I am crossing my fingers!
Showing posts with label Counting Birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Counting Birds. Show all posts
Fort Witten
Tammy and I were wandering around Tazewell County looking for a good place to bird watch, but we had not done any research beforehand. We ended up settling for Fort Witten, also known as Historic Crab Orchard Museum and Pioneer Park, as our destination.
It turns out that this spot is located on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. The website maintained by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries does not make it at all easy to figure this out, but I will save that rant for another day.
So, here we were at this nice little park. It has been set up with several restored and reconstructed buildings that provide a nice glimpse into how people lived in the 1800's. It is a very nice place with gravel walkways and manicured grass and fences and a nice little brook running through the middle. There were a few birds to be seen there, but mostly what I would consider "back yard birds". I did manage to find a pair of Black-billed Cuckoo along the edge of the place in some trees. That was the first time I had ever seen that species (finally!), so the bird watching was instantly declared a success. Despite the cuckoos, I did wonder about the criteria that was used to officially put places on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. I will ponder that thought some more, and maybe a blog post will be born.
Now for the pictures. In the eaves of one of the historical buildings I found an American Robin firmly attached to a nest. No...I did not try to shake her loose, but she did not flinch or fly away as I stood directly under her with my camera. The second picture is of that nice little brook I mentioned above.
It turns out that this spot is located on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. The website maintained by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries does not make it at all easy to figure this out, but I will save that rant for another day.
So, here we were at this nice little park. It has been set up with several restored and reconstructed buildings that provide a nice glimpse into how people lived in the 1800's. It is a very nice place with gravel walkways and manicured grass and fences and a nice little brook running through the middle. There were a few birds to be seen there, but mostly what I would consider "back yard birds". I did manage to find a pair of Black-billed Cuckoo along the edge of the place in some trees. That was the first time I had ever seen that species (finally!), so the bird watching was instantly declared a success. Despite the cuckoos, I did wonder about the criteria that was used to officially put places on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. I will ponder that thought some more, and maybe a blog post will be born.
Now for the pictures. In the eaves of one of the historical buildings I found an American Robin firmly attached to a nest. No...I did not try to shake her loose, but she did not flinch or fly away as I stood directly under her with my camera. The second picture is of that nice little brook I mentioned above.
At Home Again
The 2007 ABA Conference is officially over and I have made it back home. I return back to the daily grind tomorrow, and begin the arduous "post vacation catch up" process at work. I did go on a field trip yesterday, and will post a few of the pictures from that trip over on No Ceiling through the rest of this week. I saw a lot of birds yesterday on that field trip. Unfortunately, many of them were from the inside of a passenger van, so there are not large numbers of super crisp pictures.
Speaking of "a lot of birds"...I have done some tallying and I saw 154 different species of bird during the conference last week. Although I have not officially counted the number of lifers within that 154, I suspect the number will approach 20. Very nice.
The past two years, after I returned from the ABA Conference, I was burnt-out on bird watching. Several months would pass before I got the itch to go out looking again. Not this time. This year, I travelled to Louisiana to witness migration in process, but have returned to Virginia during migration. I am already thinking of places to go in the next several weeks to continue watching the birds flying through. Perhaps Shenandoah this Sunday.
Speaking of "a lot of birds"...I have done some tallying and I saw 154 different species of bird during the conference last week. Although I have not officially counted the number of lifers within that 154, I suspect the number will approach 20. Very nice.
The past two years, after I returned from the ABA Conference, I was burnt-out on bird watching. Several months would pass before I got the itch to go out looking again. Not this time. This year, I travelled to Louisiana to witness migration in process, but have returned to Virginia during migration. I am already thinking of places to go in the next several weeks to continue watching the birds flying through. Perhaps Shenandoah this Sunday.
Today Was...
- Long. I was eating breakfast at 4:30am, and my field trip did not return to the hotel until 4:00pm. Now I need to shower and go have dinner.
- Claustrophobic. There were 13 of us in a single passenger van. Cozy.
- Overwhelming. When you bird with a group, the group is essentially a multiple-eyed monster. Someone is always looking somewhere, and when they see a bird, they generally announce what they see (or think they see) and maybe, if you are lucky, they will also announce directions to help others find the bird (as opposed to just generally looking in the same direction as the person who made the announcement). If you are really lucky, the directions will be good. The group I was in today saw 110 different species of bird. There was no way I could see every bird. There were just too many to see, or we were in the van and I could not see out the side of the van in the direction of the bird, or I was still lingering on some other bird, or whatever. Photography was even harder.
- Annoying. I lost my pencil halfway through the trip. For those who know how I bird watch, you will immediately understand. I like to write down the species of the birds that I am seeing as I see them. I might save up a few in my memory banks, but I know that to be a sure way to forget a bird, or to encourage me to second guess myself later. So I write them down on a little slip of paper. When I lost my pencil, I realized I had no backup. I even tried to type them into my Blackberry, but its battery was drained because we were running around where there was no signal. I had to borrow a pencil a couple times, but because I did not want to annoy others, I only did that when I was desperate.
- Windy. The wind was blowing so hard at times that I could not hold my binoculars or camera steady enough to be useful. This wind is in advance of a cold front that, I think, will be rolling through tomorrow.
- Fulfilling. I saw a ton of birds today. Most were birds that I had seen before somewhere, but there were definitely several "lifers". White-tailed Kite, Glaucous Gull, Pectoral Sandpiper, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Neotropic Cormorant were all "lifers" that I saw today. I probably saw a few more than that, but I will not know for sure until I get back home and enter my sightings into the software I use.
- Humbling. We birded areas of Louisiana, particularly near the town of Cameron, that were leveled by Hurricane Rita. You can still see lots of evidence of the destruction.
The Great Backyard Bird Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is next weekend, Friday February 16th through Monday the 19th. Participation is free and open to everyone. At a minimum, it only takes 15 minutes of your time. Or you can spend the entire weekend counting in multiple locations. It does not even need to be a backyard. And the rules for counting are really easy: just keep track of the maximum number of any species you see at any given time.
A mile long flock of birds
This morning, as I drove down the on-ramp for I-95 south on my way to work, I noticed a flock of birds on the other side of the interstate. Then I noticed that it was a long flock of birds. Really long.
I think the birds were blackbirds of some variety, but I am not really sure because they were silhouetted. And when I say the flock was "long", I really mean it. The shape of the flock was not a blob, or roundish. Instead it was like a long tube, or river, of birds. In other words, it had height (thirty to fifty birds tall) and depth (about the same as the height) and extreme left-to-right length.
They were flying north. As I exited onto I-95, I was pointed east, but turning to the south. I had a chance to look over my shoulder to the north, and I was amazed that I could not see the beginning the flock. That "river" of birds just kept going as far as I could see. As I got onto I-95 south, I kept looking to my left. That "river" of birds was on the other side of the interstate. I could see it through the trees. I drove half-a-mile south before the "river" bent far enough away from the interstate to where I could no longer see it anymore.
I had never seen anything like that before. That river of birds was at least a mile long! It was amazing.
I think the birds were blackbirds of some variety, but I am not really sure because they were silhouetted. And when I say the flock was "long", I really mean it. The shape of the flock was not a blob, or roundish. Instead it was like a long tube, or river, of birds. In other words, it had height (thirty to fifty birds tall) and depth (about the same as the height) and extreme left-to-right length.
They were flying north. As I exited onto I-95, I was pointed east, but turning to the south. I had a chance to look over my shoulder to the north, and I was amazed that I could not see the beginning the flock. That "river" of birds just kept going as far as I could see. As I got onto I-95 south, I kept looking to my left. That "river" of birds was on the other side of the interstate. I could see it through the trees. I drove half-a-mile south before the "river" bent far enough away from the interstate to where I could no longer see it anymore.
I had never seen anything like that before. That river of birds was at least a mile long! It was amazing.
Birding Totals
I took a moment this week to check out some personal bird watching totals from the past two years. I wanted to get an idea of how many birds I saw and where. While I could get much more granular on where I saw birds (e.g. last week I saw a Hooded Merganser in the drainage pond behind the Ukrops located at Virginia Center Marketplace), I am going to just show counts by state here.
First, here are the numbers for 2005:
Here are the numbers from last year:
It looks like last year I birded in more places, but I pretty much saw the same number of birds as in 2005. The birding in Florida and Oregon did not really produce many species of bird, but that is primarily because of limited time. The time in Maine was for the ABA convention and thus was all about the birds.
This year I am tentatively planning on attending the ABA convention again, this time in Louisiana. I am not sure if there will be any other trips outside of Virginia this year, but I hope so.
Finally, the one count that I have not included, but that nearly all birders keep track of, is my life list. Back in 2005, during the ABA convention in Tucson, my laptop crashed with a fried hard drive. I was not making very good computer backups at the time, and I ended up losing the software and data that I was using at the time to keep track of my bird watching records. All I had were the slips of paper that I had used while bird watching to write down the species I was seeing that day, and these only went back to the beginning of 2005. I essentially started my life list over in 2005. I know there are birds that my current data says I have not seen, but that I did see sometime before the start of 2005. Since I lost the records of those sightings, I just decided to start over. One of the other side effects of starting over is that nearly every bird I log now-a-days is a new bird for my life list.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it is not uncommon for a birder to tell you how many new birds they added to their life list in the past year. Since I am rebuilding my life list, this year's number would be silly large. The total of 292 is good enough for now. At the end of 2007 I will report on the new life list total, and then we will see how many new birds I added during the year. While it will probably still be a bit inflated, it should be much more closer to reality.
First, here are the numbers for 2005:
- Total in 2005 = 214
- Total in 2005 - Arizona = 111
- Total in 2005 - Virginia = 130
Here are the numbers from last year:
- Total in 2006 = 207
- Total in 2006 - Florida = 42
- Total in 2006 - Maine = 92
- Total in 2006 - Oregon = 31
- Total in 2006 - Virginia = 137
It looks like last year I birded in more places, but I pretty much saw the same number of birds as in 2005. The birding in Florida and Oregon did not really produce many species of bird, but that is primarily because of limited time. The time in Maine was for the ABA convention and thus was all about the birds.
This year I am tentatively planning on attending the ABA convention again, this time in Louisiana. I am not sure if there will be any other trips outside of Virginia this year, but I hope so.
Finally, the one count that I have not included, but that nearly all birders keep track of, is my life list. Back in 2005, during the ABA convention in Tucson, my laptop crashed with a fried hard drive. I was not making very good computer backups at the time, and I ended up losing the software and data that I was using at the time to keep track of my bird watching records. All I had were the slips of paper that I had used while bird watching to write down the species I was seeing that day, and these only went back to the beginning of 2005. I essentially started my life list over in 2005. I know there are birds that my current data says I have not seen, but that I did see sometime before the start of 2005. Since I lost the records of those sightings, I just decided to start over. One of the other side effects of starting over is that nearly every bird I log now-a-days is a new bird for my life list.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it is not uncommon for a birder to tell you how many new birds they added to their life list in the past year. Since I am rebuilding my life list, this year's number would be silly large. The total of 292 is good enough for now. At the end of 2007 I will report on the new life list total, and then we will see how many new birds I added during the year. While it will probably still be a bit inflated, it should be much more closer to reality.
Hats Are Required
These are researchers on Petit Manan Island. The birds are Terns of various varieties. If I remember correctly, they are trying to establish a nesting colony for Roseate Terns in particular. Looks messy.
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