Birds fly. So does the time.

In my last post, I lamented about how time outdoors was sparse for me these days. I was not really sure if I would get another post in before this upcoming weekend. But then Hannibal, who writes a blog called Hannibal's Animals, tagged me with the latest nature blog meme. I was not familiar with her blog, so I took a few minutes to read, check out her pictures (I like the owl!) and add her to my list of blogs to watch.

Anyhow, back to this meme thing. This is actually my first ever invite to a meme. When I recognized the magnitude of this event, I pondered for a moment whether I would, some years from now, fondly think back to my first ever meme. I wonder if all future memes will be measured against this meme, and be judged lacking.

Or maybe this is some blogger's idea of self-realization. Start a meme and watch with glee as it ripples across the blogosphere. Nah...that would be the cynical side of me coming out.

Of course, if you really have no clue what a meme is, or what a blogosphere looks like, then this is all probably a bit confusing, and highly boring to you. If you fall into this category, then you can click those last two links and read about each of them, or just quickly scroll down and look at the pretty picture of the Black Skimmer :-)

Here are the rules for this particular meme:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

My six word memoir is the title of this post. Perhaps it is just a bit boring, but I felt like it captured my mood at the moment: not enough time to watch the birds do what they do. The picture below was one I took many moons ago at Chincoteague NWR. It is one of the few photos where I managed to get a decent photo of a flying bird, which seems to fit my memoir.

Update: I tagged these other blogs: Nature At My Doorstep, Arkansas Birding, Confessions of a Backdoor Biologist, the Northwest Nature Nut, and The Flying Mullet. Hopefully they will rejoice at the wonderful meme goodness I have shared with them. Why did I pick these five? I liked their photos, or the word mullet, or the pictures. Just sort of random. And remember...I am powerless against the meme. Do not taunt the meme. :-)

White Ibis (juvenile)

One interesting find in Chincoteague NWR, although definitely not an incredible find, was a small group of juvenile White Ibis. This species breeds in the southeast corner of the United States, but not as far north as Virginia. Their winter range still includes extreme southeast United States, but also the Caribbean, both Mexican coasts and a few bits of South America. In other words, range maps for the White Ibis never really show them occurring as far north as Virginia.

But they do. You can usually find them along the coast in late summer and early fall. I think the first year birds wander a bit after they leave their parents, and can end up in places like Chincoteague. These were roosting in a stand of trees by the road to the beach within Chincoteague NWR.

On an unrelated note, I will be changing the service that I use to provide online hosting and backup for all of the pictures I take. My current service (Phanfare) has announced some changes to its service that demonstrates to me that I am not part of their target demographic (photo sharing for friends and family...not photo hosting for someone who does not care who has access to their photos). Six months from now, all the links I have in this blog that point back to a picture hosted by Phanfare will break. Grrrrr! So, in addition to adding new blog content as I collect more photos (I am heading to Miami next...Go Hokies!), I will also be converting all my previous blog content (over 300 posts going back to 2005...sigh) to point to pictures that will eventually be hosted on Flickr.

[edit: it took me a day to figure out that the word "Caribbean" has one r and two b's, instead of the other way around :-) ]

Bald Eagle

After my stay in Virginia Beach, I headed up the coast for a stay in the little town of Chincoteague, and the chance to bird Chincoteague NWR. The days were gray and overcast, so I did not really get many memorable photographs, but at least it did not rain. And yes, there were some birds to be seen as well. For example, a pair of Bald Eagles.

As I was driving through the NWR on the road towards Tom's Cove and the beach, I noticed a Bald Eagle standing in the little bit of water that remained in the marsh. To me, this was a fairly odd place to see a Bald Eagle (not odd to see one at Chincoteague in general, but odd to see one standing in water). I watched for a bit, took the blurry picture below (sigh), and then watched as the bird flew up into a nearby stand of pine trees. That is when I noticed the second eagle (and took the second photo). They make a nice couple.

I think I said it was cold

A few posts back, when I described the trip to Chincoteague, I think I said it was cold. If I didn't, then let me correct that misunderstanding. It was cold. And when the wind blew, it was a type of cold that requires the use of profanity to describe. Here are a few miscellaneous photos that include ice, just as a guide of the coldness of it all.

The first picture is of a piece of wood or stump that was sticking up out of the water. The wind was blowing hard enough to send a sheet of ice from one end of the pond to the other. When the ice encountered the piece of wood, the ice was thin enough for the wood to carve right through it, leaving that trail of broken ice to the right of the stump.



This picture shows a group of Tundra Swan trying to get to the other side of a sheet of ice. One of the group just took flight and flew over. These, however, decided it would be easier to climb up and walk over the ice.



Finally, here is a shot of what I presume to be a very cold Great Blue Heron. To be more precise: I do not presume that this is a Great Blue Heron, but I do presume he is cold. He is standing up to his feathers in water, right next to a section that is frozen on top. It is almost like a Great Blue Heron Popsicle.

Ruddy Duck

Here is another photo from the driver's side of my truck out the passenger side window. This one is of a female Ruddy Duck. I think the shape of these were the model for the little rubber duck bathtub toys. They look like little toy ducks.

Red-breasted Merganser

During Winter in Virginia it is not uncommon to see Red-breasted Merganser in larger bodies of water. These birds dive under water for their food (unlike dabbling ducks, who tip their head under water, but do not dive). They are also extremely shy, and will dive under water and/or fly away if they see you walking nearby. At Chincoteague NWR, you can drive past lots of good bird habitat. So not only is staying in your vehicle good for keeping warm in the winter, but it also acts as a handy bird blind. I took this photo from my truck. We were parked on the side of the road, and I took the photo from the driver's side through the rolled down passenger side window. Tammy is patiently reclined out of the way in the passenger seat. This is a male/female pair of Red-breasted Merganser. The male is closer, and the female is in the back.

Northern Pintail

Another fairly common dabbling duck at Chincoteague was Northern Pintail. Once again the male has fairly interesting colors, and it is pretty easy to see how the bird got its name.

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrows are very typical sparrows anytime of the year. They hop around the bushes and weeds that line the side of roads and paths. I was taking pictures of the sun coming down when I noticed a few of them hopping around in the weeds next to me. I cranked up the ISO on my camera to 1600 because the light was getting low, and these two pictures are a sample of the results.

Northern Shoveler

There was no shortage of dabbling ducks at Chincoteague NWR. One species that was particularly abundant was Northern Shoveler. They were to be found in any shallow water, heads under the icy water eating whatever manner of vegetation is to be found there. The males have interesting colors, and their bills do justice to their name.

Birding to Chincoteague and back

Tammy and I took an overnight trip to Chincoteague this weekend. It was an opportunity to get away for us, but also a chance for me to see some birds I had not seen before.

The trip to Chincoteague took us across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT), and there were several birds likely to be seen at island #1 (where the gift shop and restaurant are located) that I had never seen before (Brant, Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck and Great Cormorant). Then, just after getting to the north end of the CBBT, there was a chance of seeing Eurasian Wigeon at the Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR. And Chincoteague NWR itself is always a good place to bird.

The birding part of the trip started off great. I managed to see three of my four target birds at CBBT island #1. The one I missed was Great Cormorant. I thought I had it as well, but a review of the field marks this evening showed me the error in my ways. On the other hand, a Brown Pelican was an added bonus in that it was something that was not on my list due to the infamous hard drive crash of 2005 (but something I knew I had seen before somewhere). I tried twice to get the Eurasian Wigeon, but was unsuccessful both times. On the way up I think I might have gotten a glimpse, but the birds spooked and flew away before I could get an ID on them. I tried again on the way back, but it was not meant to be.

I made up for the Eurasian Wigeon by finding a Horned Grebe offshore at Chincoteague NWR. Tammy wisely sat in the truck and stayed warm while I froze in the wind, scanning the ocean for diving birds and fending off opportunistic Ring-billed Gulls who thought the field guide I tossed to the sand might just be that snack they so expected from me. Just in case you did not know: there is a public beach located within Chincoteague NWR. The gulls there are used to people, and probably also used to people supplying them with food.

All in all, it was a good trip. Tammy and I got out of town, my Virginia List grew to 170, and my Life List has now officially grown to 302. I have no pictures of the birds that were new to my life list, but I do have pictures of birds. I will be posting some of them soon.

Foggy Morning

This picture captures the morning. You can see the fog, which rolled in quite suddenly the previous afternoon (while I was enjoying an ice cream cone...Cake Batter flavored ice cream is *awesome*). You can see one chunk of my photography gear. This stuff is so new, and I am so inexperienced with it, that I feel funny just saying "photography gear". And that vain Great Egret is in the scene, just about to fly away. He actually flew to the near bank, towards me, and posed some more.

Great Egret

I had a very cooperative Great Egret to take pictures of this morning. Even better, there was no wind, so the water was like a mirror.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch. He is slightly fuzzy because I was about forty three miles away from him and my biggest lense was just not good enough in this situation. One step closer and the bird would fly away. Sounds like an excuse to spend more money on photography equipment. The second image is a similar picture, just not cropped. It should give you an idea of the distance between the camera and the bird.

Great Blue Heron

This is a Great Blue Heron. My friend Rich once told me that if you grabbed one by the bill, it would become very docile and could then be worn over your shoulders in the event you were chilly. Rich is never chilly.

The Atlantic Ocean

Taken from the public beach located on Assateague Island.

Ponies!

You too could own a Chincoteague Pony!

Northern Bobwhite

A Northern Bobwhite was grazing by the side of the Wildlife Loop. This picture was taken by my girlfriend Tammy. The bird was on the passenger side and I was driving. She did pretty well considering that I stopped the car while pointing at the bird and uttering "oooh! oooh!". Somehow she knew the translation of that mumbo jumbo was "Take a picture of that bird with the camera you are holding for me!".

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Only a few people were annoyed with me while I stopped traffic on the Chincoteague Wildlife Loop to take this picture from my car. This is a Black-crowned Night-Heron. He has cool eyes.

White-faced vs. Glossy Ibis

In the first picture there are three Ibis. The two on the right are Glossy Ibis. The one on the left is White-faced Ibis. Compare how far the white skin goes around the eye, the tone (gray vs. pink) of the skin between the eye and the bill, and the color of the legs. In the second picture, there is a White-faced Ibis all by his lonesome. Note the reddish eye.

Black Skimmer

A Black Skimmer doing what Black Skimmers do. Tammy may have taken this picture. I know if I did, then I got lucky. I was struggling with big lense, auto-focus and tripod.