my quest to see it all...

In April I sought out a quest to see it all. Or at least to see thirty-one new species of birds to reach two hundred life birds. As of Christmas Eve I am at 181. I’ve seen twelve new species since the end of April. Six of those species were quickly picked up in May during my first bird-a-thon experience where I birded with people who are much better birders than I am for twenty-four hours. A seventh was picked up at my trip to Mt. Auburn that I wrote about in June. The last five I saw this fall including three over Thanksgiving weekend. All in all I’ve seen nineteen new species for the year.

The Christmas Bird Count is still to come, but I don’t expect to see any more life birds. And although I didn’t reach two hundred life birds it has been a spectacular year for birding. I got to see my first Snowy Owl. I also saw my first Eastern Meadowlark and Horned Lark that I have been searching for, for a couple years now. Interesting enough I first correctly identified the Horned Lark in early November in a farm field by its call. A month later I got to see my first Horned Lark in a different location.

The biggest thing I learned this year was understanding the size of birds better. As I began getting interested in birding and for anyone that does, one of the first things you learn quickly is to generalize the size of a bird. For example, “that bird is the size of a sparrow or that bird is the size of a robin”. They are quick general identifiers to quickly understand what kind of bird you are looking at. This year I have been able to understand that concept and use it more thoroughly. For example the Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse frequent together in winter. They are all a sparrow-sized bird. But when you get down to it, the chickadee is a much smaller bird and the titmouse can some times look huge next to the chickadee.

Subsequently, where can I improve? I can improve in finding the unseen bird. As a birder this is pretty common. Birds are often found high in trees or blending in with rocks, grass or trees and often can be heard but not seen. Many people not searching for birds will never see many birds that are right in front of them. For me it will be learning more about finding birds that I know could be somewhere and finding them. This year on one of our annual trips to Cuttyhunk, a small island off of Cape Cod, we did not find any warblers. And although most of the migration had moved through already the likelihood that there was at least one warbler there was good and yet we did not see one. For me it will be learning more about bird behavior and techniques to find these often quiet and overlooked birds.

In my next blog I hope to share what birds I would like to see in 2013 and a recap of the Christmas Bird Count.

There is a whale in CT

If there is anything that could revitalize my blog it would be the recent tragedy in Connecticut. It seems as though everyone has a comment about the shootings. After forty-eight hours of people’s comments on Facebook, along with every news and opinion article that ticked along websites and on the radio, I was about ready to explode. I can be thankful I don’t have cable news channels. All the commentary reminded me that for every person that wants stricter gun laws there is another person with the exact opposite opinion who wants to arm principals and teachers and, if they could, the students themselves.

Much like political elections it seems that most people, but not all, are not only sticking with what they believe about gun rights but are more ingrained in their own ideals. Of course, a week after the tragedy people are still calling this one different – that it will in fact convince law makers to do something, unlike all the other mass shooting that have happened over the past decades.  This of course is true - it is different. Twenty six and seven year olds were killed (not including the adults). Their age is what is different. It’s what makes it different than the Virginia Tech shooting or other recent shootings.

In the wake of grief in Connecticut there are the normal people coming out and saying stupid things. People like Rick Perry, a public figure, telling the public government to stay out of it and not to have a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction. As if the public shooting of twenty children and six adults is somehow not knee-jerking.

Still, what’s even more pathetic? The religious community that controls the media – the mouths of Christianity. Judgment continues to be at the forefront. The Mayan apocalyptic firestorm feels more like Christian apocalyptic judgment of all the atrocities of this world, more than a Mayan prophecy.  Of course, much like Mayan prophecy, there is that church-that-shall-not-be-named in Kansas who feels they need to assert some god’s judgment upon everyone. In reality even the biggest haters of Christianity know that this group doesn’t represent the God of Christianity. There are, however, too many Christians in the media, politics, and in neighborhood churches preaching similar judgment on this town – just as they have when earthquakes, or other tragedies have happened.

My questions is this: when will this senseless use of God’s Word be stopped and people realize that we are acting too much like Jonah - turning our backs on God’s people? When will we as Christians be out of the whale’s body and in the city of Nineveh?

From news articles I have read it seems that everyone that knew Lanza were not surprised - making him an outcast to society. Even though mental illness probably had a role in this, it rings echoes of Columbine and other shootings. The judgment doesn’t lie in government or schools not being Christian enough. It lies on Christians and churches not being Christ-like enough – not being the light, the grace, the love of Christ in this world. We’re spending too much time in the whale’s belly and not enough time in the city of Nineveh.

We’re all God’s people. Whether you don’t believe in God, or whether you do and reject the idea that non-believers are also God’s children – we all are. 

We can all make steps in this. It can be as easy as loving you annoying coworker or that rude driver. Or it can be as difficult as loving that Politician that you hate, or that group you hate, or that kid that nobody seems to talk to. We can all have our views on holding our Bible in one hand and a gun in another. But we cannot hold the truth of God’s love away. We must be the love that God intended us to be.

trip to mt. auburn

For me, learning that Mt. Auburn Cemetery is a birding hotspot is no surprise. To others, it’s just another oddity to birding culture. The typical stereotype for a birder is, well, rather old and dull. More recently with the book-turned-movie The Big Year more stereotypes are forming about birders. Some of the stereotypes are true and some of them not (at least for most of us).  All-in-all the general stereotype for birders has become a picture of a strange person, overly obsessed with birds. It’s pretty much like any other hobby or obsession. My trip at the beginning of May was nothing less than strange and obsessed.

If you have never heard of Mt. Auburn it is a large cemetery in Cambridge, just outside of Boston. It’s not a completely typical cemetery. It is filled with rolling hills and steep climbs along with a few ponds scattered throughout the property. It’s also an active cemetery. For birders, it is the perfect place to go birding. First, it is an oasis for birds. In the midst of building, homes, and concrete - this cemetery is a bullseye for migrating birds looking to land and grab a meal. The cemetery provides a variety of trees, mostly deciduous. The trees are not too small, but not too tall either. The hilly terrain also makes it easy for a birder to see a bird in a tall tree than it is at a lower level. The cemetery itself provides a clean walkway throughout the grounds. In most circumstances a forest is hard to walk through with heavy undergrowth. This way you are not confined to the trail.

The day started with eleven of us walking around the cemetery. There were many other groups and individuals there as well. At many points people joined our group, at other times we joined other groups as a new bird was found in the area. For most of the morning we were chasing down a rare bird: the Kentucky Warbler. The bird’s migration does not include travelling this far north. For us, it was a lucky day that this bird had gone too far. It’s a pretty bird. Yellow underneath and olive green on top. Its head is yellow with olive green and has a black eyestripe wrapping that makes it unique to most other warblers. For me, it was a triumphant day when the bird finally ventured out of a set of trees to perch on a bare branch. That was it. That was the view. It’s that moment that turns someone just interested in birds into a real birder.

It’s the moment I experienced three years ago when I first went on a bird walk in Chicago. Now, I’ve only become more strange and more obsessed. On my quest to reach 200 this year I was eager to knock a few off my list in Mt. Auburn. In the end, it was just the Kentucky Warbler. I did see many birds I hadn’t even seen since Chicago like the Nashville Warbler and Northern Parula. For others it was the first time I would see them this year like the Baltimore Oriole and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. We did miss out on a few birds that we heard there that day like the Canada Warbler and Northern Waterthrust. Both would have been lifebirds. But really, it’s not about the numbers. The trip was great! We got to see a lot of birds and have a lot of fun doing it.

Magic number: 29

forward migration

First things first – a trip to the Manomet Center for Conservation Science for some bird banding. The Center, located in Plymouth, MA, looks out into the whole of Cape Cod Bay. Not well marked, the Center is not the easiest place to find. Once you are there though, it is the place to be. The Center is high on a cliff looking over the bay. It makes it easy to look below to see Great and Double-Crested Cormorants along with sunning seals. Off to the right is the town of Sandwich and viewing from right to left you view the whole of Cape Cod Bay.

The center was just starting the new bird-banding season. Although we didn’t get to see the amount of birds during peak migration in May we did learn a lot from the staff at Monomet. The center has been banding around fifty years. It was amazing to hear why and how birds migrate and what the center and others are doing to help conserve land so birds will continue to have places to migrate from and to and all places in between.

During the banding season the staff go out every forty-five minutes to checks the nets. The nets are mist nets and are probably fifteen yards long. There are fifty on the property. We didn’t see many birds while we were there. We got to see two Blue Jays and two White-throated Sparrows. The birds, along with being banded, get weighed and measured.

The most interesting part of the morning was the stark concern over climate change and loss of land not only in breeding and wintering grounds, but also all the migratory lands between the two and the concern over land conservation. Between the two issues it is not hard to imagine that many birds will have a hard time surviving.

This day was a reality check for many birders. We need to not only take care of our planet, but look forward to creating areas of conservation so the birds, animals, and land we walk on is here in the future.

[photos coming soon.]

my quest to see it all

In a quest to see it all – or, well, a quest to see more of it - I have set an ambitious goal for myself this year. I want to see 31 (more) life birds for the year. More - because I already have 7 life birds for the year.  With 31, I would have a life list of 200. Right now, I stand at 169.  

The seven new life birds this year aren’t just any ordinary birds, either. The Eastern Meadowlark, a bird I have been after for two years now. While trespassing through a farmer’s field we spotted the splash of yellow of the Meadowlark. I also saw my first Northern Pintail and Harlequin Duck – two of the loveliest ducks around. I took part in the Snowy Owl invasion this winter and saw my first snowy on a sea rock on a beautiful March day in Rhode Island. And lastly, I saw my first Pileated Woodpecker, my white whale, just two weeks ago. It would be a satisfying year if it stopped there – but it won’t. I’m on the quest for 200!

How do I plan on getting there? I hope to start in two weeks as I go up to Mt. Auburn, a birding hotspot in Cambridge, Mass., with the Bird Club. It will be the real start of the spring migration for the area, and a great time to see warblers and the like. The week after I will be taking part in a 24-hour bird-a-thon with MassAudubon. I not only hope to see many birds, but to meet other birders in the area. In the summer I will be taking a trip with the family to Michigan. Although we’ll miss the famous Kirtland’s Warbler, we should be around to see other warblers and other birds starting their fall migration back to warmer weather. Lastly, in the fall I hope to finish up the year with some great bird walks on the quest for 200.

For now I am at 169.

balanced birding

When it comes to birds I’m becoming more obsessed. It’s really become my passion and what I want to do with my time when I am not with my family or at work. I’m not sure how equally busy people do it. With 8 hours at work each day why would I want to spend time away from my family? This year – I’ll be looking at that balance as I fuel a passion for birding and a desire to spend more quality time with my family. No, this isn’t my New Year’s resolution. This is every birders’ nightmare: I’m stuck at work and can’t look at birds. Even beyond that for me is wanting to use the little time that I do have (that is, the time I am not sleeping or exhausted - I have a 4 ½ month old) birding or thinking about birding.

The great thing about birding is that you can see anything anytime anywhere. It can be that great. That is also what makes it so difficult – to find anything in the trees or the bushes or out at sea. It takes more than a keen eye to identify a bird sometimes. For me, I want to get better at identifying birds and in these cold winter months when migrants are enjoying South America or just the Miami sun I’m eagerly waiting their spring arrival.