snow birds & tecolote project #1

yesterday (1/26), while spending the day with my girlfriend in the cuyamacas, enjoying a little san diego snow, i was able to pick up 10 new birds for my year list. they were: STELLAR'S JAY, WILD TURKEY, DARK-EYED JUNCO (including my first of the "pink sided" race), MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE, OAK TITMOUSE, BROWN CREEPER, PYGMY NUTHATCH, CALIFORNIA QUAIL, and BAND-TAILED PIGEON. the snow was deeper and softer than i expected it to be (considering we are in san diego), and the sixth-grade campers were out in force with their sleds and snow gear. luckily for me, the birds seemed not to notice.

BROWN CREEPER:
today (1/27), i started the '2010 tecolote project' by completing my first bird count in the park. because it was later in the morning than i typically like to bird, i only hiked in about one mile. here are the 24 species i saw/heard in order of appearance:

3 WRENTIT
9 SCRUB JAY
2 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS
10 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
50 BUSHTIT
2 NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD
13 ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD
24 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW
9 CALIFORNIA TOWHEE
5 CALIFORNIA THRASHER
1 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET
4 SONG SPARROW
32 HOUSE FINCH
3 SPOTTED TOWHEE
2 BLACK PHEOBE
2 NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER
3 BEWICK'S WREN
3 CASSIN'S KINGBIRD
4 MOURNING DOVE
2 RED-TAILED HAWK
1 HUTTON'S VIREO
CALIFORNIA GNAT-CATHCER (heard only)
1 SAY'S PHEOBE
3 RAVEN

CALIFORNIA GNAT-CATCHER, HUTTON'S VIREO, and SPOTTED TOWHEE are also year birds for me, bringing my total to 131 birds.

micsellanea

in my first post of the year i mentioned that i was switching over from 'ebird' to a paper list for keeping track of my 2010 sighted birds. well, i also decided to transfer my life list over to paper for the same reasons. and, it's a good thing i did so: my 'ebird' list turned out to have some major problems. not only were there birds on there that i know i never saw, but there were also birds missing that i know i did see (like CINNAMON TEAL). unfortunately, this meant a net loss of 5 birds from my original 2009 count of 242, bringing me down to a still respectable 237. a few of those lost birds where ones i had recorded earlier in 2009, that i don't feel qualified to i.d. even now, a year later, let alone one or two months into my birding education. those birds i voluntarily removed from my list, because illegitimate sightings are the last thing i want on there. so, now, with the inclusion of MERLIN, ORCHARD ORIOLE, and LAUGHING GULL, my life list is up to 240 birds.

in other news... this week has been jam-packed with short birding trips to nearby coastal spots. these were mostly uneventful, with the exception of the aforementioned gull. however, i did notice that there were much larger numbers of CALIFORNIA and HEERMAN'S GULLs at robb field and mission bay (the two sights i hit hardest between monday and thursday) than i have seen in all my previous trips to these locations this year. i usually see maybe one or two mixed in with what are mostly WESTERN and RING-BILLED GULLs. i wonder if these two species tend to spend this time of year out on the open ocean, and were forced to seek shelter on the coast during this recent series of storms. these trips also produced a slough of common shore birds, like SURF KNOT, DUNLIN, and SANDERLING - which brought my year list up to 118.

wednesday, january 20

today at noon, after three straight days of searching through hundreds, if not thousands of gulls, in horrible weather at robb field and mission bay, i finally found something new: an immature LAUGHING GULL. i had just about given up for the day when i decided to stop by fiesta island to check out some places where i know large numbers of gulls congregate. this guy was noticeably smaller than all the RING BILLED, CALIFORNIA, and WESTERN GULLs surrounding it. it also had characteristic black legs and bill, white eyelids, and dark feathers on the back of the neck and head that are less blotchy, and more uniform than those on most other winter plumaged gulls. below is a picture of the same individual i saw today, taken at an earlier date, by matt sadowski. this bird has been present for about a week now at mission bay.



also, this is bird is a 'lifer' for me. which is nice...

birding the zoo

i know i said in my last post that the next birding trip i took would be to find the TUNDRA SWAN at the aviara resort in north county, but, on thursday (1/14) i had a little time to kill between errands, and i decided to make a quick trip to the san diego zoo. i thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to pick up the male SUMMER TANAGER that had been reported there a few days prior. i got to the zoo a few minutes before it opened, and decided i'd bird around the entrance where there was some good looking foliage. i could hear a lot of birds in the picnic area just south of the zoo's exit gates as i approached. when i got there i spotted a very active mid-sized bird, which turned out to be a BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, in the canopy of a short tree. while watching him, he worked his way around the tree and out of sight. i followed. when i got around to the other side i was surprised to find myself in the midst of a small group of about 15 feeding birds. at that one spot i had no less than 8 BULLOCK'S ORIOLEs, 4 WESTERN TANAGERs, and best of all, an adult male ORCHARD ORIOLE! i could hardly believe my luck. they were all so active - calling and feeding - that they hardly noticed i was there. i was able to get right up under the ORCHARD ORIOLE to watch him feed. it was so hectic that my count of 8 BULLOCK'S ORIOLEs is only an estimate - the birds just wouldn't sit still. it made no difference to me that i wasn't able to re-find the SUMMER TANGER afterward, because the ORCHARD ORIOLE is a rarity in san diego, and a lifer for me. my 2010 year list is now up to 104 birds.

ORCHARD ORIOLE:

update

so far this year i haven't been very diligent in keeping you up-to-date on my birding activities. i've been out four times this january - the 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 11th - picking up a total of 95 different species. one of which, MERLIN, is also a 'lifer' for me. i've traveled from the mountains to the sea, visiting places old and new (like the wild animal park). many of the species i've recorded this year are birds that i didn't pick up until later in 2009, which gives me a good start on beating last year's total of 242 species. and i haven't even begun to chase rarities, something i will remedy on my next trip, when i go looking for the TUNDRA SWAN that has been present at the aviara resort in north county for the last month or so. i also intend on picking up a bunch of new seabirds soon, since i'll be purchasing a scope in the next few days. here is a pic of bushnell's 'elite' 80mm ED, 20x - 60x zoom, angled scope, which will soon be mine.


i got the chance to look through some binoculars that use the same glass technology, and they were pretty freakin' impressive. so, i'm really excited for the day i can take this to the coast and finally see what all those birds on the horizon really are.

a new approach.

this year i'm going to try a new approach to listing. namely, i wont be using 'ebird' anymore, which makes you enter dates, times, and locations when submitting a list. instead i'll be using an old fashioned paper list. a paper list is beneficial because it will show me all birds recorded in san diego county alongside all the birds i've seen in san diego county, which 'ebird' doesn't do. that way, it'll be much easier for me to recognize and target the birds i've yet to see. it's a much simpler and more efficient way to do things in my opinion.

also, i'm going to try a new trip strategy. instead of just visiting a number of different locations in a given area, i'll be targeting specific groups of birds in specific habitat types - at least until the majority of common birds are out of the way. i think this more methodical approach will lead to more success in checking off whole sections of birds on my list. basically, if i see i'm missing some common species of raptor, i can check canyons and inland grassland areas, or, if i'm missing some waterfowl, i can check lakes and coastal wetlands, etc... this way i wont be driving around the county getting birds willy-nilly, but hopefully ticking them off in a more orderly fashion. i'm hoping this approach will also make my i.d.s better. my hypothesis is that it's easier to remember, recognize, and focus on the important field marks of certain groups of birds if you've been looking at, and thinking about them all day. so, i think it'll be better to go from flocks of peeps (small sandpipers), to other flocks of peeps, than from flocks of something else, to flocks of peeps. that way i wont need to reorient myself to new field marks at every location, but stay focused throughout my trip.

also, stay tuned for the first installment of the 'target bird' series: YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.