The kindness of birders

Thanks to the kindness of birders, I was lucky enough to be able to see a family of nesting Mississippi Kites within easy driving distance of my home in southeast Ohio this weekend. Birders, in case you haven't already heard, tend to have a reputation for being extremely nice, and helpful, and will do just about anything to help you see a bird. There is a very gracious couple of birders who lives in a small gated community nestled near the Hocking Hills area, and their graciousness was extended out through this community when they opened their gates to approximately 100 outsiders this past Sunday. They opened their arms and welcomed us to see this fantastic spectacle of nature.


Juvenile Mississippi Kite from behind. You'll get a better view in a minute.
The thing that makes this bird species special is that this is currently the only known breeding location in the state of Ohio. Luckily, the birders in this community had a hunch at what they were looking at when a pair of Mississippi Kites raised a family there last year, and word got around in the Ohio birding community. Some other kind birders handled the logistics and arranged a special day to view the kite family last year, and then again this year. I am so grateful for this kindness.


From this angle it may look like jr. kite is eating something, but it's actually just preening.
To give you an idea of how spectacular it is to see this bird breeding in Ohio, I checked the first Breeding Bird Atlas done in the state back in 1982-1987, and it was not even on our radar at that time. Now, that's not definitive proof that it wasn't breeding in Ohio at that time, but in blocks where birders were surveying, they were not even observed. What has changed and brought them to Ohio since then? I don't know. Is it by luck that for two years now these kites have decided to nest in a woody area populated by people who would notice it? Maybe.

This is a reminder that conservation starts right in your own yard. These kites took up residence in a community that, from what I observed, seems to believe in disturbing the land as little as possible, so there is a lot of wonderful, suitable habitat for them to use. Great habitat = great biodiversity. And great biodiversity means you never know what might show up! (And with that in mind, it means you've got to keep your eyes open all the time, just in case something unexpected drops in to stay for a while. Well, I feel that's MY duty, anyway...)


Parental unit coming in with a juicy morsel for the youngster. Look how poised and ready that juvenile is to receive its meal!
The Mississippi Kite's diet is mainly comprised of insects like cicadas and dragonflies. They leave the exoskeleton (or outer shell) behind, only picking out the meat from within. I was amazed to watch bits of cicada wing flutter to the ground as the young one picked its way to the meat of its meal.


Getting ready for the hand-off. As soon as the juvenile kite demonstrates that it's able to feed itself, the family will begin their migration south toward their wintering grounds in central South America.

Birding and blogging friends Susan Gets Native (sitting) and KatDoc (with camera snapping) enjoying the view. This was a life bird for all 3 of us!

The adult takes off after dropping off a bite to eat. It's hard to get an idea of size in these photos, but the average wing span of this raptor is 3 feet (smaller than a Red-tailed Hawk, but larger than a Kestrel, for those keeping track). Notice the rufous, or rust-colored, primary feathers (the "finger tips") that are so nicely back lit by the sun here.

Here the juvenile is begging for food, calling to an adult in the vicinity. One theory being tossed around was that the youngster didn't actually start vocalizing until it had one of the parents within visual range. Speaking of begging behavior, when I was there watching the bird, I noticed it wasn't exhibiting the type of begging behavior I'm used to seeing in songbirds. Songbird youngsters, once out of the nest, will sit on a branch or a wire and peep almost continuously, with their wings puffed out and rapidly fluttering. This is an obvious visual cue to the parents, most likely to gain an upper hand over a nearby sibling who is also exhibiting similar behavior.

"I hear ya, kid. Just hold your horses, dinner's comin'!

Once I started looking at my pictures, though, I realized that while the begging is not as prolonged as a juvenile songbird's, the concept is still the same, as seen here: "I must make myself as large as possible so you know that you are supposed to feed ME!!" There was only one mouth to feed this year (last year's brood consisted of two young), but the instinct remains despite that fact.

This was one of the longer feeding sessions that we got to observe, and it made for great photo opportunities, thus giving me a chance to study field marks in-depth after I got home. Here you can really see the differences in appearance between the adult on the left and immature on the right. Notice the clean white breast and underside of the wings on the adult. Compare this to a chest and underwing area that is very dappled on the juvenile. Also, notice that the tail of the adult is completely dark with no banding (again, we've got a little but of rufous coloring peeking through at the tail tip). By contrast, the immature's tail has very distinct banding.

Once again, my sincere thanks goes out to the kind folks who brought this kite family to the attention of the Ohio birding community, and to those who arranged this get-together for us. It was a very special treat that made my day.

The Life List and the emotional birder

What makes a bird a Life Bird? First of all, what IS a Life Bird? I heard a few folks ask this question on trips in the latter part of the week at the New River Birding and Nature Festival. Simply put, it's a bird that you're seeing for the first time in your life.

Even though I like to keep lists of birds seen in various places, and I am keeping track of my Life List, I don't really consider myself to be a "lister," . Since I've started giving public talks about birding, I figured I should have an idea of how many birds are on my Life List, just in case anyone asks. My list (currently at 133 species) is pretty meager by some standards, but that's fine by me.

You might ask, "If you keep lists, why don't you consider yourself a 'lister'?" Valid question. The term "lister" has a strange connotation in birding, if you ask me. It seems to imply a certain mentality of "I must get this bird to add to my Life List at all costs." In my mind, listers are folks who travel far and wide to see a bird for what will likely only be a short period of time, and it might be a bird that's only guessed to stay put for a day or two. Depending on how far you have to travel combined with the likelihood that the bird is just "passing through", you might get to a location only to find that the target bird has flown the proverbial coop. Across the pond in the U.K. this activity is referred to as "twitching," and from what I've read about British birding, they are even more serious about it there than we are here in the U.S.! Listing and twitching can even get to the point of being like a competitive sport (which I can't say I'm above, as we had a friendly list competition going at New River for the most species seen/heard - which I LOST!) My slant may sound negative, but please don't interpret it that way. I have no problem with folks feeling a need to go after a bird, and feeling like they REALLY NEED TO SEE IT. It's just that that kind of birding is not for me.

So let's come back to the question of "what is a Life Bird?" Do you count it if you only saw it for 5 seconds? Do you count it if someone else had to point it out to you? Does it count if it's only seen in the hand (i.e. for a banding demonstration)? (The American Birding Association recording rules, for example, do not allow birds restrained by a mist net or a hand to be countable by their standards; my standards say that these birds DO count for my personal Life List.) Will you only count it if it makes you cry (if you don't know I'm talking about here, it will become clear shortly)?

My philosophy is: my list, my rules. One of my rules is that if I only hear the bird, but don't see it, I'm not counting it. During the festival I heard a Black-billed Cuckoo one day, my first ever "by ear" encounter with the species. I didn't see it, however, so I didn't count it as a Lifer. I expected to leave it at that, and was content with doing so. Luckily, I was fated to actually see the bird during my last field trip of the week. We heard it first, and after some discussion, it was decided that a small group of us for whom this would be a life bird would take our chances among the poison ivy and ticks and go scout out the Cuckoo. With the help of Bill Thompson III, I got my life Black-billed Cuckoo, and I will remember it forever.

Black-billed Cuckoo - photo courtesy Doug Sanchez. Note the red eye ring - one of several diagnostic marks separating it from it's Yellow-billed cousin.
With some encouragement from Bill's bird song app of choice on his iPhone, this cuckoo came right out into the open, and STAYED THERE for about 5 minutes. Bill told us this is most unusual behavior for a cuckoo, just one among a number of species that is well-known for its skulking, blending-into-habitat behaviors. And so, in a matter of minutes, I had a very good sense of this bird's color, shape, size, and song, and also its habitat requirements. This bird went onto my list with a full understanding of it in my brain. It wasn't just a quick glimpse. If I saw another BB Cuckoo all on my own, I would know what it was.

This brings us to another criteria that some folks cite about adding birds to their Life List: they feel that they need to be able to identify the bird on their own, without anyone's help. Sometimes it's not enough to have someone just point it out to you and move on. I applaud that, and wish I could say I use that criteria for my own list. Sometimes, though, in the heat of the moment, it's easy to add a bird you're not all that familiar with to your list just to say, "Yup, I saw it."

This has come back to get me, though. For example, I marked the Yellow-breasted Chat as a Life Bird during my trip to West Virginia. I got really good looks at one, heard it sing a lot, and got a good understanding of its habitat. I can now easily identify a Chat on my own. And I thought I hadn't seen one before the New River trip. However, on a recent bird walk at Lake Hope State Park, we saw a Chat, and it suddenly came back to me that a Chat was pointed out to me on a hike in the very same location 2 or 3 years ago. But it hadn't stuck with me. Why not? I can come up with a number of reasons: it just didn't register, I was not familiar enough with it, I was still somewhat new to birding, I wasn't really sure about what I was hearing or seeing, etc., etc. Needless to say, it obviously did not make an impression on me at that time. And a bird that makes an impression goes a long way to elevating a bird from a Lifer to one that goes on the Emotional Life List (that's ELL for short). This list is much shorter than my standard Life List, and only includes birds that I feel some sort of connection with, and that have touched my life in some significant way. The Eastern Phoebe and Carolina Wren hold the top 2 spots on my ELL.

I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, which means that I'm also wiping tears from my eyes with that same sleeve on what some would consider to be strange occasions.

Take a look at this beautiful male Magnolia Warbler.

This Magnolia Warbler (Maggies, for short) is being held by Bill Hilton, Jr., who was banding birds throughout the week at the festival.
He's gorgeous in the photo, but a two-dimensional image really doesn't do justice to just how stunning this bird was. As I was looking at him through my camera lens, tears were welling up in my eyes. It was a Life Bird, and goes on the ELL for sheer beauty alone.

A bird that's a little higher up on the ELL is the Black-throated Blue Warbler. I went into the festival hoping to see this bird. I already have an affinity for one of his cousins, the Black-throated Green Warbler, because when I encountered it for the first time, I was in a very sacred place in the Hocking Hills area. It was early morning, the park was not yet full of people, and it was pretty much just me, my camera, and the woods full of bird song. A special moment was etched into my soul, and that bird will always be a part of that. My Black-throated Blue moment was just as powerful. I get all worked up just thinking about it. I make no effort to hide the fact that this bird made me cry.

The Black-throated Blue Warbler has some very specific habitat requirements, and one place where it nests is in the higher elevations of West Virgina, such as in Cranberry Glades. Photo courtesy Jim McCormac.
The Black-throated Blue was just a small part of an incredible experience, but I'll leave the magic of Cranberry Glades for another post.

It's not JUST about the flowers

So I'm learning quickly that Flora-Quest isn't just about the flowers. For example, who knew that I would get to hear AND see a Chuck Will's Widow while I was here?! Life bird boogie, anyone? Yes, thank you! There was some speculation that such a thing COULD happen, but no one was placing any bets on them being here.

Blue Grosbeak is also being hoped for, but none yet that we've seen. Right before the Chuck Will's we were treated to some Henslow's Sparrows in an open grassy field. This is a bird I was introduced to last year while birding by ear at the Wilds, but it was certainly cool to see it again.



Searching for Henslow's Sparrow.
The great thing about coming to events like that is that there are so many interests that overlap (botany, birding, butterflies/moths/other bugs), so you're guaranteed to learn about more than just the topic at hand.

Oh, and a Bobcat ran in front of our van as we were driving up to the lodge parking lot. How cool is that?  Things are looking up already, and it's only Friday night!

P.S.  The Chuck Will's sighting inspired a quickly cobbled together poem.  You can read it over at Writing on the Page if you are so inclined.

Birding the Wilds

Yesterday was the Winter Extravaganza at the Wilds, sponsored by the Ohio Ornithological Society. The temps were mild for January, and lots of folks showed up, but our group did not see a whole lot of birds. There was apparently a Golden Eagle spotted in the area, but it was not meant to be for us to see it.


It wasn't for lack of trying, that's for sure. We made many stops on roads close to the Wilds (roads that are actually on land owned by American Electric Power), and searched and searched, but we just didn't see much bird action at all. We did spot a Horned Lark (quite a few, actually), which was a life bird for me. I did a little boogie for it.


This guy. He's awesome. I tell him, "so we're gonna have to leave at, like, 6 a.m. to get there on time." "Okay," he says. Look at him in his Midwest Bird Symposium hat and Bird Watcher's Digest binocular harness. I'm so glad he came to the Wilds to go birding with me!



There were lots of spotting scopes around yesterday, a necessary tool of the trade. Especially when trying to pin down a bird that's somewhere out in the middle of huge expanses of grassland and hills like this...




Before lunch, our group saw Horned Lark, American Kestrel, Eastern Bluebird, European Starling, Blue Jay, Trumpeter Swan, Rough-legged Hawk (dark morph) (AND lifer!), Red-tailed Hawk, and Downy Woodpecker. Folks were hoping for more raptors, but there just wasn't much activity.


What're y'all lookin' at?


There are lots of lakes of varying sizes around the Wilds, but there seemed to be only one that had some unfrozen water, and of course that's where all the waterfowl went. Accordingly, all the scopes were lined up after lunch to observe said water and waterfowl. I could only identify the Canada Geese and Trumpter Swans. Even through a scope, they were still pretty far away, so it was difficult for me to know what else I was seeing (this girl's no good with her waterfowl ID!). I heard folks say there were Ruddy Ducks, Ring-neck Ducks, some kind of Merganser, Mallards, and perhaps a Green-winged Teal.


Oh look, I managed to get photos of some birds! Two Trumpeter Swans, and if you notice the road behind them, there are some Canada Geese to the right of that road. I know... booooring.

Aside from seeing birds, we were able to get some good views of several of the species of mammals that are managed by the Wilds, including a meeting with a very special southern white rhino. Here's a sneak peek:


Stay tuned!

Birding by Ear "teaser"

Got back from my trip to the Wilds this afternoon. It was really amazing. Lots of life birds for me, one of which is pictured above. Do you know what it is?

I didn't get tons of great bird photos, but there are some. I will post more soon!

Life bird: Golden-crowned Kinglet

Woohoo! My 2nd life bird of 2009! I made the ID on this while Dave and I were hiking this past weekend in the Desonier State Nature Preserve in southeastern Athens County.

I had heard the high-pitched squibble (I know, not a word, but that's what the sound reminds me of - a squibble) of this bird several times in the past few weeks during lunch-time walks in town near my office, but I had never been able to get a good look at the bird. I knew it was tiny and yellow, and my first guess was some kind of warbler.

When I heard the "squibbling" while we were hiking, I KNEW it was the same species that I had heard on my lunch-time walks, so I was very happy to have my binoculars on hand, allowing me to see the bird close enough to identify field marks. I was shouting out markings to Dave in case I couldn't remember it all by the time I got home to our Peterson's Guide: "clear-breasted.... bright yellow streak on its head... a wing bar... black eye stripe.. also some white around the eye..." I was still thinking it might be a warbler, but then the thought of kinglet occured to me, although I didn't know exactly what kind.

When we got home I went straight to the kinglets in the Peterson's Guide and found my answer. Aside from the field marks, other telling clues were its size (very tiny, smaller than a Goldfinch, just slightly larger than a hummingbird) and activity (it couldn't stay still!!!) According to a range map on the Cornell's All About Birds site, they winter in practically all of the lower 48, but the year-round population does dip down from Canada and the northeast U.S into eastern West Virginia. Also, they prefer coniferous surroundings (I first spotted them in some kind of spruce tree), but they are also present in mixed confirerous-deciduous woods (the Desonier preserve where I made the ID is mostly deciduous).

I wonder what my next Life Bird will be? Perhaps a Common Redpoll? I'm waiting for it... I've heard word that they're around...

Plume Zoom #4, answers revealed (and a life bird!)

Thanks to everyone who participated in this week's Plume Zoom. I think this edition has had the most participation yet! Thanks, and keep it coming everyone!

Okay, so here's the original shot that I gave to you in the quiz:

Here's zoomed out on that same shot:

Still not sure? Here's someone else, for comparison:

The correct answer is the Pine Siskin, which is a Life Bird for me! Here's a photo of both a Pine Siskin and its very near look-alike, the American Goldfinch, with distinguishing field marks emphasized for each.

When I saw the Siskin at my feeder my first thought was "Is that?!... no.... I think it's a Siskin!" First I grabbed my binocs for a more detailed look, and after confirming my suspicions I grabbed my camera (should always grab the camera first and confirm later, dummy, seeing as how the image may be the only way you CAN confirm it!).

The confirmation of this bird at my feeders shook my bird identification confidence a little. I often just make passing glances at the thistle feeder and don't really pay much attention to the birds that are perched there, just assuming they're Goldfinches. Seeing the Siskins there made me wonder how many other times they might have been there and I just didn't notice that subtle difference in their markings; however, when I was outside later that day and heard them chattering amongst themselves, I knew I was hearing a bird sound that was new to my ears, and that made me feel a little better that this was truly the first time they had been at my feeder, at least for any length of time.

I was worried it was going to be a short-lived thing with the Siskin that day, but it and 5 of its friends stayed around for the entire weekend. I hope they'll stay around for the rest of the season! Their presence does complicate my counts for Project Feederwatch a little bit, since I can no longer assume that all the birds at my thistle feeder are Goldfinches. Oh well - I enjoy having a new species on my weekly list.

Interestingly, I just saw this over on Bill of the Birds yesterday: "From the reports I've heard this is a big pine siskin year and a big white-winged crossbill year here in Ohio." Sounds like our Siskins are part of a state-wide trend!

There's always lots of squawking and scrapping at the thistle feeder.

The Pine Siskin is a winter visitor in most of the United States, including here in Ohio, but it is a year-round resident throughout parts of the west and along the west coast.

No, I don't feed my birds bling - I was shooting all these pictures through a screened window, and there must have been a bit of moisture on the seed that got caught just right between the sunlight and the screen.