To chase or not to chase?

Since becoming a birder and realizing that wonders are mine to be had, I have paid attention to what was flying around in our area.

From that first "spark" downy woodpecker in my yard to my latest New Jersey Lifer, I have been paying attention. And since my introduction to birds of prey, Winter has taken on more meaning.
Ohio is not on top of the list for Snowy Owls, but we can count on one, maybe two in the cold months. I have been reading my emails from the Ohio Bird listserv every day, turning green with envy at all the Northern Ohio birders who are spotting Snowy's lately. I think there are at least four different Snowys in Ohio right now. I told myself that I wouldn't chase one until it was closer to home.
And today, one was seen about an hour from our house. Their staying power (as in they are seen for a few days, then disappear) is iffy, so I have to make a decision.

Tomorrow, I could drop off Lorelei, drive an hour, search for two hours, then drive an hour back to pick up Lorelei. (Going in the afternoon is out....tomorrow is Swami's birthday, so we must party)



So. Do I stay or do I go?










(The happiest snowy owl on the planet, I think. I don't remember where I found this, but doesn't it just make you happy, just looking at him?)

Oh, yeah....BIRDS.

Well, yeah...we did more than just drop F Bombs all weekend. There was actually some birding going on.
My travel agent found us the sweetest lodging...a condo overlooking a marsh (complete with smell of decaying vegatation). Mornings were especially fabulous, with fallouts rummaging the phragmites right below the back deck.
Ever seen a yellow-rumped warbler from above? I hadn't.



Kathi was good enough to point out a lifer for me...a juvenile black-crowned night heron:


The Saturday morning banding demo produced a very angry male Cooper's Hawk:

...being held by a fellow blogger:

That's John from A DC Birding Blog. A very quiet but well-spoken guy. I really pay attention to banding demos and other people discussing raptors. I might pick up some new info.


On the eco-boat trip, I got more lifers:

Brant. A very cute little sea goose. They were hard to miss....like only about 100 of them floating on their own raft of goose-ness.


Fish crow...another lifer.

This one's for my father-in-law, Swami, because he seems to have no idea what a loon looks like:

A common loon. Not a lifer, but the best look I have had yet. Every time I look at this photo, I think, "...and a one...and a two..."

A sight you don't see every day....a peregrine falcon sitting on an osprey nest:

That was a highlight of the boat trip...then we got more PEFA:

Two of them sitting on a water tower.

I had been bitching and whining about "I wanna see oystercatchers!" at the bar the night before, and Beth-The-Lurker (Hi, Beth! Now you have to comment!) said I should see some on the boat trip.
We didn't see one....we saw two dozen.

A weirdly fascinating bird. A huge straight reddish-orange bill and crazy yellow/orange eyes. Click HERE for a good view of one.

All in all, I got 66 bird species at Cape May with five lifers:
American Oystercatcher
Black-crowned Night Heron
American Black-bellied Plover
Brant
Fish Crow

Not bad for only birding about 20 percent of the trip.
: )
Tomorrow, a post about my oldest child and her seventh birthday!

Some of my lifers from Florida (in a cute little slideshow)

Sand where the sun don't shine

Hello, all! We are back from Florida's Gold Coast!

I am still digging sand out of orifices I wasn't aware I had.
I fully expected to blog while we were down there, but the lap top was on vacation, too. I took it out of the suitcase and the monitor wouldn't light up. So it needs to go to the PC doctor.

Anyway, sand....
Lots and lots of sand:

The girls fell in love with the ocean (which was right outside our hotel...I mean, we stepped out onto the patio, went down one step and there was the beach. It was awesome.)
Isabelle and Lorelei spent nearly every waking hour in the water. Lorelei wouldn't go out too far, staying near the surf...and every wave deposited another cupful of sand into her bathing suit. I spent quite a lot of time rinsing suits out. My Mom states that when we went to Florida, back when I was about 4, I was carrying so much sand in my little bikini it looked like I had baked potatoes hidden in there. I guess what goes around, comes around?

My first lifer of the trip....brown pelicans:

I knew they were big, but man oh man...they are really big!

They didn't seem to care that 20 or 30 people were out in the water....they would fall out of the sky diving for fish 10 feet from us.


Another lifer (and countable!) was a flock of birds noodling around in the palm trees right outside the hotel:

Monk parakeets! I kept hearing what sounded like our parakeet here at home, and was pleasantly surprised to see a slew of green birds swooping in and out of the trees. (Green birds are hard to come by here in Ohio) Monk parakeets are an introduced species (from escapes and numb-nuts letting them go) but they have established themselves in Florida and I am glad they did.
Another exotic species that has found a niche in Florida...a bird we know well here in the Williams' household:


Eurasian collared doves. They were easily as numerous as the rock pigeons down there. It was neat to see a wild bird just like our beloved Euro. Another countable lifer.

Effortless birding is always a treat. While stopping for lunch before hitting the Everglades, we came across common moorhens and their babies:

The little ones were adorable, running across the floating vegetation like chickens. Another lifer.

I have about a hundred photos to get through, so I will leave you with not only another effortless bird, but also another lifer:

A white ibis, just stalking around a yard....in a neighborhood.

At last count, I had 11 lifers. But something that was lacking was the simple, easy songbirds. There weren't little birds just hanging out in the trees. I'm used to seeing chickadees and blue jays and sparrows out and about, but where we were, just shorebirds/sea birds/weird exotic birds.
More tomorrow!

The Seventeenth Raptor

I took the auto tour on Saturday. Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge is a fantastic place full of multiple habitats: Mud flats, deep ditches, vast expanses of deeper water, marshes, swamp...

The auto tour is my favorite part of the area because you can go at your own pace, and birding from a car is easy on the feet.

At one point, I had stopped (it's easy to find an 'exciting' bird, because a bunch of cars will be stopped and everyone will be out of their car, looking in the same direction). I noticed large, dark birds circling above. Vultures are around, but not like here. A large dark bird is worth checking out.
There were three birds:
1. The first one was obviously an immature bald eagle; Wings held totally flat. dark overall with lighter splotchiness.
2. The second one was too high up to tell anything.
3. The third one was holding its wings in a very shallow dihedral (a "V") and the plumage was all dark brown. It turned into the sun and I saw a golden gleam across the head and nape.
Oh my God. A Golden Eagle.

I stood there in disbelief for a minute. Golden eagles are hard to come by in Ohio. But I got my validation when the carload of people just down from me started yelping....I heard one woman say, "That looks like a Golden to ME!"

I grabbed my cell phone and left a probably maniacal message for Kathi.

I couldn't get a clear picture of it, so I just watched it until it was gone. Grinning like a fool, I got back in the car and moved on. As I turned a corner, I saw the second bird swoop low enough to ID it...an adult Bald Eagle. Whoot.

I came across another car stopped, and I got out to see what they were looking at. It was the "swarm" of dunlins. I asked them if they had seen the Golden.
This guy said, rather snarky, "Well, I saw the IMMATURE bald eagle."
I said, "I did, too. But there was a Golden with it."
He then started schooling me in raptor identification. I decided not to alert him to the fact that I don't need schooling in raptor identification.
I moved on...and began to second-guess myself. I know I shouldn't have, but he bugged me.
I went over all that I had seen, and I kept telling myself that I did see a Golden.
The next day I checked the Hawk Watch Tower list, and observers had seen FIVE Goldens. I had my validation.
I adore other birders. We are, for the most part, helpful people who are fun and who listen. And then there are those "Crotchety Old Lady From The Birds" types. COLFTB's.
Have I just created a new acronym?
So, anyway. That Golden Eagle makes my 17th raptor species. Woo hoo!