Movie Night at ABC! Oct 24, 2013 We celebrated two years of ABC with movies and theater candy! Thanks, Ryan Wiese and others for making the video and audio both happen! Since November and December are filled with other stuff, we probably won’t meet again until the fourth week of January. What would you like to see happen in 2014? With our group, anything is possible. Longer field trips are being bandied about. Contact Ken Brown with any ideas for programs, classes, field trips at kennethwbrown@hotmail.com, and cc to Ed Pullen at edwardpullen@gmail.com and Diane Y-Q at Avosetta@hotmail.com. The world is waiting! Several ABC’ers might be drafted to give a report on how to get to Ecuador and other nearby areas, logistically speaking and for less than a king’s ransom. Volunteer for this if you have tips! First up, we saw a short subject that everyone in attendance identified with strongly! “Far East Tour” by Cara Borre and Asta Tobiassen, “far east” meaning far eastern Washington! Their trip in June this year had everyone nodding and laughing at the right times. We laughed and we cried!! As we speak they are flying off to Maui, and they might just see more birds. More of their stuff can be seen on Youtube at their Wild Thing Productions webpage: https://www.youtube.com/user/wildthingproduction1?feature=watch Then we watched the feature film, “Birders: The Central Park Effect,” which brought back great memories to a number of us including Kay & Ed Pullen, who had actually birded with Star Saphir, the bird leader profiled, who died earlier this year. Also David Marshall lived for 2 years in NYC and saw 21 or 22 warblers there in one short morning! One of the writers profiled, Jonathan Franzen, later published a #1 bestseller that featured a Cerulean Warbler on its cover and as a main character, “Freedom,” which also landed Jonathan on the cover of Time Magazine. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_%28Jonathan_Franzen_novel%29). For those who asked how to get the movie, you can buy it on line at Amazon and other places: http://www.amazon.com/Birders-Central-Effect-Regina-Alvarez/dp/B009VRVGLK/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1382676097&sr=1-1&keywords=birders+the+central+park+effect Christmas Bird Counts coming up! Get ready! Some of our group at movie night (click to enlarge):
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Santa Cruz Island, a San Diego Pelagic Trip Plus Nutmeg Mannikin
Kay and I took off for Southern California on Thursday Oct 9th with plans to visit Santa Cruz Island the next morning, followed by a visit with family and me sneaking away for a pelagic trip out of San Diego on the Sunday of the weekend. It worked out about as well as we could have hoped, with great weather, obliging target species and calm seas.
We flew to LAX and met Kay’s brother Keith and sister Mary and took off for Ventura where the Island Packer’s boat ride for Santa Cruz Island was scheduled to leave at 9AM the next morning. We checked ahead to assure that we would leave, given that much of the traffic on the boat trip usually go to the National Park on Santa Cruz Island which was closed due to the government shut-down. Fortunately Prisoner’s Cove where the endemic Santa Cruz scrub jay is most easily found, and where we were booked to land is on Nature Conservancy land and the trip was still on. Even better without the extra stops the boat captain obligingly extended the ride to cruise past Anacapa Island where Blue-footed boobies were roosting regularly on the cliffs. On the trip over we got to see lots of Black-vented shearwaters, good numbers of Pink-footed shearwaters but no murrelets. We were thrilled to find 16 immature BFBO on the cliffs with lots of cormorants, pelicans and gulls. At least two were mature enough to have blue feet giving great looks to all of us.
On to Santa Cruz Island, where the Santa Cruz Scrub Jays were easily found, studied and photographed.
We had about 3 hours on the island and due to the National Park closure the usual hike on their land was inaccessible. Graciously the Nature Conservancy agreed to allow us to hike onto their property, usually off-limits, and we had chances to see the endemic subspecies of Santa Cruz bewick’s wren, song sparrow, and fox. The fox was especially obliging. It is a tiny fox, just 6 lbs, and was not bashful at all, seeming very habituated to visitors.
Keith joined me Sunday on the San Diego 12 hour deep water pelagic trip. You would never confuse this with a Westport deep water trip. Skies were sunny, seas 2-3 foot swells, and nary a single passenger added to the steady stream of popcorn chum off the stern. The price of $60 was also wonderfully low. The Sea and Sage Audubon Society sponsored the trip, and did a great job. We traveled through several habitats, and found lots to see all day long. On the way out well within sight of shore Black-vented shearwaters dominated, with Red-necked phalaropes common and Western Gulls adult and all ages along with Heermann’s gulls the dominant larids. At the 9 mile bank, about 12.3 miles out of San Diego (why not 12 mile bank?) we had good numbers of Pink-footed shearwaters and the Black-vented thinned out. The only alcids were numerous Cassin’s Aucklets. On the 2 hour ride out to the 30 mile bank we were busy looking at less frequent Pink-footed shearwaters, lots of Northern Fulmars of all color morphs, and in incredible number of Pomerine Jaegers. I estimated 70+ for the day. One Parasitic Jaeger was seen early in the trip, before getting to the 9-mile bank if I remember correctly.
Shortly prior to the 30 mile bank the trip leader got us on a white bird on the water, which was flushed up by a Pomerine Jaeger. It was an adult Red-billed Tropicbird and put on a great show being harassed for several minutes by the jaeger. It flew in front of the boat, away into the distance ahead and high into the sky, then circled back directly in front of us and past the bow again, all the while in aerial acrobatics. Later on the 30 mile bank we had distant looks at small numbers of Black Storm-petrels and Least Storm-petrels at a feeding flock on some floating dead fish material.
Lot’s of fulmars and Pink-footed shearwaters were joining the flock. On the ride in we had the only Black-footed Albatross fly past the boat, and then in the San Diego trough had the jackpot of the trip, the first Great Shearwater record in S California waters. This bird gave us great looks and photographs by all.
After a good night sleep Kay and I celebrated our 29th anniversary on Monday by going out to a nice breakfast at Huntington Beach Central Park, before we ventured out to add Nutmeg Mannikin to our ABA list since it was added to the listable birds last month.
A great trip with 7 lifers for me.
Ken’s ABC Fall Coast Trip Oct 5-6, 2013
Sunshine and great views of American and Pacific Golden Plovers together (Photo by Kathleen Miller) were the highlights of our trip to the coast last weekend. After meeting at the usual I5-Hwy 512 park and ride we took foggy drives through Wenzel Slough Rd and Brady Loop. The highlight was a large flock of mixed geese, mostly Cackling, with Canada and Greater White-fronted in good numbers, with 7 Sandhill Cranes looking on from the background off Foster Rd.
Be the time we arrived at the Hoquiam STP the fog had mostly cleared, but we missed the previously reported Red-shouldered Hawk. A surprisingly few birds were on the ponds, and we wasted no time pushing on to the coast. We went to the Oyhut game range first and this was the best shorebirding of the weekend. We sorted through good numbers of Greater Yellowlegs to find at least 5 golden plovers. We has spectacular looks at both species, actually counting the 4 primary feathers projecting past the tertials in the American’s and the 3 on the Pacifics, noting that both edges of the tertials had golden spots on the Pacifics, whereas only one edge had the spots on the Americans. It was a great case study. We has good looks at Least, Western sandpipers, and Dunlin there too. Long-billed dowichers gave us good looks too.
At the jetty we found 3 “rock-pipers”, Black turnstone, Surfbird and Wandering tattler. We skipped stops at the open coast to pick up Sanderling, assured that it would show up somewhere for the trip. Not! At the Ocean Shores STP we added a Spotted sandpiper.
A good night’s sleep after the heartbreaking Husky loss to Stanford brought another sunny day Sunday.
(Photo by Diane) We started at the Westport Marina, and the hoped for 4th or 5th rockpiper species failed to oblige. Impressive numbers of Brown pelicans were noted. The Marbled godwits and Willets obliged at Tokeland and we saw our first Great Egret far away on the tide flats. Graveyard Spit and Midway Beach added little except a fast-passing Perigrine falcon at Midway. (water too deep to get to the beach) Bottle beach was a dud, with 6 Black-bellied plovers the only shorebirds noted despite perfect timing of the tides. Back at the Coast guard station at Westport we poured through about 1000 Marbled godwits but could not make any into other types. Nice looks at a Herring gull were fun there. We ended the coast birding at the Westhaven State Park area and the jetty there, where we added shorebird species #17 & 18 as a Whimbrel called loudly overhead before landing near the base of the bluff, and 4 Semi-palmated plovers were also heard nicely as they flew in with a flock of Least sandpipers. We dashed away leaving very strong winds and a rapidly approaching rain storm.
We drove through Brady Loop again on the way home, and found yet one more Pacific golden plover at a flooded field pond with 28 Killdeer. A nice way to end the weekend.
Here is the trip list for anyone interested:
Report Details
Date range: Oct 5, 2013 – Oct 11, 2013 Total # of Species: 99
Total # of Checklists: 19
Location(s): 46.9735x-123.8170 – Oct 5, 2013, 6:25 PM; Bottle Beach; Brady Loop; Hoquiam STP; Midway Beach; Ocean Shores — Bill’s Spit; Ocean Shores — Pt. Brown Jetty; Ocean Shores STP; Ocean Shores–Oyhut Wildlife Area; Tokeland; Tokeland — Graveyard Spit/Fisher Ave; US-WA-Ocean Shores- interpretive Center; Wenzel Slough Rd; Westhaven SP; Westport — Coast Guard Station/spit; Westport — Marina
Summary
Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 11
Number of Species 85 57 — — — — —
Number of Individuals 4,510 7,890 — — — — —
Number of Checklists 11 8 — — — — —
Highest Count for a Species (sample size) Hide Sample Size
Species Name Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 11
Greater White-fronted Goose 50
(2) — — — — — —
Snow Goose 2
(1) — — — — — —
Brant 9
(1) — — — — — —
Cackling Goose 600
(1) — — — — — —
Canada Goose 500
(5) — — — — — —
Cackling/Canada Goose 80
(1) — — — — — —
Eurasian Wigeon 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
American Wigeon 400
(3) 3,000
(1) — — — — —
Mallard 170
(5) 1
(1) — — — — —
Northern Shoveler 30
(2) — — — — — —
Northern Pintail 20
(3) 800
(2) — — — — —
Green-winged Teal 30
(3) 8
(1) — — — — —
Greater Scaup 4
(1) — — — — — —
Lesser Scaup 8
(1) 2
(1) — — — — —
Surf Scoter 40
(2) 200
(4) — — — — —
White-winged Scoter 4
(1) — — — — — —
scoter sp. 20
(1) — — — — — —
Hooded Merganser 3
(2) — — — — — —
Red-breasted Merganser — 1
(1) — — — — —
Red-throated Loon — 4
(2) — — — — —
Common Loon 10
(2) 25
(4) — — — — —
Pied-billed Grebe 1
(1) — — — — — —
Horned Grebe 1
(1) 1
(2) — — — — —
Western Grebe 9
(1) 9
(2) — — — — —
Brandt’s Cormorant 1
(1) — — — — — —
Double-crested Cormorant 20
(6) 400
(6) — — — — —
Pelagic Cormorant 4
(2) 12
(3) — — — — —
Brown Pelican 20
(1) 450
(5) — — — — —
Great Blue Heron 2
(5) 18
(3) — — — — —
Great Egret — 1
(1) — — — — —
Turkey Vulture — 4
(2) — — — — —
Northern Harrier 1
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —
Red-tailed Hawk 2
(3) — — — — — —
Virginia Rail 1
(1) — — — — — —
Sandhill Crane 9
(1) — — — — — —
Black-bellied Plover 8
(1) 50
(3) — — — — —
American Golden-Plover 2
(1) — — — — — —
Pacific Golden-Plover 3
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Semipalmated Plover — 4
(1) — — — — —
Killdeer 10
(5) 28
(1) — — — — —
Spotted Sandpiper 1
(1) — — — — — —
Wandering Tattler 2
(1) — — — — — —
Greater Yellowlegs 25
(1) — — — — — —
Willet — 7
(1) — — — — —
Whimbrel — 1
(1) — — — — —
Marbled Godwit — 1,000
(2) — — — — —
Black Turnstone 25
(1) 4
(1) — — — — —
Surfbird 2
(1) — — — — — —
Dunlin 4
(1) — — — — — —
Least Sandpiper 40
(2) 13
(1) — — — — —
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
(1) — — — — — —
Western Sandpiper 200
(3) — — — — — —
peep sp. — 400
(2) — — — — —
Long-billed Dowitcher 9
(1) — — — — — —
Heermann’s Gull 1
(1) 40
(2) — — — — —
Mew Gull 1
(2) — — — — — —
Ring-billed Gull 20
(3) 30
(4) — — — — —
Western Gull 8
(4) 16
(5) — — — — —
Western/Glaucous-winged Gull 100
(4) — — — — — —
California Gull 24
(4) 6
(3) — — — — —
Herring Gull 4
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Thayer’s Gull 1
(1) — — — — — —
Glaucous-winged Gull 6
(2) 2
(2) — — — — —
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 40
(3) 40
(4) — — — — —
gull sp. — 300
(4) — — — — —
Caspian Tern 6
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —
Rock Pigeon 2
(1) — — — — — —
Band-tailed Pigeon — 10
(1) — — — — —
Eurasian Collared-Dove 4
(1) — — — — — —
Mourning Dove 3
(2) — — — — — —
Belted Kingfisher 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Northern Flicker 2
(6) 1
(1) — — — — —
American Kestrel — 2
(1) — — — — —
Peregrine Falcon 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Steller’s Jay 4
(3) 16
(3) — — — — —
Western Scrub-Jay 4
(1) 1
(2) — — — — —
American Crow 12
(5) 10
(5) — — — — —
Common Raven 1
(2) 4
(3) — — — — —
Black-capped Chickadee 16
(2) — — — — — —
Marsh Wren 2
(1) 4
(1) — — — — —
Bewick’s Wren 1
(1) — — — — — —
Ruby-crowned Kinglet — 1
(1) — — — — —
American Robin 55
(5) 4
(1) — — — — —
European Starling 300
(6) 80
(4) — — — — —
Cedar Waxwing — 8
(1) — — — — —
Common Yellowthroat 1
(1) — — — — — —
Yellow-rumped Warbler 6
(2) 2
(2) — — — — —
Spotted Towhee 10
(3) — — — — — —
Savannah Sparrow 8
(4) — — — — — —
Song Sparrow 16
(5) 4
(2) — — — — —
White-crowned Sparrow 4
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Golden-crowned Sparrow 20
(2) — — — — — —
Dark-eyed Junco 4
(1) — — — — — —
Red-winged Blackbird 120
(2) — — — — — —
Brewer’s Blackbird 60
(2) 20
(1) — — — — —
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
(1) — — — — — —
House Finch 2
(1) — — — — — —
American Goldfinch 1
(1) — — — — — —
House Sparrow 2
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —