Late last night I returned from a fantastic and far too short trip to Guatemala to take part in the Guatemala Birdwatching Encounter. The just over two days I spent there I was surrounded my fantastic birds and amazing people from all over the word in an idyllic lakeside setting surrounded by forests and towering volcanos. Needless to say, I had a great time and I’ll be unpacking my trip over the next couple weeks and sharing as much as I can with you, but it’ll take a bit of time to decompress. Fear not, I’ll be at it as soon as I can.
More to come…
As you may or may not know, I’m currently living the birding high life in Guatemala for a few days. Instead of leaving you with a canned post of questionable quality, I’ve got something better in mind. I’m turning the reins of this here blog over to a guest poster, my lovely wife Danielle who likely has a different perspective on this birding thing that what you’ve read here from me. I leave this blog in her capable hands in the hopes that she plays fair, though when I’m thousands of miles away there’s really no way I can know for sure until I return. So, have fun dear readers and dear wife, don’t be too hard on me…. – Nate
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(Danielle starts here)
I was cheated on.
On my honeymoon.
With a bird.
Yes, you read that right. With a bird. Let me expain…it all started out so innocently. Four lovely years ago, my husband and I chose to honeymoon in Asheville, NC because we both love the mountains (at least I thought that was the initial reason). What better way to spend a honeymoon then hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway, sipping wine at the Biltmore, and freezing our asses off in the mountains hanging out at our lovely Bed & Breakfast? So I wasn’t at all suspicious when my husband suggested on the first morning that we drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and stop at several spots along the way to hike and view the mountains. What I should have seen, however, were the several red flags that came up immediately. The first red flag? A pair of binoculars in the backseat of the car. “Ah, dear? Why do you have binoculars with you?” Husband: “So I can take in the beautiful mountains my love.” Right, of course. Second red flag? The bird field guide sitting in the middle console. “Um, dear? Why do you have a bird field guide in the car?” Husband: “Er, well, um, don’t you know you should never leave home without one?” Well, um, no I didn’t, but ok whatever. We had just been married, we were on our honeymoon, and I was stupidly willing to overlook anything.
So imagine my surprise when I see Nathan gazing into the TREES with his binoculars (not the MOUNTAINS mind you) and all of the sudden he screams, “It’s a black throated blue!!!!” A what? Is this a new mountain chain I haven’t heard of?
And that my friends, was the beginning of the end. The spotting of the black throated blue was apparently all it took to “reignite” Nathan’s passion in birds. I had suspected that he “liked birds” before we got married but never did I suspect that he would be as bird obsessed as he is now. So, I do believe that I was tricked. I mean, we talked about all sorts of things before we were married – religion, money, political views, favorite ice cream, but birds?? Who would have thought to ask if someone was obsessed with birds?? Maybe I need to suggest to the Rabbi to start incorporating that into his premarital counseling.
But bless Nathan’s heart (as the southerners like to say), he has certainly tried his hardest to rope me in to his obsession. Unfortunately (for him) and fortunately (for me) he has failed miserably. Case in point: Take our walk one day when I hollered, “Look!! Isn’t that the one bird you were talking about? The yellow bellied sapsucker??” “Um, no dear, that would be a red tailed hawk.” Er, right, cause they look so much alike, right?
And I’ll be the first to admit that I do sometimes make a mockery out of his birding hobby. I mean, take the picture below. Boobies are just plain funny. But boobies in trees?? Even funnier.
For all you non-birders (a.k.a. my friends who are reading this blog), that bird in the tree is called a red-footed booby
But don’t get me wrong, his birding obsession does sometimes have its pros. My mother, actually, is also a bird lover. Not nearly as obsessed as Nathan, but definitely a fan. So here’s how our first conversation went when I told her about Nathan.
Me: “Mom, I met this wonderful guy but there’s one thing…he’s not Jewish.”
Mom: “Oy vey.”
Me: “But I’m pretty sure he likes birds.”
Mom: “Mazel tov! Mazel tov! So when’s the wedding?”
Another pro about Nathan’s birding obsession? Having him take our 8 month old son Noah out with him in the field. Because really, 2 hours of birding with dad = 2 blissful hours of relaxation and quiet time for mom. I can’t tell Nathan the number of times that Noah has said to me, “Mom! Could you PLEASE get dad to take me out to Mason Farm again to see that chickadee?? I love those things!” Nathan assures me he’s really just saying “da da da ga ga ga” but I know better.
And because I’m a proud new mom, and need to somehow think of a way to integrate my son into this post, I leave you with this dear readers:
By the time this posts on Thursday I’ll be winging my way south. To Houston, where I’ll connect to a flight heading to the burgeoning ecotourism destination of Guatemala. I’ll be attending the Guatemala Birdwatching Encounter, sponsored by the Guatemala Tourism Office as well as several other international NGOs. Of all the things that hosting this blog has facilitated for me, this is undoubtedly the coolest. I’m incredibly excited to be involved in this opportunity. The purpose of the trip is to advertise Guatemala as a birding destination, and I look forward to comparing it to the only other neotropic birding destination I’ve had the pleasure to experience, Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is sort of the 500 lb gorilla of Central American ecotourism destinations. Some time ago, the government of that nation decided to actively market their natural resources in a sustainable manner by publicizing the country’s wildlife and, in particular, the fine birding to be had there. In effect, the made their forests a commodity beyond the extractables they offered, which was obviously a great thing not only for Costa Rica’s native species, but the neotropic migrants that spend the winter there. To see other Central American countries looking to Costa Rica as a guide for their own ecotourism industries is undoubtedly a boon for all involved. Guatemala brings in crucial foreign tourism money, the birders get a great opportunity for some hot neotropical birding, and there’s an impetus to protect the birds that people are coming to see. It’s win-win-win.
And Guatemala certainly has the birds for it. The area where I’ll be staying, in the southern part of the country near Lake Atitlan is an area of high endemism. The mountains here and just over the border in southwest Mexico host drool-inducing birds like Horned Guan and Azure-rumped Tanager, both of which I look forward to taking in, not to mention the colorful regulars from across Central America. And although I won’t be visiting it this time, Tikal in the north is notable for being both a great example of a primary rainforest, but also a cultural site of global importance. As Guatemala continues to build an ecotourism infrastructure increasing numbers of both competent guides and comfortable eco-lodges, I’m certain you’ll be hearing more about it the future.
So for the readers of this hear blog, I hope you like your birds colorful and your superlatives exaggerated because that’s what you’re going to be getting for the next couple weeks. But don’t worry, I won’t just leave you with some boring canned post while you’re gone. I’ve got something fun worked up for tomorrow from a perspective that hasn’t been covered here much.
Anywho, I’ll see you all next week!
December 5, 1995 – Christian Co, Mo - By the end of 1995, I don’t know if I could still call myself a birder. I mean, I still had some interest in birds, but when the new species are few and far between, and the weather turns cold making venturing out to look for anything a real ordeal, I admit I slacked. I did a couple CBCs, mostly because my dad was doing them, but I can’t remember whether the passion that permeated the first few gos was still there. It’s cold getting out of the van and tallying yup chickadees and titmice just didn’t have the glamor it once had. In short, I was getting lazy.
But not so lazy that I didn’t take advantage of a great bird just outside the window. We had several feeders set up at the old Linden House, both in the front and back yards. The back feeding station was pretty unimpressive compared to the bird buffet laid out up front, but it was apparently just the ticket for the juvenile Evening Grosbeak that had somehow, bizarrely, made it to southwest Missouri. This scarcely minute long sighting remains the one and only Evening Grosbeak I’ve ever come across, and is likely to stay that way unless I make a trip to the far northern or high western reaches where the bird can still be found, but even then I’d have to be lucky. Evening Grosbeaks are famously a species of bird whose decline has been noted with increasing worry by birders.
Even as recently as the 70’s, great flocks of Grosbeaks would clean bird feeders out from coast to coast as far south as Pennsylvania. The cause of their decline is unknown but scientists suggest declines in food source or regular population fluctuations. It could also be a slow return to their historical range in the west, as the species on relatively recently irrupted into the eastern half of the country. As with most species of birds who dwell primarily in distant, hard to reach places, it’s hard to know the real reason. In any case, I think it’s extremely unlikely that that Evening Grosbeak would repeat in Missouri. Or, even if it did, I’d be conscious of birds enough to care.
I was about to enter my birding dark age.
photo from wikipedia
One of the best things about participating in something like the VIIth Super Bowl of Birding is that there will undoubtedly be no shortage of post-game thoughts from the members of the team. So the question is do I have anything to offer that’s substantively different than what you might find at the blogs of my colleagues and teammates. Would a would-be blog enthusiast curious of the thrill of the competition find something on my blog as opposed to Christopher’s or Corey’s or Mike’s or John’s or Andrew’s? The question is probably dependent on how much time you have to spend browsing the blogosphere or whether you have any interest in reading about one event from six different and unique points of view. I mean, these should be blogs you’re reading anyway if your enjoy fine nature prose, knockout photography, and fascinating insights on bird science.
It would probably not surprise you to also learn that these guys are personable and friendly and sharp-eyed as well. It would further probably come as no shock that the actual birding is only a fraction of the fun involved in a competition like this. The camaraderie of the bird blogger is an interesting thing. For the most part, you only know these people through their writing, but as writing is such a personal medium you’re not at all surprised when the person you imagine behind the blog turns out to b a pretty close approximation of the actual person. So if you read the blogs of any of the members of the Bloggerhead Kingbirds you probably know that we all got along famously. And when the birder’s are such capital fellows, the birding, even bad birding, is a real treat.
But you know too well that the birding in Essex County, Massachusetts, is far from bad. It’s phenomenal. Spectacular, even. But you have to earn it, because those glorious gulls and sea ducks and alcids are paid for in full with wind straight from Nunavut and cold that would make even the hardiest Inuit yearn for pants filled with those chemical hand-warmers. When we stepped out of the van to spotlight for the only reliable American Coots in Essex County, it was 4 degrees. And that’s without factoring in the wind chill. I braved the wind and cold last year with little complaint, but this year, even with my double long johns and advanced layering technique, I felt ill-prepared. This was a chill that no amount of hot birding could thaw, but when an Eastern Screech-Owl responded to my whistle just before dawn, the cold abated just a tad.
We covered the coastline fast and furious once the sun came up, looking in vain for white-winged Gulls, but picking up some hot sea ducks and grebes off the coast of the little island of Nahant. Mike spotted the only Brant we’d see all day, a fine bird we missed the year before, but Nahant was largely a disappointment because of two birds we did not get. Teams that covered the island after us picked up Northern Shoveler and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, both 5 point birds that were absolutely achievable for us. We didn’t realize that the birds were around until we were well on our way to Gloucester, and by the time we got there, no amount of stunning Common Eider drakes could take away the sting. But they helped.
We whipped around Cape Ann to Niles Pond, where any number of great gulls had been seen in the two weeks leading up to the competition. Sadly, the pond was a complete bust with nothing but a handful of Herring Gulls and no amount of scanning and squinting could make the gull bounty appear out of nothing.
At a certain point, the day becomes a blur. We covered Cape Ann pretty thoroughly, finding great birds like a Thick-billed Murre (a lifer for me) than Mike pulled out of the haze from Granite Point, a flock of Sanderlings that Andrew spotted than contained a single Ruddy Turnstone, the Turkeys in the exact same place as they were last year. With the exception of the missing 5 pointers, we were feeling pretty good about things with no outstanding misses.
The biggest disappointment when we spotted a previously reported Dovekie off of Andrew’s Point. We did, in fact, get the requisite four teammates on it to get the 5 points, but those of us who got it were those who did not need Dovekie for a lifer. We got the bird for the day, but it would have been far more satisfying had more people seen it. The Black-legged Kittiwake, another lifer for me, that passed not 50 meters from us at the same spot was some consolation, but only for me and probably John. But there were Harlequin Ducks, did I mention the Harlequin Ducks? They make everything better.
The last part of the day was spent around Salisbury where we picked up the birds you’d expect around the phenomenal Parker Island Wildlife Refuge like Snowy Owl, a distant Rough-legged Hawk and American Kestrel. John picked a 5 point Turkey Vulture out of the sky on the way there but no amount of searching could find us something as common as Common Merganser, which was, for the second year in a row, the only 1 point bird we failed to pick up. As the sun set behind us, I found a solitary Iceland Gull looking like a dirty clump of of the ice it was sitting on. It was the last new bird we had for the competition, which ended for us with 70 species for 130 points, both improvements from last year.
We figured that it stood to reason that since we performed better than last year, that our position would be better. It was not to be, as New Hampshire was absolutely rocking this year and the several of the teams ahead of us (five to be exact) took in parts of the Granite State that gave them the species and points to pass us (though if we’d hit on the Shovelor and Sapsucker from the morning we would have been in a much better position). That said though, we ended up with the Essex County Excels award given to the team with the most points entirely within the county. We got gift certificates and the paparazzi were rightly swarming.
Now there are those who would say that we won the award simply because another team forgot to check the box including them in that particular competition, but you’ve got to be in it to win it and our victory is not soured in any way by the actions of other teams. We can only control what we do anyway.
The next day we returned to several of the spots to look again for the Dovekie and take some photos. The ones you see in this post actually, in the heat of the competition we didn’t have much time for photography and some of the birds were so close it was difficult to keep on target on game day. The next day is a nice consolation, and even though we couldn’t find the Dovekie (not for not searching, though!) it was a great way to wrap up a super weekend.
I encourage you to check my teammate’s blog for their takes on the day as well. It was truly a pleasure to be out in the field with them and I’m already looking toward next year with excitement. Maybe we can take that next step onto the podium.
This past weekend was the 2010 Super Bowl of Birding in Essex County, Massachusetts and Rockingham County, New Hampshire. As we did last year, a team of bird bloggers consisting of Christopher of Picus Blog, Corey of 10000 Birds, Mike of the Feather and the Flower, John of A DC Birding Blog, Andrew of Birdingdude and myself of this blog, surveyed the coasts and backroads of Essex County searching for fame, fortune, and feathers as the Bloggerhead Kingbirds.
Once we all convened on the scenic Staybridge Suites-Burlington we did what birders and bird bloggers round the world do when they get together. We went birding. Christopher had a couple interesting birds for us to see that afternoon and we hot-footed it over to a fairly unassuming of pines for what would be the first notable bird of the trip. And long-time fans of the Bloggerhead Kingbirds will note that this year’s kick-off was a very similar experience to last year. Christopher had a predictable Northern Saw-whet Owl teed up and ready for us not a mile from our hotel.
It was a life bird for not only me, but John as well, and we oohed and ahhed at the little bird as everyone got super looks. Christopher had done it again. Just like last year, we started off with an owl.
After that we took off to an even better bird, one I’m unfortunately not at liberty to talk about right now, but you’ll hear of it soon enough. The Bloggerhead Kingbirds were off and running. More to come…
When this post goes up I will likely be hanging out at scenic Raleigh-Durham International, sipping coffee, jamming to the old iPod, waiting for a plane to take me deep into the heart of winter, Massachusetts. This weekend is Mass Audubon’s annual SuperBowl of Birding, and once again I’m participating with a crack team of bird bloggers seeking the fame and fortune that comes with wrenching the top prize from the cold, if not dead, fingers of these hardy New England birders. Our team hails from all over the northeast, and me. I look forward to once again being the furthest from home. It’s too bad there’s no prize for that.
But just a reminder of who all is involved with the Bloggerhead Kingbirds. Captaining the team is Christopher from Picus Blog, and along for the ride is Corey of 10,000 Birds, John from A DC Birding Blog, Andrew of Birding Dude, and Mike of the Feather and the Flower, and me of course. This is a solid team, and while I’m not a betting man, I wouldn’t bet against us.
Incidentally, having a team of bloggers means that you can be a part of the team too, though not an official bird-spotting one. Two of our members are active tweeters and will probably offer updates throughout the day. If interested, you can follow John at dendroica and Andrew at birdingdude and I encourage you to do so. My own Twitter feed is available on the right side of this page. I might be convinced to update on the road too.
Wish us luck!
But I risk looking too far forward, this post is for looking back. So how was the first month of January at The Drinking Bird?
- I unpacked my 2009 and considered a new listing game to keep me busy for at least the first part of 2010.
- I considered birding with what are likely the densest identification guides to birds you could possibly imagine.
- Considered a way around traveling with expensive optical equipment.
- Offered thoughts on a bizarre incident between fishermen and birders.
- I hope you do the Rusty Blackbird Blitz!
- Had some great experiences in the field, including a new bird for the state and a great trip out east with the Young Naturalist’s Club.
So not bad, huh? But I’ve got some more news I’ve been sitting on for the last month that I’ve been reticent to share until it’s confirmed. And well, it just recently got confirmed. So while this weekend I’m heading to cold Massachusetts, next weekend I’m heading south. To Guatemala!
Yeah, I know, but thanks to Mike Bergin of 10000 Birds, I’ve been invited to take part in the annual Bird-watching Encounter based, this year, around Lake Atitlan in the southern part of the country. The week after Eiders and Owls and Gulls, I’ll be taking in Tanagers and Trogons and Horned Guan. Horned freaking Guan, people!
More to come, but you can bet you can read all about it here, next month, at the Drinking Bird!
