Teacher Christmas

Today was only a half-day at school, which included about an hour for our Christmas party. We read the Christmas story from Luke, had an ornament exchange, ate some treats, and visited with each other. And I was very blessed by the generosity of my 5th graders (and their parents!). There were many thoughtful and special (and some yummy) gifts for me to open, but one stood out in particular. It was from "K", and he couldn't wait for me to open it.

I unwrapped a beautiful, warm, fuzzy, fleece jacket and tried it on right away. I said something like, "Wow, K, it's fits perfectly! Thank you so much; I love it!"

K replied: "I thought you might like to wear it when you go birding early in the morning and it's cold."

Okay. How adorable is that?

Twilight

Last weekend I spent some sick time reading Twilight and New Moon. A parent from Libby's class gave them to her, and we only have those two. Anyway, the point is that I read them and now I intend to say something about them.

Both books are entertaining. They're fun to read, have interesting stories to tell, and paint a believable world in which unusual creatures live. It's a well-spun fantasy romance set in modern time, and I was really able to buy into it.

I think Twilight was the better novel of the two. It's the purer romance - overcoming obstacles to achieve some kind of relationship is the very essence of any English language romance since Shakespeare, and best typified by Austen. What really makes this one different, though, is that it's a relationship between a self-conscious teenage girl and a god. Add vampires battling it out over the life of this girl, and you have a book well calculated to be awsome; all you need is werewolves! Wait! Sequel! Yes!

In Twilight, the vampires are not sub-humans, as they normally are (and should be) in myths, but beyond human. They have flaws and foibles, so they're nothing like God, but they're very much like something from the Olympian pantheon, and I think Edward and Bella's relationship is something like a Mormon retelling of a story from Ovid. (Isn't that the Mormon take on Mary, anyway?) The woman really is as unworthy of him as she senses herself to be, but in a post-Incarnational twist, he loves - not just lusts after her like the Romans or Greeks who have had him do - her anyway. In a demented way, though, this love is tied to her culinary attractiveness to him.

Actually, it's not just demented. It's very much part of the book's mythos. In New Moon, we learn that the connection forged between Edward and Bella is overpoweringly unbreakable. Like Romeo and Juliet (not paradigmatic human beings, themselves) or Catherine and Heathcliff, they're soul-mates. This has a physical element - Bella's tasty smell is uniquely consuming to Edward - but it also has a spiritual element exhibited via the psychic torment caused them by separation.

The idea of soul mates is a dangerous one. Plato introduced the idea in a fairly humorous way as part of Symposium (roly-poly humans separated by the gods - not an idea he bought into), but the idea can be used to justify many kinds of wicked acts, and I found myself shying away from the main conflict in the second novel because of my revulsion for it. Bella's inability to get over Edward is therefore a metaphysical fact, and not a failing on her part. This makes her a lot more sympathetic since it excuses her insanity, but since that's not actually the way the world works I wouldn't let my pre-teen daughter read this book for anything!

Further reading on the Twilight series on the internet:

John Granger of Harry Potter interpretation fame is blogging about it at Forks High School Professor. He thinks it's sorely under appreciated by academia. I don't buy that, the prose is just too poor for it to be taken seriously, but he has a lot of interesting thoughts on its themes. I found the Mormon connections he makes especially enlightening - Meyers is a committed member of the LDS church, and born and raised in that culture. This post on his Harry Potter blog is fascinating: http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/the-harry-potter-twilight-connection/.

Dr. Reynolds has a review of it on his Middlebrow blog which also has good thoughts. He has a lower opinion of the series than John Granger: Twilight's Flawed Faith.

Finally, this movie review of New Moon from Christianity Today made me chuckle. I haven't seen the movie, so I can't endorse it (some reviews I've read prefer the movies to the books): http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/reviews/2009/newmoon.html

Mammoth with the Mootharts

I just wanted to point out that pictures from our time in Mammoth with the Mootharts are up on Flickr. The trip over-all appeared to be a big success. We celebrated Dad, Phillip and Josiah's birthdays. There was good family time had by all, and people liked the cabin. Libby really enjoyed showing the cabin to her family, which warms my heart. This is an incredibly special place.

Some of the pictures are of our hike along Rock Creek with the family. That was fun. It was exhilarating to be out and about at high elevation in the early Fall - especially given the perfect weather we enjoyed. Last weekend it snowed, so that time of year really is a crap shoot (this is the same weekend Dad and I got snowed on a couple of years ago).

The only real drawback to the weekend was its incredibly short duration! Everybody left on Sunday morning to get home before it was too late, and Libby and I followed shortly after helping to stow food and water for the winter, gather kindling for winter fires, and put up the A-frame.

Back in Time

It may seem strange, peering through this on-line window into our lives, to find the Bristlecone Pine Forest re-enter the room. Perhaps the ancient forest has been in our parlor, out of sight the whole time we haven't been posting. That would be nice, if a little dirty and prickly. But it's not the case.

No, we had to drive the full six or so hours to revisit the Bristlecone Pine Forest again after our quick stop back in July, and, although we've only finished posting about that trip recently, it had in fact been more than a month between visits when we pulled into the moonlit campsite Labor Day weekend. In fact, the length of time it took us to tell you about that trip speaks more loudly about the tenor of our lives in August than any post could have. Suffice to say, life was full.

The truth is that our last trip there only wet our appetite for exploring the rest of the area. There are miles of Bristlecone forest in the high regions of the White Mountains, as well as many more miles of Pinyon-Juniper habitat. Add to that the region's mysterious-but-lovely remote character, and we just had to revisit.

Anyway, we had a good trip. The Guenthers came up on Saturday with their baby, and we spent some fun times with them. Unfortunately, Elijah didn't savor the altitude, and spent one unpleasant night in camp, and therefore a more pleasant second night in a motel in Bishop. Libby and I spent three nights in all at the campground. We got there really early Saturday morning (about 1:00) to find that the whole campground was full. We found a handy Pinyon Pine to throw up our tent under, and then moved into some vacancies created when our neighbors headed out in the morning (lucky day!).

We had brought some peanuts along, so we threw some of those out in hope of attracting some Pinyon Jays to our campsite. Then we went for a drive out to Deep Springs College, a famous migrant trap near the Nevada border. It's pretty dramatic - a giant dead-end valley with a salt pan and a single green patch of trees at the college. Unfortunately, it's private property with posted No Trespassing signs, so we came right back to camp. On the way, we spilled three gallons of water in our car! Yay! Mildew!

Libby and friend

We spent the rest of the first day hanging around camp with the car doors open and teaching the neighborhood Scrub-Jays and Chickadees to eat out of our hands. We were pretty excited to have our first Californian Juniper Titmouse come into a pan of water we put out, too. When the Guenthers arrived that afternoon, we all went for a walk in the Schulman Grove area that we had visited earlier. Elijah fussed a bit, so he didn't get to ride in the cool baby back-pack that the Guenthers had borrowed for hikes. He did get to see some cold old trees, though, but he may not have appreciated that. I'm not sure.

The next day we went all the way to Patriarch Grove. That's a long drive on a dirt road to the upper limits of a Bristlecone forest. The largest Bristlecone in the world is there, and we had fun wandering around in the alpine wonderland. The whole area is a brilliant white from the dolomite the trees grow in, and there are only stunted plants growing between the gnarled Bristlecone trunks. It's 11,000'! We saw a lot of people around. It turned out that the gate to the Bancroft Research Station on White Mountain (California's third highest mountain) was open, so a lot of people were making the visit to the summit. It cuts 4 miles off the round trip, and apparently those two miles are pretty steep. That explained the crowd at the campground.

Group picture with The Patriarch

That evening the Guenthers decided to make a trip to town, so Libby and I had dinner by ourselves, burned all the firewood, and helped Dustin pack up.

They drove back up the next day and we all went for a hike to the Methuselah Grove, where some of the oldest non-clonal organisms in the world grow. They don't tell you which tree is Methuselah (4800 years old!), but we had fun guessing. We also debated the thorny issue of whether or not you can say you saw a specific tree (Methuselah) if you don't know that you saw that tree, but you have reasonable assurance you saw every tree that it could have been.

After the hike, Libby and I were in a fine hurry to get home before it got too late. Unfortunately, construction around Independence meant it took about two hours to get from the Bristlecones to Lone Pine! Yuck.

I took lots and lots and lots of picture on this trip, and put too many of them on Flickr. Still, if you like babies, birds, mountains, or trees (which you should, you know): take a look: Labor Day Weekend Camping.

Heading Home

Libby points out some growth rings on a Bristlecone Pine.

On the morning after our backpack trip we packed up the truck and got back on the road right after breakfast. We were going home, but on the way we wanted to make a couple of stops. Our first stop being in the wrong direction, we didn't want to waste too much time!

It didn't take too long to reach Mono Lake. We were hoping to see some of the birds that stop over there on their southward migration. We did, and then we got ourselves some ice cream at the Mono Cone. That ended up taking over an hour!

Anyway, our next stop was more exciting. We turned off of 395 at Big Pine, heading into the White Mountains toward Westgard Pass. This was our first visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. There are trees in this forest that are nearly 5,000 years old! It's a long way above Big Pine, though, with the Schulman Grove Visitor's Center (recently burned down and replaced by a temporary trailer) located at 10,000 feet.

In Schulman Grove, we went for a walk on the Discovery Trail, learning about Schulman's discovery of the first tree over 4,000 years old in that very grove. We had a good time ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each gnarled and wind-carved semi-snag for an hour or so, and then got going south again so we could say goodbye to Bill and Becca, who were flying out that night. We decided, though, that it would be nice to come back and visit the Bristlecones again when we had more time. A trip we just made over the Labor Day weekend!

Anyway, a mercifully small gallery of pictures is uploaded on Flickr: Homeward Bound Set.

The pictures from the entire trip to Mammoth have now been uploaded, and you can view all of them within the Peeler Lake to Snow Lake Loop Collection.

Backpack Notes, Day 5

Fading sunset over Lake Mary

As always, you can read about the day in more detail on Bill's blog. The notes that follow are my own brief observations.

Our final day of the backpack trip was characterized by one mood: haste. Bill and Becca felt a lot of stress about getting home before it was too late, and so we got along at a rapid pace. That was fine, but by the time we reached the bottom of the trail it had taken its toll on our feet.

In the morning, a group of marmots and a single American Pipit were foraging in the field by our camp. We were also visited by a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch. That was the first of that high altitude bird we got a good look at all trip - a fact in sharp contrast to the species' abundance on our higher altitude pack trip last year.

Some of us were able to avoid removing our boots for the water crossings on the way down due to Dad's efforts at finding a way across. This didn't result in saving time, though, because he ended up slipping and falling in as he helped Becca across. I still appreciated not having to take off my boots, and while Dad dried, Libby and I watched a Junco fly-catching in a shaft of sunlight along the creek. There were also a pretty male Yellow-rumped Warblers foraging in the trees in the area.

Libby and I stayed the next night at the cabin, eating a yummy dinner of burgers at Burger's in Mammoth with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Carol and Uncle John. During dinner, we laughed at stories about embarrassing moments they'd experienced all over the world. Afterward, we crossed the street to the Village - where a band was rocking out to '60s and '70s classics. Aunt Carol texted Sierra and tried to see if she could find us on the webcam showing the plaza, but the camera was off-line for the summer.

That evening there was a spectacular sunset, so Uncle John and I hurried down to Lake Mary as soon as we got back to the cabin to see if we could get a picture of its fading splendor. Unfortunately, it was mostly dead by the time we reached the shore, but I uploaded a picture hinting at its brilliance on Flickr, which you can see above.

Of course, you can see all of the pictures from the day on Flickr: Backpack Day 5 set.

Backpack Notes, Day 4

Rock Island Lake

Our fourth day of hiking took us from Arndt Lake to Snow Lake back via Kerrick Meadows. You can read about it in sparkling detail at Bill's blog.

Some notes:

This was a great hiking day for me. I felt great the whole day, the scenery was varied and interesting, and we got it all done before lunch. I always feel like hiking in the morning is easier and more enjoyable.

I'm uncomfortable hiking on snow, so the little climb that us guys took was stretching for me. Glissading back down helped me get a little more comfortable with the dynamic of the stuff. It wasn't exactly ice, so it's not difficult, but I still hope I'll feel a little easier on the medium in the future.

The views from the top were really superb. It was wonderful up there.

Fishing around Snow Lake wasn't very productive for fish, but it was great for birds! I think its location at a low point on the crest yielded a sort of migrant trap for latitudinal migrants, because there were more birds than anywhere else on the trip on the outlet side of Snow Lake. While bushwhacking through the area, I found Yellow-rumped Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, my first Wilson's Warblers of the trip, first Thick-billed Fox Sparrows of the trip, White-crowned Sparrows, and other birds I can't remember anymore. Unfortunately, I didn't have binoculars because it was a bit like stumbling into a vagrant trap, small birds were flitting all around me and I couldn't ID them all in the brief glimpses I could catch before they would drop into the willows and shrubby pines.

The big snow field, and green meadows watered by it near the lake, appeared ideal for White-tailed Ptarmigan, but we didn't find any. There was, however, a pair of American Pipits using the meadow and defending a territory half-way up the snow field. The Pipits were the first I've seen in the Sierras, though I've always been looking for them. I wonder if they're associated with late season snow pack in the Sierras like Ptarmigans are.

This was the evening I got to see the International Space Station (with the space shuttle attached!). I was sitting on the lake shore under the darkening purple and gold of the late evening sky, pumping water while bats and moths flitted around my head, when I noticed a brilliant star - Venus-like in its intensity - floating by to the north. I hollered for the rest of the family, but nobody heard me, so I just sat in wonder as it slipped behind the mountains' shoulders.

Since we were right near the pass, we all went up to it in the dark to watch the stars. That was fun. There wasn't any moon at the time, so you could see everything really clearly.

I have a cool panorama from the top of the hill I'd like to put up somehow in all of its glory (there's a very small version on Flickr), but I'm not sure how. Any suggestions?

Pictures are up at the normal place: Backpack Day 3.

Backpack Notes, Day 3

Overlooking Rock Island Lake on our day hike.

The third day of our backpack trip was a layover day at Arndt Lake. You can read about it at Bill's blog.

My observations:

1) Birding was pretty good that day. In the morning, there was a mixed flock of Orange-crowned Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warbles, nuthatches, and Chickadees feeding in the Hemlocks around our camp. In one small area during the hike, we saw Pine Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, and a solo Black-backed Woodpecker. Ironic, as we'd made a special trip to find one earlier. We found another flock of Pine Grosbeaks, later, and a single Townsend's Solitaire in one of the meadows. Fun, especially the Grosbeaks, which are a very striking finch. We'd only seen one pair once before.

2) The hike to the top of the pass overlooking Rock Island Lake was great. When we reached the top, I felt like I was finally in the Sierras I knew and loved - tall toothy granite peaks emerged along the crest, and Rock Island Lake is cut out of the mold of Grinnell or Thousand Island. We never seem to manage to make it to any of this kind of large rock-studded lake, but it's fun to look at them.

3) When we got back, we followed Dad's lead by taking a bath in the lake and resting on the little rock island about 20 feet from the shore. There weren't many mosquitoes out that far into the lake, though one or two did find us, and the rock was pleasantly warm. Of course, the water was chillingly cold, but that's what you expect of a lake in the high Sierras.

You can find all the pictures from that day of hiking here: Backpack Day 3.

Backpack Notes, Day 2

Kerrick Meadows

Our second day took us from Peeler Lake to Arndt Lake via Kerrick Meadows. Bill's got an excellent post; you can read about it here.

My notes for posterity:

I got up as soon as I heard Dad stirring so that I could go fishing. Unfortunately, by the time I got my pole set up other people were also getting up, so I didn't get much of a chance to fish. I cast a mosquito out a few times, but all I got were a few bites. Too bad, since Peeler's fish were supposed to be pretty nice.

It's neat that Peeler drains down both sides of the crest. It's an interesting, large, and beautiful lake that would be nice to explore more thoroughly.

Juncos were singing all around the camp that morning, but the most interesting visitor was a female Black-headed Grosbeak. That had to be a wandering bird, as we were in pure coniferous forest at Peeler's elevation.

Kerrick Meadows were really neat - there were White-crowned Sparrows and Mountain Bluebirds around as well as the numerous Spotted Sandpipers and Dark-eyed Juncos that Bill mentioned. I really enjoyed seeing Spotted Sandpipers in meadows - there was one in a damp meadow near Arndt where there was no shore habitat at all; it gave a real arctic feel to the place.

Kerrick Meadows were also easy hiking - it's just straight for what seems like miles. It's really beautiful, but it does get a little monotonous because without any trees you can see exactly how slowly it takes to get from one end of the valley to the other.

Libby and I also found a young Hammond's Flycatcher in some firs along the bank of Arndt when we first walked in.

The mosquitoes in the meadowy portions of Ardnt were terrible. While we were waiting for Dad and Bill and Becca to get back from looking campsites, we were suffering!

After setting up camp, Dad, Becca, and Libby and I went for a little hike to the top of a promontory above our camp. From it, we could see down the canyon toward Benson Lake, and across to more of the granite domes in the area. We also found two baby flightless Mountain Bluebirds cowering under some tree trunks. They looked pretty pathetic! It was fun scrambling around on the granite.

It rained a little at Arndt, mostly over-night, but not enough to get the ground truly wet. It was enough to make noise on the rain fly, but that's about it.

More pictures are up on Flickr: Backpack Day 2.

Backpack Notes, Day 1

The group as it heads out.

Bill did a day-by-day replay of our July backpack trip, already, which you can read here. I'll just add a few notes of my own observations.

It's pretty amazing it took us 5+ hours to get started hiking that first day. Starting later made the day quite a bit more difficult, because it was already warm when we started. The stretch of trail before Barney Lake would be nice to get done early because there isn't much shade as you hike through sage flats and the stunted willow/aspens forests on the switchbacks.

There were still some interesting birds the first day despite the late beginning. Our only Yellow-headed Blackbirds for the trip were in the meadows and cattle yards around Bridgeport. There were both Clark's Nutcrackers and Steller's Jays at the Twin Lakes campground, which is interesting since it's only about 7,000'. There were also a few Red-breasted Sapsuckers in the various aspen groves we encountered, and a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers near the campground itself. Western Wood-Pewees were quite common that first day, but less so afterward.

A big highlight for me was flushing a covey of Mountain Quail right where we ate lunch along Barney Lake's outlet. There was an adult (I assume a female) and a group fo maybe 8 or so young birds that all took flight as I approached them, disappearing into dense growth next to the trail. It was funny to watch the precocious young, about half their parent's size, flutter strongly into the air. Those were the first Mountain Quail I've encountered in the Sierras.

A pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks was nice just past Barney Lake. I'm not sure if that's high for them or not, but they could very well have been post-breeding dispersers or southward migrants that late in July. Further up the trail we had quite a few Audubon's Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos and Cassin's Finches.

The trail from Barney to Peeler is a real grunt, as it's a consistent uphill climb. We were pretty tired when we got to camp, and we got there pretty late in the evening, so we basically just did camp chores, ate, and went to bed. Pumping water turned out to be an especially involving process with six people. I wish we could have gone fishing that evening, but we didn't have much energy or time.

The mosquitoes were bad!

I put up pictures from the day on our Flickr: Backpack Day 1.

Rare Air

Libby and I got to take a trip to Mammoth, back in late July. It's hard to believe we've already been home for more about a month!

The main event of our trip was a family backpack trip. Bill and Becca flew out from New York, so with Mom and Dad along, it was the whole nuclear bunch planning on hitting the trail together on a Tuesday. Still, Libby and I wanted to spend a little time up at the cabin itself, too, so we took off early on the Saturday morning beforehand.

We were looking forward to spending time with more of the family, there - Uncle John, Aunt Carol, Cousin Sydney and her boyfriend Jonathan were all planning on arriving that Saturday, also. I was hoping to get a little birding done before we arrived, so we actually left especially early that Saturday in order to arrive in the sage flats around Crowley Lake while the birds were still active. It worked - we got there around 11:00, turning right onto the road to Benton Crossing off Highway 395 at the Green Church, and then off we went toward the lake on a dirt road.

This is the closest spot we know to find birds of the Great Basin sage community. That means Sage Sparrows, Sage Thrashers, Brewer's Sparrows, Vesper's Sparrows, and Greater Sage-Grouse are common. We trundled down to the lake shore itself, where we found Phaloropes, Eared and Western Grebes, and American White Pelicans floating about in the water. In years past, we've seen Yellow-headed Blackbirds pretty easily here, and I was hoping to get some pictures, but there weren't any around. I'm not sure where they were.

A dead Sage-Grouse hangs from a wire near Crowley Lake.

After getting our fill of gray birds, we got back onto the pavement and headed north toward Mono Lake. Our object was a bird that would be new for us - the Black-backed Woodpecker. Black-backed Woodpeckers are a mostly boreal bird that has a disjunct population in the Sierras. It's a bit difficult to find, but is most common in areas that have recently burned. We'd been tipped off to a new colony when we met Jon Dunn in Arizona - there's a small burned area near June Lake that was hosting a few pairs. We got there - after a detour to check out the Aspen Grove where we got engaged four years ago, and ice cream at the Mono Cone - and saw a black woodpecker fly by as we drove in. Getting out of the car, it took a little more walking before we found one again. But we got great looks at at least three individuals. We even got pictures of one.

A Black-backed Woodpecker on a burned Jeffrey Pine.

By now it was getting to be mid-afternoon, so we made our way back to the Cabin. We were still ahead of the Hirts, so we took a trip down to the Lowe's cabin to stow our stuff with Grandma and Grandpa, and then settled down to relax a little back up at the cabin. A little bit of comfort makes me itchy when there's so much to see and do, so we popped back outside for a short walk along the old uranium mine road. Best sighting of that little walk was a real live Pine Marten! This cute weasel-like animal had golden fur and the cutest face you could hope for, bounding slinkily along the ground for a few yards, sitting, and then hopping on again. I was shocked, it's quite unusual to sight one. I'd never seen one before, and hadn't really ever hoped to have seen one.

Anyway, when we got back to the cabin, the Hirts had arrived, and we all had dinner together. That night Libby and I went fishing with Grandpa, and then we all sat around and talked until it was time for bed, and Libby and I drove back down the mountain to the Lowe's cabin.

The next morning, before church, we took a short walk around the Lowe's cabin area. We had a bit of an adventure finding our way through a dense aspen thicket along a creek, but we still saw some neat birds, including a MacGillivray's Warbler and even a Hermit Warbler just outside the cabin itself.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the cabin - fishing, games, family, etc. It was quite nice.

The next day the rest of the family had arrived, and we had to spend time getting ready for the backpack trip. We did find time to go for a little walk up behind the cabin, though, which was fun. There were a lot of beautiful flowers blooming, and everything was quite green.

I put up a set of pictures from the pre-backpack trip activities: Mammoth Trip.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I spent all day yesterday with my nephews, because Emily had just finished helping a friend give birth (for 48 hours!) and needed to sleep. While I was there, I heard some funny things, and I wanted to document a few:

Jonathan (age 4): Aunt Libby, will you still be here when I wake up from my nap?
Me: Well, I don't know. It kind of depends on how long you sleep.
Jonathan: Well, you should decide and then call Uncle Jon and tell him.
Me: I think I'll probably still be here.
Jonathan: You should tell Uncle Jon.
Me: Uncle Jon knows that I'm here.
Jonathan: Ok, good. Because if he didn't, he would come home and say, "Where's Aunt Libby?"

I thought this was very conscientious of the little guy.

Thomas (age 2) has been doing a great job learning how to talk. I try to get him to say "Annyong" (from Arrested Development) whenever I have a chance, and it usually goes like this:

Me: Annyong, Thomas.
Thomas: Annyong, Ont Wibby!

But, because he's 2 and loves to say "no", sometimes it goes more like this:

Me: Annyong, Thomas.
Thomas: No annyong.

And that's just as good.

And, lastly, this treasure:

Jonathan (age 4): Did you know Daddy had a birthday party? Well, it wasn't his; it was for a friend. And his friend got some alcohol. {Pause} But he didn't drink it all at once. He drank it a little bit at a time. And that's what I would do, too...except no one will let me.

Priceless.

New York Trip List

Here's a list of the birds we saw in New York. It won't be in taxonomic order, or strictly in the order we saw the birds.

1. Pied-billed Grebe
2. Great-blue Heron
3. Great Egret
4. Green Heron
5. Canada Goose
6. Wood Duck
7. Mallard
8. Turkey Vulture
9. Osprey
10. Red-tailed Hawk
11. Bald Eagle
12. American Coot
13. Kildeer
14. Spotted Sandpiper
15. Ring-billed Gull
16. Black Tern
17. Rock Pigeon
18. Mourning Dove
19. Chimney Swift
20. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
21. Belted Kingfisher
22. Red-bellied Woodpecker
23. Downy Woodpecker
24. Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker
25. Eastern Wood-Pewee
26. Willow Flycatcher
27. Alder Flycatcher
28. Least Flycatcher
29. Eastern Phoebe
30. Eastern Kingbird
31. Warbling Vireo (our first Eastern birds)
32. Red-eyed Vireo
33. Yellow-throated Vireo
34. Blue Jay
35. American Crow
36. Barn Swallow
37. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
38. Tree Swallow
39. Purple Martin
40. Black-capped Chickadee
41. White-breasted Nuthatch
42. House Wren
43. Carolina Wren?
44. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
45. American Robin
46. Gray Catbird
47. Northern Mockingbird
48. Cedar Waxwing
49. European Starling
50. Yellow Warbler
51. Cerulean Warbler
52. Common Yellowthroat
53. Northern Cardinal
54. Indigo Bunting
55. Chipping Sparrow
56. Field Sparrow
57. Savannah Sparrow
58. Song Sparrow
59. Swamp Sparrow
60. Baltimore Oriole
61. Eastern Meadowlark
62. Bobolink
63. Red-winged Blackbird
64. Common Grackle
65. Brown-headed Cowbird
66. House Sparrow
67. American Goldfinch
68. House Finch
69. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
70. Eastern Screech-Owl
71. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
72. Great-crested Flycatcher
73. Blue-headed Vireo
74. Tufted Titmouse
75. Winter Wren (eastern - probably a lifer)
76. Hermit Thrush
77. Brown Thrasher
78. Blackburnian Warbler
79. Black-throated Green
80. Pine Warbler
81. Hooded Warbler
82. Scarlet Tanager
83. Eastern Towhee
84. Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco
85. Double-crested Cormorant
86. Mute Swan
87. Cooper's Hawk
88. American Kestrel
89. Wild Turkey
90. Herring Gull
92. Caspian Tern
93. Hairy Woodpecker
94. Pileated Woodpecker (heard)
95. Bank Swallow
96. Brown Creeper
97. American Redstart
98. Black-crowned Night Heron
99. Common Tern
100. Marsh Wren (eastern)
101. Veery
102. Northern Waterthrush
103. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
104. Blue-winged Warbler

Not a bad trip list, I think. 21 lifers is pretty amazing.

New York, Last Day

When I scheduled our flight home from Rochester to LAX, I chose a flight leaving in the evening so that we could spend most of the day in New York. Unfortunately, it basically rained that whole day. It would come and go in intensity, but we were socked in and everything was sopping wet.

With nothing much to do that would be in doors in the Rochester area, we decided that, what the heck, we'd go birding anyway. So Bill, Libby and I all went to Mendon Ponds, a park on the edge of Rochester. We zipped up our rain shells, and wandered off down a squishy trail. At first, the birds were quiet and we just trundled along in the wet gazing around, but soon the rain slowed a little, and the birds came out.

The biggest highlight of the walk was an opportunity to get very close looks at a pair of Blue-winged Warblers bringing food to their nest in the grass right off of the trail. This was a lifer that I had expected to see easily, and so it was a relief to finally get it on the last day of the trip. They were quite lovely, and we got to see both sexes quite well.

The other really big highlight was hand-feeding Black-capped Chickadees along the trail. Bill had brought food for the purpose, and they came right in, despite the fact that it was summer! The Chickadees in the Sierras will eat out of your hands in the winter when food is scarce, but these birds were so tame they'd eat from your hands any time. It's fun to have birds land on your hands - Chickadees are incredibly light, you can hardly feel their weight at all, just the light rasping of their tiny claws.

The rest of the walk was pretty quiet, with glimpses of Veeries, which were singing all around us, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers being the highlights. We had lunch at Wegmans, frozen custard at Abbott's, and then went home to shower and pack. The rest of the afternoon was pretty relaxing, and then when Becca got off work we went into the city to get dinner at a trendy little sandwich joint in South Wedge.

And then we were off! It wasn't easy to say goodbye, though it was nice knowing we'd see them again, soon. And it was a long trip back, via Washington D.C. Dulles, and we didn't sleep well on the flight to LAX, like we'd hoped. Compounding that, our carry-on luggage got packed, which made us wait half-an-hour to get it back (grr), and by the time we got our car out of the parking garage and everything else, it was quite late when we got home.

Pictures are up on Flickr - none from our walk at Mendon Ponds, I didn't want to get the camera wet, but Bill and Becca's pictures are there from in front of their apartment. You can view all of our pictures from the trip in the new "Visiting Bill and Becca" collection, too.

New York Day 5

Well, things have been pretty busy since our last post on the blog. We went backpacking, Libby got her wisdom teeth removed, and I worked a 50 hour week at work.

So, heading way back in time, let's talk about our last full day in New York visiting Bill and Becca way back in mid-June! This was the day we got to go to Niagara Falls, but before we did, we also checked out a wildlife refuge between Rochester and Buffalo called Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. Becca had to go to work that Wednesday, so we spent the day with Bill.

Iroquois is a neat area of woods, grasslands and wetlands that hosts a good variety of species. We got much closer looks at Black Terns than we'd had at Montezuma, and we also got really good looks at an eastern Marsh Wren. We spent quite a bit of time looking for a Prothonotary Warbler that was reported as consistent from a certain area, but we never saw it. I think I heard it once, but it was a bit too far from the road to be sure. I was really hoping to pick up this impressive species, but there's a lot of luck involved in birding.

After looking for the warbler, we took a couple of walks in the woods. One was a really delightful walk down a forest trail full of the sounds of Wood Thrushes, a couple of Veeries, a singing male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (our only one for the trip), and lots of American Redstarts. Tree Swallows were also very common throughout the refuge nesting in provided boxes.

We also went for a walk on the Swallow Hollow Trail, a neat loop that takes you through some mature riparian deciduous forest. Its verdant thickets held tantalizingly close calling Pileated Woodpeckers, a family of Brown Creepers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos that flew right over our heads, and we even got glimpses of singing Cerulean Warblers!

It was spitting and threatening to do more meteorologically by this time, so we got a bit of a hurry (and a bit lost) on our way toward Buffalo. We made a brief stop at a former landfill that was reported to host Henslow's Sparrows and Upland Sandpipers, but the incredibly thick clouds, strong winds and occasional drops of rain here made us think better of entering an empty and treeless field during the threat of lightening. By the time we'd returned to our car, it was raining quite strongly.

Next stop, though, was Niagara Falls, where a little more water can be seen falling than was coming out of the sky! Tons and tons of water pass over Niagara Falls by the minute. It's pretty impressive. We only checked it out from the American side, since we didn't have our passports or birth certificates, but it was still fun. The scale of the falls is its most impressive attribute. An entire enormous river of water dropping a hundred feet creates quite a spectacle.

By the time all of this was over, the day was winding down quickly. We were in a bit of a hurry to get home, but missed a turn-off toward Rochester as we crossed from Grand Island back into Buffalo. Unfortunately, this cost us time as we got off the freeway to re-trace our steps, but it also gained us a lifer! There, in the river, were a group of Common Terns. We made a quick stop to admire them, jumped back in the car, and headed on our way. I'd like to spend some time studying them alongside Forster's Terns some day - probably at Bolsa Chica, but we got decent looks all the same.

There are pictures of the day and the waterfalls on our Flickr account: New York Day 5.

Disneyland With Thomas

This past Tuesday was my birthday, and as you probably know, you can get into Disneyland for free on your birthday. It's pretty clever of them, right? Because nobody goes to Disneyland by themselves. So, sure, you get in free on your birthday, but unless you have friends born on the same day, they're going to pay the entrance fee. Or unless they're under the age of three, in which case they're free any day of the year. That's the route I took. I brought my two-year-old nephew, Thomas, to keep me company at Disneyland. We both got in for free, and we had a lot of fun! You can see all my pictures from the day here.

Crazy Arizona Birding Weekend

Last Friday I got off of work, into the car Libby was driving, and went to Arizona with her. It was a fun intense two day weekend in southeastern Arizona. Leaving at 4:30 pm here in California, we drove through the night to arrive in Green Valley around 12:30, retired to our hot motel room for a short 5 hours before getting out of bed with the sun to see some birds.

Our goal was to enjoy a lot of neat birds, and to have a good time, two goals we were able to accomplish with alacrity. We did have a few specific target birds - Rufous-winged Sparrow, Cassin's Sparrow and Botteri's Sparrows in the dry grasslands and desert below Madera Canyon; Red-faced Warbler, Grace's Warbler and Olive Warbler (this last not really being a warbler at all) in the upper reaches of the canyon; and Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Berylline Hummingbird, Elf Owl and Sinaloa Wren to round everything off. We got most, but not all of our targets. However, the ones we were most interested in seeing, we did find. You'll have to read the whole post to find out which!

Anyway, we started the morning in the lower grasslands of Madera Canyon with a Rufous-winged Sparrow (tick!) directly across from the Continental School. We checked the very same school back in December for Rufous-winged Sparrows without any luck, but today it was the only species of sparrow we saw there.

A Rufous-winged Sparrow checking us out.

After we got our fill of the sparrow and a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher that also came in to Libby's pishing, we jumped back in the car and headed uphill to find some more open mesquite grassland to examine for Botteri's and Cassin's Sparrows. After a short detour to check out a dark morph Swainson's Hawk on a telephone pole, we pulled into a little turn between Florida Wash and Proctor Road to look for the sparrows.

We heard some sparrows singing in the distance a short way, but while scanning the other side of the road, a Meadowlark flew by. The form of Eastern Meadowlark resident in this part of Arizona is of the subspecies lilianae, which may be a full species. It's not exactly obviously different, but the amount of white in the tail is noticably more extensive and the yellow on the breast is noticably less extensive. Unfortunately, it was too far away to photograph.

As we were watching the bird, Libby's old roommate Bethany and her husband Wade drove up. We knew they were in the area, and had planned on crossing paths with them on Sunday before heading home, and so were pleasantly surprised to see them. We chatted a bit about what they had seen in Madera Canyon so far, how the weather had been (wet for them!), and then we went over and found a Botteri's Sparrow (lifer #2) with them where our cars were parked. Unfortunately, we couldn't hear or see any Cassin's Sparrows at this spot, so we parted ways with Bethany and Wade and headed uphill while they headed back down to make their way to Patagonia.

The next parking lot up is Proctor Road, where we pulled over to apply sunscreen, pay our fee, and check the mesquite around the parking area for a sometimes seen family of Black-capped Gnatcatchers. We didn't have any luck, but wandering further into the riparian area, we found a beautiful male Varied Bunting illuminated exquisitely by the sun, a charming little Verdin, a couple of male Northern Cardinals, and a whole bunch of Bell's Vireos. None of them cooperated for the camera, but we did capture some images of the charming little waterfall there.

Waterfall near Proctor Road.

By now it was getting warm low in the canyon, and, our goal including a long hike in the upper reaches of these Santa Rita Mountains, we re-entered our car and headed straight for the trailhead parking area. We found that easily enough, having visited it previously, but we did have a little trouble finding the head of our specific trail. While we wandered frustrated and confused, Dusky-capped Flycatchers chased each other from tree to tree, Bridled Titmouse and Black-throated Gray Warblers chortled and chipped, beautiful Painted Redstarts fluttered from tree to tree, and Sulfur-bellied Flycatchers squeaked.

Painted Redstart along the Old Baldy Trail.

Anyway, someone lent us a trail map, we found a few signs, and we got started up the hill. The trail we took is known as the Old Baldy Trail, and it leads up to Mount Wrightson via Josephine Saddle. Our goal was to hike a 6 mile loop around the head of Madera Canyon in the 7,000' elevation range and come down to the same parking lot via another trail. In the upper elevation pine forest, we were hoping to see those warblers I mentioned earlier.

The hike was warm, though tolerable, as much of it was spent in trees and an occasional growing thunderhead would block the sun for a blissful minutes. We wound our way up through through oaks and junipers, passing occasional Ponderosa Pines while enjoying the wonders of nature - both small and large: the majestic edifice of Mount Wrightson pushing itself up to our left, and dozens of iridescent Yarrow's Spiny Lizards scurrying by underfoot.

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

Once, a big mixed flock passed by foraging in the middle canopy next to the trail. We found Brown Creepers, White-breasted Nuthatches, a snappy Plumbeous Vireo, and some Hutton's Vireos there. Later, we found good numbers of Yellow-eyed Juncos filling the hillside with their songs, and sometimes hopping along in front of us on the trail. I got some decent pictures of one such bird.

Yellow-eyed Junco

There are a lot of varieties of Juncos in the United States, many of them well marked and easily distinguishable, others a little less marked, and areas where many forms interbreed. For some reason, when all of those groups of Juncos were lumped together as a single variable species known as the Dark-eyed Junco, this single form of Junco with the staring yellow eyes - at the very northern edge of its range in Southeastern Arizona - was kept as a separate species by the official taxonomists in the AOU. While this bird is very distinct from Oregon or Slate-colored forms of the Dark-eyed Junco, it's actually quite similar to the Red-backed and Gray-headed forms of Dark-eyed Juncos that breed in the southwestern United States.

Anyway, we travelled slowly with all the bird watching, and it was 11:15 by the time we arrived at Josephine Saddle, where we had a snack and a rest before pushing on up the Agua Caliente Trail. That didn't go super smoothly, as one washed out switchback turn with a well marked unofficial train coming off of it got us side-tracked. We had to turn around and come back the way we had come before we able to continue on our way. Up in this higher elevation woodland, we were hearing (and seeing) Greater Pewees regularly, seeing occasional Hepatic Tanagers, and the more familiar but still welcome sight of Steller's Jays hopping around in the trees.

But the best part came a little before we had gone half-way along the trail. In one pine growing off the trail below us and to our right, some small birds were foraging among the needles. Stopping to examine the first we could get our binoculars on, we were delighted to see it was an adult male Grace's Warbler (lifer # three!). We were able to enjoy its bright yellow breast and eyebrow at our leisure, before taking our binoculars away to realize the tree was full of small birds. Four or five of were a family of Painted Redstarts, including juveniles lacking their red-bellies, and further examination of most of the others found that we were watching a pair of Grace's Warblers with at least two fledglings, as well. Then a flash of orange in the further branches alerted us to the presence of a single Olive Warbler! (four!)

Invigorated, we continued on our hike, stopping again only briefly in a grove of aspen. This little grove was populated by a vigorous population of "Brown-throated" House Wrens, a distinctive popuulation of the widespread and familiar birds in backyards everywhere. They really are a more uniform dark brown, and their song is more musical and beautiful than our local wrens. They reminded me a bit of short-winded, long-tailed Winter Wrens as well as of our local House Wrens.

After the grove, we moved out onto a dryer north-facing slope toward the Vault Mine Trail. We got half-lucky at one point when I started a single male Montezuma Quail running down the hillside. I got half-looks at the fleeing bird, but Libby only saw its back for an instant, so we're not counting it until we both have decent views of the bird. Montezuma Quail are infamously hard to see, and people we talked to over the weekend generally expressed the opinion that it takes dumb luck to find one, so we'll just have to spend more time in their habitat.

After wrapping around the canyon, there's a junction that takes you straight back down into it. The Vault Mine Trail (Very Steep Trail) lives up to its appelation. At one point, you descend more than 1,000' in .6 miles! Needless to say, our knees and feet were a little sore by the time we reached the canyon bottom. So, at the car, we had wonderfully refreshing ice cold Pepsis from our cooler and a snack of Goldfish Crackers before heading down canyon to go feeder watching.

We enjoyed seeing Nuthatches, Lesser Goldfinches, bright House Finches, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Broad-billed Hummingbirds, and Scott's Orioles at the various feeders. At one, an Arizona Woodpecker family was coming into the suet. At Madera Kubo, we waited in vain to see if a Berylline Hummingbird or the local Flame-colored Tanager would come and visit. We heard the Flame-colored Tanager that evening, but were unable to discover it in its dense retreats among the tree tops. It moved around a lot, too, and only sang sparingly, so we didn't have too good of a shot, anyway. Ah well, you win some and you lose some.

Wild Turkeys visited the Santa Rita Lodge feeders, too.

The last thing we did that day, as the light fell in the canyon, was to stand and watch for an Elf Owl to leave its daytime roost in a telephone pole next to the Santa Rita Lodge office. We waited and waited, and the light dimmed and dimmed. Bats fluttered over the assembled crowd of expectant birders and lodgers, but the owl never showed. Later Bethany and Wade told us that the front office explained the birds were finished nesting and were no longer using that pole for the year.

We spent that night in Nogales, about a mile from the Mexican border. In the morning, we were up early and on the road to Patagonia. Our first stop was the road to Kino Springs. We've visited that golf course before, where Tropical Kingbirds are quite easy to find, but this year we were more interested in another shot at Cassin's Sparrows and maybe at the Gray Hawks we had seen nesting in trees there two years ago. Once again, we had a Botteri's Sparrow right by the road, but we weren't able to find a Cassin's. The Gray Hawks weren't there, either, though there still were some big stick nests.

Our next stop was the Patagonia Roadside Rest, famous in birding circles because of the "Roadside Rest" effect named after it. Once upon a time, one rare bird found there led to a slew of other rare birds found by other visitors looking for the first bird. We didn't find anything rare, but we did hear a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (this is where we once saw our first), Thick-billed Kingbirds, and a first-spring Summer Tanager singing in a tree. We walked up and down the creek a little, and it was nice to see and hear Yellow Warblers and Yellow-breasted Chats.

Libby at the Roadside Rest.

Anyway, we got back in the road pretty quickly and pulled into Patagonia well before 8:00. Our plan was to spend a half hour or so looking for the Sinaloa Wren that's been reported there and then head over to the Paton's so that we could enjoy the regular Violet-crowned Hummingbirds that visit there.

The Sinaloa Wren we were looking for is the first documented record of that species north of the Mexican border. The bird has been building nests in the dense riparian vegetation along Sonoita Creek since this spring, and sings incessently and loudly, making it easy to hear. However, because of the dense brush, it can be very hard to see. We weren't very optimimstic about our chances of seeing it, but we felt like it was worth a short, anyway.

When we arrived at the spot, we found a tour group waiting there. They had seen it a couple of times, already, and we could hear it singing as we walked up. One of the guides pointed out where to find the actual nest, which was a big shaggy ball of grasses, and then there was nothing to do but to wait. And, so we did. As we waited, scanning the dense growth from time to time, listening to hear if the Sinaloa Wren song was getting louder, the other guide of the outfit struck up a conversation with us. It turns out it was Jon Dunn, a prominent North American birder - the lead editor of the National Geographic Field Guide, and author of numerous other guides and books. He lives in Bishop, so I asked him how to find Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Eastern Sierra and got a good tip for a location near June Lake. Pretty cool!

Even cooler, though, was that Libby found the Sinaloa Wren (lifer five!) while we were talking. And, thankfully, I got a short look at it, also. Libby saw it fairly well, but my looks were of it silhouetted in the shadows. I was able to see a little of the tail's color, and the proportions and size looked different than a Bewick's Wren, but I'd like to see it again some day. That's quite possible, as Sinaloa Wrens appear to be spreading northward through Sinaloa and it is not unlikely that they will one day be an established species in southeastern Arizona.

After seeing the bird, we pulled up stakes and drove over to the Paton's, where the Violet-crowneds put on a good show. By then, it was getting hot, so we appreciated the opportunity to sit in the shade and enjoy some birds for awhile. Broad-billed Hummingbirds were common, as were Black-chinned. Meanwhile, Inca Doves were singing in the background, Gray Hawks called in the distance, and Blue Grosbeaks were visiting the seed feeders behind us. It was pretty awesome.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird at the Paton's

Nevertheless, we needed to get a move on. We were planning on meeting up with Wade and Bethany at the Beatty's Bed and Breakfast feeders in the Huachuca Mountains, a not-insignificant drive from where we were, and if we got there early enough, we had an opportunity to go for a hike up the hills to look for Red-faced Warblers.

We got there before 11:00, so we elected to head up the trail. The first bit is a dry route around the private property of the Beatty's, but then the trail gently trends uphill through shadowy forest that's a mixture of oak, juniper, sycamore, elder and pine. It's quite lovely.

Upper Miller canyon riparian forest

Anyway, we traveled a good distance, and had used up a good portion of our allotted time, when we started hearing a Red-faced Warbler off the trail. Imitations didn't draw the bird in, though it appeared to be responsive, and so we had to consider whether or not to go off trail to find it. We headed a little bit uphill and ran into some birders coming down. We asked if they had had Red-faced Warblers, and they pointed out the bird were were listening to, and let us know it was quite a distance up the hill before they had run into any more. Furthermore, it turned out there was another trail paralleling ours in the direction of that bird.

We decided to look for the bird we were hearing, and come back down the parallel trail, so we stepped off and into the trees. Only a minute or two later, we found a beautiful Red-faced Warbler (lifer six!) quietly singing and foraging in some trees right above our heads. We were able to wait and watch it for many minutes while it roamed around above us. Even without binoculars, we could see the brilliant scarlet of its head glowing in the canopy.

We felt pretty lucky at this point, so we headed back down the trail toward the parking lot. We got there, and rested our feet while we were waiting for Wade and Bethany. While we were waiting, I saw a branch fall out of a distant tree, writhing. I cocked my head. That's a snake, I thought. Sure enough, it was. It was what appears to be a Sonoran Whipsnake, and we were able to watch it slither its way through the trees a few feet above us. Libby commented that it had a bit of a sinister Edenic feel.

The serpent

Right about then, Wade and Bethany pulled up. As they did, a mixed flock came into the trees near my head and I saw what appeared very much like a Mountain Chickadee, which would have been way out of range. Libby and Bethany checked our respective guides, and found that they may be unrecorded in the Huachucas in the summer, casting doubt on my identification. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but after I got the camera I couldn't find the bird again, and there were more interesting birds awaiting us up at the feeders, which is where we headed next.

The hummingbird feeders at Beatty's are my favorite in Arizona, which is saying quite a lot. They're always crowded with hummingbirds of a dazzling array of species. Last Sunday, we saw eight species of hummingbirds at the feeders: Broad-tailed, Broad-billed, Anna's, Magnificent, Blue-throated, Black-chinned, White-eared and Berylline (ding! that's # seven!).

The Berylline was what I was most hoping to see, and it didn't disappoint, coming regularly the feeders, especially the one only about 6' feet to my left, and even gathering wool at a station set up for that purpose. It's apparently preparing a nest somewhere nearby, which is exciting, as this is really quite a rare bird in the U.S.

The female Berryline Hummer feeding just feet away from me.

We stayed at the feeders a good period of time, watching the hummingbirds chase each other around the feeders as thunder growled in the distance. One of the White-eareds (also very rare) sang from a perch, which was fun to hear. But, time flowed on, and we had a long drive home ahead of us, so we said our goodbyes to the Williams and got in our car to head back home.

The drive home was very hot. When we passed through Phoenix, a roadside sign flashed the temperature as 121 - ridiculous - and the radio put it as tying the old record of 115. Not only that, but the 10 West was closed in Phoenix! With that and heavy road construction near Palm Spring reducing the freeway to only one lane, it took 10 hours to get home.

Lots of pictures, of more hummingbirds, mountains, flowers, bugs, and Libby, are at our Flickr account: Weekend Arizona trip. I recommend checking them out.

List:

1. Turkey Vulture (common everywhere)
2. Cooper's Hawk (Madera Canyon)
3. Gray Hawk (along Hwy 83 north of Patagonia Rest Stop)
4. Red-tailed Hawk (power lines below Madera Canyon)
5. Swainson's Hawk (power lines below Madera Canyon)
6. Wild Turkey (Madera Canyon)
7. Gambel's Quail (Patagonia)
8. Band-tailed Pigeon (heard in Madera Canyon)
9. Eurasian Collared-Dove (roadsides)
10. Rock Pigeon (roadside)
11. White-winged Dove (common)
12. Mourning Dove (common)
13. Inca Dove (Paton's)
14. Yellow-billed Cuckoo (heard at Patagonia Roadstop Rest)
15. Greater Roadrunner (Patagonia area)
16. Lesser Nighthawk (California, actually - I-10 near Blythe)
17. Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Paton's)
18. Berylline Hummingbird (Beatty's)
19. Broad-billed Hummingbird (Common)
20. White-eared Hummingbird (Beatty's)
21. Blue-throated Hummingbird (Beatty's)
22. Magnificent Hummingbird (Madera and Beatty's)
23. Black-chinned Hummingbird (Common)
24. Anna's Hummingbird (Madera and Beatty's)
25. Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Beatty's)
26. Elegant Trogon (Heard in Madera Canyon)
27. Acorn Woodpecker (Madera Canyon and Patagonia)
28. Gila Woodpecker (Common in lower elevations)
29. Northern Flicker (upper Madera)
30. Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Patagonia)
31. Arizona Woodpecker (Madera and Miller Canyons)
32. Greater Pewee (Upper Madera)
33. Western Wood-Pewee (Madera Canyon)
34. Cordilleran Flycatcher (Madera)
35. Vermilion Flycatcher (Patagonia)
36. Brown-crested Flycatcher (Lower Madera - Proctor Road area)
37. Ash-throated Flycatcher (Dry area in lower Miller Canyon)
38. Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Common)
39. Cassin's Kingbird (Patagonia)
40. Western Kingbird (Patagonia)
41. Thick-billed Kingbird (Patagonia)
42. Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher (Madera)
43. Bell's Vireo (Madera and Kino Springs)
44. Hutton's Vireo (Madera and Miller Canyons)
45. Plumbeous Vireo (upper Madera Canyon)
46. Steller's Jay (upper Madera Canyon)
47. Mexican Jay (Madera and Miller Canyons)
48. Barn Swallow (Common)
49. Bridled Titmouse (Madera and Miller Canyons)
50. Mountain Chickadee? (Miller Canyon)
51. Verdin (Proctor Rd)
52. Bushtits (Madera and Miller Canyons)
53. Brown Creeper (Madera Canyon)
54. White-breasted Nuthatch (Madera Canyon)
55. House Wren (Brown Throated) (Madera Canyon)
56. Bewick's Wren (Patagonia)
57. Cactus Wren (Santa Rita experimental range)
58. Sinaloa Wren (Patagonia)
59. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (Continental School)
60. Hermit Thrush (Madera Canyon)
61. Northern Mockingbird (lower elevations)
62. Bendire's Thrasher (Kino Springs)
63. Phainopepla (Patagonia)
64. Lucy's Warbler (Patagonia)
65. Black-throated Gray Warbler (Madera and Miller Canyons)
66. Grace's Warbler (upper Madera)
67. Yellow Warbler (Patagonia)
68. Common Yellowthroat (Patagonia)
69. Yellow-breasted Chat (Patagonia)
70. Painted Redstart (Madera and Miller Canyons)
71. Red-faced Warbler (Miller Canyon)
72. Olive Warbler (upper Madera)
73. Summer Tanager (Patagonia)
74. Hepatic Tanager (upper Madera)
75. Flame-colored Tanager (heard at Madera Kubo)
76. Canyon Towhee (Patagonia)
77. Spotted Towhee (upper Madera)
78. Botteri's Sparrow (Kino and below Madera Canyon)
79. Rufous-winged Sparrow (Continental School)
80. Yellow-eyed Junco (upper Madera)
81. Black-headed Grosbeak (Madera)
82. Northern Cardinal (below Madera and Patagonia)
83. Blue Grosbeak (Patagonia and Madera)
84. Varied Bunting (Proctor Rd)
85. Eastern (Lilian's) Meadowlark (below Madera)
86. Great-tailed Grackle (common)
87. Bronzed Cowbird (Patagonia)
88. Hooded Oriole (Madera)
89. Scott's Oriole (Madera)
90. House Finch (Madera)
91. Lesser Goldfinch (common)
92. House Sparrow (hiss)

And that's that... 92 birds and 7 lifers.

New York Day 4

Well, time keeps marching on, and we keep falling further behind in our New York posts. Never mind that it's been a month by now, we'll still stay the course!

That Tuesday, Becca had to go back to work, and to the doctor in the morning. That made it a good time to check out Bill's local "patch" -- a birding term for the park you most commonly survey. For me, it's Creek Park. For Bill, it's Whipple Woods and the Lehigh Swamp.

It was fun to walk around in the woods, which are a wet assemblage of various aged second growth deciduous forest. American Redstarts and Yellow Warblers were the most common birds in the woods, though we also saw Brown Creepers, Hairy Woodpeckers and other forest birds. It was nice to hear the haunting song of Wood Thrushes, but we never saw the cryptic things. The woods were a great place to get out and enjoy a northeastern birding experience. It's completely unlike anything we have out here!

After Becca got back from the doctor, where she learned she didn't have a broken wrist(!), we took the car for a spin out to Owl Woods. This was another really neat place where Yellow Warblers were thick as flies, and though we missed some interesting birds that had been seen there recently, it was fun to check out the migrant trap. The rest of the day we spent checking out the local shoreline.

Lake Ontario is huge, and we went up and down a small section of the shore, staring off into the distant horizon, unable to catch a glimpse of Canada at all. That was an incredible amount of fresh water. At one stop, we found our first Bank Swallows, which was pretty awesome, and we also saw several Mute Swans. These beautiful birds are an introduced pest, but our first American individuals of that European species.

In the evening, we meandered over to the Braddock Bay spit to look for a recently reported Black-billed Cuckoo. We didn't find the bird, but we did find a beautiful sunset!

Libby in the sunset light.

Pictures have been uploaded: New York Day 4.

Lost Creek Trail

Last Friday Libby and I headed up to the local mountains for a bit of a tune up hike before our upcoming backpack trip. We did something similar last year, hiking to Dollar Lake and back through a torrential thunder storm while wearing full packs, but this year we were determined to have a better experience.

In order to achieve that goal, we didn't bring full packs. Neither did we try to go as high or as far, our hike was only supposed to be about 11 miles round trip instead of 12+, and we weren't intending to get above 9,000'. Unfortunately, all of our preparation went for naught, as Libby developed a stomach complaint that turned us back before we had gone more than a couple of miles.

Still, it was nice to get out of the city for a day. The air was cool, pine-scented and clean. The trail we chose is unpopular, so we didn't see any other people the whole time we were on it. It's nice to get into higher altitudes at this time of year, too, as time is turned back a little closer to spring. We saw a wide collection of wild flowers, heard and saw many singing birds, and saw quite a few juvenile Juncos.

The birds were a bit of a condolence. We had good looks of a wide range of montane breeders, representing both pine and oak forests. Some, like Brown Creepers, Mountain Chickadees, Western Wood Pewees, Purple Finches, Western Tanagers, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Mountain Quail, are birds we only see when we visit the mountains or on migration. Others, like Western Bluebirds, Spotted Towhees, Ash-throated Flycatchers, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black Phoebe, Acorn Woodpecker and Northern Flicker breed in Orange and lower Los Angeles counties, but were nice to see in this different setting. I even got brief looks at a Townsend's Solitaire and heard a Dusky Flycatcher, though I never got to see it.

I was especially excited to get a picture (though not great) of a female Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Anyway, we didn't have a lot of fun, but we did see some pretty country. It gets me excited for Mammoth in a few weeks!

New York Day 3

OK, back to New York!

Our second day in New York would have been notable no matter what we did during the day because we had pie for breakfast. Yum.

Thankfully, we went out and filled it with other activities, so there will be more to read. If that really is a reason to give thanks.

Our main destination that Monday was Letchworth State Park - renowned both as the Grand Canyon of the East and as home to one of the most diverse assemblages of breeding wood warbler species in North America.

We started the day in the southeastern portion of the park -- and old Civil War regimental parade grounds. This spot is the best area for warblers in the park, and we were not disappointed -- only a minutes after arriving one of us spotted a male Blackburnian Warbler foraging in some tall trees directly above us. Although our brief looks were almost neck-breaking, we were still able to appreciate its breathtaking flame-colored neck.

Not long afterward, we were distracted by a very uncooperative Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. These proved to be quite common in the area, but we spent a long time trying to get a clear look at this secretive individual as it hid in the highest boughs of a cluster of pines. Giving up before we were satisfied due to the restraints of time, we took a short walk around the Parade Grounds themselves to see if we could find any warblers. Nothing much doing there, but soon afterward we found a cooperative male Hooded Warbler. These were pretty common in some of the woods in that area.

After a short walk into the woods, we headed off to the Mary Jemison Trail, which was also supposed to be a fair area for warblers. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were talking about a singing bird, when Becca mentioned casually, "It's that Scarlet Tanager." There it was! That was the bird I probably most wanted to see in New York, and it completely fulfilled all of my expectations. After a brief lunch, we headed off on the trail.

Hiking in New York was a lot of fun. We enjoyed the forest, the dark earth of the trail, trickling streams, and, of course, birds. One highlight was a pair of Winter Wrens that Becca found. We were even privileged to hear them sing! The song was beautiful; it tinkled on for ages, with a more musical and beautiful quality to it than the western Winter Wrens we heard singing in Oregon last year. We also found a pair of Pine Warblers a little bit later in a plantation further down the trail, which were new to us. We didn't see them extremely well, as they were high above us, so that's a bird we'll hopefully be able to see again some day.

After returning to the car, we headed off to check out the park proper. It was spectacular, with yawning vistas and thundering waterfalls. Here's what it looked like:

Upper Falls

Middle Falls

Libby and Middle Falls



Upper and Middle Falls



Lower Falls

You can see why this is worth visiting. It was beautiful.

One last highlight from Letchworth proper was stopping at a Wolf Creek parking lot and finding a fledgling Eastern Screech-Owl perched on a tree trunk nearly on the ground. We've never seen anything like that! The poor little bird was being mobbed by a pair of persistent Robins, and it gazed sleepily up at them with little jerks when they'd swoop in over its head. We were concerned that it might get knocked off into the water below it (doubly so since the creek was rushing directly off a waterfall), but our worries evaporated when it took off and landed in another tree on the far bank a few moments later. Thanks goes to the stranger who found it and tipped us off to its presence.

By the time we'd done all that, it was getting pretty late in the day, so we headed back to Rochester. Of course, we found a way to squeeze a little more birding in, too, via Nations Road. This agricultural area hosts breeding populations of a lot of grassland birds, including Henslow's Sparrows, Grasshopper's Sparrows, and Vesper's Sparrows. We didn't find any of those, though we did see more Bobolinks, Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows. The real highlight was when we stopped by a private wood by the road, where we found a Brown Thrasher, our first ever Eastern Towhee, and Bill and Becca's first ever Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The Cuckoo was especially exciting.

And that's about it - I just need to get this posted! There are more pictures of Letchworth and some pictures of birds on our Flickr for that day: New York Day 3.

Peckham Wedding Weekend

Last weekend it was all party, all the time, as we trekked north for Joe's wedding in Paso Robles.

We drove up right after work, and got back Sunday evening around 8:00. In between, there was wine tasting, wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, games in motel rooms, the wedding, the reception, and more partying!

Wine tasting in Paso Robles was interesting. Libby and I went with Dustin, Katie and their baby Elijah to Castoro Cellars, purveyors of Dam Fine Wine - Castoro meaning beaver in Italian. The wine seemed alright, though we're not experts. We especially enjoyed the Gewürztraminer, though they're much better known for their Zinfandels - which are pretty dry and spicy. Elijah is a very charming little kid, full of smiles and good temper, so it was a pleasure to be around him for a few days.

Joe and Jessica Peckham

The wedding itself went really well. I didn't notice any hitches, everything was beautiful, and the deed got done. Honestly, that's all that's essential, right? It was a bit hot, but thankfully the wedding was at 10:30 in the morning, and a light breeze made it tolerable. Still, we sweated a lot in our tuxes; I don't suppose shorts would have been appropriate attire?

The reception also went well, with dancing and speeching and toasting and caking in all of the appropriate places. The bride and groom looked pleased with themselves, and everyone else looked pleased with them, too.

That evening Libby and I walked to dinner with Phil and Luke at a Thai restaurant in downtown Paso Robles, which was fun. The food was good, the company was better, and we wound down the weekend laughing and reminiscing until late at night.

The next morning we had breakfast with Luke, Lem and Phil before hitting the road for home. That road turned out to be a long one, as we extended it with stops and hit heavy traffic on the 101 - so we weren't surprised by its duration.

Our first stop was at Cerro Alto, which is a campground off the 41 north of San Luis Obispo. This was a great place to visit - it was bustling with bird-life, even in the very middle of the day. While we wandered through riparian and pine woodland -- transitioning on the upper part of the road to pine-oak woodland -- we enjoyed good views of Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Wilson's Warblers, and Warbling Vireos. None of these commonly breed in southern California's riparian woods anymore, so it was a lot of fun to see them.

There were two highlights, though - one was a singing male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. These eastern birds are quite rare here, though annual in small numbers as spring migrants in California. Perhaps this bird is lingering through the summer. It was beautiful, and we got a good look at it for a little while before it backed out of sight through some willows.

The second exciting moment was when some imitation Pygmy-Owl toots I was using to attempt to attract some skulking birds got the attention of a real Northern Pygmy-Owl, who tooted back! I was able to solicit another series of calls, too, before the distant bird quieted down. Unfortunately we were unable to actually see this fierce little diurnal owl, but even hearing it was pretty thrilling.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. We had lunch in San Luis Obispo, danishes in Solvang, and traffic in Santa Barbara. We listened to some Chesterton on the iPod, and were happy as clams when we finally got out of the car at home. A good weekend!

There are lots of pictures on Flickr.

New York Day 2!

I woke up our first morning in New York to the incredibly loud sound of upstate New York's dawn song. This sounded to be mostly a choir of Robins, but noting that it was only about 4:30 in the morning (and therefore 1:30 California time), I promptly went back to sleep.

We didn't actually get up until six before loading up the car to head to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Montezuma is one of the better known refuges in upstate New York, and promised good opportunities to see some eastern birds. On the drive over, we reviewed eastern warbler songs, especially Cerulean Warbler, a beautiful sky blue little bird that was a coveted target bird for Libby and me.

Birding started with a quick stop for an Osprey nest along the entrance road before pulling into the visitor center parking lot. Purple Martins zipped around their nest box structure, young Bald Eagles soared up above us, and Song Sparrows sang from neighboring bushes. We spent a good amount of time birding the wooded areas around the visitor's center because several on-line sources listed them as a good place for Cerulean Warblers. We enjoyed seeing many typical birds of the east as we walked, including many Eastern Wood Pewees, Least Flycatchers and Gray Catbirds. Yellow Warblers were common, as they appear to be almost everywhere in upstate New York, and I think I may have heard a Carolina Wren (which is listed as rare on the checklist - I wish we had investigated that song!). We also found a snake, and a pair of Yellow Warblers feeding an over-sized Cowbird chick. That's something I'd never seen before, and it was pathetic to watch these beautiful little yellow birds working feverishly to feed a bird twice their size. You can see a picture Bill took here. Thankfully, we also found a pair of Yellow Warblers feeding one of their own offspring, which was much nicer to see.

Still no Cerulean Warblers, though. After one circuit around the forest, we decided to work our way back up along the road toward the main pond. It was there we finally heard the Ceruleans singing from some large cottonwoods near where the forest ended. As we strained our necks and eyes to get a glimpse of them, and Bill talked to a fellow birder from Rochester, a crow swept into the trees, attracting an instant flock of angry songbirds. This proved to be mostly Warbling Vireos, but among the flock I was able to pick out a beautiful male Yellow-throated Vireo. With a little patience, we were able to relocate it or its mate so that Libby could get a look at it, too. That and a nearby Red-bellied Woodpecker were our first lifers of the day, and the Vireo was an especially nice one.

With our first lifers for the day in the bag, we headed back to the car via the bathrooms, and then embarked on the auto loop. Loops like this are a regular feature at National Wildlife Refuges that we've visited, and are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they allow you to explore a good deal of area fairly quickly, but on the other hand, it's often difficult for everyone to get a good look at something because of cars' structures. In this case, it was even harder to see birds because the main pool was drawn down. Still, we made a stop at a blind along the edge, and found our first Swamp Sparrows of the trip, only our second ever, a Spotted Sandpiper on top of the blind, and an Eastern Kingbird hawking insects in the weedy pool-bed edge. Another lifer, and a highlight for me because I especially love the Tyrannus flycatchers.

The wildlife drive isn't actually a loop, and its exit dropped us very near to Tschache Pool. We heard and saw an Alder Flycatcher (new for us!) from the nearby tower, while Black Terns fluttered far out in the middle of the pool over the water. It was drawing near to lunch time, now, but we still pressed on. Our next stop was Mays Point, which proved to be the absolute jackpot for Cerulean Warblers. They were loudly singing from several trees in the area, and Bill serendipitously found a silent female gathering nest material from some understory bushes near the boardwalk viewing platform. Unfortunately, we weren't all able to find it before it flew away.

Still, now we knew where they were, but it was late, and we were all hungry, so we had our picnic before trying again. Lunch was awesome, as Bill and Becca had brought a camp stove and hot dogs. They call them hots in upstate New York, though, and they come in red and white, which is kind of interesting. I naturally tried a white one, but couldn't notice a dramatic difference in flavor, perhaps a little sweeter, over the horseradish mustard I'd drenched it in. Awesome.

After lunch we headed back out to the boardwalk to try again for the Cerulean Warblers. In just a minute we were onto a bird slipping into a nearby bush. I didn't get a good look at it, but Libby was able to tell it was a Cerulean! Nice! Unfortunately, only Libby got to see the bird, and we had to yield to the pressures of time and head south to the Finger Lakes area for the remainder of the day.

We spent the afternoon and evening of a very long day touring the Finger Lakes by car. We covered a lot of country, crossing over to the northern edge of Seneca Lake from Montezuma, and then heading south to the northern tips of Keuka Lake, which forms a Y shape. In between those lakes we got to drive through Seneca Falls. Seneca Falls is the birthplace of the woman's rights movement in America, and we saw the preserved remains of the building in which it all began.

Also, all of the towns and all of the countryside in this area of New York is really beautiful. The towns are mostly small and quaint, with pretty main streets and old colonial style homes. In between the towns, woods and farmland march along together. Since it was June, all of the trees and plants were vibrantly green, and most of the farmland had young plants in rows along gently sloping hillsides.

We did take a few stops, though, here and there, to enjoy the area. We had some awesome ice cream at a little road-side stand, and took a little walk along a beautiful creek in another area.

Once, we took a wrong turn that went past a pretty green field. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of black and white flutter off a fence post. Bobolink! We stopped and got out of the car to enjoy these flashy relatives of New World Blackbirds. They were joined by Eastern Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows on the fence posts, too. This was definitely the most exciting new bird of the day, as it was easy for everyone to see and strikingly beautiful, too. We took our time appreciating them before moving on.

I think our next stop after that was for a pie near the southern tip of Canandaigua Lake. We got a great berry pie - the next day's breakfast! For a more authentic taste of upstate New York, we also got a grape tart, which we enjoyed a la mode the next evening (with more pie!).

Soon after, we reached Canandaigua Lake, where we made a brief stop to admire the scenery. In the late evening light, it was beautiful!

By this point, it was getting pretty late. We were making our way toward Cheshire, but when we stopped at a roadside overlook of Canandaigua Lake, I noticed a bird in the nearby bushes that looked a lot like a Field Sparrow. Since we'd never seen one before, we all got out of the car again to look for it. We were able to refind it on the far edge of a little field, but it was far enough away that people weren't really sure that our brief looks at its face were sufficient to identify it. Bill suggested I get the iPod and try taping it in. So, we did. The first bout of song from our speaker drew it magically out of the brush into the field before it dropped down into the grass. A second snippet of song had it up even closer, and we all had great looks at its blank face pattern. That was pretty amazing, but it felt a little like cheating. Playback is a really powerful tool, but it is more intrusive than our normal practice.

Jumping back in the car, we pulled into the cemetery as the sun dipped beneath the hills. This Cheshire grave plot almost certainly holds the remains of some of our very distant ancestors. It turns out that the Rowleys once lived in upstate New York, and the Daniel and Rebecca Rowley who are buried there are probably our great-great-uncles. Unfortunately, the grave stones are in very poor condition, and almost illegible. We tried to decipher a neighboring stone that may also be a Rowley grave, but were unable to.

Then, we headed back home in earnest, with only very short stops at the tip of Canandaigua Lake where we found our first-ever Black-capped Chickadees, and Libby's first-ever wild Beaver!

Pictures are here: New York Day 1.