birds

new life birds at Patuxent and Lake Artemesia

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Since getting the car last week I’ve taken two trips up to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge to walk the trails and look for birds. Last Monday’s visit was on a rainy day, so I didn’t expect to see much. Not much is still something at a place like Patuxent, though, and the very first birds I spotted were a pair of Wood Ducks paddling around in the creek (the trickle of water that I expect will develop into a fuller marsh if we have a rainy summer). They didn’t appreciate my arrival and left with much hooting and flapping, startling a group of snipes up out of the reeds. The snipes were a new life bird for me, and seemed to have changed names between the publication of my older Peterson’s, where they’re listed as Common Snipes, and my newer Sibley’s, where they’re called Wilson’s Snipes. At any rate: I saw a bunch of snipes! Their distinctive back stripes made them easy to identify, and I was pleased to add another tricksy marsh bird to my list.

The walk through the woods was pleasant, but relatively bird-free. I saw some titmice and a heron wading around at the shoreline. Cash Lake Pier is the endpoint of the trail, and it was nice to sit and take in the view of the lake from up there. The Tree Swallows had returned and were swooping over the lake in large flocks. When I arrived at the pier I discovered a pair of Northern Rough-Winged Swallows just hanging out on the railing. I’d only seen them once before, last year at the University Hills pond, and it had been late enough in the season that I wasn’t entirely convinced they weren’t young Tree Swallows. It was nice to have a firm identification; second sightings are still exciting in my book! On Saturday my partner and I had stopped at Lake Artemesia and discovered a young Osprey hanging around. It also wasn’t a first sighting, but it was the first time I’d seen one close enough to be able to get a good look at the head and wing markings. Other sightings had been from the highway in a moving car, so this sighting marked a more firm identification.

I returned to Lake Artemesia on Tuesday, and was pleased to discover a small group of Pied-Billed Grebes swimming about. Unlike at Bombay Hook, there was no mistaking them this time, and I was thrilled to see them. There’s something about the small awkwardness of grebes that I find endearing. The Osprey was still hanging about, and while I didn’t get to see it dive, it did hover directly overhead a few times, which is always neat with such a large bird. I had assumed it was just passing through on its way to the shore and didn’t expect to see it again; now I’m wondering if it will stay and nest. There are also still groups of Ruddy Ducks and American Coots out on the lake, as well as at least one pair of Ring-Necked Ducks still hanging about.

Yesterday was another beautiful day after a stormy night, so I returned to Lake Artemesia to see if anything interesting had blown in. I wasn’t the only one to have this thought: I encountered two other people with binoculars at Lake Artemesia. The first was kind enough to let me know that Palm Warblers begin to travel through in the company of Yellow-Rumped Warblers this time of year, and the second alerted me to the presence of a Horned Grebe in breeding plumage on the Lake. I had seen the Horned Grebe in winter plumage hanging around, and did see it when I arrived, but I hadn’t noticed the other in among the Ruddy Ducks. This both confirmed my identification of the one in winter plumage—still nice for me with my level of experience—and allowed me to backtrack a bit and catch sight of the grebe with a splash of gold across its head. Since Horned Grebes are migratory, it’s rare to see them in breeding plumage this far south, and I’m thankful for the opportunity. Backtracking also led me to find a single Double-Crested Cormorant out on the water; I’d only previously seen them from afar on the ocean, so getting a good look at the cheek-markings was fun as well. The final gift of the morning was a male Eastern Towhee on the path near the parking lot; I’d seen my first female Eastern Towhee on the nearby Paint Branch trail about a month before. I’d sighted male towhees out west, but this was the first male of the eastern subspecies that I’d seen.

Following such a successful trip to Lake Artemesia, I couldn’t resist the urge to head up to Patuxent and see what had landed on the lake there. I am glad I did, as I had a great time! The first bird I saw was another new life bird, a Swamp Sparrow. I suspect I’ve seen these before, at Point Pelee and the University Hills pond, but this was the first time I was able to be absolutely sure. As I was standing watching the sparrow, I became aware of an overwhelming chorus of frogs. Amphibians are my first love, and so I following a footpath—likely a deer trail—through the grass to the edge of the creek. What to my wondering eyes did appear but a horde of toads emerging from their hibernation in the mud and chasing each other around in attempts to mate. One of my housemates in Ann Arbor witnessed this spring event years ago in a park near where we used to live, and I was so jealous. So jealous! Imagine the nicest material item you’ve ever wanted it being given to the most obnoxious person you’ve ever met, and then multiply that by about a thousand: that’s how jealous I was, not because my friend was obnoxious but because frogs and toads are my first love. At any rate, all that was washed away as I got to stand and watch all these toads acting kooky. As a visual aid, I offer you this photo of one small stretch of the creek (see how many toads you can find in it):


Toads mating at Patuxent.

Following that excitement, I was happy to just walk in the woods and enjoy myself whether or not I saw any birds. Near the trailhead I saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds hanging about a nesting box; although I know they’re common out here, this was still only my fourth sighting and their bright coloring remains startling. In the woods I encountered an Eastern Phoebe, another bird that I’ve only seen a couple of times before; it was perched above the trail bobbing its tail and singing away. Along the shore there were turtles crowding every rock and log; like the toads, they were coming out of hibernation and seeking the sun. Up at the Cash Lake Pier I found both another Double-Crested Cormorant and a fellow birder—the binoculars give it away every time. I walked over to say hello and he was kind enough to point out a Common Loon out on the lake, another new life bird for me! As with bluebirds, loons had loomed large in my imagination, birds that were never sighted yet deeply loved and exotic to someone raised inland. He also pointed out the nesting platform that the circling Osprey seemed to be using; I look forward to returning through the summer and watching for young birds. As if those sightings weren’t all enough, I saw a Hermit Thrush in the woods on the walk back to the car, another bird that I’d sighted only once before—in the backyard of our most recent house in DC—and I was happy to get a second look.

Trips like these remind me of the positive side of being a relative novice at this birding stuff: I’m almost guaranteed to see something I’ve never seen before on each trip, as many common birds are still new. It also reminds me how lucky I am to have moved to an area with such diverse habitat, within reach of so many parks and refuges. It wasn’t something we took into consideration when choosing our house location, but being on the northeast side of the District in the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River watersheds has yielded one pleasant surprise after the other.

new life birds at Patuxent and Lake Artemesia

new life birds on the Eastern Shore

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This week I splurged and took the Zipcar to the shore to see the wintering waterfowl before they head back to my homeland for the summer (don’t get me started on the Flexcar buyout and how the new carlords are Teh Suck). This year I’ve decided to take the Go Where The Birds Are approach to seeing new species, at least in a low-effort general sort of way. I didn’t actually catch the rare White-winged Crossbill when it was hanging around locally, due to timing and lack of information, so a bird-chaser I most definitely am not.

That being said, I was eager to see the Tundra Swans on their winter grounds around the Chesapeake Bay, and I was not disappointed. As promised by the volunteer with whom I spoke on the phone, the swans were hanging about en masse on both sides of the bridge to the island. I had planned my trip to Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge for Wednesday, figuring that the previous night of bad thunderstorms would have grounded other early migrators. Sure enough, I passed an entire field of resting Snow Geese just a few miles up the road inland. They were crowded around a farm pond, and I stopped to car to tromp over and get a closer look. Winds that day were over 20 mph, and I found myself laughing like a crazy person as I hoofed it through mud and over corncobs to look at some birds. I have no doubt the geese thought I was crazy as well, but they marked my first life bird of the day and I didn’t care. Just after the geese, I caught my first sight of a Bald Eagle, white tail splayed and yellow talons out, hovering over a field and dropping in for the kill. Those are some scary big birds! I had barely recovered from the shock of such a close-up view of the eagle when I spotted a Bobwhite, another bird I’d never seen before, nosing around in front of the hedgerow on the other side of the road. At this point I was being completely tailgated and passed, as it was the country and I was only going about 5 miles over the speed limit due to all the bird gawking, so I didn’t try to pull over and go back for a closer look.

Having sighted three new life birds before even getting to the refuge, and getting treated to all kinds of swans at the entrance, I wasn’t too unhappy to not see any other new birds on the trails. There were Buffleheads and Ring-necked Ducks out in the Bay, Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mallards and a Great Blue Heron along the river, and I’d seen Greater Black-backed Gulls and Ruddy Ducks at the marina where I’d ended up when I missed the last turn. I did have several nice second-sightings, though: a Horned Lark near the visitors’ center, a pair of Eastern Bluebirds on the wires along the main road, and another Bald Eagle hanging out on a utility pole across the water from the boardwalk. It was a good day for hunting; I saw loads of Turkey Vultures and two other hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk over one of the fields and a Cooper’s Hawk at the first house up the road on the mainland. The eagle was pointed out to me by an older guy who seemed to be making a sweep and looking for anything unusual. He also tipped me off to a few Greater Scaup hanging out in with the swans, and suggested that I head over to the Bombay Hook refuge if I wanted to see pintails and other wintering ducks.

Since I had the car for the day, I decided to make the drive over to the shore and see what I could see. After an uneventful drive, I was greeted at the edge of the refuge by another enormous flock of Snow Geese; I could see how they could be causing damage to the terrain. I was put in mind of the Sandhill Cranes at Jasper Pulaski, or the field of godwits we saw at the Wexford Slobs. Just before the gates I spotted a female American Kestrel on the telephone wires, another bird I’d only seen once before, and that from a car on the highway. The markings are quite distinctive, though, and the male had been easily identifiable even at a distance while moving. I took those sightings as a good omen and was not disappointed. After a decent number of Canada Geese, and the pleasant surprise of more Tundra Swans, the first ducks I saw were Northern Pintails. They are elegant birds, with their tufts and markings and pert tails. In the next more shallow area I was rewarded with Northern Shovelers, another duck that figured prominently on my to-see wish list. In with the shovelers were a good number of American Wigeon, which I’d seen in Oregon but only in the air, and many American Black Ducks, also something I’d only seen in flight on the Detroit River. I also spotted a pair of what I later determined must have been Pied-billed Grebes: stumpy little ducks with thick bills that are all-over a nondescript brownish-black color and are (apparently) year-round residents. Thank you, seasonal guide to birds seen at Bombay Hook, picked up for free at the visitors’ center! On the other side of the road from these dabblers were Green-winged Teal mixed in with many more American Black Ducks, all mucking around in the mud. I got a nice look at a male Teal at the last stop on my tour, also just poking around in shallow water, but much closer to the road.

At this final stop I was rewarded with a group of another common bird new to me: a group of maybe twenty Dunlins, flying and landing and poking the mud and flying some more. They were lovely, actually, with their white (non-breeding plumage) bellies and white-edged wings in flight. At this point I also had a completely awkward interaction with a human: there was another bird-watcher with a large scope attached to the side of his car who joined me in watching the Dunlins. I went over to ask him what he thought the birds were, figuring that with such high-tech equipment he would just know and I would be saved the effort of thumbing through the bird book and trying to tell all the shorebirds apart. When I approached, I realized that the scope was a lens attached to a digital camera, so I waited while he got some shots and then asked when the birds flew away from us what he thought they were. And he said, ‘Well, they’re not Sanderlings.’ And I thought, is this guy screwing with me? Because I may be only an advanced beginner at this, but, well: Sanderlings run in the waves at the edge of the ocean eating crustaceans. And we were, as I maybe forgot to mention, in a marsh. So I thought, two can play at this game, and I said, ‘well, they’re not White-rumped Sandpipers, because they don’t have a white rumps, although they’re about the same size and those sandpipers also visit freshwater mudflats.’ I admit that I can be mean, but it’s all relative; I thought I did well not to say, ‘and they’re not storks because those are much much taller.’ Anyway, he looked really uncomfortable, so rather than just stand there awkwardly, I said, ‘well, I have the book in the car, I’ll just try to figure it out’ and then he said, ‘yes, I’ll have to look them up, too.’ At which point I realized that maybe he didn’t actually know; maybe he was also a beginner and his approach was to photograph them and look them up at home. Or maybe he wasn’t even interested in the birds per se, but only the photographs. At any rate, I felt like a bit of a heel, and was really glad I hadn’t mentioned storks. Back in the car, with the help of Sibley—I’ve become a reluctant convert from Peterson after all these years—and the seasonal guide to birds seen at Bombay Hook, I correctly identified them as Dunlins and called it a day.

I plan to update my lifelist with these recent sightings this weekend.

new life birds on the Eastern Shore

Redheads at Lake Artemesia

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Chilly benches at Lake Artemesia.

This past week I visited Lake Artemesia two more times, hoping to see new ducks or early migrants. My other objective was to determine the quickest and least expensive way of getting to the lake by foot, using public transportation. The quickest way is to take the metro one stop, which involves 2 miles of walking round-trip not including any walking around the lake itself. The least expensive way is definitely to ride the University of Maryland buses, although one of them requires an ID, so it’s not a solution if I wanted to bring friends. This approach takes longer but cuts the travel walking distance in half, as I can pick up the bus one block from my house rather than going the 1/2 mile to the metro. And, it has the added advantage of not costing anything, which is a not-insignificant consideration.

At any rate, the main point was to see new birds and I got lucky on the second trip when I saw a small group of Redheads hanging around in one corner of the smaller body of water. These are common around the Chesapeake Bay, but completely new to me. All the other more common birds I’d seen were still hanging about: Canada Geese, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, the lone Horned Grebe, and loads of Red-winged Blackbirds, Carolina Wrens, and Song Sparrows. The pair of Killdeer was still chasing each other around on the lawn; I didn’t see the Bluebirds but I remain hopeful for the summer. Late in the visit I noticed a pair of Hooded Mergansers in with the geese; I’d seen a male in Ontario, but the female was new. They were cute, with the male flapping his wings and raising and lowering his crown while the female casually dove for food and pretty much ignored him.

Speaking of mating birds, earlier this week I got flashed by a Ruby-crowned Kinglet as well! We were down along the Potomac by the FDR memorial and the bridge back to the Jefferson, trying to determine if any of the Lesser Scaup were Greater Scaup, and I saw it in the tree. I was able to track it with the binoculars, and had determined that it was most likely to be a Ruby-crowned by process of elimination when I saw the telltale flash of red. That was a treat, and made me laugh at myself only a year ago returning home and reporting that I’d seen a little warbler that seemed to have been marked with orange paint on its head; could that have been for tracking purposes? I solved the mystery of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets not long after that first day, but I still chuckle to think of it. What a difference one year makes!

Redheads at Lake Artemesia

blustery afternoon at Lake Artemesia

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Yesterday I spent the afternoon tromping around the Paint Branch Trail and Lake Artemesia. Rather than walking the entire way there and back in the cold, I spared my wonky knee and took the metro one stop to cut the walking distance in half. I probably covered a good three or four miles nonetheless, but I hadn’t used all my energy simply getting to the woods.

Having heard that all manner of waterfowl have been seen on the lake in winter, I was hoping to catch sight of some oddities and add to my slowly expanding lifelist. And, in fact, there were several flocks of ducks of various sorts out on the water. Only one of the species, Ring-necked Ducks, were entirely new to me, but there were some that I’d only seen once or twice before, namely Ruddy Ducks and Buffleheads. In addition to the small flock of Ring-necked Ducks and the larger flock of Ruddy Ducks, there was a flock of American Coots bumbling their way around the place with only one or two Buffleheads sprinkled throughout the group. There was also an enormous (of course) flock of Canada Geese on the far side of the lake, and an assortment of Mallards here and there around the edges.

In addition to the new duck, I saw two woodland species that I’ve never seen before. Just onto the trail from Paint Branch Parkway I saw a female Eastern Towhee rummaging around in the leaf litter. I’d seen the western spotted version, but not previously gotten a firm identification on the eastern species (I suspect I’ve seen one or two in the past, I’ve just never been able to get close enough to conclusively distinguish between either a robin or a thrasher). That path was also good for spotting some old favorites: Carolina Chickadees, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and a male Downy Woodpecker. Once at the lake I saw small flocks of Carolina Wrens, Song Sparrows, American Robins, American Crows, and Northern Flickers (this last group was traveling with a single Red-Bellied Woodpecker). I was also happy to see a male Belted Kingfisher hanging about and making noise from a lakeside perch; I’d seen them flying along the Anacostia, but always from my bike and never close enough to be able to identify gender.

The best surprise of the day was heading back to the trail to make my way to the metro and coming across a pair of Eastern Bluebirds on a nesting box just off the path. Bluebirds are a bird I’ve wanted to see all my life; we don’t get many bright blue birds in the Midwest, and they always seemed like a wonderful bird to be able to come across in farm fields on the east coast. This pair looked exactly like photos of bluebirds always look: the male was perched on the top of a nesting box, with the female a few feet away on a low branch of a small tree. They stayed long enough for me to get a good look and then flitted off in search of food. I hope they decide to stay and nest, it would be great to be able to see them on regular trips to the lake.

The last bird I saw at the lake was a Killdeer, running around on the grass near the trailhead. Maybe next time I’ll hike around to the far side of the lake and investigate the possibility of sandpipers on the mudflats. Yesterday, though, three new life birds in a single afternoon was enough for me.

blustery afternoon at Lake Artemesia

new life birds in Ontario

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Last weekend’s trip to Ontario turned out to be excellent for seeing both grandparents and new life birds. Although we only had a short time to catch up with family in each location, the need to drive from place to place was well-suited for nipping off the road and catching sight of Ontario’s winter migrants.

Our first birding detour was to Rondeau Provincial Park. As we drove the 401 I was seeing flocks of little brown and white birds flying up and circling around the farm fields. There was something about their flight that was different from sparrows, and my inability to identify them en route was driving me to distraction when, lo and behold, we saw a sign directing us to the park. Just off the 401, I was able to pull over and get a good look at a flock of little-brown-birds. It turned out to be a mixed group of Horned Larks and American Tree Sparrows, neither of which I’d ever seen before and both of which are common in southern Ontario in February (according to the birding list we picked up at Point Pelee last summer).

Buoyed by this early success, we continued on to the park. I suspect we were the only visitors, although there were locals coming and going so we did see other humans during our stay. Following the advice of the person at the front gate, I decided to try the woods behind the visitors’ center in my quest for winter guests. Thankfully someone—no doubt a local—had hiked the trail since the last snowfall, otherwise we might have had the embarrassing experience of becoming lost trying to follow the not-at-all-visible trail. The woods were pretty empty, it being the dead of winter, but we did see a few familiar birds: Downy Woodpeckers, White-Breasted Nuthatches, a Carolina Wren, and Northern Cardinals. Once we got reached the middle of the woods—an area that we guessed would be rather swampy in the summer, as it was criss-crossed with boardwalk-style bridges—we flushed a small group of little chattering birds from the brush. Based on my experience with little chattering birds at our local pond, I figured they were kinglets or vireos or flycatchers of some sort. I was able to pish them to me, which allowed me to identify mostly gray bodies, shortish tails and plump light bellies. Their flightiness, my inexperience, and the gray light of a winter afternoon in Ontario woods combined to make that the best I could do visually. However, all was not lost, as in the course of pishing I successfully noted their call (I’m learning!). Once back at the ranch in the car, we concluded that they were Golden-Crowned Kinglets, with the zeee-zeee-zeee call being the deciding factor. I think this marks the first time that I conclusively identified a bird using sound, which in itself may clinch my rise to intermediate status in this bizarre hobby.

Back at the visitors’ center, we hung around the (mostly empty) feeders and I caught sight of a Common Redpoll, a bird that also doesn’t venture south. There were flocks of little-brown-birds around the center, and a nice Red-Tailed Hawk hunting them, but the light was fading too quickly for me to firmly identify anything new in the sparrows. It’s possible that there were Field Sparrows mixed in with the Tree Sparrows, but nothing sat still long enough or close enough for me to be able to tell for sure. We also weren’t able to see anything interesting on the lake itself, as the edge was frozen to about 30 feet from shore, creating an effective gulf between us and the birds on the water. The person to whom final decisions regarding such questions of judgment as venturing out onto partially frozen lakes in order to get a closer look at seagulls are delegated—a person who is not me, for reasons which should be obvious—voted nay on that plan, so we called it a day.

The next leg of our trip took us to London, where we visited Springbank Park in the hopes of seeing some wintering waterfowl from the far north. The day we chose to explore was bitterly cold, but that did not deter me. The very first birds I saw on the river in among the Canada Geese and Mallards were three female Common Mergansers and a male Hooded Merganser, all of which were new to me. Further down the river we spotted a couple of male Common Mergansers. Seeing them made me realize how few black-and-white birds we get now that we live in the south, and I was glad we made the effort to see the winter waterfowl when we were up north. The only other unusual birds were foursome of what were likely escaped domestic geese: two Greylags and two mottled white crossbreeds, neither with the black tail feathers of Ross’s or Snow Geese. At that point my companion made the judgment call — another of the sort that is not left to me — that it was time to return to the car as he could no longer feel his toes, fingers, or nose. We returned the next day on our way out of town, but saw nothing more besides an escaped Domestic Mallard.

The next new life bird was sighted entirely by chance on the 402 as we drove toward Sarnia. During a break in the rain and clouds we drove right under a hovering Rough-Legged Hawk and got a perfect look at its white underside and black elbow patches. Unless it was an incredibly confused Osprey, there was no doubt about its identification. Our final bird-related stop in Ontario was in Sarnia, where we drove down to the park under the bridge so I could search for birds at the mouth of the lake. I spotted a whole group of Buffleheads, and was able to get good looks at both male and female birds. I’d seen females in Tillamook, OR, but the males were a first. I also saw a small group of Common Goldeneyes, another black-and-white bird that just doesn’t go as far south as we are. With a little patience and the willingness to tromp through slush to a decent vantage point I could watch them quite easily. It’s possible that I also saw a couple of White-Winged Scoters, but the light was fading quickly and they were too far away for me to get a decent look at their beaks. They appeared to be entirely black birds with white wing bars and they flew like ducks, which narrows the choices considerably; with the light as it was, though, any more nuanced changes of color or body markings were lost.

new life birds in Ontario