Home sweet home

It has been a soggy few days since I have returned to Maryland from California leaving me little time to bird. It is nice to hear the familar sounds of eastern birds once again. Even the common birds that I often take for granted such as the Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, and the Carolina Wren are welcomed sounds. I am sure all birders are familiar with the joy of seeing birds in their bins that they have not seen in a while or do not see often. Right now that is the case with all Maryland birds and with migration approaching, I predict a joyous fall. I took a trip to one of my favorite spots (Greenbury Point) to look for early migrants and although I found none I still managed to get some nice photos of some missed resident birds.

An adult male American Goldfinch

Juvenile Eastern Kingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Juvenile American Robin

A Juvenile Eastern Bluebird

Solitary Sandpiper

I then ran into Hal Wierenga and Lynn Davidson who were to lead a butterfly trip to the eastern shore but were rerouted to Greenbury Point due to poor weather on the coast. I gladly accepted their invitation to join the group and was thrilled to have nearly 15 species of life butterflies pointed out to me. (Maybe this will be a new hobby)

A Red Spotted Purple butterfly at Greenbury Point

A Variegated Fritillary, Greenbury Point

Sachem, Greenbury Point

Pearl Crescent, Greenbury Point

Sachem, Greenbury Point

Monarch, Greenbury Point

A Great Summer of Birds

This week I completed (sadly) my last full week of bird banding here in northern California. We went out to my 2 favorite sites located in Lassen National Forest in the Sierra Mountains. The sites were still a bit smoky from the 6200 acre wildfire that burned through the park last week as a result of a lightning strike. Nonetheless, the sites were as birdy as usual and we banded 90 birds at Big Springs with just 2 people. One particular half hour net run yielded 42 birds!! Highlights for this week include: American White Pelicans at Balm Lake, Sandhill Cranes at Burney Meadow, Evening Grosbeaks at Big Springs and another Gray Flycatcher banded at Burney Meadow.





The offshore team this week spotted 5 Juvenile Marbled Murrelets, and found and photographed a LONGBILLED MURRELET; an Unbelievable find!!! (Vagrant bird native to China, Japan and Korea) This photo is provided courtesy of Elias Elias. (left - Marbled Murrelet, Right - Long-billed Murrelet)



Banding Lists:
Burney Meadow
Spotted Towhee 4
Oregon Junco 14
Nashville Warbler 1
Black-throated Grey Warbler 1
Lesser Goldfinch 1
Western Wood Pewee 4
Orange-crowned Warbler 3
Yellow Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Mountain Chickadee 1
Purple Finch 5
Western Tanager 2
GRAY FLYCATCHER 1
Black-headed Grosbeak 2
total birds = 42

Big Springs
Song Sparrow 5
Oregon Junco 19
Wilson's Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 8
Mountain Chickadee 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 17
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Hermit Warbler 8
Warbling Vireo 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 3
Lazuli Bunting 3
Purble Finch 5
Cassin's Vireo 1
Western Tanager 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Fox Sparrow (Thick-Billed) 3
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
American Robin 2
WILLOW FLYCATCHER 3
Rufous Hummingbird 2
total birds = 90

Stiener Flat
wilsons warbler 1
macgillavrays warbler 3
yellow warbler 1
spotted towhee 1
western flycatcher 3
song sparrow 3
total birds = 12

Salmon Creek
Song Sparrow 11
total birds = 11

In other news, shorebirds are showing up in tremendous numbers here in Humboldt Bay. I estimated over 5000 marbled godwits and 10,000 western/least sandpipers on the flats in front of my house. Other new migrants are showing up as well including American Avocets, Wandering Tattlers, Surfbirds, and Red-Necked Phalaropes. Near my home there is a Jetty that sticks way out into the Pacific Ocean.



This Jetty is a hotspot for birders who want to make the long trek out with their scope. In two separate trips last Friday and this Friday I tallied:

surfbird 125
WANDERING TATTLER 6
black turnstone 45
double crested cormorant 15
pelagic cormorant 2
brandts cormorant 8
Elegant Tern 125
forsters tern 3
common loon 2
PARASITIC JAEGER 2
SHEARWATER SPP. 1
heermans gull 8
western gull 35
MARBLED MURRELET 1
common murre 20
sanderling 650
western sandpiper 1200
least sandpiper 1
brown pelican 40
barn swallow 5
western grebe 3
surf scoter 1

Wandering Tattler at North Spit Jetty - Samoa, CA

Black Turnstone at North Spit Jetty - Samoa, CA

Western Sandpipers and Sanderlings at North Spit Jetty - Samoa, CA

Elegant Tern diving at North Spit Jetty - Samoa, CA

Whimbrel seen at Clam Beach - Mckinleyville, CA

Barn Swallow - Arcata Marsh - Arcata, CA

Juvenile Tree Swallow - Arcata Marsh - Arcata, CA

Red-necked Phalarope - Arcata Marsh - Arcata, CA

It has been a great summer filled with amazing birds, and stunning northern California scenery. I am grateful to have had this experience and it has only solidified my love of birds and wildlife. It has been a pleasure to work with so many talented biologists and interns who are working so hard to monitor bird populations and assist in their protection. Special thanks to Dr. C John Ralph, Dr. Sherri Miller, Pablo Hererra, Jared Wolfe, Lucy Rowe, Amber Carver, David Haines, Lola Morgan-Outhisack, Maia Lipschutz, Leslie Tucci, Laurie Neville, Vincente Slabe, Elias Elias, Moe Morrisette, Brian Odonell, Linda Long, and all the folks at the Redwood Sciences Laboratory, the Klamath Bird Observatory, and the Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory as well as anyone who I forgot. This will be my last post related to bird banding in California. I look forward to returning to Maryland to see my friends and family and as always, to continue to observe and photograph birds in nature. I will continue to update this blog periodically related to Maryland birding. I have also began to post photos on my flickr! site for anyone who wants to see more bird pictures. Hope you enjoy!!! Chris's Bird Pics

Fire!!!!!

The signs of fall are beginning to show here in California. On the east coast I look forward to fall as it means, changing leaves, cooler temperatures and migrating birds. In Northern California fall signifies slightly different thinds... lightning storms and forest fires. On Tuesday as we approached Lassen Natl. Forest we noticed clouds up ahead. Since it NEVER rains in the summer here, I was not surprised to soon see that this was not an approaching storm, but rather a giant forest fire burning near our banding station. Make that 3 forest fires burning near our banding stations.



The road to one station was closed so we headed to the second station which ironically is named BURN. When we got there, we could see the fire in the distance and decided it was too smoky to band to we fled back across the valley to Trinity National Forest where we camped for the night. Had we approached the fire this is what we would have seen. This photo was taken that same night when 4000 acres had burned. The fire doubled over night and has since grown to 10,000 acres.



Hopefully it is controlled by Monday when I am scheduled to return.

The following day we headed up to Indian Valley and were greeted by a monstrous electrical storm, (which sparked 11 new fires, all extinguished). If you really want to get good looks at lightning bolts I suggest heading to the top of a mountain. You really want to get out in the open so your are the tallest thing around and thus will have the best view.





We rode out the storm in the car and hoped not to see any fires burning. Enough about that, after all we were here to band birds, and that is just what we did. We have recently started owl banding, which consists of arranging four nets in a square surrounding an audio lure which plays the songs of the 4 species of smaller owls that we are targeting. We then check the nets every 40 minutes from sunset to sunrise. We work in shifts so that we can get some sleep. The first night we didn't catch anything but a bat however, we had lots of owls come down close to the nets including singing Northern Pygmy Owls (2), Western Screech Owls (2) and Northern Saw Whet Owls (1).
Banding this week was a bit slow, but we did still get lots of cool birds, the highlights being a HY Mountain Quail captured at Indian Valley, and a HY Belted Kingfisher captured at Salmon Creek.

Belted Kingfisher captured at Salmon Creek

HY Mountain Quail captured at Indian Valley (Dont' mind the funny goggles.)

Many of the warblers have completed their adult prebasic molts (a replacement of all feathers after breeding) and are stunningly beautiful. This yellow warbler captured at Indian Valley is a good example. The outer most 2 primaries were the only feathers still in pin and the bird looked brand new. I wanted to take it home with me. Lets hope his feathers last for the whole year.






Banding Lists:

Hocker Flat
Song Sparrow 4
Yellow-Breasted Chat 1
Spotted Towhee 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 2
Western Tanager 3
Wrentit 1

Cap D Creek
Wrentit 1
Yellow-Breasted Chat 2
Spotted Towhee 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 2
Swainson's Thrush 1
Song Sparrow 1
Black-Headed Grosbeak 1
WILLOW FLYCATCHER 1
Western Flycatcher spp. 1

Indian Valley
Wrentit 6
Purple Finch 2
Wilson's Warbler 1
Oregon Junco 5
Red-Breasted Sapsucker 5
Spotted Towhee 8
Dusky Flycatcher 4
Western Flycatcher spp. 1
Orange Crowned Warbler 1
Cassin's Vireo 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 1
Mountain Quail 3

Salmon Creek
Song Sparrow 4
Wilson's Warbler 2
BELTED KINGFISHER 1

Black Tern hovering; Rocky Point, OR

Yellow-Headed Blackbird photographed at Rocky Point, OR

Clark's Nutcracker at Crater Lake, OR

Offshore Surveys

A Marbled Murrelet in flight offshore from Crescent City

This week I got a little break from banding and got to participate in the offshore monitoring of seabirds. We left out of the port of Crescent City, CA at about 7:30AM in a 20' Boston Whaler and headed out into the thick fog. The surveys consist of 200m wide by 8Km transects which we follow at about 15 miles/hour navigating by GPS. There are 2 observers/data recorders (port and starboard) and one driver and we switch positions after every transect. Basically we just ride along with a voice recorder and note any sea birds seen. We can ask the driver to stop and approach questionable birds, as well as marbled murrelets which require additional data. These Federally Endangered birds, relatives to puffins, are unique in that they nest inland at distances of up to 50 miles in the branches of old growth conifers most notably the coastal redwoods. They are severely threatened due to the uncontrolled logging of pacific old growth forest that has occurred up until recently. Recent threats also include nest predation, mainly by corvids (jays and ravens). The single egg must be incubated for 30 days and fed for 40 days (from the ocean) before the chick can fledge. I spoke to a student at Humboldt State University who works in a lab where they have a camera mounted on a marbled murrelet nest, and she told me that 6 of the last 7 years the single egg has been pilfered by a Steller's Jay. These Jay's are able to access many more murrelet nests than previously since they are often lured into the forests by messy campers and picnic sites. Forest fragmentation has also exposed the murrelet nests to more danger. There is a plan in effect to save the murrelets but sadly after speaking with many of the researchers here it seems grim for the murrelets whose numbers are decreasing at a rate of around 3%-4% annually. The California population was estimated at just 6500 birds in 1995 (Miller and Ralph, 1995) and has most surely dropped. Having said that, I did in 2 days of surveying, see about 75 marbled murrelets including 2 juvenile birds.

Offshore Crescent City:
surfbird 30
surf scoter 2
white winged scoter 3
double crested cormorant 6
brandts cormorant 200
pelagic cormorant 20
MARBLED MURRELET 65
common murre 2000
RHINOCEROUS AUKLET 85
pigeon guillemont 40
SOOTY SHEARWATER 3
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER 2
barn swallow 6
tree swallow 5
western gull 300
clarks grebe
western grebe
pacific loon 4
rock dove 1
ruddy turnstone 1
black oystercatcher 1

Offshore Humboldt Bay:
white winged scoter
double crested cormorant 20
brandts cormorant 125
common murre 750
MARBLED MURRELET 8
PARASITIC JAEGER 2
SOOTY SHEARWATER 1
JAEGER SPP. 2
Elegant Tern 55
western gull 115
california gull 2
caspian tern 3
red necked phalarope 8
barn swallow
RHINOCEROUS AUKLET 2
pigeon guillemont 3

Now some photos: These are bad and blurry because:
The boat was super shaky with 6 ft. swells?
The birds are little targets for a big lens in a big sea?
The fog was thick, and when it cleared it was overcast?
Nonetheless these are very cool birds that are hard to observe so even a bad photo is interesting

A Rhinocerous Auklet off the coast of Crescent City

Rhinocerous Auklet

Common Murre with chick

Different Common Murre with chick

Brandt's Cormorant

Pigeon Guillemont

Marbled Murrelet pair displaying courtship behavior

I did band birds this week on Friday at Mad River and although it was rather slow (only 16 birds) we did catch many beautiful freshly molted Wilson's Warbler HY birds (one of my favorite warblers)

Mad River, July 31

Wilson's Warbler 5
Wrentit 4
Song Sparrow 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 1
Swainson's Thrush 4
Hermit Thrush 1

And a few photos I have taken over the summer:

Spotted Sandpiper in alternate breeding plumage. Trinity River near Douglas City, CA

A Common Yellowthroat captured and banded at Salmon Creek near Eureka, CA

A Western Wood Pewee near Rocky Point, OR