The early birds got to see the birds

Although i did not get the pleasure to go birding with the Gang and my good friends at Sofo, i did have my own bird oriented experience. Early Saturday morning, but not early enough, i rose and was greeted by another fine, windy day. I cast my gaze out my window to see a small rasp of guinea fowl. i was amazed at their skulking dinosaur like qualities and with their erratic pecking at seemingly bare grass. I ran out of my house to join them, but they did not seem to be in cahoots with the idea and promptly exited my yard. Another anecdote extracted from my day, and from my memory is the observation of a large murmuration of starlings wheeling effortlessly from tree to tree, forming abstruse and ambivalent patterns as they dipped and twirled. I wish there were more Mega Flocks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxqtvYt1z24&feature=related

Three Warblers and a Sparrow

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been birding a lot.

Today, Friday, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes while it wasn't raining and birded some fields along Town Lane. I was not disappointed. Almost as soon as I walked in a was greeted by a beautifully plumaged male Prairie Warbler. Right after that I saw a Nashville Warbler. But I was confounded by ticking that I heard. I knew it was a bird, but couldn't figure out where it was. Finally, I looked up high enough and was rewarded with an uncommon sparrow -- a Lincoln's Sparrow. It looks a bit like a Song Sparrow but has more delicate streaking and a striped bib with an orange background. What was especially nice was all three birds were very accommodating and let me watch them. Later I saw a Palm Warbler, too.

Last weekend, I had my first-of-season Winter Wren in a trail in the Stony Hill section. Also, at Quail Hill, there were Eastern Bluebirds, several Eastern Phoebes, and another small flycatcher. I think think it was A Willow Flycatcher because it seemed to respond when I played the song/calls of a Willow Flycatcher on my phone.

On Friday I had birded some spots further West, and saw some nice birds including a Blackburnian Warbler, Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, and some White-crowned Sparrows.

But the best moment was when I saw female Black-throated Blue Warbler. I had seen her in some bushes; she flew into a small tree nearby, at which point a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew out of the tree. When I looked closely, I saw that she was drinking sap out of the wells that had been made by the sapsucker. That was kind of cool.

Banding at Dam Pond

This past weekend we went to the north fork at dam pond to band birds. We saw many birds during this trip. We learned how to catch and band bird. Banding a brid is when you catch the bird in a banding net, After you have caught the bird you must record its information and determine whether it is a juvenile or adult and if it is a female or male. After you classify the bird you put an aluminum band around the birds leg. The band has a specific number on it so if caught again you can tell that you have caught and recorded the bird before. This method is often used for mapping projects to see where birds migrate to over the winter. One of the bird we saw was a myrtle warbler. This was a very energetic bird, when we had it in the cloth bag after we removed it from the net it was going crazy in the bag. We also so a type of woodpecker that we haven’t identified on a trip before. The woodpecker was all black with white spots on all coverts. We also saw a catbird, it was identified by its all gray body and swallow tail feather. When we were leaving thpark we saw a very rare bird in the parking lot. It had a yellow head with a black mask, sort of like a raccoon. It was probably one of the most colorful birds I have seen.

Bird watching

Although the pickings are slim in my neighborhood, I was able to catch a glimpse of a few birds. The most common bird that I saw was the Blue Jay (cyanocitta crisata). It was easily identifiable by its bright blue plumage and white white wing bar. Large groups of Canadian Geese are also quite abundant in East Hampton. American Crows are also a common fly-by bird. The cry of the crow is very noticeable as well as their oily black plumage. I also caught sight of a few Black-capped Chickadees on my bird feeder. Their white eye stripe and black crown is very noticeable when viewing from a close distance. Atop a large tree near my house, I was also able to spot a Tufted Titmouse perched on a branch. The rusty colored under wing area was the most noticeable characteristics along with the grey crest.

Boston Birding

I couldn't attend the fabulous banding adventure this weekend, but I tried to do as much birding as I could on the sidewalks of Boston. On the drive up, I was proud to be able to use my knowledge gathered on our Montauk birding expedition to point out some turkey vultures flying over the highway (fingertip wings!) to my mother. She humored me. On the streets of Cambridge I spotted some song sparrows in bushes, recognizable with their russet and gray coloring and streaks on their white chest, as well as house sparrows, with their brown coloring, yellow and gray bills, gray caps, rusty napes, and black around the throat and breast, and white underbellies. I also saw some European starlings, glossy black with the beginnings of white spots across their feathers, on the quads of Northeastern University. Not as productive as a day out with the birders would have been, but not a bad weekend.

A Big Surprise

Yesterday morning as I was waiting for the Ornithology students to arrive for our field trip, I heard a loud chip near the high school parking lot at Ross. At first I thought it might be a Fox Sparrow, but as I approached I realized that the chip note was not correct for that species. After spishing for a few seconds, I got a few glimpses of the bird: HOODED WARBLER, a species I have never seen on Long Island in fall before. I tried to get Mamoun and Noah to see it, but the bird was elusive.

At Dam Pond in East Marion a little while later, a lone PINE SISKIN flew overhead calling.

Today I went to Montauk with Peter Polshek. There were many birds about especially Yellow-rumped Warblers, Eastern Phoebes, and several species of sparrows. Highlights were an adult GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at the south field at Deep Hollow, and a PEREGRINE, COOPER'S HAWK, AMERICAN KESTREL, MERLIN & TURKEY VULTURE at Third House. We saw 2-3 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS this morning as well.

That Dam Pond!

Despite the lack of Zebulon Jowers, our bird banding adventure was a successful one. The morning started off with Doc charging through the woods after the sound of a bird, which turned out to be a Hooded Warbler . After that exciting experience we took of to the North Fork. We ventured across two ferries and picked up a few other birders on the way. When we finally arrived to Dam Pond we were greeted by the smell of a decomposing animal off of the path. We arrived at the banding station, which was composed of two fine silk nets that were set up on the sides with a table and chairs set up to band the birds which would be caught in the nets. To my surprise we caught up to nine birds and each of us got to hold a bird. I was fortunate enough to hold a cat bird which was putting up a fight in the bag I was holding him in earlier. During our time there we saw the following birds: swamp sparrow, golden crown kinglet, myrtle warbler, white breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, ruby crowned kinglet and a phoebe. Despite the dead animals which we endured on the trail, I would say we had a very eventful day.