Fall Report

I've been birding more, not biking so much. I did take the time to train and run a 5k though. Still feeling some positive effects from that, but I'm getting that old restless urge to exercise more again.
I have, after all, finally turned forty.
It use to be, I was the young guy at all the Audubon Society meetings, now I'm the old guy.
Of course, I haven't been to an Audubon Society meeting in a long while either , so I could still be the young guy. I hope not though, conservation should be something we all care about regardless of age.

Bird notes:
I got my first sparrow at Holloway park!
Saw 3 Savannah Sparrows on the north side of the race course parking area on November 5th. There's a ditch that didn't get mowed with some tall standing weeds in it, and the birds were there. At first I reported them as grasshopper sparrows, but the breasts on all three birds were well streaked, and showing a spot in the middle. Plus the median crown stripe was thin, and not very light. Also, the birds were very brown, not buffy at all, except a little toward the lores. Sibley convinced me. I was really looking at Savannah sparrows.
I'm grateful for them now though, because I saw another one this last Saturday. If ebird is to be believed, Savannah is one of the more common sparrows at Holloway in the winter. Know what's always there, and you'll discover what's new when something new shows up!
The catbirds are back. On my birthday, my dad and I went out there, and we counted no less than 9, probably heard more too.
Lake Morton has returning ducks.
There's a growing number of Ring-necked ducks, and Lesser scaup. I've even managed to count a few Ruddy ducks! As the season progresses, I'll be paying close attention to this spot either after work, or during my lunch break.
Can't wait to find a Hooded merganser there!
My use of eBird is ever expanding, what a valuable tool! I'm doing my best to submit useful lists that detail information. I've expanded my personal list locations, and even started a yardlist to catch those birds that pass through here at the home base.
My wife and I are in talks about what to do for our wedding anniversary next year. Part of it may involve some travel out of state. I hope to be able to use this as an opportunity to open up more locations on my eBird life list.
We shall see!
Until then, the bike is going in the shop ASAP and getting road worthy, time to dust off the wheels, and take 'er fer a spin, keepin' the 'nocs out the spokes.

Planning the Birding

New Year, added focus.
Every year, I want to go birding more, and every year, I eek a little more out of birding, try different things, make it more productive I think. I really like eBird, and last year I expanded my use of it. Things kind of tapered off at the end of the year though.

After New Year, I decided to go birding around Lake Morton after I got off work. So far, this has been a pretty good activity, the couple of times I've made it. There's a bunch of introduced swans and ducks, but for some reason, this is the lake all the winter diving ducks seem to hang out. All winter, Scaup, Ring-necked, and Ruddy ducks play around. There's even a bunch of American pelicans that hang out around the edge of the lake in the winter. Summer time, there's still waders of all kinds, Wood ducks, occasional Solitary Sandpipers, not to mention all the exotics that are kept as wild pets.

There's the local hotspots as well, especially Circle B Bar Reserve. The sandpipers there have really been showing out! Reports of Ruff, Western, and a Phalarope. I got Stilt, Pectoral, White-rumped, Solitary, Least, and Semipalmated sandpipers in addition to a nemesis bird: Bobolink!

Holloway shines bright as the closest hotspot to my house. I'm still sparrowless at that site, but I'm managed to see 73 species there so far. This year, I've added 8 species to my site list there, and I've got high hopes for the rest of the year. Even after the sandpiper blitz at Circle B, Holloway is still the place I've seen the most species of birds. It's my goal to be 90+ species there by the end of November.

I also want to expand out of Polk county. Get into Pinellas and Ft Desoto. Visit some of the other coastal spots. I anticipate a birthday big day that encompasses the I-4 corridor somehow. This summer I plan to visit my parents, and I want to open up some places on the way there, and where they live with the kids. Visit the Louisiana State Arboretum and Chicot state park. The kids would like it there, I think. It seems to be set up similarly to the nature center at Circle B Bar. I want to tromp around Kisatchie National Forest looking for Red cockaded woodpeckers!

I'm making plans. Plans to bike and go birding, hike and go birding, teach kids about the outdoors and go birding. I can't wait to find out what I'll see next.

Keeping it Simple

Two trips to report on this week,


No big impressive species lists from Friday at Holloway Park in Lakeland, Three of us walked the big loop, and got some exercise. We also had some great views of different butterflies. We did have some very brief glimpses at some Northern Parulas and Blue-gray gnatcatcher. Most of the migrants it seems, were taking advantage of the tailwind provided by the tropical low in south FL that day.  Coolest thing I'd say I saw was a Loggerhead Shrike. I've always thought it's a good day when I see one of those. I did take some horrible pictures of an American Kestrel using my binoculars and my cell phone camera.

There he is!

I suppose it will pass as "art"

The girls (Katie age 9 and Emma age 6) woke me up this morning wanting to go bird Circle B Bar, once again, not a big list, but we did have good practice using binoculars, and had some excellent looks at a little blue heron, and a Turkey vulture. I was especially proud of Emma, who ID'd the Little Blue Heron using field marks, shape, leg color and bill color. She also spotted the turkey vulture, which was only 15-30 yards away. You could really make out the details on the turkey vultures's head, I think we were leaving just as the migrants were waking up, there was some BGGNs in the parking lot on the way out. We got there at 8AM and left at 9AM.

Here's the link to the ebird checklists:

Holloway Park: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19809773

Circle B: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19818484

I plan on being out at Holloway again at 09:15 Friday, and I'll certainly welcome any company.


Some notes on taking kids birding.

• Prepare to be patient. You've got to be there to help the kids, iding birds, finding birds, and keeping lists comes second.
• Make the outing about spending time together. They have fun birding, but I know it's mainly about being together, outside. The best part of our trip to Circle B was the ride home where I rolled all the windows down and they laughed while the wind blew through the car.
• The right equipment makes a big difference. The most important thing to consider when considering binoculars for kids is size. smaller, even if it means less magnifcation is better. If you have to choose, choose lower magnification and bigger objective lenses. A pair of 6x 30s is good enough. Especially to start a young birder off right.
• They'll love you forever if you remember to bring a snack. 

New Places and New Season

My girls are growing up!
I also have another one on the way.
Life is funny with the blessings that come your way.
Saturday August 30, KT (age 9) and Emma (age 6 almost 7) took a trek to explore a new park closer to our house called Holloway Park. It's an interesting little park that has a lot of potential to bring in some migrants. We got there at 8:15 in the morning, ready to find new birds in a new place.
There's a pond near the nature trail parking lot, and that's where we started. Fire ants got us, and E wound up with at least 6 bites. This proved to be the limiting factor for the day, as one can tolerate fire ant bites for only so long.

examining the ground for tracks.

At the pond we saw a Louisiana Heron (tricolor, I know, but this is a habit I keep), Sandhill cranes, and some black-bellied whistling-ducks.
Turning our attention toward the east side nature trail, we began walking down it, and discovered many tracks. Emma, despite her ant bites, loved seeing the tracks from various animals, and she was the track spotter for the day. We saw rabbit tracks, dog tracks, racoon tracks, bird tracks and bobcat tracks. Not to mention all the shoe prints on the ground from the runners. Holloway park is going to turn into a regular place to bird, I can tell. There's loads of oppurtunity and habitat.

look to the ground where they are looking, those are bobcat tracks!

I submitted my very first ebird.org checklist for this field trip! Not a very big list, but it's there now, and I hope to be submitting lots more. I hit the park again on Friday after dropping Grace ( age 4 almost 5) off at Pre-K. Ebird is a lot of fun, it's nice to have access to what's going on where. I resisted going there at first, but now that I use it, I've discovered some tools that I can use for developing web applications using Ebird data. I'll save those details for another blog though.

Katie, Emma, and I also joined the Audubon Society on the Saddle Creek fieldtrip again this year, and there wasn't a lot of birds out yet. The girls and I stayed out about an hour, and logged 18 species. The trip leaders only managed 31 according to ebird, so I don't feel so bad. Next week, Katie gets to pick where we will go, she was pushing pretty hard for Circle B this morning, but had fun anyway. Emma needs new nocs to get the most out of those sort of trips. The real highlight for me was watching at least two, maybe three or more Green herons fly around the ponds. The girls like getting a good look at the black vultures on the way out of the park.

From this trip I learned a couple of things, having decent kit for kids really helps, Emma needs a new pair of 'nocs. Right now she uses a pair of Tasco 7-15 X 35 bins that I inherited from my Nana when she passed. They are great for watching birds on the feeder, but the min focus distance is too great, the field of view too narrow, and if you use the zoom feature, the image is too dark. I did some research about good bins for kids, and came across the Bushnell Natureview 6x30. They came recommended by Bird Watcher's Digest. I'll let her write a review of them, I'm interested in seeing how a 6/7 year old figures binocular usefulness.

My kids love sharing what they are good at with me, when I give them the chance to share back and incorporate something we share together, we get the maximum learning and togetherness experience. On Sunday evening, Katie decided that she wanted to make a powerpoint about something bird related. I suggested she make one about all the places she's been to watch birds. So far, I have to say, it's pretty good. I'll have to find a way to get it online for people to watch.

We're already talking about the next trip out, and can't wait to give the next update!