Category Archives: I Am Not A Birder

Bufflehead

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I am not a birder but I am fairly certain that this is a male Bufflehead duck. Buffleheads are very small ducks that, like Mergansers, dive for their meals. Unlike other diving ducks, Buffleheads are capable of vertical takeoffs. Supposedly. I have seen this guy with another male on several occasions but I have never seen either dive or exhibit the flight trick. Both have flown short distances but neither has actually left the water in my presence. They seem to use these short flights to cross the water in a hurry. I may be witnessing distraction displays because these guys usually “fly” perpendicular to my boat rather than straight away. JK

I Am Not A Birder #4

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

I am not a birder but I believe this bird is a juvenile Tricolored Heron. I’ve seen a couple of these beauties before but always from a distance. Sometimes they look like skinny Great Blues to me.

A very animated fisher, he puts his whole body into catching his prey, not just his neck. Sibley states that these birds will often run after fish but I didn’t see any of that kind of action, just a few full-body lunges.

These were the first shots I’ve gotten of these truly elegant birds that were good enough to show to anyone. I’ve never been close enough to get a pic that showed any detail, but this guy was very cooperative. He felt safe beside his island of grass and I stayed behind one of my own. Joe Stealth strikes again. JK

I Am Not A Birder #3

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Monday, June 9, 2008

I am not a birder and here’s the proof. On May 9th I posted this same pic and identified these birds as Common Terns. I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

These handsome fellows are actually Least Terns. I was looking for Piping Plovers Sunken Meadow Park and I thought a pic of one the signs that marks the protected nesting areas of the plovers might make a nice addition to a post. That was when I noticed that the signs also included Least Terns. The illustration on the sign looked suspiciously like the birds that I thought were Common Terns out of breeding plumage.

Uh oh. I could feel an embarrassing moment coming on. So I emailed my friends Janine and Nancy at Sweetbriar Nature Center and asked them. Janine originally wrote they were penguins in disguise, but I think she was just putting me on because then she identified them as Least Terns. Nancy was unsure so she forwarded my email to Birder X, another Sweetbriar educator, who also confirmed that the birds in question were indeed Least Terns. Birder X also informed us that these terns are threatened but that they nest here.

When I was writing the original post I was concerned that I might be confusing Common Terns with Forster’s Terns. I was so busy looking at tail and wing lengths that I missed what should have been obvious. One turned page in my Sibley’s shows that distinctive white forehead. Here is a pic of the sign that helped show me the error of my ways. JK

I Am Not A Birder #2

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Monday, May 26, 2008

I am not a birder but I do have field guides and they do come in handy. Generally, when I see a yellow bird I think Tweety. Blame it on a classical education. Then, when I get the song “Canary in a Coal Mine” out of my head, I start to think warblers. Not because I’m any kind of expert but because while flipping through my field guides, I’ve noticed that a lot of warblers are yellow. So, the warbler section was my first stop when I started seeing these little guys at David Weld Sanctuary.

I’m fairy certain that this is a male Yellow Warbler. Very pretty little birds. I love the reddish streaks on its chest. What a fashion statement. It really makes the bird. He should do something about those beady eyes, though.

There are at least two other species of yellow birds that I see at David Weld. A good friend of mine identified one as a Goldfinch. The other bird I’ve been seeing is, I think, a Common Yellowthroat. If I come up with any decent shots of either mystery bird I’ll post them. Meanwhile, here’s another pic of a Yellow Warbler that I took about three weeks ago. JK

I Am Not A Birder #1

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I am not a birder, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just like taking the pictures. I don’t really know the species. I just know some of the basics. Blue Jays are blue. Cardinals are the red ones. Crows are black, Seagulls are white, and they’re both noisy. Beyond that, I need to hit the field guides for clues.

These are two shots I took at David Weld Sanctuary about three weeks ago. This guy was singing away in a dense thicket. It was his voice that caught my attention. Had he not been singing I probably would never have noticed him, but he was putting down some great licks and I wanted to find out who he was.

When I got home and was reviewing the day’s catch I pulled out my Sibley’s and tried to identify this Robin-sized songster. My first guess was a Wood Thrush. But the eyes weren’t right. Wood Thrushes have all brown eyes and this guy has a dark pupil with a golden ring around it. Also, the Wood Thrush has a comparatively smaller tail than this bird. And this bird has a long thinnish bill that Wood Thrushes do not have. So it was back to turning pages. And lo, five pages later was my bird, a Brown Thrasher. Or at least I think it is. I can’t be sure because I am not a birder. But perhaps some of you are and can confirm or contest my guess. At any rate, here is another pic of this guy belting out a tune. Go baby go. JK