Live-blogging a life-changing event!

My beautiful cellphone--the little one with the earphones next to it

Something very exciting is happening as I type this post. I'm live-blogging this seminal event in my birding life so I can share with you the thrill and the anticipation of what should make me a better birder in the field! Details, you ask? Here they are:

At this very second, I am loading bird songs from the Stokes Eastern birds CDs onto my new Sony Ericcson Walkman 580i cellphone... with the idea that... I will be able to use my phone like a BirdJam!

The third CD's tracks are almost finished copying to my phone's memory chip. I just got the phone a few weeks ago, but I didn't get the extra memory chip until last night, so you can experience right along with me the latest in my long series of hare-brained schemes!

Okay--I've just unplugged the phone from my computer. I will now attempt to access the bird songs through the Walkman player option on the phone.... I pressed the little W button, and here's the menu... Oh wait! I need to put on my little earphone things, so everyone in the cubeys around me remains unaware of this little non-work-related activity....

OH MY GOD I'm listening to the American Bittern!!!!

Okay--I need to calm down! Someone will notice that I look awake and realize I'm NOT doing my work!

Admittedly, there are some drawbacks -- Lang Elliott's voice being the big one. I don't have the BirdJam software which is supposed to remove his voice and organize the tracks and stuff like that. But OMG! I can just start playing the call with the volume on low, then increase it for the actual call! (P.S.--I love Lang Elliott.)

So here's the plan:

1. On break (10:50 a.m. Eastern time), I will take the phone outside with me and Niki (and our coffee), and I'll see just how loud I can play the calls on speaker phone.

2. After work, I'll stand near the back fence at the Marsh House and play the sora call and attempt to get a response from the real birds, who have been calling almost non-stop lately.

3. A bunch of soras will come out, pose for photos, sign a few autographs, and then go on about their sora business!

Oh I'm soooooooo excited I can barely sit still!

MOMENT OF SOBRIETY: If you've been reading this blog since the beginning, you're probably aware that I tend to come up with some VERY ambitious plans and I'm often (quite often) disappointed.

Remember the homemade spotting scope that yielded images that resembled something you'd see on a bad acid trip?

Remember the many attempts at digiscoping with my little Meade Condor scope?

Remember the homemade digiscoping adapter that broke my Nikon CP4800 camera? Let's all bow our heads in a moment of silence for said Nikon camera. Sigh.

But this time it's different! This time, it might actually all work out! I'll come back and update you after my break. Then we'll know whether this crazy little plan has any chance of succeeding.

UPDATE!-Delia 1, Cruel Fate 0! I played the song of a chipping sparrow outside on our walking trail, and who should fly up and sing in response but a chipping sparrow?? IT WORKS! Update later tonight or perhaps tomorrow on how the home birds respond. I can't believe it--it's really working!

Big Birding Day Part 2

Sunday yielded so many birds and photos that I had to divide it into two posts. Here is part 2 of my big birding day. Unfortunately, I didn't have Gretchen along -- she would've loved seeing all these birds.

Sadly, I noticed that the dead loosestrife is now giving way to brand-new loosestrife. I think now would be a good time to go out there with some garbage bags and pull up little loosestrife plants. I would need hip waders, though.
These shoots are each about 4 or 5 inches tall (above the waterline). I don't know whether the biological controls that the marsh owners told me about are working. Doesn't look like it--yet.

All afternoon, I could hear soras doing their whiny little calls almost non-stop so I worked up a passable imitation (by whistling) to try to perhaps coax the soras from their hiding places.

First, I checked out the boardwalk and spooked a green heron, who flew to the viewing platform at the end of the boardwalk. I snuck up, crawling army-style along the boards, knowing that Mary and Susan would do the same thing:

Gotcha! Thank goodness no one was around to see or photograph my "stealth." So after the mama (?) heron flew, two smaller birds flew as well – babies! But not so baby that they couldn’t fly away; I tried my best to get a shot of at least one of them. Here's the best shot I got:
No, no, really -- click for larger and look near the middle of the frame, just at the top of the grass--it's there!

So I guess the green herons have been here for a while, judging from the size of these young. Cool! Now I just had to find and photograph a sora and see if the American bitterns were back yet.

I kept doing my imitation whistle to which soras often responded, but I never drew one out of cover. Still, at one point I spooked another bird and realized it was an American bittern! Finally! I never did hear the pumperlunk sound, but I watched him in my binocs as he flew to the opposite end of the marsh. I tried to chase him down but of course he flew again when I got close. No pictures, though--I was just trying to follow him with my eyes and make sure it was the bittern.

I did get some other pictures, however:

These Canadas were quite perturbed by my presence almost from the moment I stepped onto the marshland:

Farther down the path beside Long Pond, I spotted two green herons in a tree. I think they were adults. This is as close as I could get, and I'm shooting into the setting sun:

This little yin and yang formation was a lucky shot--I think these are wood ducks (can't remember):

The tree swallows were doing their acrobatics all over the place; this guy sat still only long enough for a quick snapshot:

I also got some great photos in the backyard, as the feeders and trees around the yard were alive with songbirds. This photo of a yellow warbler would've been awesome were it not for that stupid branch!

I had time for one shot before he flew, and the dumb branch blocked him. Sigh.

Then as if to mock me, a branch obscured this American goldfinch's face as well!

Curse you, little tree!

Mr. Cardinal, wondering what I'm doing:

We still have white-crowned sparrows, though I imagine these guys will be leaving pretty soon.

The white-throateds are already gone.

The lilacs are blooming!

I'll finish up with these pictures of some wild daffodil-like flowers we have growing near the back fence -- are these just some other "breed" of daffodil?

Tonight, my work birding friend Hillel is coming out to the marsh, so I'll have a chance to try my little sora whistling technique and see if I can attract a little attention.

My marsh/yard list for Sunday:

American Bittern

Green heron

Sora
Yellow Warbler
Baltimore Oriole

Wood Duck

Osprey

Ovenbird
Red-winged blackbird
Tree Swallow
Barn swallow
Chipping Sparrow
House Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow (several—shouldn't they be gone?)
Northern Cardinal
Gray Catbird
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Canada Goose
Common Grackle
Blue Jay
Killdeer
Mallard
American Robin
European Starling
Chimney Swift
Tufted Titmouse
Downy Woodpecker
Carolina Wren

Big Birding Day!

I accomplished most of my weekend goals except for going to the native plant sale at Rhonymeade. Kat was having her TAs over on Saturday for a big grading party, and so I had to make guacamole and stuff for them. It's been so cold that I couldn't plant anything anyway, so I'll just go get my veggies and stuff from this Amish greenhouse near the Marsh House.

Still--what a great weekend! The weather was great, with only some clouds here and there and a few showers at night. But the days were really great, and I got a lot done. The freshly mowed lawn:

It wasn't too bad--the sun was in and out of the clouds and a cool breeze was blowing the whole day, and I didn't get attacked by any snakes or bears or tigers lurking in the tall weeds and nigh-impenetrable dandelions. The lawn was a little damp, but I got it done and I got some good exercise.

The greatest part of the weekend, however, was the birding. My pal Gretchen and I got up at the crack of dawn (5:40am) on Sunday and made it out to my new favorite birding place, the Coburn Rail Tunnel/Trail. We arrived a little after 6am under heavy cloud cover, and we were immediately treated to a demonstration by two cerulean warblers flitting around a treetop and then flying off in close formation. No pics of these guys, as the entire thing lasted only just long enough to get the binocs on them and ID. Still--what a great little bird!

The non-stop chorus of bird songs when we first got there made it difficult to concentrate on just one species at a time, but I did my best. I think the key to birding this place is to get there super super early; we may try to get there by 5:30 next time, because even at 6am, the sun was already up.

We then crossed the bridge over the creek and were innundated by a group of about eight Baltimore and orchard orioles, all calling and flying around and having early-morning fun. All these birds were lifers for Gretchen, and there were so many of them that we were a little overwhelmed. It's been such a long time since last spring, and I've really missed seeing the spring birds!

Gretchen's quite the avid beginning birder, spotting and IDing a pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers with the Stokes field guide. She spotted and IDd a black-and-white warbler too. I was so proud of her; she's got as much birding zeal as I do, so we had a great time seeing all kinds of species. It's so much fun to go birding with her; every bird is new to her, and she just never gets tired of seeing and hearing them.

Here's a list of the birds we saw and heard during the three hours we were there:
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Northern Parula
Cerulean Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Osprey
Ovenbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Cardinal
Canada Goose
Mallard
European Starling
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
American Crow

And as promised, I remembered to get pictures!
Just one of the many Baltimore orioles we saw:

A blue-gray gnatcatcher--Gretchen's first ID using a field guide:
Another pic of the gnatcatcher:There were two of them, and they stayed in the tree looking for insects and food for at least five minutes--enough time for us to thoroughly fall in love with them and their cuteness. Gretchen digs the tiny little fat birds; she says she wants to grab them and put them in her pocket. I don't know how the gnatcatcher would feel about this, though.

A blurry pic of the black-and-white warbler, which we watched for about five minutes; he was down at eye level in a small tree near the bank of the creek:

I only wish my photos of the American redstart would've come out; he was beautiful! But all I got was a blur surrounded by tack-sharp-focus tree branches. Sigh.

After a bit of time on the rail trail getting warbler-neck, we decided to climb the hill into which the rail tunnel is dug; it's probably about a 250-foot climb, maybe more. Pretty steep, but it was fun--and we saw some really neat things along the way. This tree has obviously been the victim of hungry (and pecky) birds:

This tree looked to us almost like it was trying to push itself up out of the ground using its above-ground "arms" to free itself:
There were several trees like this, with roots all exposed like there just wasn't enough dirt to cover them up:
Maybe it was erosion from the rains?

There was a nice walking trail a little way up the hill:
But we decided to climb to the top and there we found another path along the crest of the hill. We saw a beautiful gray-green landscape of new growth:
The air was cool, and this gray-green color was soooo soothing so we stood there for a while and drunk it all in. Those crazy orioles were all around us the whole time.

Gretchen is way gutsier than I am, climbing this rocky outcrop at the top of the hill:
See her up there in the gray sweatshirt?

We also found some neat flowers on the hillside; perhaps some of you field botanists can help us out with IDs.


And here's a weird plant:
The way down:
Oy vey, my poor ankles! But it was fun, and a couple of Advil later I felt good as new.

We also found some cool bugs, including this millipede:
And just what is this shockingly green bug?

At about 9am, we left Coburn and drove down Long Road, which connects Penns Creek Rd to Millheim, hoping to see some brown thrashers as I have before. We didn't see any of them, but we did see a yellow warbler, more orioles, a Northern flicker, tree and barn swallows, a bluebird, and this hungry TuVu -- this one's for you, Lynne!
He was far away in a cow pasture, so the quality's not great but you can kinda see whatever it is he's eating. Neato. This was the first time I'd ever seen a TuVu eating.

We also discovered our mutual love for cows (photos by Gretchen):

We even stumbled upon the filming of a new musical, The Sound of Moosic, featuring this young actress as Maria, the role Julie Andrews made famous:

Perhaps I'll wait until it comes out on video. I'm really not a big fan of that big old nun singing "Climb Every Mountain."

In Millheim, we found this mallard family (great photos again by Gretchen):

Look at that intelligent little brown eye, scoping us out.

Tomorrow, I'll upload the photos from my Sunday evening marsh trip--during which I FINALLY saw green herons and an American bittern!