Stephanie A. Kesler: Birds of the Day

Tropical Paradise - Again!!!

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 01:22:26 GMT

Another great day in Margaritaville!!!!!

This morning, Peter, The Suze, and I puttered over to Pine Island. Pine Island is another wonderful example of rural Florida - the old Florida.

We had a great time - lots of bird watching (Pelicans, Black Skimmers, Royal and Sandwich Terns, Little Blue Heron,etc.), geocaching, sightseeing, telephone poles, etc. Just tons of fun.

Speaking of Pelicans:

Very pretty red flowers - Susie thinks they may be lillies.

Me and The Suze on St. Jude's trail. Home of the St. Jude's Trail Geocache:

We had a very difficult time finding the trail head. We were expecting the usual brown sign. However, on our 3rd pass, we finally saw this:

Pine Island has a very spiffy thing about painting telephone poles:

Gecko!:

Dragonfly:

Red Necked Grebes in Action

Tue, 04 May 2004 05:02:02 GMT

The sun location was perfect this evening for some great shots of Red Necked Grebes in action!

This guy is sure squawking about something!

Tue, 04 May 2004 04:59:30 GMT

This red necked grebe definitely has one stretched out neck.

Wildlife Sounds

Mon, 03 May 2004 05:22:39 GMT

Within the space of just a few days, scads of birds have returned.

As I type, I can hear a ruby crowned kinglet right outside the window

Just a few minutes ago, a cacophony of squawking and squeeking occured as two Sandhill Cranes flew over the house. Those cranes make the most unbelievable noises!

This morning, a varied thrush was thrumming loudly (a varied thrush call sounds like a pitch pipe) as I was attempting to become one with the universe via zen meditation.

The slate colored juncos have been here for several days as have my favorites loud mouths - the red neck grebes. The grebes are hilarious - they have loud loud insistant mating cries. And these guys start as soon as it gets light - which in a few weeks will be around 3:00 AM. It gets difficult to sleep with all that sex going on outside the window.

And to top it off, when I looked out the window to spot the Sandhill Cranes - I was wondering if they had landed in our yard, I saw Micro Moose trying to turn one of our birdfeeders inside out.

Vet. Students get to do the Coolest Things

Sun, 11 Jan 2004 02:26:51 GMT

Alix's vet school's wildlife clinic is taking care of Trumpeter Swan that was shot (by a hunter who mistook the swan for a duck - which is ridiculous).

The swan needs to be fed via feeding tube which Alix has to thread down the swan's throat. Not a real popular move with the swan.

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 02:20:28 GMT

Thanks to Bob Walp, a GCI co-founder and an absolute gem of a human being, I'm back on an Edward Tufte kick. Bob gave me Tufte's new work, a short but deadly little publication, The Cognitive Style of Power Point. I read it today and am still digesting it. I'll have quite a bit to say about it in the next few days

However, after reading the paper, I knocked about on Tufte's superb Ask ET page. I stumbled across the most marvelous link to the animation of A Day in the Life of Air Traffic Over the Continental U.S. This is a must view - although even over a broadband connection it will take a few minutes to load. It is fascinating. Being an Alaskan, I get a particular kick out of watching the planes head off towards Alaska from Seattle, Salt Lake, and Minneapolis.

Fri, 30 May 2003 15:16:51 GMT

I crawled out of bed yesterday at the crack of dawn to go birding with the local Audubon club. Fortunately, it wasn't a long crawl - the club was birding at the Lagoon and the Inlet Mud Flats. Mere feet from our front door

It was a totally perfect birding morning - sunny with superb light, absolutely still, and the tide was just going out. And boy, did we take advantage of the rare perfection. Lots of good birds:

Dunlins
Ruddy Turnstones. A Steph favorite - a very cool bird.
Sanderlngs. These little guys were a bit confusing at first. We really thought they were Western Sandpipers. However, once we saw that they were they same size as the Dunlins, we realized that they were Sanderlings. Western Sandpipers are much smaller "Peeps" and their breasts are not nearly as white as the Sanderlings. See - it's this sort of minutia that we birders live for.
Short Billed Dowitchers
Hudsonian Godwits
Savannah Sparrow. Their song is quite similar to a Red Winged Blackbird's. Just quieter.
Lincoln's Sparrow. A very happy joyful song.
Orange Crowned Warbler
Common Snipe
Lots of Bonaparte's and Herring Gulls
The usual ducks

It's clear (actually clarity is the problem) that I need new binoculers. My trusy Nikon's are now out of alignment and it will cost a few hundred dollars and a trip to the factory to get them realigned. At that price, it's probably better to just get a new pair of binocs.

Wed, 21 May 2003 04:42:43 GMT

So, I staggered out of bed at 5:00 AM and made it over to the Campbell Creek Science Center by 6:00 AM for the weekly Audubon bird walk. Not only was it way early but it was also way cold: 28 degrees. I dressed warmly, but I have to admit I was unprepared for winter.

Not a wide variety of birds here yet - which is in a way, good. It provides an opportunity to tune up my ear before the onslaught. This morning's birds were all bird songs. I hardly needed my bird book and binoculars at all.

Today's birds:

American Dipper (Water Ouzel): one of my all time favorite birds. This guy was dipping in and out of the creek water - a total cutie. Plus we found his nest under the bridge - a big brown flying saucer clay looking thing.
Varied Thrush
Yellow Rumped Warbler (Myrtle Warbler to us old timers)
Ruby Crowned Kinglet - these little guys have to be all lungs.
Slate Colored Junco

Tue, 20 May 2003 05:13:17 GMT

I'm going to attempt to get out of bed at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning: 5:00 AM (actually at this time of year in Anchorage, 5:00 AM is two hours past the crack of dawn). I'm going on an Audubon morning bird walk at the Campbell Creek Science Center.

What I want to know is why the birds insist on getting up so early. They certainly don't have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Sun, 18 May 2003 20:23:44 GMT

Tweetie of the Day

Well - this is a modified post. I was in the yard this morning, when I saw what I thought was a pair of Northern Shrikes zooming by overhead. From my vantage point, I thought I saw very distinctive white patches on the underside of the wings - and the bird looked grey and had a distinctive call.

Well, I was in the yard again this evening when the pair of birds went zooming by again. I was still thinking Shrike until I got a good look at the profile - big long honking beaks. And then one of pair broke away, tucked its wings and dove straight down into the water.

Duh - Belted Kingfishers. sigh...

Wed, 14 May 2003 04:54:47 GMT

Here's something totally cool! Check out the LoonCam!

Here's the description from the website:

The LoonCam is actually two cameras -- one perched in a floating, covered nest on Connors Lake in West Anchorage and the other on the shore. Camera views alternate about every two minutes.

The overhead view directly over the nesting mama is just fabulous!

The "floating nest" is actually pretty funny looking. But obviously very functional.

Sun, 11 May 2003 00:43:35 GMT

A new bird on my life list - the Limpkin.

This is a very big deal. Limpkins can be tough to come by in the life list department

We picked up this eccentric guy this evening after dinner and after a fair amount of wine. This is the easiest addition ever to my life list. We parked the car in the Longmeadows Bird Sanctuary after dinner (and wine - a middling Pouilly Montrachet and a nice Latour Chardonnay), got out of the car and there was the Limpkin. It doesn't get much easier than that!

Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:16:16 GMT

It must be Spring - the Lagoon ice went out yesterday and I just heard my first Ruby Crowned Kinglet of the year singing outside my office window.

Sat, 26 Apr 2003 06:18:31 GMT

A pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes floating on the now vast expanse of open water.

Why are these Barrow's Goldeneyes and not Common Goldeneyes? Two significant distinguishing features on the male:

1) The white patch in front and below the eye is a long oblong. In the Common Goldenye, it is a roundish splotch.

2) The back of the Barrow's Goldeneye has much more black showing with just some white patches in a line. The Common Goldeneye back has quite a bit more white "ladder like" markings.

Thu, 09 Jan 2003 05:44:07 GMT

I got Peter and the birds a heated bird bath for Christmas - warm, open water is critical for birds in the winter - so our new bird bath should be just the thing.

Peter installed the "bird hot tub" right under our very active feeder. Everyday we eagerly look out the window hoping to see our chickadees in the bird bath with little bath brushes and rubber duckies. But alas, the tweeties are completely ignoring our very inviting tub. sigh...

I have no idea what's wrong. I've tried sprinkling bird seed all around the bath in an attempt to lure them to the water. But no luck. The water looks soooooo inviting. I just don't know what's wrong.

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:55:58 GMT

I saw one these today on our suet feeder. They're around but not common. Peter would have been very excited. I think they are an extremely pretty bird. And like all Corvids, they are mouthy!

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 21:10:39 GMT

Peter is very excited - we had a little downy woodpecker at one of our suet feeders this morning. In the birding world, a downy woodpecker sighting is pretty commonplace. But Peter is new to bird feeding so he's pretty psyched.

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 05:01:59 GMT

In consultation with a local Keystone bird expert, I think I saw one of these yesterday:

A Broad-Tailed Hummingbird. The way Hummingbirds dart and zip about remind me of the Snitch in Harry Potter.

Sun, 02 Jun 2002 01:38:51 GMT

As I type at 9:30 PM in our little cabin deep in the Massachusets woods, I hear the two very distinctive calls of the Barred Owl. This guy woke me up from a very sound sleep last at around 2:30 AM. His call was very loud and very demanding - I thought I had to hop right out of bed and go feed him! I've never heard a Barred Owl call before and had no idea what type of owl was hooting last night. But I looked him up first thing this morning and there is absolutely no other owl that has these two calls - and the linked sound file confirms it. My favorite was the second call - a giant HOOOOOOO-HAH (which is not included in the linked sound file) Whatta guy!

So my question is this - can I count him on my life list even if I didn't see him? I made an absolutely dead-on id based on call but never saw him. I can't remember the rules on life lists...

Fri, 17 May 2002 04:32:12 GMT

The shorebirds seem to be late this year. However, at lunchtime today, with the help of a birder from Texas, I caught a few fun birds at the mouth of Fish Creek:

American Pipit - fun LBJ (little brown job) that really isn't a shore bird but does like to hang out in marshes. They bob up and down.
Surfbird - I usually see Surfbirds up on the "Football Field" at the foot of O'Malley Peak A favorite bird of mine. It took us a bit to get the correct ID on this one.

The Texas birder (who was very knowledgeable) thought we may also have seen a a Long Toed Stint. But as Sibley says, Stints are very very difficult - although the Texas guy has seen them But they're not at all common in Anchorage so our sighting is quite iffy.

Wed, 15 May 2002 05:03:03 GMT

Here's my first experiment with a category - birds of the day. I'm a former avid bird watcher (life list of around 280) but I haven't seriously birded in several years. But I do like to keep my hand in. So I decided to start a daily tweetie log on my blog.

Today's sightings:

On the mudflats by Fish Creek at 8:00 PM (not much - tide was way out):

Mallards
A few Hudsonian Godwits

On the Lagoon at 8:30 PM:

A VERY big deal - A Common Loon!!!!!!
Lots of Red Necked Grebes
One Scaup (not sure whether Lesser or Greater)
Several American Widgeons
One Northern Shoveler