The concept of overtime has been very relevant to me lately. I have been working some pretty nutso hours, and my football team of choice needed an extra period to steal a win over the weekend. As the birding goes, I also got an extra chance to make up for some missed points this fall. Jaime wrangled the kids on top of making me a pie and doing all of the million other things she does every day so that I could go out birding a couple of times over my birthday weekend. Thanks, Feeb!
My favorite view of Foster Park
I started off Friday afternoon walking to Foster Park. There weren’t many target birds left for me to get on the year there, and what few were possible (Orange-crowned Warbler, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Philadelphia Vireo) did not show up. I did have a nice hike, though. And the pleasant toot-toot-tooting of a Red-breasted Nuthatch was a new bird for me at the park, and tipped Foster’s eBird hotspot meter into the triple digits. It now has a green pin on the map instead of blue. That felt good!
Brown Creeper
A few of the regular winter birds were around, so I enjoyed them, like this Brown Creeper and its ace camouflage.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I dare you to name a bird that is more receptive to pishing and less wary of people than Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Not possible, right?
Groundhog
This plump fellow was watching me with great disdain. I suspect he will disappear into his burrow for the winter pretty soon.
Clouded Sulphur
Leps will also become scarce soon. Better enjoy them while they’re still around.
American Red Squirrel
A surprising entry from Team Mammal was this American Red Squirrel. I heard a weird alarm call that I didn’t recognize, and thinking it could be some unexpected bird or an infrequently-used cry to betray the presence of a raptor, I spent some time looking for it. This tiny rodent was the culprit. I was not disappointed, though, since I have only seen one in the park one or two other times. These squirrels are not nearly as common as the utterly abundant Fox Squirrel or even the less often encountered Eastern Gray Squirrel, and this one was pretty far away from the evergreens I thought they preferred.
The next afternoon I rode out in beautiful sunshine but nasty headwind to make it to Eagle Marsh. I failed spectacularly at getting all of the regular shorebirds earlier in the spring and fall, so I had quite a bit of lost time to make up. The overtime period was much needed.
Long-billed Dowitcher
Hoping for an easy pick-up of Semipalmated Sandpiper (which I missed and will probably end the year without. Ugh. Really?), I instead bumbled into a much less expected sight: Long-billed Dowitcher. I managed a distant, blurry photo for the split second it actually had its bill out of the water so that its ridiculous length is evident. Further examination of my photos show that there were actually two birds, which I missed entirely in the field. This is a life bird for me, and green bird #140 this year. Greater Yellowlegs was also around for #141 and it saved me from another embarrassing shorebird miss.
I am now beyond my total from last year’s motorless challenge, and only 9 birds away from a nice, round 150. Opportunities to add anything more to this list will be few and far between, but with some strategy I think it is still attainable. My most likely options that are still on the table are: Dunlin, Wilson’s Snipe, Purple Finch, Northern Pintail, American Black Duck, White-crowned Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee, Herring Gull, Common Loon, and Lapland Longspur. But I will take anything that the birding gods throw at me, especially since this is supposed to be a good year for some of the less common winter finches…
Greg and Birds 