Weekend Birding: Two New

This weekend, Robert and I took another shot at spring warblers.

On Saturday morning, within minutes of arriving at our location, we happened upon a large mixed flock of birders (though of varying size and plumage, they all showed the distinctive field marks of binoculars or camera with gigantic lens and were engaging in characteristic behaviors such as looking intensely at the tops of trees and peering into underbrush) gathered near the parking lot. It was the gathering of the monthly bird walk of the county Audubon society and we decided to join it. This was by far our best chance at finding warblers and the upside is that even if the birds aren't cooperative, it's fun to hang out with a group of like-minded folk, i.e. bird/nature geeks. (Birders are also in my experience just really nice. Robert suspects that the misanthropic birders just make a point of never joining a birding group. In any event, the people on Saturday were no exception.) The group was so large that we divided into two groups, a second leader (for our group) was pressed into service, and off we went.

Robert and I added the eastern kingbird and the Swainson's thrush to our NC bird list. I was the one who actually found the Swainson's thrush, which caused the following cascade of happy events: (1) Hey, I found a thrush!, (2) The expert designated as eyes-and-ears for our leader compliments me on the find and confirms it's the Swainson's!, (3) Several people in the group haven't seen a Swainson's before but they got good looks at this one!, (4) One woman is positively glowing with happiness at seeing the bird!, (5) Turns out I've not seen a Swainson's in NC before myself!


It's really great to be in a birding group in which you have a mid-level of expertise - you both benefit from the expertise of the super-knowledgeable birders and get to contribute to the experience of those who are less expert. I believe that having even one (relative) beginner in the group makes it more fun for everyone involved, actually.

We also added 5 warblers to our NC list:
Northern parula
Blackpoll warbler
American redstart
Worm-eating warbler
Black-throated blue warbler

The last two were also first-time (life) birds for us! (They stick to the east coast.)

This pretty much represents our sightings of these warblers:


Yes, sadly we did not actually see any of these warblers, but Eyes-and-ears was able to identify them by their song and the leader was able to play recordings of the songs on his cell phone so that we could be sure we had heard the right song. (It can be amazingly difficult to pick out high warbling songs with extremely loud cardinals, towhees, wrens, crows, blue jays, etc., all around.) So it was great to identify these birds but as our leader said, it's disappointing not to actually see them. Oh well, another time.

We also saw painted turtles, fish that some people thought were bluegills, and a whole lot of trees. At one point, several people were having a conversation about different varieties of trillium, a type of wildflower, that bloom near one area of the trail earlier in the spring. We got nice exposure to the various trails and areas of the site over the 4 hours we were out and some good tips on places to look for specific birds at different times of the year.

I also had that peculiarly satisfying experience of being able to say, "Really? I grew up in [my hometown]" to someone who is familiar with this small town of 15,000 people in a state very far away. (I was talking to our leader, an older man who grew up in the city 8 miles east of my hometown, and we got to compare notes.) It also turned out that he is a retired professor from My Masters University and that his son until recently was working as a contractor at the same company Robert works for in Raleigh.

Overall, I felt the lack of warbler sightings was more than made up for by hearing 2 new life birds, hearing 3 other new NC warblers, a long walk in a beautiful place in gorgeous weather, and enjoying the company of fellow bird nerds.

It was supposed to rain overnight (and it did), so I was more hopeful that we would see warblers this morning.

But when I woke up this morning, I was feeling kind of sick and grumpy, and I complained that I missed my morale officer. "Do you feel like that?" Robert said, pointing to a clever photo of a "sick" washing machine in an American Express ad that I had pulled out of the Economist last week. (I typically have some picture from a magazine or mail advertisement sitting on the table next to where I eat; I'm not sure why other than I enjoy having something there I like looking at. And yeah, it's often rabbit-related.) I agreed that I did, then had an idea - I put together this tableau with the idea that if the sick washing machine represented me, then by the laws of sympathetic magic, I should be made less sick under the influence of the pills and less grumpy under the influence of the bunny-love.



We made a somewhat early start for the park we commonly bird rather near my apartment (the same one that held the Celtic festival last weekend). By the time we got there, I could feel the effects of the magic working.

Every time we see the community garden there, we think that we should see a rabbit taking advantage of all the veggies, and this morning, we were there early enough to see one. Unfortunately we had just been talking about the monstrous slugs and the various kinds of BABs (big-ass bugs) in the garden, so when Robert made one of those "I've just seen something that's really caught my attention" sounds, my mind immediately went to scary insect and I averted my eyes, thus missing the good view of the bunny. But I did see an extremely fast-moving rabbit-sized brown shape through the gaps in the wooden fence around the garden as the rabbit took off for safety. Robert reported that the rabbit looked large, healthy, and well-fed. (In this place, I bet so.) It wasn't the same as having a nice pet with Katy or Leo, but it was good. I needed a dose of bunny, even a small, fleeting one.

We were also rewarded within the first half hour or so by seeing four species of warblers (clockwise from top right):

Common yellowthroat (new NC)
Pine warbler
Prairie warbler (new NC)
Black and white warbler (new NC)


We also saw our first NC grey-cheeked thrush, which was another find of mine. (I also found a wood thrush and of course there were a gazillion robins around, including one sitting on a nest. We actually came across several nesting birds.) I was hot on thrushes this weekend, I guess.


And we happened to run across the leader from the other group on Saturday, whom we'd met, and got to fill him in on our warbler situation. (He was there for a walk with a woman I took to be his partner and didn't have his binoculars with him.) He also helped Robert get the last 20% of the way to identifying the flycatcher we were hearing (a great-crested). So, yep, small world.

(And yes, I've been playing with Corel Paint Shop Pro, but it's more like Corel Paint Shop Rank Beginner where I'm concerned.)