Sunday, April 5, 2015

Crappy Birding is Good Birding

Dumps and landfills, reclamation sites and sewage ponds, treatment facilities and New Jersey...yes indeed putrescence and productivity seem to go hand-in-hand when it comes to birding. While some of my fondest birding memories come from the beautiful mountains in Arizona and Carolina, or from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the coasts, I have picked up just as many lifers and birds-of-interest around otherwise unsavory sludge basins, and it's safe to say that many other birders have too. 

The latest such expedition was for an immature American Golden-Plover discovered in west Phoenix--very near the Tres Rios hotspot--in a run-off basin for a nearby cattle farm. It didn't exactly smell like coffee in the morning (although there were trace elements...) but it was equally enlivening, a much more multi-sensory experience! After scouting along the pond for a few minutes I quickly picked out the plump Plover with a few vociferous Stilts.
The AGPL was somewhat wary and flew farther down the slough, which left me taking nearby inventory before continuing the pursuit.


Burrowing Owls, much wiser and unimpressed by all that, looked on with typical blasé dispositions. Some birds are tough to see but really attractive, and others are easy to see but unattractive. BUOWs are easy to see and super attractive, and we should thank them for this.


I don't know how they compare to all other Owls, but BUOWs seem to be very fecund. Everyone has seen those adorable images of 3-10 BUOW chicks all gregarious and bug-eyed around their burrow. How many other birds are there that lay (much less hatch and raise) that many eggs in a clutch? Outside of waterfowl, I struggle to think of any.


The AGPL has been around for a few days now and given pretty clear, accessible looks to most everyone who has chased it, though the bird seems to disappear later in the day. This immature bird was more brown overall than BBPL, with a longer primary extension and browner cap contrasting with the broad white supercilium.



Another telltale identification sign, which you may have noticed from the photos, is that American Golden-Plovers always face to their left. ALWAYS. If you see a similar plover that is facing to its right, it's either an immature Black-bellied or an adult European Golden (in which case, congratulations).


The marshy theme continued at the nearby B & M WMA, where I was hoping to hear Ridgeway's Rails (to no avail). Vocalizing Sora are always a treat, though they continued to deny me that perfect bird blogger moment when they step totally into the open and in good light. 


Likewise Common Yellowthroats continue to be a species I have not properly crushed, which is additionally embarrassing considering their numerical presence.  When I get the camera on these birds I just...lose...focus. They've been singing on territory for a couple weeks now.  



So the chasing was productive, not to mention easy, and the rest of the birding was nicely complementary. Saturday night I returned to the Salt River mesquite bosques in search of a Western Screech Owl photo, since I had failed there where everyone else succeeded earlier in the week, and brought some reinforcements, plus a tripod and junk.  

15 comments:

  1. Those are damn fine COYE photos and don't let anyone tell you different. We still need to trek out to our poo ponds sometime - an American Golden-Plover would certainly make it all worthwhile.

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    1. Poo ponds are an essential part of the birder's arsenal. Good for slinging on listservs and the like, good for the birds themselves.

      May the AMGPs flow to you this migration.

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  2. ...loved this post. Your photos of the owl are gorgeous, and I love your description of them too. Great photos of the yellowthroat as well. I love their posture!

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    1. Thanks Kelly,

      Yellowthroats are sharp-lloking bird! So seldom do they share themselves properly.

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  3. It's true--AMGPs do only face left. Wow, you make shorebird identification simple! You need to write your own field guide. I'm particularly looking forward to the empids section.

    Anyhow, congrats on a great lifer with some nice secondary bird photos besides.

    P.S. No more whining about Sora shots. Some of us have beaks-only LOOKS.

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    1. Cheers Josh,

      I'll whine all I want thank you very much--it's a very Sora-esque thing to do after all.

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  4. If those are not COYE crushes, then what the hell are?? Nice owl shots, and congrats on the all american lifer.

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    1. Wait. Was it a lifer? I am just making things up now.

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    2. Eh, you'll know 'em when you see 'em. COYE is such a bird that is deserves to be crushed; it deserves to be crushed long and good, and by someone (not me) who knows what they're doing.

      It was an All-American lifer--I like that!

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  5. Interested observation about the plovers facing only in one direction . . . kind of like woodpeckers always landing on the "other" side of the tree trunk.

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    1. Cheers Rob. I think we're way ahead of the field guides on this one, but they're loaded down in bureaucracy and politics after all. If a bird always looks left, well, then it gets claimed by the Libs and so on and so forth.

      It's a shame. As i understand it, the main way in which they determined to split Ivory-billed from Pileated Woodpecker was which side of the tree each bird preferred.

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  6. Laurence, great captures of the common yellowthroat! I made some sad attempts when I lived in S Dakota, but the buggars were very antsy and hard to snap. I had no idea about AG and BB adult plovers only facing left…I see/shoot BB plovers here in NE Florida…took pics today and yes the two birds are both facing left! :D What's up with that?!

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    1. Hey Jann,

      BBPL are much more adaptable birds than AGPL, which is why they have much larger, more distributed ranges. They can turn left, right, even look behind them a bit in search of food or danger. Some people point to this as an evolutionary advantage while others look at it as the result of low-brow, unrefined, and prurient breeding tendencies.

      Either way, it makes for some compelling birding!

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  7. "Dumps and landfills, reclamation sites and sewage ponds, treatment facilities and New Jersey.." Really? Jersey has some of the best birding in the states. Even if SE AZ got the #1 spot, NJ gets the #2: http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/featured-stories/15-favorite-birding-destinations-in-us-and-canada/ And here NJ is #8 and AZ is #10: http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-birdwatching/

    Be fair. Otherwise congrats on the Plover and the Common Yellowthroat.

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    1. That was the joke Kathleen!
      New Jersey is hella birdy; they have the World Series of Birding on Cape May...but it's also still...Jersey (I think the parallels between that and a reclamation site are solid).

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