My Commonplace Book

Thank you for the nudges, lesliepear!  It really helps to be reminded to get back to posting ... and even more, to know I'm missed.

And I've been wanting to post about something for a week, so I was grateful to be nudged into writing this. :-)

Last Friday I drove up to a very rural area near the Pennsylvania border hoping to see the two Short-eared Owls that had been reported hunting over a particular field at dusk. The drive was around 60 miles, the last third on a series of increasingly narrow, curving country roads.

( Waiting and watching )

While we waited in the cold and watched the other birds and animals, I turned to the southwest every so often and took a photo of the sun setting over the fields.





( Two more sunset photos )

( Harriers -- and owls! )

( GPS )

What glorious weather we had today -- and tomorrow is supposed to be even better!

Although we didn't break any records, the temperature hit 69º today, with the sun shining in a bright blue sky and a light, pleasant breeze. I went for a walk at the lake in a Coolmax (very thin) long-sleeved top -- and had to keep pushing the sleeves up because it was so warm!

Above the lake I turned off the paved path and took a shortcut through the woods along the stream -- not because it's a shortcut, but just to be in the woods. Later I crossed the stream so I could go through the woods all the way back to the lake. I felt a sense of accomplishment crossing the stream, because we've had rain and it's full. It's only a very small stream -- even filled with water it's still only about six feet wide and about 8 to 10 inches deep. But I didn't want to end up stepping in cold water up to my ankles, or even worse falling in it! The small rocks people have thrown in to step on are pointy and unsteady, and with my stiff joints and poor balance I can't always do it when the water isn't low.

But I found a stick to use for balance, and made it across! I also found a three very interesting rocks to bring home, and had some especially good bird experiences. The walk was very healing for me.

( Birdy stuff )

I only walked about 2½ miles, but I stopped so often and poked around for so long that I was out from 2:00 until 4:30! After I cooled off with some water and rested awhile I had a bowl of my beautiful ham and bean soup.

In my post about the jumping from summer to winter too fast I was complaining about the suddenness of the change from unusually warm to very chilly -- not about the weather today. It was gorgeous! The high was 57, the sun was bright, and there was just enough of a breeze to flutter the leaves a bit. Now that the weather has changed the leaves are starting to change too, and I had a wonderful 2½ mile walk this afternoon around the big lake.

I didn't see any exceptional birds -- a Chipping Sparrow and a Yellow-rumped Warbler were the only migrants -- but the White-throated Sparrows are here, and that always makes me happy. They come right out when you pish, and I love the way they all come over and peer at you curiously. They're so cute!

The highlight of the day today wasn't birds, but animals.

( Close encounters )

So I had a great time. I didn't do anything else productive all day, but I did get exercise and refreshment for my spirit.

I finally got out for a walk for the first time in almost a month! I was having dinner when I noticed the readout on the indoor-outdoor thermometer -- temperature outside was only 80º! I finished eating, put my sneakers on, grabbed my stuff and was out the door.

It was wonderful! I didn't get very far -- the far end of the small lake is only about a mile from the house, but it was so lovely, and there was such a plethora of interesting birds, that I ended up staying there for over an hour. By that time the sun was very low and I didn't want to walk home through the woods in the dark, so instead of continuing the walk, I just went home.

The upper end of the lake has two new little islands where the feeder stream dumps silt during heavy rains. The larger one has been there for two or three years, so it's probably about 75 feet long by now, and sort of L shaped. The smaller one, closer to the stream, is about 20 feet long. The area around them is still under water, but the silt deposits have made it very shallow. No islands were left in the lake when it was originally dug (there are no natural lakes in Maryland), so it's very attractive to birds as a good place to forage and nest safe from predators, especially now that a variety of plants have colonized it. They were beautiful to no one but a birder when they were just mudflats, but they're very pretty now that they're full of shrubs, wildflowers and other attractive wild plants, with just a narrow "beach" at the edges.  The larger island is nearest to the shore, starting only about 25 feet away.

When I got there I saw a Green Heron directly across from me, foraging busily along the waterline, and a Great Blue Heron standing in the shallows and preening. I was delighted! I see great blues all the time, but they're always lovely; and green herons, while not rare, are unusual enough to be very interesting -- especially so close! And there's a bench right there -- what could be better?!

I settled in with my binoculars and my camera and just enjoyed the beauty. I wish I'd had my telephoto lens with me -- I could have gotten some amazing photos! But I'm hoping some of the ones I took are good -- I haven't had time to look at them yet. I'll try to post them tomorrow.

While I was sitting and watching I saw motion at the far end of the large island, and looked through the binocs ... it was a killdeer foraging on the sand! All three birds stayed, and so did I. There were plenty of other birds, too. Barn swallows swooped and swirled. Red-winged blackbirds and goldfinches flew back and forth calling "konk-la-ree!" and "potato chip! potato chip!" Several Canada geese were hanging around at the far tip of the island, and some mallards were dabbling near the south shore. A couple of American crows cawed at each other in the trees on my left. Fish crows and a downy woodpecker called from the woods along the stream. Song sparrows and Carolina wrens sang along the shore. A ring-billed gull flew over the lake and headed west, a very unusual sighting at this time of year. The lake was still except when a fish leaped made the reflections ripple in a widening ring until all was still again.

It was pure heaven. Although we have green space -- woods, lakes and trails -- this is a heavily populated area. It's not often that it feels as peaceful and satisfying as it did tonight.

A woman and her 9-year-old grandson stopped to look at the big gray bird standing in the water, and I told them it was a great blue heron and offered them the bins to look through. I pointed out the green heron and the killdeer, and the boy thought it was really cool. We had a pleasant conversation -- she told me a funny story about having grown up on a lake in southern New Jersey. The Canada geese were a nuisance, so one day her father and a friend decided to relocate the flock. They managed to catch a bunch of them, and drove them to another lake in the area, where they released the birds, feeling pleased with themselves -- only to find when they got home that the geese had beaten them back, and were already busily having dinner.

While we were chatting, a mallard hen and seven tiny ducklings swam over to the island and began foraging at the edge directly in front of us. Out came the camera that I had put away when the sun went behind the trees -- I hope there was enough light! They were very small, not more than a few days old at most, and the fuzzy little things were adorable!

The visitors left, but the herons and the killdeer and the ducklings were still there, so I stayed. After awhile I heard some splashing behind the multiflora bushes, but I couldn't see what it was. Then I heard a "squaaaak!" and the green heron alerted, squaaaaked back, flew toward the bushes, then flew away, complaining loudly all the way -- "squaaak! squaaak! squaaak!" I guess there was another heron in the bushes -- I never did see it.

I figured it was time for me to leave too. Along the shore a catbird was singing. A house wren scolded. Grackles flew among the trees. A chickadee and a titmouse foraged together in a tree. On the path through the woods near home I stopped to listen to a wood thrush's melodic, flute-like "doodle-ee-dee! deedle-ee-doo!" It's one of the most beatiful bird songs.

The weather is wonderful -- a lovely midsummer cool spell. Right now it's 72 degrees outside -- and in here. I had the whole-house fan on, pulling in cool air through the windows and blowing out the hot air in the attic, until it got too cool. It feels great to be "too cool."

The weekend is supposed to be lovely -- I hope it holds until Monday, when sleepingwolf and oniricwolf will be here, so we can go for a hike!

I have babies in my wren house. It's right next to the front porch, and I can hear them peeping -- or rather, rasping -- every time I open the door!

Unfortunately the nestbox isn't made to open except for cleaning (the floor swings down), so I can't see them. Almost the entire box is filled nesting material (all twigs) so I can't get a glimpse of them through the entrance hole, either -- the twigs are piled well above the bottom of the hole. (Look at the pictures ... can you imagine how many trips it must have taken for such a tiny bird, carrying just one little twig at a time, to fill up almost that entire house? I honestly don't understand how everybody fits into what little space is left under the peak of the A-frame roof! But the male builds two or more nests and the female chooses the nest she prefers, so that's obviously the way she likes it.)

But I hear the chicks constantly yelling "feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme" in their raspy little voices, so I know they're in there! One of the parents -- I'm not sure which, wrens aren't sexually dimorphic -- gets extremely upset with me if I don't go past quickly enough to suit him or her. I went out with my camera today and stood well out in the road, at least 15 feet from the nestbox, and still got roundly scolded.

Meanwhile the other parent -- I'm willing to bet it was the mom -- said "the heck with that, my babies are hungry!" and brought some tasty bugs to the nestlings. I got pictures of her, and when she left I stood very still and waited for the dad get over it and resume bringing food. But he continued yelling at me on and on, so I went inside so he could calm down.

( Mama (?) wren feeding her babies )

I may not have time to post until much later, so I'm posting this now:

The FedEx tracking site says: 

        May 1, 2007          7:33 AM                
        On FedEx vehicle for delivery

=pant, pant=

Even better, the telephoto and wide-angle lenses (with the adapter for the camera) are already here! I only ordered them on Saturday night (from 47th St. Camera via eBay) and they were shipped UPS Ground, so I certainly didn't expect them to be here already. Now I can start practicing with the memory the camera comes with until the 2 gig SD cards get here, and then I'll be ready to rhumba!

The lenses also came with a clever little flexible-legged tripod that's only about 5" high and very lightweight, perfect for carrying around, and a lens-cleaning kit.

I had my first catbird of the season at the feeder a little while ago, my Red-bellied Woodpecker is drumming on the rain gutter right now, and the sun is shining.

I talked to momomom a little while ago and helped her identify a Red-breasted Grosbeak -- a new yard bird for her -- and shared her excitement at having her first hummingbird of the season arrive at her hummer feeder. She is healing beautifully and is feeling much better than before her surgery.

It's a good day.

The weather was very nice today, bright and sunny and in the 50s, so I took a walk at the lake down the block from my house this afternoon. It was short, but very productive. The highlight was sitting on a bench and watching a Bald Eagle on a low branch right across the narrow end of the lake, eating something it had just caught!

I also watched two Carolina Wrens courting, with much head bobbing and calling back and forth. I heard an Eastern Phoebe sing its buzzy fee-BEE song, and a little while later I saw one -- my first phoebe of the season! Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds were singing all over the place. Eight gorgeous Hooded Mergansers graced the lake along with all the usual Canada Geese and Mallards and Ring-billed Gulls. Two mockingbirds were practicing their vocabulary. I heard a Downy Woodpecker and a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Northern Flicker.

And of course there were all the usual suspects, like cardinals, titmice, nuthatches, and so on. I only had 20 species, but what great birds to see!

An alert was issued to the birding community in Maryland about a bill that has been proposed in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate that would expedite the construction of wind farms at will.

If you live in Maryland and care about the environment and wildlife, please contact your representatives in Annapolis and urge them to oppose this bill.

The bill would eliminate any requirement for any public review or notification -- or even informing adjacent land owners whose property values could plummet. Nor would there be any environmental review of the impact on wildlife, endangered species, or forest fragmentation. All an applicant for a wind project would have to do is request a construction permit from the Public Service Commission.

Nobody is trying to keep wind farms out of the state -- only to keep them subject to adequate review to ensure that the locations and construction methods that are chosen will not harm birds and other wildlife and plants.

For example, a wind farm in Alameda County, California, is killing an estimated 4,700 birds a year because it was built directly across an international migratory bird route and in an area that has the world's highest density of nesting Golden Eagles. More care in choosing the site and type of construction would have drastically minimized the slaughter.

"The bills look innocent enough," the alert explained. "It is just a matter of adding some new language to the existing Public Utility Companies Article in the Annotated Code of Maryland and the wheels are greased for the wind industry" to do whatever is best for their bottom line, regardless of its impact on the environment.

The Maryland Ornithological Society has issued a statement opposing the bill, and the birding community is being encouraged to contact our state legislators and urge them to oppose the bills: HB 1072 in the house and SB 566 in the senate.

( My letter )

I've already gotten a reply from my delegate, who wrote this before appending the boilerplate thanking me for contacting her on this important public policy issue blah blah blah:

This bill has a hearing in the Economics Matters Committee on Feb 27th.

I don't serve on that committee, but will keep a watch on the bill. Your arguments make sense to me.

I feel like I really accomplished something today!

I got three life birds yesterday -- including an incredibly rare one!

Somehow, a vagrant Tropical Kingbird found its way to the side yard of a house in a rural area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. If you look at the Tropical Kingbird's range map, you can see just how out of place this little guy is! The bird's normal range barely extends into the US at all -- it's only seen in a small area of the southern Arizona desert and in the very southern tip of Texas.

This is the first time a Tropical Kingbird has ever been seen in Maryland.

Yesterday another birder from my club, a guy named John, and I went over there to find the bird. When we got there, we found a flock of birders already on the site with half a dozen scopes set up and trained on the yard of the house where the kingbird has been hanging out.



As we approached, one of the birders said, "He's in the scope now -- take a look!" I did ... and there was the Tropical Kingbird!



It was such a treat to watch him! Besides being extraordinarily rare, he is a gorgeous little guy. I tried some digiscoping through a couple of the scopes, but that was the only picture that came out really good. I had two other usable ones, but they're not great. Digiscoping manually, without connecting the camera to the scope, takes practice, so I'm happy I got at least one really good pic.

After watching the kingbird for awhile, John asked if I wanted to stop at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge since it was close to the route home. I said sure!

Blackwater is known for its eagles, and we got some fantastic views of them from Wildlife Drive. John got out his scope, and I managed to get this!



That was the best shot, but I got some others that are usable, including two extreme closeups with the scope cranked all the way up to 60x power! One's a little blurry, but it's still worth seeing.






Plus, I got another life bird at Blackwater -- a flock of American White Pelicans is wintering there this year! (It's exciting to see them, but on the other hand it's more evidence of global warming -- as you can see from the range map, their normal wintering grounds are much, much further south.) White Pelicans are huge birds (their wingspan is over 8 feet!) with enormous bills! I didn't get to see them fly -- they were sleeping! But a couple of them woke up and preened, and one stood up and stretched its wings, so I got a great view through the scope.

When we left Blackwater, we decided to stop for a bite in Cambridge, but before we did, we went over to the river and I got my third life bird of the day -- Surf Scoters! Surf Scoters are big, black seaducks with funny-looking orange bills, and I spotted one myself with my binoculars even before John got his scope set up! 

All together I had 52 species for the day, including 3 lifers. I was worn out when I got home, but it was a fine day of birding!

Oh no! It happened again!

eudyptes posted about birdwatchers who flocked to see a rare swallow in Scotland -- only to see it attacked and eaten by a sparrowhawk.

He said it was from Ananova, and I was a little skeptical. Ananova doesn't fact-check at all -- they just post what they find reported elsewhere, so they often publish things like urban legends and nonsense out of the tabloids right along with the real news. It's wise to check anything you find there to make sure it's legitimate.

So at first I thought this was just a rehash of an old incident from 2½ years ago when exactly the same thing happened -- British twitchers had gathered to watch a rare bird, only to see it taken by a sparrowhawk before their appalled eyes.

But I checked the BBC and realized that the same thing had happened again! The older incident was with an American Robin, and this one was a swallow ... but other than that, the two incidents are almost identical.

Even to the anthropomorphizing of the birders!

In 2004, one of the twitchers lamented that the robin "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame." A birder should know better ... fame is not something a bird enjoys! It's probably already confused by the unfamiliar flora, and worried about its next meal -- the last thing it wants is to be constantly stalked by big predators with huge eyes!

This time a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds -- who certainly should know better! -- said, "Sparrowhawks do feed on small birds, and this one was probably not a great student of what is rare and what is not." It's fine to joke about that among birders, but telling that to the BBC is how myths get started. ("And can you imagine, this hawk couldn't even tell it was a rare bird!" )

It's just so bizarre that the same thing would happen twice, and almost in the same place. The poor British twitchers! I'd feel terrible if I saw that happen ... and even worse if I'd traveled to see the rare bird, arrived right after it happened, and was told "It's not here any more -- a hawk took it."

cyanocorax was the featured speaker at the local bird club meeting tonight. The person who arranges the speakers and introduces them is out of town, so she had asked me to introduce the speaker, since she knew that we're friends.

I was already in the car, which was parked by the side of the house, when I realized I'd forgotten the cheat sheet I'd typed up with the introduction. Thankful that I remembered before I actually left, I went back inside and got it. But when I went back out, the next-to-last steppingstone on the sloping path -- which had never really been set in properly -- slid under my foot, and I pitched forward onto the sidewalk and hit my head on the side of the car. I don't think I'm actually injured, but I'm banged up pretty good, and my glasses are badly broken.

( Damage report )

If this had been a normal bird club meeting I would have just bagged it at that point -- but I didn't want to let cyanocorax down. I figured she had already left by then, and I didn't know if I had her cell phone number (or if she even has a cell phone and keeps it on). With no way to contact her I didn't want to just not show up and leave her to introduce herself and wonder if I forgot, or what.

So I washed my knee, bandaged my finger, put the lens back in the frame and Scotch taped it all together, and went to the meeting!

When I did the introduction I felt self-conscious about my nerdy-looking glasses held together with tape, so I said "I want to explain my appearance" and told them about my fall. "But I'm so intrepid," I finished up with a rueful grin, "I bandaged my finger, put my glasses together with Scotch tape, and came anyway!" To my surprise I got a round of applause for that, which made me feel good.

cyanocorax's talk was very interesting, and I was glad I didn't miss it. The other birders seemed very interested too -- there were lots of good questions. 

But I'm really bummed out because it was a gorgeous day today, with a high around 70, but I had too many errands to go for a walk. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, even warmer and less windy, and I had already decided I was going to make up for missing today by going for a really good walk -- I was planning to go to Patapsco Valley State Park and spend a long time on the path between the woods and the river.

Now I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to go for a walk at all. Even if I think I can, I can't chance a long walk in an isolated area, so there's no sense driving all that way. I'll try to just go for a short walk to the nearby lake where I go all the time -- it's better than nothing, but it's not the special day I had promised myself for the last bit of Indian summer. We had hardly any fall this year -- it went from summer to winter pretty abruptly, and we've only had really nice autumn weather for half a dozen days. Saturday it's supposed to turn cold and windy again. 

Oh well. I'm going to bed now. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning.

The 2006 winners of the Ig Nobel prize have been announced!

The ornithology prize went to Ivan R. Schwab of UC Davis for an article published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology that begins

Sometimes it seems that you are simply banging your head against a brick wall, as the frustrations of contemporary life seem to conspire against you. For us, life’s headaches are common enough, but what if you spent your life battering your head against a wall—intentionally? How would you avoid headaches, concussions, "shaken baby" syndrome, or even retinal detachments?

The article explains how Dryocopus pileatus -- more commonly known as the Pileated Woodpecker -- can strike the hard woody surface of a tree at a rate of up to 20 times a second and up to 12 000 times a day, with staggering deceleration forces of as high as 1200 g with each impact --- equivalent to striking a wall at 16 miles an hour face first each time -- without getting a headache.

Woodpeckers, the author says, have evolved several unique mechanisms to prevent brain damage, retinal haemorrhages, and retinal detachment. The answer is extremely complex (and actually very interesting), but basically boils down to several forms of cushioning, and a small brain.

"So, when you complain about your headache," Schwab concludes, "think of the industrious woodpecker."

When life is boring, I don't post because I have nothing interesting to say. When I'm busy, I don't post because I don't have time to recount everything that's going on! I love to write, and I enjoy describing interesting things in detail, so it takes a lot of time. It would probably be good if I learned to post overviews, and at least get the essentials down. Then if I get around to more complete descriptions later, at least I'd have the essentials written down.

On Saturday night I saw Junebug, the film club's September offering. They usually show foreign films, but toss an occasional American indie film into the mix. Junebug is kind of an odd movie ... I still can't decide if I liked it or not. Some of the people there didn't think much of it; the friend I went with was on the fence, like me; another friend I bumped into in the ladies' room said she just loved it. I read a bunch of user reviews at IMDb trying to find one that resonated with me, but still found equal proportions of things I liked and things I didn't -- a few of them being the same things!

( Comments on 'Junebug' [no spoilers] )

Because I was thinking about the movie I stayed up way too late. I woke up at some point, less than four hours after I'd gone to bed, to go to the bathroom. When I'm just getting up to pee I don't put on my glasses or turn on the light -- unfortunately there's adequate light from the street lamps outside, even if the blinds are closed. And I don't need glasses or light to find my way from my bed to my bathroom. So I was sitting there, only half awake, when I saw a small gray shape move quickly across the floor in the faint light. WHAT WAS THAT?!

Before I could get up, I saw Val's unmistakeable blobby shape running into the room and realized my first impression must be correct -- there was a mouse in my bedroom!

( Eeeeek! )

I had wanted to go to church yesterday because the sermon sounded like it would be interesting, but I knew I'd never make it. I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep, and by the time I could settle down and get back to sleep there alarm would have been going off way too soon. So I just turned off the alarm, and ended up finally getting out of bed about the time the service was starting.

But Sunday afternoon I went for a walk for the first time in months! It was wonderful to be out again! Now that the weather is moderating, I'll be going out more often again.

The birding listserv has been abuzz with reports of migrants, especially warblers, but I didn't see any. In fact for the first mile I wasn't aware of any birds at all except for some Blue Jays yelling in the trees and a few Mallards on the lake. I loved being out in nature again, but having walked only three times in the last three months because of the sticky weather, I was really tired. But then things started happening!

( Wildlife )

Watching the birds and animals gave me energy, and I walked down to the geom-e-tree, a destination that gives me about a 2-mile walk. I got some nice pictures, and I'll try to post them tomorrow. (I end up not writing about walks because I want to link to the pictures, and then I don't get around to posting them, and the walk goes by the wayside.)

On the way back I saw even more good birds in and around the lake, and had nice chats about them with a couple of people. Binoculars are great conversation-starters! The highlights were a phoebe, a kingfisher, two herons (a great blue and a Black-crowned Night Heron), and a Red-shouldered Hawk. Not very many -- just 21 altogether -- but very nice for my first walk in such a long time!

Now I have to go get ready for the PFLAG parents group meeting!

Here are the most recent photos of my babies! (Don't worry, bluebirds generally fledge around Day 18-20; these pictures were taken on Day 13, and today is Day 15, so you won't have to put up with my gushing about them much longer. )

I still haven't seen the parents during a visit to the nestbox, but I'm no longer worrying about it because all five chicks are healthy, parasite-free, and seem to be doing great! There are apparently four females and one male.  As you can see in the icon, bluebird fledglings are gray rather than blue, but the males have blue wing feathers.

( Five nestlings snuggling )

You can see the difference better in this cropped closeup. The male is at the top.

( Male and female )

When you hold a nestling, it usually just hunkers down in your hand, but this little bird held her head up and peered around curiously at the big wide world she'd never seen before.

( Curious nestling )

I'll probably only get to see them one or two more times. I'm excited about them getting ready to fly, but .... I'll miss them.