Super Sunday

After a lovely morning at church--more on that later--we headed to a great hawk migration fest, though the weather was threatening.  I had been excited all week about the bird festival.  And it really was wonderful, with many of our favorite things.

 

Butterflies:  First, we saw the butterflies in a lovely flowering garden, with butterfly bushes and echinacea.  In fact, the volunteers were catching and tagging butterflies!  I must admit, I wasn't sure how they would tag butterflies, but Bud and Sis knew because their butterfly-loving teacher had done it before, with little stickers.  And indeed, they put on a little sticker.  Note:  do NOT try to remove the sticker if you come across one.  Just report the number.  Bud and Sis know so much about butterflies because of the three-year study they've done with their teacher--the black dots which indicate the butterfly was male, the difference between various cocoons, the three generations it takes to make the full migration.

Arts and Crafts:  While waiting for a tour of the lighthouse, we did some arts and crafts.  Sis made a pine cone squirrel that she wants to give to Pop for the cabin (don't tell!)  We also all made buttons with animal pictures from magazines.  I made a grumpy Snowy Owl, Bud a penguin.  Sis made a Gyr Falcon for Mama and a Bald Eagle for herself.  It was sweet.

Carousel:  The magnificent carousel in the park is 105 years old, with original horses complete with real horse-hair manes, a working organ, and apparently all the original mechanics and floor.  So pretty.  I loved the lights and the music and especially the little name plates over each horses.  We rode it twice.  Sis and Bud sat together, while Mama and I sat behind them on the sleigh.  You could see the Sound as the carousel went around and around, with that great twinkly music.  I could almost imagine it was another era.  I love carousels.

Lighthouse:  Dating to 1847, the lighthouse was replaced just thirty years later, because it was essentially invisible, being in the wrong place!  It has a stone stairwell, with 72 steps, about a foot high, ending with a three-step ladder.  I stayed downstairs while Mama and the kids ventured up.  They liked the view.


Sea Glass:  Meanwhile, I looked for sea glass.  I found a nice little green piece right off, but it was my only piece of the day.   To paraphrase my dad, "A bad day looking for sea glass is better than a good day doing chores."  I also found a ton of fishing line caught in seaweed; that's bad for birds so I threw it away.

Gyr falcon, with jesses visible

Raptors:  We ended the day with a fantastic raptor show.  He showed off a Barn Owl, a Spectacle Owl, and a four-month-old Sakr Falcon.  Then he flew a Eurasian Eagle Owl (coming to the glove), a Harris Hawk (chasing a "rabbit" on the ground), and a Gyr Falcon (chasing a "bird" in flight.)  It really was amazing.  I don't get tired watching falconry, especially having read H is for Hawk.

What a wonderful day!  It had so many of the things we love.

Eurasian Eagle Owl going by

Though, ice cream or the Ixtapa taco truck would have been perfect.

Harris Hawk

My Bird List--UPDATED

My Selected Checklist of Raptors et al I've Seen in the Wild (does not, therefore, include falconry shows, raptor rescue organizations, etc.) 

2018
1/11/18, point: Short-eared owl; marsh: 2 Snowy Owls (one attacking clapper rail), Iceland Gull
1/8/18, hospice: Bald eagle (eating lunch on ice)

2017
12/22/17, point:  Northern Harrier
12/6/17, airport: Snowy Owl
12/3/17, beach:  SNOWY OWL!!!!
11/28/17, highway: 1 bald eagle overhead
week of 8/13:  Hog Island, Muscungus Bay, Maine:  bald eagle, loon, cormorant, eider, surf scoter, white-winged scoter black guillemot, common tern, ruby-crested kinglet, American goldfinch, chickadee, puffin, sand piper, laughing gull, herring gull, ruby-throated hummingbird, blue jay.

2016
12/14/16, marsh:  SNOWY OWL!!!!!
12/4/16:  river:  Bald Eagle diving in river and rising out again
9/16/16, park:  5 turkey vultures, osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Monk Parakeets
9/15/16, park:  juvenile Bald Eagle, osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Monk Parakeets, European starlings
9/12/16, park:  ospreys (one with a fish!), accipiters, Red-tailed Hawk, Monk Parakeets
9/10/16, park:  5 turkey vultures, ospreys, accipiters, Monk Parakeets
8/28/16, Greenwich hawk watch:  turkey vultures, accipiters playing with vultures,
4/21/16, historic house:  Northern Harrier
4/16/16, Canton CT "owl prowl":  Barred Owl in a tree; heard lots of calls later
2/29/16, point:  Snow Buntings, 2 American Tree Sparrows
2/29/16, marsh:  Mute Swan
2/22/16, marsh:  Snowy Owl on a log about 300 yards out


2015
10/2/15, backyard:  accipiter going after squirrel
2/16/15, river:  Bald Eagle
2/3/15, tree near sidewalk: Red-Tail Hawk


Before 2015
11/15/14, BI:  3 Saw Whet Owls (Nature Conservancy tagging); Northern Harrier along the beach
10/14/09, side of the road in Texas at night:  Barn Owl

MNEMONICS

Northern Cardinal--birdie-birdie-birdie or cheer-cheer-cheer

White throated sparrow--Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody

Nashville Warbler--see-bit-see-bit-see-bit-see-see-see-see

Common Loon--who-who-ha-ha-ha

Blue Jay--jeer

RWBB--kon-ka-ree

Song sparrow--note, note, trillllllll, note  (field sparrow also has trillllll--bouncing ball coming to a stop)

American Robin--cheerily, cheerily, cheer up

Chipping Sparrow--trill

Mountain chickadee--chick-a-dee dee dee

Common Yellowthroat--whichety-whichety-whichety

Blue-winged warbler--bee buzz

Indigo Bunting--what? what? where? where? see it? see it?

NORTHEAST:

American goldfinch--potato chip, tee-yee

American robin--cheerily, cheer up, cheer up

Blue Jay--jeer!

Eastern Phoebe--fee-be

Gray Catbird--chek chek (but doesn't usually repeat)

Indigo Bunting--what? what? where? where? see it? see it?

Mourning Dove--coo-OO-oo

Red-bellied Woodpecker--kwirr, kwirr or cha cha

White-throated sparrow--Old Sam Peabody or Oh sweet Canada

Yellow Warbler--sweet sweet sweet I'm so sweet


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FIELD MARKS--Common Easter birds:

• American Crow: all black
• American Goldfinch:  black and yellow bird; short bill and black cap
• American Robin: grey-brown with orange underparts and dark head
• American Tree Sparrow:  rusty cap and eyeline; overall, rusty brown
• Baltimore Oriole: dark head, orange underparts, white stripe on wing
• Black-capped Chickadee: white cheeks with black cap and nape, grey wings
• Blue Jay: strikingly blue, black and white with crest
• Brewer's blackbird: yellow eye but all black otherwise
• Brown-headed cowbird: females are all brown; males have black bodies
• Carolina chickadee: black cap and nib with white cheek
• Carolina Wren:  tail cocks upwards
• Chipping Sparrow: black line through the eye with rusty crown
• Common Grackle: iridescent head and long beak
• Common Ground Dove: sandy brown doves with round wings
• Common Raven:  massive and entirely black
• Common Redpoll:  streaky brown feathers, black feathers around yellow bill, red forehead patch
• Cooper's Hawk: 
• Dark-eyed junco: pink bill, black body and white underbelly
• Downy woodpecker: only small red patch on males, small beaks comparatively
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• European starling: splotches, yellow beaks, black or iridescent
• Evening Grosbeak: yellow and black with white wing patch, dark head with yellow eyebrow
• Field Sparrow: white eyering, reddish cap and reddish line from eye
• Fox Sparrow: overall rust with splotchy chest, some grey on head
• Hairy Woodpecker: checkerboard wings, two white stripes on head, male red patch on head
• House Finch: streaky brown and black body and tail, red face and breast for male
• House Sparrow: chunky shape
• Mourning Dove: small head, pointed tail, black mark on cheek
• Northern Cardinal
• Northern Flicker:  brownish with white rump patch
• Pileated Woodpecker: big red crest, large birds, black and white striped face
• Pine Siskin: streaky birds with subtle yellow tails (notched)
• Pine Warblers: yellowish birds with olive backs, two white wingbars
• Purple Finch: male has pink-red head and breast; streaky breasts, dark throat line
• Red-bellied Woodpecker: red cap, pale-ish overall
• Red-breasted nuthatch: black cap and stripe with strong white eyebrow; rusty bellies
• Red-headed Woodpecker: red head, white breast and wing patch
• Red-winged blackbird: red patch on males; females are strikingly striped
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak: males have red chevron; females are brown streaked with white eyebrow
• Sharp-shinned Hawk:  rounded wings
• Song sparrow: streaky brown and white, some grey on heads
• Tufted Titmouse: grey crest and stout bill, peach on flanks, black forehead
• White-breasted nuthatch: black cap and frosty face and underparts
• White-crowned sparrow:  very bold black and white head stripes, otherwise pale grey
• White-throated sparrow: striking head pattern with yellow patch
• White-winged dove--black "comma" on cheek and white wing patch
• Yellow-bellied sapsucker:  red crest and throat, white stripe on wings

Hawk Watch

I've been continuing my own hawk watch and bird identification process.  There's a nearby park on a hill with a good view of the landscape so that I can more easily scan the skies.  Both Saturday and yesterday, I went looking for raptors and had a great time.

Yesterday was especially nice because I met a fellow birdwatcher, a veteran with 30+ years of experience.  He had lots of information and experience he was willing to share.  He was looking for broadwing hawks, who migrate through the area about one week every year.  Sometimes, he says you can see a whole kettle of hundreds of hawks streaming out of the clouds.  But there was not enough wind and no clouds for contrast, so he only saw a couple in the distance.  I had already seen an osprey carrying a fish in the telltale parallel formation that makes the fish more aerodynamic.  He helped me with more signs of ospreys--the M-silhouette of the wings, the black "wrists", the "fingers" at the tips of the wings.  In contrast, red tails have a black belly band and no "M." To differentiate ospreys from similarly M-shaped gulls at a distance, you look for a sheen of white when the bird turns--white is a gull; dark is an osprey.  I called out a few osprey on my own (probably the same one coming back and forth a few times)--I'm getting really good at those.  He also heard a red tail hawk screech, though we never saw it, and so I think I can now recognize that sound.  He was very kind and complementary, praising my "young eyes" (he was probably in his 80s.)  So, I would spot the flash of a bird in the distance and he'd site them with his binoculars and ID them quickly.  He even saw an eagle and a broadwing that I never could find.  I asked him about the accipiter I'd seen attacking turkey vultures.  He said it was probably a juvie sharp-shinned or Cooper's hawk just playing; he says they practice that way.  I also told him my monk parakeet story.

See, when I'd sat on my bench, I knew I was between two of the tall spruces in which the resident monk parakeets nest.  There were no droppings on the bench, though, so I figured I was safe; I also had my hat on.  Soon, those bright, little, green birds started their abrasive squawking . . . . and started dropping twigs on me!  The twigs never actually hit me, but five or six fell nearby and the noise grew louder.  My birdwatcher friend said that those parakeets were jerks!  I'll remember never to walk under their trees!

A few other things I've picked up in the last few outings:

• Binoculars take practice!  I can't always see well out of them, especially if my arms or hands are moving even a bit.  But I'm getting better with focusing them and seeing the one circle through them, bracing my arms against my sides.
• Lingo and technique:  the sighting of birds is identified by landforms (though I tend to use the clock, with "12" dead ahead) and by how many glasses (i.e. binocular circles) above the landform it is.  So, you might say, "Red tail at 12, two glasses above the maple." You might also try to indicate how far out it is.  To search for birds, you scan back and forth, raising up a glass each pass.  I tend to spot them with my bare eyes and then pull my binoculars up to where I'm looking; sometimes I lose them in the process.
• Birdwatchers tend to be friendly and generous with information.  I've talked to a few now, beginning with those searching for the Snowy Owl last winter.  They are dedicated and kind.
• As my interest in raptors grows (from Ren Faire falconry shows to historic falconry and our own lesson to Harry Potter's Hedwig to real Snowy Owls to raptors in general and now the Hawk Watch), so does my interest in nature in general--identifying plants, trees, noticing butterflies, watching the weather, worrying about the environment.  It can all start with birds.
• I like talking birds with Pop.  It's less stressful than our usual discussion of politics!  And he knows so much.  I'm not into ducks as much as he is.  Yet!
• I haven't started a life list or bird log yet.  But I've taken some notes below.  And I have checklists on eBird.

I'll be going back as often as I can, especially when the wind and clouds are right.

And soon it will be Snowy Owl season.

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My Selected Checklist of Raptors et al I've Seen in the Wild
9/12/16, park:  ospreys (one with a fish!), accipiters, Red-tailed Hawk, Monk Parakeets
9/10/16, park:  5 turkey vultures, ospreys, accipiters, Monk Parakeets
8/28/16, Greenwich hawk watch:  turkey vultures, accipiters playing with vultures,
4/21/16, historic house:  Northern Harrier
4/16/16, Canton CT "owl prowl":  Barred Owl in a tree; heard lots of calls later
2/29/16, point:  Snow Buntings, 2 American Tree Sparrows
2/29/16, marsh:  Mute Swan
2/22/16, marsh:  Snowy Owl on a log about 300 yards out
10/2/15, backyard:  accipiter going after squirrel
2/16/15, river:  Bald Eagle
2/3/15, tree near sidewalk: Red-Tail Hawk
11/15/14, BI:  3 Saw Whet Owls (Nature Conservancy tagging); Northern Harrier along the beach
10/14/09, side of the road in Texas at night:  Barn Owl

"Lazy Circles in the Sky"

Yesterday, we had a delightful afternoon yesterday, attending an Audubon program about hawks.  As you know, I'm fond of raptors, as is Mama--owls, falcons, hawks.  We've seen birds-of-prey shows, gone on an "owl prowl," taken falconry lessons, gone on a nighttime owl-tagging program, and taken every chance we can to see and learn about raptors.  And yesterday, we had another chance--we spent an hour or so learning about the body shapes, markings, flying profiles, behaviors, diet, "profession," and migration of hawks.

Just a few takeaways:

• Most hawks follow their food sources.  Some hawks eat small mammals mostly--like the Red-Tail Hawk--so they can stay up north during the winter.  Other hawks and raptors eat dragonflies and snakes and have to migrate south to find them.   Apparently, the peregrine will go from Greenland all the way to Tierra del Fuego!  On one occasion a few years ago, so many raptors passed through Panama City, that they had to close the airport--there were 2 million birds in the air that day!  Of course, some raptors stay closer--arctic birds think Buffalo is paradise in winter.  Connecticut is apparently one of the migration "funnels"--birds come from New England and Canada and see the Sound and turn right through Connecticut, which is why there are several official Hawk Watch spots here.  
• You can even tell the original location of a bird somewhat by size.  Northern birds tend to be larger because it helps them save more body heat for winter.  (And of course, female birds are larger than male birds.)
• The Audubon education specialist gave so much information (some of it via avian interpretative dance!) that I can't recall it all and might have mixed it up.  A bald eagle looks like a "barn door in the sky," while ospreys look like an "M."  Goshawks will fly like Luke Skywalker through trees (my comparison!), while harriers will sail low over trees or the brush near the coast.  
• I couldn't keep track all of the markings--horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, thick, thin, brown, red, gray, all changing based on the age or gender of the raptor.  I know that juvie bald eagles are brownish and don't get that distinctive white head until they are about five years old.  A Northern Harrier female is brown and a male is white with gray, "the Gray Ghost."  
• And I really doubt I'll be able to keep the size differentials of, say, the Red-Tail vs. the Red-Shouldered Hawk (smaller), straight.  I can recognize the tiny kestrel vs. a turkey vulture, though.  As my dad says, if you guess Red-Tail Hawk, you'll be right 90% of the time.  
• For more information, go to Hawk Watch International.  There are some helpful fact sheets.  There will also be a Great Hawk Festival at Greenwich Audubon on September 16-17.

Then we headed out to the field with our binoculars to spot some hawks.  I've never been very good with binoculars, but I'm getting better.  We have a nice pair from Pop and borrowed a few kids pairs so we could all look.  And the first thing we saw was a turkey vulture, of course.  But soon, there was an "accipiter"--some kind of red hawk--who actually attacked two turkey vultures repeatedly, high in the air.  It was fascinating.  And we all got to see it!  The official Hawk Watch volunteers (who are there everyday from mid-August to the beginning of December to count migrating raptors) also spotted an osprey, but I don't think the rest of us saw it.  (I did see an "M" osprey over the river driving to pick up Sis from horseback riding lessons today.)

It was a lovely afternoon and I'm so excited to try out my new knowledge.  Though, it's pretty easy to identify a Snowy Owl!