Volunteering for the birds

Feeding the shorebirds

It's 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, but temperatures are already rising into the humid upper 80s as my friend and I are arrive at the local seabird sanctuary. We know we're in for a long day -- it's our first day of what will be a 40 hour volunteer project over the semester for our senior class. I couldn't be more excited though. The seabird sanctuary is the largest wild bird hospital in the country, admitting around 8,000 birds each year.

Although we won't be working directly with the hospital,  we do get to work closely with the rehabilitated birds in the public area of the facility. As soon as we arrive, a staff member puts us to work with scrub brushes, soap, bleach, and rakes, assigning us several enclosures. I get to take care of the owls first -- 4 screech owls, a barn owl, two barred owls, and a great-horned. 

It's a little different than the work I did over the summer; these birds for the most part are not trained to work with humans, so they are a lot more nervous each time I get near them. Nonetheless, they remain fairly calm and only eye me disdainfully as I scrape droppings off of perches, drain pools, and rake the soft beach sand at the bottom of the enclosures.

Once I finish, I help my friend clean an enclosure housing some crows, followed by a kestrel, and then some blue jays. The jays are a lot more feisty than the others, and one even lands on my head for a moment when I first walk in to hose off its food dish! We also work together to clean a large enclosure housing a group of vultures and peregrine falcons.

Cleaning duties are finished around 10:30am and we move on to food prep. Most of this work takes place in one wing of the hospital building, a workshop-like room with a large tank full of dead fish, as well as sinks, counter space, refrigerators, storage areas, etc. Even without air conditioning, it's still the coolest place at the facility, aired out by a giant fan in the corner wafting away some of the harsher odors.

My friend and I are put to work sorting fish by size, and soon find ourselves up to our elbows in the red-tinted water of the big tank, trying not to get jabbed by spines and barbs. It's an oddly satisfying task however, and contrary to what you might think, it wasn't really as "gross" as you would expect!

After a lunch break, we return to work to fillet the fish we sorted, cut them into small strips, and divvy out diets for each of the bird enclosures. The staff members show us what each bird eats and where to place the dishes in the enclosures, but I know I'll never remember it all! Next we find ourselves cutting up more fish in big chunks (yum!), and then hauling the remaining fish out of the tank and dividing them into buckets that will go out to the pelicans and gulls.

By the end of the day I smell positively delightful and am covered in a delicious smattering of fish guts, sand, and bird poop. It was totally exhausting, and certainly not the most glamorous job, but after talking to many of the staff members and volunteers I could really see why it was important that we were there. The sanctuary runs as a nonprofit, so all their money comes straight from donations, meaning they have very little to go around. Most of the dirty work is done totally by unpaid volunteers. It's incredible that the facility remains one of the largest in the country, considering how few people are doing so much work.

So this will be my every weekend for the next couple months. Eight hours down, 32 more to go. It's rough work, but I'm happy to be doing it; I've already learned a lot more about birds and can't wait to become more familiar with the place and the people there. 

Fall Break, part 2

It's Sunday afternoon, and after having gotten back home around midnight from my trip to the panhandle, I'm exhausted. But the fun has only just begun -- I'm camping for the night at Ft. Desoto State Park with some friends from school.

We spend the afternoon relaxing and exploring along the coast of the island, wading in the cool water and looking for various critters. We find crabs and fish, various worms, and other strange creatures of the bay.

Our coolest find is a skate, laying lethargically in the shallows. It is unusually docile and allows us to examine it for a few minutes before it swims gently away.

As the sun begins to set, the shorebirds begin to emerge seemingly from nowhere. A Least Sandpiper scurries across the beach, while a Great Blue Heron lands not too far away.

The view from our campsite at sunset.

As soon as the sun went down, the raccoons came out. We could see them in the shadows and hear them chortling or growling at one another just out of sight.

The next morning, I rise with the sun and take a leisurely walk down the beach. The water is like glass, the stillness broken only by a few manatees splashing and rolling lazily in the distance.

Semipalmated plovers scurry about on the mudflats that have been exposed in the low tide, and more herons, egrets, and sandpipers forage nearby.

At one point I see an odd-shaped fin cutting through the water out in the distance. I snap a picture, thinking it might be a school of fish breaking the surface, but upon later review, my friends and I conclude it's a black-tipped reef shark!

The manatees continue to laze about all morning.

[Contrary to my original thoughts, this is actually a Black-bellied Plover -- thanks Heidi and Nick! -- not a lifer anymore, but still a cool bird!]

I also find a lone Ruddy Turnstone as well as another Least Sandpiper.

After packing up our campsite, we head to the beach for a few hours before making the drive back to school. I must say it was one of the best fall breaks I have ever had. It gave me some much-needed time outside, as well as a life bird to add to my list.

Now school is back into full swing, but I'm going to try and get outside more often when things slow down a little. Between applying for summer internships, TAing, working, and classwork, this semester is crazy busy. But we're over halfway done, and I have Christmas Bird Counts to look forward to over winter break!

Shorebirds galore

This morning my brother and I biked up to the shoreline area I've been exploring this week, only this time we rode all the way to the park proper, about 10 miles round trip (before today I had only been in the preserve area by the sloughs).


I had no idea how many birds we would find there! First of all, the rolling lawns were covered in Canada Geese -- hundreds of them. They all strutted around, bickered with one another, and terrorized small children. Following the path though, we found ourselves rounding several lakes and more shoreline/mudflat/marshy areas.

I totally geeked out when I saw this bird as we rounded a bend and came into view  of a wide slough -- my lifer American Avocet! There were actually hundreds of them, at least as many avocets as there were geese, off in the distance. This one loner was foraging close to the walkway, and looking quite picturesque.

Also in the vicinity were Willets, Snowy Egrets, tons more Barn Swallows, White Pelicans, and Mallards.

The sheer numbers of birds there were quite amazing to me. Of course it was nothing astronomical, but certainly more than I expected for a relatively crowded park on a hot, midsummer day.

Mud flats

More Avocets

Snowy Egret

Once I finished admiring all the avocets, I turned around and noticed the little building behind me was swarming with Barn Swallows. It turned out they had dozens of nests under the overhangs and would periodically all explode out and swoop around for a while before coming back in to cling to the shingles or hide in their nests.

White Pelican coming for landing

My second most exciting find was a little area full of Black-necked Stilts. This is a bird I've wanted to see for a long time in Florida, but now I've seen more of them here in than I ever thought I would. I think they're adorable, although they weren't too active this morning. 

This little bird puzzled me for a long time. It spent most of its time running around in the tall grasses by the path, darting out for bugs and little bits of seeds. I could not figure out what it was for the longest time, until I realized it must be a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird. Correct? It's the best I can come up with, based on the bill shape, body size and build, and its behavior. Sure threw me off though!

Still having a great time with all these new Western birds and the great parks and wild places around here. Two weeks down, two more weeks to go in the Golden State.

Until next time,

Happy birding!

Birding from beach to pond

On Thursday, my Field Ornithology class took a trip to Ft. Desoto to look at shorebirds. As luck would have it (and as luck apparently did have it for the last 4 years in a row!) it was THE windiest day we've had this month.

Once we made our way across the windblasted beach, we quickly became aware that there were a lot more birds out than one would have expected.  The first picture is of a Black-bellied Plover (defying its name in its winter plumage) and above are a bunch of Wilson's Plovers on some low dunes. Also present were Semipalmited Plovers, Willets, and Western Sandpipers.

I had two highlights for the day. The first was the above Reddish Egret in the whitish morph! We even got to watch it do its fishing dance. I got a video, but it was so windy and far away, the camera was too shaky. It was a lot of fun to watch though -- I wish we could have stayed longer.

My second favorite was my lifer Dunlin. I'm actually surprised I've lived here so long and never seen one, but there it is.

Today we took another field trip to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. Although it's sandwiched in between towering condos and shopping centers, the facility takes in literally thousands of birds every year. It was great to see the work they're doing and get close-up looks at some of the birds we've been studying this past month.

I never thought about what a baby pelican would look like, but now I know! The little Brown Pelican chicks sitting under their mother reminded me oddly of little dinosaurs...

In addition to the plethora of rescued birds, there were also dozens of wild birds that had taken up residence in the trees and rooftops of the sanctuary, including this Black-crowned Night Heron.

After the field trip, I went birding at my usual spot on campus, and found a wide variety of species despite the somewhat unfavorable weather. Above is a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk that I chased around for a bit trying to ID.

In addition to the usual wading birds and ducks, there were also some friendly passerines flitting around who  were (for a change!) not so camera shy! The above Pine Warbler came down to check me out while I was looking for the hawk, and below, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher went on about his business foraging in a small tree.

It's been a great past few days. More birding to do this weekend and studying for the final.

Until next time,

Peace out!

A quick hello from college

Just a quick update to say I'm still here! I know it's been a couple weeks since my last post, but I'm back at college now and have had no time for birding or blogging.

The good thing is that I'm staying busy though, with a more than full load of 5 classes. In the little free time I've had so far, I was able to get my year bird Black Skimmer, which was a nice treat.

I'm going to try to post my bird research paper from last semester sometime. I finally got my grade back on it, and was quite pleased to see that I got a 98%! Honestly, with never having written a scientific paper before, I couldn't help but be a little bit proud of myself. :-)

Well, not much else to report on at the moment. Hopefully when things slow down a bit I'll have more interesting birding news to share.

Until next time,

Happy birding!

Score!!

"Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?" -Rose F. Kennedy

I was looking back over some of the photos from the nesting seabird fieldtrip my class took the other day, and I realized I had misidentified one of the species!

Never having seen a Dowitcher before, I didn't even recognize them in my photos. However, when some of my classmates IDed the birds as Short-billed Dowitchers, I was ecstatic when I looked back through my own photos and found I have pictures of the bird as well. In the above photo, I have drawn arrows pointing out the Dowitchers amongst the Willets and Godwits.

I am really happy -- that's year bird #96!

Happy birding!

The college try

I am sitting here writing this from my college dorm. I didn't know when I'd have time to blog, but, despite having homework the first day of class yesterday (yes, we had to go to class on Saturday), I was able to get everything done with time to spare.

The college campus is beautiful, and should be *amazing* during migration season. Already yesterday I saw a life bird as I was coming out of the opening ceremonies: A Black Skimmer!

I took my swimming test yesterday so I am cleared to take out kayaks whenever I want. So, if I ever get a few free hours, I am definitely going to go out and explore the bay and surrounding islands.

There are already a ton of birds out here, even in the height of summer. My roommate and I had dinner out by the water this evening, and watched terns, pelicans, gulls, herons, egrets, anhingas, and other common shorebirds.

College itself is going to take some getting used to. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but I'm giving it a try. If I can get through this, I know I can accomplish great things.

Happy birding!

"Magnificent" birding

I went birding today, somewhat spontaneously and somewhat unexpectedly, so I was somewhat underprepared. But I had my camera with me, and that was *almost* as good as my binoculars.

So why was this birding trip "magnificent?" Take a look at the picture below:

One of the first birds I saw was a Magnificent Frigatebird flying out over the dock on the beach! That's a lifer for me. At first glance, I thought it was a Swallow-tail Kite, but I couldn't figure out why it was black. However, my mom identified it almost immediately as a Frigatebird! (Yay mom!)

Also got some cool pictures of Brown Pelicans...

... And Laughing Gulls. There were tons of them at the beach.

And then I saw this little guy (above). Yet ANOTHER life bird -- A Ruddy Turnstone!

There were so many of them all running around in the waves and hanging out with the gulls and terns.

Above is a Royal Tern; there were several of them chillin' on the beach. I had never seen one so close before; you could literally walk right up to them.

And a year bird -- a Least Tern. When I was taking this photo, I was standing near a bunch of rocks by the edge of the water. I had my eye up to the camera, so I failed to see an enormous wave crash against the rocks. The next thing I knew, I was half-soaked and my camera (my beloved camera!!) was also wet. At least I got the picture though.

Above is a photo of two Royal Terns and behind them, three Ruddy Turnstones. Kind of cool.

A Great Blue Heron landed on the roof of the dock.

Over all, considering I wasn't really planning on going birding, it was a fairly productive trip! I came home with five year birds and three life birds. Here's the total list of all the birds I saw today:

• Magnificent Frigatebird (life)
• American Oystercatcher (year)
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Anhinga
• Ruddy Turnstone (life)
• Brown Pelican
• Fish Crow
• Least Tern (year)
• Royal Tern
• Great Blue Heron
• Snowy Egret
• White Ibis
• European Starling
• Roseate Spoonbill
• Willet
• Laughing Gull
• American Golden Plover (life)

I saw the American Golden Plover on the side of the causeway and couldn't get a picture, so I'm not 100% sure that's what it was. It was either that, or a Black-bellied Plover. But, judging from what I remember, and the description in my field guide, I'm going to go with Am. Golden for now.

I'll try to post more pictures later.

Happy birding!

Shore Birding

“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings” – William Blake

Went to the beach yesterday, and added at least 5 more birds to my year list (probably more, but I am *really* bad at IDing shorebirds...).

Anywho, it was a lot of fun, even if I didn't count all the birds I could have. Dolphins fished along the coast, sailboats cruised the horizon, and chilly waves rolled and crashed to the shore.

There have been a lot of storms lately, so there were many live shells washing up, and of course that meant LOTS of birds! Gulls, Terns, Willets, and more prowled the pebbly beach, devouring the stranded crustaceans.

I was able to identify most of the species, but there were a couple that unjustly dumbfounded me. This is probably a common species, but it was so far away I couldn't get a good look at it, and this was the best picture I could get. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of Sandpiper; it flew very much like one.

This next picture is also confusing. When this bird flew by, I thought I was taking a picture of a Cormorant. I didn't take much notice until I uploaded the photo, and realized the wings are totally different than a comorant's.

I don't know if this is just a silhouetted Gull/Tern-type bird, or a weird cormorant, or something else entirely! I've done some research, but I can't figure out what it could be. With my luck, it's probably an ordinary, easy-to-ID species. Of course. :-)

Well, the trip was fun anyhow, and brought my year list up to 65. The rest of my photos can be seen in the slide show below. Some of the captions are marked with question marks, and are still in the process of ID verification.

If anyone sees where I have misidentified something, please feel free to drop me a note. (I had a hard time with the Terns!)

Happy birding.