From a small town to a big city...
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A Birding Blog
By Jared Conaway
From a small town to a big city...
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Hi everyone! That's right, Jared's back on the TIMELINE Series! Ah, good old Alaska. All the most insane yardie encounters of 2017 will be included in this post. I believe it's a blessing from God, that in 2017 I probably obtained more Yard Lifers than any other year! And I'm not talking just lifers, I mean birds that I've seen before but are new to my yard and neighborhood. Because my neighborhood is so small, consists mostly of forest, and the houses are spread apart, I count ever bird seen in the hood, even if it's not seen in or from my actual yard.
May 1st: I was playing with my friend/neighbor, Michael, in the cul-de-sac adjacent to my front yard. A large black bird flew over, of course I would've passed it off as a raven if it didn't have a long, sword-like feather projecting from the center of its tail. It even had much thinner, sharper-tipped wings than a raven. It didn't take long for me to arrive at the conclusion that it was a PARASITIC JAEGER! Not just a new neighborhood birdie, but a lifer as well! I always love that bonus combo! Of course I had to plead the ebird reviewer about my photo-less bird, but he generously confirmed my sighting and put it up in the public ebird database. Bob Winckler, the local ebird reviewer, was actually very understanding and laid back as compared to the other ebird reviewers I've encountered. Now I understand why. It's because there's very few birders that actively bird the county, so there's plenty of room for the unexpected. So, for some personal advice, if you live in a seriously under-birded area, then get out there and explore, because you don't know what you could find! To give you an example of this, read this blog post! I thought I knew my yard all too well, after all, the place that I'm most familiar with birding at should be my own home, right? WRONG. I thought I knew what to expect all around my yard, and my neighborhood. But particularly before the move to Glendale, birding in and around my yard exploded! Just wait and see what I mean during this blog post. June or July, likely the latter month: I was birding in my backyard, listening to the songs and calls of everything around me. Myrtle Warblers', White-crowned Sparrows', and Alder Flycatchers' songs echoed through the surrounding forest. I can't remember what other birds I heard in my woods that beautiful sunny day in July, but I don't need to when there's only one, unforgettable species that decided to show up. Probably they were there to crash the helpless chickadees' party, but they sure made it a party for me, at least later they did! I was standing below and to the left of a Black Spruce, looking straight ahead, up and around for anything interesting, and to get warmed up in the sun. Suddenly, I heard rustling and wing-flapping above me. I looked up to see 2 large, conspicuously black and white passerines fighting and wing-smacking each other as they tumbled down towards me. They were directly above me, way too close for me to even think about raising my binoculars up to them. And I didn't have to! I could already see every feather in great detail, as they clashed their wings together. They looked a lot like over-sized flycatchers, except they had white patches on their gray under-wings. Since the sun was shining down on them, I could see from underneath that their upper-wings were black and white. I should of guessed by now what they were, but a think it was only the next day I confirmed that they were NORTHERN SHRIKES! I couldn't believe I was THAT close to Northern Shrikes, and I didn't even know it at the time! This officially made up for my extremely crappy view of a juv I saw the previous year about 2000 ft. away from me. I never got a photo of one during all those years I spent in Alaska, but I did get pix of their loggerheaded cousin. June 6th: I heard a peculiar song in the forest, kind of like a Hermit Thrush, but longer, and higher. I trudged into the forest, all the while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, but still advancing toward the direction of that beautiful song. As it turned out, the songster was way high up in a massive Black Spruce. It took forever to locate him, until I discovered he was to the side on the tree and not the very top. I was getting bombarded by mosquitoes at this point, but wanted to enjoy my thrush. Eventually it flew down into a little birch, continuing to sing. From the side, I could see this thrush was olive-gray, with dense spotting on the breast. At this point, it was either Gray-cheeked or Swainson's, (we don't have pale Hermit Thrushes in Alaska) I was thinking it was leaning more towards Swainson's. Its song was beautiful, so I watched as it flew back into its original tree, and watched it sing a little while longer. When I got back to the house, it was still singing, and I went onto allaboutbirds.org to record its song. Just as I guessed, I saw a SWAINSON'S THRUSH! I head waited to find one the summer of the previous year as well as 2017. And now, here one shows up in my own backyard! I was really excited and thrilled at my discovery! I believe it was a whole week that I went back into the forest every day, and saw and heard my lifer singing, in his spruce! After that, Swainson's Thrushes were everywhere I went! August 19th: That day had LOTS of Warblers, maybe 100 or so in the area! All 3 subspecies of Orange-crowned warbler, Myrtle Warblers, a few YELLOWS, and many WILSON'S WARBLERS. On the 19 of August, 2016, was the my first find of BLACKPOLLS, at least 5, maybe more! It was nice to see one on my one year lifer anniversary of that species. I was surprised to get amazing looks at an unexpected new yardie, a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH bobbing his tail as I looked at him through my binos out the window! He was super cute! Most surprising was a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE in our backyard, present most of the day. At this point all Alder Flycatchers had left. August 20th: Today I saw a single BLACKPOLL WARBLER, along with tons of the same species from the previous day. On the 20th of August, 2016, was the my first find of BLACKPOLLS, at least 5, maybe more! It was nice to see one on my one year lifer anniversary of that species. I also had the typical Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Chickadees, Juncos, and Redpolls. A DOWNY WOODPEKER did his loud, adorable "PEEK!" Most interesting, were three large passerines, presumably flycatchers, flying around a spruce snag, very acrobatic with flight style, and obviously flycatcher as the returned to their perch after only a few seconds in the air. They had real long, thick-ish bills, long wings, shortish tails, and large, peaked heads. In Alaska, Tropical, Western, and Eastern Kingbirds are casual (Eastern accidental), so they weren't kingbirds. They also had a different shape and color than shrikes, being overall dark, and also, with peaked instead of rounded fore-crowns. They weren't Western Wood-Pewees either, as they were much larger, with a heavier build. Despite their aggressive appearance, one was real wimpy getting chased off by a Wilson's Warbler! I mean, seriously, these things were about 3 times the size of a Wilson's Warbler, maybe 4 times, they could pop them with their claws, or impale them with their beaks, and what do you know, that thing gets owned by a little yellow ping-pong ball! Eventually, they all left, leaving me to identify them. Now imagine 3 OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS using a Wilson's Warbler as a ping-pong ball while playing ping-pong... I was amazed, not one, but 3 of my most wanted Alaskan Flycatcher! The OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, a "yardie"/lifer bonus combo! What great migrants to come through my backyard... January-March: It all started Somewhere around late December, 2016. Many Common Redpolls would fly over the hood often, chattering and twittering. After multiple flocks had gone by, a single or sometimes a couple would be way behind, flying in the same direction at least a minute after the main flock had gone by. They made different calls, clearer, sharper, but quieter all the same. These guys were HOARY REDPOLLS, very fantastic for me, but not the same for the ebird reviewer. See, I told him you can tell the 2 redpolls apart be sound, which he couldn't believe. This may be hard to believe, but that is how I knew the birds behind the flock were Hoary Redpolls. They stumped me at first, and I was just guessing at first as well. But then I started studying their calls, listening carefully to every last note produced by bird recordings. I would listen and listen, over and over, and frequently go back out into the cold and snow to listen to the birds themselves, so I had a direct comparison of a recording and the actual vocalization heard in the field. Problem was, every time I went outside to call the bird in with a recording on my audubon app, it never responded or flew over or anything. it seemed to disappear whenever I went to look for it. Almost every other day I had to clear the driveway of snow. I was literally, a Northern Shoveler. This was the time the Hoary Redpolls(s) would come to call me. This was also the time I didn't have binoculars around my neck. So, to solve this problem, I did what any smart birder would do: I started wearing binoculars while out shoveling the driveway. For a long time, flyover views were what I got, at best. In March, a fresh, 6-inch layer of snow blanketed the ground. What was to follow? a HUGE eruption of Hoary Redpolls! I started seeing them in every flock of Common Redpolls. Some days I only saw Hoary Redpolls, flocks of them. Not large flocks or anything close to that, but often flocks of 5 to 7. Every day, or nearly so, I counted as many as 15 ranging to 30 Hoary Redpolls throughout the day. Of course, the next days I wasn't seeing different birds, because there's no way I could've seen hundreds of them in the span of a single winter, and just in my neighborhood. It's far more realistic and accurate to say that I was seeing the same birds everyday. During that month, I found lots of Hoary Redpolls in the trees, getting so much better views of such a beautiful bird than what I had been getting so far that winter. This may have been the first winter in at least half a century that Hoary Redpolls had been counted in the double digits, each day, all day, a few weeks in a row, in the double digits within a small area of a single location. Somehow the conditions at my house seemed to line up all those odds in my favor. You know an eruption is happening when Crossbills, Redpolls, Siskins, Buntings/Longspurs, and Snowy/Boreal owls are in very high numbers, actively foraging in unusual numbers during such a peculiar time of year. But when all those birds are being seen in REALLY REALLY HIGH numbers, and with double digits of Hoary Redpolls and a flock of 200 Snow Buntings, 200 Lapland Longspurs, AND A MCKAY'S BUNTING are seen in a single winter, and the McKay's Bunting and Hoary Redpolls are within a few minutes of each other, then you know an atomic explosion of birds is happening! I got more lifers that winter than any other in Alaska. I also shoveled snow more than any other winter there. What phenomenal birds to see during my final winter in Alaska. But it doesn't end there... Just a few days before we left to drive to Arizona... ... a VARIED THRUSH flew off into the distance, yard bird #57, Identified by size and call. Before that, after tripping my leg over logs (which hurt) In an Alder thicket, I pished out a GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET that I didn't even know was there, yard bird #59, my final one. I got some fantastic closeups through my binos. These birds were seen on and from the top of a nearby hill, but in Alaska (and here) I count birds seen within the neighborhood as yard birds. My total Alaska yard list is 59 species, a decent, if not large yard list for that area of the state. Honorable mention: Chukars. Escaped from captivity somewhere in the neighborhood, successfully survived 2 winters, so far breed both summers. Originally 6 adults, because their a harem bird, probably one male and the rest females. In 2015, a female had 20 chicks, ended with 10 or so. In 2016, 15 chicks, ended with 6. 2015 was a very hot summer, 103 degrees at one point, closer to natural temperatures of eastern Europe, promoting higher success rate with babies. 2017's winter has been warm from what I've heard from friends up there, suggesting a hot summer, so another large brood may happen this year. I did count the Chukars as yard/neighborhood birds, because of their breeding success and quick adaptability to Alaska's climate. It doesn't look like they're dying out or slowing down anytime soon. Hope you guys enjoyed! Despite lack of photos. I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next TIMELINE post!
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December 2019
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