Yay! First lifer for 2014 & About Time

I got up last Thursday morning in my usual state of grumpy and shlumpy. Bleery eyed, I perused my email and saw this message from birder buddy Don, message header: Marsh Sandpiper, message content: Ready?

HELL yeah I was ready!  I immediately went on line. Found out an astute birder just outside of Dixon (about a 45 minute drive from my house) looked into a irrigation type ditch and spotted a 'different' looking shorebird. He reported it to one of the area's premiere birders and shortly thereafter all hell broke loose. There was a mega rarity vagrant bird in Yolo County.

The Little Bunting I missed out on
NOT on my life list
photo by lucky & talented birder, Rob Fowler

This Marsh Sandpiper is yet another Eurasian juvenile bird with no sense of direction. Only once before has one ventured into the lower 48 states. I'm still smarting from my having not gone to see another Eurasian bird - Little Bunting - that meandered into Humboldt County around Christmas. That little bird ought to have been my Christmas present to myself, but I stalled.  End result; nothing ventured, nothing new on your life list. So back in December I went all Scarlet O'hara, raising my thwarted fist to the sky, swearing 'As God is my witness, I shall never miss a rarity again!'

Determined not to miss this one I was out the door in under an hour. Of course, being an idiot, instead of following the directions given in the birding report, I navigated via Google. Said drive was beautiful, taking me through the River Delta, along the shores of the Sacramento River. It put me onto Liberty Road - on the wrong side of the river. Felt like a moron. Took another hour to drive around to the correct side of the river.

Friday afternoon, midday Marsh Sandpiper hopefuls

I arrived at the Marsh Sandpiper site midday Saturday. I wasn't the only one there. The Sandpiper was discovered the previous evening, and as many as 100 birders saw it

The gray span to the right of everyone is actually a far side of an irrigation type ditch, dropping about 6 ft down, with a mud bottom.

When rare birds fly in, it is rather like an impromptu, unplanned get-together for birders from all over the west coast to meet up. There are birders who only know each other from previous stake-outs for rare birds.

I hung about for a few hours, then after conversing with other birders on a game plan, I decided to come back at dawn Saturday morning. Come Saturday in the wee hours, I drove hopefully towards the outskirts of the tiny town of Dixon. The sun was adding shades of pink to the sky when I drove in, lugging my spotting scope about a quarter mile to join the teeming mass of birders.

I was about to give up and lament that I would never see the bird when a cry went up, "There it is! The smallest of those three flying in!"

I was on the bird with binoculars quickly and watched in rapt awe. At one point the little guy flew so close I lowered my binoculars so I could stare at it with my bare eyes. Woah... a true Audubon moment.


The bird landed about a mile up the ditch but I stayed put. I was rewarded  - after ten minutes or so, the bird flew back, landing in front of us all, in the ditch. This is where the story goes all Claire-like.  I wanted to digiscope a shot with the iphone through my spotting scope. As I watched the sandpiper meandering in the puddle, feeding, I dug frantically through my pockets and could not find the eyepiece for my iPhone. Finally I resorted to just holding the iPhone to the scope eyepiece but shots taken that way are never quite up to snuff. Oh well.

Greater Yellowlegs (L), my Lifer Marsh Sandpiper (R)

Marsh Sandpiper on left

SIGH! As you can see above, my resulting photos were crap. Insult to injury, it was only after the bird finally flew off, leaving behind happy birders (minus ONE), did I find the missing eyepiece in 'the vault'. Meaning I'd stuffed it down my t-shirt & forgot where I put it. *sigh* Yet another precious Claire moment. I was so annoyed, but oh well, I had my first lifer of 2014. Nothing, not even crap photos can take that away from me.

The Hookupz below is actually a wonderful tool, that works with my binocs and my spotting scope - that is when I manage to have it with me. Best $15 I ever spent.
 

My wonderful $15 digiscope tool
lets me use my iPhone camera
to take photos with my binocs and
spotting scope

Whatever floats her boat... er, her nest

After running a couple of errands today, I was a couple of minutes from home when I passed a vacant corner lot. I caught a glance of what I thought was a sitting duck in my periferal vision. Curious, I did a U-turn and drove back to see what the heck had chosen such a curious spot for a nest.  I took the shot below with my iphone, Zeiss binoculars and a handy $15 thingamajig that holds the two together.

The tiny red arrow points to the sitting, so-called duck

The bird in question was no duck, nor was it a chicken as I next guessed. It turned out to be a hen turkey.  She settled on this crazy spot, that is maybe five miles from the American River where one might normally expect a turkey to set up housekeeping.

It's a difficult job but she's dedicated

She seems... annoyed. Is it something I said?

UPDATE:  I took the photo above on March 31st. I've been by to check on her several times since then, when I happen to be in her vicinity. She's still setting. Today her back feathers were poofy so she looked like a basketball. It was a warm afternoon so I know her feathers were raised to let heat escape her body. But when I drove up she lowered her feathers too look smaller so I had to slink away so she would not become overheated due to my presence. Wish I could set up a lean-to for her. For that matter, wish I could give her food and water too but sometimes a human has to just mind her own turkey business and leave well enough alone. Good luck with your eggs & your family-to-be old girl.

At least a half dozen empty eggshells

Final Update, May 2nd: Having just returned from Arizona, even before I picked up my held mail, I trekked to see how my turkey friend was faring. Success! The hen is gone, and all that is left are at least a halfdozen eggshells, I was able to count through the fencing.

I don't know where the little hen went to with her new family, but I certainly wish them all the best of luck, and NO effing cats. 

Welcome Back Gray Ghost

My lifer Gray Hawk in 2013

For the record, I visited Southern Arizona, and south Texas over several years and could not find a Gray Hawk there. Then, oddly enough, early last year a juvenile Gray Hawk showed up where no one ever expected to find one, by a beach in Santa Barbara county, in the little town of Carpenteria, California. Birders came from all over the west coast to see that beauty.

Trekking there with my friend Don and we located the young bird on power line. The bird was breath taking. I was particularly taken with its large, gleaming amber eyes.

So, imagine the joy when the same bird returned this year, in it all its adult plumaged beauty. Yesterday when I left Death Valley, I bee-lined west in hopes of seeing my lifer Gray Hawk a second time. 

 Arriving at Carpenteria, I drove right up to another birder - recognizable because who else would be staring intently at a shrub with binoculars? He told me he saw the hawk the previous day and was currently looking for a Prairie Warbler. The warbler showed up last year - totally unseen by me *sigh* - reappearing this year. Encouraged, I searched for the hawk a couple of hours. Finally, disappointed, I gave up, got a room for the night, returning early this morning.

After an hour's search I was none the wiser where the hawk might be and was bummed to think I might just not get to see the bird again. Then, while debating whether to fish or cut bait, I was driving past the exact spot I saw the bird last year. I glanced up and TADA!  There on the same power line stood the gray ghost - in all of it's new Sunday-go-to-meeting feathered best.

Same Gray Hawk, all grown up in 2014!

This has to be the prettiest hawk I ever laid eyes on
I mean, a hawk in a gray tweed suit! What's not to love?

When I tore my eyes off the bird to try another camera setting I looked up and the gray ghost had vanished. But I was on cloud nine and took off to tell other birders I'd spotted the bird but when you have such great news, there is never anyone - save ebird on line - to share the news with. 

When I returned ten minutes later I found the hawk again and another birder at the same exact spot, only the on the opposite side of the street. This time the bird perched in a palm tree and I chatted with the other birder for several minutes before the hawk decided it was time to stretch its wings. I wonder if the bird will return again next year? If it does, dare I hope it turns up, with a mate in tow? Probably not, but it's nice to think on. Of course it's also nice to think on what the heck it is surviving off of in the first place - crickets? lizards? mice? And what twist of internal birdie GPS makes it turn up in Santa Barbara of all places? Well whatever it survives on and whatever brings it to California, I loved getting a second look at my 'lifer' Gray Hawk.