Long Tailed Duck

I went birding in South County today. Days off from work have become a rarity since it seems like everyone I work with wants a vacation. Oh well, more money for Florida in November I guess. When I get a day off they are more precious. So I was pretty disappointed that the wind was howling near the ocean today. It was so bad, I was home by 1 pm. I got one new bird for the day, a Killdeer. However, the highlight of the day was being close to this female Long Tailed Duck. LTDs aren't rare by any means, but it isn't too often they are right next to you at the edge of the Breachway.

Pileated Woodpecker

Lincoln Woods
Feb 22, 2029
Cropped

Winne the Pooh

   I was on the phone with my son this morning whom is living in Cambodia. He had just come back from a weekend trip to Angkor Wat. This was a bucket list destination for him for a couple of years. He didn't get there on his around the world trip in 2019. Living in Cambodia for the last couple of months, I'm surprised it took this long.

   We talked for fifteen minutes which was mostly him talking and me asking questions. After a telling me about his weekend he asked what I was up to. I told him not much because I am working a lot right now because my coworker is on vacation. I told him I might go birding in New Jersey in March. After that, I complained that I just found out  have to work for the muffin guy n mid-April. So for five days in my favorite part of the year I will be getting out of work too late to fish or go birding. As I was telling him this he started giving me crap that I have my plans already planned out.

The truth is he is half right. I don't have every weekend planned out but there are some things I want to do that  I have to go by the calendar. For instance, I want to go back to New Hampshire to see waterfalls gushing from snowmelt. I obviously can't do that in July. Nor can I look at autumn foliage in June. I have to take those trips n April and October respectively.

I do have a list of things I really want to do. Mostly, they are either getaways or boat trips (such as whale watches and pelagic birding). They are written down based in order of the first one I could do (seeing whales at Race Point) to  the last one catch a kokanee salmon in late October. Again some are very time specific where as others like a whale watch I just hope to get to sometime during the summer.

You're probably asking yourself why and when I'm going to get to Winnie the Pooh. My son doesn't plan much of anything. He just goes with the flow. In fact, he tries to model his life like Winnie the Pooh. Yes, you read that correctly. Pooh Bear goes through life just happy as can be knowing that whatever happens things will work out in the end. That's pretty much how we goes about his business.

Even when we travel we are very different. For example, I want to do to specific destinations and see specific things. I hate wasting my money on things, I don't plan on doing. He would much prefer just to go anywhere and stay there as long as he can. He will choose the cheapest option if he can stay there the longest. Though Laurie and I cut corners where we could, Florida was not a cheap vacation for us, but it was a bucket list vacation where we did amazing things. DJ wouldn't go to Florida because for the same money I spent in 11 days, he could camp out west for a few weeks.

Despite my son travelling around the world and now living in Cambodia other than a couple places, I really don't ever plan on doing much international travel, even if I win Powerball. Two of the very few places at the top of my bucket list are Paris and an African Safari. My kid would never do either because of cost. My world travelling child avoids Europe like the plague (there is a pun there if you understand history) because of cost. He would much rather spend a month in southeast Asia. Basically, he would choose quantity where as I would choose quality.

In the end it doesn't matter. We just have differences of style. I want to see animals, birds, and wilderness. Those things make me happy. That is my idea of adventure. I know where I want to go and what I want t see. Pooh Bear (my kid) would rather see where the day or night takes him. Not having a plan is the adventure. Figuring out as he goes and making last minute decisions are his idea of fun.  Deciding and making spontaneous decisions and plans is the rush he is looking for.

I couldn't do that. I don't plan every day of a vacation. There are too many variables, the most notorious is the weather of course. But somethings you need to know in advance like what day you're going to Disney or to make sure you get a site at Yellowstone you reserve it in advance. Though I don't plan every day out, I do try to research my destination knowing where I want to go and what I want to see. DJ researches very little. Can you imagine going to Florida and not knowing there is a place where you can swim with wild manatees and not knowing and just driving by? I can't.  However,  Pooh Bear would just be like "Oh well, Piglet, there will be something better and more fun up the road, you'll see". And in many cases, my son is right.

An Odd Duck

 

 A few weeks ago I photographed a Wood Duck in a small pond in Tiverton. Wood Ducks are very spooky so I was excited to get a lot of photos of this duck in a tiny area. Wood Ducks are notoriously afraid of people. I can't tell you how many times I'd go for hikes and they would fly off long before I would have even known they were there.  It turned out the reason why this duck wasn't afraid of humans is that it was once owned by them. A birder named John Magil got a photo of its leg and it has a band around it. Because of the band, I can't count it on my year list. Only wild birds can be counted.

It is odd to see a once domesticated Wood Duck. I have raised my own chickens, ducks, and turkeys for years. I have many hatchery catalogs. Never once have I seen Wood Ducks for sale. I assume some places must because of this one, but I have never heard of it.

None the less, he is living in the wild now. Every day he faces the same challenges of finding food and evading foxes and eagles as other ducks.

As if it weren't odd enough to have this once domesticated Wood Duck now living in the wild, it also has a girlfriend! You would think that his girlfriend were a female Wood Duck but it isn't. This handsome fellow is smitten with a female Mallard. I went back to get more photos of him yesterday afternoon and I was talking to a guy that has photographing it a lot. The Woody as been in love with the female Mallard for quite some time. Wherever she goes he is right along side of her. If she gets out of the water so does he, if she decided to go for a swim, he is right next to her. He will chase away Mallards that attempt to get close to her even though they are almost twice his size.

While I was there yesterday, he was "courting" the female with his song and whistles. Even to a human, it was clear she didn't understand the language and she was confused. However, from what I can gather, she seems to like his company. She seemed to more than tolerate his presence right by her side.  He is a very interesting odd duck indeed.

They do make an attractive pair even if they are not meant to be.

One Month Down, Halfway There

Life photo, Common Murre

I may have never said this phrase in the last 45 years, but January was fun. I spent all of my days off outside. Despite not doing a "big year" I racked up 125 species of birds in the first month of the year. Since I am only hoping to reach 250, I am more than satisfied.  I am actually ahead of where I was at the end of January last year (110). I have managed more birds even though I am only birding on weekends. I only "chased"one bird after work all month and that was a White Pelican. 

   The main reason I have seen more species, is there are more species to see. Last year, 143 species were seen in January. This year there has been 153. Many of the end of the year birds have stuck around. Even though I have seen fifteen more birds than the first month of last year, I am a cellar dweller in the standings. I am 8th out of fourteen but I had Thurs/Fri off and most people will have the weekend off. I have been hovering around tenth or eleventh and probably will again by Monday.

Enough about stats. I had a really fun two days. I birded twenty two hours over two days and that doesn't include my hour drive each way, each day. I went to over a dozen hotspots, and really just enjoyed myself.

I had two goals for my days off. I wanted to see the Tufted Duck, and because I was within reach, I wanted to reach 125 species. I needed seven. I had plans for Friday to take the Block Island Ferry with my friend Jan but other than that I mostly birded alone.

Tufted Duck

Even though I saw a lot of birds last year, I didn't see all of the waterfowl in the state. I missed one, Tundra Swans. I thought for sure they would show up but they never showed n the mainland. We found out later that Tundra Swans did show up on Block Island, so on January 2 a bunch of us went to the island to see them. Since then, the waterfowl have been spectacular. All of the rare geese showed up and most of the ducks. By January 15 I had every species that comes to Rhode Island except three. I still needed Wood Duck (very easy in warm weather), Blue Winged Teal (which will migrate through in early spring) and Tufted Duck. Tufted Duck is one of those rare birds that shows up once or twice a year. There isn't any one hotspot so you never know where they will be. The god news is, when one shows up, it usually sticks around. One was found last week and yesterday was my first chance to see it. Luckily, it took very little effort to see it. 

Getting that out of the way, I birded multiple spots, sometimes multiple times. I got five new birds yesterday. I also had many other fun birds even if I had already seen them.

Today Jan and I took the ferry. There were a possible six species out there, but three would require real luck. Long story short, we saw two. I got my first lifer of the year in Thick Billed Murre and I got a Life photo f Common Murre. Jan needed the Thick Billed. Although we didn't see a lot of birds, we were happy with the ones we got.

Glaucous Gull

Later in the day I saw the Glaucous Gull at First Beach. Again, this is another rare bird, sometimes not seen in a given year. So it was utterly ridiculous how easy the photos were. I   stood twenty feet from it with the sun at my back. 

There were many stops after the ferry before  and after the gull, but I won't bore you. My last stop was actually my first Thursday morning also. I had tried while it was still dark out for Great Horned Owl in Tiverton but struck out. However, tonight the owl was hooting. This gave me a total of 125 for January!

I still can't believe I'm saying it, but January was fun. Multiple photos from today below.

Note- I originally thought I had Wood Duck, but another birder got a photo of its leg and it has a band. It is most likely an escapee so I took it off f my list. Still happy with the photos though 

American Crow is my favorite common bird

Northern Mockingbird

This photo and the two below are of the
Glaucous Gull

Wood Duck

Some photos from the last two weeks

  I've been outside on my days off all winter. The weather overall has been pretty mild. Here are some photos I have collected over the last two weeks.

Male Northern Harrier, the Grey Ghost

Purple Sandpipers, Sachuest NWR

Purple Sandpipers, Sachuest NWR

Lapland Longspur, 

Misquamicut State Beach

Rusty Blackbird, Moonstone Beach Rd.

Life photo and first time I've seen them not flying

Iceland Gull, Galilee

A sea of Mallards...

...had one Wood Duck

Wood Duck, Tiverton, RI

The small goose center right is a Cackling Goose

Gardiner Pond, Middletown, RI

Life photo

American Coot

Easton Pond, Newport

Photo upgrade

Virginia Rail in bad light, still it is a photo

upgrade. Moonstone Beach Rd, South Kingstown

Keeping my ego in Check

 

The bird in the back is a Green Winged Teal, bird #105

   Today at 4:03 pm  two White Pelicans were spotted in Tiverton. I was home, if I could have gotten through Providence with little traffic, I could have seen them just as it were getting dark .At least four of my friends jumped in their cars and they all got the birds. Instead I chose to stay home. Of course, the main factor was thinking I couldn't get through Providence and see the birds before dark. But last year I would have tried. My heart would have been racing and anxiety would have overwhelmed me. Instead, I stayed home.

   In my last post I wrote a couple paragraphs about self-restraint. I am really learning to accept I will not see every bird this year. Today was an example of putting my brain where my heart is. White Pelicans are extremely rare in Rhode Island. There will not be another one possibly for years. The people that got it today will refer to it as a "blocker bird" because it will help block other birders from getting ahead of them.

Sometimes the problem with being self-aware, is just that, self-awareness. I know that I can't chase every bird this year. I have other things I want to do and I can't let "the list" be all-consuming. Yet, I want to. Last year I hovered around 4th place all year. At points I was tied for third. And I liked it. My ego liked it. I loved the competition. I loved the chase.

   There is a difference between ego and arrogance. I loved being near the top. However, never did I consider myself a better birder than many of the people I was above. There were multiple great birders that I had thirty or more birds more. The reason, I put my heart and soul into chasing every bird, while they had lives outside of birds. Again, the whole self-awareness curse. I know where I stand when it comes to my birding ability and experience compared to others. I know many birders are far better than me, I just tried harder. As I told many people, at the end of the year, the only person that will remember your number is you.

   So. as the year starts, I have finally reached 100 birds (106). There are seven people in front of me with the leader already seeing 132. Other than birding close to home on a 60 degree night after work, I have only birded on my days off. That has been my plan and until now, I am sticking to it. My plan has been to chase the hard birds and not worry about the easy ones. So my list has anomalies up and down it. For example, I have seen Pink Footed Goose but have not seen American Goldfinch.

   I'll try not to write too many boring articles about self-awareness. However, not chasing every bird, and accepting I won't have as many because of it is a stepping stone for me. I still have birding goals, but being near the top of the list isn't one of them. Seeing 100 birds in January was. It doesn't matter that seven others have seen more. Like I said, at the end of the year, no one is going to care anyway.

This beauty is a Black Headed Gull. It is the "best bird
I got over the last two days. Besides being pretty rare,
it is quite a sight