"Why do you bird?"
Probably the most frequent question I receive during any sort of introduction. Somehow, I still can never respond to that question articulately. Too many reasons to put into one sentence? Anyways, here I have arranged all of my thoughts, both positive and negative, about these flying creatures. Hopefully this end of year post will shed light onto my complicated love / hate relationship with birds and elucidate my motives.
Probably the most frequent question I receive during any sort of introduction. Somehow, I still can never respond to that question articulately. Too many reasons to put into one sentence? Anyways, here I have arranged all of my thoughts, both positive and negative, about these flying creatures. Hopefully this end of year post will shed light onto my complicated love / hate relationship with birds and elucidate my motives.
Cormorants. Black fish-eating waterbirds that are pretty meh looking to the human seeing them perched on towers by the Dumbarton Bridge or flying by at the beach. But look closely at the face of a Double-crested Cormorant and you'll see a most gorgeous and alien combination of cerulean and orange balanced by a delicately-barred bill that no one ever seems to talk about. Quite stunning in the least.
Pelagic Cormorants have such a beautiful glossy sheen. Horned Lark have such a lovely rufous tinge on their subtly patterned backs. Juvenile Thayer's Gull have such a beautiful pattern of cold grays. It's always nice to take a second look.
Why I hate birds: They are uncooperative as fuck
Back in Kazakhstan (sorry still far from done with that trip report), we spent one day at Big Almaty Lake. I arrived, naive with high expectations, dreaming of one bird in particular: the (awesome) Ibisbill. Ibisbill were known to nest at Big Almaty Lake in the network of glacial streams that flowed into it. Scoping from the south end of the water body was supposedly one of the easiest ways to see this elusive bird of high altitude lotic habitats.
Long story short, after several hours of waiting, the bird didn't show. Well fuck. Still, the area was absolutely beautiful and the other birds were nice but the Ibisbill was a real downer.
What a beautiful delta. Would be nicer with an Ibisbill. I fucking hate birds.
Why I love birds: Experiencing migration is an otherworldly experience
Before I gained my bird sentience, I always thought migration was pretty cool. Vast distances traveled by animals to avoid cold weather and certain death. Pretty epic. Strangely, or perhaps not strangely, it wasn't until I started birding that I actually started to realize how truly epic that was, especially with my careful observation of fall shorebird migration this year.
As July began, thousands and thousands of Wilson's Phalarope flooded the saltmarshes of the South Bay, marking the beginning of this annual mass movement. As July dragged on, they were joined by huge numbers of Western and Least Sandpiper adults, still dressed in subtly gorgeous summer outfits of black, white, and rufous, and ready to either continue moving south or stay for the winter in these rich mudflats. As August started, flocks of both Long and Short-billed Dowitchers arrived, also still beautifully clad in orange and black tones. Additionally, the elegantly-proportioned Wilson's Phalarope began to trickle out and were gradually replaced by their chunkier-looking Red-necked Phalarope cousins arriving in large numbers. At this point, migration was at its peak and a quick view of the mudflats at low tide would reveal upwards of 15 regular shorebird species with easily tens of thousands of individuals. A careful search could also pull up some rarities, mostly inexperienced juvenile birds that lost their way in the arduous journey south. Some, like the delicately-patterned Baird's Sandpiper and stout-billed Semipalmated Sandpiper, were expected strays, with overall small numbers but regularity in occurrence. Others, like the Curlew Sandpiper that my friend found on the 9/11, were truly off course, normally breeding in the Siberian tundra and overwintering in coastal Southeast Asia. As I left the Bay Area for college in late September, migration still had yet to come to a close and while I was in sunny southern California, I continued to witness the appearance of the Dunlin, already quite drab in appearance, and later in early November, the arrival of the overwintering gulls.
Here are some checklists at Alviso to appreciate the changes in species composition:
Here are some checklists at Alviso to appreciate the changes in species composition:
Why I hate birds: They force me into shitty weather
Checking Sierra Birds listserv a week before heading on a short 3 day trip to Truckee and I come across a post titled "Yellow-billed Loon Off Sunnyside, Lake Tahoe".
"Cool! Wonder if it'll stick around" I think to myself.
A few days later and the bird was reported again in the same location.
"Awesome! Hopefully will be a walk-up life bird." I think to myself.
Fast forward to December 26th of this year at 3:45 PM. I had been waiting 40 minutes, standing at the end of the dock splashed by the lake's freezing waters and chilled by the powerful icy winds blowing straight into my face. In this course of time I saw 4 total bird species, the loon not included.
Pissed off, freezing selfie. I fucking hate birds.
Epilogue: Turns out the Yellow-billed Loon never existed and it was just a pale juvenile Common Loon. Lol. Oh well I still fucking hate birds.
Epilogue: Turns out the Yellow-billed Loon never existed and it was just a pale juvenile Common Loon. Lol. Oh well I still fucking hate birds.
Why I love birds: They take me to see the most beautiful and weird sides of nature.
You'd think that after seeing so many sunrises while birding I'd get bored by them but nope. Here the heavens opened up over the mudflats of Pond A17 in Alviso.
While here the earliest rays of the sun turned the fog over the Emily Renzel Marsh orange and all dramatic as fuck.
On September 12th, possibly due to all the ash in the atmosphere from the fires, the sunrise was red. Like almost blood red in real life.
A saline pool stained a fruit-juicy color from specialized microbes at Alviso.
A really high tide combined with rain caused the saltmarsh at the Palo Alto Baylands to become completely flooded (this area is normally all vegetation). Watching the coming and going of a rainstorm made the experience even trippier.
I've always wished to be able to go to an alpine meadow full of wildflowers (oh me...) and this year that wish was granted at Big Almaty Lake. Holy crap there were so many flowers. Also got to chill out with the Schrenk's Spruce just at the treeline.
Speaking of flowers, the flowers seen on my Crater Lake trip were quite lovely as well. Seep Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) growing on a waterfall.
I really love forests so it was a real shame that I only got to visit one temperate broadleaved forest this year: the Belgrad Forest in Turkey. However, that visit was quite amazing, with gorgeous lighting the whole day due to the changing clouds and the dappled shadows. Here is a European Beech (Fagus sylvatica). Also in this forest were many magnificent European Chestnuts (Castanea sativa), so funnily, this forest was similar-looking to eastern North American forests before they got screwed over by diseases from these exact 2 species lol.
I still did visit plenty of forests, and the coniferous forests in Oregon were awesome. Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana) is one of my fave trees and this particular magnificent specimen towering over the rest of the forest at Mill Creek Falls in Oregon was especially amazing.
Why I hate birds: I hate exercise
Without my license yet (I hate the DMV; a rolling stop at a red light turning right with no cars on all sides for at least half a mile when the rolling stop was pretty much a full stop should not be considered a critical error, especially when the rest of the test was going great but I digress) and my firm belief that birding, an environmental activity, should be enjoyed in as green a fashion as possible, I biked a lot this year for birds. Not quite as much as the great green big years that have done in recent years but several full days in excess of 50 miles were accomplished in addition to large numbers of small full morning trips. I guess I should have kept track of my total distance for effect but oh well.
Why I love birds: Avian behavior is so fascinating.
Quite possibly one of the biggest reasons for my plunge into the world of birding. These pictures cannot at all do justice to what I have seen.
A repeat picture, but seeing Surf Scoters swallowing clams whole is always a delight. Shoreline Lake 1/3/15.
Seeing so many egrets in addition to hundreds of diving Bonaparte's Gull, Brown Pelican, and Forster's Tern in a feeding frenzy at a tiny body of water was also great. Shoreline Lake 1/3/15.
For the 3rd consecutive year, an Anna's Hummingbird has nested right next to our kitchen window.
Great Tits sunbathing in a city park in Almaty. The birds just landed on the sunlit sand and plopped down.
Pigeon Guillemot carrying what looks like a sanddab to its chicks at the Farallones. 8/9/15.
Great-tailed Grackle looking picturesque. A few seconds after I took this shot from the outdoor dining area at the Shoreline Restaurant, the bird swooped down, pinned a House Sparrow against the ground, and forcibly picked out a chunk of bread from the bird's screaming open gape. Pretty intense. 8/11/15.
Turkey Vultures sunbathing on the trail, looking quite magnificent. Alviso 9/12/15.
The Snowy Plover colony at Coal Oil Point (a bit less than a mile from my dorm in SB) was really fun to observe. 9/24/15
Excerpt from field notebook: "I heard the cacophony of shorebirds and then saw the large flight of stilts towards the center of the mud. Aiming my binos, I saw the cause of the ruckus: a large adult Western Gull had grabbed a fully grown stilt, the bird still struggling in its bill. I had no clear idea why the other birds came; possibly to scare off the attacker, but to no avail. Even egrets and godwits flew in, seeming like they were curious of the incident. Damn nature is awesome.
[10 minutes later]
Stilt is now being torn apart and the other stilts have quieted somewhat. I wonder why the fuck they're still hanging with the gull"
Goleta Slough 10/1/15
Why I hate birds: I still have no idea how wing feathering works
Excerpt from field notebook: "HOW THE FUCK DOES WING FEATHERING WORK??? I CAN'T DRAW BIRDS"
UCSB Campus 10/23/15
I fucking hate birds
Why I love birds: Seeing so much other cool shit while birding
Hericlium erinaceus, the Tooth Fungus. I found this giant mushroom growing on a dead tree in Stanford Campus. Despite the appearance suggesting perhaps something to get really, really fucked up on, the organism is actually edible (I have eaten it before in Chinese soups and it has this really deliciously rich oily flavor). 1/6/15.
Possibly the only time I will ever use a scope to look at a fish. In Death Valley I visited the legendary Devils Hole and got a glimpse of 1 Devils Hole Pupfish, barely visible at 60x, before it disappeared into the gloom. 2/14/15
Death Valley Sage - Salvia funerea, an interesting in addition to beautiful desert specialist with leaves covered in pale wool to reflect sunlight and block water loss. 2/15/15
As opposed to the Devils Hole Pupfish, the Salt Creek Pupfish was really, really easy to photograph, with plenty of colorful individuals swimming in the very shallow water. Good times now before the creek heats up significantly and partially dries out. 2/15/15
A national geographic moment, with a super cooperative Gray Fox in the businesses adjacent to the Palo Alto Baylands 3/15/15.
My favorite Californian moth of this year: Grammia ornata - the Ornate Tiger Moth. Freshly emerged individual at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve 3/15/15.
One of my favorite wildflowers, the Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii). Coyote Lake County Park 3/20/15
Adela septentrionella, a most unusual and awesome-looking moth that I was lucky to see in good numbers this year. Palo Alto Foothills 4/4/15
Washed up Velellas covering Ocean Beach 5/18/15.
A marker of the beginning of summer, the Elegant Brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans) at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve 6/5/15.
Found lotsa this plant while birding various places in Kazakhstan. Excuse my hair
Great Gerbil carrying a sprig of vegetation outside of Charyn Canyon 6/27/15.
Turkestan Red Pika well camouflaged on the rocks by Bug Almaty Lake. The most absolutely adorable ball of fur I saw this year 6/28/15.
This year was pretty dismal in terms of odonates but the aptly named Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) took the cake as the highlight in this category. Belgrad Forest 7/2/15.
And this doesn't include the pod of hundreds of Common Dolphin moving eastward I saw during a seawatch at Coal Oil Point, the Bobcat I only briefly saw as it ran into willow thicket, the Shovelnose Guitarfish I had while doing a fish data survey... Life is amazing.
Why I hate birds: I love to hate.
I bird for the same reason as why people watch the Kardashians.
I fucking hate birds
Sorry for the hasty writing; I was supposed to submit this 3 days ago... Now, before I get to the most / least awaited for part, the official (ish) numbers, here are some acknowledgments.
I would like to give special thanks to:
Squad
Squad getting ready for the low tide at the Stevens Creek delta and my Red Knot lifer. Thanks guys. Really couldn't have done it without ya.
Will Brooks
This kid. Insanely good at birding and my most frequent bird partner over 2015. Helped me get a bunch of lifers and helped hone my skills quite a bit. Here he is walking on the Baylands Interpretive Center boardwalk during the crazy high tide mentioned earlier.
Get outta the picture I'm photographing the pelican stream.
All the other great birders I've met this year
With all of my birding this year I have met a bunch of really talented birders in the field who have given me immense amounts of wisdom / helped me locate birds. Thank you a ton for not being the stereotypical antisocial dickish people that birders are often portrayed as (and unfortunately who actually exist). And because I don't have any pictures, here's a picture of a Tufted Puffin (8/9/15 at the Farallones) to fill up even more space.
The birds and other wildlife
'Nuff said. Here enjoy a Lesser Gray Shrike. Seen along the road on a bathroom break on the way to Charyn Canyon 6/27/15.
LISTS (before you start reading, this ain't no Noah Strycker list; in fact, it's quite pathetic across all boards so be prepared) (also I haven't fully identified everything I'd seen except for birds so the lists in actuality are higher cuz still noob at ID)
Total Birds 2015: 383
California: 278
Santa Clara: 220
Green list (seen by bike / walking from my house in Palo Alto): 219
First Life Bird of 2015: #284 Pacific Loon 1/4/15
Final Life Bird of 2015: #439 Brown-crested Flycatcher 12/16/15
Mammals: 39
Reptiles: 15
Amphibians: 8 (haha)
Fish: 26
Butterflies: 50
Moths: 33
Odonates: 26
Beetles: 15
Flies: 23
Other Insects: 28
Arachnids: 7
Various Marine Inverts: 44
Flowering Herbs: 345
Trees: 54
Ferns: 16
Fungi: 10
Algae: 10
New Year's Resolutions: Pretty much in general the same as last year. See more birds, get better at birding, don't fail school, see more cool wildlife yada yada.
More specific goals would be
1. Submit at least the same number of checklists on eBird per month as the number of days in that month.
2. Get my Santa Barbara County bird list to exceed my Santa Clara County list
3. See more than this year's 5 species of wild orchid
4. Get better at identifying non-birds (it is pathetic that none of my lists exceed my bird list)
So without a better way to end this post, for those flying things I love / hate, a toast to the birds! A toast to 2016!
