A Year Later...

    Today, July 14th, marks the exact date one year from when I submitted my first checklist on ebird and officially started birding. This has honestly been one of the greatest 365 days of my life, with a rapid expansion of my knowledge and appreciation for the natural world. Although I was constantly completely obsessed with nature from a young age, I previously would never have imagined that I would wake up at 5 am multiple times to catch the sunrise by bike or spend hours waiting in San Francisco on Christmas Day for a lost vagrant that would not appear. But who knew that just the sunrise, a simple thing that occurs every day, could cause tears to well up in my eyes, or that even this long, fruitless wait could allow me to meet great people who share the same interests? I guess there is always something new to experience and that is one of the greatest joys of being alive and sentient.
    It seems fitting then that in this past week, the final week before my "anniversary", that I have had the opportunity to learn even more. I am currently working on this post from Huyck Preserve in upstate New York. The program I am currently attending has been amazing in everything from the absolutely beautiful location to the wonderful speakers to the 7 other great students (more about everything in future blog posts after this "special episode"). There are two more weeks to go and I hope to get as much out of this experience as I possibly can. And again, rest assured that I will talk more specifically about my adventures here in dedicated posts later.

The light filtering through the canopy. The picture was taken just this morning.

    Now in no particular order, I will list the 5 most breathtaking and profound experiences that have occurred in the past year.

1. Birding in the rain
As said in my "Late March Flurry of Annoyances" post, one morning I decided to bike out after a downpour ended. The weather was fine as I headed out around 8 miles to the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant and birding was decent. However, on the way back it started pouring, hard enough to decrease visibility out on the bay's surface as a fine mist was created. While I biked slowly on the narrow path just next to the waters, the rain forcing me to look down, a huge flock of sandpipers flew towards me from out of the mist and parted as they went by. As they traveled, the sound of their numerous wingbeats made me feel like my heart physically skipped a beat for some reason. I just want to relive that moment.

2. Woodbridge Ecological Preserve
This was also from a previous post, "Vacation to Truckee". On the way to Truckee, we stopped by this famous area in Lodi. There were thousands of overwintering waterfowl with snow, cackling, and greater white-fronted geese, tundra swans, sandhill cranes, and many more. The ultimate moment was during the sunset as a huge flock of snow geese flew around, a sight I thought I would only get to see on a nature documentary. The amazing scene was made even more beautiful with the bubbling melodies of nearby meadowlarks.

3. The sunrise and skimmers
This appeared quite recently in "Reflections of May". The sunrise brought tears to my eyes. The skimmers brought tears to my eyes. Enough said.

4. The bobcat
This also appeared in "Reflections of May". The large cat looked at me with the most beautiful of eyes before vanishing into the forest. Definitely something that I will not forget soon or perhaps ever.

5. Oh god this was such a bad idea. I really cannot begin to list everything that awed me this year. So I'll just leave this at "everything else".

    Just for those who prefer numbers and more "official information" over my emotional soppiness above, here they are.

Total number of birds seen / heard: 253
Birds heard only: Swainson's thrush, black rail, ovenbird, barred owl
Any ABA Code 3 or above? No
ABA Code 2's: Tropical kingbird, Eurasian wigeon, yellow-billed magpie
California list: 212
Texas list: 2 (seen at Dallas airport lol)
Indiana list: 56
New York list: 45
2013 list: 184
2014 list so far: 229
5 most recent life birds: magnolia warbler, black-billed cuckoo, barred owl, rose-breasted grosbeak, bald eagle
5 most exciting life birds (when first seen): magnolia warbler, black-billed cuckoo, Canada warbler, tropical kingbird, belted kingfisher

Black-billed cuckoo seen yesterday. How fitting for 2 of my most exciting life birds of this year to appear on the same day, the one before this special one.

    Sorry for the lack of pictures. They will come soon. Now I would like to give infinite thanks to Robert Michael Pyle, author of Mariposa Road, for providing one of my sparks to start birding and observing wildlife more closely after I read his inspirational book about the first butterfly big year. I would also like to thank all the people who have supported my hobbies and dealt with my insanity. Finally, I would like to thank you all, dear readers, for keeping up with this blog. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!

Indiana Part 2

   Continuing from our dramatic cliffhanger in the previous episode, we now start the end of this exciting saga on the morning of the 23rd. Again, I decided to kill my sleep schedule and woke up at 6. However, that day birding was slower and the only lifer was a species that would be seen multiple times later during the trip, the Carolina chickadee.

    We then went to take a glance at our old house that I lived in until I was 3. Following that, it was time to go to Eagle Creek Park, the best birding hotspot (according to ebird's hotspot explorer) in the area by a long shot. Interesting how when I lived in Indiana, I was a few blocks from Eagle Creek and now in California, I live a short distance from the Palo Alto Baylands, the biggest hotspot in Santa Clara County...
    Parking under tall sugar maples at the parking lot, we first went into the ornithology center. The small building had nice one-way windows that provided views to a feeder and of Eagle Creek Reservoir as well as many taxidermied local birds. I then familiarized myself with the path and started my hike.
    The first new bird appeared rather quickly with a Carolina wren that was feeding in the understory but hopped away before any pictures were taken. It would be a while before I got my next life bird, as the forest was surprisingly quiet, likely as the afternoon was approaching and winds were picking up.

Very interesting blue harvestman I saw near the parking lot.

Hackberry emperor. Look at that proboscis!

"The pink flush at the base of the ventral forewing on Vanessa virginiensis rivals the brightest pinks I know in the animal kingdom, more intense than any flamingo or mandrill's butt".

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite books, Mariposa Road that is quite true for the identification of the American lady butterfly (the pink was brighter in real life).

    As I continued my lovely walk, I came upon the entrance to another area of wooded trail which I felt would be a nice place to explore. Indeed it was, as I saw several organisms of interest. One of the most stunning sights was what I first thought to be a jeweled rock in the middle of a trail, gleaming with green gems. However, as I moved closer, the "green gems" flew away and revealed that what I was seeing was some sort of animal scat completely covered in green bottle flies.

Another hackberry emperor, this time on a less natural medium.

Very raggedy pipevine swallowtail

Mourning cloak by a stream

Crossline skipper. 

In the middle of my walking, I thought a large leaf was floating down from the canopy. Turned out to be a huge Eastern eyed click beetle, perhaps evading a predator. 

Red-spotted purple. What a beauty.

Six-spotted tiger beetle, one of my favorite coleopterids of all.

Female ebony jewelwing.

Northern pearly-eye.

Finally, a picture of a bird. The indigo bunting seen here in terrible lighting was one of 2 males I saw. They truly are stunning birds.

Some sort of tent caterpillar nest. Too bad no cuckoos were here to feed on the hairy caterpillars.

Jade clubtail seen on way back.

    I then rested at the bubbling stream where I had seen the mourning cloak earlier. After sitting motionless for a moment, the forest seemed to come even more to life. Small fish twinkled in the moving water, a few red-spotted purples squabbled in the air, brilliantly flashing as they fluttered into the sunny areas of the dappled light, birds called in the background...time seemed to stop completely in this brief moment of peace.

Question mark butterfly

A stunning orchard orbweaver that crawled in front of me.

    It was now time to continue my original plan of circling the reservoir. The next area was the levee, a sunny area with water on both sides and dense patches of short vegetation with willow thickets and a few sycamores. This area proved to be very birdy, with several life birds obtained.

Widow skimmer

Embarrassingly enough, the yellow warbler was my first and only warbler seen during the whole trip. Additionally, it was a year bird... I really need to see one soon back home for this year.

Soon a family of ORCHARD ORIOLEs appeared. Here is the father carrying food for the young' uns. Soon afterward, a BALTIMORE ORIOLE appeared but moved too quickly for pictures.

Tree swallow

Eastern kingbird nest another friendly birder pointed out to me.

The daddy kingbird

American goldfinch

Dead and swollen catfish

Swamp milkweed

Wonderfully focused shot of my first RED-EYED VIREO. There were several more of the "preacher birds"  heard singing their classic question-answer-question-answer songs. This was the last life bird seen on the main hike along the reservoir. From there, we headed to the ice skating pond in hopes of seeing a wood thrush, cuckoo, or more optimistically, a least bittern.

Painted turtle covered in leeches. Usually I don't enjoy messing with nature but this time I made an exception and we removed the bloodsuckers before getting the turtle out of the road.

My first EASTERN BLUEBIRD beside the ice skating pond. Unlike the Western bluebirds that I'm so used to at home, this one is..........Eastern.

White-tailed deer enjoying a nice rest

    After a giant swallowtail flew by me in the ice skating pond's parking lot, it started to pour quite spectacularly out of nowhere. However, all was fine as a quite productive day had passed and the torrential rain was beautiful within this green gem of Indiana. 

    A few more things happened in the next two days but as I am super behind now and Eagle Creek was the main "meat" of this trip, I will postpone those events till some later post. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature! 

Indiana Part 1

    Indiana. The US state known for its cornfields, hog farms, and cornfields. It also happens to be the birthing grounds of none other than me. As mentioned in several posts, I recently had a lovely opportunity to visit, my first foray out of California since I started my list list on July 14th last year. For my parents, it was a great experience seeing family friends well for me, it was arguably an even greater experience seeing wildlife of the great Midwest.

    We arrived late morning on the 22nd at the Indianapolis International Airport, where I got my second life bird of the trip right during landing: an EASTERN MEADOWLARK. Interestingly enough, this would be my only Eastern meadowlark seen for the duration of the 4 days. But why was this not my first life bird of the trip? Well, as we stopped at the Dallas / Fort Worth Airport for an annoying transfer in an already annoying red-eye flight that had an annoying delay, I spotted a COMMON GRACKLE next to the landing strip. Not surprisingly, this was just one of the many, many common grackles seen, as they become one of the most numerous native birds east of the Rockies.

    Next, a family friend picked us up and we went to his house in Carmel. After lunch, I immediately went out for a nice neighborhood walk. The first birds I saw were birds that I could never ever see in California, like European starlings, song sparrows, American goldfinches, great blue herons, American robins, mourning doves. Oh the variety. But seriously, my first bird of interest was a life bird the BROWN THRASHER. It was with a large group of robins, starlings, and grackles feasting on mulberries. Or do I call them mulberry berries? Or more accurately mulberry aggregate fruits? Hmmm. Anyways, no pictures were obtained as the notoriously shy bird retreated to the safety of a bush. Then, a butterfly flew by and unable to resist my childhood urges, I chased it, eventually finding out its identity as a life butterfly the white-spotted purple. However, as with the thrasher, the butterfly resisted my attempts to photograph it and fluttered away.

    I then walked to a little pond (one thing I love about Indiana suburbia: there is always a small body of water nearby), where I hunted for some dragonflies and damselflies, getting several new species to my life list but more importantly, some PICTURES.

Eastern forktail. Lovin' that color scheme.

Orange bluet. Oh the treachery in its name.

Eastern amberwing. These little guys are so pretty and their amber wings create orange shadows.

A beautiful calico pennant

A foursome I intruded upon. Oops. I believe that these are familiar bluets. But I cannot rule out Northern bluet. If someone wants to comment, PLEASE DO.

Common whitetail. This lovely species has a range that spans all of the lower 48 and I have seen it in California at Arastradero Lake. The only new Odonate seen that I didn't get a picture of (or I did but it is barely visible) was a black saddlebags that never stopped zooming around.

    The final stop on that little walk was in a small forested area. There, I waited around and got a pair of NORTHERN CARDINALs, two CHIMNEY SWIFTs flying overhead, and a GREY CATBIRD. However, none of the birds were willing to cooperate for a picture. The only bird that I managed to photograph was a subspecies lifer, an "Eastern" red-winged blackbird.

Look at that spiffy lighter area beneath the red patch not present on our western "bicolored" red-wingeds. Not to be confused with the similar-looking tricolored blackbird which is only found on the west coast.

    Later that night, we went to a small park after an overfilling but delicious dinner. I hoped to find nighthawks in the dwindling light but no luck. However, I did get to see a fantastic show of fireflies, a sight very rare in most parts of California. As we walked home, two large amphibians stood motionless on the sidewalk: an American toad and bullfrog. A few minutes later, it started raining. A few minutes later, it started pouring. Oh this warmth, humidity, bipolar weather that changes from sunny to torrential rain... I love it so much!

Great Plain skies

Changing weather

As the light faded, the flashes became even more frequent. This picture was my only successful attempt at capturing the light show and despite its blurriness, it ended up being...interesting.

The lumbering fireflies were very easy to catch. Thanks for the great show!

Sorry for the flash. The frog didn't seem to notice though. Nor did it notice when the person who discovered it was standing inches from it.

Same goes for the toad.

    The following day, I woke myself up at 6 am (technically 4 am because of jetlag) and went for a nice morning walk. Oh how my body loves how I treat it. The day was sunny and there was practically no evidence of last night's rain. All was worth it as I got a few life birds, including ones that would not be seen later during this trip.

At the dawn's early light, chimney swifts were drinking water from the pond, skimming the surface while flying, a wonderful sight to see.

Common grackle at feeder. Despite their ubiquity, I found it surprisingly hard to get pictures of these birds at all as they were wary of people and generally stayed at a distance. Perhaps the neighborhood doesn't take kindly to them because of their loud calling and seemingly unattractiveness. However, they are surprisingly beautiful when seen up close, with iridescent feathers glowing in shades of purple and green.

My first sighting of the RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, the only hummingbird commonly found east of the Rocky Mountains. 

Female red-winged blackbird

    Continuing my walk, I came upon the tantalizing entrance to a wooded path! Well anyways the woods themselves were not too interesting bird-wise other than my life bird the BLUE JAY, being filled mostly with starlings and grackles, but the Eastern forest was very nice to observe, with many grandiose trees. After leaving, I took a walk along the edge of the trees which yielded the best birds seen for the morning.

.

If only my neighborhood had this...

Male cardinal singing his heart out

My first GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER! Thankfully this is the only Myiarchus flycatcher regularly found in the area so by range all the other members of this genus can be safely eliminated unless vagrants are taken into account. The great crested does have a darker gray area than its relatives but I guess I'm still in the gray area for identification (ba dum tsss) as honestly, I cannot flycatcher for my life. Shortly afterward, another life bird, the RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, appeared. However, no pictures were taken of the distant moving bird.

Here's a life bird that I should have gotten much earlier in California: the CHIPPING SPARROW.

Eastern cottontail

    I then returned to the house we were staying in and took a nice long nap, further ruining my sleep schedule. My next stop was the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The museum was quite nice, with many fascinating pieces of artwork that caught my fancy. The best part was the exterior garden that we walked in after viewing the exhibitions. Unfortunately, we did not get to walk for too long and missed out on some parts I hoped to see. I still did get two life birds, the first being one that I also should have seen earlier in California: the PILEATED WOODPECKER and the second being a common bird of the area: the TUFTED TITMOUSE. Both birds were reluctant to be photographed, with the pileated flying through the trees too quickly for a picture and the titmouse staying amidst dense branches.

Great-spangled Fritillary outside the museum. The Echinaceas were quite lovely too, with multiple sunset colors of pink and light orange.

Cooperative fox squirrel. Unlike the population at Stanford, the ones here are native.

Cooperative mourning dove

Ohio buckeye

Blurry red-bellied woodpecker.

    And that concludes part 1 of my Indiana trip. Stay "tuned" for part 2, which will cover Eagle Creek Park, the ultimate highlight of my 5 days. Until then, enjoy life and love nature!