Agencies responsible for federal regulations…
I have recently started a new job in the Marine Bureau of NJ Dept of Environmental Protection! (Here is where I add the disclaimer that anything published on my blog is my own personal content, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NJDEP.) I will still get to interface with Aves insofar as they interact with our fisheries, but given the new fish focus in my career, I am launching a new domain: birdv.fish
I will also be taking this opportunity to refocus/reorganize the content of my blog etc. there, though all of the content that is here will be archived and available there too. I will be looking into the best way to migrate email subscriptions if something needs to be done on that front, so stay tuned. Also, my upcoming retirement of this domain casts it back into the sea for a new owner. Originally, I snagged this domain name with hopes of turning this page more broadly into something of an avian ecology news blog, but I never got around to converting it from my own personal research/birding blog. Years ago, I took some time to put together more general interest content, but that has fallen by the wayside in my current endeavors. So, I leave it to the adoption of perhaps someone who can do this title more justice. I will still be here for now as I get the new site up and running, but please add your bookmark now (as you can see on the link, currently it is just a clone of this site!)
Cover photo: a comically bad, blurry capture of one of the coolest spectacles I’ll probably ever see!
I went to see the eclipse this year, fulfilling my 2 years out AirBnB reservation and my resolution after seeing the Great American Eclipse! I decided it was worth it to get to the longest totality in the US this time, and get some birding in to boot. I hiked up the Hillview Natural Trail and through the paved trail (4/6) at Eisenhower Park (San Antonio, TX) to get a glimpse of my lifer golden-cheeked warbler!
To kick off spring fest with an absolute bang: Josh Gant found an incredible record of common swift at the Meadows, during the spring festival (5/17)! What a crowd-pleaser, to say the least!
I was thrilled to go to my first AOS meeting in years (actually one could say my first ever because the last time I went, it was AOU)! On our last day in CO (10/6) we got to see a flock of white-tailed ptarmigan at Medicine Bow in Rocky Mountain National Park!
My true bucket list experience this year, though, was yellow rails and rice festival…and good gracious did we luck out. On my first night there (10/30) I did the rope drag, and it was unreal. I had of course been studying (for a long time…) to see a yellow rail in flight, and thought the ID between that and sora would be pretty tricky. One of our trip leaders said of rails in flight: “if you have to think, it’s a sora. If it’s a yellow rail, you know.” We proceeded on to flush many yellow rails throughout the night, while we joined up with the other group twice to see their black rails (there isn’t room for enough exclamation points on the page, so I’ll leave it right here with an understated period). The first time I saw the “you’ll know it’s a YERA” phenomenon is when one flushed later that night, and I followed it with my spotlight. The next 2 days were rained out(!) so on the final day (11/2) we were really treated with the true festival experience. While riding on an ATV behind a combine, we saw a yellow rail flush and fly back (in our direction) giving great looks in a decent length flight trajectory. It was then that I got that first “telltale in flight” looks during the day. The bird landed in the rice, and knowing generally where it was, we went to stand in the field nearby. Then, on another pass harvesting that section, the combine flushed the yellow rail almost directly 10 ft in front of me. It was unbelievable! I watched its somewhat startled, fluttering flight and saw even better how white they are under the wing. Our trip leader’s words held true indeed! Then after it was flushed again and the rice was all harvested, we encircled it where it landed in a cut rice patch. We all watched in awe as it wandered around, foraged, and eventually flew over us out of the circle. It really could not have been better luck, and was a high point among many this year.
Goodbye 2024, and thanks for all the birds! Onto starting a new list tomorrow!
Today was my first day guiding for fall fest this year! I was so glad my friend Emily invited me to co-lead the kayak trip with her.
What a perfect way to celebrate our workshop well received: a hike along Medicine Bow trail in the alpine zone of Rocky Mountain National Park! We didn’t see ptarmigan but we were able to pickup radio signal from our tags on a local flock. They seriously seemed to be keeping ahead of us, just over each hillside we traversed…eventually, we let them win.
It is a reflection of how house/yard busy I’ve been the last few years that it has taken me this long to start logging more walks on the beach…! So far, I’ve walked from the beach by the house north of Norbury’s landing to Bay Ave, and all of the beach crossings in between. From there, I’ve walked down to the end at David Douglass park, but not all the crossings. I’ll be working on logging more miles on foot this fall, with a goal of traversing the peninsula and covering the beach crossings too!
This little corner of my yard may not look like much, but maybe that’s kind of the point for now. This year, I’ve finally moved onto this part of home ownership I’m most excited about: creating backyard habitat. Over the last few weeks, I had help from my neighbors (tree trimmers) to transplant some young sweet gum trees that got a little too big for me to handle. Unfortunately, despite watering daily, they are in transplant shock and most of the leaves have died. There are plenty more where they came from, given the neighbors’ yards have big trees, so I’ll try not to be too attached to an outcome if they don’t make it. I always knew it was a bit of an experiment trying to transplant trees this month anyway, and those needed to come away from the house; I just wanted to give them a shot at growing instead of removing them. I didn’t notice another bigger young sweet gum (a testament to the overgrowth next to my house) that I might have asked them to take a shot at moving for me had I seen it in time. Instead, I tried to dig it up myself, and seeing how the transplant experiment has gone so far, I didn’t feel confident trying to plant it.
That and 2 other small saplings have been sadly added to the brush pile…but again, I still have plenty of other tiny trees to find a home for. Speaking of “brush pile” I moved some old wood left by the previous homeowner and unsurprisingly found lots of ants. I assume they’re carpenter ants from the tunnels left in the damp wood, but I’d have to brush up on my ant ID skills to be sure, I guess.
So far, it looks like 2 other small sweet gums I moved have been doing well, as have the 2 little red maples and a black cherry. Pictured below, though, is a black cherry sapling springing up at the base of a grove of sweet gums. I was most excited today to watch a red-spotted admiral flitting around the young tree laying eggs.
I stood very still, and eventually, she landed on a leaf right under my nose! She was so close to my face I could hear her moving on the leaf. I watched her lay an egg, and when she flew off, there was a tiny glistening freshly laid egg at the leaf tip. I can’t wait to look for caterpillars in the coming week!
Bonus: today was also the first day I saw a hummingbird use the little feeder I setup!
Cover photo taken and updated 9/8
I’ve added some new native species in the last week, albeit cultivar varietals…
After checking out the Ohiopyle state park visitor’s center, my parents and I walked from where this trail intersects the great Allegheny passage to cucumber falls! Then, we walked along the road inside the guard rail to look at the natural water slides. From there, we walked the foot trail across the bridge along the road back to the parking lot for the falls.