Bring out yer dead

Well well well, look who's back already.  It's ok, you can feel amazed and impressed on my behalf.

Checked out a local cemetery again the other day; the Sacramento City Cemetery (which I suppose technically comprises of a couple of different cemeteries but they're all essentially at the same spot):

View Sacramento City Cemetery in a larger map

You can see when you zoom in to the southern part of that map and switch it to satellite view that all the big conifers are on the south end.  It's this part that I've been birding this winter.  It has consistently hosted PINE SISKINS and occasionally RED CROSSBILLS.

Today, though, I spent my fair share staring at flickers.

Yep, found this apparently-pure "YELLOW-SHAFTED" NORTHERN FLICKER.  Take a look:

So, all you experts, does it look pure to you?  With that said, I've been surprised by how many intergrade flickers there are around here (or is it just me?).  I seem to run across intergrades several times a month (or is it because I'm looking?).  For example, one of the other flickers today at the cemetery was a male intergrade; it had a nice red malar but also a faint red crescent on the nape.  Whoop!

Heard something I didn't immediately recognize... wandered over and found this HUTTON'S VIREO hanging out with a RCKI:

I'm no expert for stuff here in Sacramento County but for me, I rarely see these things in the county.  In fact, this one was the first one I'd seen at this cemetery.  The only other place I've seen them has been down at the Cosumnes River Preserve.  And yes, they're year-round residents here.

On one of the previous visits to the cemetery I found a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER on a giant tree completely riddled with sap wells.  I returned to that tree on this visit to see if I could find it again.  I stared up at the tree for a minute or two [looking like a crazy man] before I caught movement.  As you can see, it grew a pair and came out for all (me) to see:

Maybe it's retarded but I was actually thrilled to see a dragonfly today, only my second of the spring so far.  I hadn't seen a dragonfly/butterfly in ages so this was a good sign for things to come (I later saw a CABBAGE WHITE as well).  Anyway, here's a VARIEGATED MEADOWHAWK:

What to count?

A friend and I were chatting about what's countable on your ABA list and what's not.  I realized that I might have been following some different rules all these years.

Later that day Michael Retter posted a similar question on the ABA Blog in response to a Winging It article (which I don't have).

Instead of clogging the ABA Blog comments section with my measly incoherent thoughts, I figured I would use my blog to try to put down into words what I've done about this issue in the past.

The main question I've been pondering is "When can I add a recently-established exotic on my ABA list?".

An example would be the Common Mynas that are now abundant in Florida.  I remember visiting the Miami area and seeing this species many years before it was officially on the ABA and Florida list.  I didn't count it then.  Years later it was accepted onto the ABA checklist as countable.  Ok, now what?  Should I have added Common Myna to my ABA list then?

My belief was "no".  I thought I needed to see them AFTER they became ABA countable in order to count them.

The story with the Nanday (Black-hooded) Parakeet is nearly the same for me.  I saw it ages ago in Florida (at a nest-hole, even) but since it wasn't on the ABA checklist, I didn't add it.  Now that it IS on the official checklist, should I add it now or wait until I see it again?  If my rules are in fact wrong, this would be a very important "armchair lifer".

The term "armchair lifer" is not new to me or to many birders.  I always thought I could gain a lifer if a species is SPLIT into additional species (and only if I had seen the aforementioned subspecies and took note of them).  An example of this would be the Solitary Vireo complex.  Since I had noted the "Plumbeous" subspecies before they were split, the resulting "armchair lifer" was obviously Plumbeous Vireo in addition to the Blue-headed Vireo (being an eastern boy, Cassin's Vireo came later for me).

In other words, I thought splits and exotics had different rules.  How wrong is this?

"THE ATLAS OF BIRDS"

How long has it been since I've reviewed a book?!  The time has come, though, to catch up with some neat books by Princeton Press.  

First up, "The Atlas of Birds; Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation" by Mike Unwin.  This is a 144 page book published by the Princeton University Press.  It was published in 2011 and is listed as $22.95.

Straight off the bat I realized that this was not your average kind of "bird book", not something you take out into the field or anything like that.  Instead, this was a collection of distribution maps, interesting graphics, and colorful charts that would brighten up any coffee table.  Unlike most of our bird books, the author didn't include maps just for particular species but more so for families of birds and distribution trends.  Here's an example looking at the distribution of Pigeons to Cuckoos:

Here's a similar spread about swifts and hummingbirds:

This book is filled with interesting factoids too, stuff I never knew.  For example, have you ever wondered how many bird species were mentioned in Shakespeare's works?  And how many times each of them were mentioned?  Well then, this book is right for you.  The Nightingale was mentioned 30 times whereas the Goose was mentioned 44 times!

There is no shortage of charts, pie graphs, and maps in this book.  They're not all on the same topic either but a wealth of different ideas and concepts relating to birds of the world.  You can learn more about:

Finding Food
Sense & Sensitivity
Showing Off
From Egg to Adult
Flyways
Birds on the Menu
Putting Birds to Use
Birds in Culture
Conflicts with Birds

The list just goes on and on.  And on essentially every page?  Maps!


Th below page talks about "Birds on the Move" and shows flight height, some migration routes, etc.  For example:

"Most migrating birds usually fly at between 200 - 1500 m (640 - 4800 ft) above sea level.  They fly lower when the wind is against them, as ridges, tress and buildings lessen its force.  When the wind is behind them they fly higher, to benefit from its full force.  Mountains compel birds to gain altitude.  Bar-headed Geese (Anser indicus) in central Asia regularly cross the Himalayas."

I'll mention it again; colorful maps... there really are too many to include here but here's just an average page filled with photos and interesting graphics:

As the title suggests, not only are there maps but there is a real conservation theme to this book as well. The author spends time writing about BirdLife International, campaigns & conventions, saving species, protecting places, extinction, etc.  I think the author does a good job at first amazing you with unbelievable facts about birds but then bringing to light the need for conserving many of these amazing varieties.

So honestly, is this my kind of book?  For those of you who know me, you know my affinity for maps of all different kinds.  Combined with birds, how exactly can you go wrong?  Although this is not a field guide of any sorts, it's a very interesting combination of informative graphics and refreshingly-bright maps.  I encourage you to take a look and see what you think.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy from the publisher for review purposes, but the viewpoint expressed in this article is entirely my own.

Cuckoo to yesterday

I noticed that I failed to mention some cool things from last fall.  One of these things I thought it was worth sharing, even 4 months later!

It was one of the crazier birds found in California last fall; a COMMON CUCKOO.  I happened to return from the Klamath Basin the day that it was found.  The next morning, we were there:

Common Cuckoo was just no where near being on my radar for ABA life birds to see in California.  I'll take it, though.

Ok, fast-forwarding to our recent trip out to Missouri/Iowa just last week... we flew out of Sacramento which yielded this nice view of Folsom Lake:

It was a long day of flying but the views were pretty neat.  This is somewhere east of Salt Lake City:

What did I find back east?  Well, it was cold.  Like... really cold for my poor brown California skin.  Oh well.  Here's the Mississippi River in Hannibal, MO:

I actually enjoyed seeing things back East that I don't see often out in CA.  For example, the PURPLE FINCHES at the feeders:

Yes, even BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES were mildly interesting to me:

TUFTED TITMOUSE was another species that I hadn't seen in 1-2 years:

The "SLATE-COLORED" DARK-EYED JUNCOS were refreshing to me as well, no more "Oregon" DEJUs to look at:

Being in that neck of the woods I figured it was worth stopping in Canton, MO to see some EURASIAN TREE SPARROWS:

All in all it was a good visit although I didn't focus much on birding.  No worries, I lived there for 3 years.

Just yesterday I got out for a bit and spun down to Staten Island and Cosumnes River Preserve.  Staten Island is a great place to see the wintering "ALEUTIAN" CACKLING GEESE:

GREATER YELLOWLEGS are common winter residents:

SANDHILL CRANES are too:

This EARED GREBE was rather tame:

Pishing at a brushpile, this male COMMON YELLOWTHROAT popped out:

The only findable shrike around these parts is usually the LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE:

I was bored enough to take pictures of ducks.  Here are a few of some AMERICAN WIGEON:

ABA needs

I was shuffling through some of my old blog posts just now and stumbled across this one from early 2011.  I figured it was time for an update.

As many birders know, the American Birding Association (ABA) puts out a checklist every once-in-a-while that has a 1-6 scale ranking the difficulty of finding any particular species (you can see the most-recent ABA checklist at: http://www.aba.org/checklist/abachecklist.pdf).  The lower the number, the easier the bird should be to find.  With that in mind, here are some species I'm still searching for....


Code 1 (n = 1):
Leach's Storm-Petrel     

Code 2 (n = 19):
Emperor Goose
Himalayan Snowcock
Mottled Petrel
Buller's Shearwater
Ashy Storm-Petrel
Red-faced Cormorant
Bristle-thighed Curlew
Red-legged Kittiwake
Brown Noddy
Bridled Tern
Aleutian Tern
Parakeet Auklet
Least Auklet
Whiskered Auklet
Crested Auklet
Arctic Warbler
Bluethroat
Bicknell's Thrush
McKay's Bunting

As you can see, I'm hurting most with my lack of seabirds/alcids and things from Alaska.  Considering how violently ill I become on any boat, I doubt I'll see them anytime soon.

This list reminds me of my "nemesis" list... birds I've tried for and missed (sometimes many times!).  If I had to pick the top couple from the above list, they would be:

Bluethroat
Arctic Warbler