Black-headed Grosbeak: Swarovski ATX 85

Black-headed Grosbeak: Aliso and Wood Canyon Regional Park, 04/13/13

Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park in Laguna Niguel, California is a wonderful place to go in the spring. Summer resident breeding birds are often perched up and singing. The habitat is a combination of coastal sage scrub with willow and cottonwood riparian areas. A road parallels the creek that runs down the center of the canyon. Late March and early April is the perfect time to visit, because you can see and hear Greater Roadrunner, Least Bell’s Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeak, and Black-headed Grosbeak. Therefore, I headed there to try digiscoping with my micro 4/3 format camera through the Swarovski ATX Modular Eyepiece with the Swarovski 85mm Modular Objective. The Chats weren’t in yet. I saw one Blue Grosbeak but it was high in a willow against marine layer clouds – a difficult background to work with.

Digiscoped Video

As luck would have it, I found this Black-headed Grosbeak Pheucticus melanocephalus posted up and singing. The bird sat low enough that there was foliage in the background. The Grosbeak was so vivid and sang beautifully. Therefore, I immediately decided to take a video. Fortunately, it was easy to mount the camera to the scope, thanks to the Swarovski TLS-APO SLR camera adapter, and I was rolling seconds after I had focused on the Black-headed Grosbeak with the ATX 85 spotting scope.

The pale downy feathers are the Grosbeak’s insulation system. He was fluffed-up because the chill from the previous night had not yet left the air.

Digiscoping with the Swarovski ATX-85 Scope

We recently got the new Swarovski ATX-85 spotting scope in for evaluation and have really enjoying digiscoping birds with it. In addition to the crystal clear, tack sharp image quality, this scope also has a really well-designed digiscoping options for point-and-shoot cameras as well as micro 4/3 and standard DSLR cameras. Below are a few modest examples.

A Salton Sea Chase

Nashville Warbler, digiscoped with the Swarovski ATX-85

We drove to the Salton Sea, looking for the recently reported Cave Swallows. There we found a group of Nashville Warblers playing in a palo verde tree, easily 70 yards away. In this case, the distance actually helped, as it gave us a few more seconds’ time to get one of these hyper-kinetic little birds in frame for long enough to snap off a shot or two. Most of the shots didn’t work out, primarily because of obscuring branches, but this one did. Now how often do you see people digiscoping a quick bird like a Nashville Warbler?! This picture was taken with a Nikon CoolPix P 300 camera, using Swarovski’s DCB II adaptor and the Swarovski ATX-85 spotting scope.

More Local Digiscoping

Digiscoping a Greater Yellowlegs with the ATX-85

We chased a potential Solitary Sandpiper along San Diego Creek in Irvine early one morning. It was a very gray, overcast morning with a heavy marine layer, so there wasn’t much light available. We dipped on the Solitary but got this very handsome Greater Yellowlegs as compensation. We pushed the ISO setting on the Nikon CoolPix to 800 to stop the motion of this actively feeding bird. Thereafter, everything came pretty easily.

Lastly, given that this is a system new to us, working quickly under sub-optimal conditions, the results were good! We are really looking forward to getting to know it well!

Birdless Joys of Birding – Part 2

Birdless joys of birding occur when a birding trip turns up other cool animals (see Featherless Joy of Birding). On a previous birding trip to the East Mojave Preserve we had an opportunity for photographing interesting non-avian critters. At the Baker Sewer Ponds, we encountered this male Western Zebra-tailed Lizard – females lack the black bands on the belly.

The Western Zebra-tailed Lizard lives in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and the Great Basin. It is diurnal and forages for insects and smaller lizards except during extreme heat. When not taking refuge in the shade, it maintains only minimal contact with the ground. As seen in this photo, only the vent and heels are touching the sand. Zebra-taileds will occasionally take this a step farther and stand on only two feet at a time.

When they are scurrying around (25+ mph), Western Zebra-tailed Lizards curl their tails over their backs like a scorpion. Sometimes they use only their hind feet. They usually don’t allow close approach. I took this photo from a distance of about 40′. I used a point and shoot camera through a Kowa TSN-884 spotting scope with their new TE-11WZ 25-60x wide angle zoom eyepiece. The zoom features two elements of Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass. This is an innovation in Kowa eyepieces which improves contrast and sharpness by further reducing chromatic aberration.

Owling Oaxaca, Mexico

In late February we took a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico to find the newly defined Oaxaca Screech-Owl. This was going to be a real challenge. There is very little information regarding this species. We figured since we were looking for difficult to find species we would add Fulvous Owl to our search too… since it has no confirmed Oaxaca range at all.

Fulvous Owl

Although the Fulvous Owl does not have a formal range listing showing it as occurring in Oaxaca, we knew there had been reports of sightings in recent years. We even had a fair idea of where to look or at least a general area. That was still weak information on a species that is only supposedly present. I had some previous experience with this owl from the mountains in Southern Chiapas. I knew he was normally resident above 7,000 feet in elevation. The habitat would be dense cloud forest with large trees. This owl is a fairly vocal one. Like its cousin, the Barred Owl, it is reasonably bold in behavior.

We underestimated the difficulty of searching such a vast area for one owl with the time and information we had. We spent four full night searching the mountains. Adding to the difficulty was “minor altercations” with the locals, the typical dangers of being on remote dirt roads in Southern Mexico at night, and being in unfamiliar locations. Yet our perseverance paid off when we found a beautiful pair of Fulvous Owls. That just saved us a difficult trip to Chiapas or Guatemala and what a beautiful owl this is!

Oaxaca Screech-Owl

We headed for the coast now that we had finished the easy part! Next was to search for Oaxaca Screech-Owl. The descriptions of this owl are definitely not consistent. We knew of no recordings and there were no photos available. The people who wrote the research we could find had done it using museum skins. No researcher or guide we had contact with had ever seen this owl. So we first checked the locations where the research specimens had come from so long ago. There was no longer native habitat and only man-made sounds at night.

No sweat, all we needed to do was find a screech-owl along the south-eastern Pacific coast of Oaxaca (or at least within 50 miles of the coastline) with an unrecognizable vocalization. With a little inside info of where to look from Michael Carmody, a top guide here in the US, we finally located the Oaxaca Screech-Owl (or some owl with an unrecognizable call in the right area). The problem was that it stayed buried deep in thick thorn forests and was so timid that we spent five nights traveling every back road we could find to get a glimpse of this owl (and every day pre-scouting for proper habitat). Now I know why there are no pictures out there! With this experience behind me I am certainly going to have to come back here again and see if a different time of year makes seeing this owl a bit simpler.

Mottled Owl

We did come upon and take pictures and recordings of several other owl species that I should mention here. Mottled Owl was the first of these. This is a common owl species in Mexico. The surprise was to find the northern race this far south. The two races of Mottled Owl are readily distinguishable. The northern race is much lighter than the southern race. Photos of both races can be seen on Owling.com. I have seen the southern race to the north-east of the Oaxaca coast in Chiapas. We saw multiple Mottled Owls in our efforts to get one of those darn Oaxaca Screech-Owls to show itself. Mottled Owl is probably a predator of Oaxaca Screech-Owl. This one came in looking for dinner but found us instead!

Colima Pygmy-Owl

Another owl we encountered was Colima Pygmy-Owl. Oaxaca is the southern range extent for this species. It is smaller than the Mountain Pygmy-Owl and found at lower elevation. This cute little owl is extremely unpopular with the other small birds because despite being the size of a large sparrow they are voracious predators that prey upon the other birds as their primary diet. There were quite a few of these that were vocal both day and night. Since he is primarily diurnal (active in the day) it was interesting that we heard them also in the night. In retrospect it might have been interesting to see if we could have called one in at night.

Whiskered Screech-Owl and Flammulated Owl

We found two owl species in the mountains to the east of Oaxaca City that also deserve note here. Whiskered Screech-Owl (photo shown) was the first of these. It is resident and non-migratory throughout its range. In the northern extents of its range it is a resident owl species of south-east Arizona. It is a common resident throughout most of Central Mexico and south into Oaxaca in proper habitat.

Flammulated Owl was the second of these owl species. This small owl migrates into the US in the spring and summer. This is probably the most migratory owl species in North America. Howell does not mention this owl being in these mountains. Finding this species surprised us. Furthermore they were abundant in the higher elevations. In the US during the winter months all Flammulated Owls migrate south out of the country. At this time of year (late February) they were very vocal in the mountains. It would be interesting to survey this area a few months later to see if the Flammulated Owls all migrate north.

Mountain Pygmy-Owl

Last owl of mention here is the Mountain Pygmy-Owl, another very small diurnal owl, which is similar in habits and appearance to the Colima Pygmy-Owl. His primary diet is also the other small birds and is about as equally unpopular with them! He is vocally different from the Colima Pygmy-Owl and found at much higher elevation. Our primary interest with this species, in this location, was to have recordings to compare with the nearby Guatemalan Pygmy-Owl that we will look for in Chiapas on a future trip. The Mountain Pygmy-Owl is found as far north as Arizona and although accepted by most authors as unique from Northern Pygmy-Owl (vocally and genetically distinct), the AOU still combines this with Northern Pygmy-Owl. Expect that to change in the future.

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A Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Orange County

Sub-adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

We recently visited Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve to look for the reported juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. This is one of those location, location, location things. In Florida, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron excites nobody. But in California, where for decades the nearest breeding population of these night-herons was down in Baja somewhere, it’s a pretty uncommon bird. In recent years, a small Yellow-crowned Night-Heron population has become established in an apartment complex in Imperial Beach, CA, in the shadow of Tijuana. Even so, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron away from there is newsworthy in southern California.

At the time, this immature bird constituted the second confirmed record for Orange County. The first one showed up in 1977 at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. We see Yellow-crowned Night-Herons regularly now. This suggests the presence of a more local breeding population. But back then, a lot of local birders chased this bird.

The Heron was Elusive

We went on a Saturday morning, with someone who had seen the bird only the day before. Thus, we were confident of success. Naturally, we couldn’t find the stupid bird! We circled the entire pond under the bluff there. We checked out every immature Black-crowned Night-Heron on the property, without any success. Finally, it turned out that the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was actually roosting among a large group of Black-crowned Night-Herons in the trees right where we started. The night-heron cooperated, but only grudgingly. It gave us long looks at fairly minimal distance. But it perched in a dense tangle of branches that always obscured it. Eventually we got a few photos.

A Gift Burrowing Owl

Wintering Burrowing Owl

Next, we searched the ground squirrel burrows around the mesa looking for returning Burrowing Owls. Eventually we found one bird. The didn’t get great views because the bird never completely emerged from its burrow. But at least we found it. Later in the day, someone else found a second bird. Burrowing Owls are often hard to locate. If you don?t know how or where to look for them, overlooking them is easy.

Burrowing Owls are tough to come by in Orange County. Widespread development pretty much gobbled up virtually all grassland habitat in the county. A small breeding population of this species subsists in an area closed to the public. Also, scattered wintering birds pop up as winter migrants, like the Bolsa Chica birds. Hopefully, these two will stick around for the upcoming Coastal Christmas Bird Count!

The pictures were taken by digiscoping with a Kowa TSN-884 spotting scope and a Nikon CoolPix P6000 (Night-Heron) or a Kowa TSN-883 with a Nikon CoolPix P300 (Burrowing Owl). The optics were mounted on a Manfrotto MT055CXPRO3 carbon fiber tripod with a MVH500AH pro fluid digiscoping head.

A Common Cuckoo for California

Common Cuckoo

When someone found a Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) at Watsonville Slough, we knew we had to try for it. Common Cuckoo is an Old World species with a broad distribution in Europe and Asia, with some wintering in Africa. You’ll note though that none of those places include California! In fact, the species is regular if not annual on the islands of western Alaska. However, prior to the Watsonville bird, only one previous sighting in the lower 48 states existed. That bird graced Martha’s Vinyard more than 30 years ago. This Common Cuckoo may be common in Asia, but south of Canada, it’s decidedly uncommon. We anxiously watched the birding hotlines through Saturday. After the latest sighting in the afternoon, we decided to go for it. How do you resist a bird this good?!

Arriving in Watsonville

We arrived in Watsonville in the wee hours of the morning. We tried four different motels before finally secured lodgings for the little remaining night. Dawn came really early the next morning, and dragging ourselves out of bed was an act of will. But hey, we’re birders and Common Cuckoo is a killer bird so we did it. So did a lot of other people, as it turned out. Over 50 birders crowded Ramsay Park as we pulled up. And in something of an anti-climax, they already had the bird in view as we walked up. We decided we could live with that!

Sub-adult Common Cuckoo

This Common Cuckoo may only have been an immature, but it was already a veteran when it came to positioning itself. The bird frequented willows on the western edge of Watsonville Slough. There it expertly selected perches that invariably placed it right in front of the sun from the only available vantage points. It also chose spots where there were always intervening branches and leaves in front of it. That confounded all auto-focusing. We took many obstructed photos. These are some of the shots that were a little less so. Note the lovely orange orbital ring and the gorgeous barring to the chest. These images were captured through a Kowa TSN-884 spotting scope equipped with 20-60x zoom eyepiece and a Nikon CoolPix P6000 camera attached using a Kowa TSN-DA-10 digiscoping adapter. We mounted the optics on a Manfrotto 701HDV,055CXV3 carbon fiber tripod with a digiscoping head.

Yellow-billed Magpie: Another Roadside Attraction

We were driving back from central California when we stopped at the rest stop near Camp Roberts on U.S. Route 101. We consistently find Yellow-billed Magpie at this particular rest stop and did on this visit as well. We had only been there for a few minutes when 4 or 5 of these handsome birds flew in and began feeding in the leaf litter under the large, spreading oaks.

Endemics

Yellow-billed Magpie is endemic to California, meaning they live no place else on the planet besides here. Birders always prize endemics over those more widespread species. They are big, beautiful and intelligent members of the family Corvidae, which includes all crows, ravens and jays worldwide. As such, they are often pretty skittish and seldom allow close approach. At this rest stop, however, they became habituated to being around people, which means they are easier to photograph. Even so, we chose to digiscope them from distance rather than approach closely. From farther away, the birds relax some and act naturally in our presence. This video was taken with a Nikon CoolPix P300 digital camera attached to a Kowa TSN-883 spotting scope.

Notice also how little yellow skin these magpies show around the face. The amount of yellow facial skin shown by a Yellow-billed Magpie varies with the individual. It may also vary with differing molt states. In our experience, the magpies at this particular site show more yellow than those in other places we’ve been.

(If the video doesn’t load properly, try refreshing the screen and then retry. We’re seeing this a lot lately.)

Featherless Joy of Birding

Desert Bighorn Sheep near Zzyzx.

The joy of birding doesn’t always include birds. We made a successful three hour drive to Baker, California to see a White Ibis. White-faced Ibis are the common species in California. Glossy Ibis is very rare. And this was the first White Ibis I’ve seen in the state in nearly 20 years of birding. We then decided to check some other local spots. We know of several in the area that can often be productive.

One of our favorite spots is the California State University Desert Studies Center at Zzyzx. Formerly a desert resort, this oasis has springs and accommodations that facilitate workshops of many kinds, and on a good day, can have lots of migrant birds refueling in the trees and ponds. Some desert residents even breed there. So, we drove in, parked, and walked around searching for some rare bird to tickle our fancy. We checked the ponds, the tamarisks, the palms, and the willows. We even scanned the rocky hillsides and the salt pan.

Big(horn) Surprise

The place was virtually bird-less. But on our way out, we chanced upon this particular joy of birding, a flock of Desert Bighorn Sheep. These animals are very reclusive, so we stopped to get some photos and video. We shot some rewarding footage recording behavior that very few people get to see. I recorded the video with a Nikon CoolPix P6000 camera through a Kowa TSN-884 spotting scope.

We used digiscoping so that we could keep our distance and avoid spooking the sheep. Through digiscoping, we were able to record Desert Bighorn Sheep doing things that are not often seen. Be sure to follow along with the narration in the video. We point out such behavior as the ram asserting his dominance and insisting on submission from one of the younger males.

Black-throated Magpie-Jays

We spent part of Labor Day 2012 in extreme southern San Diego County, looking for a “mythical” Crested Caracara. Our search covered the sod farms and Dairy Mart Ponds. It even included Border Fields State Park right to the ocean. We checked out every Red-tailed, Red-shouldered and Cooper’s Hawk in view, but the National Bird of Mexico gave us the slip yet again. Instead, it another Mexican bird claimed our attention. We stopped at the community garden off Hollister and found a group of 3 or 4 Black-throated Magpie-Jays. What a striking bird!! At roughly 2 feet in length including the tail, Black-throated Magpie-Jays are huge! They show gorgeous azure plumage with a black chest, cheek and crest set off against white underparts.

A Gorgeous Exotic

These birds show many classic characteristics of the jay family including garrulous behavior and roguish personality. As it turns out, they share another annoying jay trait: the ability to avoid a camera most of the time! We saw one flock of at least 11 of these birds. The one pictured is probably a sub-adult. Note the white at the tips of the crest and the pale nape. It’s still evolving the darker blue of an adult bird. The adults have a completely black crest and a nape that is the same blue as the back. We talked with other San Diego birders and heard things like “Oh, that?s a yard bird in my neighborhood.”

That suggests that the population of these jays is larger and less local than you might think. Jays are smart and adaptable birds. For now, experts treat Black-throated Magpie-Jay as an escapee or a released bird. But if juveniles and sub-adults begin showing up in numbers, they may be here to stay! The Black-throated Magpie-Jay was digiscoped with a Kowa TSN-883 spotting scope, a Sayegh Digidapter for Kowa TE-10Z and TE-11WZ, and a Kowa TE-11WZ 25-60x Zoom Eyepiece.

Summer Vacation in St. Augustine

Argiope Spider on its web

We recently attended a family reunion in St. Augustine, Florida where 14 of us from 4 generations packed into a single beach house. If it sounds crazy, that’s only because it was, but what a blast! The house sat on the inland waterway side of Anastasia Island. Still, it was just a 5-minute walk to the Atlantic Ocean beach. The inland waterway was an ever-changing wildlife tableau. Ospreys always remained in sight over the waterway. Belted Kingfishers chattered as they flew by, and squadrons of Brown Pelicans cruised by.

The waterway got much more active when low tide exposed the oyster beds. This brought a bevy of Snowy and Great Egrets, Great Blue, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons to feed. At high tide, a small family group of Bottle-nosed Dolphins including one juvenile the waterway was patrolled by. We even saw the telltale large, finless shape of a distant manatee once or twice. Even the yard had its wildlife. The only Prairie Warbler of the trip was in the backyard. The large, fierce-looking but harmless garden spiders were everywhere you looked. They didn’t usually erect their elaborate webs across walkways, but it paid to watch where you walked! This is a female Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) showing the typical zig-zag central panel in its web.

Wonderful Wildlife

Marsh Rabbit

The St. Augustine trip wasn’t a birding trip specifically. But we still found a lot of wildlife at places like Faver Dikes State Park, Anastasia State Park. We also visited Guana/Tolomato/Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. The walk to the Atlantic beach took us through a nature reserve in the dunes east of the island. These dunes support a healthy population of gopher tortoises. Their burrows make them a keystone species in this habitat, much like woodpeckers in a forest environment. A unique sub-species of the marsh rabbit (Sylvilagus palustris paludicola) lives there, characterized by darker reddish fur and smaller, more circular ears, as shown by the one pictured here.

Shorebirds

Ruddy Turnstone

The Atlantic beach hosted a small group of regular species, including many Laughing Gulls, Royal and Forster’s Terns with the occasional Sandwich Tern mixed in, and an array of shorebirds including Willets, Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones that were still mostly in alternate plumage. Getting out just after dawn provided perfect soft light for taking pictures of these colorful shorebirds. At this time, we shared the beach with fewer people and their dogs, which also simplified the photography! We usually got first choice of whatever the ocean gods had chosen to bring forth overnight. Sometimes the waves brought in a dead fish or crab, and invariably there would be a turnstone or a Sanderling picking at it.

Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly

Faver-Dikes State Park

Faver-Dikes State Park was only about 8 miles from the house. This is an open woodland habitat of palmetto understory beneath a mixed hardwood and conifer forest on the shores of a marshy lake system. We saw our first Wood Storks and alligators and heard our first Carolina Wrens, Northern Cardinals and Great Crested Flycatchers here. A gorgeous Yellow-throated Warbler came in to pishing here, but not come close enough for photos. The diversity of insects and other arthropods here is staggering. There were dragonflies of every possible description, huge grasshoppers and quite a few butterflies and moths. We saw Zebra Heliconian butterflies here, but they were invariably just passing through. This Pipevine Swallowtail made us work before settling for long enough for a photograph.

St. Augustine has Great Amphibeans

Southern Toad

The trails at Guana River featured several marvelous boardwalks over open marsh land where the concentration and variety of dragonflies was incredible. Amphibians became the unexpected stars of the show here – there were toads and frogs everywhere. We saw mostly little 1-inch long Oak Toads (Bufo quercicus), but also some larger Southern Toads (Anaxyrus terrestris). This unusual color morph of Southern Toad was about a 2-inches long. These toads vary in color from mottled brown and tan through orange to almost rust red. Most of Florida is sandy. Accordingly, every toad we saw carried at least some grains of sand adhering to its back.

Green Treefrog

This American Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea) was sitting on a picnic table at the trail head. These little frogs are remarkably arboreal, as well as quite variable in color. This one had a notably yellowish gape and grayish underparts and feet. Other frogs of the same species are completely green underneath. We never saw the most interesting amphibian of the trip: the Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis). These bizarre little toads make a noise that sounds exactly like a tiny little sheep suffering from a cold – a sort of nasal bleat. They are simply hilarious!

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Tricolored Heron

We visited two locations you might not think of for birding. One was the famous St. Augustine Alligator Farm. This business also acts like a zoo, featuring more than 30 species of crocodilians from around the world. Sadly, many alligators and crocodiles merit threatened or endangered status. They also conduct and sponsor lots of research on crocodilians. It is also a world-class tourist trap! One of the attractions is a boardwalk through a swamp that houses a simply amazing density of alligators, but also a very active heron, egret and spoonbill rookery.

Evidently, the gators keep terrestrial predators like raccoons and opossums out of the nests, so even with the occasional clumsy nestling becoming lunch for an alligator, they still have higher nesting success than they would elsewhere. It certainly provides marvelous photographic opportunities. We saw many active nests of Tricolored and Little Blue Herons along with Snowy and Cattle Egrets. There were many spoonbills and Wood Storks roosting there though we didn’t see any active nests. The Tricolored Herons seemed to specialize in nesting just off the walkway where they made great subjects.

Roseate Spoonbill in St. Augustine

Roseate Spoonbill

Oddly, some of the best bird photography came from an urban site: the pond of the St. Augustine Hospital. We discovered these birds by accident. They seemed somewhat less skittish of close approach here than at some of the more natural settings. This flooded urban pond held the only Anhingas and Mottled Ducks we found on our trip. It also housed a mixed flock of 20-30 Roseate Spoonbills and 15-20 White Ibises of varying ages. The spoonbills were pretty shy, not allowing very close approach, and they often launched and took off to the other side of the lake where there was no access. This one showed some signs of nervousness at my approach, so I had to freeze and wait for it to calm down again, but it was well worth the wait!

White Ibis

White Ibis at St. Augustine Hospital

In contrast to the spoonbills, the White Ibis were pretty nonchalant. I often had one walk by between me and the one I was photographing, completely ignoring me! We saw quite a few different ages of sub-adult White Ibis here. Some were more gray than white. Whereas others were almost completely white with just traces of smudging on the crown, neck and wings. The adult pictured here shows a lovely blue iridescence in the black feathers of the folded wing. And that pale blue eye just grabs your attention! Overall, we had a great trip. The pair of soaring circling Swallow-tailed Kites we saw while driving to the airport were just icing on the cake.

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