Proximity is Key

On a recent trip to the Chico Basin Ranch in Eastern Colorado (private- fee required to enter), I found myself having a photo frenzy on colorful spring shorebirds taking advantage of the muddy margins around a couple of ranch ponds. The various species showed strong preferences for different patches of habitats, returning even after they were spooked off by a falcon or a group of elementary students on a field trip. Armed with this knowledge, I took advantage of a group of Long-billed Dowitchers and Stilt Sandpipers, sneaking up to their favorite corner after they had been flushed by the boisterous kids to lie down and wait for their return. Sure enough, they flew back in after about 10 minutes- it was awesome to almost feel the downdraft from their wings as they swished right over me, banked in, and landed right in front of me. Even better was when several of the Stilt Sandpipers decided to sing- something I had never heard. Sibley describes the display song as "a remarkable series of nasal, dry, buzzy trills..." and my friend Brian Gibbons compares it to a donkey braying. Whatever the analogy, it is really cool!




On another pond there was a shorebird threesome making repeated laps up and down the sandy and rocky shoreline- a Wilson's Phalarope, a Spotted Sandpiper, and a Sanderling. We started up on the dam face and slowly worked our way down the rip rap, edging a little closer each time they were at the far end of their back & forth cycle. I was thinking to keep an eye out for snakes the whole time but still managed to put my foot down about 1/2 an inch from a bull snake's head! That upped my heart rate a bit, but we both went our separate ways without engaging each other. Anyway, Brian Gibbons and I ended up right on the waterline, and the birds kept getting up into our grills on each of their laps!!
The proximity, combined with getting down really low, made for some great pics. I really liked the color on the Sanderling- practically all of the birds that come through Colorado are in basic or juvenile plumage, and I hardly ever see individuals this red. I'm also psyched about the spotty- they usually seem pretty skittish and I've never been this close to one before. Needless to say, my Spotted Sandpiper stock just improved a lot!!

Black Beauty

I'm back from a long weekend in Cañon City, Colorado, where the annual Colorado Field Ornithologists convention was held this year. We're going to have a colossal convention bird list when the dust settles, including lots of rare bird highlights (e.g. Gray-cheeked Thrush, Bay-breasted Warbler...) and impressive high counts of certain species (e.g. over 100 Blackpoll Warblers, thousands of Red-necked Phalaropes...) I shot nearly 20 gigs of pics, and saw 126 species over the weekend. I co-led a photography trip with Richard Crossley, co-author of The Shorebird Guide and our keynote speaker, which was another great weekend highlight. But more about the birds later...
We were fortunate to have Jeff Bouton represent Leica Sport Optics at our convention this year, giving folks the opportunity to try their optics and to have questions answered about binoculars, spotting scopes, and digiscoping. It turns out that Jeff had a special package waiting for him when he arrived at the hotel- Leica had shipped him the new 82mm APO-Televid spotting scope. Long touted, this was the first one to see the light of day in North America. They should be hitting the shelves this fall, but we were the first to get to check out this black beauty!!
Jeff also got the new Leica digiscoping adapter, a necessary upgrade since the revolutionary wide-angle 25-50x zoom eyepiece has a larger diameter than the current crop of Televids. The new adapter is pretty cool, attaching with a compressing collar that will not only fit these eyepieces but also the eyepieces in use now. It has a built-in cable release bracket that adjusts to work on most point-and-shoots, and the cable release swings out of the way when not wanted or needed.
The whole Televid line has been redesigned from the ground up. The objective lenses are larger, with 65 and 82mm models replacing the current 62 and 77mm models. Despite the larger apertures, the scopes are more compact and lighter than their predecessors. They feature the hydrophobic AquaDura coating on external glass surfaces, a built-in Manfrotto quick-release plate, and now have black rubber armor similar to their binoculars instead of the familiar hard silver finish of the current Televids.
I got to try out the new beast and was stunned by how wide the field of view stayed throughout the zoom's range. I've long been an exclusive user of Leica's fixed, wide-angle eyepieces, and when I glimpse through someone else's zoom (Leica or otherwise), I feel like I'm experiencing tunnel vision. This wide-angle zoom sets a new standard for spotting scope eyepieces. Not only is it more comfortable to view birds through a wide-angle eyepiece, but finding birds and staying on moving targets is much easier with all of that optical room. Having a wide-angle eyepiece also minimizes or even eliminates vignetting for many point-and-shoot cameras when digiscoping- this rig is going to set a new standard in that department, too, I believe. Thanks for debuting the new scope at our CFO convention, Jeff!!

A Royal Tango

On my recent trip to Florida I had the pleasure of visiting Anastasia State Park a couple of times on sunset photo trips. Organizers of the Florida Bird & Fotofest arranged for 4WD trucks to carry photographers to the end of Anastasia Island, where gulls, terns, and shorebirds were arriving to bath and roost. On the first evening I was there, the tide level was just right to expose a wet sandy flat beyond a shallow channel, and the feature was popular with many birds. So that meant getting wet to get the best angle, but it wasn't so bad in the nice warm water! Thanks to Jim Walker for the pic of yours truly out in the wave zone: Of the birds that came in, my favorite was this pair of Royal Terns that broke into a breeding dance as they were bathing in shallow water. Their little tango only lasted a few seconds but it was cool to see their synchronized movements.

Rare Bird on Line 2

Another fantastic bird graced Boulder County this week (on the heels of our recent Louisiana Waterthrush.) I knew something was up when I heard my cell phone ringing throughout my 1st and 2nd period classes yesterday. A quick glance at my email showed that Ted Floyd had found a Ruff(!!!) in the snowstorm at nearby Boulder Reservoir. I have a planning period 3rd hour, so I grabbed my jacket and hit the road for the 'Rez, 10 minutes away. I didn't have bins, scope, or camera, but I gambled that folks would be there and sure enough, a few buddies had the bird in their scopes. LIFER!! I made it back to school half-soaked from the blowing wet snow but with plenty of time to spare before my next class, and headed back in the evening after a stop at home to grab gear. I didn't get real close (I figure it is bad karma to flush a bird that lots of folks are still wanting to see) but at least I got these record shots. There is an interesting discussion going on about the bird's sex. While initially assumed to be a female (Reeve), Bill Maynard raises the possibility that it is a lesser-known male form known as a satellite male. These guys lurk around the lek of displaying males, sneaking in mating opportunities when they can, but they don't look like the spectacular big Ruffs. It will be interesting to see if this issue can be resolved definitively. Whatever the case, I tried again this morning before work but the winds had shifted and so had the bird- a proverbial one-day wonder.

Our State is Great

Here's a link to an article in today's Rocky Mountain News detailing Colorado's recent ascendancy to the 7th-largest state bird list (with Brown-crested Flycatcher and Streak-backed Oriole lifting us out of a tie with Alaska and Massachusetts.) Yours truly is quoted, too- I spoke with the reporter for quite a while over a week ago.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/28/birds-eye-view-state-is-great/

Rare Bird on Line 1

I made a trip up to North Park, Colorado, heading up after work on Thursday to take advantage of a comp day I had on Friday. My main target was Greater Sage-Grouse, but North Park is full of great birding & wildlife viewing opportunities so the day was filled with photo-opps. Despite the great showing of Greater Sage-Grouse, I was hoping for a little better light (Friday Morning dawned with snow flurries), so I stuck around for another go at it Saturday morning. Leaving the hotel at 5:30, I was happy to see the moon and stars in a mostly clear sky- although it had snowed overnight it looked like a sunny morning at the lek. Another problem ended up facing me- a Golden Eagle strafed the grouse about 10 minutes before sunrise, scuttling my hopes of the warm light illuminating their choreography. Still, some of the more testosterone-crazed males came back after a while and I got some shots I liked:
Then, somewhat to my amazement, my cell phone rang. The reason I was a bit surprised was that I didn't have coverage throughout most of the remote landscape (the day before I had to drive to a prominent high spot and park to call home for my daily check-in with the fam.) But by some stroke of luck the spot I was parked in had enough reception for my buddy Nathan to get through to me with news that a Louisiana Waterthrush was being seen in Longmont, at a spot only about 5 minutes from my house. Having got my grouse shots, I decided to pack it in and head home- only a few hours earlier than I would have, anyway. The two passes I had to cross (Willow Creek and Berthoud) were in the midst of solid snow showers, and the going was kind of slow over the snowpacked surface, but things kept moving and about 4 hours later I was pulling up to the waterthrush spot. I was relieved to see my friend Rachel there, waving me down to where a couple of observers had the bird. I'd only seen the species once before, putting together the pieces of a bird in heavy cover on S. Padre Island, Texas. This one was mostly hanging out in a culvert, feeding on rocky gravel bars in the middle of Lefthand Creek and occasionally sallying out to work the banks above and below the bridge where it usually hung out. To photograph the bird (ABA photo tick #575!) in the culvert I had to mount up a flash and use a Better Beamer to reach it, but my favorite shots came as I anticipated the bird's movement back towards the bridge and lay on my belly above a cut bank, catching it on the branches reaching into the stream and on the log. By this morning the bird was gone- glad I got the news and could get there post-haste.

Snail Kite Sweetness

High on my wish list during my recent trip to Florida was Snail Kite- the last regularly occurring raptor species in the ABA area that I needed. My local host Jeff Bouton came through big, taking me to Lake Tohopekelija near Kissimee where a good population of these birds can be found. Although it is about at the northern end of their range, the colony there seems to be doing well and we saw about a dozen birds there. There's a nice little park (Brinson Park, I think) where Neptune Road crosses the northernmost part of the lake, offering vantage points both to the north and to the south over waters frequented by SNKIs. The best pass I had was by this immature bird:
In the next shot, the bird turned its head just right to see the long, hooked bill that it uses to extract snails from their shells. SNKIs will eat other prey, but rely on snails for their primary sustenance. There was also a territorial pair of adults patrolling around the marshy stuff to the north of Brinson Park. Here's a sequence of the male swinging up to confront an Osprey that made the mistake of flying over their airspace- the Osprey is dropping its talons defensively as the kite comes up from below. In a case of turnabout being fair play, Boat-tailed Grackles took exception to the male Snail Kite perching within their comfort zone- check out the dark dive-bombing blurs in this digi-vid: