Snowy Owl Adventure Part 2: No Gull, No Worries!

Our birding gang at the concrete bridge in Ashtabula.

After a pit stop at Dunkin' Donuts to take on/drain off various liquids, we headed east along Lake Erie, all the way to Ashtabula (which, by the way is pronounced Ash-tah-BYEW-lah, not Ash-TAB-you-lah). Our target bird was the black-tailed gull, a vagrant from Asia that had been hanging out around the town's harbor since November. Scores of birders from all over have been there to see it. I'm not really a chaser, but the allure of a truly rare vagrant just an hour away from a virtually guaranteed snowy owl was too much to resist.

The industrial harbor/train yard at Ashtabula, OH where the black-tailed gull has been seen.

We followed the excellent directions on Jen Brumfield's website to the various Ashtabula haunts of the black-tailed gull and we found gulls—about 50,000 of them! At the Lakeshore Park overlook we encountered three fellow birders also seeking the black-tailed gull. No one had seen it yet on this sunny, cold, calm Sunday afternoon, but we had high hopes. We spent the next few hours scanning the gull flocks, hoping to see a single bird with the key combination of field marks that would make it the black-tailed gull. It was exactly like searching for a needle in a haystack of needles.

Jen's recommendation was to bop from spot to spot hoping to see the gull. So we drove back and forth, spending time at the overlook and the cement bridge. Multiple times we'd see a gull with a black terminal tail band, or one with a seemingly dark back. No dice on the ice. We never did see it.

So we did what any relatively normal (and not completely obsessed) bird watchers would do, we went looking for more snowy owls. Two of the guys at the overlook had spotted one from the concrete bridge, sitting on a giant coal pile, earlier in the day. We headed back that way. While Daniel and I braved the increasingly breezy afternoon chill, the gals sat in the comfort of the Zickmobile, heater on. We looked for the gull in the marina, facing away from the lake, while the gals gazed lazily out toward the coal and rock piles and the lake beyond. I thought they were probably napping.

I was wrong.

"We need the scope over here, guys! NOW! Hurry! And you're going to want to see this!" they exclaimed, as they climbed out of the toasty car and pulled their Elmer Fudd hats on.

"What do you have?" I asked.
"Come see for yourself!" they blurted.

This was when they started dancing what could only be described as a jig that was equal parts joyous and taunting.

They had found our second snowy owl of the day. On top of one of the hundred-foot-tall piles of gravel. Plain as day.

I was happy to see the owl and dutifully put the spotting scope on it. But I felt a bit silly that I hadn't seen it when I got out of the car. Oh well.
Here is the distant look we got through the scope. The owl was probably about 1/3 of a mile away. And here's a cropped view, below.

A zoomed up view of snowy owl #2.

We high-fived each other to celebrate our Two Snowy Owl Day. And I made a pitch that we go back to the overlook to scan for the gull some more. We did, though by this time we were all getting tired, eye-weary, and the cold was starting to invade our bones. As the sun dropped lower and the light turned lemon, then peachy, I spotted a distant snowy owl on another gravel pile. This one looked whiter and cleaner than the one we'd seen 20 minutes before from the bridge. But was it just a trick of the light? Was this the same owl from the bridge, just a different view?

#3!

I took some documentary photos and we decided to compare these with the view of the second owl over by the bridge. So back we went. We found the two Maryland birders there, confirmed that none of us had seen the gull, and told them about the other snowy owl. They immediately got excited and went to see it—stoked at having their OWN two-snowy-owl day (which was old news to us veterans at this point). I asked them to call me when they found it, and showed them my photo of where it was. Twenty minutes later they called to confirm that their owl (owl #3) was sitting on top of the gravel pile where we'd left it. Owl #2 was on the ground about 300 yards in front of us at this point, so we KNEW these were two different birds, and we had also just confirmed our first-ever THREE-SNOWY-OWL day!

Snowy owl #3 at Lakeshore Park overlook in Ashtabula, OH.

Now that's an awesome day of birding! Gull schmull! I got to see my spark bird, one of the least-encountered owl species in North America, right in my home state, not once, not twice, but THREE times in a single day!

Happy owl watchers at the end of an epic day.

Learning All About Muzzleloading & BlackPowder

It never fails that when I write on Black Powder shooting or hunting I get emails with questions about where do you buy this or that and where do you go for information. If you can send me an email then you have the tools at hand for unlimited information at your fingertips if you will only look. One can go to YouTube and type in for instance flintlock, blackpowder, or muzzleloading and get more than you can watch in a day. Just remember not everyone that puts something on YouTube knows what they are doing. There are all sorts of reference pages on the internet if you just plug in the words for a search engine to bring up page after page of information. There is no end to the companies that would like to sell you something or provide something at a cost. There are a ton of videos available from the major suppliers so that you can learn what ever you wish to do related to blackpowder or traditional muzzleloading. Some people like to shop at the big box sporting goods stores such as Cabelas or Bass Pro and that is fine they just won’t really have much traditional stuff, but I buy percussion caps from them just to avoid the hazmat fees sometimes. The following links are places I go to find information or to discuss issues with others involved in the sport. Some are reference pages I found helpful, others are the places that I shop for the supplies, books and equipment I need to keep me shooting. Several are just wish list places that if I ever win the lottery I will order one of their custom guns.

This is my favorite place to shop for Traditional supplies and equipment. The catalog is worth the price for the pictures and reference use alone.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/

These is my favorite two must take magazines that cover muzzleloading and other topics.

http://www.backwoodsmanmag.com/

http://www.muzzleloadermag.com/

The following are gun builders, suppliers or lists that have everything you ever wanted to know about muzzleloading but were afraid to ask links.


http://mikelange.homestead.com/

http://www.beckumoutdoors.com/home.cfm/page/Tips_For_Using_A_Flintlock.html

http://www.cherrytreefamily.com/muzzleloading.htm

http://www.americanlongrifles.com/WorkShop_frame.htm

http://www.muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com/

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/

http://muzzleloader.com/

http://www.americanpioneervideo.com/index.html

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/MLF_Links.php#Magazines

http://www.chuckhawks.com/flintlocks.htm

http://www.muzzleloadermag.com/Links%20page.htm

http://www.flintlocks.com/

http://www.stonewallcreekoutfitters.com/

http://www.avsia.com/tvm/

http://www.logcabinshop.com/

http://blackpowdermag.com/

The above list is in no way complete as there are tons of other places to find out about muzzleloading and supplies. If you click on the links at each place they will lead you to more and more information, this list is much more than I had to start with in the sport and will provide you with enough information to keep you reading for many informative hours.

The next few links are website forums where you can converse with the people that shoot black powder firearms on a regular basis. Many have been in the sport for decades and some are brand new but all share in the conversations. Feel free to jump in and ask questions for there is someone out there that would be proud to share their knowledge with someone just like you. Many belong to clubs and there could be a club in your area. Get out and make some white smoke of your own. Shoot straight and keep your powder dry, Wild Ed

http://traditionalmuzzleloadingcheap.com/forum/index.php

http://thebordercamp.com/phpbb/index.php?sid=cfc79863a75a88fc480345a8fb4efd28

http://kabooom.proboards.com/index.cgi?

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/fusionbb.php

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=bbd533181424df23a7c6776f14849ee2

Snowy Owling Adventure

My most recent snowy owl was in the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore in September 2010. Yes, it was inside a zoo in Asia! Not really thrilling to see—actually kind of depressing. And even though our winter this year in Ohio has been fairly mild (recent days excepted), it was actually getting kind of depressing, too.

Sunday, January 22 promised to offer a break in the harsh, icy winter weather we'd been enjoying in Ohio, so I decided to mount an expedition northward looking for special birds. This has become an annual ritual—as if giving myself over to the colder, more wintry northern latitudes could help break the spell of my winter lassitude. Last year it was Bohemian waxwings, recently named my Bird of the Year in a vote that made the recent political primaries look like nap time in Romper Room.

Before the warmer air mass moved in and melted all the ice, things were mighty cold and drab around the farm.

This year I would try to find the great white invader of the North: the snowy owl. I have a special connection to this species. The snowy owl was my spark bird way back in November of 1968, when one flew into our front yard in Pella, Iowa. That's the first bird I remember seeing and identifying myself. It sparked my interest in birds and bird watching and I've watched birds ever since.

Flashing back to the now... The winter of 2011-2012 has been a well-documented invasion year for snowy owls. And there is some debate about what causes this phenomenon. Is it a super abundance of food (lemmings, primarily) last summer that resulted in lots more baby snowies surviving to fledging? Is it a crash in the lemming population that forces starving snowies of all ages south in search of sustenance? Or does it just happen randomly every other decade or so? According to the experts, we don't really know.

My last Ohio snowy owl was in November 2001.

No matter the reason for the invasion, I was determined to try to see at least one snowy owl this winter. I missed the big influx of great gray owls a few years ago, which was a bummer. Wanting very much to ensure success, I called a hotshot birder in northern Ohio, Jen Brumfield. As I suspected, Jen had the hook-up. We made plans and I began spreading the word that I was heading north.

Funny thing about big birding excursions... they sound a lot more appealing when you first hear about them than they actually are when it's time to get your rump in gear and go. I asked 14 of my fellow birders—some of whom are actual relatives of mine—and all of whom had expressed enthusiasm for this mission—to come along. I envisioned a giant caravan of cars, all packed sensibly with bird watchers who were giddy at the prospects of the day. In the end only two friends joined us (three if you count Julie, who really had no choice). And these two friends, Kelly and Daniel, are brand new bird watchers. I complimented them on their courage. It would, after all, be at least eight hours in the car, with low temperatures—probably as cold as the dangly parts of a brass monkey, and we might completely strike out! They were undaunted.

We left home at 7:30, met our pals at 8, gassed up, and hit the road headed north. Our destination was to be a field near an airport in Cleveland. Kelly and Daniel asked questions and shared observations about owls and other birds as we drove. About an hour from our destination my cell phone rang and it was son Liam, part of the slugabed stay-at-homers in our family. He had a message to relay: "Jen called and she's at the spot looking at the snowy owl right now!"

I stomped on the accelerator.

We got there in record time, found Jen, and then cast our eyes upon the owl, about 200 yards distant. Oh glory be! Such a beauty! She turned, gazing one way then another.


We picked out details: she had tiny dark ear tufts, something we'd never noticed on other snowy owls. The back of her head showed markings that looked vaguely like a raptor face. Her eyes shone bright yellow in the late morning sun. Wow!


Jen told us the interesting story of how it had been found and what its habits seemed to be. Soon the owl floated to another spot, this one more out of our easy line of sight. So we talked of other birds. I was particularly interested in trying to see the vagrant black-tailed gull near Ashtabula, as long as we were this far north. Jen again had the latest intel, so, after watching our snowy owl for an additional 20 minutes, we headed for hot coffee, warm bathrooms, some food, and thence to the far northeast corner of Ohio.

to be continued.....

From left: Kelly, Jen, Julie, Daniel, happy snowy owl watchers.

Proper Gunstock Fit

Proper gun fit is one of the most critical segments of good shooting. It is so important it often means the difference between decent shooting and great shooting. No matter what level of shooter you are you will do much better with a gun that fits. If you shoulder a rifle and you automatically have the sights lined up you need only look at the target and squeeze the trigger. If you have to shift your head or line up the sights you waste time and can never shoot instinctively in an effective manner. This becomes even more critical with a shotgun as your eye is the rear sight of the system. If your dominant eye is not lined up properly when you mount the gun you will have a hard time hitting the target. At the very least you will have to fit your body to the gun while the target gets farther away and while you lose focus on the target. There are all sorts of people that claim to know how to fit a gun and I talked with many while I was shooting on the NSCA Sporting clays circuit. Some know what they are doing and some don’t. Recently while reading on one of the Black Powder Muzzleloading forums of which I am a member, I ran across as good an article as I have seen anywhere by Colin Stolzer the Administrator of “Black Powder Firearms Forum” http://blackpowderfa.proboards.com/index.cgi  Colin is also the owner of Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing where custom muzzleloaders are designed and built.  Stop by the website and take a look at some beautiful works of art built with unbelievable craftsmanship.  Read Colin's article and then file it somewhere that you can refer back when you  need to fit that next firearm.  Take a kid out shooting and stay safe, Wild Ed

Measuring for Stock Fit 

by Colin Stolzer
 

The question comes up every so often on various forums about how to measure for stock fit. So I figured it would be a benefit to post a short tutorial on how I get the measurements to custom build a rifle for my customers.

I learned this method from Steve Zihn when I was an apprentice under him. It's based on an old British Method, there are variations of this formula described in W.W. Greener's "The Gun and It's Development", Howe's "Advanced Gunsmithing" and several other books I've read or own. So it's not anything new, and it's certainly not the only way to get these measurements, it's just the method I was taught and use.


I rarely get to meet my customers in person, so I use these worksheets and formulas, along with several questionnaires to fit their rifles. These measurements along with some fine tuning based on the other information have allowed me to build very well fitted rifles for my customers without actually having to measure them in person. Ideally it would be nice if I could actually meet and measure every one in person, using a "try" stock, unfortunately that is cost prohibitive.

(Left click on the following sketches for a little better view)

"A" is drop at comb. It is measured about 2" back from the nose of the comb.

Take "B" and subtract "A" from it. That's going to be the drop at heel. You will find that most men have the heel above the top of the shoulder, so you can even subtract 3/4" to 1" from this if you like. You'll see how it works out when you transfer these things to paper.

Take "C" and Subtract "B", whatever the difference is divided by 4. That's you cast off.

Take "D" and subtract 1/4" to 1/2" for a warm weather gun and subtract 1/2" to 1" for a cold weather gun. That's your length of pull.


These measurement are not universal to everyone or every style of shooting, they have to be adjusted for the primary type of shooting the rifle will be used for. They also have to be adjusted for the physique of the individual. And they will need to be adjusted for the style, type and period of the rifle being built.

For instance a rifle that is designed for prone shooting will have little to no cast off since the position of the rifle in relation to the shoulder and head are nearly straight up and inline with the sights. As compared to a normal off-hand hunting stance were the rifle is mounted to the front of the shoulder and the head is canted to the cheek/comb. These variations between shooting positions change the measurements some, and the best way to understand the relationship is to actually take a rifle and get in the various positions and see how different the rifle feels as you mount it to your shoulder. Pay attention to hand placement. Relationship of your face and neck to the cheek/comb in each position. Shouldering lots of different guns in lots of different shooting positions will teach you faster than any description I could ever write about what measurements will need to be modified.

The next thing to take into consideration when modifying the initial measurements is the physique of the shooter. One of the questionnaires I send out with the measurement sheets ask questions like:


Muscle tone in the shoulders?


Muscle tone in the Back?


Muscle tone in the chest?


Muscle tone in the abdomen?


It also asks about any physical disabilities that I should be aware of. For instance Neck/spine injuries, back injuries, shoulder injuries, elbow injuries, etc...basically anything that limits the range of movement.


For example if a customer can't tip his head fully to the stock due to a neck or spine injury, the drop of comb, drop of heel and the cast off can be changed as well as the shape and size of the cheek piece can be adjusted to compensate for the limitation. Or if a customer has had the tip of his finger cut off (like my brother-in-law did with his cross-cut saw), the length of trigger pull might have to be changes to compensate.

Muscle tone can have an effect on the measurements as well. For instance large well defined upper body muscles will change the amount of cast off as well as drop at comb and heel and pitch at toe because the muscles protruding will make the rifle mount differently than a less tones individual would shoulder the rifle.

The other thing that will alter these measurements is the type of rifle, the school, and time period that is being built. For instance Pennsylvania, Kentucky, German Jaegers, English stalking rifles, Single shots, Double Rifles, Scoped modern rifle, etc... all have unique design features that are distinct to the school and time frame of the rifle you are building, so these measurements will sometimes have to be modified to accurately represent the type of rifle you are building if historical accuracy or period correct design is part of the build requirements.

This is in no way a comprehensive lesson in stock fitment but it will give you the basics on measurements and the theories behind using those measurements. Most of the changes to the general measurements can't really be described in writing, the best way to learn how a stock needs to be modified for individual fit is hands on, both in mounting many different styles of rifles to your own body, and looking at the way other hold and shoulder rifles in different styles and positions of shooting.

The last thing I should mention is that these measurements for Drop at Comb, Drop at Heel, are all taken from line of sights. So when you start putting these to paper you need to draw your reference line at the height the sights will be at, NOT the top of the barrel, or the Bore line.

I hope this information is helpful.
Colin Stolzer

Caption Contest #20 Winner!

The body was dumped in an area which was guaranteed to get no foot traffic. At press time, police have yet to locate the left arm.

Wow! Jason over at OpposableChums really hit a homer with his caption. Or as perennial caption maven Erik Bruder put it: "OC brough a cannon to a pillow fight!"

Jason is the proud winner of a set of birding bumper stickers from the BWD Nature Shop.

Other entries that got numerous votes from our panel of judges (though we always like ALL of the entries):

Harley Winfrey said...
Sure he's a birding celebrity, but when you meet BT3 in person, he's just so down to earth.

Julie Zickefoose said...
Thousands attended Bill's book signing. Thousands of chiggers.

steve moore said...
Bill learns that when stretching the elastic Bino Harness to maximum length...you should never just let go.

Peggy said...
Virgin planker gets it all wrong!

John Workman said...
Noted Author and Authority on Birding Demonstrates "The Thompson Method" for Attracting Turkey Vultures.

Thanks to everyone who played. We'll post another caption contest as soon as we find the next truly goofy photo.

Black Powder, Fox Squirrels and White Smoke

I pulled the back trigger of the double set until it audibly clicked in the still morning air setting the front to a hair trigger. Taking aim with the iron sights down the long browned barrel, I did not even realize that I had quit breathing as I moved my finger to the front trigger of the rifle. The iron sights settled on the reddish colored head of the fox squirrel hiding on limb of a scraggly old live oak forty feet up in the tree. I barely squeezed the front trigger and heard the crack of the longrifle. A cloud of white smoke shot out the barrel hiding the squirrel from view and then drifted downwind as the squirrel made a few last kicks in the leaves where he had dropped down from the limb. I took a breath, reached for the powder horn hanging at my side and poured thirty grains of powder from the spout into my measure and down the barrel. I then took a round ball from my hunting bag and centered it on a cotton strip of sheeting at the muzzle and pushed it part way into the barrel, with one sweep of my razor sharp patch knife the sheeting was cut flush with the muzzle of the rifle. Drawing the long ramrod from its place under the rifle barrel I firmly shoved the ball down on top of the powder charge. Setting the hammer to half cock I placed a percussion cap on the nipple of the rifle lock and replaced the ramrod under the barrel. It had taken me a couple of minutes to reload, but now the rifle was ready to continue on my hunt. It could have been a scene from the 1800s as the rifle I was using was a copy of a style of blackpowder Ohio Squirrel Rifles built originally by the Vincent’s. These and similar Southern Longrifles were used by early settlers of the southern mountain ranges of the new frontiers. Such a rifle could have been carried by one of the settlers coming to Texas for the first time.


In a morning of hunting I had taken three squirrels with four shots and had slipped away from all worries of what we call the real world. What a change in the method and speed in which my morning hunt took place from my usual style of hunting. Using the old style gun had slowed the pace and made every shot more challenging. I made a real effort to make each shot good, as reloading would take a couple of minutes with the muzzleloader and second shots on the same squirrel would be few and far between. Normally I would hunt squirrels with a modern .17 or .22 caliber rifle with a high power scope and take a larger bag limit in a lot less time. I believe I now enjoy the old ways better and will spend more time in the woods with the slower paced black powder firearms. I even think the game taken in this way tastes better or maybe I am just more proud of the game I take with the old style guns.


If you would like to try shooting one of the old type guns there are many companies out there making replicas of the old guns and quite a few gun builders building custom rifles in the old styles. They are available in flintlock or percussion ignition. For those of you that prefer shotguns those are available also. Many of these are not only accurate firearms but also works of art. Check out rifles, smoothbores and supplies at the following links to take a look at some of these works of art.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/

http://mikelange.homestead.com/

http://www.cherrytreefamily.com/muzzleloading.htm


Here are some links to forums with knowledgeable people that can guide you along the way to learning more about muzzleloading and all that goes with it. I can’t give you a favorite as I like them all. Some will have a more freelance feel, while others live the old time lifestyle. You will find some of the same people in many of them and new folks in others. All are welcome from expert to pilgrim. Feel free to drop in and look around, just tell em Wild Ed sent you.

http://traditionalmuzzleloadingcheap.com/forum/index.php

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/fusionbb.php

http://thebordercamp.com/phpbb/index.php?sid=cfc79863a75a88fc480345a8fb4efd28

http://kabooom.proboards.com/index.cgi?

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=bbd533181424df23a7c6776f14849ee2&

http://muzzleloadermag.infopop.cc/eve

http://blackpowderfa.proboards.com/index.cgi


Shooting and hunting with the old black powder guns is truly a step back in time. You can become Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Jeremiah Johnson or The Long Carbine from”Last of the Mohicans”. No matter your age no one but you will know who you are when you step back in time. Enjoy the trip, Wild Ed

Remember to click on comments below to leave a comment or read the comments from other readers

Caption Contest #20

My dear BOTB readers: It is time for the first Caption Contest of 2012. Please send in your clevermost caption for the image above. Use the Comments interface below to craft and deliver your bon mot.

Deadline is Friday morning, January 13, 2012 at 10:14 am. I (and my panel of very nearly ethical judges) will select a winner on that day. The winning entry gets a set of birding bumper stickers and a NEW CAR* to put them on!

Good luck and may the farce be with you.

*by "new car" we mean a Matchbox car stolen from my son Liam's overflowing toy chest in the basement. I promise to choose one that still has all four wheels fully functioning.

Becoming a Birder in Lampasas Texas

Every since my brother, that is a long time birder, put the idea of listing all the bird species we see at the place in my mind, it has almost become an obsession to identify all the birds we see each week. My wife and I have started to carry bird identification books and binoculars around with us as we work and do chores at the place. A strange bird flying over or even a strange bird call has us scrambling to identify what species of bird. We have seen a lot of birds that we can not identify, at least not well enough to add to our species list. We also see a lot of birds that are not really supposed to be in our area but that is kind of normal for Lampasas County as it is the hub of several different regions and types of habitat for birds. This last month we have had different Towhees and other birds just mobbing the feeders. I really have a problem trying to identify all of the different sparrows and other tiny birds that flit around the brush piles and cedar breaks. Every time I see ducks dropping down on the tank I feel compelled to go jump them just to see what species they are and if we need to add them to the list. This last week Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese both flew over the place and alerted us with their calls. We are always seeing hawks, vultures, buzzards and even a few falcons such as the small Kestrel. Screech owls and Great Horned owls are common along with crows and ravens. Black Chinned and Ruby Throated humming birds fly in and out of the oak motts and we have even had rare hummingbirds come through on occasion.



I keep telling myself I am not a birder, not the type that I have always had the stereotype image of in my mind. After all I am an Outdoorsman, a Hunter, Trapper and Fisherman. Surely I am not turning into a Birder! Wild Ed

Here is our list to date: We now are up to 116 species and quite a few unkowns.

 
BIRD NAME


Blackbird Red Winged

Blue Bird Eastern

Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher

Bunting Painted

Cara Cara

Cardinal

Catbird

Cedar Waxwing

Chickadee, Carolina

Cowbird, Brewers

Cowbird, Brown Headed

Crane, Sandhill

Crow, American

Cuckoo Yellow Billed

Dove, Eurasian Collared

Dove, Inca

Dove, Mourning

Dove, Rock (Pigeon)

Dove, White winged

Duck, Gadwall

Duck, Mallard

Duck, Pintail

Duck, Shoveler

Duck, Widgeon

Egret Great White

Egret, Cattle

European Starling

Falcon Prairie

Falcon, Kestrel

Falcon, Merlin

Falcon, Peregrine

Finch, House

Finch, Purple

Flicker, Northern

Flycatcher, Ash Throated

Flycatcher, Impid (several sub-species)

Flycatcher, Olive Sided

Flycatcher, Scissor-tailed

Flycatcher, Vermilion

Gadwall

Geese, Blue

Geese, Snow

Grebe

Green Wing Teal

Grosbeak, Black Headed

Grosbeak, Blue

Harrier Northern

Hawk, Broad Winged

Hawk, Coopers

Hawk, Red Shouldered

Hawk, Red Tailed

Hawk, Sharp Shinned

Hawk, Swanson's

Heron Great Blue

Humming Bird - Black Chinned

Humming Bird - Blue Throated

Humming Bird - Ruby Throated

Humming Bird- Broad Tailed

Jay, Blue

Jay, Scrub

Killdeer

Kingbird, Western

Kingfisher, Belted

Kite, Mississippi

Loggerhead Shrike

Martin, Purple

Meadow Lark, Eastern

Meadow Lark, Western

Mocking Bird

Nighthawk, Common

Nightjar Common

Owl, Barn

Owl, Eastern Screech

Owl, Great Horned

Pelican White

Phoebe

Plover

Pyrrhuloxia

Quail, Bobwhite

Raven Common

Roadrunner

Robin

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Sparrow House

Sparrow, Chipping

Sparrow, Harris

Sparrow, Lark

Sparrow, Rufous Crowned

Sparrow, Savannah

Sparrow, Tree

Sparrow, Vesper

Sparrow, White Crowned

Summer Tanager

Swallow, Barn

Swallow, Northern Rough-Wing

Teal, Green Winged

Thrasher, Brown

Towhee Eastern

Towhee Spotted

Tufted Titmouse

Turkey, Rio Grande

Vulture, Black

Vulture, Turkey

Warbler Magnolia

Warbler, Yellow Rumped

Whippoorwill

Woodpecker, Golden Fronted

Woodpecker, Ladder-Backed

Woodpecker, Red Bellied

Woodpecker, Red headed

Wren, Bewicks

Wren, Canon

Wren, Carolina

Wren, House

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

My Bird of the Year, Part 2

Picking up where I left off in my last post (from just before Christmas!) I've been scrolling through the images I downloaded onto my computer during 2011, trying to select my bird of the year. It's tough because all of the birds I'm choosing as finalists are ones that were particularly memorable for one reason or another. Like the male ruddy duck (above) that put on a show of extreme courtship, doing the bubble dance/display on a North Dakota slough last June. But for whom was he performing? There were no other ducks on that small patch of water. Yet he kept at it and I shot his picture over and over. Perhaps he was posing.

This adult male ruby-throated hummingbird let me get very close to him as he rested on a plant hanger in our garden. It was my best hummingbird photo of the year, taken on a fine July morning in southeastern Ohio.

On a pre-dawn birding outing at St. Marks NWR in the Florida panhandle in September I had to stop to snap this photo with my point-and-shoot Canon G12. The heron's silhouette on the dawn-brushed, still water was vastly more stunning than the camera's sensor and lens could capture. It was one of my more peaceful moments in the field in 2011, despite the mosquitoes and no-see-ums.
Back to North Dakota for an outing during the Potholes and Prairie Birding Festival on which we found a Sprague's pipit—a lifer for everyone in my group. Sadly there were no photos of the pipit, which was sky-dancing 300 feet above us.


And back to Oklahoma for another life bird for yours truly, a male black-capped vireo in the Wichita Mountains NWR. My friend Eric Beck knew just where to go to find vireo territories—a long hike up a canyon. And although we were on the early side of their spring return date, we did manage to find three different singing males. This was my best digiscoped shot of a male black-capped vireo—not great but a great adventure and memory!

In November I was on a birding tour in Israel and while there I got to enjoy hundreds of bird species that I've rarely, if ever, seen. I could make an entire BOTY list just from birds on that fantastic trip. But in the interest of staying focused, I'm going to narrow it down to just a few highlight birds, one of which is the male Palestine sunbird (above) which came to drink nectar on a flowering shrub just outside my hotel room in the Hula Valley. This is as close to a hummingbird as it gets in the Middle East. Lovely, active little birds.

The most stunning avian attraction of the Hula Valley where I spent most of my time in Israel was the giant flocks of common cranes that migrate through Israel in winter and spring. Some stay in the Hula for the winter and the local farmers and communities, along with local preserve/refuge managers are devising ways to keep the cranes from damaging crops while letting them spend the winter foraging and roosting. It's an ingenious concept—humans and birds coexisting symbiotically. On two separate mornings and several evenings we witnessed between 15,000 and 20,000 common cranes in giant, noisy, swirling flocks.

Here's a photograph of a tiny bird I found in the Agamon Valley in Israel. Believe it or not this is a warbler known as a chiffchaff. It's named for its onomatopoeic call chiff-chaff. This little guy (or gal) was foraging in some low weeds outside a viewing blind at the Hula-Agamon Park. After watching large mega-birds like cranes and eagles all day, it was a nice change to spend some time with a small songbird.

My closest-ever look at a merlin occurred in the Negev Desert near a birding hotspot that's basically a power highline cutting through agricultural fields. A small copse of pines were the only cover for miles around and our guide, Israeli birder Jonathan Meyrav had just said "This can be a good place for merlins" when we spotted this beauty in a tree.

As I flipped through the Middle East bird field guide on the flight over to Israel, this bird (above) was tops on my list of most wanted: the cream-coloured courser. We found a flock in the Negev Desert, just as a huge approaching storm made the afternoon seem like dusk. These coursers were digiscoped at a great distance, but were a thrilling sighting nonetheless.

Here we are at the end of a year of wonderful birds. These are only MY very subjective highlights and, as I said in the beginning of this post, it's really hard to choose just one to be my Bird of the Year. But I think I have one. It's the Bohemian waxwing, above. This was a life bird for me—one that had eluded me for many years. Bohenian waxwings are birds of the far North. However, the winter of 2010-11 was something of an invasion year for BOWAs and I did not want to miss out on my chance. So my friend Geoff Heeter (a native Michigander) and I made a road trip north, nearly to the Upper Peninsula, seeking a flock of these wandering fruiteaters. Every lead we chased came up empty, until a kind birder on the Mich-Birds listserv sent me a direct message with a hot tip for a place in Traverse City, where she'd seen Bohemians the day before. We got there, found a flock of seven, and I had my lifer (and so did Geoff).

This quest took on added significance because it came shortly after the rather sudden death of my dad, William H. Thompson, Jr. Shortly after Dad's memorial service, Geoff and I left Marietta, Ohio, headed north, and even if we hadn't seen a single Bohemian waxwing, the healing power of birding helped me to overcome my grief.

It's funny. Bird watching means different things to each of us. In 2011, as exciting as my birding experiences were, the one bird that sticks out is a life bird that helped me escape the agonizing pain caused by a death. Without birds, I'm not sure where I'd be right now. I'm so thankful for the wonder of birds, and for the joy that comes from watching them with my friends and family.

I'm looking forward the the birds of 2012!

Just More Pictures

If you are like me the Christmas/New year season has been very busy. Just trying to see all the families on both sides and make sure you get all the kids a gift can drive you nuts. Then of course there is the preparing of foods, wrapping gifts and all that goes along with the holidays. We did get to spend some time with our youngest daughter whom we rarely see anymore as she is out in West Texas making her own way. Anyhow we are thankful that all the kids, grand kids, parents and the rest are all safe and back into the grind.


I really don’t have a story this week but thought I would post some pictures from my nephew Nathan in Colorado along with some from my brother Mike on his recent trip. I am also including pictures from the Primos Truth Cams taken at our place in Lampasas. I hope each of you have a happy and prosperous new year, Wild Ed