Using the flash on Simon earns you the feline stinkeye.
by James Brush
Year: 2010
During the second week of January 2009, while walking along the trail that runs down to the little pond in our neighborhood, I decided to make it a point to come out at least once a week and count birds to try to get a sense of what birds are in the neighborhood, when they’re here and how many I could see.
I jokingly called it my Pond Trail Big Year, mainly because I didn’t expect to see all that many birds on our little stretch of trail. It turned out to be more of a medium or even small-sized year, but still worth every moment. Keeping counts and lists is cool, but for me it’s more of a memory tool since I’ve never been terribly competitive about such things.
I managed to keep my commitment to birding the trail at least once per week, expect for a week in May when we were in Missouri and a week in August when we were working at Camp Periwinkle. In all, I counted 61 species on the pond trail and if I also include the birds I saw at my house and the birds I saw on the regional trail (with which the pond trail connects) leading to the lake where Double-crested Cormorants, Ring-billed Gulls and Greater Roadrunners can be seen, the number jumps to 67 birds seen on foot, which is a decent number, I think, for someone still learning to find birds.
It wasn’t long before I started paying attention to more than just the birds. There are trees, wildflowers, rabbits, turtles, deer, butterflies, snakes, and frogs out there. I started to try to pay more attention to those things as well, and it wasn’t long before I went beyond just birding to a different kind of seeing that seemed more a witnessing the little patch of nature just beyond my yard.
Some of my most memorable days include the day after one of our hailstorms when I saw an Osprey and a Black-and-white Warbler on the same day; the day I discovered the Blotched Water Snakes that live under the bridge; or the time I watched a Yellow-crowned Night Heron catch and kill a crawfish (which made me realize that being boiled alive is probably the easy way out for a crawfish compared to the hard way administered by the night heron).
There were times, particularly during last summer’s especially brutal drought-ridden days of infernal heat, on which I had to force myself to get out, knowing I would see only grackles and vultures, but even that was fun since I really do like those birds quite a bit.
I learned a lot about the seasonal migration patterns of my local birds. Things like when the different duck species come and go from the pond, which ones just pass through and which ones stay. I learned where to look for different kinds of birds and what to listen for and how to let my ears guide my eyes when trying to find something.
In addition to learning a lot about birding, I realized some things about the kind of birder I am. I rarely drive to go birding and when I do, it’s usually just to go somewhere else in Austin like Hornsby Bend. There’s something immensely satisfying about walking out one’s door and seeing the birds that live nearby. Considering the toll taken on all wildlife by cars and roads, birding by foot just seems a bit greener, and getting to know an area inspires a deeper understanding of a place that goes beyond the superficial. I think I’d rather know every bird in my neighborhood than see every bird in the state (which isn’t to say I don’t try to see as many birds as I can; rather, I’m just not going to kill myself—or anything else—to do it).
Other people joined me on these walks: my wife (quite frequently), my parents, my father-in-law, various houseguests. It was fun to be able to share some of the discoveries I’ve made, and those were some of my favorite walks.
Here’s the final 2009 Neighborhood Small Year list with stars next to the ones that were life birds:
- Black-bellied Whistling-Duck *
- Gadwall
- American Wigeon *
- Blue-winged Teal *
- Northern Shoveler
- Northern Pintail *
- Ring-necked Duck *
- Pied-billed Grebe *
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Little Blue Heron
- Green Heron
- Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Osprey
- Accipiter sp. *
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- American Coot
- Killdeer
- Ring-billed Gull
- White-winged Dove
- Mourning Dove
- Greater Roadrunner
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Black-chinned Hummingbird
- Belted Kingfisher *
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Eastern Phoebe
- Ash-throated Flycatcher *
- Western Kingbird
- Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Purple Martin
- Barn Swallow
- swallow sp.
- Carolina Chickadee
- Black-crested Titmouse
- Carolina Wren
- Bewick’s Wren
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Eastern Bluebird
- American Robin
- Northern Mockingbird
- European Starling
- Cedar Waxwing
- Orange-crowned Warbler *
- Yellow-rumped Warbler *
- Black-and-white Warbler *
- Common Yellowthroat *
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow *
- Northern Cardinal
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Brown-headed Cowbird *
- Baltimore Oriole *
- House Finch
- Lesser Goldfinch *
- American Goldfinch
- House Sparrow
I’m looking forward to my next walk. I’ll probably keep walking the trail weekly since I did that anyway, but if I don’t feel like it, I won’t. It will also be nice to enjoy walking without listing and counting, though I’ll still list occasionally and continue posting those numbers to ebird for whatever scientific value it may serve.
This was a good exercise for me, but I’m glad to be able to just get back to walking and enjoying the birds, which is what it’s supposed to be about anyway.
Update: This post was included in I and the Bird #118 at Ben Cruchan – Natural History.
They drove down from some mega church in Kansas with signs reading, “God hates grackles,” and “Grackles spread disease & crap on everything.” One little girl with blond pigtails tied with blue ribbons carried a sign saying, “No more icky turds.” They marched up and down the street outside the capitol chanting verses from Leviticus about unclean birds, occasionally stopping to extol the virtues of godly American fried chicken and turkey club sandwiches. From their trees, the grackles watched with little interest. They heard the repetitive nuk-nuk-nuk of the chanters and wondered at the rusty-hinge noises they made on the street below but mostly, they preened their shiny purple feathers and craned their necks toward the open sky above.
This went on for most of the afternoon and as the heat increased, the protesters grew more desperate, more willing to go beyond the veil of free speech. One man cast a stone. There was a moment’s pause as the world waited for the grackles to craft a response. Seconds grew to minutes, and the protesters glanced at one another, nervous, waiting. Suddenly all the grackles exploded skyward in a storm of wings and wild hallelujahs. The protesters watched with squinted eyes as the birds flew ever higher, each beat of their dark wings carrying them deeper into the sky and closer to God than anyone on the street below could imagine.
Blinded by the summer sky into which the grackles had disappeared, the protesters fumbled for their signs, packed them back on the bus, cursing the ugly grackles for their filthy ways and for not being blue birds or cardinals. Resentful and wishing that they too had wings and beautiful iridescent plumage, they drove back north, never once leaving the ground.
—
“God Hates Grackles” was one of 3 poems originally published at Thirteen Myna Birds in July 2009. Poems don’t stick around long over there before they fly away, so I’m posting them here for those who may have missed them back in July. This is 1 of 3.
The above recording is a Carolina Wren followed by a response from a Black-crested Titmouse. The wren follows and then they sing together after which the titmouse gets in the last word. I recorded it on my iphone so it’s nothing fancy and doesn’t sound professional by any means. I edited it down from 55 seconds to cut the dead space between songs.
I’ve been trying to record some of the backyard bird sounds hoping this will help me learn their songs over time in much the same way that photographing them has helped me learn their names.
Project FeederWatch contines. Last month, I noted I hadn’t seen any cardinals or Mourning Doves since the count period began, but in the past month both birds have checked in. I also had a European Starling visit the back porch to investigate one of the feeders. They’re common here, but I rarely see them in the yard. Last year, I only had them show up once. Three came by for a swim in the birdbath.
American Goldfinches are the only birds from last year that haven’t come around. I’ve talked to a few people around here who say they haven’t seen many this year either.
Here’s the current tally with the highest number of individuals in parentheses.
- White-winged Dove (23)
- Mourning Dove (1)
- Blue Jay (3)
- Carolina Chickadee (2)
- Black-crested Titmouse (2)
- Carolina Wren (2)
- Bewick’s Wren (1)
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
- Northern Mockingbird (1)
- European Starling (1)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
- Chipping Sparrow (15)
- Northern Cardinal (1)
- Lesser Goldfinch (5)
- House Sparrow (17)
Here’s a picture of a Black-crested Titmouse leaving the feeder. It’s not a good picture, but I like the motion.
Update: This post was included in I and the Bird #117 at the Marvelous in nature. This week’s host, Seabrooke Leckie, actually drew all of the featured birds including my wren and titmouse singing it out and linked to all the posts from her drawing. It’s awesome. Check it out.
They only look blurry because… well, they’re greyhounds. And they’re fast.
This week, I’ve been teaching the old blog new tricks and we now have the capacity to let the pups tell their own story. Phoebe does most of the narration while Joey huffs and puffs bounces around in the background. Here’s Phoebe telling me about her day:
Since this is our first attempt at audio blogging, let me know if it doesn’t work.
[saveagrey]
I just installed the WPTouch plugin, which generates a slightly different more mobile-friendly version of Coyote Mercury should you visit the site on a mobile device. It looks good on my iphone. Check it out and let me know if it looks jacked up on any other devices.
I’ve been playing with other plugins and doing some general code-tweaking lately as well. Notice the nice little seagull favicon up by the URL?
I noticed this tree the other day while I was walking along the neighborhood trail looking for birds. As to birds, I mostly saw the usual suspects, though I did see Cedar Waxwings, which was the first time I’ve seen them in the neighborhood. The Ring-necked Ducks finally returned as well, but this time, I tried to see the trees and spend some time with them.
It was cold here last week, the coldest it’s been since 1976 according to the paper, and so I set out to see if things looked different in that brittle winter light we see so rarely here.
It’s been dry so no snow or freezing precipitation, but I did see some ice along the muddy edge of the stream. I doubt I would have seen it if I hadn’t first heard my boots crunching through it. Nothing too impressive as far as ice cover goes, but ice outside of a drinking glass is a novelty around here.
This is the view looking up the stream (southwest). I still can’t get over the damage last summer’s hailstorm did. Most of the trees that lost their fight with the sky that night have been cleared away, but I like that this one was left over the creek like a little bridge for night-scurrying animals.
I wonder if a small tornado came through this part of the trail since so many trees were felled. If you draw a line from this spot to our house and a few blocks beyond, most of the roofs along that line had to be replaced (including ours). I guess the trees didn’t stand much of a chance.
I’ll write about the birds and my big medium small year that concluded with this icy walk in the next few days.
—
Just for grins, I recoded my site so that the sidebar loads after the posts, a thing which needed doing for quite some time. It’s nothing a reader would likely notice except that the site might load faster now, but what prompted me to do it is this nice enhanced gallery feature in WordPress 2.9. Here’s a gallery of pictures from my walk. Clicking on them will display them at a higher resolution on their own image pages.
—
In non, tree, bird or WordPress news, I was happy to see that my prose/poetry piece “The Man Who Spoke the Law” (originally published at qarrtsiluni back in October) was included on Adam Ford’s January 2010 Poetry Mixtape. Check it out. He says nice things about “The Man Who Spoke the Law” and there are links to some really terrific poems on the same mixtape.
Last week, I took a walk along the pond trail. I was looking for birds, but it was the trees that really captured my attention, bare and still against the coldest days we’ve had here since 1976. It wasn’t cold like it can get up north, but it was cold enough to make me wish I still owned a pair of gloves.
She stood with hands on hips,
rosaceous hair pulled taut
and twisted into a psyche knot.
Her eyes’ prism revealed
an overglaze of reason as she
watched the numismatist’s
logical fingers trace over some
ancient artist’s vision captured in
the obverse engraving. They lingered
on the junk’s rounded sails carving
paths through southern seas.
“These sails should be square,” he said.
“I’m certain this is fake. I’d be happy to—”
Her lips curled in satisfaction.
His eyes followed the incorruptible
ecliptic of the coin’s path to her purse.
He watched her walk away, dull heels
clicking against stained tile, a music
soon dampened by the snow
and city streets. Listening to her fade,
he wondered how she knew the
master forger’s work was worth
much more than the original.
—
This is for Read Write Poem’s latest prompt (#108). Click here to read what others did with this prompt.
I picked two words salmon and binocular and flipped backwards through the dictionary letting my eyes fall on random words between the two I’d initially chosen. I had decided to use 10 words and have them appear in the poem in order of discovery.
Those words were: rosaceous, psyche knot, prism, overglaze, numismatist, logical, junk, incorruptible, ecliptic, and coin.
In other news, as a holiday gift for family and friends, I made a chapbook out of the micro-poems I post on my other blog. I saved a few to give away here. If you’d like one, use the contact form to tell me where to mail it and it’ll be on its way. First five Next three callers.