A ‘quiet’ moment

Time stands still for My lovely wife Gracey as she meditates.

I believe I can fly

Man has invented the plane, conquered the sky, reached the moon but has still not given up on his desire to fly like a bird – with the birds.

Corn-crazy

Of all the displays at Kundasan, I found this the most eye-catching.

Endless Spring

Summer? Says who? For this White-rumped Sandpiper, this is still the season of spring migration.

From the middle of a flooded field in northern Ohio, Kenn writes: After a totally crazy month, the calendar has just clicked over from May -- we call it May-hem around here -- to June. So what season is it now? If you’re a White-rumped Sandpiper, it’s still spring, still the height of northward migration season.

Of course, if you’re a White-rumped Sandpiper, you’re probably not reading this blog.

If you’re a sandpiper, you’re too busy to read things like this. Especially if you’re a White-rumped. More than three dozen different species of sandpipers are found regularly in North America; all of them are at least somewhat migratory. None of them migrates north later in spring, on average, than the White-rump.

This bird has a lot of distance to cover. Its wintering sites are all in southern South America, including some as far south as the tip of the continent -- or even farther: this amazing migrant has even been recorded in Antarctica. Its nesting sites are all in high Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska, most of them north of the Arctic Circle. So when northbound birds get to the latitude of the lower 48 states, they still have some traveling ahead of them. It’s amazing how late in the spring they show up. When I was down in Texas at the beginning of May this year, I saw a few White-rumped Sandpipers, but they were among the earlier arrivals at that location, and most would be passing through in mid-May. Here in northern Ohio, White-rumps have just shown up within the last few days. Their peak passage through here will be during the first ten days of June. Their time on the Arctic tundra may be very brief: some adults, perhaps those that have failed at their nesting attempt, will be southbound before the middle of July.

See the obvious white rump on this bird? No, we can't see it either.

Birders often overlook the White-rumped Sandpiper. That may be partly because of its migration timing, slipping through after many birders have given up on spring. It’s also partly because it’s a subtle bird with few obvious field marks. Looking at the photos here, do you see any white rump patch? The bird’s namesake field mark is visible only in flight, or rarely while the bird is actively preening its feathers. Various field guides, from the second edition of Peterson’s western to some editions of the National Geographic, have illustrated this species with its wings drooped, showing off the white patch on the rump and uppertail coverts. In real life, the birds just don’t stand that way. When I see this species in spring, I usually pick it out first by its squeaky callnote, by the fine sharp streaks on the chest, and especially by the long-winged profile. Those long wings, incidentally, are a reflection of the bird’s long-distance migration.

I doubt that we can have the bird’s name changed to "Invisibly-white-rumped-and-uppertail-coverted Sandpiper," but if we called it "Long-winged Sandpiper," birders might overlook it less and appreciate it more.

Regardless, if you’re anywhere east of the Rockies, especially in the interior of the continent, early June is not too late to see the White-rumped Sandpiper in spring migration. Singles and small flocks are stopping over in all kinds of shallow wetlands, from the edges of grassy marshes to flooded farm fields. If you can find one of these subtle sandpipers, give it a salute of respect for the 8000-mile journey it has undertaken, and wish it success in getting to the tundra on time.

Spider

This spider is now in Malaysia grounds & it's poisonous........

Beware!!!!!........

When you see this spider - kill it immediately with some thing, not bare hand

Have any one of you heard about or seen this spider?

Happening in Malaysia!!!!!

Take note it's around the house.....and anywhere!!!

Please note this poisonous

It's commonly found in Brazil, but somehow it made its way here.

An English man was recently bitten by it but unfortunately, they freed the
Spider not knowing that it's poisonous!

Birders: Myth and Reality

From Port Clinton, Ohio, Kenn writes: As amazing as this might seem, there are still some people out there who are so totally uninformed that they think of birdwatchers as nerdy, dorky, or dull. (Of course, there are some people who think the earth is flat. When the real information is so readily available, at some point the ignorance becomes the fault of those who carry it.) For anyone who is so backward that they still cling to a belief in the "nerdy birder" stereotype, I wish I could have plunked them down in Mango Mama’s last night.

Our band, 6-7-8-OH, was playing a gig at Mango Mama’s in Port Clinton. Unlike some of our gigs, this wasn’t a fund-raiser for anything, just a Saturday night of playing in a bar. And there was a very good crowd there most of the evening. But what was most noticeable to me was the fact that it was the birders who packed, and rocked, the house. Birders made up only one-third of the band, but probably more than three-quarters of the action in the place.

Where was the stereotypical birder that you might see in a magazine cartoon? Certainly not in this crowd. No, we had the real birders. Three of the sharpest young bird experts in the state, Jen and Phil and Ethan, all twenty-something or barely-twenty, were there to rock all night after birding at Magee Marsh all day. Rebecca and Laura and Michelle were there from the National Wildlife Refuge; we’re accustomed to seeing them as professionals in the conservation field, but here they were lively pretty girls, drawing looks from all the non-birding guys in the bar. Several fun couples from the birding scene were here: Bob and Blake (the Killer Bs), he looking studly, she looking glamorous; likewise Tim and Dana, and Hugh and Judy, still amazingly energetic after all the work they’d been doing at the bird observatory. Another bird observatory mainstay, the amazing Karen, was there, a total live wire as always. Tough guy Henry and his cute daughter Olivia had been out birding all day at Magee Marsh but they came to listen to the music for half the night. Iain, Josh, and Sam, professional tour leaders from Tropical Birding, tanned and rugged and lean, probably danced with every lady in the place, and Michael and Matt may have done the same. But the dance floor was filled with birders practically the whole night.

The month of May has been a high-energy time at Black Swamp Bird Observatory, with crazy numbers of birds and birders in the area. Kim and I are both pretty well fried by now, and it felt good to just get up there on stage and rock out. No one has worked harder than Kim, and she should be absolutely exhausted by now, but she was so wound up and so full of life that no one would have guessed. With her beautiful voice and powerful delivery, she knocked everyone out as always. When we launched into a Joe Walsh tune, instead of "Spent the last year the Rocky Mountain way," Kim sang, "Spent the weekend birding at Magee," and everyone went crazy. At least, all the cool people did -- all the birders.

My beautiful Kim rocking out on stage

That's me on bass, adding to the driving foundation of the songs. Photo courtesy of Kevin Loughlin at Wildside Nature Tours.

Warblers On The Brain

A Black-throated Green Warbler pauses in northwest Ohio, along with a few hundred thousand of his fellow warblers

From Oak Harbler, Ohio, Kenn writes: See that typo? I’ve done that dozens of times recently. We’re actually located in Oak HARBOR. But for the last three weeks, whenever my fingers type the letters A - R - B, autopilot takes over and finishes the word with L - E - R. It’s that time of year. It’s warbler season.

More than 50 species of warblers occur north of the Mexican border, and many of them are abundant, but most people never notice them at all. Because the warblers are tiny, hyperactive, and fond of hiding among dense foliage, they simply escape the attention of the uninitiated. For the average citizen, warblers exist only as the occasional flit of yellow between the treetops, not enough even to register on the conscious mind. But for those who have discovered birds, warblers are magical creatures, a dizzying galaxy of feathered delights.

A male Bay-breasted Warbler, with its tones of burnt chestnut

Because they thrive on insects, almost all the warblers migrate to the tropics for the winter. When they come flooding north in spring, resplendent in the colors of their breeding plumage, birders go flooding outdoors to see them. Most of the warblers are primarily eastern, and east of the Rockies there are many regions where more than 30 species of warblers are possible in the spring. Going out to look for them is like a treasure hunt. We never know which species we’ll find, and we go out again and again, trying to connect with as many warblers as possible during the brief period when they pass through on their way north.

A Canada Warbler lurks in a thicket on its way north through Magee Marsh, Ohio


The finest place for observing spring warblers in the month of May is in northwestern Ohio. When the northbound migrants reach the south shore of Lake Erie, they pause, often for days at a time, resting and feeding as they prepare for their next flight northward. Literally thousands of warblers can be found here on certain days. The most famous spot for observing them is the boardwalk through the swampy woods at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area. Here the warblers gather in droves, often foraging at eye level in the trees along the boardwalk or along the edge of the parking lot. Birders gather in droves also, thousands of birders, from seasoned experts to newcomers seeing their very first warblers. Photographers gather here, too: warblers are famously difficult to photograph in most places, but here they seem almost to pose (briefly!) for the cameras. During the month of May, there are undoubtedly more warbler photos taken at Magee Marsh than in the entire rest of the United States combined.

The Magnolia Warbler is the most abundant migrant through northwestern Ohio for a brief period in mid-May every year

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO), where Kim is executive director, is located along the entrance road to Magee Marsh, so we’re in a wonderful position to interact with the thousands of birders and thousands of warblers that come here in spring. The month of May -- we call it "May-hem" -- is a whirlwind of activity and lack of sleep for us, and it can be exhausting, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at this season.

A Cape May Warbler shows off its tiger stripes

All of the warblers are wonderful, of course, but some cause more excitement than others. Sheer beauty is one cause for excitement -- we always hear "ooh" and "aah" whenever a bright male Blackburnian Warbler pops into view, stunning in its Halloween hues -- but with birders, of course, rarity is an even bigger draw. The striking little Golden-winged Warbler has become very uncommon in recent years, so one obliging male along the Magee Marsh boardwalk a week ago caused quite a stir. Josh Engel, who was guiding bird walks for BSBO that morning, told me that he estimated more than 200 people looking at this bird at one point in the morning. I was there later in the day and calculated there were over 100 people watching it then. Josh said he was sure that more than 1000 birders saw this same individual Golden-winged Warbler during the course of the day.

A male Blackburnian Warbler, always a crowd-pleaser

When we talk of rare warblers, the true prize is Kirtland’s Warbler, one of the rarest birds in North America. Its total population as of 2008 was over 1,700 pairs, but at a couple of points in the 1970s and 1980s its population dipped below 170 pairs, a terrifyingly low number for a songbird; it was seriously close to extinction. Kirtland’s Warblers nest only in a few counties in Michigan (and at a couple of sites in Wisconsin and Ontario), they winter only in the Bahamas, and extremely few are ever seen in migration between these locations. But northwestern Ohio is one of the few areas where migrants are seen several times per decade.

One of those rare sightings was made on Sunday, May 17th, in a plot of woods along the entrance road to Magee Marsh. This Kirtland’s Warbler was found and identified by a sharp teenaged birder, Andy Johnson. He came to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory to tell us about it, and soon there were a score of eager birders scouring the woods where Andy had seen the Kirtland’s. The bird proved elusive, foraging quietly in a few pines and spruces within the dense woods, but during Sunday afternoon and Monday the bird eventually was seen by dozens of observers. It wasn't a brightly colored individual, and our photos of it didn't turn out particularly well, but we didn't care; it was the rarity that counted.

A super-rare Kirtland's Warbler perches and flutters in conifers at Magee Marsh, Ohio, much to the delight of scores of visiting birders

We still have a couple of weeks of fine warbler-watching ahead of us, because the last migrants will be moving through in the first days of June, but by that time May-hem will be over and the level of visitation by birders will go back to normal. Then we’ll just look forward to September, and seeing the warblers coming back south in their confusing fall plumages!

For more information about warbler-watching in northwest Ohio, see the Black Swamp Bird Observatory's birding pages.