Week 6 Summary
WEEK 6
2019 Total: 101 2019 Lifers: 2
Highlight Birds: Mute Swan, American Goldfinch, American Woodcock, Red Head, Virginia Rail
February 3 (Sunday)
One of my “happy places” is eating McDonald’s and birding, but a little more specifically at Swan Cove at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. As bad as it is for me, I still can’t will myself to just drive past the McDonald’s without stopping by. So, its a tradition now to grab my Mickey D’s as I head to the refuge. Sometimes I get my standard 3 McChickens and 1 McDouble order and sometimes I change it up. This day, I decided to go for 1 McChicken and 20 Nuggets.
I get to Swan Cove and position my car about mid way between the mass of swans. Today, I am looking for Mute Swans. There has been a pair of them sighted at the refuge for the past month or so and I haven’t had the patience to check each swan (around 120ish) for them, until today. I do a quick scan with binoculars and my camera to see if the Mute Swans or any other rarities pop out, but its the usual; American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Gadwalls, American Black Ducks, Tunrda Swans, and Buffleheads. Now I’m sitting in my drivers seat with the door open and my camera and tripod set up right outside. It’s time to eat my nuggets. I’m slamming down these nuggets with sweet and sour sauce and just listening to the swans and watching the shovelers dabble, when a car pulls up in front of me fairly close. A man steps out and starts walking in my direction and it looks like he wants to chat.
I put down my sauce and nuggets. “Hi, how’s it going?” I ask with some nugget still in my mouth.
“It’s nice weather! Are you taking long exposure shots?” as he gestures towards my camera and tripod.
“Oh no, I use my camera as a scope… its got a super zoom on it. I’m looking for Mute Swans” I mentioned the Mute Swans hoping he might have seen them and could point me to them.
“A what?” he asks.
“A scope.”
“Oh ok… this is the most swans I’ve ever seen here.” he mentions.
We begin to talk about the birds a bit and the focus shifts over to photography and mainly photo gear. I find out this man is retired from working from NASA and now spends a lot of his time with photography. After about 10 minutes of talking about camera bodies, lenses, and some nice photography spots in Florida, I ask for his name.
“What was your name?”
“Bill (last name, I’m not going to include it").”
I never know when its appropriate to give my full name. Sometimes I think, I’m not telling a stranger my last name, why do they need to know that? But this time, I thought why not.
“Ben, Ben Lam”
“Oh, Sunlam. Nice to meet you”
We shake hands and I ignore that he got my name wrong. It happens all the time and I’ll never see this man again, whatever.
We keep talking for another 5 minutes or so about neutral density filters and Bill mentions that he’s going to head over to the wildlife loop to see if there are any good subjects for photos.
Before splitting ways, he asks, “What was your name again?”
“Ben” I try to say as clear as possible.
“Oh it was plain ole Ben, huh. Not some fancy Asiatic name. What was your real name?”
“Yup, just B, E, N, Ben.”
I mention how I was born in the states and how my parents immigrated from China. Then, we both wished each other good luck in our endeavors. Bill drove off and I finished my nuggets.
I know this wasn’t much about birds, but one of my favorite things about birding is how it brings people together, whether its a birding outing or just a random encounter like this.
Thanks Bill, for stopping to chat. I did find the Mute Swans that day too, but the highlight of the day was definitely talking with Bill. Good luck with your trip down to Florida, Bill, and I will do some research on some neutral density filters.
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
February 4 (Monday)
Uneventful day.
My feeders are still not producing anything too. I throw a bunch of seed out on the ground to hopefully bring in something.
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
February 5 (Tuesday)
I got to do a water run and get some water for our aquariums at work. Part of this requires us to wait about 30 minutes for the tank to fill up with water. It’s great, I get to bird while I wait. Overall a pretty slow day for birds, but the Long-tailed Ducks are always a nice bird to see.
I got my first visitor at the feeders too! One goldfinch.
At dusk, a big show of Woodcocks too. Peenting and twittering all over. Thanks Cortney for letting me know.
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)
February 6 (Wednesday)
My feeders have finally attracted birds! Goldfinches and juncos all around. I’m still hoping for some Pine Siskins to jump into the mix.
February 7 (Thursday)
The feeders were exploding with Goldfinches. About 35 total with some hanging on the feeders, some in the bushes, and some waiting in the trees. I’ve never been into feeders much, but this is awesome. This is a different side of birding that I haven’t delved into before.
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)
February 8 (Friday)
Water run number 2 of the week for work. This one yielded some good birds. I got a Common Goldeneye and a very cooperative Horned Grebe.
Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus)
This bird feeder life is really taking me. I’ve been watching the feeders a lot now. There were a couple of reasons why I didn’t care much for feeders or even some of the characteristics of some people that have feeders. The whole “these are my birds” and the whole anthropomorphizing of the birds has always been something I didn’t like seeing on the Facebook birding pages. I was always taught that as biologists, we shouldn’t anthropomorphize. As an environmental educator though, its not so black and white, there needs to be some flex in anthropomorphizing animals to reach certain audiences. Anyways, that can be a whole long tangent, I started taking on these characteristics that I didn’t like. I almost immediately started calling these Goldfinches “my birds” and I even told them to stop fighting over the seed and I’ve jokingly given some of them names too… what have I become?
Having feeders is really fun. I do recommend. Also, February is National Bird Feeding Month!
February 9 (Saturday)
A great day for birds.
I was watching the waterfowl at Swan Cove with my McDonald’s, as usual. And I just happened to put my binoculars on three ducks flying away. No idea why I chose those in particular, but BAM! Redheads! I’ve been looking for these dang birds for the past month. Two males and one female. Right after I spot them, all of the other ducks take off for a bit because an eagle flew by.
Next, I head to the wildlife loop. I’m feeling lucky today after getting those Redheads. I’m going after some Green-winged Teal now. They’re fairly common around here at this time of year and I saw them around late December, but just not this year. I start heading for the small pond on the marsh trail. Tons of Butter Butts and Swamp Sparrows. I stop at the little bridge/ boardwalk to see if I can get a picture of a Swamp Sparrow. There’s a call that comes out of the reeds that I’m not quite sure what it was. I’m not the most amazing at calls, but I”m decent. If I don’t recognize one in an area that I’m familiar with, something is up. I wait. I start to hear movement in the reeds. Small footsteps on the dry reeds. It sounds way too big for a sparrow. Then there’s ripples in the water. More footsteps. I can’t see anything though. Footsteps and ripples for about 30ish minutes. I finally see it! Its a Virginia Rail. That was what I was thinking it was, but I didn’t want to believe it unless I heard it again or actually saw it. It was a very clear, but brief look at its head and back through the reeds. Lifer! That’s 2 lifers for 2019.
Happy Birding!