Going out on a limb

I have a tendancy to oversensationalize when I'm identifying critters. If I find a mink track, I want it to be a river otter so bad. If I get a blurry, grainy IR fox image...I really want it to be a gray not a red.

In this case, my gut reaction to this camera-trapped image below was that I caught the Common Raven (Corvus corax) perching on a log. Which would be a new species for me.

Then I talked myself out of it, and said "No, couldn't possibly be...it's just a [American] Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)".

I even blogged about it over at my Albany Times Union 'Discovering wildlife' blog...and called it a Crow.

But now looking at it, I'm not so sure.

Here's why I think it's a Raven:

-Size. That looks like a big bird. Granted it's fairly close to the camera, but upon reviewing pictures taken at this site of DEFINITE Crows, I feel like this is a bigger bird than those.

-Bill. Raven's are known for having a much heavier bill than the Crows. Also, there are some feathers on the dorsal (top) bill that extend down the culmen. Am I using that word correctly? The Crows don't seem to have this, as I look at drawings in my Sibley's and Nat Geo books.


I unfortunately don't have any GOOD Crow pictures taken from this same angle. Or at least that I saved. Crows are a dime a dozen, so I tend to delete those pictures, unless something is really cool. I do have this picture though that's at almost the same angle, but on a different brand of camera.

 

This seems to be a Crow. Although it's further away from the camera, it seems to definitely be of a slighter build. Also, it's bill seems a bit more slender and not as thick.

One feature of the Raven that is pointed out in both Sibley's and Nat Geo, is that the Raven has some shaggy /throat breast feathers. Unfortunately in neither of these pictures can you see those feathers. So, I can't use that as identification.

Alright, Bloggers. I fully expect to be supported or called out on my sensationalism. If I'm wrong, and this is just a plain old Crow....I'm ok with that. But if that's a Raven, then I have another bird to add to my camera-trapped list!

Help!

"Keen Eye" Birding at Palmer Creek

Since I arrived here in Alaska, I've been really interested in learning "how to bird". I know many people go birding in their backyards, and they haven't necessarily learned a method to birding. I fit that description- watching for whatever comes to my yard, to the feeder, or whatever happens to fly in front of my while out and about. Only this past semester have I really gotten interested in seeking out birds to study them.

 

I was told by many that Alaska is a great place to bird, especially in the early summer when I got here. I don't get to spend a ton of time on the coast, hardly at all actually, so I haven't seen too many of those kinds of birds. But interior waterfowl, gulls, and perching birds are readily available to see here.

 

I've been spending a lot of time by myself, going out after work, to sit with my binoculars and Sibley's Guide to Birds book and Bird Tracks & Sign (Elbroch & Marks) and trying to figure out what I'm seeing. I also have this awesome book called Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail Guide.

 

 

That gets old though, and you can only go so far with it. So I surfed around the WWW a bit one night, and sent an email to the bird biologist at the refuge that I live on, and he suggested I get in touch with this birding club.

 

I spoke with Ken Tarbox, the president, and was welcomed to join the next club outing, which happened to be the next day!

 

I met the club early in the morning at a local grocery store, and we carpooled out to Hope, AK. Which was a several hour drive, partially because we stopped a few times, and also it's really far out in the middle of nowhere!

 

'A' is where I came from, 'B' is the "town" of Hope. Hope was once a booming gold-mining town. The original structures from 100+ years ago still stand. Well, some of them...in 1964 a huge earthquake hit the area and half of the town sank 6 feet into the Turnagain Arm, flooding. It's kind of dried up, but has a lot of character.

 

We took this road called Palmer Creek Road which is described as "climb[ing] from a Lutz and white spruce forest only a couple miles from Turnagain Arm into alpine tundra and brush" (AKPWVTG). It's a 10 mile dirt road that winds it's way up through the Kenai Mountains, gaining thousands of feet in elevation as we started very near to sea level. If you've ever been to Glacier National Park, and taking the Highway to the Sun, it's like that. About halfway up the mountain side, and winding around each mountain. Every bend reveals a new landscape to stare at in awe...it was so gorgeous up there!

 

Mile 6 brought us to this campground. We stopped for a potty break, and to check out the trees to see if any birds would show themselves.

 

Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla)

 

Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla)

 

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

 

After a few cool sightings, we moved on past the campground. This road is an old mining/logging road, and it's STRONGLY recommended that your vehicle is high-clearance and has 4WD. I've never been to Africa...but this is what I would imagine a safari tour would be like. Bouncing over the road, and the higher in elevation we got, the vegetation cleared out, so we could see a long ways.

 

 

 

Every so often we'd stop and get out and call for birds. Ken, the president, is at the right.

 

Along the way I took some pictures of the wildflowers that are in bloom. They are absolutely gorgeous right now, and I'm trying to learn my local flowers!

 

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

 

Pink Clover (Trifolium sp.)

 

Broad-leaved Starflower (Trientalis borealis ssp. latifolia)

 

Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria camschatcensis)

 

Alaska Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

 

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

 

Ok, I know there's more pictures of plants than birds at this point...flowers are just easier to get pictures of!

 

We eventually hit a spot in the road that narrowed, so we had to ditch the cars and hike the rest of the way in. This used to be a road that was used to cart in/out mining gear...and perhaps gold?

 

The higher we got in elevation, the more SNOW there was! For my Lower 48 friends, it is July 14th, 2012 in this picture. Yes, I know I'm in Alaska...it's just strange for me to be standing on snow in the summer!

 

Just as we got to the "bowl" amidst of all these huge mountains, the sky cleared and made for some phenomenal pictures...

 

The headwaters of Palmer Creek- ICY cold, and very refreshing! I've never drank directly from "wild water" because I'm scared of getting giardia (beaver fever), but this is so high up and quickly moving...I would be surprised in there are many (if any) contaminants in it.

 

Taking a moment to reflect...

 

 

 

Then I found...

 

PTARMIGAN SCAT! Not sure if this is Willow or Rock Ptarmigan...but it's a very cool find nonetheless. For some more information about the Ptarmigan check out the Alaska Ptarmigan Facts and Photos web page.

 

The next bird I was able to get a picture of was this Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)...

 

 

 

Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)

 

I'm not sure of any of these species of plants...but I wanted to share this picture- I think it's gorgeous!

Below is our final group list of sightings and "hearings"...I didn't see or hear all of these, but I was able to add a bunch of new birds to my "Alaska List" :)

1.  Spruce Grouse X
2. Common Loon X
3. Osprey X
4. Bald Eagle X
5. Spotted Sandpiper X
6. Mew Gull X
7. Herring Gull X
8. Glaucous-winged Gull X
9. Arctic Tern X
10. Olive-sided Flycatcher X
11. Gray Jay X
12. Black-billed Magpie X
13. Northwestern Crow X
14. Common Raven X
15. Violet-green Swallow X
16. Black-capped Chickadee X
17. Red-breasted Nuthatch X
18. Pacific Wren X
19. American Dipper X
20. Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
21. Swainson's Thrush X
22. Hermit Thrush X
23. Varied Thrush X
24. Orange-crowned Warbler X
25. Yellow Warbler X
26. Yellow-rumped Warbler X
27. Townsend's Warbler X
28. Wilson's Warbler X
29. Savannah Sparrow X
30. Fox Sparrow X
31. Lincoln's Sparrow X
32. Golden-crowned Sparrow X
33. Dark-eyed Junco X
34. Pine Grosbeak X
35. Common Redpoll X
36. Pine Siskin X

Thanks to the Keen Eye Birders for having me along! It was a great day with knowledgeable people. This will definitely be a favorite memory of mine from Alaska!

My first solo birding adventures!

This past semester I became more interested in birding. Birds are so much more accessible than mammals, and to be honest- I knew very little about birds. I could identify common feeder birds, and birds of prey...but that was where my knowledge ended.

I did a bunch of birding in the Finger Lakes region of NY this spring with faculty and staff at school to study for a test that included NY birds, as well as just to get a taste for it.

Then I got hired to work in Alaska for the summer and many of the bird species that I'm comfortable with, aren't here! SO I've been spending time outside with my binocs, a notebook, a camera, and my field guides. The guides that I'm using these days are Sibley's Guide to Birds (the big one including all North American birds), and the Audubon Birds app for Android. Some people aren't big on apps as field guides, but Amazon.com gives away an app a day, and this one was one back in April. It's awesome...has tons a of calls, images, natural history, and the ways you can look up birds in ingenious. I can select a "type", so chicken-like for example, type in Alaska, and pick the month I'm in, and it will bring all the birds that fit those descriptions. So cool.

Anway, the following are some pictures I've gotten in and around Soldotna, AK which is where I live.

Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis)

I called 3 of these birds into me at once! Super curious, not exactly "tame", but definetely not shy. They've been known to thieve a campsite or picnic lunch. I love them!

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

I also called several of these little sparrows in as well (did you know D-EJ is a sparrow?!), which the Audobon bird app. I heard a bunch of birds calling, so I played the D-EJ call to see if it was them singing, and it was. This Junco above was particularly enamored with me/the app. It actually landed on my knee before uttering a sparrow version of "OH S***" and taking flight again. The picture above required little zoom action, this bird was very close to me!

Allright, here we go with the gulls. I'm going to make it my summer mission to learn to ID local gulls.

For this guy here, I'm going with Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens). I know these birds are common here, but I'm just a little stumped by the wing tip color. In Sibley's it says "wingtips patterned in gray, about the same color as the mantle (shoulders/back)". I think that this Gull's wingtips are much darker than the mantle, but nothing else really seems to fit with bill coloration, eye ring color, leg color...etc etc. I'm soliciting input here! 

Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)

I'm going with the Lesser and sticking to it! After careful consideration of all the other photos I didn't post, I'm saying Lesser because: the barring on the flanks doesn't seem to be AS pronounced as described for the Greater, the bill does not appear to curve upwards like the Greater, and it just was a delicate looking bird. Not to say Greater isn't, I just feel it was. And since I was with a bunch of 'Fish-heads" who don't care about it unless it's scaly and has fins, then I was the local expert and so I say Lesser!

Stumped. Here are my choices: Bonparte's Gull (Larus phildelphia), Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus), or Franklin's Gull (Larus pipixcan). I guess I can be happy that I got it down to all the same genera...but I'm just perplexed! The leg color and hood shape and eye ring and bill color are all mixy-matchy with these 3 species, nothing seems to match up. I am LEANING towards Bonaparte's.

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

Bald Eagle - adult (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Bald Eagle - juvenile (2-3 year perhaps?)  (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Bald Eagle - adult (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

And that's pretty much my birds so far. It's a personal goal of mine this summer to get "good" at birding...and I don't think I mean being able to ID things right off the bat, but to be able to recognize key features that can differentiate species, and perhaps even sex of the bird. We'll see. There is a birding group that works out of the refuge I'm living at, so I'm going to try and hook up with them and take it from there! For now though, I'll just keep fighting with myself and Sibley's over what bird I just saw :)

Field Guides and Reference Books

This is probably my favorite part of my house, besides maybe my bed. If there was ever a fire, THIS would be the "stuff" I'd try to rescue. I've been collecting these books mostly for the past several years, but some of them are childhood books. I'm lucky to have grown up with parents who love the outdoors just as much as I've turned out to. I have tons of field guides (Audobon, Peterson, Golden), various reference guides (Soil Science Simplified, Rock Hunters Guide, Take a Hike!), and I also store my old field journals in this bookshelf as well. For Christmas I received some AWESOME books that I am very excited to add to my collection. A couple of these I've seen professors carrying around, and the authors continuously pop up in literature and works cited. That means something to me.

If and when I move far away from New York, I'll really have to make some hard decisions about what to pack. Clothes and shoes?...or my books? Especially if I'm flying, that will be tough.

Anyway, now onto my *new* books...

Stokes Guide to Nature in Winter by Donald Stokes. I have used another Stokes book (Guide to Mammal Tracking and Behaviors) in a class I took. This January I'm taking Winter Ecology and the required reading is Winter World by Bernd Heinrich (this book deserves a post all of its own). Anyway, when I was on Amazon.com, this Stokes book was suggested to purchase. Since I like the Mammal Tracking book, I figured why not? So I bought it, but haven't had much opportunity to read it yet. The only thing I've noticed is that some of the scientific names are old, as it was published in 1976.

Next, A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America by James C. Halfpenny. This is another one that was "suggested" to me by Amazon (thanks!). I have a guide to Rocky Mountain mammals by Halfpenny, and have heard good things about him, so I decided to ask for the book. It's small, flimsy, and contains all line drawings. But it's a reference guide and can be used to cross reference...I'm thinking mainly track patterns and sizes.

Now THIS book is the Bible of field guides/references. Mammal Tracks & Sign by Mark Elbroch is a big, thick, complete book of all North American mammals. The pictures are great, the information is great, and I just like Elbroch's writing. It's been helpful to me during my black bear study while trying to define stride, straddle, gait, and direct registering. If you're into wildlife and tracking, you should own this book.

This is the Bible for bird lovers. The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley is like the above: big, thick, and complete. Lot's of great hand drawn pictures in here of birds in different variations of plumage (m/f, seasonal, eclipse, etc), and the birds in flight or perched. I don't know very much about birds. I know common songbirds that visit the bird feeder, common raptors, and common waterfowl. Other than that...I don't know much. Unfortunately at my college, ornithology is not offered, so I will have to wait until I transfer to take it. But for now, I will go birding on my own and try to learn how to use the guide!

And the last one, Behavior of North American Mammals also by Mark Elbroch. I purchased this for reference. I am intrigued by specialized animal behaviors, and this book was just published this year, so I asked Santa for it :) It. Looks. Awesome! I hope I have some time to sit and read through this before my Winter Ecology class.

And that's all I have for this entry. Hopefully my next post is more exciting...I going to check my neglected camera traps on Saturday and it's been several weeks. Hopefully there are some interesting, photogenic critters on there! In the mean time...

Happy New Year!