Maine warblers and other birds

Cyndi and I took a trip to Maine in July, to visit my parents, eat some lobster, and see the Atlantic Ocean.

There are many icons that make me think of Maine.

The Black-capped Chickadee is the state bird, so it is near the top of my list.

Blueberry fields abound in Maine. I even raked blueberries once long ago to earn some extra money, when I was in high school. They're harvested with a tool that is a bit like a scoop with tines, called a rake.

Every morning before sunrise we were awakened by birdsong, and getting out of bed was always rewarded with wonderful views of warblers and other birds in the yard.

Here is a Magnolia Warbler.

This one is a Brown Creeper.

Here's Cyndi sneaking up to view the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that is feeding in the locust trees. My mother grew those beautiful sunflowers, and behind Cyndi is a tangle of thornless raspberry bushes.

The raspberries were ripe!

Here's the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, hard at work making a new row of holes to allow the tree sap to flow. The sap is sticky and attracts insects. I think the sapsucker eats both the sap and the insects. You can see a previous row of holes, with white sap, near the bottom left of the picture.

This Leopard Frog was living in the garden.

The call of the Red-breasted Nuthatch could be frequently heard.

Both the above photos are Northern Parula. They sure are colorful.

The Black-and-white Warbler, like a Nuthatch, will often go headfirst down a tree or branch.

Though not brightly colored, the Black-and-white Warbler is very elegant and beautiful.

I suppose this one, though a bit distant, is one of my favorites. An adult Blackburnian Warbler is feeding the juvenile.

Vacation in Nevada and Utah

First, an update on my progress toward a degree ... I've completed my first semester requirements ahead of schedule and am already working on next semester's studies. There will be another difficult Cisco exam, but I'm feeling confident. Wish me luck.

Cyndi and I took a week-long vacation to see her parents, and we birded our way through Idaho, Nevada, a tiny piece of Arizona, and Utah before arriving back home. Because most of my free time is now spent studying, I'm going to make just one long blog post with the highlights of our trip. (I even did a little studying while on the vacation, and will be working mandatory overtime later this month. Whew, where does all the time go?)

Here we are at the base of a Joshua Tree, enjoying the warm spring day.

The skies were mostly clear, and the further south we drove the warmer the days became.

We visited a remarkable birding hot spot called the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. That name sounds more glamorous than "sewage treatment ponds" does it not? And, it's a more fitting name as well. Where else could one get a photo of a Common Moorhen, Cinnamon Teal, and Green-winged Teal all in one shot?

And, I got my wish there when this Crissal Thrasher foraged on the ground, diving its long curve bill deep into the soil probing for insects. This was a Life Bird for me, the first one of that species I'd ever encountered.

When up in a tree, the curved bill can be seen more clearly.

The Verdin were busy building nests, but I managed to get a photo of this one before it went back to work.

And would you believe it ... a Roadrunner! Running! In broad daylight. There it goes. They don't hang around much, do they?

On the way out of Nevada, we visited Valley of Fire and this arch caught my eye.

There was a site with ancient rock art. I like the two figures at the top left, waving or gesturing with open arms.

Here is what the rocks looked like, layered and eroding sandstone.

More rock art was seen in a side canyon.

Cyndi spotted a pair of Loggerhead Shrikes on a sandstone formation.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and these Antelope Ground Squirrels kept getting closer and closer to us, and at one point erupted in a frenzied tussle.

The scale of the landscape can be hard to convey, but if you can spot Cyndi in the middle of the picture, you'll get the idea. Go ahead and click on the image to make it larger as that may help you to find her.

On our way toward Utah we drove across a corner of Arizona, and this is the Virgin River. It had quite a flood event recently that left rocks and sand and tree limbs scattered in the bottom of the wash. We wandered around here until it was too dark to photograph and bats were flying overhead in the dark blue sky.

The next morning we drove past this big bird. The ranch was selling Ostrich eggs. I entered it as a note on my birding list, but speculated that it was likely a captive so not one to count toward my Life List.

In the trees was a wild, unconstrained, native species, the Ferruginous Hawk, our largest hawk. What a magnificent raptor! I think I've only seen them a few times before, and never this close.

The Eurasian Collared-Doves are a recently introduced species that has spread across North America very quickly. It remains to be seen if they will disrupt other populations, but they're like a Starling or House Sparrow as far as ability to barge into an area and reproduce quickly with a rapid population growth curve. These are in a Pecan tree, at a nut orchard in Hurricane, Utah where we bought some fresh pecans.

We drove through Zion National Park. I'd never visited this park. The road is at the bottom of some beautiful canyons, so one can look up the steep walls painted with desert varnish (the deposits left after water runs down the face).

I snapped this picture out the window while Cyndi was driving. There was just too much beauty to stop and see it all. We were too late to arrive at Cyndi's brother's home in time for dinner, which wasn't the most polite we could have been. *sigh* There just were not enough hours in our days to see and do everything we wanted to, and once in an area like this it was very difficult to leave.

There was snow at the higher elevations, but it was beautiful, warm and sunny in the canyon.

The different sandstone layers represent different epochs and were laid down by wind and water over geologic time.

See the road down at the bottom left, in the shadow? That's where we just were. The road progresses up and out of the canyon as it heads northeast, toward our rendez vous with Cyndi's brother in Salt Lake City. (OK, so the road is actually going somewhat away from Salt Lake City ... but we'll backtrack northwest over a high mountain pass where the snow is still five feet deep and make it there before midnight).

Here's a Spotted Towhee who visited us as we ate lunch.

And, last but not least, on the way home from Salt Lake City (after a wonderful brunch with Derek) we stopped at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah and saw hundreds of migrating Tundra Swans. An Ermine was spotted at dusk, too, but didn't pause for a photograph.

We stopped at Cyndi's mother's home and stayed the night. In the morning we went to the Carmella Winery and Three Island Crossing State Park on the Snake River in Idaho and finally arrived home quite tuckered out and happy with all the memories and photos and fresh pecans and local wine.

Thanks for the great hospitality Bob, Kathy, Derek, and Mary!

Oregon vacation: Sunset Bay State Park

Upon arrival at the coast we stopped to view the sand dunes and beach grasses. We did not stay long as we had plans to meet my sister at our campground, but it was neat to see these coastal dunes.

When we arrived at Sunset Bay State Park, where we would camp, no birds seemed more prevalent than the Crows! Here's a juvenile begging for food, perhaps from a sibling.

Certainly more melodious was the sweet, flutelike, breathy "freelia, freelia, freelia" of the ubiquitous Hermit Thrush.

There was a feeder at the campground's nature center, and all sorts of birds came to it in the morning. We spent many hours just enjoying the colorful show. The golden yellow of the American Goldfinch, the blood-red cap of the Cassin's Finch, the yellow and orange of the parrotlike Crossbills, and the bright blue Steller's Jay all made a rainbow of color in the morning light.

Our success at seeing and photographing hummingbirds continued for the year, with these beautiful Rufous Hummingbirds. (As an aside, while I'm typing this blog entry, three Black-chinned Hummingbirds are bickering over the hummingbird feeder outside my window!) We spent a lot of time trying to study the structure of the second tail feather to see if maybe one of these birds was the nearly-identical Allen's Hummingbird. For the record, we found that examining the tiny tail feathers of a hummingbird to be problematic at best.

The coastal geology was fascinating and beautiful. Sedimentary layers of different colors had been eroded by the waves.

This was just one of many canonball-sized orbs appearing out of the sandstone.

Perhaps some ancient civilization left these runes to be deciphered? I could not glean their message.

This was a bit easier to figure out ... fossils! In the relatively recent past, sea creatures left their imprint in this clay which has now turned to stone.

While fossils are cool, the marine mammals hauled out on this offshore rock were cooler! There was quite a mix of sea creatures out there. Though the Steller's Sea Lions were large, the Elephant Seals loomed over all others in the pack. I suppose you'll be wanting to click on this photo to get a better look.

To be continued ...