ABA Young Birder of the Year Contest

The ABA has an annual contest to establish who is the "Young Birder of the Year". To compete in this contest, one has to complete 2 or 3 projects aimed towards birds. The project categories are:
1. Field Notebook: A book of your sightings and descriptions of behavior, as well as sketches.

2. Conservation/Community Action: Help to conserve birds, or educate people about birds.

3. Illustration: Detailed drawing/painting of birds.

4. Writing: Piece about birds, birding, or birders.

5. Photography: Photographing birds (duh...) :)

Numbers 1&2 are major projects, while 3,4, and 5 are minor projects. To compete in the full contest, one has to complete either 2 major projects or 1 major project and 2 minor projects. I am going to do  Conservation, Writing, and Photography projects (because I can't draw...)

My Conservation project will be designing a Guide to Birding in Carlisle. This will include a list of hotspots, observations at those hotspots, and birding hints.

For Photography, I have to choose 6 photos, which I will do later, but here are a couple of contenders:

Piping Plover - Allen's Pond

American Coot - Celery Fields, FL

Allen's Pond - Dartmouth, MA

I recently took a trip to Mass Audubon's Allen's Pond Sanctuary. Allen's Pond is a great spot, with nesting Orchard Orioles, Yellow Warblers, as well as a continuing King Rail, and lots of great sparrows and seabirds. Over 2 separate weekends in Westport, we visited Allen's Pond twice. The first time was before the King Rail report. We birded the Beach Loop trail, checking every Song Sparrow to check if they were Saltmarsh or Seaside Sparrows. None of them were. When we got to the causeway, I found an Orchard Oriole, the first Lifer of the morning!

Orchard Oriole

Also at the causeway, we saw Great-Crested Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbirds, Willets, Yellow Warblers, and Common Yellowthroats. 

We continued on to the beach, where we were treated with great views of a Piping Plover, but besides that the beach was mostly quiet.

Piping Plover

Walking back to the causeway, we found more lifers, a Saltmarsh Sparrow, 4 or 5 Least Terns, and 2 FOY Green Herons!  I got a picture of the Saltmarsh Sparrow, but it wasn't very good and I got a better one later. EBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14478688

2 weeks later, we returned to look for the King Rail, as well as migrating shorebirds. The King Rail was located at the same causeway that we birded before. When we walked up, two other birders were standing looking for the bird. They said they hadn't seen the bird yet, but they had been hearing it steadily for a while. We waited for the bird, trying to listen in to where it could be, but the sound carried over the marsh. While waiting, we saw FOYs Short-billed Dowitcher and Lesser Yellowlegs, as well as a lifer Least Sandpiper! 

Short-Billed Dowitchers and a Lesser Yellowlegs

Suddenly, one of the other birders exclaimed that he had the bird. The Rail was 50 yards into the marsh, not helping my opportunities for picture taking. 

King Rail!

We continued down the Beach Loop, finding a couple of Piping Plovers, Great Black-Backed Gulls, and a couple of Killdeer. Once we got to the rocky shore, however, our luck changed. In the water about 40 yards offshore was a drake, breeding plumaged Surf Scoter, my 3rd Lifer of the day! Right near the Surf Scoter were a group of 5 Common Eiders, my 4th Lifer of the day!! The small "raft" of Eiders consisted of 2 juvenile Eiders and 3 adult females.

 Surf Scoter - Lifer 220!

Common Eiders

On our way back to the car, we saw nothing really special, except for a couple of baby Piping Plovers running around the beach. 

Newborn Piping Plover

Trip stats:

Total Species Day 1: 43

Day 2: 53

Total Lifers: 8

FOYs: 3

Adirondacks

I just got back today from the Adirondacks, a 1,000,000 acre park in Upstate New York. The Adirondacks are home to many boreal specialty species, as well as lots of nesting warblers, including the only nesting Palm Warblers in the US. 

Day 1: Day 1 was a travel day, with a 6 hour drive to the cabin in Inlet, NY. 3 hours in to the drive down, I saw my first FOY of the trip - Peregrine Falcon. 

When we arrived at the cabin, we went for a quick walk at Rocky Mountain. Rocky Mountain isn't really a mountain, more just a 300 foot high hill. Being in the Adirondacks, of course, the official elevation is about 2300 feet. On the way up, not much was seen, a couple of Black-throated Green Warblers, 2 Hermit Thrushes and an Ovenbird. The summit was much more interesting, however, with 2 lifers: Purple Finch and Blackburnian Warbler.

Purple Finch: 

Ovenbird: 

I'll spare you the horror of my Blackburnian shot, I got a better one later.

Day 2: Brown's Tract is a campground near Raquette Lake, also close to Ferd's Bog in Inlet. We kayaked around Brown's Tract Pond, but didn't find much, just a distant Common Loon and a Northern Parula. Back at the kayak launch, we found 3 Blue-headed Vireos, a lifer for me. 

Blue-Headed Vireo:

Northern Parula: 

Cooperative Mallard: 

After kayaking, we continued on to Ferd's Bog, hoping for warblers, thrushes, and boreal specialties. However, we only had twenty minutes, and I heard a Black-Throated Blue Warbler sing. The BTB Warbler is my nemesis, having heard it in my yard and almost everywhere during migration, but never being able to find it. I took off into the woods, jumping over rotten trees and the like, until I came to a stream 1/10 of a mile into the woods. I heard it call again, and started to search desparately, until I found the male in a nearby tree. Unable to contain my excitement, I jumped on a log and started snapping pictures. Then, the log, which turned out to be rotten, broke, and I almost got impaled by a stick. Nevertheless, I was able to get a recognizable shot! 

Black-Throated Blue Warbler

Day 3: Moose River Plains can be a great place to bird if the bugs aren't out in swarms, like they were today. At any given time, I was being swarmed by about 25-50 black flies and mosquitoes. We started out by Red Rock Road, where we saw Northern Parulas, Cedar Waxwings, a Blackburnian Warbler, and a Chestnut-Sided Warbler, a lifer for me. 

Cedar Waxwing

White-Throated Sparrow

Blackburnian Warbler - as promised

Distant, misty shot of a Chestnut-Sided Warbler

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, with 2 FOY Common Ravens, a couple of Black-Throated Green Warblers and a Hermit Thrush.

Adirondacks Trip:

Lifers: 5: Purple Finch, Blackburnian Warbler, Blue-Headed Vireo, Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Chestnut-Sided Warbler

FOY's (not lifers): 2: Peregrine Falcon, Common Raven

Excited for the South Shore of MA tomorrow: a King Rail has been reported recently and I hope to see Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrows, Orchard Orioles, and migrating shorebirds!