First House Wrens!

Today, I recorded seven Bewick's Wrens and my first two House Wrens! Pretty exciting stuff. I also saw Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, Pacific-slope Flycatchers and many, many other birds. I was in the field for about five hours and after driving and putting in a little time at work...I'm ready for my day to end! Hope you all are enjoying some sunshine and getting to see some amazing birds!

Birding Break

Delightfully, I decided to take a break from the hussle, bussle and stress of the week to go birding. I've never wandered North Mtn. Park before and there have been white-throated sparrows reported there. Unfortunately I did not see any white-throated sparrows, I DID see many birds that I haven't seen in quite awhile (Fox Sparrow, Pine Siskin and a large flock of female/juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds to name a few). It was nice to be out and about. I then went to see my horse and on the way spotted an adult Golden Eagle on a telephone pole. Lovely!

I've decided on a thesis topic. I had narrowed the project down to three possible focal points (residential vs migratory bird response to playback, response to neighbor vs stranger songs, and response to overlap vs alternating song). Feeling completely unable to make a decision I made several slips of paper for each topic and drew one from a hat. Residential vs Migratory it is! Now to get this thesis proposal finalized!

Finally, my "big project" for one of my classes is about Birds (shocking, I know). This project will include notes about the birds I see in my daily life, thesis related papers and whatnot, anything I find in the media about birds, quotes from other people about birds in their lives and things of this nature. Kind of following a "Birds in our Daily Live" kind of theme. I'm calling it "Growing Up Bird." Which reminds me that I will probably write about the similarities between juvenile birds and humans (I see many of them!). Anyone out there interested in contributing your thoughts and experiences, whether daily or growing up, please leave a comment with your quote, story, etc. Thanks!

I've come to realize that my life is quite literally all about birds right now. The majority of my projects are about them, I'm birding regularly and my spare time is filled with thesis research/proposal writing. I'm certain I've never been happier!

Snowy Owl Adventure

What a wonderful birding adventure I embarked upon yesterday. People have been seeing a snowy owl in Albany and a mountain plover near Corvallis, for several days now. I am generally not a "seeker" of birds. I see what I see wherever I am and am happy with that. But...I have always wanted to see a snowy. Over the summer I decided that I would go to their "normal" Oregon winter hangouts. Then, it turns out it is an irruption year for snowies, with larger numbers of them coming further south than in a typical year. Albany is about four hours from Ashland, but I didn't care. My post Fall Term of Graduate School celebration would be going to find the Albany Snowy Owl. A friend from the cohort came along and we met my birding compatriot in Eugene. After some delicious baked goods at Sweet Life we headed west/northwest on hwy 99W, toward Corvallis. The mountain plover was off of a road near one of my favorite wildlife refuges, Finley Wildlife Refuge, in a large field. Once we selected the right field it took mere minutes to spot the plover, but it was not alone. A winter plumed black-bellied plover was hanging out with it. Not my first black-bellied, but a wonderful surprise either way! We then headed to find the snowy in Albany. It was amazing how easy the snowy was to spot, in the large green field it was hanging out in. Particularly compared to finding the mountain plover (brown in a brown field). I know that snowies are big, but nothing I've read, no photos that I've seen, prepared me for how big and how wonderful snowies are in person. The bird was clearly a female, based on the amount of black barring on its chest. We watched him for quite a while, moving slowly away from us in short bouts of gliding. After a bit we drove to a road that took us closer to the snowy. The highlight of watching the snowy was having it fly toward us, land, look to the north, glide up, gracefully drop to the ground and bounce back up into the air with a large rodent in its talons. Of course, watching the owl swallow the rodent whole was even more delightful! Pizza Research Institute pizza after birding rounded out the delightful adventure. Happy birding.