Still S.E.V.E.N./Breaking Rad(ius)

How long has it been since the last post? I'm really dropping the ball over here. Well, I've been doing a lot of crud, and quite a bit of stuff too, so it's not like I've had ample opportunities to fire up the blogerator...but still. Even though it has not been sheer, bottomless laziness that is to blame, I have let you down all the same.

I have failed you.

But I am here now. BB&B languishes no longer. Withering away into oblivion is not fait accompli...at least, not yet. Before BB&B fades away, I must pass on all that I know. A thousand blog posts will live in you. Someday, this will be your fight.

And what a fight it will be. The truth about birders must be told, even after I am gone. Although our rate of posting has dwindled, BB&B is constantly taking the temperature of the birding community, and our recent findings are disconcerting at best. Birders are still as nonsensical, annoying, petty, anal and pedantic as ever...perhaps now more than ever. They still fail to apply basic concepts of science to their bizarre, baseless theories while claiming to embrace science. They are still obsessed with making everything into a hybrids. They still spew vicious, evil lies like "there is no such thing as a bad day of birding".

Unbelievable.

Someday, dear reader, you will construct your own lightsaber and your skills will be complete. Indeed, you will be powerful. But that day has not come yet...I am still here, and my journey is not yet over. I am still here, still the Global Birder Ranking System's #7 U.S. birder, still a birding master, still capturing the birding Zeitgeist like no blog ever has.

Still rock my khakis with a cuff and a crease.

Chances are most of you readers are too old or too young to know what that means, but for the rest of you, enjoy that easter egg. Now that we have reestablished my blog wizardry, I feel comfortable admitting to you a deeply shameful fact...September was an utter failure in terms of seeing rare birds. I didn't really chase very much (going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back here), and while that may be admirable, I also didn't find jack shit locally. I can't remember the last time I went through September without seeing a single vague runt somewhere in the bay area...how embarrassing!

Apparently, I no longer see vagrants. I no longer see uncommon birds. What has happened to me? Can I just go #FULLGERI and retire so I can go bird all the time? If only there were a way...

No, this is not where I direct you to my gofundme page so you can pay for my birding trips. You're welcome.

No matter. The rarities will return, though they may or not be within my 5MR. It hasn't been too difficult to stay in the friendly confines of the 5MR for most of the year though. I've gotten a lot of new radius birds, seen some rarities, and found a couple really good ones of my own. However, that strategy has been backfiring a bit lately, and I think one of the best ways to maintain a good relationship with your radius is to know when to break free of your radial shackles!

So with that in mind, here is some non-radial stuff from earlier this year.

Countless birders went to see this Eastern Bell's Vireo when it set up a territory for a couple of weeks in late spring. Not only was this my first Bell's Vireo of any subspecies in Santa Clara County, this was my first Eastern seen in the state. Easterns are exceptionally rare in California and practically unheard of in spring...it's worth wondering if this split will be revisited again. I've only seen one or two of these before, so this relatively cooperative vague runt gets FIVE STARS. Photographed at Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, Santa Clara County.

A day later, I hiked out on a trail I had previously not heard of for another county bird, an Indigo Bunting. While it wasn't very cooperative, I did appreciate that it dispensed with the suspense and appeared almost immediately upon my arrival. Photographed on the Stanford Dish Trail, Santa Clara County.

Dark-eyed Juncos isn't the slightest bit rare, but I appreciate friendly ones like this. This was photograped at New Brighton State Beach in Santa Cruz County, where I also got my lifer great white sharks! Standing on a fairly crowded beach while a bunch of (mostly small) sharks swim offshore is quite the spectacle, very Jawsish in a low intensity kind of way. Best moment: despite everyone on the beach knowing there were sharks visible just offshore, a dude on a stand up paddleboard tried to be all nonchalant and paddle around anyway, but had to frantically turn around and paddle to shore when a shark came up next to him. Golden!

The easiest, most reliable Red-footed Booby in the Lower 48 has made its home roost at the end of the Seacliff Pier in Capitola for spans of 2018 and 2019. It's still there, being awesome. Of all the booby species, this one has been the hardest to chase in California until very recently, as they had a penchant of dying immediately after being found. This one is holding it down though.

Here it is back in 2018. Back then, it looked a bit more blonde-headed and pink-billed.

I live near sea otters. They are very east to see down at Moss Landing (where this one was) and in the Monterey area. This proximity has enriched my life. Everyone would be a lot happier if they had access to sea otters. Alas, most of the world is a sea otter desert.

And so the world burns.

Unlike otters, summertime Long-tailed Ducks are not at all expected, as they are a good find even during winter. These two decided to pass their time going through gnarly molts in Moss Landing. 

After driving by it countless times without stopping, I finally checked out Moss Landing Wildlife Area. I'm glad I did, because there was a Snowy Plover nest hatching right next to the trail! Crazy timing. Look at that little chickie! It's still wet and has eggshell in its down. I spent less than 30 seconds next to the nest and then booked it out of there to make sure it was minimally disturbed...after all, I am not a photographer. Hey-oh!

Microfishing is all the rage now but Great Egrets have been doing it since there have been Great Egrets. Photographed at Shoreline Lake, Santa Clara County.

Can you imagine connecting with this microtrophy with hook and line? Oh, the stories you could tell. 

Shoreline Lake is also a popular fishing spot for Forster's Terns and a great place to see them up close, since they are very acclimated to fishing next to the well-trafficked footpath. I love me some acclimation. Too bad the Black Skimmers that nest there now aren't so prone to cruising by the shore.

It's not like I'm a photographer or anything, but one of my favorite things to shoot is terns in flight. Shooting many flying birds (swifts, hummingbirds, most passerines, almost anything on pelagic trips) often ends in nothing but crushed hopes, massive disappointments and some mediocre keepers, but terns have such nice lines, some tolerance for people and aren't obnoxiously small. Also, anything that feeds by plunge diving gets extra points from me.

Willets are underappreciated. Nice to see this confiding friend just returned from its breeding grounds...where their obnoxiousness is what is unappreciated. Being near a Willet nest is not a pleasant sensory experience. Photographed at Shoreline Lake.

Cliff Swallows are still occupying their wonderful ovenish nests in late summer. Photographed at the Palo Alto Baylands, Santa Clara County.

At the Casey Forebay pumphouse, I settled in to sort through the swallows that roost there. I don't get to see/study juvenile swallows as well or as often as I would like, and the flock here provides a good opportunity to see birds up close. Here is a somewhat bedraggled adult Cliff flanked by juveniles.

I was surprised to find this white faced juvenile Cliff Swallow. At first I thought it was an abnormality, but then I noticed several other white-faced juveniles in the flock.

This is a different individual. Bizarre. Well it's most likely not bizarre at all, but I did not expect it. Anyone know what's up with this whiteness? How long it is retained? Do only a minority of birds get this or is this a pretty typical part of their molt?

In the back of my mind, I had an alterior motive for standing there with the swallows. I wanted to find a Bank Swallow. They are a rarity in Santa Clara and I had never seen one here. You can imagine my surprise when one casually swooped in and landed on the railing 15 feet from me, allowing me to crush it through the chain link fence.

Uh....what? Finding rare birds usually does not work like that. Finding a rarity...a county bird...is always ace, but finding one in July is the icing on the cake. Having the bird come to you within scope and tripod hurling distance is the crushed up painkillers sprinkled on the icing on the cake. This business with betraying one's radius is not so bad after all, eh? Although they nest at a couple places on the coast, I don't often get to see Bank Swallows and this was my one and only of the year.

While the Bank Swallow was confiding, it did not stick around for long so I was left with the other swallow species. It was cool to have all the other brown swallows represent in the swallow roost, which made for a great comparison with the Bank and with one another. Here is a juvenile Tree Swallow.

And here it is bellowing.

Here is a juvenile Violet-green Swallow, showing just a tad bit of white above and behind the eye.

And last but for once not least, here is a juvenile Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Yes, typically this swallow is one of the absolute drabbest North American birds, but they are pretty cool looking as juveniles! So many rich colors...relatively speaking! A veritable rainbow of browns. I'm probably about done taking swallow pictures for the year, so I hope you enjoyed the brownbow!

2017 AOS (AOU) Proposed Lumps and Splits

Western Willets (above) have long been considered to be distinct in a number of ways from Eastern Willet, and can be told apart in the field with some practice. Will this be the year of the great Willet split?

The proposals are in...there are an obscene number of splits and lumps proposed for birds under the American Ornithological Society's purview this year. There is the potential for a lot of huge shakeups...of course, who knows how many of these will actually become Bird Law? Maybe none at all! In any case, we can expect a lot of butthurt birders after news of these splits and lumps (or lack thereof) is released. Perhaps these decisions will all be warranted, perhaps not, but regardless of what happens there are a lot of sweaty palms out there right now, and almost too many splits/lumps to keep track of. For your sake, beloved readers, I have gleaned all the splits and lumps from the three rounds of proposals that are out. No rearranging of families or genera to sort through, no simple name changes, just the meat and potatoes - the splits and lumps.

Split Willet into Eastern Willet and Western Willet.

Lump Thayer's (above) and Iceland Gull. Thayer's Gull would become a subspecies of Iceland, and the kumlieni subspecies would lose its status and be considered a hybrid swarm. Birders are coming out of the woodwork to make their opinions known about the Thiceland Gull proposal, some of which don't seem to be informed by actual facts. This one, as predicted, really struck a nerve. 

Recognize Northern Harrier and Hen Harrier as different species.

Split Magnificent Hummingbird into two species, Rivoli's and Admirable Hummingbirds (northern and southern populations).

Split Emerald Toucanet into a bunch of different species.

Split Guatemalan Flicker from Northern Flicker.

Recognize Northern Shrike and Great Gray Shrike as different species.

Split Least Vireo (above) from Bell's Vireo. Drab western birds like this one would become Least Vireo, the more colorful eastern birds would remain known as Bell's Vireo. Simple.

Split Grayson's Robin from Rufous-backed Robin.

Split Nearctic Creeper from Brown Creeper; or perhaps split Brown Creeper into Nearctic Creeper and Neotropical Creeper.

Split Nashville Warbler into two species, Rusty-capped Warbler and Calaveras Warbler.

Split Yellow-rumped Warbler into three species, Audubon's, Myrtle and Goldman's Warblers.

Split Guerrero Brushfinch from Chestnut-capped Brushfinch.

Split Yellow-eyed Junco by recognizing Baird's (endemic to Baja California) and Guatemalan Yellow-eyed Juncos (endemic to Chiapas and Guatemala) as full species, but lump the other remaining Yellow-eyed Junco subspecies with Dark-eyed Junco. I don't see the lump portion of this proposal going through, but then again I am not a committee.

Split Red Crossbill into two species, elevating the "South Hills Crossbill" from "type" to full species status. South Hills Crossbill is endemic to mountain ranges in Cassia County, Idaho.

Lump Common and Hoary Redpolls.

Split White-faced Ground-Sparrow from Prevost's Ground-Sparrow.

The Human Birdwatcher Project Presents: The Democratization of Birding

This is a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. This fact is not disputable, though there are many who would put their disputing caps on and try anyway. Photographed in Miller Canyon, AZ.

Today's post is brought to you by The Human Birdwatcher Project, where "Birders are people too!" and birding-by-vote can lead down a dark path indeed.

In a true democracy, decisions are made by the majority, plain and simple. Most decisions decided by voters are based on personal values.  In these situations, wrong and right is entirely subjective.  You know this, and I don't think it needs any more explaining.

It was not long ago when the words "democracy" and "birding" could never be uttered in the same sentence...but that was Then, and this is Now.  Birders knew the other local birders, gossiped about birds and birders, and went about their business (birding).  The ABA and various Bird Record Committees made decisions, big decisions, in relative isolation and with relative impunity.  For example, I can still remember the uproar that was caused when the ABA (allegedly) forcibly removed Papa Echo Lima from his throne (Editor of Birding), and there was a huge backlash from the birding community.  Many high-ranking birders were furious, and quit the ABA altogether. Think about that for a second, and put it in your pocket...we will take it out for another look later.

The very fabric of birding rapidly began changing in the 90's with the wide availability of the internet.  First, there was email, which led to listservs, and easy communication with birders around the world.  Next came digital cameras; people could digiscope with point and shoots, and then SLRs became more affordable to the general public, and now people can get good images with their phones. Bird photography was suddenly affordable, and not very difficult either. Birding blogs were springing up left and right.  Then there was social media...most birders were too old to jump on the Myspace train, but they latched on to Facebook and never let go. EBird was the frosting on the cake.

With everyone so connected now, there is a lot of communication going on between birders. It's intense. Birders who aren't even trying to sell you something have legions of Facebook friends/fans, and get huge responses to their photographs or ramblings on whatever it is they feel like expounding upon (be it birds or not)...birders just seem to eat it right up, whether it be pure gold or utter bullshit. The ABA's main FB group has over 6,700 members, and it manages multiple groups, a staggering fact.

One of the best and worst things about all of this, be it in a listserv or in a FB group, is that everyone has a voice.  Now some of you might be thinking, "What do you mean worst? Are you some kind of fascist?  Do you hate birders?", and it is those of you who need to hear this the most.  Birding has suddenly become a democracy.  And when it comes to birding, democracy is often not our friend.



Since we are all connected so closely these days, news of something like a stray Barrow's Goldeneye travels very fast. Everyone is connected, and is capable of getting the word out quickly. This is a good thing. Could there be a downside to this new, interconnected Democracy of Birding?  This is a non-stray Barrow's Goldeneye, photographed near Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Look, it is all well and good when, for example, the ABA asks its members to vote on if they want to add Hawaii to the ABA area or not.  That's great, but it's not really what I'm aiming for here.  I'm talking about far more basic things here...bird identification, for example.

Bird Records Committees, or Bird Police, if you prefer, often function to identify birds. They often are quite good at carrying out these tasks because their members are either very knowledgeable, very experienced, or willing to listen to those who know more than they do...preferably all three.  With the occasional exception, they correctly identify birds that are often very difficult to identify.

Now consider attempting bird identification with this model in the public birding arena.  This should not be difficult to imagine, since it happens constantly...but I digress.  There are a lot of birders out there, a lot of new birders...and as there always has been, a lot of birders who are not good at identifying birds.  So what happens when a bunch of random birders get together to identify birds?

Chaos.

This is the fundamental distinction between democracy as a political system and democracy when it comes to birding...there is only one right answer.  The backyard birder's opinion on fall warbler identification is not as worthy as the person who bands hundreds of warblers during fall migration every year.  I'm not trying to be harsh, just stating a simple, logical truth...no reason to get all sore about it.

The Democratization of Birding and the internet go hand in hand. If you are a birder and have spent any time on the internet, you know what I am talking about. Someone will post a picture of a bird somewhere, and disturbingly often a bunch of people will collectively decide what the bird is.  They will vote on it! Even if someone, even if multiple people correctly identify the bird using sound and unassailable logic, they may get drowned out.  The birders getting the bird wrong often inexplicably get their feelings hurt when they are corrected, and claim they are being attacked! It is insane. The level of butthurt that emerges from these minor disagreements boggles the mind.

Democratic birding raises its many-faced head in other debates as well...escapees vs. natural vagrants, the effects of climate change on birds, and all manner of theories on why some birds show up in particular places (do you remember Hurricane Sandy?)...you know, birders can disagree on just about everything. The fact that the vast majority of birders do not have a background in science compounds the amount of confusion in discussions that veer from the topic of bird ID.  The potential for misinformation to spread unchecked is very high and has been sustained for some time now. I'm going through a blatant example this right now in another browser window, looking at SFBirds...are there three Indigo Buntings in Golden Gate Park?  Is the female a Lazuli?  Is the HY bird a Indigo X Lazuli?  Is this the first breeding record for the county?  Did they even breed in the park?  Bunting Chaos.  Luckily, the birder known as The Rustic Bunting Hero has stepped in, in an attempt to quell the masses...but a flareup of Bunting Unrest is just around the corner.

When you are a birder and pay a lot of attention to listservs, the Birdosphere, and Facebook groups, it's all too easy to want to make like a dowitcher and dunk your head under water for an unhealthy period of time in order to keep the thousands of voices at bay. Fortunately for these Short-billed Dowitchers, they will never know the pain of getting in to an internet fight with a bitter birder thousands of miles away. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, Oakland, CA.

So what is the mechanism for all this confusion?  All this hate?  It is twofold. First, some birders mistakenly believe that everyone's opinion is equally important when it comes to bird identification, where a bird comes from, etc. Well...a bird can only be one thing, and some of us are better equipped to know that bird's story than others.  There is only one right answer, and that is usually in our collective grasp.  Most birds are not first cycle, heavily worn hybrid gulls, nor are they distant murrelets with confusing facial features seen from a mile away, nor are they Yellow Grosbeaks of questionable provenance (providence???). Most birds are knowable.  Clearly, we should always tend to defer to the most experienced, most trustworthy birders, because they are the ones who will mostly like get the identification right, which is the primary goal here for most birders. A dozen beginning and sketchy birders are usually not as qualified as one good birder to tell a Lesser Yellowlegs from a Greater, a Semipalmated Sandpiper from a Western. Second, being unfamiliar with the reputation of other birders can make one assume that they aren't highly skilled.  That is totally excusable for beginners of course, not being around for very long and whatnot, but that doesn't mean we can't give people the benefit of the doubt when debating ID with unknown birders. I even know someone, a very capable birder actually, who stated that he doesn't trust field guides (I mean books, not people) if he doesn't personally know the authors...gross. Lets not go that far. If everyone who doesn't personally know Steve Howell opens up Rare Birds of North America and thinks "this guy is a complete wanker", then the wonderful world of birding as we know it would simply not exist.

So what is the solution to all of this?  Unfortunately, I don't have one for you.  This is why we so badly need the Global Birder Ranking System to release its data on the world's birders.  The fact that they have all the world's birders skillsets catalogued (from social skills to subspecific storm-petrel ID), with ranks updated daily, is truly a tremendous feat...but the day they go public may never come.

If I posted this photo to whatbird.com or any number of Facebook birding groups asking for ID help, there would be wild conjecture.  Good guesses with good evidence would just get lost in the shuffle of folks crying out for TENNESSEE WARBLER! or ANOTHER VOTE FOR LEAST FLYCATCHER!...and I don't think that is constructive for anyone.  Since I know you are wondering, this is actually a Bell's Vireo. Funny to see that single new feather coming in, since this shot was taken in spring. Photographed at South Padre Island, TX.

On the flipside, why don't you take that fateful decision regarding Papa Echo Lima out of your pocket. If that decision with that editor happened today, in 2015, the ABA would face a catastrophic backlash as soon as the news broke. Hundreds of people would be taking up arms on Facebook, denouncing them for what they had done, shaming and trolling to no end.  The birdosphere would be aflame with hate. For good or ill, it probably never would have happened if the birding community has the collective voice that it does now. The new Democracy of Birding is not inherently evil, but it's getting a little too close to The Dark Side of Birding for comfort...but perhaps we will have to live with that if we continue to take advantage of this open and free exchange of ideas.

Actually, no...there is room for improvement. Don't be a dick. Don't get butthurt. Think before you type. Don't throw your bullshit hat into the ring if you know your hat is covered in bullshit, unless you admit it up front (people actually do this a lot, it does not go unappreciated). If you are going to challenge experts, by all means do (it's quite fun, actually), but back your claims with evidence. When someone posts a picture of a real Gray Hawk, do not reply with a hilariously dismissive "not convinced" and then quit the Facebook group after you are corrected (this really happened). Simply, be excellent to each other. With so much we can all learn, I hope birders carry on with this haphazard democracy in the right way, but only time will tell.

A Breast of Bay...Where is the DICK?...#failurethrush

Many years ago, as a young and stupid birder (not #7), I went out to California's Kern County to check the desert oases for migrants. We ran into some birders who directed us to a singing male Black-throated Blue Warbler. That was pretty sick. Then we were told there was a male Bay-breasted Warbler over at Butterbredt Springs, so we cruised over there. And there it was, hopping around the shore of a pond like a goddamn Song Sparrow. And then someone found a Prairie Warbler, which was easy to relocate. How fucked up is that?

That was my introduction to spring vagrant hunting in California; it was an accidental discovery. No one really understands why we get almost all our spring vagrants at the end of May and beginning of June, but that is when they decide to come through. But that is not the point...the point is that I have not seen a breeding plumage Bay-breasted again until this spring, when a handful could be found on South Padre Island, Texas. Stoked.

Acadian Flycatcher was a bird I had only met briefly, on a nest somewhere in Missouri back in 2009. I was only able to find one this spring, but one is all it takes. It was confiding as fuck, and didn't even bother me with demands of pizza.

It's a pretty distinctive bird, if you ask me, and I am ready to find one in California. We are overdue. Photographed on South Padre Island, TX.

Dickcissel is a fun name. It's a name people can get behind. I think "dickcissel" is a horrible way to describe it's song, but it's a great name. For all those people who are thinking about making shirts or stickers that consist of simply a bird's banding code, I can't fathom why I haven't seen any DICK in production yet. It's the best. Photographed at South Padre Island, TX.

After seeing hundreds this spring, the plumage of an adult male in spring still doesn't make any sense to me. There is nothing like it north of Mexico. Hidalgo County, TX.

I don't think I've posted any Magnolia Warblers this year. Birders would be more aware of their facemelt abilities if they weren't hella common in a lot of places. This fully black-backed bird has reached a crippling peak of spring finery. South Padre Island, TX.

This one has the facemelt turned down a notch, but is ultimately a gratifying bird to be around.

This horrible, haggard thing that bears a faint resemblance to a Magnolia Warbler is not at all gratifying to be near. Sorry. South Padre Island, TX.

Bell's Vireo was one of the "best" self-found birds I had at South Padre Island this year. Unfortunately, when I posted it on eBird, I found out that someone had found it earlier that day. Don't you hate it when that happens? Oh well, it was a nice year bird and the only one reported from the region this spring.

And now we come to The Thrush of Failure. This Hermit Thrush spent a couple weeks at the convention center on South Padre Island. Hundreds of people saw it. It was quite comfortable foraging on a small stretch of lawn, and was not shy. The number of people I watched misidentify it was staggering. Many birders suffered a blow to their Global Birder Ranking System scores when confronted with this very typical member of it's species.

Granted, the other Catharus species are all more common here at this time of year, but this bird was practically begging to be identified correctly. The complete eye ring, extensive spotting, and a red tail all scream Hermit Thrush, and there were often Veery, Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrush all present at the same site to provide convenient comparisons. Does this thrush stand as a hopeful monument for the number of new (aka inexperienced) birders out there? Or is it a testament to the dismal future of birding?

Much has been said about female warblers....mostly stuff along the lines of "males are better looking, but females are ok". I don't have much to add to that conversation right now. Obviously, there is no species of warbler with distinct sexual dimorphism where one would actually prefer to observe a female over a male. Here is a female (perhaps first spring) Black-throated Green Warbler. South Padre Island, TX.

A male Black-throated Green Warbler is almost obscenely attractive, in comparison. South Padre Island, TX.

Let's face it...Empids are a bitch. It's not their fault...but it kind of is. Here is an unassuming Least Flycatcher, the most abundant Empidonax that migrates through south Texas (Traill's and Yellow-bellied were also easy to find this spring). South Padre Island, TX.

Here is the same bird, doing something that approaches an Alder Flycatcher imitation. Pardon my grain.

You don't have to pardon my grain for this one. Here is a Common Nighthawk. As you may know, I have beef with animals being called "common", and this one is no exception. Yes, it is the more widespread nighthawk species in the U.S., but you know there is no such thing as "Greater Nighthawk", right? So why does Lesser Nighthawk even exist? Right...Common Nighthawk should be called Greater Nighthawk, although I admit "Bullbat" would be pretty sweet. Willacy County, TX.

There is nothing like a good Caprimulgid crush, is there? I love all the different patterns these duders sport. It seems like they would clash, but the nighthawk pulls it off.

Isn't birding funny? I can remember when I first saw Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks in southeast Arizona, back in the 90s. It was a Really Big Deal for me. They were flighty and more than happy to keep their distance from us. Now in 2014, I crush them at point blank range, and don't raise an eyebrow when I drive by one perched on a roof or a powerline. Familiarity breeds contempt. South Padre Island, TX.

Everyone loves Least Bitterns, and I am no exception. They are relatively common in parts of south Texas, and don't require much effort to find at places like the convention center and birding center on South Padre Island, where this photo was taken.