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!

On Summer Sorrows (Doldrummer)

One day last summer, one of Rancho de Bastardo's Mourning Doves would repeatedly raise one wing above its head - it looked like some sort of display. It was bizarre. Did it think it was a Rock Sandpiper, or was this a cry for help? Even Mourning Doves need to be rescued from triple digit temperatures and drearily slow birding.

With Thanksgiving just behind us, I think now is a good time for a little reflection. A facet of life that I always want to improve on is appreciating experiences; not taking the positive aspects of my life for granted. So much of what we experience on a daily basis falls on the mediocre or crappy side of things (life is pain) that I try my best to not let those better moments go by without looking them in the eye, even if just in passing.

So what am I thankful for this year? Well, Annabelle is doing great, so that is awesome. I work from home, which is fantastic. There is a really good bottle of mezcal in the kitchen. I still get to see friends, despite being banished to the bowels of San Jose. But inevitably, the subject of birding must be broached. Of course, now that I am a father (which is still weird to say) I don't have nearly as much time to blog as I used to...BUT I still get to bird hella, and that is something I can really appreciate. The freedom to go flog the shrubbery and indulge my most basic nerd instincts is near and dear to me.

Oak Titmouse is a pleasant, dependable bird, always hanging tough through the summers.

Another thing I'm grateful for is the good birding around here. For months now, I get to see something rare/interesting pretty much every weekend. I don't take this for granted at all, I'm pretty lucky. What has made me, the #7 birder in the United States, so modest and humble? What has given me the ability to relish fall birding in the bay area?

It wasn't some epiphany, a major breakthrough, a conquering of the urge to loathe the familiar. The answer is simple...summer. I have been forced to spend a number of summers in the bay area now, and the birding can be so dull that as I write this sentence my mind is trying to think of something more interesting to focus its energies on. Will Giancarlo Stanton be traded to the Giants? Is Repeater still my favorite Fugazi album? If I really needed to obtain heroin for some reason, how long would it take me? Tacos sound good right now...mmmm, tacos.

Like the dove and the titmouse, some cheerful Bewick's Wrens holds it down at Rancho de Bastardos over summer. However, I am beginning to detect some sort of a pattern here...

As I don't live in northern latitudes and am without mountains of appreciable elevation nearby, the summer birding doldrums are not to be scoffed at. I'm not just talking about the dearth of warbler species that breed in Santa Clara County, or even the massive urban sprawl that eats up habitat like a disease. There are other factors at work. Unlike here, Californians living near the immediate coast experience the following conditions during the warmest months of the year: Graypril, May Gray, June Gloom, Gray Sky July, and Fogust. I long for that kind of summer. Where I live, we have no such luck. Overcast days are rare and precious, and there was not a lot of that going on in June or July. San Jose is sunny and hot as fuck, which is maddening considering there is an ocean nearby. Silicon Valley is not where you want to find yourself those months unless you are bringing home a staggering paycheck from a tech firm...or southbound shorebirds have returned. Climate change is a bitch, but so is geography. San Jose is on the hot side of the coastal range, and when migration is seemingly at a standstill, the summer doldrums are real.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow, another common bird of summer here at Rancho and across the state. Wait a second...why is every bird I've posted so far gray and brown? Is that seriously what all of our summer birds look like? That is awful. I can't tell you the relief I felt when we got a couple weeks into July and the shorebird floodgates opened up.

Well, maybe not all our summer birds are dirt-colored. Caspian Terns and their horrific, violent calls helped get me through to the other side. I've said it before, but it bears repeating...this is a nice yard bird.

A lot of our resident Anna's Hummingbirds were doing some pretty intensive molting in July. I'm glad we have them of course, but it will be a triumphant day when a second hummingbird species is added to the yard list.

I was a bit surprised to see this fledgling Tree Swallow (oh great, a new brown bird to recruit into the current brown bird population) at the Los Capitancillos Ponds, considering they are far outnumbered here by the other expected swallow species. I'm not sure if it was hatched here or wandered from another part of the south bay.

Thankfully, Calocortus rages against the dying of spring long after many other wildflowers have withered under the relentless sun. Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve, Santa Clara County, CA.

Now this is a brown bird of summer I can really back - Common Poorwill! I went some years without seeing any...though it is a pleasant heard-only, I'm glad that drought is over. Thankfully, there is a dependable area for them just a few minutes from Rancho. Brown it up! Photographed along the Calero Creek Trail in San Jose, CA.

Every year, early in July, the bird gods open the spigot of the shorebird tap. Least Sandpipers are one of the first species to return, and though they are still brown brown brown as can be, these first returning birds are a sight for sore eyes. Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

Seeing your first mixed shorebird flocks in July is the light at the end of the summer tunnel of darkness. A lot of the avocets are probably locals, but the dowitchers came from afar.

Hint: If you want people to think you are god's gift to bird photography, don't ever post photos this bad (this was digiscoped). It's embarrassing...but I am not embarrassed to say that this is the weirdest avocet I've ever seen. It was essentially all white except for its primaries, giving it a Snow Goose look. Rad.

Yip-yip-yip-yip...father stilt made it very clear to me that he does not want me near his chicks, although he is always right next to the boardwalk so I don't know what he expects.

Stilt offspring! I usually see them when they are younger and fluffier, this inbetween stage (apparently characterized by fat cankles) does not last very long. I like the brown covert edgings.

Anise Swallowtail, I reckon. You know, for all the great success Rancho de Bastardos has had with birds, it has been completely miserable for butterflies. I'm not exactly happy about that. I guess I am doomed to start attracting them to my yard, as geri birders like myself tend to do.

Great! I think this post pretty much recounts falling into, and climbing out of, 2017's summer doldrums...covering those are always a tough blogging assignment every year, because it's basically a bunch of whining and some pictures of common birds. Better to limit that, eh? 

I Am Yardbirder

Google. Facebook. Netflix. Apple. Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds. What do all these entities have in common? Well, yes...we are all on the internet, that is true. But what you are supposed to deduce is that we are all giants of Silicon Valley. That's right...BB&B pulled up stakes from Albany and Alameda County and moved right into the dark heart of the future of the world, which is in San Jose, California. I'm not endorsing this future, but it's here and people seem to love it.

One reason we are here in San Jose is because of the house we are renting. The house is a very typical suburban home, ideal for the familial situation I am currently in. But the house is ideal in another way...it has a yard...right next to a couple of ponds and Guadalupe Creek, meaning the yardbirding potential is very good. Despite my total lack of interest regarding living in San Jose I couldn't say no to this house. I work from home now, so what better way to stay sane than to yardbird like a fiend?

Our neighbors have a large pepper tree that attracts quite a few birds. A flock of Cedar Waxwings were in this tree every day earlier in the spring.

I knew this place could be interesting, but the yardbirding has totally exceeded expectations so far. As you can see above, in the month of May, Rancho del Bastardos recorded the highest yard list in all of California. Amazing! I've recorded a number of semi-rarities that were flagged in eBird, and one very popular rarity that was chased by a large number of people...luckily they could get to it from the other side of the ponds, instead of rampaging through my yard. I'm still missing a lot of locally common birds though, so when fall rolls around I think I'll be adding a great number of species. 80 species is the current grand total for Rancho del Bastardos, which I am chuffed with since we've only lived here since late April. The water level for one of the ponds behind the house is currently dropping, so if I'm lucky I can get a shorebird or three in July when the migrants return (so far I only have Killdeer and Spotted Sandpiper). Ideally, a violetear or something like that will show up at the hummingbird feeders in the meantime (hey, it happened in Berkeley), but I ain't holding my breath.

Of course, this isn't the first time I've had good yardbirding...field housing can be very rewarding, particularly in places like Veracruz, Mexico, the Aleutian Islands, Midway Atoll, southeast Arizona, etc. Lots of great birds in those yards. However, I was only at those places a few months each...Rancho del Bastardos is my real home, where bastards roam free and I can actually put up 10,000 feeders if I wanted to.

Power lines are unsightly, but they provide great perches! Northern Rough-winged Swallows perch over the yard regularly, since they are often out foraging over the ponds. So far, 5 species of swallows seen from the backyard and 2 species of swift, all of which are here on the reg. I did look for Black Swift last month but it looks like I will have to try again next year.

This Budgerigar was not an expected bird at all. It was here for two or three days and vanished.

Mourning Doves are pleasantly common in the yard. Even more pleasantly, there are not many Eurasian Collared-Doves around here - I have only seen one so far from the Rancho. That's a good dove ratio. Now if only the cowbirds and House Sparrows would stay the fuck away...

Some people, namely Flycatcher Jen, think it's just hilarious that I've apparently gone full Geri and gotten so into yardbirding. I think it is perfectly normal...I just haven't had a suitably birdy yard (not counting field housing) since 2005 or something like that. My last "yard" in Albany was a thin strip of cement, and before that in Oakland it was a cat-ridden hell...attracting birds would have been a bad idea. At any rate, yardbirding is just a natural extension of my birdfiend tendencies, you see?

Any serious yardbirder in this day and age of digital crushing needs to put up more than feeders to optimize their yard...they need to put up some fake perches! This one can support the weight of a couple Band-tailed Pigeons. The Band-taileds are still pretty wary, I had to shoot through the sliding glass door while rolling around on the living room floor all ninja style to get this. Not too bad though eh? That is the power of the fake perch. In fact, I'm considering quitting my day job to become a fake perch consultant.

BB&B has been in the blogosphere since 2008. We are ancient, in blog years. Since then we have told many stories, featured many birds, made fun of many birders. What we have never done in all that time is post a picture of an Oak Titmouse. Let me put your titmouse worries to rest; they are, indeed, still extant. Luckily, titmice are frequent visitors to our feeders and this one decided to use one of my fake crush-perches to work on a sunflower seed.

I've been using a squirrel-proof tube feeder and a hummingbird feeder so far, and just added a nyjer feeder and another hummingbird feeder. Nobody has discovered the nyjer feeder yet, but hopefully the goldfinch hordes will descend upon us soon. A substantial amount of the yard vegetation that was here when we moved in has been removed and replaced...we've planted a grip of salvias and some other stuff too (a coffeeberry is our pride and joy) but none of it has really taken off yet to the point that it is bloggable. We will get there soon...maybe too soon.

How about some of the pond birds? This Mallard family sneaks under the fence to come to our feeder. Black-crowned Night-Herons are always lurking around, but unless I set out a tub of crawfish I don't think I will be feeding any.

This drain is a popular feature among the local pond-lurkers. There are a couple pairs of Green Herons around, presumably nesting in the riparian along the creek on the other side of the ponds. This is a very nice bird to see from your yard on the reg.

Here it is, the star rarity I've found so far...I present to you, in all its irony, a Common Loon. The ponds behind my house are not the sort of place you would expect a loon, and certainly not one arriving in late May. I knew it was a good bird, but I couldn't believe how many people chased it! I would sit here at my desk, look out the window and see birders coming to chase it day after day. Hilarious. Other eBird-flagged birds recorded here so far are Cackling Goose, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Myrtle Warbler, all of which were unseasonally late.

This is the second loon species I've seen in Santa Clara County...the first was Yellow-billed!

Despite daily disturbance from off-leash dogs that go running by about 10 feet away (who go swimming in the pond) and trespassing fishermen, the Pied-billed Grebe nest below the yard managed to hatch chicks! There are six chicks, all of which have survived their first couple weeks of life. I'm not sure if this grebe pair is super smart for nesting where they did or just super lucky, but they are good parents, dutifully covering up the eggs (which were large and bright white) with algae whenever a dog or person was too close and slinking away inconspicuously. Now they can't slink away as well because of the train of stripey baby grebes that follow the adults around.

Moonrises are crushable from the yard too. Good times at Rancho del Bastardos.

What will the next addition to the Rancho list be? Hell, it's June, it could be anything...the only birds still migrating through the area are eastern vague runts, and I'm not expecting a Rose-breasted Grosbeak on the feeder (though obviously I am constantly hoping for one). Let's face it, Brewer's Blackbird is probably next.

I'll keep you posted on the avian events at Rancho del Bastardos as time goes on...after all, this is where I do most of my birding.