The Best Way To Deal

Least Bittern. By far the best looks I've ever had of one, and the only one I saw in 2011. Martinez, CA.

I am proud to announce that I have reached my goal of 550 bird species this year. While a paltry number to serious year listers, it involved only 5 states, 2 countries and one round-trip plane flight, and most importantly....not doing a big year. Pretty good for a casual big year/Ano Tranquilo, I reckon. I didn't think I would be able to make 550 happen, but a trip to California's Carrizo Plain got me a staggering 5 year birds, including embarrassing previous misses like Purple Finch and hard to find birds like Mountain Plovers...not to mention #550, a pair of LeConte's Thrashers frolicking around Soda Lake Road.

Red-shouldered Hawk. Not unusual by any means (to me), but I like the picture. Ventura, CA.

Besides my high number of species this year, what stood out was that about 110 species were life birds! That's almost a 1 to 5 ration, nerds. Of course, this is mostly because I got to seriously bird Mexico finally, but I got a number of new birds stateside as well...Baird's Sparrow, White-rumped Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, Greater Sage Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Three-toed Woodpecker, Dusky Grouse and Falcated Duck were all lifers. Two of those were in California, my home state, which is pretty sweet.

Today I'll post some pictures that I have not gotten from this past spring, I'll get to the rest of the year hopefully sooner than later. My house, the beloved Sunset Space Station, is embroiled in a foreclosure fiasco with the soulless swine of the real estate industry...being homeless, of course, can complicate one's blog output. Thankfully, we are having a house party tonight, which is the best way to deal with such bullshit.

Happy New Year!

Allen's Hummingbird. Did someone say "facemelting"? Ventura, CA.

Aplomado Falcons are great. I got to see a number of them in Veracruz State, near the coast, where they are not uncommon, and don't wear the tainted jewelry that many of the Texas birds sport. This one was near Alvorado, Veracruz, Mexico.

Roadside Hawk. One of the many lifers I got this year. Chavarrillo, Veracruz, MEX.

Yellow-throated Euphonias can be quite common just a day's drive south of the border, but you probably won't ever see one in the states. Chavarrillo.

Long-billed Thrasher...or in this case, No-billed Thrasher. This is kind of a fuck-up picture, but I like it anyways. Chavarrillo.

Mississippi Kites! So many! Not to mention a Swallow-tailed Kite. Counting massive flocks of raptors was great fun. Chavarrillo.

A Band-backed Wren charges up a tree. Also a lifer. Chavarillo.

Short-tailed Hawks were one of the relatively few resident species we saw every day from the hawk-counting tower. It was a lot of fun watching them hover high over town, then stooping down into people's backyards to kill things. Chavarrillo.

With Mercurial Smile And Incurable Style

Clay-colored Robins/Thrushes are one of the commonest birds here.

Chickens. What is the deal? I know some of you are big on chickens, for reasons I don’t fully understand. They make eggs, which is pretty neat. Nom…nom nom. And I suppose they could be nice to have around…they’re a project of sorts, right? You have to make sure they’re comfortable, healthy, protected from predators, etc. And some people just really, really like chickens.

Well chicken-folk, you need to drop whatever you’re doing right now. I don’t care if you’re doing laundry or nursing a newborn. You need to go to Mexico. Mexico has a lot of chickens. They roam the streets freely. From my tall vantage point at Swainson’s Hawk Bird Observatory, I can see a lot of chickens. Everyone seems to have them. Next to the observatory there is a flock of chickens, two fuzzy and disproportioned Muscovy Ducklings, a couple turkeys and gaggles baby chickens and turklings scampering around. For the most part, they are all pretty quiet and I don’t mind them. What I don’t understand is the rooster that lives among them. For one, he is currently molting, and has been stricken hideous. His neck and most of his disfigured looking head is devoid of feathers. But the main thing is his call. As I mentioned before, we have a sizeable hole in the wall of our relatively unfortified bunker that is aimed directly at the fowl yard. When the rooster decides to crow, it is close, it is loud, and there is nothing between him and me. I normally wouldn’t mind this, but he and the other Chavarrillo cocks think that all night long is the appropriate time to be calling. Honestly now roosters….what the fuck is the point of this? You damn domesticated birds have it all screwed up…you are supposed to wake up when it’s light out. Now that I am a raptor man, the last thing I need to do is be up hours before sunrise…I need to squeeze in as much bunk time as possible between mosquito/flea/possibly also bedbug bites. Other than the bizarre asthetic of being woken up at an ungodly time of day, what is the point of having roosters other than making more chickens? Tell me, chicken people.

An unalluring photo of the alluring Band-backed Wren.

We have a number of Short-tailed Hawks around town that can usually be spotted kiting extremely high in the sky, then making long, spectacular plunges/drops onto their prey hundreds of feet below. I find myself hoping more and more that I will get to witness this happen to Neighbor Rooster…he could feed a whole family of Short-tailed Hawks.
Of course, that’s all pretty unlikely. But I hear his godawful voice every morning and I have to stare at his grotesque chicken neck every frakking day. Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that. I don’t actually spend that much time contemplating chickens…not that there is anything wrong with that.