The Shit and The Sand-Plover

What's that sound? Can you hear it? Maybe not, but I can smell it...the shitwinds are blowing, and you can bet that this is just the calm before the shitphoon that is about blow ashore...

We at BB&B are not the type of people to be optimistic about the next four (or eight) shitty years, not in the slightest. We are not the type of people to ask our brothers and sisters to reach out across the aisles of shit, to attempt handshakes that will just cover your hands in shit. We are far too realistic. For birds, the environment, and yes people too, the waves of shit are now towering above our heads, and when they break there will be nowhere to run. Drowning in shit is a frightening and very real possibility. The last Republican administration was a hellish thing to experience (on environmental and a great many other fronts), but remember this...even George W. Bush admitted that climate change was real, and who knows how things would have played out if his wife wasn't a birdwatcher! It's no coincidence that Papahānaumokuākea National Monument was created after Laura Bush visited Midway Atoll.

That said, I'm already sick of the blame game, the soapboxes, the half truths, the clickbait...especially the clickbait. We may be hanging our heads, but we are not the type of people to beat a dead shithorse. We will not drag this out any more today, just as we seem to be shaking off the great national hangover. But make no mistake...the shitreaper is coming, and we should all be very, very afraid. - Felonious Jive

Fall is winding down now...many of the summer's birds are already making themselves cozy on their wintering grounds, and we await for the winter's crop of waterfowl/raptors/gulls/rarities (???) to pile in. But the bay area's October bore one last juicy piece of fruit for me...LESSER SAND-PLOVER. After Matt Lau (birding hero) found and babysat the bird for several days, a small nerdsquadron was dispatched to make contact with the wayward Russian. Though a great many struggling birders had complained about the long, sandy walk out to the bird, we made a effortless beeline straight from the RCA Patch, complete with the blessing of the National Park Service as we were caught jumping the gate. Navigating our way through the dunes, we quickly found Matt Lau and a contingent of nerds, who were already on the bird.

I hadn't seen a Lesser Sand-Plover in a long time...a long time. Over 20 years in fact (thanks Don!). Now that I think about it, there is no other bird species I've seen before that I'd gone so long without seeing again. The plover did very plovery things, actively feeding almost the whole time we were there, which we appreciated considering that it does register pretty high on the drab scale.

Other birders really crushed the shit out of the bird on previous days, but we were in a foggy soup the whole time and wanted to avoid pushing around the Snowy Plovers it was with, so I'm happy with the mediocre images I got. Typically, one clueless birder coming towards us walked straight through the Snowy Plover flock without pause while we were waving our hands and shouting "no!" at him...ugh. Unbelievable. Not that a disturbance like that is the end of the world, but it's poor form to say the least.

Not that you can tell from these photos, but the thing that really struck me about this bird was how big it was...it was much, much bigger than its Snowy Plover buddies, and really stood out. It was also not particularly cute, which is unusual for smaller plover species. The bird I saw previously seemed very small at the time (but it was completely alone) and was also as cute as goddamn button, but it was an obvious juvenile. I'm not sure what the consensus is on the age of this bird. At any rate, I'd been hoping to reconnect with this species for a great many years, and was stoked to do it in a county I love birding in. Thanks again Matt!

There was also a pair of Red Phalaropes feeding on the open beach, which is super weird. There have been hordes of them inshore this year though, so it wasn't totally shocking.

While this has been a great fall for birding, it has not been so for photography, for some reason. Here are some American White Pelicans that helped buck the trend at Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge.

White pelicans rank very high on the majestic scale, and I'm happy to have them around.

Not all monarchs migrate to Mexico; California has many important wintering sites as well. As with many birds, both the western and eastern monarch populations have experienced precipitous declines in the last 20 years. That's some shit. Photographed at Point Reyes, CA.

My last trip out to Point Reyes with Don Francisco was solid (hello golden-plovers, 112 species on the day) but did not produce anything interesting in the vague runt traps. The resident Great Horned Owls at Mendoza that roost above the cattle guard could give a fuck, but then again they don't seem to give a fuck about anything except sleeping.

I went out to Marin again last weekend to check out the new tidal marsh at Hamilton Field for the first time...damn, that place is good! Much vague runt potential there, and an impressive example of what restoration can do around these parts (it used to be an airfield). I stopped at the Las Gallinas Ponds on the way back, and had nothing unusual save for a brown blackbird with a yellow eye that I could not will into being a Rusty. This immature Red-tailed Hawk let me walk right under it though, so I gave it a quick crush.

Gadwalls...what would we do without Gadwalls? It is a necessary duck. Mark my words...the day Gadwalls go extinct will be the day human beings go extinct.

The bay area offers a great many opportunities to observe and photograph waterfowl at close range, but Cinnamon Teal are not particularly confiding, especially now that the Radio Road ponds are going to be out of commission. This hen didn't seem to know that though. She had a very drab, almost featureless facial pattern typical of the species.

That's all the time we have today. The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive would like to thank the phenomenal Trailer Park Boys for his inspiration today. Until the next post, I highly recommend you hang up your keyboard commando boots and go birding...

Or drinking. That helps too.

So Long California

Sometimes a bird will be so used to people that it maddeningly won't acknowledge your presence. If a bird can't be bothered to look at you, then the best thing to do is to crush the rest of its body. Great Blue Heron, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael, CA.

I've noticed that most of my posts lately have had some kind of central subject or theme to them, which is very unlike me...it's high time I do a potpourri (aka diarrhea) post. I don't do a very good job at keeping BB&B in sync with current events and photos that I take, so here's some randomness from the last couple of months...it may be my last California post for a while.

I haven't done that much birding lately...my year list could be a lot higher than it is, but that is something I can live with. If it wasn't for time spent in Baja, it would be borderline pathetic. Maybe that's not something the nation's #7 birder should readily admit to, but such is life. Of course, not being able to live with this fact would be shameful...I am not just a creature of lists and ticking. Tomorrow I embark on my road trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, so all that will change soon. My eBird rarity alerts no longer feature counties like Alameda, San Francisco and Marin...instead they are set to unfamiliar names like Cameron, Hidalgo, and Starr. The winds of change are blowing strong.

If you missed it, The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive posted at 10,000 Birds on his feelings about being birding's ambassador, and how you too can share the stage. I can offer my own advice on the matter...more bourbon, less bitching.

Watching birds take baths is always fun. There seems to be a tangible enjoyment that they take in it...although I have seen a couple night-herons that seemed completely dismal about it. Snowy Egret, Marin Civic Center.

More plumes. I don't think of American White Pelicans as a tufted bird, but that's because I'm an idiot. Photographed at Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA. This is a free-flying bird, not Hank (a non-flying bird).

There is more than one tufted fowl that allows crushes at Lake Merritt.

I generally don't bother photographing this bird until February every year, because it just kind of looks like shit earlier in the season. It's flanks are now pristine and it's tuft grows more voluptuous by the day. I reckon it will be around for at least a couple more weeks.

It took me a few years to get a decent open-wing shot; this one works for me.

Birds are funny. Great Egret, Lake Merritt.

I am unhappy with all the Barnacle Geese that show up in the northeast every winter now. Not because I think they are all escapees, but because thousands of birders are gripping me off. At least we have Ross's Geese. Marin Civic Center.

Why the rippley neck? One of the great mysteries of the universe.

A drake Gadwall displays his bulging, scallopy breast. It's hard to look away. Marin Civic Center.

So majestic. Soon, I will find myself beleaguered by Mottled Ducks, which has been nominated for Most Boring Native Bird. Of course, two species of whistling-duck will be providing me company as well.

If Slartibartfast designed ducks instead of continents, there is no doubt he would get an award for Northern Pintail. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (a BB&B first) was a cripple. Not a crippler, since it's pretty shoddy looking, but a cripple; it's right wing is pretty mangled and only useful in that it can aid in fluttering to the ground so the sapsucker could make it's way to the next closest tree. Canada Larga Road, Ventura County, CA.

Hopefully the wing injury wasn't permanent; at least the bird had a good food source.

Loggerhead Shrike is a fairly common bird that I love that I just have not administered a brutal crushing to yet. I'm working on it though. Canada Larga Road.

Cropped differently than the above photo. I think I like this version better.

Shorebird enjoyment: one of the handful of "family-friendly" activities that I can also condone. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, Oakland, CA.

Dunlin and Western Sandpipers comprise the bulk of the big sandpiper flocks in the bay area in winter. The economy of style is almost too much to handle...thankfully, most other birds don't wear such dismal attire. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park.

American Avocets were one of the first birds I was really fond of before I became a birder. Not a trigger bird per se, but a solid gateway species. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park.

I get dangerously accustomed to Heermann's Gulls sometimes. They really are striking, and we are lucky to have them. Berkeley Fishing Pier, Berkeley, CA.

This gull had put on some eyeshadow to get the cat-eyed look that's popular with the ladies these days. It will undoubtedly be participating in numerous copulations once it gets to Baja.

Too Much To Bear...A Whopping Four...The Time Has Come

This Forster's Tern is pedaling through the sky. Imperial Beach, CA.

July. The Birdosphere is still reeling from the atom bomb of news that BB&B delivered last week...the jizz-filled payload was almost too intense for some people to take. Waking up one day to the horrifying reality that one of your favorite, harmless birdwatching phrases actually describes what comes out of ejaculating penises around the world can be too much to bear.

But that's all in the past now. We march forward into July, which I have always considered to be the height of summer. The amount of birdsong in any given area plummets, as many birds finish up nesting duties and get to relax a bit before beginning their southbound migrations. Hell, almost all of the Least Terns in San Diego County have already left for their mysterious wintering grounds (no one knows where they are), but they don't do that most years.

Of course, if you are into shorebirds, July is actually the beginning of fall....all around the country, shorebirds from the Arctic, prairies and taiga forest are being reported at a location near you. Many adults are still in their snazzy breeding plumage, and now is a great time to see them before they fade and molt into more frustrating forms.

While futilely wading around the San Diego River for Little Blue Heron shots in the spring, I came upon a couple Least Sandpipers who were absolutely determined to not fly away from me...now I finally have some decent Least shots. 

Personally, I started July off with a bang, landing a whopping four (4) year birds on July 1. This is a massive number, seeing that I only landed a paltry one (1) in all of June. While Bostick still has a considerable lead on me, I am determined to catch up before it is too late....the devious bastard has made my worst fears a reality...he is coming with me to Costa Rica! Travelling in the same car! Staying in the same motels! How he managed to pull this off is a feat I can't even hope to understand before sometime towards the end of 2015.

Other plans are afoot as well...I think it is high time I make it to the Salton Sea this summer...maybe even this weekend? I miss that disgusting, stinky hellhole.

A male Snowy Plover. He was vigilantly chirping and purring at me with all his plover might. Thank the bird gods that I never get sick of the species I have closely worked with over my life, I almost always end up liking them more. That said, I do not miss doing Marbled Murrelet and Spotted Owl surveys (no offense).


In other BB&B news, I have finally gotten sick and tired of you Florida bird bloggers posting amazing pictures of stuff I hardly ever get to see, and the time has come to act on it. Therefore, BB&B is going on the offensive and taking a trip to your crazy yet bird-saturated state this fall. More news on that once I get my tickets.

I'll end this madness with the ridiculous dream I had last night....there I was in San Antonio, Texas, where I have absolutely no business being (although once I did go to a punk rock show there with one of the world's leading and most wonderful seal biologists). I was at some sort of Latin American restaurant, where they had some bird feeders out front. The feeders were being visited by trogons, motmots, and I think even a female quetzal, which was surprising. While looking at a motmot through my binoculars, I noticed a very pale raptor soaring in the background. It was a White Hawk! "WHIIITTTTTEEEE HAWWWWWK!!!", I yelled to somebody. It banked sharply and headed towards us.....and then my alarm went off.

It's a good thing I'm going to Costa Rica.

This is not a normal place to find a foraging Yellow Warbler. I like the dichotomy though. Stonewall Mine, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, CA.

Western Bluebird, yet another bird that was partaking in the maggot feast that I described last month. Although a torrential downpour of maggots sounds like Armageddon to most people, its probably heaven on earth for a lot of birds. Laguna Campground, Laguna Mountains, CA.

Gadwalls. Why are they called Gadwalls? Someone please tell me. Santee Lakes, CA.

It's hard to get down the personality of Common Gallinule. They are sometimes shy, sometimes not, and capable of great violence on their own kind. Lindo Lake, Lakeside, CA.

It did me a solid and stood up so I could capture the appropriate twinkle in its eye.

Maybe this is what Elegant Terns were doing when it first occurred to someone to name them Elegant Terns. These terns in courtship flight were over the J Street Mudflats in Chula Vista, CA.

Ugh you should have heard the yuppies prattling on about this mangy coyote. They thought it was extremely dangerous. I find prattling yuppies to be extremely dangerous, for the spirit and soul. Old Mission Dam, San Diego, CA.

Nothing against Yellow-rumped Warblers (especially ones that look like this), but I am still really enjoying my respite from them. It seems like practically every bird you look at in California between October and April is one of these things. Photographed at Santee Lakes, Santee, CA.

Black-throated Magpie-Jays have become target birds for birders coming to the Tijuana River Valley, even though we all know they're not really countable. No one can deny their charms and good looks though.

Backstroking Through Knob Creek

I have forgotten that work really gets in the way of blogging. And that's on top of birding, which ironically also gets in the way of blogging. I don't think bourbon consumption really helps or impedes the blog though, it's just necessary for my well-being. Should I take a dip in good old Knob Creek* tonight?

Oh. I also should be writing my Mother's Day card. So much to do!

Birding in San Diego has, of course, been good lately. Where else can you see Black Storm-Petrel and Prothonotary Warbler in the same day? I only have a couple scattered days off in the next couple of weeks, but then its time for my first pelagic trip of the year. I fiend for seabirds, so am looking forward to it. All these bright, flashy birds leave me yearning a certain Economy of Style.

Speaking of which, BB&B offers some more subdued birds today.

* = Knob Creek is a tasty bourbon, not an obscure birding spot where bad things happen in the bushes.

Watching avocets feeding is unusually pleasing, especially when they are sync'd up. Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

Surface scum-dwellers recoil in horror at the thought of their finely upturned bills.

The spring migration shorebird medley continues to pass through the area on it's way north. This has resulted in me seeing a lot more Red Knots (whom some have variously/nerdily described as a "glut" or a "slug"), although I am still an abject failure when it comes to photographing them. Instead, I have to make do with species like Western Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit and Dunlin. Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Here the medley is further medlied by the addition of something that resembles a Short-billed Dowitcher. So meddlesome.

Although they don't turn any redder, blacker or whiter in spring like many shorebirds, Whimbrels are at least noticeably more common this time of year. We applaud their presence, simply because sharply-decurved bills are laudable facial features. Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA.

A few Brant still linger and yodel and bark down south with us. Many of them have made it to their Alaskan breeding areas by now. J Street Mudflats, Chula Vista, CA.

This Gadwall is particularly well-marked for a species infamous for dwelling in comparitive mediocrity. Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

This Northern Rough-winged Swallow looks very strong. Look at those bulging breast muscles...it can probably migrate around the whole world without stopping. Tijuana Bird and Butterfly Garden, CA.

A Song Sparrow belts it out at the San Diego Zoo. You gotta sing your heart out there if you want to drown out the peacocks.

San Diego is infamous for it's exotic species...for good or ill, this kind is still confined to aviaries. This uneconomically-styled hornbill (anyone know what kind?) resides at the San Diego Zoo. Such dainty eyelashes!