https://theauklet.com/blog daily 1.0 2023-06-28 https://theauklet.com/blog/welcometotheauklet monthly 0.5 2021-06-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1622956947623-X24ZLEO840OHQSTC0TZF/XT3S9411.jpg Blog - Welcome to The Auklet! - Make it stand out Here we have a female Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus). These birds are widespread across the Central and Western US, compared to their Eastern Counterpart, Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), which is rarer. This particular blackbird was pecking for food near the boathouse on the North side of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-mono-lake monthly 0.5 2021-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355897788-D4MYMMUILQO7OP86B37M/XT3S8302-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out This is by far the most quintessential bird of the sagebrush here at Mono. With their long reedy songs, Brewer’s Sparrows (Spizella breweri) can be easily identified by sound. There are two subspecies of Brewer’s Sparrow. The ones here and in most of the US are breweri, but there is a separate population of them near Alaska called Timberline. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355849561-PUURZPN3N14I0FUWKD9N/XT3S8365-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is another shot of the same Brewer’s Sparrow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623356281721-JKPJ3VG9WCAKG4F0TI5D/XT3S8775.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Although I’d heard MacGillivray’s Warbler (Geotlypis tolmiei) before, I’d never seen it until I went looking around the campground. This particular individual was a male and was singing very loudly. Unfortunately, they are a very skulky warbler that prefers riparian areas, so it’s really hard to get good pictures of them. In the East, instead of these, they have Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia), which are very similar, but lack as strong of an eye-ring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623356345758-RGNYDJ480C20L0SUY34M/XT3S8732.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Also at the campsite was this very confiding House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Although widespread, they are relatively uncommon in San Francisco, where instead Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus) is the dominant wren species. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623357768803-Y2AJEVTTE68RHHGA9CIQ/XT3S8523-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is the other individual, which most likely has some Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) in it too (due to the amount of black in its face). It is also carrying a fecal sack, which is basically the poop of young nestlings. The parents move the sacks away from the nest (or sometimes eat them for nutrition) to confuse predators who may be looking to grab an easy meal by finding a nest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623356138376-B7B23QQ1TXN4VRBIZALV/XT3S8553-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Although they do live in California, I’ve never seen them there. However, in the same forests as the White-headed Woodpecker, we saw multiple Cassin’s Finches (Haemorhous cassini). This particular Haemorhous finch is definitely the most colorful of the three. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355673635-SZB68LWFWCUQ5XWFLXH3/XT3S8482-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Although still a woodpecker, this is a different kind, a sapsucker. This individual in particular was a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber). This was actually one of two birds that formed a pair that had a nest hole in the same tree. There were also a few other nesting birds nearby, like a kestrel and a few starlings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355785657-DC0EJUTVUNLT2Y5QT0AS/XT3S8507-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out In a nearby tree, as mentioned previously, was a female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) incubating eggs. Because she most likely didn’t have any live young, she didn’t really go from the nest, and so this was the best picture I got of her. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355817433-MJZSZT1KIDNN5EXXMT49/XT3S8266-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out One of the most common sagebrush bird species is the Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus). Although this individual may look a little drab, they are very colorful up close, with a rufous cap and white throat. We occasionally get these in San Francisco as vagrant birds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355944579-CE2JG6W6P6U7EBDDTHEZ/XT3S8441-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out The Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) has a near universal range across the lower 48, but for me, they are kind of hard to see, so this bird was pretty special. I also got a good recording of it, as it circled around us, occasionally perching on Antelope Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), singing all the while. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355610992-4ROB4A6FRM156UC7DGGW/XT3S8588.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out This White-headed Woodpecker (Dryobates albolarvatus) looks more like it belongs in a carnival than a forest. Oddly enough, despite its distinctive patterning, it was a tad hard to find this bird. This species is also fairly common, but it was rather windy around the time we saw it and birds don’t really like the wind that much. These woodpeckers typically like coniferous forests, and they live in some of the mountainous regions of the Northwestern states. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623355986303-G1EEPOVPA60KMEE81WFL/XT3S8715.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Although typically common in the sagebrush sea, we only found one pair of Sagebrush Sparrows (Artemisiospiza nevadensis). However, this bird did pose for us, unlike some of the other bird species at Mono Lake. This particular sparrow actually used to be lumped with Bell’s Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli) to form Sage Sparrow (Amphispiza belli), which used to be a part of the Amphispiza genus. That genus now only contains Black-throated (Amphispiza bilineata) and Five-striped sparrow (Amphispiza quinquestriata). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623356218764-RDKLLF4LSH2N7G3D6OR9/XT3S8550.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is the same male Cassin’s Finch, this time singing. https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-yellowstone monthly 0.5 2021-06-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771313272-P1KLT9XXQBY18D6ZOA77/XT3S8839-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out One of the more surprising finds from the Yellowstone area was this pair of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator). I was expecting to have to chase this limited-range bird, but instead, we found it in a lake while driving past. If you look closely at the more visible swan, you can see what looks to be a cygnet (baby swan) poking its head out of its parents’ feathers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771513531-N9XIBPLKTLHMJ0NW0PZP/XT3S9420-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out In this photo, you can really see why Black Rosy-finch is a rosy-finch. They are also, in my opinion, the prettiest rosy-finch. In the non-breeding season, they disperse from their mountaintop breeding colonies, and their crowns shift a bit on their head. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771542963-HZYF17R9BV1K257X34DW/XT3S9375-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Here we have a pair of Black Rosy-finches looking at each other. These were some of the last rosy-finches I photographed before we called it quits and vacated the almost 11,000-foot high mountain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771336333-8GPJYB3QY3ZA67PO2NZD/XT3S9041-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out While very pretty and in normal circumstances, a bird worth photographing for a long time, this Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) sparked more frustration than excitement. This was near the top of the aforementioned mountain range, and we were there to look for Black Rosy-finches, not bluebirds. On top of that, it was freezing out there as we hadn’t packed the right clothes for the snow and were only wearing ~3 layers each, with all of our pants being ridiculously thin (again, built for warmer weather). All in all, not the best experience, especially since the bluebird flushed as soon as we got within range for a perfect photograph. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623770743200-87LCEJOOXP27XLJG2HXI/XT3S8893-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Of course, it’s spring, so a herd of mammals wouldn’t be complete without a few babies, like this one. This baby elk typically stayed close to its mother but did socialize with a few other young elk. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771470303-RHLG8L9ZM09K9KGUWY0A/XT3S9171-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out This particular rosy-finch has a string of what look to be seeds in its beak. This bird doesn’t really display that much rosiness, and the others weren’t that colorful either. Still, sometimes when they turned their side to face you, you could really see the pinkish, rosy color. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771494570-MKDYWHZMT5NHZZSNYSTC/XT3S9334-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Unlike me, the Black Rosy-finches wasn’t very fond of the snow. They mainly foraged around it, and when they had to cross it, they did it with quick hops. They looked kind of ridiculous skipping across the snow, trying to keep their feet warm. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771166050-6PV6SHVWES40LPQP6RF3/XT3S8985-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out But what bison herd could be complete without a few babies in it. This young bison spent its time frolicking around in the grass, running back and forth, playing with one of its friends, and occasionally stumbling down green embankments. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771434694-H5QZHJTK00KF98AWPTHN/XT3S9148-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out After three hours of searching along the sides of the mountain, with the wind constantly deafening us and removing feeling from our frostbitten fingers, we found the Black Rosy-finch. It was at the very top of the peak of the mountain, and we found them actually when we were leaving the place because we’d given up. A giant flock of them swarmed past our car as if they were mocking our previous attempts to find them further downhill. For a reasonable hour, we got stunning looks at Black Rosy-finches right next to the road, pecking around for seeds and other niblets in a landscape that seemed to resemble the arctic tundra. Even though it was probably below freezing up there, I would still prefer that temperature to any climate that gets hotter than 90 degrees. This particular finch is in a position I call chicken mode for obvious reasons. I personally believe they do this probably to keep their body heat inside their feathers while pecking around for food. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623770786578-VW61WXFXJZA18B1BMHTV/XT3S8991-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Yellowstone is famous for its large herds of American Bison (Bison bison), and it did not disappoint. There were massive flocks of them crossing rivers, roads, and plains. Of course, with them came the ever-present warnings about staying a reasonable distance away in order to preserve your life, and for the most part, people followed the rules. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623770701761-L6UWKQMMROQ370JALSHD/XT3S8862-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out One of the first mammals we encountered was a friendly herd of Elk (Cervus canadensis) grazing inside a field enclosed in a Yellowstone “town”/visitor center. They were seemingly unaware of us and didn’t mind the human attention, though everyone stayed a reasonable distance away from them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771239725-R4MQTUZVEX33X83WN1Q9/XT3S9060-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Exiting Yellowstone and heading into the mountains, we found colonies of Yellow-bellied Marmots (Marmota flaviventris) living in the rocks. These marmots were hardy little things, braving the wind and the practically year-round snow to live in this frozen climate. However, they seemed to lack car sense, and we saw one individual who had been horizontally flattened against the road. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1623771281040-SR1RVR6QNLTREY9HPWT8/XT3S9063-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Yellowstone - Make it stand out Being a rodent, the marmot bears a slight resemblance to the Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Oddly enough, they do not share the same family. https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-north-dakota monthly 0.5 2021-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236876614-C2G47RK0HU6HRTRZXNY9/XT3S0146-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Although we found both Eastern (Tyrannus tyrannus) and Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus verticalis), the Eastern Kingbirds were definitely more common. Interestingly enough, like the Red-eyed Vireo, the Eastern Kingbird isn’t really that restricted to the Eastern portion of the US; they just don’t like the Southwest. However, the Western Kingbird, like the Lazuli Bunting, only lives on the Western side of the US. Its range is like a line drawn straight down the middle of the country. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236668622-MF1H91O06ID7JIN1SQCG/XT3S9823-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out While Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) typically prefer places with a bit more water, Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) live perfectly fine in the prairie. These birds were most likely looking for pheasants or grouse, the former of which we saw many, but the latter we saw very little. We only saw one grouse, and it flew as soon as it saw us, so we were unable to determine whether it was a Sharp-tailed Grouse or Gray Partridge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236829235-1SOPE9P533XRLYN9V9SU/XT3S0102-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out While the Sedge Wrens posed rather nicely, the Marsh Wrens were pretty hasty in their angry noise-filled song-trips around their territories. Because of this, I was only able to get a few photos of them, and none of them were very respectable in regards to the wren. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236496206-IPI4TM55QYT5VKPPWHXB/XT3S9935-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Here is the nighthawk again, this time getting ready to fly away. Nighthawks are nocturnal, so they have to find good perches where they can blend in with the environment during the day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236531156-O8HEOA7GIYND9DKNVQMD/XT3S9637-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Also in our campground was this friendly Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus). They live in most of the US, with the exception of the Southwestern states (think California and Colorado areas). Their song is slightly reminiscent of a robin or grosbeak but utilizing shorter phrases. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236640992-3130JGWWOP3NDWAIMX7D/XT3S9776-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out By far, the most common bird of the prairie was Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris). They were on every fence post and barbed wire. They even walked right in front of the car and only flew once you were about to squish them. Unfortunately, they didn’t sing that often, although they might drown out the other birds if they did. Also, despite what seems to be a good amount of sun in this photo, it wasn’t actually that hot out in the Great Plains. Unlike some other places in Kansas or South Dakota, the prairie of North Dakota is pretty high up there and relatively close to the Canadian border. Most of the time, the temperature was only slightly above what we were used to in San Francisco. Combined with the mosquitos, this gave us a small preview of what the arctic tundra might be like if we ever do get up there, but of course, the actual tundra would be a lot colder and have dramatically more mosquitos. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236712434-AON9WMWFPX50IO4CSFQ8/XT3S0058-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Combined with the prairie dogs, the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) created a constant state of shrill, panicking noises. We were evidently close to this birds’ nest, and it did not like that. It followed us up and down the road, faking a broken wing, trying to draw us away from its home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236391254-9ITHTUA0MIO5UJF5XB3J/XT3S9661-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out By far, the most surprising bird we found at the campground was this Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). This particular nighthawk was perched right above one of our tents, and in the evening, it would let out insect-like cthee-eep noises before eventually taking off to look for bugs in the night. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236616043-YFFN2BLHL1PMWN4QPJJF/XT3S9713-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Although they sound similar to California’s Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) with their ping-pong ball-like song, the Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla) looks and is quite different. This particular individual was part of a pair and carrying this delicious grub, most likely to carry off to a nest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236853800-CVACQJXME6B27DSCZEHW/XT3S0130-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out The highlight of the birds at Lostwood was a couple of Nelson’s Sparrows (Ammospiza nelsoni). Their secretive nature, combined with their quiet song, made these birds relatively hard to find. Apparently, both males and females of the species are also promiscuous, meaning they didn’t sing much to defend territory. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236337095-2T7Q9LK5BUCBKX17B9OV/XT3S9484-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Though containing fewer mammals than Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt did have its fair share of rodents, like these Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). The ones that had established colonies inside the park were fairly conditioned to human interaction, so they didn’t mind us much besides the occasional alarm call. However, the prairie dogs that were relegated to the grasslands outside of the park and closer to farmland were a lot more cautious. As soon as they saw us, they’d spurt alarm shrieks that signaled all the other dogs to immediately hop inside the burrows. It might’ve not helped that there were some .22 rifle bullet casings on the ground near the colony. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236580465-NW6SH3HID6Q5H170X83C/XT3S9680-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Though we only saw this bird for a split second, I still managed to snap a few photos of this Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). Although they share the genus with a few other sociable woodpeckers that prefer family groups, such as Acorn (Melanerpes formicivorus), Lewis’s (Melanerpes lewis), and Yellow-tufted Woodpecker (Melanerpes cruentatus), the Red-headed Woodpecker is for the most part solitary. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236742477-8Q2A1YTKVVEMU3LPUQE9/XT3S0123-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Though a frequent resident in marshes, these birds are relatively uncommon outside of them. However, there were a few streams in this prairie, and with streams come Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). The Red-winged Blackbirds here were slightly different from the ones in California. The ones of California in summer are of the Bicolored subspecies (not to be confused with a separate Bicolored subspecies in Mexico). Males that are Bicolored have no yellow under the red patch on their wing, compared with the blackbirds in the rest of the US, which do have it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236804045-0H0HZOE5O64X1CR7QKU4/XT3S0117-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out We encountered a few Sedge Wrens (Cistothorus platensis) in the marshes at Lostwood, but the similar and more widespread Marsh Wren (Cistothorus plaustris) was still more common and a tad bit more vocal. Sedge and Marsh Wrens look relatively similar, but Sedge Wrens have a slightly less prominent eyebrow and a different song. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236556865-XM4VLKZTIJ9A45CY7ALD/XT3S9621-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out This very colorful male Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) was right at a cliff edge singing at nearly full volume. While the Red-eyed Vireo is primarily an Eastern bird, the Lazuli Bunting is strictly the Western side of the US, but if you get further into Wisconsin and Michigan, you can find its Eastern counterpart, the Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236362154-RAP89R7QI218ZZEQ9A1I/XT3S9672-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Though less common than in Yellowstone, the American Bison (Bison bison) that lived in Theodore Roosevelt were definitely tamer. With a friend, this particular bison went up within a few meters of our eating tent and chowed down on the grass in our campsite. Oddly enough, there were a lot less signs here warning of the danger of bison, despite their tendency to wander the campground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624236903979-Y6RIHBSUCTJ4A5U58U25/XT3S9779-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - North Dakota - Make it stand out Throughout the grasslands and prairie, besides the grass, farms, and prairie dogs, one thing remained the same, the presence of fracking. Along the horizon on every dirt road were metal machines, pumping up oil for most likely the farmers to sell. They looked like giant scabs, with their orangish coloration and large dirt foundations. https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-michigan-and-horicon-marsh monthly 0.5 2021-06-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583754762-92A91OOVPOWRRSN0VFA6/XT3S0275-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out The only tern we saw in the whole of this area was Forster’s Tern (Sterna forsteri). This bird just flew by, possibly hunting for fish, but not doing much besides that. I was expecting to see their closely-related cousin, the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), but they did not show up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583965869-1H8UE5CAWAMLX9L8VJ5T/XT3S0426-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Here is the bird again being fed, but still with one eyelid closed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583902202-IJOLO1B0LL2736FTZLW9/XT3S0419-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Here is the grackle being fed wet food from a syringe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583781190-SNWY0KQALTRNEZM45BE4/XT3S0344-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out After finding an eBird report that Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) had been seen just South of Horicon, we went there to investigate, and we did find them. Although there weren’t many, they were relatively loud and easy to find, but not easy to get to see, as we had to wade through a small mostly dried-up marsh that mainly consisted of mud and decaying trees. It wasn’t very fun to go through that stuff without boots, but we ended up seeing the birds up close, so in the end it was worth it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624584133590-BBGAPYNCDKZLZ2QC0UEA/XT3S0677-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out The main target bird for this trip was Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii). They were relatively endangered and were declining across their range for a long time, but now have made a resurgence in recent years. They only nest in young Jack Pine forest that is only about as tall as an average person. When we arrived at the location for them, we heard a plethora of them singing, but only a few were brave enough to venture out of the dense brush to pose for photos. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583603969-1T2J2ZTMHCRQ7ZFBDLPV/XT3S0270-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out As always, there were Common Yellowthroats (Geothlypis trichas) in every marsh. They live in basically the entire US and don’t vary a lot in coloration throughout their range. This particular individual was a male. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583701891-30U9KKR3JYWIC1HYWRBL/XT3S0241-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Here we have a young Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) poking its head out of its nest box. At first, I was unaware of these nests at Horicon, but a dive-bombing parent swallow soon alerted me to its presence. They were a tad incensed that I was investigating the bushes near their nest, letting out indignant squeaks whenever they dove past my ear. There were also nesting Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and Purple Martins (Progne subis), but they were a lot more calm about our presence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583580525-JGLORLJMGXBOV7VXZ79R/XT3S0805-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Dragonflies were quite common in Michigan, and this particular one, a Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia), was photographed at Grass River Natural Area. I felt a bit bad for the ones on the boardwalk because they liked the wood and whenever they felt us moving towards them, they’d fly a bit farther down the trail, and then we’d come through again causing them to fly a bit farther, and so on so forth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624584006073-BHVH67ZPOA2DU80G76YI/XT3S0710-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out As this species is rare and rapidly declining, we didn’t think we’d see any Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) this trip, but by chance, we saw one near the Sunset Trail Road in the lower peninsula of Michigan. It first alerted us with its buzzy song, and then we were able to locate it after nearly 30 minutes of searching. Golden-winged Warblers are very closely related to Blue-winged Warblers (Vermivora cyanoptera) and a recent study seems to show that they may be the same species, despite looking pretty different. Most of the DNA between the two is identical, but a few genes seem to account for the differing colorations. The two species also rampantly hybridize when their ranges intersect, which they didn’t used to that often, but do now due to logging. I believe there are two main different hybrids, Brewster’s Warbler and the rarer backcross Lawrence’s Warbler. Also, there has been a verified report of a warbler that turned out to be a hybrid between Brewster’s Warbler (which, mind you, is already a two-species hybrid) and Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica), a warbler in a completely different genus. This new tri-species hybrid was dubbed Burkett’s Warbler, after the person who recently found it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624584084903-HHHYOI5UDMMGFMK5MIHN/XT3S0788-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Speaking of Chestnut-sided Warblers, here is one, a male. This warbler was one of the most common birds we saw and heard. They are one of my favorite birds, as they look like little clowns, with their poofy yellow cap and red chest markings. They also are really friendly and pose for pictures quite nicely, unlike the Golden-winged Warbler we encountered. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583639690-PAU9NV88L5VCJOKP4Q13/XT3S0296-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Though, we have Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in San Francisco, they are of a different subspecies than the ones here. The ones we have are darker with thicker stripes. Also, here, we had Swamp Sparrows, a close relative of the Song Sparrow, but the Swamps liked to stay in the reeds and were harder to photograph. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583933082-HYXZDGVRPDJEN2BX39HB/XT3S0423-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Birds actually have two eyelids: the normal one, and a second one that I believe helps birds protect from detritus of weather and water. In this photo, it makes the fledgling look a bit like a demon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583561792-N4V5EETB5ZDYA2O1TON1/XT3S0411-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out Anywhere there are trees, there are chipmunks, and Michigan was no different. Though there were less of them than in other places, there were still a lot of them climbing around in the trees and causing a general ruckus. In my opinion, the call note of the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) also sounds quite a bit like a birds’, so not just did we have to try and tell birds apart from each other, but also chipmunks. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583878052-JT8QREMV6DJI0TAZF76D/XT3S0416-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out My Aunt Karen was rehabilitating a young Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) that had fallen out of its nest when we got there. A crow had raided the nest, taking one bird, and leaving the other two to fall underneath the tree. She fed both of them for a while and one of them was taken back in by the parents. However, this one stayed, and we were able to feed it a few times. When hungry, the grackle would fly down from the tree to beg on the ground, or if it really needed food, it would fly onto a fence on the porch and scream at the door for sustenance. Once it was done eating, it would go up high into a tree and sit contently on a branch. Although it mainly relied on Aunt Karen to survive, while we were there, it did attempt to catch a few bugs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624583732580-1IE9RCWV42NWMC2X5TUX/XT3S0233-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Michigan and Horicon Marsh - Make it stand out No place is free from the ravenous Canadian Geese (Branta canadensis) swarms. The Canada Geese had lots of young teenage goslings in flocks with multiple groups of parents protecting them from possible predators. Behind these geese, you can see the building that the Barn Swallows were nesting in. https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-ozark-national-forest-texas-and-missouri monthly 0.5 2021-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901930861-3KWA9T7IHS2H51DOR8EP/XT3S1017-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out This warbler was probably the hardest to see out of all the birds we chased in the Southeast. Cerulean Warblers (Setophaga cerulea) are sky-blue warblers of the canopy of mature deciduous forest, although this heavily backlit photo doesn’t really do the bird justice. The reason for this highly backlit photo was because the bird was flying all over the place and at the very tops of broad-leafed trees, making photography and finding it very difficult. This species is in decline because its wintering range in the Andes is being deforested in favor of growing crops. We only saw one of these beautiful warblers up in the Ozarks, though there were plenty of other ones like Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina), Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor), and Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624897319887-46B2YR3BQEP6FB1018IT/XT3S0925-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out This band and spray paint was on the tree of one of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker nests. The metal band prevents snakes from climbing up the tree and eating the young woodpeckers, while the spray paint tells loggers not to cut this tree. I got the opportunity to talk to one of the locals, a retired paper engineer, and he was the one who told us to look out for things like these. He’d lived in Arkansas and was born near one of the towns that one of the early paper companies made. He said, sometime shortly before or after Georgia Pacific (later acquired by the Koch Brothers in 2005) purchased it, the paper companies and through a series of decisions ended up killing most of their hardwood forests by sending people to girdle and poison the trees (they had a lot more hardwood than pine). The reason for this was that the hardwood trees wouldn’t grow as fast as pine, and they wanted to plant lots of pine to make more money (according to him, it would take three generations of pine trees to grow one hardwood). Also, the pines they could harvest grew on the slopes of mountains, making logging them difficult, so planting pines in the lowlands would save them transportation costs and difficulties. However, to make paper, they had to have a mixture that was ~70% hardwood and the rest pine, but they had so much hardwood, so they didn’t see a problem with removing large amounts of it and replacing it with pine. The funny thing was that even though they were killing the hardwood forests, they weren’t actually using the trees, they just let the dead trees rot and decay. They thought someone would eventually come up with a new mixture to make paper that would require mostly pine when they inevitably ran out of hardwood. Nobody did. So, the National Forest Service started logging Ozark National Forest to sell timber to the paper companies. But, when the logging companies had been planting and logging all the pines, they mainly replanted the ground with Loblolly (Pinus taeda) and Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii), instead of Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris), which is the type of pine Red-cockaded Woodpecker lives in and are also listed as endangered. As a result, the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are very scarce across the Southeast and critical bird habitat in Ozark National Forest is being logged by paper companies allowed by the US Forest Service. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901949968-XC2M261HOPBESSRIH520/XT3S1088-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out The US has many species of chickadee, but each place in America typically only has two of them max. This place in Texas only had one, Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). This is the Southern counterpart of Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), but both species are limited to the Eastern side of the US, with Mountain (Poecile gambeli) taking hold in the Rockies and Chestnut-backed (Poecile rufescens) on the West Coast. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624897247164-VL3PB2JBAW7MCHH8EC5V/XT3S0831-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out For most of the trip, flycatchers were pretty sporadic. However, in Missouri, they were everywhere. This particular one is an Eastern Wood-pewee (Contopus virens), the most common of the Eastern flycatchers we saw. Back home in the West, we have Western Wood-pewee (Contopus sordidulus). The two of them are basically identical in appearance, but they sound quite a bit different. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901863020-36VPFN5KA3X7AI4ITWXX/XT3S0960-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out Although this female Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) is drab, the males are an all-blue aquamarine-like color. Personally, I prefer Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena), but Indigo Buntings are fine too. These two buntings are Western and Eastern counterparts of each other, with Indigo Bunting being the latter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901880244-C0W4E63G3ZKWTQTUKFXZ/XT3S0883-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out This Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) was a young one, probably not long out of the nest by the color of the gape. The gape is basically the lip of the bird’s mouth at the areas where the beak doesn’t exist. This bird has a slightly yellowish one, indicative of a young bird. Almost every, if not all, young birds of all species have this feature. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901901305-9N58CL8RLMV07V37E04Z/XT3S0872-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out Here is a photo of that bird’s sibling sitting on a lower branch. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624901968017-WC99X8T395YMMS4Y7PQP/XT3S1124-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out By far, the most colorful bunting is Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), and we saw one of these beautiful birds in Texas. This bird lives mainly in Texas, Oklahoma, and a bit in some of the Southeast. The species seems almost too colorful like someone dipped the bird in a rainbow but added a few colors to make a bird that feels like the taste of an overly rich meal. However, it’s still a good bird to look at, at least compared to some sparrows. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624897275290-SXTMLFPK75E0G89DPOO4/XT3S0853-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out Great Crested Flycatchers (Myiarchus crinitus) were in low number along our route. They are the only Myiarchus flycatcher that lives in the Eastern portion of the US, so this makes some sense. Back in San Francisco, we have Ash-throated Flåycatchers (Myiarchus cinerascens) instead. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1624897291478-RFTBU7KV7KVDQMEGRKAC/XT3S0908-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - Ozark National Forest, Texas, and Missouri - Make it stand out One of the target birds of our trip was the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus borealis), seen here at a tree it has made a lot of holes in. They were nesting along the road we were birding, and there were plenty of them flying around the forest. This species lives strictly in open pine woodlands and is relatively rare. It is also one of the species that are at threat of being endangered. Most of the time, you can’t see any red on this bird, despite the name, but this particular individual had the red cockade visible. https://theauklet.com/blog/2021-michigan-trip-the-rocky-mountains-and-mono-lake monthly 0.5 2021-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625714148591-07E5EP1FWDGJ25VZ4O90/XT3S1277-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out In the aforementioned canyon were lots of holes in the cliff that were used by White-throated Swifts (Aeronautes saxatalis) as very precarious nests. Though bearing a very close physical resemblance to swallows, swifts are actually much more closely related to hummingbirds. Hence the long sharp wings, except one of them evolved to glide and the other to indulge in a sugar-driven wing-madness that is hummingbird flight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625714621884-B0MPOMT7NZ629IQN48ZO/XT3S1280-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Of course, on every rock, there was a precariously placed lizard that would scurry away at your every footstep, except this one was trapped against a cliff edge, so I was able to get some good photos of it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717382935-OE5T2YP69QJ499M3DT2D/XT3S1580-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is a different one by the name of Belding’s Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), this time with Cassin’s Finches (Haemorhous cassinii) and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches (Leucosticte tephrocotis) in the background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717487346-T6WW0APRLB7FZJPZ20WZ/XT3S1587-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is another individual of the same species, looking at me rather concernedly. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716474253-X5NRCK17RUYBO7QMMW4F/XT3S1372-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out And another one, this time just of a tree. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716722448-P75NSQ259AWTDJ3O0J7B/XT3S1408-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out A Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) sitting on a nest. This particular nest was in the eaves of the visitor center at Great Basin National Park. Because this bird was incubating eggs, or at least, sitting on the nest, most likely, this would be a second brood. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717110811-JJWGW5M5WD2I0VNEMW7U/XT3S1565-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Douglas Squirrels (Tamiasciurus douglasii) especially enjoyed the bird feeder, with this one earlier stretching its legs off a pole just to put its front limbs on the feeder for some nuts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625699719687-Y9DZQKNC5GSJEJ25KIKD/XT3S1207-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out When hiking up a near 12,000-foot high mountain in Colorado (close to Baldy Cinco), we came across this Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus) near the trail. It quickly hopped away from us, but it was a massive rabbit, about the size of a small dog. This particular mountain was quite a hike, being a 1.5-mile slope up over rugged alpine terrain with temperatures being low enough for some snow to still exist, even in the middle of summer. Google maps told us that it was 2.8 miles, mostly flat, and would only take an hour to traverse. In reality, it took us almost two and a half hours to get up the first half of the hike, which was difficult enough being an over thousand-foot elevation climb. The elevation caused us to have to take a break to breathe every 15 steps or so because otherwise, you’d feel dizzy and light-headed. However, we did find this rabbit, a Brown-capped Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte australis), and a few other nice alpine birds. However, the hail was a bit of a detractor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625714725337-EJ3RUQ0OZP3SWQLUDFTZ/XT3S1273-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out On our last trip to high desert in New Mexico, we also found a robberfly eating something, though the last time, it had been a grasshopper. This time, it was a moth. Robberflies look like a cross between a spider and a dragonfly, creating an animal that looks like it shouldn’t really be a carnivore but rather something more petlike. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625705568497-ZVMDQVW8L2AH2567CJFD/XT3S1228-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out The most exciting find for us on top of the mountain, aside from the rosy-finches, was a sizable number of American Pika (Ochotona princeps). Pikas were like the prairie dogs of the Rockies, constantly yelping and scurrying across the lichen-covered rocks to grab some plants for food. While I’ve been in many places where it is possible to see Pika, this is one of the few places where you are essentially guaranteed to see it, that is, if you are willing to hike a couple of hours up a mountain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716378819-K2AA2367ESE50PRAZATL/XT3S1345-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out A landscape shot from the monument. It bears a stark resemblance to Grand Canyon, but I prefer this location more because it has many fewer people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625700902158-J6WSWRE8PPHZ6PJZJ5WI/XT3S1215-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out While hiking, we found a friendly family of Canada Jays of the bicolor subspecies (Perisoreus canadensis bicolor). Canada Jays are a bit famous for how confiding they can be, with many taking food from the hand. However, this group wasn’t that interested in us, but instead whatever was down the hill some ways. Because of this, I was only able to get this subpar photo of one of them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717628362-YEXU7YB26UPLO5IA77D7/XT3S1540-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out The real reason we went back to Mono was to see Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, which we didn’t have time to see the first time through. This species of rosy-finch is the most widespread, but it was the last one we needed to see to have seen all three rosy-finch species on this trip. We got Black Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte atrata) slightly North of Yellowstone, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte australis) where we saw the Pikas, and finally this bird at Mono to finish off the triumvirate. Of course, there is still Asian Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte arctoa), but that’s a whole trip in and of itself. Counting the other species in the genus, Plain Mountain Finch (Leucosticte nemoricola) and Brandt’s Mountain Finch (Leucosticte brandti), this gets more complicated. However, both of those are also in Asia, so technically, I can say I’ve seen all the American rosy-finches. Finding my last rosy-finch, near an area where we originally started our journey, was a nice treat and conclusion to our trip. It had been almost a month since we were previously in the Mono Lake area, but it had changed dramatically upon our last visit. With summer in full swing, the snow-capped mountains were mostly barren, and thunderstorms threatened our every move. During this journey, I got to see many of my target birds, some easily, others with great effort and coaxing of my family to wake up far earlier than they wanted and drive much more than they probably should’ve. While I did go on a road trip back in 2016 across the US and back, this was my first one specifically for birding. Even so, the variety of landscapes and climates while traveling these past few weeks has been incredible. I will never forget the sunrise over the grasslands of the Dakotas or the whispering hints of greenish yellow light from the fireflies in Arkansas. From the 10k+ elevation alpine hikes, amongst aquamarine blue skies and colorful flowers, to the barren landscape and sagebrush desert of the Great Basin. All in all, it was a splendid trip, and while I didn’t see all my target birds, there’s always the future! This blog post marks the end of the 2021 Michigan Trip. Please come back for future posts about local birds and other birding-related travels. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625706112265-363DLLBIRGS2CWJ7WYLP/XT3S1204-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Back closer to the road, but still in alpine forests, were these tiny Least Chipmunks (Neotamias minimus) with extraordinarily long tails. They appeared to like to take partially bloomed flowers and consuming them in broad daylight. It seems like this might be a problem if there were any raptors around, but we didn’t hear or see any. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717027346-KSXN0TKY3UC62A9P60IH/XT3S1457-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Near Mono Lake, a hotel of sorts called Virginia Lakes Resort had two bird feeders up that attracted a variety of wildlife, including this Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), though it didn’t eat off the feeder. I’m not sure why, but this one has a collar on its neck. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716640628-3ZDT8DX366H6NKGUGR31/XT3S1393-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out The orange face of sunset, staring down on the red cliffs below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716816064-TFX5LEELIYZ7SEN301AA/XT3S1411-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here is the other bird of the pair, sitting on a nearby peg. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625717528617-2O2O90K98W4NFSW3D8EV/XT3S1551-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out A White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) with a mouthful of grubs to take off to its nestlings. Being a parent can be challenging, and I’m not really sure how this bird managed to catch another worm with one already in its beak. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625716959670-UJ3PLY4R9DGN3XO4J36F/XT3S1431-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Though there are many different squirrel and chipmunks species, they seem to all like munching down on the flowers of plants. This Golden-mantled Ground-squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis) was exceptionally content with its food, barely moving even as my mom approached within a foot of it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1625706203420-N9XTT2ZFSUWIK6X2UKHN/XT3S1250-Enhanced.jpg Blog - 2021 Michigan Trip - The Rocky Mountains and Mono Lake - Make it stand out Here we have a very perturbed Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea amoenissima), a bird that has both the voice and temperament of an asthmatic wren. They are a key bird of dry habitats in the Western US, and this particular individual was found right next to a canyon in Colorado National Monument. However, in the Eastern US, under a different subspecies, this bird prefers wooded habitats. https://theauklet.com/blog/birding-the-bay-area-mori-point-and-charleston-slough-area monthly 0.5 2021-08-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628903310781-0XWVC54Y1D0KQ7EJOWSD/XT3S2040-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Here are two Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis) fighting over what I assumed was a Cheeto. One bird kept taking all the food that someone was tossing at them, and the other one was reasonably upset and got into a giant fight with the other bird that concluded with the two of them holding this position for a minute or two, before both of them, exhausted, broke apart. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902205102-PVAT1BTBVDJUEXRSBEU9/XT3S1623-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out This young bird (on the left) was very excited to get some tasty niblets of pigeon flesh. However, the adult seemed to be more concerned with defeathering the bird first. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902386881-WFQ82T22NPHUGFVQRJYY/XT3S2031-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Here we have a Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) chilling out on Shoreline Lake. Although Pied-billed Grebe is the only living member of the genus Podilymbus now, that didn’t use to be the case. Two other prehistoric grebe species lived in the same genus in Wisconsin and Florida. Also extinct, but much more recently, is the Atitlán Grebe (Podilymbus gigas). It went extinct in the 1980s following an earthquake in Guatemala that drained part of the only lake it lived in. Also, introduced Largemouth and Smallmouth significantly contributed to its extinction, eating the fish and crabs the birds fed on and sometimes even their chicks. Like so many other extinct birds, the grebe was flightless, which definitely did not help it. However, despite this, the grebe was recovering after a refuge was established, but following the earthquake and the murder of the park’s game warden due to political instability and a civil war, the grebe quickly went extinct. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628903513931-9XYHFICYJ86ZPMGKCU6J/XT3S2148-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out We were lucky enough to encounter this California Towhee (Melozone crissalis) bathing in a muddy puddle. The bird in the background is a juvenile Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) of the Oregon subspecies, which is also looking to wash off. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902319010-08E1T8AV77FXBLAUXSWR/XT3S1675-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Here’s one of the adults carefully observing from the sidelines. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902358314-QTOH8XKY3WLAHZ2T0FH0/XT3S1641-Enhanced-2.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Finally, one last Peregrine, this time in flight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628903462935-BU1KGM2GEFWNXL9BNDUK/XT3S2083-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Following the fight, this gull looked pretty messed up. Note the orange gape wasn’t from the conflict. It’s actually a feature of their breeding plumage. However, the ratty plumage was something that was obtained from the schism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628901999413-VKOCXFXK5XBSAK7L8VIR/XT3S1708-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out While walking along a dirt trail, we encountered this tiny fuzzy Spotted Tussock Moth (Lophocampa maculata) sitting on a leaf. It wasn’t thrilled to be disturbed with our presence and quickly scampered off into the thicket. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902085790-IU9UOKIM7OMQVMY9BGZX/XT3S1611-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out The real treat at Mori Point, though, were multiple Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus). A pair of them nest out on Devil’s Slide, a cliffside around 3 miles south from here, and they were teaching their young to eat pigeon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628903434500-FD4U2P0SLTB7IA5W537C/XT3S2062-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Here are the two birds going at it again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628902272814-ZHTUCII0ZE70AFN209EE/XT3S1656-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out The pigeon also gave the youngsters something to fight about. It looked almost like they were about to crash into the cliff! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1628903613570-OSB3NRUB5PQH9DRRFKP5/XT3S0021-Enhanced.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Mori Point and Shoreline Park Area - Make it stand out Lastly, we came upon a female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) posing nicely on a plant to create a perfect fusion of pollen-dusted hummingbird and leaf. Unlike the previous photos which, for the most part, were taken at Mori Point and Charleston Slough, this one was taken in a suburban neighborhood, in front of a house with a hummingbird feeder. There are reportedly three hummingbirds that fight for control over the feeder at different times of day, with this yucca leaf perch as the typical position the current defender takes. https://theauklet.com/blog/birding-the-bay-area-palo-alto-baylands-sf-and-monterrey-cbcs monthly 0.5 2022-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/b4bf8271-6090-4714-a232-f0c9aed3f252/_XT35399.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d02699b0-2a7b-4316-8c25-780d020d409b/_XT34989.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/66f25ed5-6d6b-4cd6-a618-7fe2e0911d05/_XT35226.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/096a0bbe-fdcb-4882-a4f0-e5524e476b7d/_XT35401.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/22b22c1d-1eae-43ff-a0b3-c94edd51ffe5/_XT34933.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/a96bfbde-6b04-40e2-b535-d849b47f15f6/_XT35317.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d147e10c-5f3f-4a70-ae38-89f50f8eac8c/_XT35415.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d698f732-dc07-4c41-ac5b-eb3be5d98052/_XT35016.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/9c170b6c-c965-450b-839b-a3c08c25807e/_XT35211.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/989f915a-0602-45f3-b00e-d62d9dc2b6e7/_XT35086.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/44543e66-788e-4c7d-9617-e80320d4c752/_XT35298.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/b20b9ccf-dfe7-4b13-8dc8-d4d98e15388e/_XT35023.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/5731b94b-2421-4a55-9d78-6035859128ce/_XT35391.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/4339cc9b-8573-4aca-8262-38f5901ef233/_XT34948.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/41337598-5aa9-4646-b2bf-67de11af6626/_XT35054.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/6e8303d0-aa12-4487-b66a-2d31268d7b38/_XT35169.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/83b2662e-6728-41fb-b785-6107ab77ec0f/_XT35252.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/f7d06265-3639-4511-8648-f1151bd57ab5/_XT35167.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/47be9791-fc4b-4e17-bf73-93e31964bf1c/_XT34976.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/fe0d68cf-895d-4c16-a5df-65e4cf8f6676/_XT35052.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/e1fdae36-b3a1-47ae-8050-77a429b53cca/_XT35381.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/2caf8d6f-f6e8-485f-8d8c-0ebe22ef3fdf/_XT35370.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/6230babf-b419-4024-881b-05d896491d0b/_XT35012.jpg Blog - Birding the Bay Area - Palo Alto Baylands + SF and Monterrey CBCs - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://theauklet.com/blog/2022-death-valley-trip-part-1-landscapes-and-non-avian-wildlife monthly 0.5 2022-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/b422f581-53fd-404e-b580-853a28356b16/_XT39831.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Rabbits weren’t as common as we expected, but they were still present, as always. This one seems to have had a close encounter with death, as evident by its mangled and missing fur. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/23838bcc-511e-4c95-8b8f-5c24f281c1cc/_XT22235.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out A rocky hill next to the salt-flats. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/62bb7a9d-f33c-42df-b1f1-918b0fff2fab/_XT39108.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Here we have a male Death Valley Pupfish of the Salt Creek subspecies (Cyprinodon salinus salinus). This species of pupfish is endangered and can only be found in two locations in the world: Lake Manly’s Cottonball Marsh subspecies, milleri, and the aforementioned Salt Creek subspecies. If the two subspecies were to be considered separate species, they would both be classified as Critically Endangered. There are other pupfish that live in the Death Valley area and most of them are known only to one or two locations, like the Death Valley Pupfish, and some of them are already extinct, like the Tecopa Pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/c807f5e6-f695-42a8-88dd-f63c006c72d8/_XT39722.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Present in large numbers at Valley of Fire National Park were Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). This subspecies of Bighorn Sheep has three separate population segments that were each formerly considered subspecies. The one found in the Valley of Fire is of the nelsoni lineage while the one found in the American Southwest and the Mexican Northwest is of the mexicana lineage and the one found in the Peninsular Range of California and Baja California is of the cremnobates lineage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/06145f5e-f48a-4a2a-ad47-790260200bcb/_XT22173.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Perched and feeding on a Phacelia flower, this is a Desert Blister Beetle (Lytta magister). The larvae of these beetles often attack the nests of bees to feed on immature hosts. In accordance with their name, some, though not all (including this one), have the ability to secret Cantharidin, a poisonous chemical that can cause blistering. Fortunately for the unwitting finger tributer, they did not know that Blisters Beetles can cause blisters and neither did they know that Desert Blister Beetles automatically don’t have poison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/5b3d7ce1-a794-4d47-997c-3b2e9fd858d0/_XT39281.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out While Red Rock Canyon didn’t have much in the way of lizards or landscapes, it did have a rock-climbing crew that was in the process of scaling the side of a canyon wall when we happened past them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3f7ce6b8-2e0c-4d4a-afe4-d9aa8f2a3963/_XT22230.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out What may look like a mud-covered barren to most is what actually turns out to not just be a mud-covered one, but also a salt-encrusted wasteland. In the heart of Death Valley is the Badwater Basin. Badwater Basin is home to the lowest point on land in the United States (282 ft. below sea level), which is only 84.6 miles away from Mount Whitney, the highest point on land in the lower 48 (14,505 ft. above sea level). Due to the heavy 150in. a year evaporation rate that the basin has in comparison to its measly 1.9in. a year precipitation rate, the basin stays almost completely dry. However, Death Valley sits on top of one of the largest aquifers in the world, and an occasional spring pokes its way through the surface. One such spring gives some of its lodging to the heavily localized and endemic Badwater Snail (Angustassiminea infima). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/9fd46cb7-91ed-4b82-850d-abe84f24e3cd/_XT39150.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out This is a swarm of Death Valley Pupfish. There were probably a couple hundred of these tiny fish just swimming around in a pond. However, all of them will be dead within a year, as their lifespans are very short, but before then, they must continue the cycle, and when they die, there will hopefully be a new generation of tiny pupfish. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/de42b8b4-9d9f-4208-a9b6-18f539d6659d/_XT39596.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out In an persistent search for whatever food it could scour from the picnic tables, this Whitetail Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus) was fixated in stealing some of our cup noodles and bread for itself, and though it did employ several tactics, in the end it got no food from us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/47867edf-5cc5-49b0-a5c8-03e5d2a7a2a9/_XT39511.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Here’s another view of a Desert Bighorn. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3a6a9790-1c51-4293-8a30-7b070ce73980/_XT22450.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Taken shortly after sunset, this photo well showcases the vibrant and fading night colors that painted both the overcast sky and the sandy-colored hills of Death Valley. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/10ea5f73-aca8-4ada-99a5-e824a20cf5e5/_XT22544.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out One of our first major stops outside of Death Valley was at Red Rock Canyon, which is semi-aptly-named, as there are a couple of sections where the only rock in sight is red, but for the most part, it’s just a shrubby, rocky desert. However, for a desert, there were a good amount and variety of birds, which was greatly appreciated, as it was a relief from the birdless no-man’s-land of Death Valley. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/0bc3e2ae-e47d-48c2-b21f-176d89a6b657/_XT39045.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out A closer look at the central peak of the mountain depicted in the previous image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/a2bdcf2a-e74e-4942-84ec-3901c538a8cb/_XT39173.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Another Zebra-tailed Lizard. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/939c200e-b1d9-45f7-bdc4-49d197630b15/_XT22072.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out This first picture of a captivating mountain ridge-line comes to us from the tall, snow-capped peaks of the Eastern Sierra. These mountains are the main geological dividing line between Nevada’s vast sagebrush sea and the rich agricultural farmlands and cattle pastures of California’s central valley. Even in Spring and right next to ground temperatures that went up as high as 90 degrees, the snow remained mostly unmelted, which provided an interesting contrast to the bleak and gray mountains that they rested upon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/f58a34a4-32ab-49da-bfda-a44ad3ab547e/_XT39296.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Whether these were made by early settlers, Native Americans, or people who lived here thousands of thousands of years ago is unknown. However, there are handprints and drawings that have been made at other sites in Red Rock Canyon that were created many millennia ago. We did get a chance to view one of these drawing sites, but unfortunately, it was already mostly damaged and worn away by tourists. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3d282dfa-43f9-4410-8f71-643781bc22b3/_XT22619.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Fake New York. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/128c61b9-9dc9-4e1a-93fc-4cda85ddfbd0/_XT39223.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out One of the smaller and more interesting reptiles we found in Death Valley were the Side-blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana). Incredibly variable, we found many of these lizards but believed each to be of different species. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/8169077b-8c9b-4c0d-8b19-e8b683983f5c/_XT39209.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Here’s a Common Chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater) sunbathing on a rock. Chuckwallas come in both white and black colorations, which most likely has to due with the color of the rocks they grow up in (black chuckwallas probably blend in better with black rocks and the same thing for white chuckwallas and white rocks). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/fa2c47a5-2475-43fe-80ac-445e8a2c196b/_XT22616.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out We did spend an hour in the Vegas Strip, photographing the various lights and buildings structures. It was not that great in terms of photo opportunities, as most of the stuff seemed pretty fake, like this Statue of Liberty. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d3dfa47d-584c-4feb-aff7-b885e23e27de/_XT22632.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Fake Paris. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/36e53b26-4229-453e-b359-38873dc6288b/_XT39180.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out On the other hand, here is another Common Chuckwalla, but this time of the white coloration. This particular one was a bit annoyed at having its picture taken and stared at us with a gaze of pungent animosity. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/4d815485-cfdc-40cb-8508-3cb2c41c6333/_XT39734.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Though occurring in lesser numbers, there were also a couple babies among the flock of sheep. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/f17234cc-b647-4971-84a7-d3039f9e033f/_XT39140.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 1 - Landscapes and Non-Avian Wildlife - Make it stand out Throughout our trip, we encountered a ridiculously high number of lizards from a variety of species. This is a Zebra-tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconoides). We saw lots of these lizards in Death Valley, and they range throughout most of the arid expanses of the Southwestern US and Northwestern Mexico. https://theauklet.com/blog/2022-death-valley-trip-part-2-birds monthly 0.5 2022-04-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/536cfcc8-f9de-4dab-ab19-80783b605cad/_XT39784.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out A rare sight on the open water, we had many Common Gallinules (Gallinula galeata) floating from reed bed to reed bed, most of the time out in broad daylight. These birds may look similar to American Coots (Fulica americana), and that’s because they are closely-related and are both in the rail family. However, despite the relative friendliness of coots, almost all other rails are secretive birds that spend their entire lives hidden deep within marshes and reeds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/4ae81caa-53a5-4a6f-99b7-4f53eec045e5/_XT39846.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Very common in the preserve were Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata). These birds are by far the most widespread warbler in the United States. There are a couple different subspecies, but this one is an Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata audoboni). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/5f18d405-4f51-4a52-92c0-bcffba2f5ad1/_XT39884.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Another view of the same grackle. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/e352b590-2ee4-4b4f-ad64-55a74bb15b28/_XT39938.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out A bird that long pained me throughout this vacation was Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps). These pesky little passerines were by far the hardest avian lifeforms for me to photograph. They loved flitting around and only holding still for half-a-second. This photo was the best I got for waiting over an hour at a very picturesque spot that they often frequented. Interestingly enough, Verdin are the only member of the Penduline Tit family that made it over to the New World. Also, they are the only member of this family to not build elaborate hanging bag nests, not dissimilar to but usually more elaborate than the nest of an average Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/c2bbce3e-4948-41a5-a171-87dc218a8ba1/_XT39644.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out An opportunistic White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) diving in to grab an errant corn flake during a lapse of our attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/bb5cb82f-96bb-4244-ba2c-e959ca5a2143/_XT39813.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Here’s another view of a different Yellow-headed Blackbird. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/ae3976a2-c515-49ac-a68a-fd55bbdfe1f4/_XT39229.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Being a desert, Death Valley wasn’t really a bird-infused area, so most of my bird pictures came from the various parks around Las Vegas, like in the instance, of one of Red Rock Canyon’s Woodhouse’s Scrub-jays (Aphelocoma woodhouseii) foraging for food in the early morning sun. A guy was feeding the jays, so they did come in close, but usually only one picture, before flying back down hill. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3208c565-74f8-441d-851d-44b70f051c4e/_XT39901.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Unlike Verdin, the White-crowned Sparrows that came to the same spot stayed for a much longer time, and I was rewarded with such photos as this one, although this individual is a bit ratty. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d3fcd493-066b-46aa-99dc-db57d979fa9a/_XT39379.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out A member of the Phoebe genus Sayornis, the Say’s Phoebe (Sayornis saya saya) is a small Tyrant Flycatcher whose namesake call can be heard penetrating throughout the arid Western landscapes it inhabits. There are two subspecies of this Phoebe, one, quiescens, is found in Baja California, and the other, saya, is found throughout the Western US, Canada, and surprisingly enough, central Alaska, which does kind of make sense, because though Alaska is cold, it can be pretty dry. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/ccf34f64-bf54-405f-b3bd-539719c47977/_XT39587.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out The only species of wren we saw on this trip was the Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus). As their name suggests, they live on rocky outcrops and cliffs. They live throughout most of the Western US and Mexico, with their range going as far South as Costa Rica. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1ac4e227-cbb8-4eb8-aa69-933b63d83613/_XT39881.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Giving off a similarly-annoying noise to that of the Yellow-headed Blackbird, we had a couple Great-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) that, though having a wider variety of songs than those back home, were still generally unpleasant. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/aecc5f8d-fdc1-4258-bc4f-9da07406e799/_XT39357.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out A bird that we were not expecting at all was Black-chinned Sparrow (Spizella atrogularis). This sparrow prefers rocky outcrops and canyons, so it’s not entirely a surprise, we just didn’t think we’d see it. This is also a sparrow that has a range, albeit limited, in the Bay Area. I was planning to go see it at some point at Mount Diablo, but it turns out I won’t need to make that long drive after all. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/e81774da-e9a4-4b80-8357-715ac4e8c070/_XT39567.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Almost Verdin-like (Auriparus flaviceps) in nature, Lucy’s Warbler (Leiothlypis luciae) is the smallest species of New World Warbler. It is also one of two species of the same family that nest in cavities, the other being Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea). It took me a very long time to even get this not-so-great picture of the bird, due to how often it moved, a trait shared by many other small and dull-colored passerines. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/b84291d2-f49d-49b5-971c-0500deb5422f/_XT39033.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Our first bird of the trip was a female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) that had made its nest on a clothesline at my Grandparent’s house. Every so often, it would flit away to grab some food for its babies, but then quickly come back to feed them. Unfortunately, the nestlings were not to be seen as they had only very recently hatched. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/18be4d31-311e-4d9c-bf69-846fdec9cc7e/_XT39741.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out The only place that wasn’t a desert, Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve was by far the best place we went in terms of birds. Out back, there were around seven large ponds for ducks and other riparian birds to enjoy, but there were also a couple bird feeders where we had many Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) and Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/8b967094-7482-4fe8-b896-7d22405618ee/_XT39458.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out …and another one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3fcc31b3-1228-4227-af1b-8da004c94c36/_XT39676.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out The same White-crowned Sparrow standing dejected after a Whitetail Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus) wrangled the flake from its grasp. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/140ed96b-21ae-4336-bacf-bd5dbceff3fb/_XT39950.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Speaking of blackbirds, a couple of Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) also visited the feeders. These Icterids were a tad uncommon in the preserve, but their mechanical and metallic grating calls could be heard from miles away. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3c46a1bb-425c-4d49-a766-22cfa68868a8/_XT39821.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out The feeding behavior of dabbling ducks may seem slightly odd to the average viewer, but rest-assured this is completely normal. Usually, they dabble in pairs or alone, but sometimes they form these circular structures that drag fish into them like a whirlpool. These two particular feeding circles are consisted entirely of Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata), a very apt name given due to the duck’s almost rectangular beak. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/dcbdb31b-2f04-479d-9996-c13e9dc25b61/_XT39445.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out With that excessively-long paragraph about junco systematics that doesn’t even scratch the surface of their complexity out of the way, let’s take a look at a very fat junco. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/07bb911d-80fb-4970-a808-40110e3c165a/_XT39272.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Also at Red Rock Canyon was this Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus). Oddly enough for a Western shrubby desert place like Red Rock, there were no other towhee species, and there wouldn’t be until next winter when they’d get Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus). Interestingly, only about an hour to the Southeast is Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, where we had Abert’s Towhee (Melozone aberti). This makes sense, because although Abert’s Towhee is found in typically more drier areas, it still sticks to more riparian habitats. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/86664d5e-140d-4486-9f4c-88b6c3f1ef8f/_XT39460.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Less than 50 miles away from the 90 degree heat of Red Rock Canyon is Mount Charleston, a large mountain that is packed tight with not just coniferous and deciduous trees, but also snow. With temperatures low enough that we had to wear jackets, Mount Charleston seemed to be in direct contradiction to the desert that surrounded it. However, with the cold and the dramatic change in habitat came Gray-headed Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis caniceps). These are most similar taxonomically to the Red-backed subspecies (J. h. dorsalis), but the Dark-eyed Junco in general is a incredibly complicated and confusing species when it come to taxonomy. While Red-backed and Gray-headed Juncos may be less confusing, there are many other subspecies “groups” of juncos which total up the number of subspecies to 15! There are around six groups, many of which only contain one subspecies, that are each relatively distinct visually, but within each group, it can get ridiculously convoluted. For instance, the Oregon Junco group (which is the group we have in the Bay Area) has 8 subspecies, each of which are virtually indistinguishable. Not to mention, due to the absurd number of Dark-eyed Juncos that the average area contains, both variation and vagriation are very common, making separating subspecies even harder. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/c5d80d98-b23d-447a-a60c-01897d982cc8/_XT39913.jpg Blog - 2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds - Make it stand out Imagine if this was a Verdin. https://theauklet.com/blog/2022-earthwatch-arizona-trip-part-1-owls-at-the-southeastern-research-station monthly 0.5 2022-07-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/26bc6f6a-c063-4605-bae5-7e0ef62dc5a3/_XT31605.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Another owl, this time in the hands of Dr. Dave Oleyar. The owl seems to be giving off an expression of bewilderment and confusion over its present situation. Interestingly enough though, the owls were relatively calm and sometimes it took some coaxing to get them to fly off. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/d925e851-2a08-46c3-936d-ab8bb4089dbb/_XT31763.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out The mountains surrounding the Southwestern Research Station were spectacular in the early morning light. I had to get up at 4:30am to see this sight, and the previous night, or well, that morning, I went to bed at around 1am. My lack of sleep was worth the view though, and I did manage to get a couple of hours here and there throughout the day, and by the time evening rolled around, I was ready to do it all again. The Chiricahua Mountains are a part of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain Range, which runs North-to-South through most of western Mexico and whose northernmost extent just barely reaches into Southern Arizona and New Mexico. A lot of bird species that are endemic to the Sierra Madre Occidental have the edge of their range extend into this region of the Southwestern US. One of the owls we were attempting to find, the Whiskered Screech-Owl (Megascops trichopsis), is a good example of one such species. Most of the habitats in the Chiricahuas that we surveyed were of one of the following three: oak woodlands, semi-riparian woodlands consisting mainly of Arizona Sycamores, and high-elevation pine forests. Each habitat has different species of birds, and with that, unique owls. In the spring, the rivers and streams have a lot more water, but at the time of year I was there, most of it had dried up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/76c4d840-acbc-4025-9042-479543128766/_XT31886.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Kassandra Townsend holding a Whiskered Screech-Owl (Megascops trichopsis). She is one of the researchers working with the owls at the Southwestern Research Station. Her research on owls concerns the microclimates within tree cavities and how owls take this into consideration when selecting a nest site. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/c2fee475-9f84-41c5-9650-130384cf1208/_XT31996.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Although we never caught this species of owl, we did find a nesting site with a female Western Screech-Owl (Megascops trichopsis) guarding nestlings. This part of the research is tricky and needs delicate care in order to not disturb the owls more than is needed to collect the data. Not surprisingly she was unhappy we had discovered her nest and struck at the camera several times while we attempted to photograph the nestlings and obtain data about the cavity. Eventually, she stood by and watched while hooting to voice her displeasure at our intrusion. Not wanting to disturb the owl too long, we very quickly recorded the necessary data and then left. We found this owl via a method called cavity plotting. Plotting is a rather lengthy procedure. The first step is to lay out the 50-meter measuring tapes. We had to do this relatively accurately in order for the plot to work, and thus it involved all nine of us all doing our jobs correctly in perfect cohesion. Usually, we were a couple of meters off when we joined up the tapes. In the best cases, we were a meter or less off, which was pretty good considering we had to bushwhack through all kinds of shrubbery to get to the endpoints. At the 25m points, we extended additional 50m tapes to get a center point at a distance of 25m from each of the other tapes. Then, a pair of two people would go around to each of the points (including the center) and record the canopy cover percentage using a spherical densiometer. That kind of densiometer looks like a small portable handheld mirror with squares carved into it. Using this device, we counted the number of points that are covered by the canopy and how many weren’t (there are four points to a square). While they were doing that, the rest of us would go out and hug trees. That is, calculate DBH, which is the diameter of the tree at chest height. However, it varies from person to person and some people have to measure it at different points. I measured my DBH at my own chest level but most of the other people had to measure it at the bottom of their noses, or in some cases the tops of their heads. However, we had an order to this DBH madness. There was a person at the center point with a keyhole prism to see how many and which trees fit within the BAF, or basal area factor. The trees that fit the appropriate BAF were measured for DBH and had their species determined. Finally, after that, we divided up into two teams of four, each with a gaffer (cameraperson), a screen person, a scribe, and another person with other tools, such as a DBH tape. Each team then covered two quadrants and examined each tree for cavities. Upon finding one, we checked it to see if it qualified for a cavity and, with the camera, if there was anything inside of it. Then the scribe recorded data. Usually, the cavity searching process was the longest. Depending on how annoying the terrain was to traverse, it could take anywhere from around an hour to sometimes 3 or 4. We only once found an owl among all the plots we conducted, but every plot still had tons of useful data, and we made sure to record all of it. This concludes part one of a three-part series of my 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip. Come back later to see parts 2 and 3! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/a564db5e-a233-403b-9164-26574a59f436/_XT31870.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out At some point after capturing every owl, Dave would tell everyone to turn off their headlamps. Then, he would turn on a black light and shine it on the wings of the owl, illuminating the scene with hues of dark blue and purple. Some owls would look relatively normal under close inspection, but others, like this one, would have feather regions take on a pinkish tone. This denotes where new feathers have recently grown in and indicated to us that this bird was in the process of or had just molted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/ca65ac7a-a433-4cf3-b953-13077faefe13/_XT31963.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Here is another Whiskered Screech-Owl being held by Day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/af1cb91d-be77-4e2d-8fc5-e33b000a3185/_XT31935.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Yet another Whiskered Screech-Owl, this time being held by researcher Day Scott, a wildlife photographer, conservationist, educator, and feature writer who has written articles for the blog of the National Audubon Society and for the WREN magazine. You can find her at @thewildernessgoddess on Instagram! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/28b0880f-af30-4f98-899b-a6ff765f3e53/_XT31565.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 1 - Owls at the Southwestern Research Station - Make it stand out Here we have an owl being bagged by Kassandra prior to being weighed. Asides from that, we also kept them in bags if we were trying to catch another owl at the same time. This way, we wouldn’t catch the same owl that had already been netted previously. Often while still in the bag or sometimes even when in hand, being more concerned about the fictional trespasser than its own predicament, the captured owl would hoot in response to the recordings we were using to bring in its mate. https://theauklet.com/blog/2022-earthwatch-arizona-trip-part-2-hummingbirds monthly 0.5 2022-08-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/fe568ec3-1016-4a1a-b27a-95a489442990/_XT32146.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out The Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) is a relatively small and common western hummingbird. They share this genus with the similar-looking eastern US’s Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), which is the only regularly occurring hummer species on the East Coast. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/b07920be-7043-440a-b630-d93dc986a384/_XT32095.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out Can you find the hummingbird? Though slightly smaller than the mountain-gem, the Rivoli’s Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens) is, in my opinion, by far the better in terms of beauty. Its whole body is a mesmerizing combination of reflective greens and blues. In better lighting, the whole gorget is an iridescent purple. Sadly, in this photo, it’s a bit far-off. These hummers didn’t sit that still around the feeders, preferring to quickly but violently disrupt the hummingbird feeding hierarchy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/32effa68-c3a1-4d4f-a16f-36a43cf3ceaf/_XT32206.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out The same individual but in a different position. In this picture, the beak looks a lot shorter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/cce10942-55b2-4bb9-958e-91bb4013e17a/_XT32214.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out The Berylline Hummingbird (Saucerottia beryllina) is a bird normally not seen too often in the US. Though in recent years the frequency at which a vagrant of this species has been found has increased, it is still a rare bird. I was told by one of the groups at the research station that was working on hummingbirds that they had seen a Berylline, so the following morning, I went out looking for it. After maybe 20 minutes or so, it showed up at one of the feeders, but not long enough for good pictures. So, I waited maybe 10 or so more minutes for it to come back and after a bit, it did. It didn’t seem to like hanging around the feeders that often. So again, I had a very quick window of time to snap a photo of it, but this time I was prepared and sure enough, it paid off. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/21ad9957-6c6d-41ce-be19-de53fbb46050/_XT32012.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out Here’s another photo of a Blue-throated Mountain-gem. Oddly enough, the bird reminds me of the White-eared Hummingbird as it has the namesake trait and also a proportionally short bill, which both species have, although it is more prominent in the White-eared Hummingbird. Despite this slight resemblance, they actually are in different subfamilies, with the mountain-gem being in the, well, “mountain-gem” subfamily, Lampornithini, and the other being in the “emerald” subfamily, Trochilini. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/49fde7dd-d203-405f-ad80-4fe229777691/_XT32189.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out Looking like an absolute buffoon, we have here an Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) masquerading as a hummingbird. Every so often, the bird would fly in, give a confused “waka-waka” call, and then try to get nectar out of the hummingbird feeders. Despite being quite oversized for the feeders, the woodpecker still was able to consume some sugar water, much to the distaste of the hummers, who did not take kindly to its presence as they angrily chittered away, waiting for this sugar bandit to leave. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/6aff8e2f-7331-4b23-9164-c4b86153f23c/_XT31415.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out Formerly known as the Blue-throated Hummingbird, the Blue-throated Mountain-gem (Lampornis clemenciae) is the largest hummingbird whose range extends into the US. I looked hard for this bird the last time I went through Arizona, but I was unable to find it. This hummingbird was very common at the station’s feeders. Being as large as they are, when it’s time for them to eat, they are able to aggressively shove any other hummingbird out of the way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/7a6ba377-d9c3-4bd7-bd1f-a17fa333da8f/_XT31477.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 2 - Hummingbirds - Make it stand out One last Blue-throated Hummingbird photo. https://theauklet.com/blog/2022-earthwatch-arizona-trip-part-3-other-creatures monthly 0.5 2022-12-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/4239b56e-f15a-458b-b23f-c9eb56233c5e/_XT32269.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Although confiding the last time we were there, for some reason, the Yellow-eyed Juncos (Junco phaeonotus) decided to be warry and cautious of our presence. I had to hike off-trail to get a photo of this one, and even still, it wasn’t very confiding. We found this bird at Mount Lemmon slightly to the Northwest of Tucson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/e16d8b77-6548-4ac5-9df2-808a1b40a1cc/_XT32602.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out A young Say’s Phoebe (Sayornis saya) perched on a branch. You can tell it’s a young bird due to the yellow gape at the edge of its mouth. However, it seemed to be relatively independent and was voraciously consuming any insect that dared make its presence known to the phoebe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/3d3654dd-5003-46ed-8050-2233fa5a931c/_XT31535.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out This small moth of unknown species almost completely blended in with its surroundings. However, it’s constant necessity to flit incessantly from perch to perch easily gave away its presence as it moved closer and closer towards its destination: water. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/eeb4bc5c-c157-4169-9991-eb2311a876cd/_XT32328.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Ominously circling above us, this Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) was scouring the landscape for any bit of carrion. It hung around us for a while before determining that it would require too much effort to consume us. The others were smarter and mostly ignored us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/f70abf82-7c14-465f-ba75-362a1d6a9d02/_XT32432.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out This Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) at Cataract Lake was a bit perturbed at our presence. It was guarding a nest (presumably still with eggs, as we didn’t see any nestlings), and so we quickly left after snapping a couple shots. Its partner was at the nest earlier in the day, but it flew off to fish before we were able to get any pictures of it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1c13f5f2-00a6-4043-ab94-d78f0635cbeb/_XT32580.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Singing from almost every water-bordering shrub were the Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). However, only a few of them perched conspicuously enough to be photographed, and only this one stayed and posed for us while we approached and admired it. These majestic Yellow-headed Blackbirds are a sight that can be seen across most of the Western and Central US in the summer. However, they abstain from the coasts, and thus sadly we don’t get them in San Francisco, asides from the few that arrive as vagrants. But you can’t have everything all the time, and whenever I leave the Bay Area, I know that I can look forward to seeing these birds again. This concludes my three-part series of my 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip. Come back later to see more blog posts! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/a2e102e3-7648-4bf2-994e-3ade4b3cd952/_XT32664.jpg Blog - 2022 Earthwatch Arizona Trip Part 3 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out The last birding location on our trip was Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. Y’all may remember that I visited this place back in April when we went on a trip to Death Valley and some of the canyons around Las Vegas. Well, we decided to revisit it, and it was just as birdy as it was the first time around. In addition, there were roaming hordes (well, more like small families) of bunnies trying to get their paws on anything green and edible but also attempting to avoid the omniscient gazes of the raptors. https://theauklet.com/blog/2023-earthwatch-arizona-expedition-part-1-owls monthly 0.5 2023-06-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/33ea09fd-298e-4daa-849a-754a13bf3862/_XT39307-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/91aec89c-32d8-4547-b800-bf529eb140e0/_XT39745-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/7cc76fd1-1d2a-4f1b-8094-b42d0a3a2883/_XT39295-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/431d5647-63b7-424a-b55c-d9d9d5be549b/_XT39570-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/635c7aa4-cd5d-4f38-8bbc-73ae9188393b/_XT39572-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/17957448-1639-41de-bf77-3b1d9bd30974/_XT39665-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/2f66f518-7df4-4053-9c7a-8678c01d7e69/_XT39440-2-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 1 - Owls - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://theauklet.com/blog/2023-earthwatch-arizona-expedition-part-2-other-creatures monthly 0.5 2023-06-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/69307773-b573-41b8-ad74-ce0ae0cd35eb/_XT39498-2-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/2d695ced-4bb6-478a-b825-0f52baf83c52/_XT39425-2-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/cec1bf1a-3c2c-4ad0-b652-516077da8f4d/_XT39511-2-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/53eab773-6abc-4fd5-a37a-97d3c4db9fd4/_XT39542-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/2f06257f-0802-4a1b-a9c2-68b8ca914afa/_XT39519-2-denoise-severe-noise.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/c7ccc379-af03-4096-a1ab-877ab67ceb3f/_XT39411-2-denoise-standard.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/448468a7-5aae-4ccf-9018-60d2c99f8d28/_XT39324-2-denoise-standard.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/2e135396-1976-4a00-877b-3c5f4dd072b9/_XT39487-2-denoise-low-light.jpg Blog - 2023 Earthwatch Arizona Expedition Part 2 - Other Creatures - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://theauklet.com/contact daily 0.75 2021-06-06 https://theauklet.com/about daily 0.75 2022-02-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b3b55e2a3fb20ef7fc2a8b/1622914947129-UNK29Y1M7AHNI7IAJB76/_XT20853.jpg About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.