Post #18 - Greater sage-grouse showcase in Coalmont, Colorado!

First, I have created a Facebook page for The Speckled Hatchback. Please take two seconds to "like" it here. The more "likes" I can amass, the more potential there will to pull other people and organizations into the fold on the birding and conservation fronts.  It will also be a main pipeline through which I disseminate information moving forward. If you use already Facebook, please think about helping me with this, I would really appreciate it!

OK, on with birds! Greater sage-grouse was a bird that gave me nightmares during my bicycle Big Year. I spent countless hours tramping through appropriate sage habitat at a number of locations, mainly in Colorado, before I was finally able to flush about a dozen of the large but surprisingly sneaky grouse just north of Vernal, UT. This find was particularly meaningful as Sonia was visiting me during that time. She was able to share in the excitement as I finally ticked this species for year bird #503. It’s funny that she was present for a piece of the Colorado legs both this year and last. We both agree that if we don’t live on either coast, Colorado would probably be our destination of choice.

During my exhaustive sage-grouse search last year, I made friends with a couple of property owners in Coalmont, Colorado. After my visit last year, they invited me to return to their home whenever I wanted to search for grouse. This is a particularly outstanding invitation as they have a number of leks on their property! As I was passing through the area on the cross-country drive, I decided to take them up on their offer this year.

To get right to the point, finding Greater-sage grouse on their property and along the nearby Route 26A was criminally easy. Between 2 large leks, Sonia and I counted well over 100 individual birds. We didn’t even have to leave our cars for fantastic views. If anyone visits these areas in the future, I strongly suggest that you view the birds from your car. First, they don’t really seem to mind people as long as they/you are in cars. Two birds walked within 10 feet of my car! Second, you don’t want to be the moron that gets out and scares the birds off. It’s not good for the birds, and the other birders are likely to give you an earful. As incredibly entertaining as fights between birders can be, it’s probably better that we avoid them by being on our best behavior under circumstances such as these. This shot should give you an idea of the setting!

Greater sage-grouse "birdscape"

Coalmont, Colorado, 4/5/15

Canon 70-200mm IS v2 at 200mm on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/1250 at f/8, ISO 800

Apparently, spring came quite early to Colorado this year. While temperatures this morning started out at 22F, they climbed into the high 30s once the sun rose. This made for very pleasant viewing as the birds strutted for the better part of 2.5 hours. Birds arrived along route 26A around 5:45am, roughly an hour before sunrise. They stayed until around 8:15 at which point all of the ~60 birds had disappeared. The trick, like all grouse, is to get there early! If you go, plan to arrive at least an hour before sunrise to give the birds sufficient time to adjust to the presence of your vehicle. If everyone does this, it makes for better viewing for all.

Greater sage-grouse - Centrocerus urophasianus

Coalmont, Colorado, 4/5/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/1600 at f/8, ISO 800

1/1600 at f/8, ISO 800

Female/Hen

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Male displaying for 3 females/hens

1/2000 at f/7.1, ISO 800

1/800 at f/8, ISO 1600

1/2000 at f/8, ISO 800

Sonia and I spent that afternoon hacking around Coalmont and Walden. We each took a turn on our hosts’ horse (Hondo). He was quite docile so even a citiot (city + idiot) like myself could handle him. The day was rounded out with 6 moose as we made our way towards Craig and Sharp-tailed grouse. 

Sonia rides!

Sonia's exposures need a bit of work!

Post #17 - Wray, Colorado and Greater prairie-chicken

After my great success with Lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC), I turned my attention to its slightly larger and generally more common relative, the Greater prairie-chicken (GEPC). This bird has a significantly wider distribution that the LEPC, but few places are as productive for it as the sand-sage north of Wray, Colorado. It was there that I headed after Dodge City (KS).

One of the things I love about the American West is the preponderance of old stuff left to decay in farm fields. From an environmental standpoint it can be a bit depressing, but from a photographic viewpoint all this old junk provides countless opportunities to showcase the historical interaction between Americans and the land they inhabit. Unfortunately, most of these finds are fortuitous and as such must be photographed in whatever light presents itself at that exact moment. This means a lot of washed out, midday shots on which I elect to pass. As I approached Wray from the south, I found this amazing old station wagon along Route 395. The cloud cover muted the harsh light just enough that a 2pm shot proved workable. This shot reminds me that whatever damage we humans do the landscape, nature will, given enough time eventually find a way to triumph.

Reclamation project

South of Wray, Colorado 4/2/15

1/500 at f/8, ISO 500

I arrived in Wray on Thursday afternoon. Local landowners had put me onto 2 GEPC leks that they thought would be particularly productive from a photography standpoint. One was on the crest of a hill, and the other was at the bottom of a bowl. This will prove relevant in a bit. I scouted both empty leks on that afternoon so that I would have an idea of how to play things the next two mornings. Luckily, the forecast for both days was clear which meant I would have nice light for my shoots.

It snowed about 2 inches Thursday night. I was stoked since I thought the snow would add some interesting character to whatever shots I could get on that first morning. Sunrise on Friday was at 6:30am, so I decided to be at the lek area at 5:15am. This would give me the chance to settle in before the birds arrived. It was pitch black when I arrived, and I hunkered down in the snow for the next 3 hours.

My view of the moon

Birds started arriving well before sunrise, and eventually about a dozen males were strutting around from 20-60 feet from me. The sun eventually crested and gave me the light I would need for my shoot. The problem was that I had in the pitch black miscalculated the curve of the hill and found myself too low with respect to the birds. This meant most of the birds were hidden behind the hill’s crest where photographing them was impossible. There was also a lot of foliage at this site making clear shots very scarce. After 2 hours one bird did run up onto the hilltop. This was the only clear shot I had all morning so I had to make it count. I was able to crack off about a dozen frames before he ran off. These were the only shots I took in the 3 hours that I lay relatively motionless in the snow. Luckily, they proved to be nice! The first shot is the full frame. I wish I had a bit more room at the bottom, but I think the OOF (out-out-focus) snow helps to mitigate this technicality. Once the lek started to break up around 8:30, I slinked down the hill and headed back to my motel for a nap.

Greater prairie-chicken - Tympanuchus cupido

Wray, Colorado 4/3/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 + 1.4x III on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800, Manual mode

Greater prairie-chicken - Tympanuchus cupido

Wray, Colorado 4/3/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 + 1.4x III on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800, Manual mode

A view of the snowy roadside on my way out

Late that afternoon, Friday, I revisited the second lek, the one at the bottom of the shallow bowl, to make sure no such topographical miscalculation occurred when I visited it the following morning. There were quite a few birds strutting around that evening, and I made careful notes from several hundred yards away as to what areas the birds preferred. I noted a nice raised area surrounded by some grass that looked like it would be a relatively concealed but productive perch. It was about 16 fenceposts west of a particularly obvious bush. I would need to count these posts in the dark the following morning to find the spot I had eyed through my scope that afternoon. I also noted that there was much less grass and sage at this lek. I hope this would translate into unobstructed shots the following morning.

I returned that spot at 5:15am to get ready for my second shoot. The temperature was 29F. Lying on my belly in the grass (Thursday night’s snow had melted off by Friday afternoon), I though I was hallucinating when the moon disappeared. Something was off, but the sound of arriving and displaying birds distracted me from this astronomical aside. There were birds all around me. Their eerie booms and constant cackles sounded like something other-worldly. As the sun slowly rose, I was finally able to attach feathers to each source of sound. The birds today were very tolerant of my presence, and they even permitted a bit of crawling so as to reposition myself for clear shots. This shoot proved to be fantastic, and I walked out with a number of really nice frames. Females were in very short supply; They probably represented 6 of the ~30 birds that were present. At one point just before sunrise a coyote ran right through the lek and put all the birds up. Unfortunately there wasn’t yet enough light to shoot this very beautiful and health looking canine. It was a perfect morning even before I figured out I had witnessed an eclipse!

Greater prairie-chicken - Tympanuchus cupido

Wray, Colorado 4/4/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 + 1.4x III on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/1000 at f/5.6, ISO 1600, Manual mode

1/1000 at f/5.6, ISO 1600, Manual mode

1/1250 at f/5.6, ISO 1600, Manual mode

1/1250 at f/5.6, ISO 1600, Manual mode

This is a hen/female - many fewer of these

1/1000 at f/5.6, ISO 1600, Manual mode

With these huge successes behind me, I left Wray midday to head towards Denver. Sonia was flying in to do the last segment of the cross-country drive with me. I collected her at the airport and headed west into the mountains where we would seek the next prize, the Greater sage-grouse……..

Post #16 - To Kansas and Lesser-Prairie chickens!

Hello Everyone! I am sorry it has been so long between entries, but sometimes life gets in the way of birding. I spent the end of last month in Boston packing our stuff from our storage locker into a ship-a-cube-type-thingy to be carted across the country by some third party (ABF). Our whole life essentially fit into a creatively-packed 330 square feet (6x7x8)! Since then I have made steady progress westward en route to Los Angeles. While late-March and early-April mean relatively slow birding across the continent, grouse provide a very welcome exception to this generalization. With this is mind, I slowed my westward pace as I reached Western Kansas. Here, I hoped to rendezvous with my lifer Lesser prairie-chicken.

I will say that driving across the country presents some distinctly different impressions than biking across it. I forgot how much ground a person cover in a car. For example, on Day 2 of this journey, I covered ~730 miles from Philadelphia to Marshall, IL. This took approximately 11 hours. At a challenging but manageable 81 miles per day, this distance would have would have likely taken 216 total hours - 9 full days - on the bike. Using these numbers, this means that driving is 20 times faster than biking! In a car, I am also able to largely ignore the wind forecast and road conditions. These variables mean everything to a cyclist and virtually nothing to drivers. The ability to ignore these complications is further testament to how easy cars make our daily lives. Unfortunately, this ease comes with a price, a price that the environment ultimately pays. If we acknowledge this price, we are in a better position to think about how each of us might minimize it moving forward.

Interestingly, I did not visit any points between Philadelphia and Dodge City last year on my bicycle Big Year. Despite the great birding to be found at many of these points, I bypassed most of the midwest due to time constraints. My first birding stop on this westbound run was a quick and casual visit to Horseshow Lake just outside St. Louis. This stop was motivated purely by Eurasian Tree Sparrow, an introduced species I have seen only once before (on my first cross country drive from Palo Alto to Boston after college). After ticking this bird (for what list I am not sure!), I continued west towards Dodge City, KS.

Lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC) is a grassland bird that has experienced great declines in its historical numbers. One piece that I found online puts current population levels at 15% of those in the early 1800s. Not surprisingly, habitat destruction is cited as the prime reason for this alarming drop. The birds have struggled as their shinnery oak and sand-sagebrush grassland homes have been converted to open cattle ranges and farm fields. Southwestern Kansas has one of the healthiest populations of the birds, and it was there I headed with hopes of finding this would-be life bird. 

Lesser-prairie chicken range - from eBird

Looking in eBird, there were several recent sightings (in the last week) of LEPC north of Dodge City. I arrived in town late in the afternoon, and, after a brief nap, headed out to the general area of these sightings. Never having birded this area before, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of Ring-necked pheasants I observed. The 20+ I saw on that day were almost certainly more than I had seen in my life until that date. If I am lucky, I get 1/year in the northeast these days. I found the particular prairie-dog town from which LEPCs had been recently reported. Picking through lumps of prairie-dogs Burrowing owls, I methodically found 10 LEPCs hunkered down in the grass surrounding the town. This could not have been easier and fully verifies eBird as an amazing birdfinding tool. The birds were painfully inactive, so I decided to return the following morning under the assumption there would be more activity around day break. eBird checklist of my evening visit. Harris's sparrows were another nice bird.

A 5:30am wake-up put me back at the birding area at 6:30 - sunrise was at 7:30. It turns out that the lek was relatively close to the road. Starting at around 7:00am, there was a huge ruckus as 10-11 males cackled, boomed, foot-stomped, and fought with one another in hopes of impressing the limited (1-2) number of females present. This went on for at least the next 2 hours. Some of the birds were still at it at 9am when I finally left. This was my first lek experience, and it was truly a spectacle that I will never forget. I find it fascinating that this behavior is genetically hard-wired into this and other grouse species. Humans go to dance classes in large part to attract mates. These male birds need no lessons before they perform their highly stereotypes dances. Equally interesting is that females some how discern between what to my eye looked like identical 'Humpty Dances' (best party song of the 90s!).

Prairie-dog town and LEPC lek area

Most of the birds were out of photo range, but one individual did fly in and land with in acceptable range before quickly running off elsewhere. This shot still represents an ~80% crop (kept 20%). 

Lesser prairie-chicken - Tympanuchus pallidicinctus

April 2, 2105 - North of Dodge City, TX

Canon 500 mm f/4 IS v1 + 1.4x III on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/200 at f/5.6, ISO 1600

*very slow shutter as sun just broke the horizon

Post #15 - Speaking dates being booked!

Since I am still city-bound, I'll just throw up a quick post to let everyone know that I have created a speaking schedule that is linked here and can be found as a tab below the banner picture above. I just this week have been invited to lecture at the Falsterbo Birding Show and Festival in Southern Sweden in September!  It looks as though there will be an additional talk in Copenhagen the following week. As these are my first international speaking dates, this is very exciting indeed! 


I am also getting very excited for my cross country drive. The plan is to get to Colorado as fast as possible and spend the majority of my time chasing grouse around. I am hoping to get some decent photos so please check back sometime after April 8 or so for those!

Post #14 - Getting restless, plan for X-country trip, Colorado grouse!

The countdown is on! Only ten more days in New York City. I will head to Boston at the end of next week, pack our storage locker into a shipping cube the following weekend, and then immediately start the drive to rendezvous with Sonia in Los Angeles!

Right now this is the route I think I am going to take. Early April is generally slow birding as wintering stuff has mostly departed and the big push of spring birds has yet to arrive anywhere but the Gulf Coast. Luckily, Colorado grouse season is in full swing in Early April! My plan right now is to race west to Colorado where I will spend a few days chasing grouse around before continuing west to California. After the great lengths to which I went to tick the grouse on my bicycle Big Year last year, it would be sweet redemption to see a few of them on their lekking grounds this year. Anyone who has any advice or special access that they would be willing to share, please email me at thespeckledhatchback@gmail.com or bikingforbirds@gmail.com. 

I am terribly sorry for the lack of content the last few weeks. There is ZERO going on birdwise in Manhattan at the moment, and without a car I haven't got many options. Even as spring is arriving I find myself housebound with some form of exhausting viral infection. I am also putting most of my writing efforts into my book at the moment. I have cranked out close to 35,000 words, so I am making good progress. Who knows how much of that will be in the final version, but the trick at this stage is just to get all of my stories, experiences, and thoughts onto the page. It slow but it's lots of fun!

Once I put a bigger dent in the book, I will be doing more conservation- and environment-centric writing on this blog. This will help to augment whatever bird content I can generate!

I promise there will be loads of content once I set up shop in LA. Please stay with me through the move and check back frequently!

Post #13 - Boston winter birding, lots of good birds - Tufted duck!

I had some business to conduct in Boston this week, and I managed to squeeze in a bit of birding here and there. Massachusetts winter birding is about as good as it gets by east coast standards. Not only are there usually huge volumes of sea ducks, but birds like Snowy owl, King Eider, Black-guillemot, Dovekie, Thick-billed murre, Iceland gull, and Glaucous gull are imminently more findable in Massachusetts than at any point farther south. This was precisely the reason that I braved the New England winter at the outset of my Bicycle Big Year last year. Throw in birds like Snow bunting, Lapland longspur, Purple Sandpiper, Barrow's goldeneye, Common eider, Harlequin duck, Black-legged kittiwake, and Great cormorant, and it's possible to see many if not all of the Northeastern winter specialties in just a couple days of casual birding. Those that have been thinking about visiting coastal Massachusetts in the winter might want to investigate the Cape Ann Birding Festival which occurs in February of each year. I highly recommend Charlie's Place for a seafood lunch if you ever find yourself in Gloucester. Alnateratively, you could sample of the famous North Shore Roast Beef on any of numerous establishments.

I arrived in Boston on Monday afternoon. I did not have a ton of time, but I hit Revere Beach for a few hours of gull photography. The beach above the high tide line is still buried under several feet of snow. Scrambling over this snow, I immediately found a beautiful 1st year / immature Glaucous gull. This guy was fairly approachable, and I managed some nice shots of him as he chased the other gulls around. Loads of clams wash up on Revere beach after each winter storm; There is never a shortage of gulls at this seafood buffet. I also found a single Iceland gull. I expected to find more given how many of them have apparently been around Coastal Massachusetts this winter. In full disclosure, I was struck by a bit of tunnel vision as I tried to photograph these two birds. There were admittedly many gulls through which I did not have time to pick. I am happy with the photos though!

Snow drifts on Revere Beach

Glaucous Gull

Revere Beach, Boston, Massachusetts, 3/2/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 400, Manual mode

Glaucous Gull

Revere Beach, Boston, Massachusetts, 3/2/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 400, Manual mode

Glaucous Gull

Revere Beach, Boston, Massachusetts, 3/2/15

Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 400, Manual mode

***Import gave this photo with a pinkish cast not present in original***

Iceland Gull

Revere Beach, Boston, Massachusetts, 3/2/15

Canon 500 mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/7.1, ISO 800, Manual mode

Iceland Gull

Revere Beach, Boston, Massachusetts, 3/2/15

Canon 500 mm f/4 IS v1 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/6.3, ISO 800, Manual mode

***Import gave this photo with a warmer cast not present in original***

As I had a full day of commitments on Wednesday, Tuesday was my only truly open day. I headed up to Cape Ann on that morning and spent most of the day kicking around Gloucester and Rockport. Given all the accumulated snow, access was certainly an issue in some spots. I was also not able to position myself at appropriate angles for photography, so I didn't walk away with any keep shots.
I did have an very nice day of birding highlighted by 50(!) Iceland gulls at Jodrey Pier.  King eider, Black guillemot, Razorbill, and Red-necked grebe were observed at Bass Rocks. At Andrew's Point,  a big raft of all 3 scoters with associated Common eiders, Harlequin ducks, and Long-tailed ducks bounced just yards from the shore. I have not seen scoters so close at this location before, so that was a nice treat. Otherwise all the usual seaducks and gulls were observed as expected. With all the snow and ice, I couldn't get quite close enough to water's edge to take any photos today.

Gloucester Harbor - yes, that's ice in salt water!

More of the harbor

After a full day of errands on Thursday, I left Boston on Friday morning. I did take a swing through Waltham where a couple of Bohemian waxwings had been reported during the week. Pulling into the Biagio's parking lot adjacent to the Charles River, I immediately saw a flock of ~50 waxwings. A quick scan produced 3 Bohemians! They were very close overhead and quite approachable, but they never really gave me a clear shot with branches and shadows of branched cutting through the frame no matter what I did. This was only the third time that I have observed this species, upstate NY in 2009 and Ottawa in 2013. This was by far the best took I have had at this species!

Bohemian Waxwing record shot

No technical details provided

Bohemian Waxwing record shot

No technical details provided

Driving back to NYC on Friday, I stopped to visit a two birding friends in Easton, CT. Heading out on Saturday morning, we managed to relocate a continuing female Tufted Duck near Bridgeport. It was a distinct look, but it provided nice comparisons as it fed in the company of both Scaup, Redheads, and Canvasbacks. This was the fourth time I have seen this bird in the ABA area (Lifer at Bolinas Lagoon 2000(?) and twice in Massachusetts during 2012 and 2013. 

I am keeping a running list of birds that I see this year that I did NOT see last year. So far there are 4 species on this list: Common redpoll, Gyrfalcon, Bohemian Waxwing, and Tufted duck. I'm very curious to see how many bird will end up on this list by years end. California pelagics should give me quite a number, so maybe I'll get 25 total birds that are new this year versus last. Just kind of a fun game.....

Also, 50F in NYC today - there is actually hope! 

Me birding in Gloucester