Out There On The Waters
During the month of September, we had a very exciting time in the states of Arizona and California. It's a time when pelagic birds can randomly show up at local lakes, rivers and reservoirs. While none of the Arizona birds were lifers, they would be state birds. And the chase was one!
In a very random and exciting moment, two worlds came together accidentally and spent the day birding. A former co-worker and friend had just purchased a place on Lake Roosevelt. She had a pontoon and offered us crazy bird nerds a ride out on Lake Roosevelt to chase the very rare Long-tailed Jaeger. She loves challenges and we love those birds....therefore game on! So friends Gordon, Sochetra, Dee and Cathy joined forces to find some great Arizona rarities.
We had so much fun with Dee and Cathy as they took us around the lake. On that day, we were surrounded by hundreds of Clark's and Western Grebes. They'd zip around the pontoon while we searched for our jaeger(s). Apparently, there were 3 out there. Somewhere.
Along the way, we saw some funny things. People were enjoying the water. It was a warm day and people were out enjoying this larger lake/reservoir. A bird I don't get to see often in Southeastern Arizona is the Clark's Grebe as we are located somewhat out of its summer and wintering range. But they can show up from time to time in areas like Lake Patagonia. Usually it's a scope view, but on this day, we could almost touch them! But we didn't:) Clark's and Western Grebes breed in Lake Roosevelt. Also note that Clark's Grebes are overall whiter than their similar counterparts, the Western Grebes. One of the field marks we look for are the white above the eye. Their bill is also considered stronger and brighter. The Western Grebes have black below the eye with a "weaker" skinnier oranger bill. Hybrids can occur between these two similar species.
As we were telling Dee and Cathy about their mating dances, 2 Clark's Grebes got up off the water and performed their beautiful paired tap dance together. Spectacular!
Sochetra's eyes caught the side glide of the juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger in the distance. Dee was on it! And we spun around the lake following the bird until it finally touched down on the water. With a beer in hand and smile on our faces, we added our Arizona state tick and enjoyed the rest of our pontoon adventures around Lake Roosevelt spying on birds like Ospreys, an American White Pelican, Sabine's Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Red-necked Phalaropes and so much more. What a beautiful day out with friends. The Long-tailed Jaeger is a rarity here and isn't often seen in Arizona except for migration or during a hurricane event.
The following weekend, Sochetra and I headed to San Diego, California for a pelagic. On the way, we had to make a detour in Lake Havasu for a second record Yellow-footed Gull. This is a significant find and a curiosity for me. The Yellow-footed Gull is found in greater numbers along the Mexican shores of Baja California. However, this species is also found in smaller numbers at the Salton Sea where it ONLY breeds in the US. If the Salton Sea completely vanishes as is projected over the next decade, will this beautiful gull call Arizona home like their migrant human Californian counterparts? This bird is an endemic to the Gulf of California.
After we found our last new Arizona bird, we were off to the competition in San Diego where several big year listers were scheduled to be on board all at once. Most were hoping for murrelets like myself. Everyone went after the Little Stint and I gotta say that while it was a lifer, I didn't feel anything. It was a very empty tick and I don't like how I felt about observing that bird. It still bothers me. We spent time with the scope sifting through all the Western Sandpipers until we saw a similar looking bird chasing off the Western Sandpipers. That was our bird.
Black Storm-Petrel
All along the San Diego area, Sochetra and myself found a lot of rarities. There's really nothing to chase anymore so I end up spending quality time observing now without my camera. And funny how that happens. You spend more time with the binoculars carefully sifting through things instead of trying to get pics and you find more stuff! Imagine that!
And such was the case with this pelagic. There wasn't much new in the life bird category. However, I did have goals. My hope was to find some lifer murrelets like the Craveri's or get better views of a Nazca Booby. My other hope was to study the white rumped storm-petrel group better and learn how to ID them myself instead of someone else telling me what they were. I hate that.
juvenile Nazca Booby
The pelagic was relaxing and beautiful. Again, we met up with friends who have birded most of their lives. Most of us have been there and done that with few lifers to gain. But that doesn't stop the love of observing pelagic birds. I never get tired of observing shearwaters, auklets, phalaropes, gulls, jaegers or boobies. Global warming is a thing. Years ago, finding a booby on a pelagic would be an extreme rarity but today they are moving north. On this pelagic, it was significant to observe 3 species of boobies! Nazca Booby is an equatorial species that breeds on the far southern tip(considered northernmost range) of Baja California, Mexico but today, it can be found in few numbers around the Mexican/Californian coastline!
What was once considered an extreme rarity is now just "rarish" according to our team leaders. For me it was a lifebird and significant. The ship was dead silent. Birders were tired. Someone asked on the bow, "Where are all the birds?" We went for about 20 minutes without seeing anything on the water. Then the team leader called out on the loudspeaker, "Red-footed Booby!" And just like that, birders jolted back to life and that electric current was back in the air. But where? Everyone shouted, "WHERE?!!" And the leader casually says, "Above you." I looked up and the bird could've crapped on my head. It was that close. That was AWESOME!
After that, I just studied storm-petrels and jaegers. I was happy with our finds. I learned the differences between Townsend's and Leach's Storm-Petrels(the white rumped group) and enjoyed the Black and Least Storm-Petrels. With Townsend's SP, the white wraps around their tail area more and the fork in the tail is closer together. It's also not as "bright" as the Leach's, unless you get a dark morph Leach's:) But I got to see that too!
Comments
Post a Comment