Parts Unknown

These two Cactus Wrens gave me a good laugh at sunset. 

During these past few hot Arizona days, I've been walking around nearby parks and practicing with my light settings in the dark conditions to prepare for Trinidad.  This will be my final post from Tucson for awhile. 

Our monsoon may start early this year. 

As I walk the known, I prepare mentally for the unknown.  It is part of the life journey we all take.  Sometimes we do it alone.  Sometimes we share it. This is the way of all things. 

There are nights when I lose sleep because I am both excited and anxious.  Everything has been set up and yet still, I wonder, What am I forgetting? What's out there?!

Round-tailed Ground Squirrels live the life in this terrible heat

Would I ever have gone to Trinidad in my lifetime if it weren't for the birds?  Probably not. I am forever addicted to the Spanish and Portuguese speaking cultures. But if I am to find birds on this planet, I can't limit myself to what is comfortable. I am forced into parts unknown. Trinidad is close to Venezuela and is known as the gateway to the South American birding world while still maintaining a fantastic blend of Caribbean birds. The place I will be visiting, from my research, suggests that I'll be living the island culture similar to what I experienced when I lived on the islands of  Cape Verde, West Africa.  It is different. The words for the dances are different.  Instead of Praia's(Cape Verde) Funana, it will be the Trinidadian Calypso.  Instead of the secretive martial art dances of Capoeira, they practice a similar form known as Kalinda.  

Making my favorite meal.....Cachupa on the Cape Verdean island of Santiago

My experience on Cape Verde sheds a little insight on the cultural similarities where in history, island slave trade had happened. But Trinidad was also a huge trading center for many other things like spice. Today, Trinidad is truly a blend of so many different cultures weaved into one. While the days of old are gone, we can still find history hidden in the language spoken.  In Cape Verde, it's the Portuguese based kriolu. Not quite Portuguese at all.  And not a written language!

I was more teacher than birder during this time of my life.  I did look at birds and try to take pics of them with my terrible camera at the time:)  We still used FILM!!!

My very first chapters as a teacher began training students and teachers alike in language and language design for the classroom on the islands of Santiago and then later Sal. Now I will go to Trinidad, another island with similar histories. I'm always fascinated by what makes the culture different from other places I've been. I purposely rented an apartment for one week out of the nature area to study language, food and the people. It's more than just birds.  For me, it's also about the community that surrounds the birds. While English is spoken there, the familiar words are peppered with strange and new exotic ones.  An English based creole!

Black-crowned Night Heron

And here's the thing.  I can play it safe.  Or push myself to do better.  Be better.  This is the nature of birding.  It's a bittersweet emotion knowing that it may be the only time in this life of mine that I'll be visiting this island.  So I need to make it count. Rushing into an area to see the birds and then leave isn't fun at all.  I want the "cultural flavor" from the birding experience. 

An early and exciting Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a favorite bird of mine

I have my office space and desk.  I have my big meeting with the nature center getting all my birds set up.  It's a rather civilized approach to birding.  Meals are all prepared.  Transportation is there.  All I have to do is go outside my room and they take me away to the birding hotspots. It seriously is a great deal for birders.  Asa Wright can be a bit pricey but after the stress I had this year, I am treating myself to a birder's version of a "massage".  There's even tea time and some of this island adult flavored fruit punch:) So I'll be one week at Asa Wright and one week in Arima doing my cultural studies(and some light birding). 

I'll miss my girls.  Callie rests her head on my chest during the early morning hours.

This summer we'll be exploring island culture on Trinidad and Hawaii during the months of June and July.  I'll be meeting with people and their birds.  I have found that understanding culture is also key to the success of optimal birding.  Now, the birds are pushing me into unknown lands.

A Cassin's Kingbird at a local park

When we speak another language, whether it be bird, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, etc, we have a deeper meaning of their behaviors and culture.  Something always gets lost in translation, but when I speak Spanish or Portuguese, it gives me a deeper insight into the culture.  But as the birds and non-latin countries go, I am forced to start all over again.  

During the day, I am bored and trapped inside my house waiting for the terrible heat to subside. Instead I clean and research for the trip. PS. Catnaps are sacred.

On my last days in Tucson, I walk the familiar parks saying good-bye to my birds and play with light settings for a cave journey I'll be making for the Oilbird colony at the Asa Wright Nature Center. At first birding is easy. Then one has to travel (and) it's still relatively easy if you go to new areas.  But the nature of birding gets trickier the longer we play the game.  The hard part is picking up the endemics(which there are several on Trinidad) 

The tables that changed my life forever.  A balmy fire fly lit night near the Pipevine Road at our stay introduces me to birders who share their excitement and discoveries with us. 

My life's journey is about understanding people, their culture and the birds surrounding it all. The picture above is an important one. I snapped the pic to remember the clarity of thought that happened in this moment during our Panama visit. 

A Snail Kite sits next to me near our bench at the Pipevine Road

7 years ago, this month, I began my serious journey into the birding world. I changed. This blog changed. The photography changed. I let most of my negative attachments go in this world. My job became my job. And the birding and human experiences became my passions.

I discover the dangers of birding and realize that I loved it. On Coiba Island

I watched two birders have a candle lit dinner at a table next to ours in that Panama Canal style home. It was that specific moment that changed the way I saw everything. After our stay in Gamboa, Panama, we went to Coiba Island and discovered manakins. And that's where the addiction began! I know that wherever I go, I will fall in love because there are birds. I am a gypsy at heart.  One who likes good mole, a smoke filled tapas bar, a nice spicy bowl of kakik, and/or a simple breakfast of gallo pinto.  Now the cuisine will change.  The languages will be difficult in both bird and human forms. And I will somehow figure it all out.  The Trinidad adventures begin next week.  This post is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Bourdain.  I recently watched his show on Trinidad to give me a little background on Trinidadian cuisine and culture. He will be missed. 

A Big January

Recently added to the Maricopa Ebird count, this Rosy-faced Lovebird was found at Encantada Park in Phoenix

Have you ever found something in your life that you wish you could devote all your time to? I have felt this intense focus several times in my life, but last month, Ms. Kathie Brown and I worked on a "Big January".  Sometimes we worked together and other times, we worked alone because of our schedules.

American White Pelicans at Gilbert Ranch

The whole idea of a "Big January" is to count as many different species of birds as you can in your own state.       In the process, you count birds and submit them to Ebird which then shares your results with others who participate in the state.  At one point, I was number one, but work started up and interfered with my counts and travel.

Red-tail Hawk

It was so bad that at one point, I sat down and had to create a master plan of all the hot locations where diverse numbers of birds were seen.  In a sense, backtrack over all the previous locations where I had spotted my rare birds etc.  And in the process, I picked up over 15 new lifebirds!

Sandhill Cranes at Whitewater Draw

But I had a real challenge.....turning it off!  When it comes to investigating areas, I am really really OCD.  As a teacher, I use a lot of the strategies from my classroom for this hobby and it's a pretty powerful tool!  But turning it off and learning to say "NO" to that bird chase while someone else is finding them.....well that is super difficult. This is a competition!:) It's like the time I tried getting my Master Gardener title.  How can any non-retired person do something like this when they have a full-time job!!!????

Cactus Wren at Kennedy Lake in Tucson

There are so many stories from the chases and hunts with and without Kathie. They were so much fun.  Whether it was freezing from extreme temps, escaping snow storms, avoiding a Coati climb into my car for crackers while tracking a Hepatic Tanager, chasing lovebirds in a park full of homeless people in Phoenix, or sitting with some fishy smelling American White Pelicans as they got super close to me hiding in the reeds for those "perfect" shots, this challenge created a monster inside of me. And this really bad run-on sentence:)

Ferruginous Hawk

If I didn't see the target bird, I would get angry at myself. And if I found the bird, but took terrible pics, I would get frustrated.  Several were rare finds and it was irritating that I didn't move fast enough with my camera or get more observation time with the new birds. Tomorrow, I will have a special post showing you all the "okay" photos of the rare and exciting finds.  They have so many stories to go with them.

Savannah Sparrow 

The month flew by as the clock ticked.  Who would be the number one birder in Arizona? Well certainly not me.  After all I have a job!  And I'm not sure how the other birders do it. Unless of course, they are retired. However some of these people on the list are NOT retired.  Could it be an addiction?

I know that when I get up early in the morning, there are treasures just waiting to be found.  And they don't necessarily have to be birds.  It could be a skunk, a bear, a bobcat, etc etc that makes my day.  The thing is.....I never know what's going to be out there.  This "Big January" has forced me to really stay on top of my game.  I did get nervous about the birds I hadn't seen as I don't know their behaviors.  But the ones I do know, I could find easily!

And if there's one thing to say about a "Big January", it's really a review of our year working with our local birds....knowing their hangouts, the hiding places, and learning about their habitat.

Cassin's Kingbird

Many times, I would find myself in uncomfortable situations.  Driving random dirt roads that seemed to lead to nowhere or sitting in the bushes super close to larger birds like the American Pelican below.  I'm not a fish person and the smell of it on the pelican's breath is disgusting.  Trying not to throw up,  I got my shots and got out:)

So snakes may not be active around our desert right now, but it seems every mammal has been.  On a recent outing, I was searching for wild turkeys and found a skunk!  And I almost got sprayed.  Luckily I back away slowly from the raised tail, got my shots and turned around.  Unfortuneatly, a family and their aggressive dog weren't so lucky.  Had they been polite, I may have alerted them but I figure they'll have good bonding time after that experience.  It stunk pretty bad.

Snowy Egret

Tanagers in our desert are very uncommon during the winter.  But birders have spotted Summer, Hepatic, and Western Tanagers all around the Tucson area.  To our delight, after a long day hiking a trail, this Hepatic Tanager popped out for some dinner.  Birders everywhere snapped shots and then left the area.  It was weird.  The sun went behind the canyon and everyone went home.  "Big January" indeed.

Hepatic Tanager

I should also point out that while I've seen and heard many of the birds in this set of pics today, the one below is the one I'm proudest of.  A difficult bird to film is the wren......especially the Marsh Wren.  On this particular cold day, the Marsh Wren would appear briefly from the reeds at the Whitewater Draw allowing me first time observation of this secretive and fast bird. The coloring of the feathers is absolutely stunning.

Marsh Wren

Hawks.  Hawks.  And more HAWKS!  Red tail hawks have so many looks that it can drive a birder crazy.  We always think we've spotted something different until the marks lead us back to the.......Red Tail Hawk.  Our running joke was/is "Red Tail"!  Before we'd stop at every telephone post.  Now we slow down when we can and look for the various field marks.  It can drive this birder nuts.  But no matter how many times you see the Red Tail Hawk, it's always a beautiful thing!

So my count? 168 species. Pretty much everything is new this year for me as I just began the EBIRD craze so there isn't really anything to compare from previous years. So much goes into birding.  There's the people.  The experience.  The Observation.  Playing detective.  Getting the picture. Documentation. The Planning. And for what?  Personal satisfaction.  Knowing that you're helping out people who work with our birds around world.  The sport.  The experience. And to put it simply....it relaxes the body and excites the mind.  It's being an explorer again like those only centuries ago.

Yellow-throated Warbler

And the rank?  In Arizona, 9th place(for now:).  In Pima County, I'm tied for 6th place.  My goals this year are to find all the "regulars" in Arizona and develop strategies for my birding ventures outside of the state.  I am really wanting to maximize my time while birding abroad this year and the best way to train is here in Tucson:)  Every species of bird has their "thing".  If I can figure out the habits of thrushes, warblers, raptors, thrashers, sparrows, wrens, etc etc etc, I can pick up more species for that lifelist while understanding their habitat better.

Pacific Loon

Stay tuned for the final "Rarities" post.

Greaterville Road

Hot Kingbird activity on this road!!

Greaterville Road.  Kathie told me about a magical road towards Sonoita where birds were numerous and plentiful.  Within a short stretch of road, we encountered dozens of different birds.  And it was pretty exciting.

Kestrel love!

We got up early and left for our trip to the Empire Ranch.  But we stopped along Greaterville Road before reaching Cienagas.  While it was early morning, there was a definite excitement at what we would find.  And what a way to get our morning started!

Kathie is great about the numbers and counting how many birds are in the area.  While for myself, I love using the camera to capture all the incredible finds in the air.  I really love motion in my shots.

American Kestrel

I don't know why, but I thought of TexWisGirl when I took this shot:)  There was a fence, some stars, and colorful tractor in the background.  And the reason I saw this?  A bird was on it:)

But I noticed a Red Tail Hawk in what appears to be an Oak Tree.

Red Tail Hawk

And then the Blue Grosbeak!!!  So many of them and so difficult to get on camera.  They love sticking to the grass and are very shy around people:)

Blue Grosbeak

In fact, the best bird spotting was on fence and telephone lines.

Vesper Sparrow

We saw lots of interesting and unusual swallows.  Two would be lifers like this bird below.

Northern Rough Winged Swallow

And along the road, a lot of conversation happened about ID'ing kingbirds.  I think I have the Cassin's down pretty well now.  There were at least 3 types flying around and there were lots everywhere!

Cassin's Kingbird

White chin=Cassin's Kingbird.  Beautiful birds!

We spent a long time on the road not aware of how much time passed.  That's great birding:)

Eventually we realized we had to get going to Empire Ranch and Cienagas before it got too hot.

Now Greaterville goes on for a long while......and we only touched a small 2 mile distance on the road.  It was incredible.

Turkey Vulture

But we'd have more finds as we continued on......

More tomorrow.....