The Pelican Invasion

The Wisconsin bird of the year has to be the American White Pelican. Their numbers attracted thousands of people along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Milwaukee to Door County.  And their return is significant.

Caspian Terns surrounded by Ring-billed Gulls

Many moons ago during the time period when people didn't understand the word extinction, these birds were hunted on the Great Lakes for their feathers. Women enjoyed wearing hats with exotic feathers. Some of them even had bird nests, the whole dead bird or their wings attached to the hat! For more info, check out the NPR link on the women who saved birds.  The history of birds is a fascinating one. 

Nothing says sexy like a woman with a dead bird on her head.  Photo courtesy of NPR

Alas, all the pelicans were wiped out from the Great Lakes for many decades.  Only a few of these birds could be seen in places like Green Bay.  As a child growing up in the area, I NEVER saw a pelican once.  Nor had the people of my Shire. Eventually after the ban on poaching during the early 20th century, these birds slowly made a comeback and their populations have dramatically increased today. 

The Great Lakes have also seen an invasion of exotic fish and marine life over the years.  One fish I do remember well is the alewife.  This tiny fish dies off in the thousands along the beaches of Lake Michigan during dramatic weather shifts in spring and early summer.  The smell alone is terrible.  And the coastline can be covered in piles of these fish as the currents force their sickly bodies closer to the shore.  Over the years, towns along these areas have had to send in equipment to clean up the beaches. Take for example this recent report from Racine.  I'd like to make a correction to the article.  There are no such things as sea gulls.  Just gulls.  

A Forster's Tern stretches out the wings

Well these little fish attract MANY gulls, terns, grackles and other pelicans!  I've noticed that in Manitowoc where the pelican population is quite large, there weren't as many alewife on the beaches.  This bird may actually be beneficial for people living along the shoreline who suffer from the wretched smell. The food source has attracted many birds into this area.  They are nature's natural(all green) clean up system.  And perhaps the answer to restoring balance to an unstable ecosystem.  Just by the return of a bird species, beaches might become cleaner places.  Good for the birds and good for the people.  The dead alewife that do make it to shore are ground up for cat food and fertilizer.  FYI.

So back to the pelicans who were stealing the show.  People from all over, in their friendly Wisconsin ways, would ask birders if those were indeed pelicans.  Birders politely would tell them that they were.  Then people would share their personal recollections about having never seen one growing up.  And speaking for myself, it is shocking to see pelicans flying over the beach on a summer day.  I mean, were we living in California?  It's pretty amazing to see them fly in their "V" formations over the roads.

An angry Bonaparte's Gull

So while people walked their dogs with leashes and some without, they would ask birders about the pelicans.  Birders were looking at rarer things.  And soon it became a distraction.  One birder would take one for the team while we isolated the rarer gulls.  We'd watch unleashed dogs run out and chase the gulls into the air.  AND while we were trying to count them.  It was very frustrating.  It's dangerous for the birds.  It's dangerous for people and other dogs.  On one outing one dog attacked an owner with a dog on the leash.  When the dogs were separated and the owner of the unleashed dog was told that his dog attacked another, the owner responded, "Not my dog."  Irresponsible moron. 

Nellie cuddles up in her blanket. She'll have nothing to do with them birds.

Shorebirds take serious concentration. And after awhile, the question, "Are you looking at them pelicans?" got old.  Fast. Maybe I became too serious.  But when you're counting somewhere around 500 Ring-billed Gulls and get distracted, it gets frustrating.  I can't multi-task very well.  I am after all a man:) And I'm not saying all men can't multi-task.  But I know I'm not alone:)

Don't get me wrong. I love the pelicans!  But I also loved the gulls. I wanted to spend most of my time on the Lake and bird.  Towards the latter part of my vacation, I went to the infamous Manitowoc Impoundment every day.  It was cool and breezy with a great chance for rarities.  Lots of rarities.  

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Some birders don't get into the gull ID thing like I do. And I get it. Gulls can be some of the most challenging birds out there. Understanding gulls over the years has been a lot of fun.  However, I'm not the same way with sandpipers.  Isn't it interesting how we all have our favorite groups of birds?

A 3rd cycle Great Black-backed Gull!!!  This was shocking to me!  I thought they wintered only in Two Rivers, but apparently not!  Cool find!

Even their various year molt cycles are interesting. We found Bonaparte's, Franklin's, Lesser Black-backed, Great Black-backed, Little, Ring-billed, Herring and Laughing Gulls.  That's a LOT of gulls! And then there were the terns!

Former professor, Doc Sontag, was at it again.  Every day at 2 PM he finds rarities for the Wisconsin crowd to chase at the Manitowoc Impoundment.  On my last day, I wanted to say good-bye to this amazing fellow.  And what followed afterwards was awesome......

Doc is wearing the brim hat with suspenders.  Love that guy!

Something spooked the pelicans, gulls and terns into the air. Thousands of birds circled around us.  When all the birds began to land, I noticed a strange tern in flight.  It looked like a Common Tern(expected for this area), but something was off in the flight pattern.  As it landed, I noticed it was tiny.  So I went to the Doc and said, "Hey, is that a Common Tern?"  It sure wasn't acting like one. 

Arctic Tern

 The Doc's eyes grew.  With his expertise and knowledge, he shouts out, "OH MY GOODNESS! We've got an Arctic Tern here!" I've only seen this bird ONCE in my life! A birder group forms quickly and everyone begins to record and take data making notes.  Orange/red bill, small, short orange/red legs, etc etc.  Our team keeps up with the ID getting photos for the records.  We begin to report to the various listservs. This is HUGE! As we are trying to do all this detailed work, a group of friendly people stop by and ask, "Are you looking at the Pelicans?" Son of a .........

The Doc takes one for the team and begins chatting with the people about the pelicans.  This guy is amazing. I think back on my times with him in class and remember how patient he was with me. And here again he shows the same courtesy and patience towards others. Flashback! In one corner of our lab, he had a pile of formaldehyde cats for study. Needless to say, I was a bit traumatized:)  It was part of the curriculum and he was a great professor. Me? Well I could've done better. I was into the art of party and socializing. I remember during a time when we did blood testing in class. I hate blood and I almost passed out trying to prick my fingers like 500 times. It was like sticking a turnip! The lesson was about testing chromosomes.  If I went back now as an adult, I would be a much better student.  One of my favorite lessons with him was dominant and recessive gene traits.  Doc, I failed you in the biology department but I hope to make up for it in the bird one:)

Caspian Tern

During my last days along the "Lakeshore", I enjoyed all the shorebirds as much as I could.  Even the pelicans.  I have only seen one white pelican in Arizona this year so Wisconsin certainly made up for my lack of sightings this year. 

Here is yet another positive about the pelicans. They became the unofficial ambassadors between birders and non-birders alike. Their presence caught the public's eye and a general interest for birds. And that's a good thing!

Franklin's Gull

 Their large numbers and exotic beauty brought in crowds of people. Places like the Manitowoc Impoundment and North Point in Sheboygan were magnets for the crowds where the pelicans hung out. Unintentionally, we, the birders(or anyone foolish enough to wear binoculars:), became the ambassadors who bridged the people with these birds.  When votes are needed to save or protect habitat, etc, perhaps people will remember their positive experiences with these birds and help protect our ever shrinking wildlife spaces. At least, this is my hope. 

Because as we know, birds are simply amazing. They are meant to fly free. They inspire art.  And they inspire so many of us. 

It doesn't matter where we live.  There is beauty everywhere we are.  All we need to do is stop and look. It's really that easy but something we can often forget to do in our busy daily lives.  And the pelicans did that for so many people.  

Until next time......

Photo courtesy of NPR

Windows of Opportunity

Candle burning, map, water and laptop to plan for the next day

Every moment is an opportunity. If you don't use it, you miss out.

Micheal hiding behind some grasses looking for....whatever!

On these far away treks, a lot of mapping and planning go into the search for new birds. Sometimes there are also rare birds that can be found in the various states that are extremely rare to find in Arizona.  Such was the case of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. 

How do you find that one gull within hundreds?  Walk slow so that you don't make them fly.  Then I begin from left to right counting looking at each individual gull.  In the case of the LBBG, I looked for a larger sized gull against the much smaller surrounding gulls.  

With the little time we had left in Utah, our windows were closing to find two new birds to add to that ever growing life list. Our first mission took us to Utah Lake which is south of Salt Lake City.  It was there we were hoping to find the LBBG.  These gulls are common in Europe, but here in Utah, they are a reliable rare visitor. However, this particular gull was an early winter arrival.  Their numbers seem to be increasing each year in the US. Will they eventually become the next House Sparrow or European Starling?  I love gull ID, but my other half, Micheal does not.  So while I sifted through the large numbers of gulls, Micheal spoke with his brother on the phone.

Lesser Black-backed Gull surrounded by the smaller Ring-billed Gulls

Once I found the gull, I tried to get as close as I could without disturbing the birds.  The gull was much larger than the surrounding Ring-billed Gulls.  The legs had a unique yellow color and there was that trademark red spot on the lower mandible.  They are tricky to ID and it's a delicious challenge. Utah Lake was also a great place to ebird.  It was a beautiful ride to the lake through a farmland full of pumpkins. 

Clark's Grebe-not a great photo but one good for an ID

Then it was onto the Bear Migratory Bird Refuge located north of Salt Lake City. This was an AWESOME place and I think my favorite spot to bird.  Here we needed to find Short-eared Owls and Clark's Grebes.  It was a tad early for the Short-eared Owls but one can hope, right?:)  While we struck out on this owl, we did have a great study session ID'ing yet another tricky species.  The Clark's Grebe.  There were hundreds of these birds still present.  These grebes look very similar to the Western Grebes.  So like any good teacher, I sat in the car and had Micheal do ID's on the birds with me.  He's pretty good! Although after awhile, he started mocking me and used my field mark quotes against me. Point taken:)

Western Grebe

During this time of year, it can be somewhat difficult to distinguish between the Western and Clark's Grebes as they can appear similar in the wrong light in their non-breeding plumage.  Let's take an ID look.  Above is the Western Grebe.  The bill is slightly darker and thinner than the Clark's Grebe. The black shading also goes to and below the eye. 

Clark's Grebe

The Clark's Grebe has a stronger and brighter bill.  The first picture on this blog post clearly shows the white above the eye making the ID a snap. For this photo(above), it wasn't so clear to me right away.  However the bright and stronger bill, overall whiter plumage and slight white spot between the eye and bill point to a non-breeding plumaged Clark's Grebe.  The birds have also been known to hybridize.  Oh oh! Fun, right?:) 

California Quail

We had one last window left in Salt Lake City.  It would be the last place we could find the California Quail.  I researched and mapped everything out the night before.  I had three plans, but I wanted to take the one that had interesting things to do around it.  And so we went to Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  

What a gem of a city park! 

While we walked around this park, we enjoyed the good breezes and lovely pond area.  

California Quail

And while we had a lot of great birds, we weren't seeing our target, the California Quail. 

So on a hunch, and overall curiosity, we explored the Tracy Aviary next door. This is a lovely area for families to explore and learn about Utah's amazing birds.  There were several birds from other countries, but overall, the aviary does highlight the local waterfowl, raptors and owls.  As for my hunch, it paid off.  Working at the Tucson Botanical Gardens years ago, I remembered that Gambel's Quail loved to hang out in our native gardens.  Tracy's Aviary had that same perfect habitat for these quail. When I heard that typical quail cluck clucking, I knew we were going to hit the jackpot. 

Northern Pintail

We had a whole covey run back and forth between the vegetation.  At one point, during their Raptor Free Flight Program, their Red-tailed Hawk swooped down at one of the quail.  WOW!  

Of course, birds are the main reason why we explore.  But don't think for one minute that we didn't enjoy a glass of wine or visit a place to have dinner or just....explore.  People have told me, including my family, that I exhaust them during a vacation. Again, there's always so much to see in such little time! (I have a very strong wanderlust.:) 

White-faced Ibis

Utah was an experience and one that we'll remember for a long time.  I'm not sure we'll ever return, but it was fun exploring their interesting culture. For people who love rock formations, etc, this is a great state to explore. Rocks can be fascinating, but I love the wildlife that live around these areas more.  And one of my favorite birds, the Ring-necked Pheasant was on almost every count!  LOVE those birds. 

Either way, we both were looking forward to our visits in Colorado and New Mexico.  We both love these two states very much. Colorado is an American favorite.  And New Mexico is America's best kept secret.  Every time we go, we explore a new location and just fall in love with the state even more. 

Monument Valley National Park-pretty but not very birdy and full of tourists. 

We drove through the rocky canyons of Utah and headed towards our next destination, Gunnison, Colorado. Until next time friends.....