Birds, Bug Bites, Laughs and More Birds

Thursday morning started the trek of BIOS 4710 to Hunting Island, South Carolina. With species identification happening as soon as we reached the vans, we packed up and headed on the road for a weekend of extreme birding. The birding will not and shall not ever end. Seeing a variety of birds, on telephone poles, flying through the sky and hanging out at rest stops, identification was always happening. Ten to twelves hour later with a detour off the highway, the Bran Van rejoined the caravan where we had dinner at Wren's Restaurant and praying for the rain to stop made the final trek to Hunting Island Area 2. With rain falling, the tents were set up and everyone went to bed with hopes that the storm would pass and the tents would not collapse or flood. Starting day 1 in South Carolina we were out walking the island starting at 8:10 in the lagoon. With complete cloud cover and thankfully no rain we began the southern birding and started the day with a Bald Eagle. A GBHE, TUTI and AMRE were some identified while in this habitat. We made our way onto the beach to see plenty of shorebirds that we normally cannot. From nonbreeding laughing gulls, brown pelicans, and willetts we were able to see some of these shorebirds and I was able to analyze and recognize them on a better scale than I ever had before. Plenty of Mourning Doves were seen giving me a chance to get a good sense of identification. Into the dunes, Carolina Wrens, America Crows and Northern Mockingbirds were seen. With a few of us standing back, we identified a Bald Eagle in a tree and seeing that through the large scope was quite a view. We noticed a Belted Kingfisher in a dead tree not to far away and Brandan expected the possibility of its nest being in there. The bald eagle flew to exactly where the belted kingfisher which was pretty interesting and cool to see. Back on the beach, besides the crazy amount of gnats swarming our faces and arms, we were still able to work our way through it. We saw Willets, a flock of Sanderlings and got to see Laughing Gulls and the Brown Pelican flying along the ocean, diving in to the water, and barrelling down and along the waves. When we saw the Merlin and saw the excitement from Kelly and hearing this was a first timer for her, it was pretty cool to be able to see this bird. It was showing itself very well so we were able to get a lot of views of it in the trees, flying and sitting among the branches and noticing a beautiful tail stripe. With various egrets, we were able to find those key characteristics by leg color and beak color to tell our Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets apart. Getting into the marsh/ edge wooded habitat we were seeing and hearing NOCA, CAWR, GREG, BEKI, OSPR, LAGU, NOMO, HOFI, and BLJA. Some others that were newer were the Palm Warbler, Little Blue Heron, Double-Crested Cormorant. After taking a lunch break,by 1:30 p.m. we were into the salt marsh, still cloud cover but the humidity was setting in. After morning we were starting to be able to recognize and identify some of the birds that we had seen in the morning. We were able to see SNEG, BRPE, LBHE, plenty of GREG's, a first sight of the Tri-Colored Heron and Clapper Rail, LAGU, and TUVU.  At this location we actually came across a dead deer, and a large amount of skulls that were thought to be fish but not exactly sure. We even got to see a dolphin swimming through the marsh which was exciting. At 2:00 we went to the Marsh habitat boardwalk and continued to see  and hear plenty of birds. PAWA flying among all the palms, CARW, TUVU, LAGU, CACH, RTHA, GREG,   and GBHE. Getting into the coastal salt marsh up to the beach front  were TCHE, GBHE, LAGU, WILL, OSPR. We got into a big questioning of the types Terns we were seeing across the way on the shore. It came down to both the Caspian and Royal Terns and Sandwich Tern. We were able to see 2 Black billed Skinners like Professor Williams showed us in class. Add in some SAND, WILL, FORESTER TERN, MODO, BRPL, an immature Herring Gull and continually outside the boardwalk a Red Winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal and Brown Headed Nuthatch and we were burnt out from Day 1. Heading back to camp, some of us threw on our bathing suits and crashed into the waves. It was a perfect way to spend the day in South Carolina. Spending our night making dinner, enjoying delicious jambalaya and walking along the star lit sky and even seeing a shark in the water was an enjoyable way for the trip to start.

Day 2 started with heading out of camp 7:30/8:00 a.m. to get to Pinckney Island on the border of Georgia and South Carolina by 9:00 a.m. The ride alone started our day with LBHE, White Ibis (WHIB), GREG, AND DOWO. With some cloud cover, a bit of wind and 65 degrees we began this hike among the varying habitats this island held. Getting into Salt Marsh habitat we were seeing and hearing TRHE, WHIB, SNEG, BLJA, RBWO, CACH, TUTI, WILL, SNEG, GREG, GRYE, GRCA, LAGU, TCHE, DCCO, and the differences between the juvenile and adult White Ibis. At the Ibis pond, we were seeing plenty of Ibis, juvenile and adult, hearing some fish crows, the Green Heron, and Aninga. My birding was put on hault as fire ants made there way all over my boots and pants yet my high socks and jeans created quite a barrier for the fire ants to actually have the chance to get to my skin.Making our way to another hill and pond where we were exposed to Common Gallinules, Pi-billed Grebes and their act of bobbing up and down through the water, REVI, CHSW, OSPR, PIWO, RHWO, CAWR, PIWA, BRNU, SNEG, CACH, TUTI, DOWO, TCHE. From the trail leading to the waters edge we heard the boat tailed grackle song and double chested cormiant, northern mockingbird. Seven or so miles later, a group of tired students packed back into the car to make their way for lunch and continuing the day at Savannah Wildlife Refuge. After lunch, quietly thanking that the drive tour is what we chose, at 3:30 p.m. at 84 degrees and scattered storms we began driving. and what all did we get to see and hear? The list continues. TUVU, RWBL, an alligator coming cautiously close to Common gallinules, a gorgeous Purple Gallinule which was another rare one to see, COHA, Sora Rail, Tree Swallow, and a few warblers such as YEWA, TEWA, and NEWA. Continually, WHIB, KILL,  AND LBHE. With wide open land we got out and got a great view of a Red Shouldered Hawk among the trees. Seeing a bird from very afar at the top of a dead tree, it wasn't until we got the scope out and the ever so talented Kyle recognized it was a Great Horned Owl which was amazing to see, also SORA, COGA,CRGA and COYE. Driving along, we stopped at another small water stream through the marsh and saw Solitary Sandpipers, a gorgeous Aninga drying its feathers and showing off its beautiful feathers, Killdeer and Common Gallinule. Into denser area, the Boat-Tailed grackle, WEVI, NOMO were seen and heard. As we were finishing the tour, groups of birds were flying through the sky, we saw an Egret flock with Herons following, a flock of GREGs and SNEGs, and then a  flock of all juvenile IBIS and one adult. Finishing our drive at 7:00 p.m., a solid 10 hour day of walking and birding left the Bran Van with a pack of slap happy students. I have to say I have not laughed that much in a long time. From man panties to TerriBill Cosby and plenty of laughs with no explanation for them, it was a great end to a long day. The group had a great final night with a fantastic dinner, smores and a lot of laughter.

Up by 6:30a.m., we began the packing, breaking down of tents and the final haul to leave Hunting Island. By 8/8:30 a.m. we were on our way. Between sleeping, donuts, Disney Who Am I , Bird Who Am I , and more Who Am I, the Bran Van made our way back to Ohio University and the South Carolina weekend was ended on a very positive and happy note. A huge thanks goes out to Kelly Williams and Brandan Gray for the opportunity and all they did for this trip!

Always Birding

After a long weekend of birding in South Carolina, there is no stopping the birding. This morning, September 30, 2015, we made our way out to The Ridges to work on some bird banding. By 7:30 a.m. we were outside in a cloudy, cool 63 degrees. All the nets were set up 7:50 with a different set up than past weeks. Nets 1-5 were up the hill of the station along the trail and were all stringed together. Net 6 was up a hill in the forested area with nets 7-9 stringed along over by the power lines. The 5 nets strung along caught a Northern Cardinal early on in the morning being a male and AHY by plumage. We conducted a point count and was able to see a variety of birds. I noticed the American Robins were very active, a big flock of Turkey Vultures were flying above, and over all for the day a lot of birds were heard. Our next net check at 8:30, we caught a Magnolia Warbler (MAWA) in net 5d. It had its A1 molted but not the A2, therefore we were able to age it by a HY. Based on the tail spots on the tail plumage we could also sex as a male. Our second bird caught was a Northern Parula (NOPA) from net 8. With its secondaries molted but not the primaries, it was aged a HY by L due to the primary coverts. With a partial slate at the breast band, it was sexed as a male by plumage. From all of our trips, we have been able to see the fat but this bird had a particularly high fat level which was pretty cool to see. For our 9:00 net check, a Swamp Sparrow was caught in net 7. We noticed head streaking, yellow lores and rusty marked wings. It was AHY by plumage and the sex is unknown.A tufted titmouse (TUTI) was caught at 9:30 timing. We aged it by hatch year by skulling. There was contrast in skulling where we were able to see white at the bottom but still purple at the top. Its sex was also unknown. Our 10:00 bird run had none in nets 1-5 but net 9 caught a juvenile Indigo Bunting (INBU) being a hatch year by plumage and its sex unknown. At this point we started making lists of all we had seen and we had a large variety: COYE, EAWP, AMRO, WOTH, CHSW, INBU, AMCR, ROGR, DOWO, AMGO, TUTI, WBNU, MODO, RBWO, BLJA, MAWA, PIWO, CARW, CEWA, GRCA, EATO, CACH, AND SWSP. Our ll:00 net check and tear down came and we were pleasantly surprised with 3 birds in net 6 and 11 birds in the 7-9 connected nets. Getting them out carefully and safely and in good time had us banding in quite a rush. We started with a Green Throated Green Warbles (BTNW) then moved on to 6 Carolina Chikadees (CACH), two Magnolia Warblers (MAWA), three Tufted Titmouse (TUTI) and we finished the day with the Blue Headed Vireo (BHVI). With a crunch on time, we carried everything off to the vans and headed back to campus. It was a pretty successful day, cool fall weather, and plenty of birds seen.

9/16/2015

Today, on September 16, 2015 we left the dock at 7:00 a.m. to head to Lake Hope. Our first location at Lake Hope National Park, we pulled off the road and headed out onto a trail. We were surrounded by various foliage, from lower bushes into smaller trees reaching up into high forest so we were able to see a various amount of birds flying at all different heights. It was 55-60 degrees out with clear skies and low humidity compared to other days. We stopped at an area in the trail where there was a good amount of open ground to spread out and look out into hillier area or denser forest. We saw a good amount of Cedar Waxwing in the flocks and sitting at the tops of trees, I noticed them to be dead trees and later learned that this is common for the CEDW. There were bird calls and songs going on everywhere. We traveled to different areas at this different location, getting into more open areas, inclined, and possibility to see a good distance in a variety of sized trees and distance from us.
Some of the birds heard and seen were:
CEDW
RBGR
BLJA
EATO- was able to see close hopping through the lower trees at this location
WIVO
MAWA
DOWO
SCTA
TRFL- told that it is very hard to tell the difference between specific ones(adler or willow) and can be identified by the trail flycatcher
PIWO
as we were walking to a new location, there seemed to be a lot of silence. Alayna had seen an Accipiter, guessing for a Sharp-Shinned Hawk or a Cooper's Hawk and being predators in the area we were able to notice that it got very silent among all the birds.
A large amount of Warblers were heard, we were looking in our Field Guides extremely often to try to see the different characteristics and able to identify them. It takes a good talent to find the birds in the binoculars and notice all these different characteristics and is definitely something that needs to be continued to be worked on.
On our way back to the vans an ESOW responded to Brandan's calls which was extremely cool.

Around 9:30 a.m. we arrived at The Hope Iron Furnace location. A large open area that condensed as you walked further in. Still very open with a lot of brush and smaller trees leading to the condensed forest. Walking up, we immediately saw many Warblers flying through the smaller trees and plants. Species heard being HOWA, AMCR, INBU, CACH, DOWO seen hopping up the one tree.We were all able to see and hear the Gray Catbird (GRCA) in the lower brush area.

We started walking the trail to get closer to the water and saw a Red-Tailed Hawk sitting in a tree. We observed it holding its wing, Kelly said it could be injured or possibly heavy molting and as it tried to fly it struggled and seemed to be falling a bit branch to branch until it flew into the brush. WODO were seen both in the lake swimming and also flying. Additional birds seen and heard in this area were
PIWO
WODU
RSHA
PHOE- on a dead tree in the water, black under beak and bobbing its tail up and down so we were able to identify it much easier
BEKI- seen across the lake, had the red belt across meaning it was a female
TUVU
YTVI
PIWA

Everyone was able to hear and see a large amount of birds on this trip and it definitely helped with learning more calls, getting more comfortable with calls we have previously been hearing a lot and also a great way to learn more about identifying and what to look for. An overall extremely successful trip!

9/9/2015

Today on Wednesday September 9, 2015 our Ornithology class had our second day out at the Ridges. We met at the vans at 6:45, left by 7:00 a.m. and headed to The Ridges. Right from our arrival we heard a White Eyed Veerio repeatedly.We split off into two groups to get all the nets set up. I was in the group with Kelly where we set up nets 1 and 2 in the same place as last time in a side part of a trail that went up an incline and turned surrounded by trees. Net 3 was also placed in the same spot, in the brushy wood area with more open land in front of it and denser behind it. Net 4 was placed along the pond again and then put an additional one along across the wood bridge that was in a much more denser forest area and I believe we named this net 10. The weather was 68 degrees with 20% cloud cover and a bit of humidity. We started a point count at 8:04 at the pond. The blue jays were very vocal this morning, we believed there to be atleast 3 in the forest next to the pond. We heard an American Goldfinch, and a Carolina Wren during the point count and saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker flying. Post point count we still heard and saw many birds. I saw a Tufted Titmouse and a Carolina Chickadee close by the pond and flying around sounding their calls. Some additional bird songs and calls were the Eastern/ Tohee, Eastern Peewee, Crusted Nuthatch and continually the White and also the Red and Yellow White Eyed Veerio and plenty of Blue Jays. We spent a good time watching woodpeckers traveling up and down the trees, and we also observed some American Robins. Our first bird banded was at 8:50 a.m. from net 6. It was a male Northern Cardinal (NOCA), band # 198122224, AHY by P and we saw broken shafts and worn feathers. We went on another bird check, this time I went to the nets set up by the other group. Net 7 was deeper in the forest down by the power line. We had caught a bird in the net but spent a good amount of time calling since we saw so many others around and trying to lure more in. We saw warblers and hummingbirds, and used alarms calls, other bird calls from phones, etc. to try to bring more in. No more flew into the net but we were able to observe them flying around the area. Walking back we also caught a Common Yellow Throat coming from net 6. So for our 10:00 a.m. birds banded, we had the Common Yellow Throat (COYE) with the band number of 275056104 from net 6. Aged AHY and female by plumage and due to coloring we were able to look up information and tell it was a fall adult female in first spring. Also a Northern Cardinal (NOCA) from net 7 with band number 198122225. Due to its black bill and no crest it was deemed a juvenile and also had no pre basic molt and the sex was unknown. Also coming from net 7 was another Northern Cardinal, band number 198122226. It was a female and aged AHY by plumage. I was able to practice my bander's grip on the female cardinal, practice wing cord length and get to experience a cardinals bite for the first time. When the juvenile was released, it did not fly away from us and had some blood exposed when we first took it out. It was put back in the bag and taken to be released around net 7 where it was found. Final bird check and tear down was at 10:45 where three White Eyed Vireo (WEVI) were all caught from net 5. The first one was a recapture, actually banded in my Field Ecology lab the week before. The first bird, the recapture (274029835) was aged HY as we were able to examine its primary and secondary coverts, primary being more dull so able to age as HY by L (molt limit), the eye was also a greyer color and the sex was unknown. The second examined (275056105) was also examined by its coverts, had a greyer colored eye so able to age as HY and sex unknown. This was the same for the third bird examined (275056106). I've started noticing a lot of different calls that I recognize which is interesting and cool, able to watch and examine the birds better such as a few angry tufted titmouse we saw, and working on finding birds through the binoculars at all distances.

First Day in the Field

Today, Wednesday September 2, 2015, our Ornithology class had its first trip into the field. We met at the loading dock at 7:00 a.m. and headed to The Ridges getting there around 7:10/7:15 a.m. We left in two groups and I returned by 12:00 pm back to OU campus. The weather was warmer weather, starting in early/mid 60's and getting up into the 70's by the end of our trip. It was quite humid and very little cloud cover, wind within 0-5 mph and no precipitation in our field time.  I helped out with nets 1-5 today. We were surrounded by woods but varying habitats where we were at. Nets 1 and 2 were put together in a more dense area that traveled up and around a smaller path with a lot of woods around it and a lot of tree cover. Net 3 was in wood/ brushy area that we had on the outskirts of a smaller open field traveling on an incline. Net 4 was along a pond, it began by some trees and strung across close to the pond with open area in front of it. Net 5 was in a higher area along the trail line of a denser wood area that was exposed to the sun. We caught a total of five birds today. i was able to watch Kelly go through the procedure of safely removing the birds from the net and putting them in the bird bags. What we did with the birds was to identify it, make sure we were correct by looking through books, etc. to how to correctly identify any that we were unsure of or compare certain species to similar ones of its kind. We had to figure out what band correctly would fit the leg of the bird, make sure we get the number and record it in our data.  We had to get all the correct banding information such as its name, identifier code, age and how we knew, sex and how we knew, wing measurements, weight. We were able to look at its fat content, learned about skulling, examining its wings and more. The birds I saw and heard were Northern Waterthrush, Northern Cardinal,Swanson Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, Carolina Chikadee, Blue Jay, American Robin, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Tittmouse, White Rusted Nuthatch, Easter Tohee, Cedar Waxing and American Goldfinch. Other classmates talked about the Carolina Wren, Morning Dove, White Eyed Vireo, Eastern Wood Peewee, and Northern Morning Dove. it was a very big learning experience and a successful first trip being exposed to a lot of different bird songs and a good opener to bird banding.

--Jenna Rovniak