BIRDING TO THE EDG

Hiking in the mountains is always about being prepared for the unexpected. As a Nikon birder, I've come to always expect something new. With that comes with using the right equipment. On this particular day I had my Nikon 7x42 EDG binoculars hanging off of my shoulders as my centerpiece. This glass always gives me the superb performance I expect out in the field.

Glass is so sensitive that even a minor dust particle can scratch the surface of the lens. I always have a Nikon micro-fiber lens cloth as well as a Nikon lens pen to keep my optics clean at all times. We have had such a dry winter on the Front Range here in Colorado that there is a higher concentration of dust than normal. Easy to kick this stuff up while hiking on the trails in Lory State Park, which is where this Pygmy Nuthatch above was photographed. Lory State Park is my favorite places to hike and bird watch locally and I have written other posts about the park. Check out this link to grasp the beauty of this Colorado State Park.

One of the little birds that always graces my field-of-view is the Pygmy Nuthatch. The nuthatch is a tiny songbird that nests in middle-elevation conifers throughout its range along the entire Rocky Mountains. These birds inhabit open Ponderosa Pine foothills here in Colorado and travel in family groups. Non-breeding birds will often cooperatively help other pairs achieve nesting success. Their loud, incessant peep-peep-peep-peep, high pitched, always can be heard from decent distance. The only other bird that can be confused with the Pygmy Nuthatch is the Brown-headed Nuthatch, which can be found only in the SE United States. These bird's ranges never overlap. I photographed this guy with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens.

I was able to bring him in closer with the call of the Northern Pygmy-Owl which is the main predator of the dinky birds in this habitat. The Owl makes a Whoo-Whoo-Whoo repeatedly, but higher pitched in a whistle form. Usually, there are about 1-2 seconds in between each note. For outstanding pictures of the Northern Pygmy-Owl check out these shots at Bill Schmoker's website! It was so cool to see these birds in their element. You can really grasp how powerful the Northern Pygmy-Owl is as a predator, because all the Owl's prey items (i.e. Pygmy Nuthatchs, Juncos) will come in and try to harass the owl and scare it off. The whistling trick works every time!

I saw my first nuthatch fly in above me. I swung my Nikon EDG binoculars onto the flying bird and noticed the lack of a prominent tail. Pygmy Nuthatchs look tailless in flight and have the typical nervous behavior that all nuthatches exhibit while they scour the trees for food. Nuthatches will peck the bark of the tree looking for insects and seeds that can be found underneath or around the bark. The Pygmy Nuthatch has a grayish-blue back, dark bordered eye, and a brown cap however, they look almost black underneath a Ponderosa Pine's canopy at times. During winters these birds may drop lower in elevation to find more adequate sources of food. Given the fact that the Colorado Front Range doesn't receive too much snow these birds might be more likely to stay in the mountains during most years.

Other birds that travel in the same area are Red-breasted Nuthatches, Stellar's Jays, and Dark-eyed Juncos to name a couple. The Front Range Colorado can be a great place to bird and I surely will be posting more from these areas in the future. Good birding and thanks for reading!

Savannah Sparrow is one bird that is highly variable and breeds over most of North America into Central America. Many subspecies have been identified, but this one shown here may be one of the more troubled ones out of them all. The "Belding's" race of the Savannah Sparrow has a minuscule breeding range from southern California into the Baja Peninsula. Furthermore, they inhabit only the salt marshes along that coastal strip. Of course, we all know that the southern California coastline is rapidly developing and growing. This causes much problems with the protection of this species.

Savannah Sparrows are mostly pictured as the birds that fly off the side of an open road as you drive by, much like that of the Vesper Sparrows. Breeding birds marked with strong yellow lores, streaked upper breast and flanks, and a shorter tail. As I mentioned above the prefer open country habitats and can be variable as to where they breed as well as plumage. Vesper Sparrow would have white on the outer retrices. Song Sparrows are larger with longer rounded tails. Songs also flip their tails when they are in flight and Grasshopper Sparrows are bulkier in the neck and head and fly lower to the ground than Savannah Sparrows.

They tend to forage on or near the ground which is why they often are flushed off of roads and show their hind parts as you look. Next time you see a Savannah Sparrow wait and listen for the song. Compare all Savannah's you see. Can you notice differences in the songs?



These photos were taken while I was participating at the San Diego Bird Festival promoting the new Nikon EDG binoculars. I was using a Nikon D200 and a 300 mm F4 Nikkor lens. A big thank you to Nikon for giving me the opportunity to view and enjoy this declining subspecies.

Those who have read my blog posts realize I have a soft spot for gulls. I most enjoy large gulls, but I won't say no to a gorgeous small gull if the opportunity presents itself. For the past month or so the opportunity has presented itself right in Cape May.

February and March tend to be the best months for seeing Black-headed Gulls and Little Gulls around Cape May. Therefore it was no surprise when a Black-headed Gull showed up in early March. Since then there have been 3-4 Black-headed Gulls and a Little Gull present at one time or another in Cape May or along the Delaware bayshore. I was lucky enough to see Black-headed Gulls several times, even two together, but my luck did not extend to the Little Gull.

This adult Black-headed Gull joined a group of Bonaparte's Gulls I was watching at dusk. I barely had enough light to take photos, though the low angle of the last rays of sunlight did give the bird a pleasing warm glow. While this would not be considered an example of good photography by most, I kind of like it.

While very similar to Bonaparte's Gulls, adult Black-headed Gulls are about ~15% larger and have an extensive black patch on the underside of the primaries that is visible in the photo above. They also have a longer, red-based bill unlike the short, all black bill of Bonaparte's Gull. One of the more striking differences is the beautiful, coral red legs of Black-head Gull compared to the dull pink legs of Bonaparte's Gull. In fly Black-headed Gulls tend to fly more like a Ring-billed Gull with smoother wingbeats that seem to emanate from the inner part of the wing, not the choppy wingbeats that come from the tips of the wings like a Bonaparte's Gull.

Adult Black-headed Gull (right) with an adult Bonaparte's Gull. Black-headed Gull is primarily an Old World species to which it is closely related. It fills a somewhat similar ecological niche as Bonaparte's Gull, though not an identical niche as Black-headed Gull is far more urban than Bonaparte's Gull. You are likely find them begging for handouts at local parks in Europe. The source for the Black-headed Gulls we see in North America is a breeding population in southern Greenland and a small population that breeds in Newfoundland. Black-headed Gulls have also bred in other scattered locations in North America, particularly in the north east and around the Great Lakes. The larger Siberian subspecies is a regular migrant in small numbers in western Alaska, I saw a several on St. Paul last summer, and occasionally along the Pacific coast in winter.

Here is a shot of a group of Bonaparte's Gulls taken earlier the same day. Notice the almost completely white underwing, small, dark bills, and pink legs. Also Bonaparte's Gull averages more gray on the nape than Black-headed Gull.

It is always good practice to look carefully through flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls for bonus in the form of a Black-headed Gull or Little Gull. These species are almost always found in the company of their New World cousin. Good luck.

All photos taken with a Nikon D200 and 300mm Nikkor lens.

Last week I visited the San Diego Birding Festival in hopes to show off our new Nikon EDG binoculars to our California friends. Of, course west coast birding rivals some of the best birding in the USA if not, the world. I will be sure to post more on the festival later this week, but for now I want to focus on the highlight of the trip for many of the birders at the festival.

It is always nice to see a life bird on one of these trips but a life subspecies sometimes is even better. Throughout my travels in the tropics I have spent many days birding in mangrove swamps without seeing the beautiful mangrove race of the Yellow Warbler. A birder had spotted this guy a while back. Believe it or not, his father lives in the apartment complex right across the street. It just so happens that it has been hanging around a couple of dumpsters near Marina Village. Go figure!

It took only about ten minutes for this one to pop-up, however, it was difficult to get it out of the bush entirely. It really enjoyed burying itself back in there.

Given the tropical nature from which this bird comes from they tend to produce more young and breed more often than their northern cousins. Yellow Warbler's song changes clinally throughout it's distribution, but there was an extra harder chip in the middle of this one's song, for what its worth. I would usually expect the Yellow Warbler's song to be sweet throughout.


This bird had significantly less streaking ventrally than most Yellow Warblers I notice. Furthermore, the streaking was restricted mainly to the flanks. Other than that, it is just the rufous head that separates this subspecies along with range and habitat. The rufous on the head can vary as well being that they have a relatively large range from southern North America through northern South America including some of the Caribbean. Don't read into it too much though because mangrove swamps are some of the most endangered habitats we have and they are being ripped out of the ground for condominiums and duplexes all over the Western Hemisphere.

As for the Yellow Warbler species itself; it is a fairly large warbler what breeds in riparian habitats all over the United States. It has a large, straight black bill and has a large black eye that really pops out at you. Breeding males will show quite a bit of vertical ventral rufous streaking during breeding season and afterwards the rufous fades a bit.


Here we have Ben Lizdas from Eagle Optics on the left and Marci Fuller from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival on the right enjoying the view of the Mangrove Warbler and the dumpsters.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back for more San Diego posts later this week and next week. Good Birding!

I was out birding this weekend with Bill Schmoker (nationally renowned photographer) and his father Jim Schmoker. We visited a local site for me, Cherry Creek State Park. The waters were fairly unexciting with only scattered Hooded & Common Mergansers, Redhead, and Common Goldeneye. Nevertheless, throughout the course of the morning we spotted numerous Red-tailed Hawks flying around. We had two Harlan's Hawks, one "Eastern" Red-tail, and one "Western" Red-Tail. Discussions those birds will come at a later date. You can write never-ending novels about this species.

Red-tailed Hawks are so variable that essentially, you always see something different with every bird. I found the one photographed here to be a real cool bird. Rufous morph Red-tailed Hawks come in varying amounts of red, but this one may be the closest to typical that one might see in the field. Brian Wheeler would call the bird in question an, "Adult (Western) intermediate rufous morph." I would have NOT gotten that right in the field, for sure.

The bird above shows a typical Red-tailed, bulky shape. The real interesting thing here is the large rufous band that is painted across the breast of the bird. A pretty clean tail would indicate an adult bird. Young birds would have a tail full of smaller bands more often than not.


This angle above we notice the heavily "red" colored tail that clearly indicates the species in question. Notice the broad sub-terminal band! Young birds would show the smaller bands without the large sub-terminal band as mentioned above. We can also see the cream-colored markings on the scapulars (shoulder blades)! All Red-tailed Hawks sport this attribute and can be one of the better field marks to use when driving down the highway and getting a glimpse of a Buteo species from the back!



One more look at this cool bird! I want to thank Nikon Sport Optics for giving me the opportunity to see these gorgeous creatures in a new light! My Nikon EDG binoculars give me that crisp edge to edge clarity a birder needs in the field.

This Red-tailed Hawk was photographed by Mike Freiberg at Cherry Creek State Park, CO with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens.