Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park.  That was where my family chose to make our vacation destination this year. I was pretty happy because the birding would be awesome, I had a few friends that lived out there, and, best of all, it wouldn't cost me much.  I had been to Glacier twice before. Once for about a week in '04 when we had spent some time and hiked a bunch of trails and spent time there.  The second time was a few years later on our way back from Banff National Park. Unfortunately though, this was earlier in the year and the Going-to-the-sun Road was still closed in most of the upper elevations. This was the first year we would be back to do some more exploring.

If you haven't been to Glacier yet, I would highly recommend visiting.  The scenery is spectacular and the birding is pretty sweet.   If you visit in July like I did, you should hit the wildflowers pretty nicely.

At the top of Logan Pass, the Glacier Lillies were blooming:

In the lower elevations, you can find Thimbleberry blooming in July and fruiting in August:

In the high mountain valleys, Mountain Bluebells can be found in large numbers:

and Indian Paintbrush makes up a good percentage of the flowers at all elevations:

Throughout the park, mountain streams run, carrying rainwater and meltwater from glaciers and snowfields. Most of them tumble through a jumble of stones, boulders and fallen trees:

In the thick forests blanketing the slopes, birds like Varied Thrushes can be heard, their songs echoing through the glades, Chestnut-backed Chickadees forage in the thick cedars, Western Tanagers call from further up the slopes, and Boreal Chickadees call their lazy "schlicka-zee-zee"

The beauty of the park cannot be told in words, and images only tell half the story.  In this and a few future posts, I will try to convey at least some of that beauty.

Til next time, Happy Birding!

Apologies for not posting more.....

Hey everyone,

I haven't been too active in the blog world lately and I just wanted to explain why:

I've been working more this year and this whole last month has been extremely busy for me.
Also, my internet service provider at home just re-vamped their entire service policy and now I have fast internet, but at the same time, they cramped the amount of space so much that just checking email, Facebook messages and other basic functions is taking up my entire daily limit of space.  It doesn't help that in my house there are 4 people attempting to use the internet at the same time.  This translates to about a total of three hours of usage per person spread over the entire day. This equates to checking messages about 3 times a day per person.

Hence, I have about a month's worth of blogging backlogged as well as several other things I haven't been able to get done due to lack of internet.

It doesn't help that WiFi in town is also limited and extremely inconvenient for anyone needing to get anything done beyond checking email.

So please bear with me on this.  I have several book reviews that I am attempting to get posted as well as some trip report backlog from May and some daily posting type stuff.

I am also going on vacation soon and should have regular internet for at least a few days of that trip and will try to get somewhat caught up there as well.


Thanks for understanding and please keep following for more updates!

I'm back!

...Again, I know. The month of May proved too busy for me to even think about blogging. Now that June is almost here and my schedule is slowing down a bit, I'll have time to fill you in on the last month that I literally spent on the road, add some new book reviews (I just received the new Princeton Press Birds of India) and fill you in a little on some more things I see out on the river while I'm at work.

For this post, I'll just say that the birding is slowing down and the Dragonflies are picking up!

Halloween Pennant

I saw Green and Canada Darners, Cobra Clubtail, Twelve-spotted Skimmer and Prince Baskettail this past weekend! The Pennants are out and about and Eastern Forktails and Northern Bluets are around as well.  

As the summer goes on, I'm hoping to pick up a few more lifer Dragons and Butterflies, as well as maybe a few new state birds here and there. :)

The Widow Skimmers will be out soon. Keep an eye out for them as they skim ponds, lakes, rivers and streams!

Widow Skimmer

Almost time for the Biggest Week!

I've been in Ohio for not quite two days and I've barely had time to think. BSBO employees have been scurrying around like ants, scrambling to get every detail in shape for the festival, which starts tomorrow. I have been birding the heck out of Magee Marsh. The last two mornings, I haven't left the boardwalk until after noon. Both mornings were 20+ warbler days. Today, I totaled 23 for the morning. Best so far were a Prairie yesterday and a Canada today. Summer Tanager, Upland Sandpiper, Am Pipit, and a vireo slam were special treats as well. The festival itself starts tomorrow and I am double booked on field trips most days. I'll be attempting to blog in the evenings about the adventures of the day.

Many many people have come down for the festival. Our ABA president and first lady arrived last night and many other nationally known birders are here.

It's going to be an awesome week!
Stay tuned for updates and follow my twitter feed @Uppiesand for sightings updates.

Check the twitter hashtag #biggestweek for tweets about the festival.

Til next time, Happy Birding!

Book review: Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-petrels of North America

What. an. awesome. book! 

What else can I say about it?   Let's see, it's a must have for anyone wanting to study pelagic (that means sea-going!) birds!  The detail in the book is amazing and the photographs are even more so.
But enough of my describing, let's take a look inside the pages:

First of all, let's start with the layout. This is a typical field guide by Steve Howell. Lots of illustrative pictures with helpful accompanying text and plenty of highly detailed text in-between.

Take the first page of the introduction for example. Mr Howell starts with the basics: What are Tubenoses?  In the first page, he writes "Tubenoses are a well-defined group of seabirds that comprise the order Procellariiformes, and are so-named because their nostrils are encased in tube-like structures on the bill. Tubenoses are represented by up to five families worldwide: northern storm-petrels, southern storm-petrels, albatrosses, petrels (including shearwaters), and diving-petrels."

The author goes on in detail about tubenoses in the following pages, which I will save for you to read for yourself.

Elsewhere in the book, photos of seabirds abound, as is typical for a Howell guide.

This one above details a flock of Sooty Shearwaters. They are by far the most plentiful seabird seen during west coast pelagic trips.

The photos in the book are of superb quality. Here is one example:

Each species is accompanied with a range map. Here's a scan of the one for the pacific population of Sooty Shearwaters: 

At the start of each section (Petrels [including Shearwaters], Albatrosses and Storm-petrels), Howell also gives a short intro to the family and some tips on ID.

The sheer amount of information in this book is utterly astounding. Just the introduction has enough info in it to give you a thorough understanding of ocean habitats and how seabirds use them, not to mention the accompanying text with the species accounts (which often covers two pages and details status and distribution, similar species, habitat and behavior, detailed descriptions, molt patterns, etc)


From the press release:
"The book is the first of its kind, this guide features an introduction that explains ocean habitats and the latest developments in taxonomy. Detailed species accounts describe key ID features such as flight manner, plumage variation related to age and molt, seasonal occurrence patterns, and migration routes. Species accounts are arranged into groups helpful for field identification, and an overview of unique identification challenges is provided for each group. The guide also includes distribution maps for regularly occurring species as well as a bibliography, glossary, and appendixes."



Overall, it is a superb book and definitely worth purchasing if you wish to learn anything about seabirds.

About the author of the guide:
Steve N.G. Howell is an acclaimed field ornithologist and writer. He is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and a research associate at PRBO Conservation Science in California. His other books include the Peterson Reference Guide to Molt in North American Birds, and Hummingbirds of North America. 




Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-petrels of North America: a Photographic Guide can be purchased at Amazon.com for a little less than $30. 

The book's page back at the Princeton Press website is here:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9534.html 


I personally own every single one of Howell's field guides and can attest to their high quality and ease of use.  If you don't have a Howell guide in your birding library, you're missing some of the most valuable books you can own and I highly recommend purchasing them.



Til next time, Happy Birding!