RGV Birding Festival

We may or may not have seriously nerded it up over the weekend:
Louise Zemaitis autographed her Black-and-white Warbler shirt
Michael O'Brien drew another Black-and-white Warbler on the sleeve of the shirt
Jon Dunn autographed the newest Nat. Geo. on our honeymoon spindalis page
...and we wrangled a booth all weekend, too!

sharing the nemesis

Black Rail has been a nemesis for me since about 1999 when I didn't know what I was doing and saw one very tiny black bird scuttle from one marsh patch to another near Galveston's East Beach. Hindsight is haunting.

Matt and I have put up a poll in our sidebar for those of you wishing to guess at our next shared life bird - this exposes some of the odd gaps in our lists and makes us laugh at our own peculiar fortunes. We narrowed the species selected to migrants. We both need Gray Jay, for example, but won't likely get it until we go to their habitat. Likewise, Kirtland's Warbler would be a shared life bird but the odds of seeing it in migration are laughable. (Our current shared life bird list is here.)

As boring as a few nemesis critters are, we console ourselves with the first observation of a singing male Western Spindalis for North America. And veg carry. And a female nearby. With a nest. And another female in the vicinity. With birding karma like that, it's no wonder we dipped on so much other stuff last year!

But when you consider that I grew up in Houston and Yellow Warbler (supposedly the most abundant warbler in the US) was one of my last warblers... well, things are strange. Yellow Rail before Sora! Attwater's Prairie Chicken before Scaled Quail, Montezuma Quail before California Quail.

And Matt will gently mention Bluethroat in the lower 48 before Sprague's Pipit. Also Red-throated Pipit before Sprague's. Hmmm.

Of note, our last visit to Salineno coincided with the visit of a middle-aged Winter Texan who had just seen her life American Kestrel. That made me wonder...

Regardless, fling some guesses at us. Heck, fling your own nemesis or next-life-bird guesses at us. Don't be embarrassed, we feel a bit exposed as well.

Happy migration!

Spindalis reminiscing

For the second consecutive year, a new bird has been added to the list of Florida breeding species. You may remember that in 2008, a pair of Least Grebes nested at Yamato Scrub Natural Area in Palm Beach County, and two young fledged. Both parents and young eventually disappeared from the area, though a single Least Grebe was seen there this past September. In 2009 another Caribbean species, Western Spindalis, nested in the state for the first time, at the Long Pine Key picnic area in Everglades National Park. The pair was first spotted in late July by visiting birders Heidi Trudell and Matthew York. Soon thereafter, a second female was seen with the pair, and it wasn't long after that that a nest was found near the top of a slash pine. Three young hatched; the last fledged in early September, but once the male parent stopped singing, birders had difficulty finding any of the six individuals presumed to present. The presence of the second female led to speculation that this may not have been the first time that the pair has nested in the park.

...the above is the first paragraph of Brian Rapoza's "Fall 2009" update for Tropical Audubon. Looks like the annual Trudell & York contribution to North American ornithology has been taken care of. Thanks to all who helped sponsor the honeymoon! =D

Western Spindalis FL 2009 revisited

Edit: The RBA portion was originally posted 7/29/09 at 8:45 pm, then censored upon request for the sake of nest privacy, and is now back as the unedited RBA submission with some discussion. I cannot thank Patricia Auffhammer enough for keeping us in the loop as to the progression of events, every update has been a refreshing reminder of our sweltering mosquito adventure.



(the original super-awesome digi-bin photo)

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by Heidi Trudell & Matthew York on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 9:44 PM
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01. Common Name Western Spindalis
02. Scientific Name Spindalis zena
03. Number Of Individuals: 2
04. Age: adult
05. Sex: male and female
06. Date Observed: July 28, 2009

07. Time Of Day: Noon
08. Duration Of Observation: 45 minutes
09. Sky Conditions: Bright and clear

10. Exact Location: [the birds are still around, and in a sensitive state right now - fledging - and the folks who currently have the locations posted should think long and hard about raising little ones]

11. Habitat: Pine flatwoods with mixed palmetto understory.
12. Distance From Bird: 5 meters at closest, 20 on average
13. Optical Equipment: 8x42 and 10x42 binoculars

14. Relationship of Sun/Observer/Bird: Initial observations ranged from optimal (sun at our backs while watching the birds) to poorly silhouetted.

15. Others Who Saw Bird: Matthew York
16. Others Who Independently IDed Bird: Matthew York
17. Anyone Known To Disagree: -

18. Vocalizations: Male was silent at first observation, plaintively cheeped a high, thin note - was responded to by female in similar fashion. When the pair flew off together, both chirped the single notes. After ~20 mins of observation, the male perched in the pines above the "do not enter" sign and sang a high, thin series of "weeky weeky" squeaking into buzzy notes (reminiscent of Black & White Warbler). He preened and sang intermittently for about 5 minutes.

19. Behavior: First sighting of male was at eye-level in understory edge, along the road. He then flew up into the higher branches of a pine, carrying a thin strand of vegetation. He flew deeper into the pines and returned shortly without the veg. After the male dropped into the understory, the female flew in from across the road and both flew back towards where the female had come from (both chipping throughout the interaction). A while later, the male was seen thoroughly preening and singing in upper pine branches - the female perched high in the pines across the road from the residence, also preening thoroughly. She would occasionally vanish into the understory across from the residence and tended to stay on that side of the road.

20. Description: Male - Initial impression was bold dark/white contrast on wing, reminiscent of male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The head was a stark black & white pattern (white supercilium and malar) above a sunset "v" on the breast that extended to the nape, with white belly and pale vent contrasting with a dark tail. Overall impression was a somewhat stocky bird (grosbeak or towhee in size/posture - barely larger than nearby warblers though), with a slim beak.

Female - Overall a nondescript brown bird of similar size and shape of the male. Pale belly and vent contrasted with darker tail.

21. Species Eliminated And Why: Black-headed Grosbeak - beak was too slim, facial patterns wrong. Bananaquit - size, posture, beak and behavior didn't fit.

22. Previous Experience With This Species: None

23. Previous Experience With Similar Species: Black-headed Grosbeak - Matthew and I have lived in their range for several years, seeing all ages and plumages several times per year. Bananaquit - I spent a week with them in Grand Cayman.

24. ID'd Before Consulting Guides: Yes

25. What Influenced Your Decision: Absolute conspicuous coloration of the male, unmistakable recognition from memorizing the field guide (for Matthew, anyway). The female was guilty by association - vocalization, size and behavior.

26. Materials Submitted: http://picasaweb.google.com/seetrail/WesternSpindalisX2#

27. Observer Name: Heidi Trudell & Matthew York

End of report.

For browsing convenience, the link to seetrail's Western Spindalis album

Other blogs/posts/videos about these birds can be found...
on the ABA/Peeps blog - several details are incorrect
this TAS post by Larry Manfredi seems to have been the source for Peeps
Larry's Manfredi's site has a report with photos - several details are incorrect
and there are some videos at Wil Domke's site
here's Larry's original post, and here's the birdingonthe.net link
which is linked from the Near Georgia Report as well

Most of the confusion seems to be about what behaviors led to these birds being shrouded in secrecy. My first look at the male spindalis was this: pine needle in beak. Males don't just carry veg for fun. Matt noted that it took off for a tree-top location and vanished for a little while, hence our nest speculation began.

I'd like to also take a moment and point out ABA's code of ethics - anyone knowing about the nest who posted more details than "the spindalis are alive at an undisclosed location" would be seriously in question, ethically. My initial flaw when reporting the birds was that I mentioned 2 birds and the location. Matt and I knew that they occurred pretty much annually in FL and didn't think much of seeing 2 of them... other than the excitement of a ridiculously exciting new life bird for both of us. My initial post on the TAS list probably should have been much more vague as to the whereabouts of the birds, but being on vacation with spotty internet access, I didn't want to return to a million new e-mails. Selfish motives. Many people graciously removed locations when they were asked - it took quite a bit of cooperation to backtrack, including removing blogs from being searchable by Google and whatnot.

Here's the first e-mail sent - it's addressed to Michael Retter, a dear friend. It follows a phone conversation in which I was somewhat confused over how many "drab" birds were present (one being scruffier than the other, I thought might have been juv, but never quite had enough looks at the second bird to conjure up any other thoughts).

Michael,

Upon further review of the pictures and notes, it's probably just 2 ...whatever the plural of "Spindalis" is. What I thought might have been juv. was probably just the female again.

Matt and I drove to [the designated area] and gawked at a few Pine Warblers there for a few minutes before slowly heading out again. We had exited the [main area] and were almost to the [specific area] (on the left) when I spotted a bulky, black-and-white bird at about eye level in the undergrowth - maybe 15 meters from [a driveway]. It was just before noon - my camera is a few minutes off on the time stamp, but the bird flew up into a distinctly "curly" pine, carrying a pine needle (this is still on the left side of the road) and surfaced after a few moments (without the pine needle), allowing the first set of pictures to be taken. At this point we were only seeing the adult male. Since Matt and I were in the area for ~45 mins, I'm not clear as to what time the female showed up, it had to have been after at least 10-15 mins from the initial sighting. The male would "chip" occasionally when we were on him and at some point, a pale, drab bird flew over from the right side of the road to the left, into the low shrub where the male was - the looks at this bird were fleeting, all I saw while it was perched was a pale vent on darker tail feathers - but they flew back across to the right side of the road together and vanished mid-level. At this point there was snacking and at some point the male perched high in a pine at [a spot], above [a landmark], where he preened and sang and preened.. and preened. A bit later, Matt spotted the drab bird on the resident's side of the road, perched high and preening frequently. All of our pictures of this bird are sadly back-lit, but we were able to follow the two enough to determine that they chipped alike.

Anyway, the closest we ever saw the critters would be ~10 meters in the low shrub, ~30 meters when across the road, but roughly 20-30 mins of observation of the 45 we were aware of them.

I'm not sure of their nesting habits, but having watched nesting vireos all summer, the ridiculously frequent preening and veg carry could indicate nesting and/or incubation - my shots of the female clearly show a very fluffed belly, which was fairly typical of a female vireo when immediately off-nest.

Let me know what other details might be useful for a report, we may have a few more details that didn't make the notes. We may not have the internet though =)

All the best,
-heidi

*****

Moral of the post:

Please, go forth, bird in the summer and find stuff. But please, for the love of nest predation and stress, DO NOT post sensitive information until it has cleared with all concerned parties!

Western Spindalis in Florida, 2009

The Western Spindalis, for our dear readers who are not birders: all two of you. Here's a post about why it's a cool bird, and some speculation that you might not think about when you curse at grackles for adorning your car with splatters of bird graffiti. And hopefully this will be easier to read than that RBA post ;-)

Our Western Spindalis (Spindalis zena) in the Everglades are not the first for the US, nor Florida, nor even Florida for 2009.



The male Western Spindalis (July 28, 2009)

So if these weren't even the first for 2009, what's the fuss about? Well, the first was from Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, a whopping 77 miles, as the Google drives. There is some great discussion about the bird at Peeps Online, the American Birding Association (ABA) blog. I won't even begin to speculate as to whether or not one could be the same bird.

Here's the important part:



The female Western Spindalis (July 28, 2009)
Yes, she's very drab. We only figured her out because she sounded the same, behaved the same, and was structurally identical to the male.

EDITED:
So, two of these hard to find birds, together. That, my friends, is why birding during the honeymoon is a great idea ;-) It's all in the name of science. Or just fun for recently "underemployed" biologists taking a honeymoon ~4 months after the nontraditional pseudo-elopement-type wedding.

Here's a look at the habitat:



...it's pine rockland habitat [thanks, John!] with a very dense understory of Sabal Palm and some other tropical hardwoods that are kept under control by regular fires.

Here's the Florida RBA post, missing the York half of the team, but we know he did most of the work after I found the critters ;-)

I would also like to think that this is a bit of smiling from the birder we can no longer call. Apparently the "wet season" keeps FL birds dispersed in summer, but thankfully we're not chasing ones we've got at home. Our life creatures so far have been very satisfying, though not exactly easy. But I'd like to think that Laura put in a good word for our birding weather - it has only rained when we were not actually birding. It's just so hard to think that we won't be able to go through the trip list together while reviewing pictures.

Western Spindalis - the dirt

Edit: This was originally posted 7/29/09 at 8:45 pm, your RSS feed isn't messed up, we're just shuffling blog settings!





Common Name - Western Spindalis
Scientific Name - Spindalis zena
Age: adult
Sex: male and female
Date Observed: July 28, 2009

Time Of Day: Noon
Duration Of Observation: 45 minutes
Sky Conditions: Bright and clear
Exact Location: Everglades National Park

Habitat: Pine flatwoods with mixed palmetto understory.
Distance From Bird: 5 meters at closest, 20 on average
Optical Equipment: 8x42 and 10x42 binoculars

Relationship of Sun/Observer/Bird: Initial observations ranged from optimal (sun at our backs while watching the birds) to poorly silhouetted.

Others Who Saw Bird: MWY
Others Who Independently IDed Bird: MWY
Anyone Known To Disagree: -

Vocalizations: Male was silent at first observation, plaintively cheeped a high, thin note - was responded to by female in similar fashion. When the pair flew off together, both chirped the single notes. After ~20 mins of observation, the male perched in the pines and sang a high, thin series of "weeky weeky" squeaking into buzzy notes (the squeaking was reminiscent of Black & White Warbler). He preened and sang intermittently for about 5 minutes.

Description:
Male - Initial impression was bold dark/white contrast on wing, reminiscent of male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The head was a stark black & white pattern (white supercilium and malar) above a sunset "v" on the breast that extended to the nape, with white belly and pale vent contrasting with a dark tail. Overall impression was a somewhat stocky bird (grosbeak or towhee in size/posture - barely larger than nearby warblers though), with a slim beak.
Female - Overall a nondescript brown bird of similar size and shape of the male. Pale belly and vent contrasted with darker tail.

Species Eliminated And Why: Black-headed Grosbeak - beak was too slim, facial patterns wrong. Bananaquit - size, posture, beak and behavior didn't fit.

Previous Experience With This Species: None

Previous Experience With Similar Species: Black-headed Grosbeak - Matthew and I have lived in their range for several years, seeing all ages and plumages several times per year. Bananaquit - I spent a week with them in Grand Cayman.

ID'd Before Consulting Guides: Yes

What Influenced Your Decision: Absolute conspicuous coloration of the male, unmistakable recognition from memorizing the field guide (for Matthew, anyway). The female was guilty by association - vocalization, size and behavior.

Materials Submitted: link to seetrail's Western Spindalis album

Observer Name: Trudell & York