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are to facebook share to pinterest friday april 15 2011 cinnamon teal at back bay nwr this morning while sarah davis ken markley and i were conducting an impoundment survey sarah noticed an odd teal and brought it to my attention it was an obvious male cinnamon teal i took a few photos to document the sighting the provenance of the bird is unknown whether it will be accepted by varcom will depend on whether this sighting fits the currently known vagrancy pattern for cinnamon teal so stay tuned the bird was found in an area that is currently not open to the public however the west dike is open for birdwatching and we also saw 5 black necked stilts in the north end of c pool which should be visible from the west dike since the teal could move around anyone visiting the refuge should be on the alert for the cinnamon teal in addition during the beach survey we found an iceland gull on the beach at false cape state park and a piping plover on the north mile section of the back bay nwr beach posted by robert ake at 4 17 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday january 22 2011 the calendar of big year talks starting in the fall i will be giving talks about the big year to various bird clubs and other groups in response to a question from cathy and terry bond who wanted to know when and where the talks would be i have posted the calendar on my website just click on the link calendar of big year talks on the left side of the blog under link to website i hope you ll find a talk that fits your needs contact information for each program is provided i have also cleaned up the two big year species spreadsheets one has the species listed by date seen in reverse order the last seen at the top the first seen at the bottom the other list has the birds listed in aba order with the gaps showing graphically which birds i missed during the year you might have fun with those as your time permits as far as the blog goes i m going to try to write a paragraph on some timely subject or what i m seeing or not seeing trying hard to be interesting but not stimulating enough to throw readers into a flaming rage so check it out and see what i m up to your responses will be a clue as to whether it s interesting enough to continue incidentally you might be interested to know that the blog got about 10 000 hits a month until december when the hits topped 18 000 i don t have a complete record of hits for the whole year because i didn t turn the counter on at the beginning because i didn t know about it my guess is that if i had been counting from january 1 2010 the total from the year would have exceeded 110 000 hits i do know that for the last half of the year the total was over 72 000 hits posted by robert ake at 2 41 pm 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday january 3 2011 it s over today is a gorgeous day in tidewater va the sun is shining brightly enough so that i spent an hour cleaning up the backyard our statuesque pine the one with the perfect shape prior to the last snow storm has three more missing limbs a product of the enormous wet snow we had a week or so ago i did start on my year yardlist and i did start on my virginia yearlist the routine type of listing but the big year is over joyce and i ended the year last friday by hosting the compilation for the little creek cbc on new year s eve on saturday we began the new year by going to the va eastern shore with audrey to see the mountain bluebird state bird 404 for me photo yesterday i participated in the nansemond river cbc for which i am the compiler our enthusiastic group tallied a few over 120 species and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the compilation and food at david matson s house in suffolk today seemed like a good time for a little reflection on the year past am i happy with the big year overwhelmingly so how could i not be having passed numerical goal after goal once the original goal of 650 was reached everyone should understand that the birding strategy morphed through the year in the beginning i set up an itinerary and expected to follow it religiously pocketing the rarities along the way that happened to be where i was little if any chasing the reasoning using that approach would keep the cost at a reasonable level that plan held for about the first half of the year that approach brought john and me to the point in march where we had all the birds and were waiting for the migration to bring us more it was that approach that gave us the 650 by july 1 that firm foundation gave a clear track to the chasing which came later rather than having to clean up a bunch of missed species during the last third of the year finding the blyth s reed warbler at gambell in september has to be the highlight of the year i never imagined in my wildest dreams that a new north american record would be part of the big year much less dream of being the one who found it others of course helped in securing the identity of the bird but standing there in the boneyard by myself looking at this bird created an exhilaration that is difficult to match i also derived a great deal of pleasure and a large sense of accomplishment when i missed a bird but came back to get it there were quite a few of those like la sagra s flycatcher moscovy duck black capped gnatcatcher brown shrike himalayan snowcock and ferruginous pygmy owl just to name a few after missing the black tailed gull three days in california i got it in newfoundland a reward i m claiming for my earlier effort no big year is accomplished without help there are countless people who gave me and john their time advice support housing food and general good will throughout the year first and foremost on my list has to be joyce my wife who never wavered in her support and good words from before the year began right up to that very last day this next year is her year to decide where we will go well maybe i ll still sneak off to a cardinal s game chief among the commentators on my blog were renee and ned who kept up my spirit and offered advice when some of the going got tough the other supporters and helpers were justly important but i won t attempt a complete list at this point you all have my most heartfelt gratitude i hope you know that this year would not have met the success it did without your help where do i go from here this year 2011 will be a virginia year more or less i ll do the birding things i usually do like the weekly walks in the great dismal swamp the bird surveys at back bay nwr and vso and cvwo field trips but in and around the edges i will be pulling together the details of the big year for inclusion in a book i m planning to write i m open to any suggestions from you best delivered via email to robertake gmail com the blog won t go dead but a little of the electricity will be gone posted by robert ake at 12 02 pm 7 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday december 31 2010 decision not to go to texas on wednesday afternoon another white throated thrush was found in texas this time at estero llande grande state park in westlaco i m certain this is not the bird that was seen in pharr a few days earlier when i heard the news i got on the computer to see if i could get a flight to the valley the following day after some monkeying around my only option was a very expensive round trip in addition i would only have the last day of the year to look for the bird the resulting quandary was typical of those that arose all through the big year the decision didn t come easily however later on wednesday night i decided to let the thrush go it was too much buck for the bang there had already been a precedent i had decided a month ago not to go for mckay s buntings at a feeder in nome even though it was an almost guaranteed bird that decision was made primarily on financial grounds but in alaska the travel conditions are always a little iffy and add an additional constraint this time the thrush was not a guarantee but probably would show up sooner or later at the water feature as the rufous backed thrush did at laguna atascosa nwr last week that proved to be the case a late afternoon sighting yesterday showed the white throated thrush to be still around whether it shows today or not will have no effect on my big year as i learned very few choices are clear cut i m pleased that so many of mine went the right way posted by robert ake at 2 13 pm 16 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday december 26 2010 a nice day in the rio grande valley i spent last night in south padre island the closest motel to laguna atascosa nwr the motel 6 was a notch above the rest this morning i got going after sunrise since the outside temperature was only 39f and i needed it to warm up a bit although i was heading to a denny s for breakfast i discovered that it no longer existed the space being converted into a retail store instead i found a small breakfast spot near the causeway bridge that offered an inexpensive breakfast and lots of people watching i was intrigued by how few tourists there were during this holiday time i would have thought that south padre island would be a location where families might go for a holiday fest although it was cold as hell today still a walk on the beach and eating out are favorites most any time of year after breakfast i drove to laguna atascosa and ran into jeff lemons whom joyce and i had met at pea island nwr in nc when we went to see the white cheeked pintail he and his family were visiting the valley and they were having a ball he was picking up lifebirds at a rapid rate since this was his first trip to the valley i wandered around the area and finally encountered the rufous backed thrush at one of the water sources it didn t hang around long enough for anybody else to get there i told jeff about the sighting and then left to drive all the way to bentsen state park to spend the last hours of the day there i spent a lovely three hours walking around in an area that was just re opened yesterday i didn t see anything rare but it was nice to get great views of many of the valley specialties i left after sunset and got a motel in mcallen i walked to a nearby restaurant and then retired and watched tv from the bed since i don t watch much tv it was a bit entertaining although i m depressed with how small the content advertising ratio has become i didn t measure it but i would guess that there s no more than 35 minutes of real content per hour of tv time tomorrow i ll try to fly home i hope my planes are flying and reasonably on time even if they are on time i won t get home until midnight then only four days left in the year posted by robert ake at 1 11 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday december 25 2010 christmas day in the rio grande valley christmas eve was pretty much a travel day but it did go well my flight schedule didn t get me to harlingen early enough to get any birding done i checked into my motel 6 in mission positioned well for my trip to bentsen state park first thing in the morning this morning i was awake and up early very antsy to get going and looking for the black vented oriole i checked out of the motel and went to a nearby denny s for breakfast i still arrived at bentsen sp before it was light enough to see other birders began to arrive clearly the oriole had brought em out even on christmas there were more than a dozen by the time the visitor s center opened at 8 00 admission was free since the floods earlier in the year had closed much of the park to visitation and what little was open was free after i had been there half an hour i got a call from carolyn stenberg a volunteer at santa ana nwr whom i met when she volunteered at eastern shore of virginia nwr and helped me on the fisherman island surveys she had gotten my message that i was coming to the valley to look for the oriole and she was on her way to look for it with me she arrived and we kept circulating in the area where the oriole had been seen during the past two days after two and a half hours we decided to walk into the park proper since they were re opening a section today when we approached the first feeding station and tram stop a couple were waving their hands excitedly we hurried ahead and there was the oriole web photo bathing then preening and then climbing up into the twigs and into clear view but it continued on up and out of sight cellphone calls to those still back at the visitor center area didn t help by the time they arrived the bird had disappeared as far as i know it didn t re appear for the rest of the morning and maybe for the rest of the day i called joyce to tell her and was told that i had gotten an email from susan who manages narba that since she knew i was in the valley i should try to check out a report of a white throated thrush in pharr tx i called the person reporting the bird and made arrangements to meet him in 45 minutes so he could show me the area where he had seen the bird yesterday afternoon i said my goodbyes to carolyn and the others who wished me well on my big year and raced off to pharr i met don at the entrance to the gated rv park and golf course and he took me to the tree where he had seen the bird the wind was terrible and there weren t any berry bushes or trees around so after two circuits of the only semi acceptable habitat around the golf course i left asking don to call me if the bird turns up again another phone call from carolyn invited me to share christmas dinner with her her husband and a group of refuge volunteers i accepted and it was a very nice get together mid afteernoon i left and drove to laguna atascosa nwr to look for the rufous backed thrush that s being seen there i had no luck so decided to try again tomorrow i drove to south padre island the location of the nearest motel got a room and some dinner in light of the snow storm which will blanket norfolk on sunday i decided not to move up my return by a day but instead to come home on monday so i ll have a day and a half more in the valley i ll do some slow birding instead of chasing except i will look for the thrush again tomorrow morning posted by robert ake at 10 27 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom click here to donate to cvwo cvwo about me robert ake last year i traveled around the us trying to record as many species of birds as i could last year s entries to this blog are the record of that adventure view my complete profile link to website calendar of big year talks big year calendar big year lists another big year blog chris hitt s blog blog archive 2013 1 december 1 snowy owl at craney island 2011 3 april 1 january 2 2010 310 december 18 november 21 october 18 september 25 august 24 july 25 june 30 may 31 april 30 ...