Wandering Priest » Earth

Top Ten Lifer Birding Spots (North American zone)

Doug — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:44:18 +0000

In case you are wondering, I am not using the word spot in a geographical sense, but as in spotted with my own eyes. All birds mentioned were lifers for me.

10. Limpkin, in a water purifiying area near Ft. Lauderdale. And since I also got a purple gallinule there, it was a great morning.

9. Colima warbler. It was a long hike in and a long hike out, but the bird sighting made it all worthwhile. Plus, on the same day, got the canyon wren. My wife spotted both of them before I did. Big Bend national park, Texas.

8. Chesnut-backed chickadee and hermit warbler. Outside of Vancouver, Washington, with new friends Sherry and Arden.

7. Northern bobwhite. This was the bird that got me back into birding after fifteen years. So, it deserves its rightful place in my top ten list. Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, IN.

6. Western bluebird and pygmy nuthatch. In the mountains in eastern Oregon. Another special memory that day, calling up a cow elk with a blade of grass as a whistle.

5. Northern saw whet owl in the mountains out of LaPine, Oregon, with my friend Terry O’Casey. He helped me get the American dipper the day before.

4. Red-cockaded woodpecker, north of Houston. We followed the directions from the book, got to the place an hour early, and sure enough, got this endangered species.

3. California condor in the Pinnacles National Monument, California. I got up early, hiked the trail, and came upon the condor still sleeping. I watched it for 45 minutes before it took off.

2. Whooping crane. OK. It didn’t take much work. Just get on the boat and let them take you to the area where they live in the winter. Rockport, Texas. But this bird was down to some 18 individuals before they started making a comeback, slowly but (hopefully) surely.

1. Three short-eared owls near Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was daylight, and the reason this makes it my number one spot is that the three owls were buzzing a coyote and making it run away from the area it was prowling around. Who would have thought the owls would take on a coyote.

Best day: pelagic bird trip on Monterrey Bay with Debra Shearwater. One dozen lifers.

Most recent lifer? Wrentit, at Canyon Cove State Park, near Corona Del Mar, California.

Most surprising? Guinea fowl seen in both Tennessee and Montana. I couldn’t believe my eyes since I wasn’t in Africa. Too bad they don’t count on an official listing.

Next lifer? Perhaps Vaux swift, Laysan albatross, or marbled murrelet, on my upcoming trip to Oregon.

Feed the Birds

Doug — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:42:07 +0000

For the last fifteen years we have lived in a condominium. That means we have no yard to speak of. We grow a few things–tomatoes, hot peppers, basil–in containers that sit on a slab of cement. A few years ago we added a pergola, though it is probably not spelled that way, from which we hang a container of bird seed and sugared water for hummingbirds. We have another bird feed for goldfinches.

We’ve not had much luck in attracting the birds. We forget to freshen the hummingbird feed, run out of bird seed, and so on. But this year we decided to do better. Lo and behold, the little guys are visiting us regularly. Last night we saw four hummingbirds (ruby-throated) around the feeder. We had a flock of (pesky) house sparrows that steal the sunflower seeds from the cardinals and mourning doves. We have had goldfinches hourly is seems, and a white-breasted nuthatch has been a regular visitor.

For those of you with a backyard and lots of feeders, I know this isn’t much. But for us, it has been a record year and we have enjoyed our feathered friends. To date, I’ve not seen a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned hawk fly in and make an escape with a meal, but I expect that time will be coming.

A Conference on Justice

Doug — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:36:57 +0000

Hey, this really looks interesting. It is a conference on justice, with such categories as poverty, HIV/AIDS and much more. Have look at the website. And, the conference is in Bend, Oregon in the winter. Should be a beautiful setting. http://thejusticeconference.com/

Listen to the Birds

Doug — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:34:39 +0000

Last month in Oregon I met some folks who graciously took me birding. I was looking for several birds to add to my lifelist, and Arden and Sherry were able to help me find those birds. Sherry used an ipod nano with a speaker to play the bird calls which helps to attune the ear to the birdsong you want to hear. In addition, if the bird is in the area, it will often show itself to check out the ‘interloper’ in the territory. I was surprised to see how quickly we were able to spot the desired species.

So I have taken the plunge myself. I ordered the Gold Edition of Thayer’s Birds of North America which contains birdsongs for over 700 North American species, as well as photos, videos, range maps, information, articles, and a host of other good things.

Then I ordered a used (let it please be as advertised!) ipod nano, third generation. I’ll download the songs onto the ipod for use in the field. Finally, I ordered a portable speaker (Creative Sound i80) that the ipod fits into so that the birdsong can be played in the field.

Stay tuned to see how this goes.

And, if you are tracking with me, I added the Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow and the saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow to my lifelist.

Sherry tells me that the winter wren has been split into two species, so I added the Pacific wren to my list since I had seen it in Oregon some years back as well as locally here in the midwest.

Top Ten Rocks

Doug — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:34:58 +0000

I’ve been fortunate to have done a bit of traveling, so I thought I would share my top ten rocks, in no special order.

1-3 I heard that the three largest ‘stand alone’ rocks in the world are the Rock of Gibraltar, Haystack Rock on the Oregon coast, and Beacon Rock on the Washington side of the Columbia River. I’ve been to each of these locations. In 1966 we took a ship to Ethiopia, and passed by the Rock of Gibraltar. In 2007 I made a special birding trip to Haystack Rock, though I had seen it before. Lifers at the time were the Black oystercatcher, the Harlequin duck, and the Tufted puffin. In 2002 I drove (paved road and freeway) from St. Louis to Astoria, Oregon, following the Lewis and Clark trail. They stopped at Beacon Rock. Last week I visited Beacon Rock again. There is a path to the top, and someday I will walk that path.

4. Petra, Jordan. A fantastic place to visit. You go through a narrow path between two cliffs of rock, and when you arrive at the main area, you see wonderful buildings carved out of rock. The visit was also in 1966 on the way to Ethiopia.

5. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Africa’s tallest mountain, and I climbed to Gilsen’s Peak, 18,595 ft., with my good friend Greg Johnson, in 1983.

6. Rift Valley, Kenya. One of the largest fissures in the earth, stretching from the southern part of Africa all the way up into Israel. Outside of Nairobi you reach the escarpment, a gorgeous view of the valley. Then you drive down the escarpment to get to the valley. Spectacular.

7. Pompei’s Peak, Montana. Not a large rock, but famous because William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) carved his name on the rock, and it is still visible two hundred years later. The sign says that this is the only place along the entire trail where such documentation occurs (and remains). They stopped lots of places, like Beacon Rock, but only here is the evidence that they were really there.

8. Big Bend National Park. Lots of rocks here. The scenery is fabulous, probably to me because I’ve not spent that much time in this sort of desert. Wonderful plants all over the park, and great birds too, including the Colima warbler, which took a long walk.

9. Yosemite. What is there to say. You’ve seen the photos. Beautiful, and John Muir too.

10. Diamond Peak, Oregon. I have to put this one down for sentimental reasons. Robyn and I climbed this mountain when we were engaged, and no, I did not propose when we got there. We had not gone a mile before Robyn developed blisters, but she gamely kept walking for many more miles. The mosquitos were terrible. We were basically in tennis shoes, and no special clothing. On the way down we met some “real climbers” (with all the trimmings). I am sure it ticked them off that we got to the peak before they did, that we were just novices, and that we spoiled their pristine adventure. Loved it!

Creation Care Consultation

Doug — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:05:42 +0000

Environmental Missions Consultation –
Ed of Care of Creation and Lowell of Restoring Eden would like to invite you to spend five days with them in Manhattan KS this summer discussing the concept of Environmental Missions. Among the questions to be considered are: What is it? What are appropriate theological and biblical foundations? How can we integrate evangelism, discipleship and church planting into creation care projects? The dates are July 12-15 – Agenda

Contact Ed ed@careofcreation.org or, Lowell lowell@edenvigil.org for information or an invitation.

John Muir and Ouzels

Doug — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:26:11 +0000

Terry O’Casey is the minister of the High Lakes Christian Church in La Pine, Oregon. He is also the President of the 2010 Oregon Christian Convention. Terry knew I would be driving from Califorina to Oregon to participate in the Spring Rally for the Convention and he invited me to spend the night.

I jumped at the chance, because I sense Terry and I are kindred spirits. It was Terry who let me know that John Muir came from a Restoration movement background and who was a solid believer in God’s amazing work in Creation. As I result, I read a couple of books on Muir; one a biography and the other some samples of his writing. Of course anybody who has been out of doors in California is well acquainted with Muir.

Terry also is an avid student of the Bible and taught me quite a bit in the one day we had together. I met one son, Isaac, but the rest of the family was away, including his wife who was working up in Willapa Bay in Washington. She is an avid outdoors person herself and I hope to meet her some day.

We went birding soon after my arrival and I was able to see two lifers within an hour — Barrow’s Goldeneye and the long sought American Dipper, also known as the water ouzel. The ouzel was John Muir’s favorite bird. The dipper was building a nest, going after moss along the river and swimming/flying it back to the nest construction under a walking bridge. We crawled down almost into the river to see the nest under construction.

The next morning we went into the woods and sure enough, another two lifers for my list: Jameson’s Sapsucker and the Northern Saw-whet owl.

Central Oregon is a beautiful area with lots of different geographical features: lava flows, Ponderosa pines, Cascade lakes, mountains and waterfalls, pumice, obsidian, bluffs and tufts. Well worth a visit in the late spring. It was a week or two early for the songbird migration to be fully underway, but a joy to see what we did.

Kakamega Forest

Doug — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:59:33 +0000

Any serious birder should visit the Kakamega Forest in Kenya. I was able to be there portions of three days, March 18-20, with Keith Ham and his sons Jesse and Jonathan. We hired local guides for different trips into the forest, John and Job, who helped us spot and identify many more birds than we could of on our own. The forest has 410 bird species. About 200 of these are forest-dependent and found nowhere else in Kenya. In addition to the birds we saw three of the four different types of monkeys (Colobus, Red-tailed, and Blue, missing the Slow-moving which is only seen at night). There are 401 different butterflies in the forest as well as 9 squirrels (we saw the Red-legged). We also came across a Green-striped bush viper on the trail which we carefully avoided.

Our accomodations were wonderful and inexpensive. We stayed at the Rondo Retreat Centre. While there I purchased a wonderful publication for $4.00 entitled A Checklist of the Birds of Kakamega Forest by Bernd de Bruijin and Itai Shanni (Nairobi: Bird Committee of Nature Kenya and the Department of Ornithology of the National Museums of Kenya, 2006).

For the serious birder, see the list below for the 64 bird species we saw and the 5 we heard but did not see.

Birds Seen (64)

African citril
African dusky flycatcher
African paradise flycatcher
African pied wagtail
African pygmy kingfisher
African thrush
Ashy flycatcher
Banded prinia
Bar-tailed trogon
Barn swallow
Black saw-wing
Black-and-white casqued hornbill
Black-and-white manikin
Black-billed weaver
Black-faced rufous warbler
Black-backed puffback
Black-throated wattle-eye
Blue-headed bee-eater
Blue-spotted wood-dove
Bronze sunbird
Brown illadopsis
Brown-capped weaver
Cabinis’s greenbul
Cardinal woodpecker
Collared sunbird
Common bulbul
Crested guineafowl
Dark-backed weaver
Diedrick cuckoo
Double-toothed barbet
Equatorial akalat
Great blue turaco
Great sparrowhawk
Green-headed sunbird
Grey-chested illadopsis
Grey-headed sparrow
Grey-throated barbet
Hadada ibis
Jameson’s wattle-eye
Joyful greenbul
Lüdher’s bush-shrike
Mackinnon’s fiscal
Northern black flycatcher
Petit’s cuckoo-shrike
Red-chested cuckoo
Red-headed bluebill
Rock martin
Shelly’s greenbul
Snowy-headed robin-chat
Square-tailed drongo
Stuhlmann’s starling
Tawny-flanked prinia
Turner’s eremomela
Uganda woodland warbler
Vieillot’s black weaver
Violet-backed starling
Wahlberg’s honeybird
Western black-headed oriole
White-chinned prinia
White-eyed slaty flycatcher
White-headed saw-wing
Yellow-whiskered greenbul
Yellow white-eye
Yellow-spotted barbet

Birds heard, but not seen (5)

Black-collared apalis
Blue-shouldered robin-chat
Emerald cuckoo
Yellow-billed barbet
Yellow-rumped tinkerbird

Tree-Planting

Doug — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:02:57 +0000

The village of Haruma/Madoya in the Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya is one of the areas we are working in. Haruma/Madoya has about 80,000 people, and being at the bottom of the valley, is the area where the poorest of the poor live. There are no amenities and there were no toilets. It is very depressing for outsiders not used to openly running sewers to visit the area.

One of our US church partners from Colorado raised funds to construct a community toilet in partnership with a local self-help group. The group had desired toilets and had come up with drawings. This was their project. They began digging. The church came along-side and eventually the building was completed. The bottom floor is divided between men’s and women’s sides. Each side has toilets as well as a shower. Water from the city is available at the toilet for a small fee. The self-help group runs the project as a community development project. The floor above the toilets and showers is a community meeting room which has been used for, among other things, a center for Bible study.

When we were in Kenya we got to pitch in with the self-help group and plant 21 tree seedlings on the small plot. Goats roam freely, so I hope the trees are protected. It would be wonderful, some years from now, to see the area with a dozen trees.

Crabapple Jelly

Patrick Gerber — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:20:52 +0000

I make really good crabapple jelly! We live in a condominium, and there is only one tree on our property—a crabapple tree. We can’t really live off the land, but we do try to use those crabapples. We give the jelly away as Christmas presents. Some years we have planted peppers in pots (we love hot peppers, goes back to my years in Ethiopia and Kenya, then later Singapore where the food is very spicy). Simple pleasures from a loving Father who created this world for our joy and stewardship. Why would anybody mistreat the earth? Gandhi once said about the earth’s resources that there is enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed.