I particularly wanted to spot an American Bittern--a difficult bird to see due to its camouflage and shy habits. Here's link to a brief video that has pictures of the Bittern along with audio of its crazy call:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxAEoAVmuc
Now that you know what it looks like, check out this photo and try to see the Bittern. It's there I promise, but nearly impossible to see.
(Image by Mark Schwall at: http://www.burdr.com/2010/11/can-you-find-the-american-bittern/)
Can't find it? Try again. It's in the bottom-center of the photo, facing left, its long neck reaching up past the pinkish weeds. It is tan and white and looks just like the reeds. Still can't find it? Look between the bottoms of the two, green vertical reeds that are slightly in front of the rest of the reeds. Still can't see it? Exactly. These guys are hard to spot, but he's there, I promise.
One of them has been reported at Williamson Park a few times over the past few weeks but we hadn't had any luck yet, so we thought we'd try again.
The first thing we saw was an old man walking his dog and smoking a pipe. We exchanged a distant greeting and he seemed to appreciate that I was smoking a pipe too. Kimberly laughed and scowled a little and said she thought she saw the future (me). I wish we stopped to say hello and got a picture of him, but alas, we didn't, we had birds to find.
Kim pointed out a Barn Swallow, which put me ahead in the count again by one bird. She saw one earlier this week which had tied us up. Now I'm up again, with the Herring Gull I identified from our hotel room window in Seattle during the MLA convention making the difference. (I'm sure she'll get to see one later in the year.) I kept scanning the edge of the pond, looking for a Bittern in the reeds, but with no luck.
We saw a bunch of birds we already have: ubiquitous Coots, Canadian Geese (perhaps resting on their migration), a Common Gallinule (used to be called a common moorhen, they just changed the name, don't ask me why--professional birders tend to be persnickety about things like that), Gold Finches, etc. Then we got into the reeds, or at least next to the reeds, and started hunting for sparrows. First we saw a song sparrow--which we had already seen earlier this year. Then we struggled to id a few sparrows that were doing their best to frustrate our efforts. There are a ton of sparrows and some of them are hard to tell apart. We ended up identifying two new sparrows we haven't seen yet this year, a Lincoln's Sparrow, and a Swamp Sparrow--both birds are getting ready to fly the coop for their winter grounds in Canada, and both were on our target list of birds to see there. Success! But still no Bittern.
Here's a picture of a Song Sparrow for reference:
(Picture by Roland Jordahl at: http://www.birdsandblooms.com/Birds/Most-Wanted-Birds/Song-Sparrow)
Here's a Lincoln's Sparrow:
(Image from: http://bakercountyblog.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html)
And a Swamp Sparrow:
(Image from: http://www.birddigiscoper.com/2007/09/sparrow-season.html)
As you can tell from the pictures, these birds look alike. And we didn't even to get to see them that clearly. Nevertheless, we were confident in our identifications. The clearest difference in the photos is that the Swamp Sparrow has a black patch in the middle of its breast. The Lincoln's Sparrow has a wide, grey eyebrow and a darker patch on its cheek compared to the Swamp Sparrow.
Clouds started moving in, blocking out the sun, and the wind rose. Your hands can get mighty cold when you're holding up your binoculars trying to catch a glimpse of that damn sparrow (Song? Lincoln's? Swamp?) that keeps popping up on the reeds and then flittering back down into them. I know, I'm getting soft here in Texas, it was probably only in the low 50s. But still, my hands were getting numb. There were plenty of days coming when we could see the Bittern. Maybe he won't even migrate, and we'll have all summer.
We decided to head out. I was resigned to the fact that there would be no Bittern sighting today. Before we left we walked out onto the peer to see what we could see. A Common Gallinule, a cormorant, etc. No Bittern.
Then I noticed Kimberly intently glassing the edge of the pond near the road. She was tense and told me to look where she was looking. How deep in the reeds? I asked. Just in front of them, she said. She was nervous he was going to escape further into them. I looked and there he was, the American Bittern. Just hanging out for all to see, well, for all to see who were intensely looking for him.
Kim's worries about him dashing off ended up unfounded. The Bittern moved so ridiculously slow she had enough time to set up our spotting scope and we watched him do his slow motion strut for a few minutes, with his giant feet and claws (talons?). Then we packed it up and headed home. A good day. Too bad we didn't get a picture, but no one would be able to make it out anyway--"see that little blur in the photo..."--you need serious zoom lenses to get good pictures of most birds.
Later in the day I noticed an odd bird near our feeder. It was a Common Grackle, which actually isn't all that common around here. It was mixed in a flock of 40 Great Tailed Grackles that were having dinner next-door, compliments of our neighbors who leave out dog food for Ringo and Jordan.
So, for those who are keeping track, our bird numbers are: Michael: 144, Kimberly 143. Anyone care to take a guess how many we'll get for the year? Before we started my goal was to break 200. A day like today, where I got five new birds, is a real good day for this area, this time of year. But I think (hope) we might be able to break 200 before the end of the year. We have a few more birds on our target list for winter before they move, but then we'll perhaps catch some migrants, and after that summer birds.
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