Of Unexpected Additions to My Life List & Other Mysterious Avinomena

Gang of 3 Crows

After a lengthy absence this dry summer, 

our bird friends have returned in fine form.

Steller's Jay on the qui vive

Or perhaps half of 'em never left.

Maybe some are reclusive winter stay-overs.

Quizzical looking Junco

Hard to tell, when you're just a hack birder.

Most handsome fella (American Goldfinch)

One thing's for sure – they're now dropping down like confetti

into tree tops as fall migration season kicks in.

Ragged looking (Song?) (Juvenile?) Sparrow

No matter your approach to birding, it's sheer joy to have birds around, to be around birds in their ennobled company, watching them engage in sophisticated actions, curious antics and quirky activities.

I am a pretty Pigeon! (Admit it!)

Much can be learned in the patient art of just watching – perhaps more about oneself than about the birds. Certainly, without our perennially popular perambulators of the skies, the parks and woodlands do seem lonely, a bit prosaic, even.

Yellow-rumped (rumpled) Warbler

But their adored presence, skittering about here and flashing around there, make them adept at livening up a quiet scene.

Crow in repose

And ignite a much missed connection with the natural world, re-established by tuning in to the birds' comings and goings and curious, oft-mysterious doings.

Acorn Woodpecker pair

Over the past several weeks, I've had a fortuitous combination of good luck, timing, location and patience to add a passel of cool confirmed sightings to my Life List.

Perhaps a Black Phoebe, but not sure

It's hard to describe the transcendent feeling of intimate discovery that overcomes you when – at that precise, precious moment – you realize you've laid eyes on a creature of delicate beauty and rare appearance for the first time.

Bewick's Wren hoppin' to it

The funny thing is, once you've spotted a new bird, you suddenly begin spotting said no-longer-new bird all over creation. How is it that previously unseen birds, once sighted, are then seen many times in quick succession?

Vulture on a limb

Thought: maybe they've just heretofore gone unnoticed?

If I'm not named Anna, who am I?

Well, this odd avinomenon has happened to me with the Pacific-slope and Ash-throated Flycatchers, Brown Creeper, Black-headed Grosbeak, Warbling Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Varied Thrush, Sharp-shinned (possibly Cooper's) Hawk, Rufous Hummingbird, and Banded-tailed Pigeon.

Hunkering down Hawk (Red-tailed-shouldered?)

Who next? I'm still waiting and hoping and wishing to spot

a Western Kingbird and a Scarlet Tanager . . .

Vermilion Flycatcher spotted in Big Bend National Park, Texas

The Band-tailed Pigeon is probably the only "Code 2" bird I've spotted. Code 2 being the American Birding Association's designation for birds occurring in low numbers and mysteriously elusive . . . that is, until first spotted.

Band-tailed Pigeon hanging out in tree top

Hiking last April on an ecological reserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains, bird-smart Jessica pointed out a trio of them roosting in high pine branches. Since then, guess what – I've seen Band-tailed Pigeons two more times in a period of three weeks: in Redwood Regional Park, and Samuel P. Taylor State Park, heavily wooded and protected areas for this bird whose population is in decline.

Band-tailed Pigeon in Eucalyptus tree

A pretty Pigeon – as all pigeons are, you must admit – his feathery iridescence and bold white stripe on the nape clearly mark this as the one and only 13 oz., 15 in. long Band-tailed Pigeon, a bird, says the ABA:

Band-tailed Pigeons are not all that common

" . . . that may be harder to spot than some species

that have higher codes."

California Thrasher with open curved bill

As for the Warbling Vireo – oh, what a story! I'm in the Tilden Nature Area at birding heaven Jewel Lake when a guy stops and wonders what I'm looking at it.

Warbling Vireo doesn't look at all like the Northern Waterthrush

He volunteers, "You see the Northern Waterthrush?"

Northern Waterthrush (photo by Fernando Burgalin Sequeria, Macaulay Library)

The Who? Apparently, the East Coast dweller got off course and ended up here, hanging out by the spillway in September, prompting birders to come out for the chance to see a bird spotted in the Bay Area once or twice in twenty years, if that.

Secretive Warbling Vireo

Earlier, I had spotted a Warbler-like Vireo or Vireo-like Warbler, hard to tell – with a distinctive white eye stripe and sweet cry. But I confuse this bird for the Northern Waterthrush when the guy adds, "Yeah, he's got a white eye stripe, unmistakable."

Steller's Jay all puffed up sitting pretty

AHA!

Crow confab splitting up

So, I excitedly chase down this lovely elderly couple we often see at Jewel Lake (we call them Hubert and Magda), and am beside myself with excitement, exclaiming that indeed, we had seen the Holy Grail of Off Course Birds – the Northern Waterthrush! Being highly interested in the natural world about them, Hubert and Magda are notably impressed.

Jewel Lake in Tilden Nature Area drying up in summertime

But once home, checking my bird guide, I'm disappointed to learn it was merely some other bird and not the Northern Waterthrush, but later on I was delighted to find out that I spotted the somewhat rare (for the Bay Area) Warbling Vireo!

Warbling Vireo trilling, Tilden Nature Area

And, guess what, wouldn't you know it – since that day, I've seen Warbling Vireos on two more occasions!

Lark Sparrow popping into view

Shout out to Steve Gallup for helping to make the positive ID on the poor photo I managed to snap of the methodical branch hopping insect and berry eater.

One of several Pipits spotted at the Bulb

Now take the American Pipit – a fairly common bird I'd never before seen until I happened to spot a bunch of them ground feeding in an enclosed area at Point Isabel two days ago. Crazy that in all my outings, the Pipit has never been seen! How can it be?

Nutrient-rich mudflats on the Bay near Point Isabel

(Quashing my theory of seeing a bird many times after the initial sighting, it has been 35 years since my first and only sighting of a Horned Lark at Briones Regional Park. Same goes for the Merlin – seen but once. And the equally reclusive White-headed Woodpecker, spotted farther afield on the Tahoe Rim Trail in mid-September but never again seen.)

American Pipit

With the Pipit, it remains to be seen . . . if the Pipit will be seen forthwith. And then, while reviewing photos for this post, it seems I saw a Pipit at the Albany Bulb a year ago! Just goes to show you don't know what you don't know . . . !

Perhaps a Say's Phoebe in the Berkeley Hills

In between all these new first sightings, I've also had several glimpses of exotic-looking Flycatchers hangin' out on a barbed wire fence near Wildcat Knoll and in the Burrowing Owl habitat at Albany Bulb. I'm guessing they're Ash-throated and Say's Phoebe's, mebbe. 

Mallard in dusky golden light

Throw in a raft of unID'd sightings of Vireo / Warbler type birds, plus a slew of strange goings-on with the elusive California Thrasher, and you've got the makings of a perfect storm of know-nothingness.

The Thrasher off Inspiration Point

But the Thrasher is now a familiar friend, an interesting – nay, charismatic! – bird I've seen just a handful of times over the past few months, most recently a last-minute sighting the other day at the Albany Bulb when I turn into an area just to see, and sure enough, I spot the curve-billed bird, well-camo'd, flushing out of underbrush to alight on a branch for a few moments of posing, minus the trilling.

Golden-crowned Sparrow mates

Another day after that, sure enough, up on Wildcat Knoll, I hear a lilting song emanating from a bush, but seeing nothing, I leave frustrated by my complete lack of bird song ID skills. Minutes later, near Conlon / Nimitz Way juncture overlooking the San Pablo Reservoir and Mount Diablo, I hear the unmistakable song again, and – there's the Thrasher singing his little heart out in the branches! 

California Thrasher belting one out

Letting a hidden mate know of his presence,

or just singing to be singing, for the joy of it.

Varied Thrush hopping back and forth on tree trunk

This befuddling bird business is inexplicable. Why birds remain elusive until the moment of discovery, and then immediately thereafter begin appearing here and there and everywhere like special cameos in your life, is a head-scratching, unsolvable conundrum. Until you know what you don't know, it's all a Black Swan of assumptions, narratives and pretend expertise.

Mute Swans tooling around (introduced species from Eurasia)

And still the question goes unanswered. How is it that previously unseen birds, once seen, are then seen many times in quick succession? Is it a principle of physics? Some twist of morphic resonance? Or deep natural laws of attraction at work?

Brilliant ruby gorget displayed by Anna's Hummingbird

Maybe it's merely odds, timing, just a symptom of my utter naivete and whimsical approach to birding, with a modest underpinning of academic rigor and taxonomic certainty.

Pie-billed Grebes on Jewel Lake

It's an enduring mystery that will continue to delight

the serious, casual, or obsessed birder, take your pick.

Red-breasted Sapsucker in Tilden Regional Park

You know which one I am by now.

Sunset birding
at Albany Bulb

Enjoy these related posts from berkeleybackyardbirdblog

and see what all the hoopla's about upon notching a First Sighting:

FIRST SIGHTINGS & LIFE LISTS (November 1, 2012)

UNEXPECTED ADDITIONS TO LIFE LIST SIGHTINGS (October 30, 2013)

Great White Egrets
hanging out in
submerged tree
Los Vaqueros Reservoir