This Saturday, October 10th, you can join birders from about 200 countries around the world to spend some time birding as a part of the biggest birding team while visiting a favorite birding site or a few hotspots, or as they participate from home. All this to add to our collective knowledge of "where the birds are" during a peak migration day in October – during October Big Day. Birders will join together Saturday to identify and count the birds they see, and share their bird list online at eBird. Last year birders found 7,962 different species of birds during October Big Day, but even more important is where each species is found.
For 6 days there was an unusual and personally exciting period when birds of prey seemed to permeate my yard and neighborhood during a run of unprecedented raptor sightings. Migrating hawks stopping for moments or longer periods that punctuated the final days of September, including Cooper's Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, plus a Merlin mini-falcon. The Broad-wings provided the biggest surprises and a new species to add to my yard list, and the large group of 21 certainly was a unique sighting in my neighborhood and unusual this far west in the open Great Plains.
Many birders consider one or more National Wildlife Refuges to be among their favorite birding destinations, and with more than 570 refuges in our National Wildlife Refuge System there is at least one in every state. The Refuge System can be counted among the greatest conservation stories ever told for birds and other wildlife, plants, water systems – and people. Starting this Saturday, October 10th thru October 17th, it is officially National Wildlife Refuge Week and it's prime time to celebrate America's national wildlife refuges and their vital roles in conservation, recreation, and community support.
Audubon Southwest and the city of Phoenix are bringing the community together around a shared vision: Making Phoenix a place where birds can thrive. The new initiative – Bird-Friendly PHX – invites residents to take simple actions at home and across the community to help birds, whether they are migrating through the city or if they are resident species – because a healthy city for birds is a healthy city for people. Every fall and spring, millions of birds migrate through the greater Phoenix area, with some stopping over along their migration route. Using simple actions, residents and seasonal visitors can help benefit birds in Phoenix.
The first bird of the day was a hummingbird! After 15 days, a new female Ruby-throated Hummingbird was perched on my nectar feeder, but before I could really get a feel for the hummer, in the distance behind it a large hawk landed on a pole 175 feet outside my bay windows. Binoculars suggested a young Cooper's Hawk, and I grabbed my camera and hopped in my car to circle around to get into line with a better sunlight angle. Before I made a half-circle, another large hawk materialized perched on a bare tree branch, and another in the open on a top tree branch. Then one flew low behind the others and my binoculars revealed this was a group of Broad-winged Hawks!
Developed especially for Scheels by Vortex, the Scheels' Exclusive Vortex Rage HD 10x42 Binoculars feature HD optics that provide sharp, clear views of birds that highlight their vivid colors and focus on the finest plumage details. These 10x magnification binoculars provide you with a closer look at the birds you find, and the 341 feet at 1,000 yards field of view is appreciated when searching for birds in a variety of habitats and landscapes. The Vortex Rage HDs have a comfortable lightweight design that makes them easy to use and carry while birding, and they come with a comfortable neck strap.
Organize your feeders and birdbath with the addition of an all-in-one Bird Feeding Station Kit with Hangers & Trays that includes a feeder pole with 4 large top level hooks to hang feeders of any size. There are also 2 adjustable hooks that can be positioned anywhere on the pole that are best for hanging smaller feeders. Two more features are the wire mesh platform tray to offer another choice of bird food, and a water bowl adds an ideal birdbath – both of which can be positioned anywhere on the all-in-one Bird Feeding Station pole.
Join tens of thousands of birders who already use the Merlin app on their smartphone when they need a little help to identify a new bird or bird song. In short, Merlin helps you identify the birds you see and hear. If you are already a Merlin user, you know the value of this impressive bird identification aid, and with October Big Day coming up, Merlin can be an immediate game-changer for birders across North America, and worldwide! But it's a helpful app to use anytime, and you can consult it to learn more about birds and even find out what birds you can expect to see in a given area.
It's near peak fall migration now, and there have been many new record bird sightings, starting with the First Canadian Record Juan Fernandez Petrel photographed from Haida Gwaii Island, British Columbia! There were also 9 First State Records and 2 First Provincial Records established, including a Piratic Flycatcher in Colorado, a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher in North Carolina, and a White Wagtail in Montana. There were also 3 First State Record Common Ringed Plovers documented in New Hampshire, Virginia, and New Jersey, and a First State Record Solitary Sandpiper on the Big Island of Hawaii, and that's just a few of the exciting rare birds reported.
During my first of October birding trip into areas of early peak autumn colors in northern Minnesota, stretching to Bemidji to Audubon, the Northwoods were colored bright yellow to golden as even maple trees were in their earliest golden beauty before turning red. As the sun was low, it was clear that my last stop would be Tamarack National Wildlife Refuge, which turned out to be one of the most colorful locations on my expansive circle through the region. As I passed through thick deciduous woodlands of aspen, birch, maples, and oaks, in the back of my mind I was recalling a small blue-water pond that held a pair of Trumpeter Swans when I passed by in May. But the deeper I drove into Tamarack, jays, ravens, and juncos were catching my attention as the spring vision faded – until, as I rounded a corner, a single white swan at rest punctuated a pond’s edge.
A classic swan view positioned among the rich golden reflection on serene water provided a signature image at the close of a memorable autumn day in the Northwoods (550mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/500 shutter speed).
As the dormant bird laid motionless in the shade of a green pond edge, the road curved round the waterway and a break in the trees revealed another adult, and 3 young but full-sized gray Trumpeters. As I circled into a safe parking position with a view of the swans, I realized the side of the pond where the sun was shining was adorned in a beautiful shade of gold, reflected from the curtain of yellow leaves on the opposite side of the water. As the 3 young swans swam away from the sunlight, the adult female glided into it, providing a classic swan image surrounded by golden splendor. That image translated beautifully onto my camera’s digital memory as it touched my heart and soul in the crowning touch of a wonderful day among golden trees in northern Minnesota.
Moments later, the Trumpeter swam forward and began dipping her head into the water that reflected a deeper amber coloration and provided a very different, yet tranquil scene. The key camera setting used was simply my go-to preset aperture of f-8, which provided an adequately fast shutter speed to stop the feeding motion (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/800 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
That said, the tranquil photo session continued as the swan dipped her head into the water in feeding motions, and I could see water moving behind her as she paddled the mud to reveal plant tubers below. In the process, she moved into an area where the water reflected a deeper shade of amber color that added another aura of beauty to the statuesque white bird, among the biggest birds in the world. Moments later she slipped unceremoniously out of the sunlight, and the magic moments dissolved into memory, but remained as fall photographs. As bird photographers, we can’t direct a scene, the sun, or a bird; but nature surely produced the best photo ops of the day, just as the sun slipped behind the tall mass of trees in the west.
In this case there isn’t much to describe from a photographic standpoint; I simply used my basic pre-set f-8 aperture, and given the available light on the bright white swan plumage, the sunlight provided shutter speeds of 1/500 and 1/800, plenty fast to stop the relaxed movements of the swan ballet. On a day when I expected more songbird and raptor action, with some Wood Duck possibilities, the mature white swan’s elegance won the day amid liquid gold and amber waters.
