Author: joannie6535

Ten Good Reasons to Bird in Winter

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 AI Sunset Wrap More often than not, I find myself birding in the middle of winter….and not just occasionally. My husband and I do quite a bit of birding in the winter months.  It seems to perplex our friends and family sometimes that we would pack the car and take to the road heading for the Atlantic Coast beaches in the middle of winter. So I took a little time and have compiled a list of ten good reasons we bird in the winter time.  Of course, all good “Top Ten” lists start at the bottom with number 10. ferry10:  You don’t need reservations on the Cape May Lewis Ferry.  Once you are on board, you do not have trouble finding a good seat in the observation salon.  If you want to check out the birds at Cape May, you can either take a nice relaxing ride on the ferry or you can make the three hour plus drive around the Delaware Bay by car. And you can look for sea birds and migratory birds while making the ferry crossing. A few years back, we had wonderful views of Northern Gannets as they crossed the Bay on their trip south. This year, we took a later ferry and missed the birds but got wonderful views of the sun setting on the Bay. On the other hand, the car trip around the Delaware Bay is not so bad either. There are quite a few birding hotspots along the way so you really cannot lose no matter which way you get to Cape May. vista9: Along the same lines, you can usually find the “Vacancy” light on at hotels along the way.  Well, scratch that, “hotels” and make that “hotel” – singular.  If you stay on a main road like, say, Interstate 95 or Delaware 13, you can usually find a Holiday Inn Express or a Sleep Inn, but once you get off the main roads, you begin to have some problems finding hotels that are open all year round. And, once you get to the shore, you are even further from a good night’s sleep if you did not plan in advance and know where you’re going to stay for the night.  One year, we found ourselves in a hotel where we were the only occupants in one large spooky section of the hotel.  I could not sleep a wink because I kept waiting for Jack Nicholson to come creeping down the hallway saying, “I’m here!” just like in the movie, The Shining1. As you can imagine, I was quite ready to move on the next morning.  More recently, we rolled into Cape May just about an hour after dark on a cold damp evening to find that the town was pretty much closed for the season, as expected. I had heard that a hotel called La Mer was open through Christmas so we called ahead and, sure enough, they had a lovely waterfront room available at a very reasonable price. We had no idea what we’d find when we arrived but it turned out to be a lovely hotel. And, much to my relief, there were other people staying there.  We had a beautiful ocean view from our balcony although it was way too cold to spend much time sitting out admiring that view. Likewise, we found a great oceanfront room at the Holiday Inn Express in Ocean City, Maryland – a suite, in fact, at a price that was unbelievable. OC Boardwalk8:  The beaches are empty:  Of course, if you take a blanket to the beach, you have to wrap up in it rather than sit on it. There are very few people enjoying the beaches in the winter time. There are fishermen strewn along the beaches but, for the most part, the beaches are deserted. This goes for parks and refuges and preserves too.  Places that would be packed with people in the good ole summertime are beautifully empty in winter. Well, empty except for the birds and other birders and nature enthusiasts.  I will be the first to admit that it is way too cold to go swimming unless you’re a bird, of course, and most of the birds on the beach are gulls but, hey, give it a go. It is a great time to work on your gull identification skills. And, you never know when something rare will fly in from the sea and make you trip all the more memorable. On the down side, I do have to say I am not crazy about all the hunters in the National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). I have nothing against hunters in general. I grew up down in north Georgia and I am no stranger to eating a little venison. Hunters who kill to feed the family are okay by me…..although by the time you factor in the rifle, the bullets, the truck, and maybe the dogs, the price for a pound of meat goes up considerably.  But, continuing with my thoughts on hunting, there is just something “not quite right” about hunting on a wildlife refuge. The whole name of the place sounds like a place where animals can be safe from predators with rifles and shotguns. And, yes, I know about deer population growth and management of the herds…and I know that hunters buy most of the duck stamps and hunting licenses that help financially support the refuges and preserves….but somehow knowing all that doesn’t offset the emotional mindset that people should not be killing animals in a “refuge” or “preserve”. duck stampBut, let us pause for a “station identification and a word from our sponsor”.  Let’s talk a moment about duck stamps.  Duck stamps are issued by US Fish & Wildlife to hunters for a small fee ($15).  A hunter will add the “stamp” to his/her license to show they are allowed to hunt waterfowl – ducks and geese mainly. I suppose a hunter could shoot a Coot but am not really sure if the license only covers certain waterfowl or even if anyone would be interested in killing and eating a Coot.  But then again, I have heard of hunters killing and eating Bobolinks and Sparrows even though I cannot fathom why someone would go to so much effort to kill such a little bitty bite of food…..really, how many sparrows would you need to kill for one meal?  (Guess it depends on how hungry you are.) But, back to the duck stamps which are bought by hunters and, in the past, that meant it was the hunters who were providing a revenue stream for the refuges. According to the USFWS website, ninety-eight cents out of every dollar goes to the purchase or lease of wetland habitat. In recent years, the birding community has been identified as a new major user of the refuges so it stands to reason that birders could and should contribute to the upkeep of the refuges. This also goes for any other wildlife enthusiast or photographer who walks, hikes, kayaks, canoes, or otherwise visits a refuge for any reason. Buying a duck stamp shows your support for the refuges and also allows you to get into the parks free of charge for a year.  Duck stamps are very economical – only $15 per year – and, since some refuges charge about $3-5 per visit, you recoup your money in as few as 5 visits.  So, the American Birding Association (ABA) has started a program for birders to purchase the duck stamps through their website (here). This will allow the ABA to keep a record of how many birders are buying the duck stamp on an annual basis and to approximate how much birders are contributing to the refuge when compared to hunters. Today hunters are the primary users but, perhaps, someday, birders will constitute the primary user of refuges and, as a group, have more of a say in how the refuge is used by the public in the future.  Of course, you can always buy the duck stamps at wildlife refuges or directly from USFWS (here). cape may light7:  Holidays, like Veteran’s Day, are “free” days at US National Parks.  Likewise, tolls on some bridges on the coast are free during winter months.  No downside to this practice.  We visited the Assateague Island National Seashore (the upper part in Maryland) on Veteran’s Day and the parking lots were empty. Again, a few fishermen on the beaches and we noted a campground that had only three campers. I do question the sanity of people who camp in winter but I am told that it is absolutely an amazing time for camping and getting out into the woods and communing with nature.  I can’t see it but I will admit having a whole campground to yourself would be pretty nice. And, since some people question my sanity for being out there birding, I suppose I cannot point fingers at crazy people camping. ponies6:  You can find wonderful new birding spots along the way.  Following through on the “no traffic” idea, you cannot beat just meandering around through the parks and neighborhoods looking for places where migratory birds might be congregating. You can also use eBird.org on your smartphone to find local hotspots to check out on your way. Of course, there is a problem with service out on those back roads and beaches. You get no bars – no 3GL or 4GL or no tapping into the WiFi at some resort or hotel or pizza place – nada. It helps to map out a few options the night before using the hotel’s WiFi before heading out roaming in the morning. I did find a wonderful and FREE asset in Cape May. The New Jersey Birding Trail pamphlets are great and, as noted, are absolutely free. We picked up a couple while at the Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) and used the trail map for the Cape May County as we drove up the shore from Cape May to Atlantic City. We followed the map from one hotspot to the next and it became a bit of an adventure trying to find some of the points on the map.  If you are going to head up to New Jersey to do a little birding, check the NJ Birding & Wildlife Trail website and download or order the birding trail maps. We have had good luck with the Virginia and North Carolina birding trail guides also but the VA and NC are in book form and are not free. They are nicer, relatively cheap, can be ordered from Amazon.Com, and are worth the money. Then again, free is always better. NJ Bird Trail Guide5: You can always find a pizza place near the shore in New Jersey…and they are not very crowded so you do not have to wait in line for your pizza or Stromboli or Calzone.   In fact, pizza places were the ONLY places we found that were open in winter as we drove up the Jersey shore until we got closer to Atlantic City. Now, of course, there were other places open in Cape May and in Ocean City, Maryland but not many other places. You can find a pancake house or two open here and there for breakfast – well, one at least was open.  I saw something I had never seen before or ever expected to see near Avalon, NJ and it wasn’t a life bird. I saw a McDonald’s that was boarded up and closed down for the season….said right there on the sign that it was closed for the season. I didn’t think McDonald’s ever closed down. I suppose there are a few that actually go out of business but I think that might even be rare….how can you go broke when you sell a bajillion hamburgers a year?  On the other hand, to my delight since I am a junk food junkie, I found a Burger King that sold whoppers for breakfast along with the usual breakfast fare.  I also found a Burger King with Elvis that I also didn’t expect to see in New Jersey. ElvisJust to make this a for-real birding blog, I have to note that I read an article recently on how smart crows are and on product branding. The article said that studies show that crows recognize the McDonald’s golden arches logo and are big fans of good ole McDonald’s French fries…along with the rest of us. It seems that, if you offer crows (the ones in the study at least) fries in two bags – one plain brown bag and one McDonald’s bag – the crows will go for the McDonald’s bag every time. G Yellowlegs ibis night heron4: You meet interesting other birders who are more willing to stop and chat a spell because no one else is about and it can get pretty lonely on those empty beaches and marshlands.  And, sometimes when you are driving a nature loop like Beach Road down at Assateague Island National Seashore (the lower part in Virginia) near Chincoteague Island, you keep meeting the same birders over and over.   There were two main groups birding the road the last time we were there.  We were visiting friends who have a vacation home on Chincoteague Island (CI) so that’s one group and then there was a group of retired engineers from Canada. We kept meeting up at the areas along the road where the birds were congregating and chatting about the birds we were seeing.  We spotted and photographed Black Crowned Night Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, White Ibises, and learned a little about each other along the way….except their names (the guys…not the birds). How could we talk about birding and where have you been so far and where are you going next and is that a Snowy Egret or a juvenile Little Blue Heron and never even share the most basic information about ourselves…..like our names? We got that they were retired and engineers and from Canada although one was originally from Scotland and that they were birding up and down the east coast and might be headed to Bombay Hook Refuge next and they were using a well-worn copy of Sibley’s but we didn’t get their names. Just doesn’t seem possible but I suppose their names just wasn’t as important at the time as figuring out if that juvenile heron (or maybe egret) over across the canal in the pine tree had black legs or not. bald eagle3: There are no lines at the bathrooms in the national and state parks.  Now, you might be asking yourself why is this little item is a number 3 whereas other items such as lodging and food are lower on the list. Then again, if you’ve ever been out hiking in the middle of nowhere and realized that you need to rush to get back to the trailhead to try to find a bathroom only to find either a very smelly port-a-potty (and, yes, they do not smell as bad in the winter) or see a bus pulled up with a whole procession of school kids lined up at the one bathroom at the nature center, then you will totally understand why it is so nice to have a whole bathroom by yourself.  Over the years and regardless of the weather, I have learned that hiking out is a whole lots quicker than hiking in when nature calls….the time it takes to walk a mile is totally relative based on two variables — how cold you are at the moment and how long it has been since you’ve eaten.  But I do have to say that there is no cold that is colder than the cold of the icy breeze arising from the composting toilet at a state park when it is less than 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside…..I’m just saying that it is a whole mess of cold even if you didn’t have to wait in line to get there. DE Bay Sunset2:  Beach vacations in the winter keep your non-birding friends confused and perplexed as to what the heck is wrong with you since no one is crazy enough to go to the beach in winter except crazy fishermen and even crazier birders…and maybe a few crazy campers and photographers. Note that the emphasis is on crazy from the perspective of our sun-loving friends.   But sometimes keeping your friends guessing  is reason enough to do something. oystercatchers wigeon And, finally (drumroll please), the number 1 reason to go birding in the winter is that it is where and when the birds are….with emphasis on migratory waterfowl – ducks, geese, swans, coots, wigeons, pintails, grebes, etc., not to mention the hawks and eagles that prey upon said waterfowl.  We make several trips in the winter to the shores of Delaware Bay, to Assateague Island in Virginia, to Blackwater Refuge and Conowingo Dam in Maryland, to Lake Mattamuskeet in North Carolina, and to numerous other hotspots along the east coast where migratory birds congregate in the wintertime. There is absolutely no experience in life that can match the sight of thousands of Snow Geese circling the marshes and wetlands or the sound of an equal number of Tundra Swans cooing and calling as they come to rest on the lakes and wetlands in the evenings. We have driven miles out of our way following flocks of Red-Winged Blackbirds moving from one farmer’s field to another. And like everyone else in this part of the country last season (2013-2014), we took several road trips to catch a glimpse of a Snowy Owl during their irruption last year. A bird lover will travel down miles of bad road to see a rare bird…no doubt about it.  If you like birds at all, you will find yourself outside on the coldest of days bundled up like a snowman, stomping your feet walking around in little circles with your binoculars clinched in those cold-numbed hands hoping to get just another good look at that special bird. It is so much warmer when we go birding in Florida but we still bird up here in winter because, quite simply, the birds are here.

Places we visited, birded, or otherwise checked out in November 2014 (moving south to north):

1.  ‘The Shining”; Stephen King; January 28, 1977; US; Doubleday Publishers (Movie: Producer – Stanley Kubrick; 1980; Starring – Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duval)

Time to Meander – PA

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Susque BridgeThe distance from our home in Maryland to the Outer Banks in North Carolina is roughly three hundred miles as the crow flies or the stagecoach rolls. Driving at about sixty miles per hour (MPH), it should take the average driver just under five hours to reach Kittyhawk on a good day if you make all the lights and don’t stop too long at the Cracker Barrel for lunch. We pride ourselves on being pretty good drivers but I have to admit that, some years back, we made that trip in an unbelievable record breaking time of four and a half days. Amazing! Yep, you read correctly – we took more than four days to get to the Outer Banks from Maryland, the state right next door to North Carolina. And we weren’t even driving a horse and buggy – it was a real car with a speedometer that goes all the way up past a hundred miles an hour. (Yes, I tried to say “miles per hour” but the southern in me just couldn’t keep it up.)  No, to answer your question, we did not have any car trouble or flat tires. We just set our usual road trip pace. While others may speed down the interstate like a bat outta hell, we tend to stick to back roads and just meander along at a snail’s pace….or, more precisely, at a pace more fitting to bird watching and just looking around. And by meander, I don’t just mean we drive slowly, we also drive up and down country roads, stop at every possible scenic overlook and visit any and all parks and gardens we might pass on our way.  It sometimes takes us hours (and maybe days as in the case with the Outer Banks) to get some place so when we go any place, we have to plan ahead because you see, “time is of the essence”1 with us.

Let me correct that: our traveling takes scheduling, mostly. It takes planning when we’re going somewhere by plane or train or when we need touring assistance. When we head out in the car, what we need is time. Like Harry Chapin, we keep a “watch on time”2  when we have “work to do”2 or a deadline or a train to catch but otherwise, we just go where the car and the GPS takes us. On the other hand, we are not quite in sync with J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous line, “Not all those who wander are lost….”3. Quite often we are, in fact, lost and, we are lost by design.

And so it was that we headed out on the road a few weeks ago. Our “plan” was hatched when my better half volunteered to help out in building a deck at the Global Aid Network (GAiN) warehouse near Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. See, he is the better half since he actually went to work and I had no real intention of helping build that deck. I was just going along for the ride. And, since we need approximately two hours to get from our home in Maryland to the warehouse in Pennsylvania, we gave ourselves one and a half days. It worked out splendidly.

conowingoWe started out heading for Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River at the upper end of the Chesapeake Bay. It is a birding hotspot that every birder in Maryland knows about and visits at least once a year….mostly in winter. The attraction is the Bald Eagles who fish and hunt on the river at the bottom of the dam….again, mainly in the winter. The absolute best place to get information on Conowingo Dam for birding is the blog of an excellent local birding photographer, Emily Carter. I had heard many good things about Conowingo and wanted to scope it out (pun intended, of course) in summer and then maybe go back later in the year. I had heard that there weren’t many Bald Eagles there in summer but there were a goodly amount of herons and gulls that would make the birding interesting so why not? Of course, we couldn’t just get in the car and drive straight there – that would defeat the whole point of giving ourselves all that extra time to meander.

We headed up in that general but, certainly not specific, direction – that is, more or less northeast. It was a beautiful day and we blasted through Baltimore and soon got our first sign to pause. It was one of those brown ones that announce that a state park or historical marker is nearby and couldn’t be more than just a short piece off the main road. The first park-o-the-day was Gunpowder Falls State Park. Nearby was another great find – Marshy Point Nature Center. Two for the price of one – how can you beat that?

marshy pointWe headed for the Nature Center first and, as is the way with these things sometimes, the road signs led us first one way and then the other until we found ourselves very close to where we had actually turned off the main highway. It felt sort of like a Dr. Seuss story or was it The Hobbit who went “There and Back Again”4? (Yep, I’m back with Tolkien). The Nature Center was lovely but we pulled in behind a school bus filled with children (pre-teens maybe). Now, there is nothing I like more than knowing young’uns are getting out into nature and learning all that they can about birds and bugs and wildflowers but, on the other hand, there is nothing I like less than trying to bird in a park filled with noisy yakking kids running around with butterfly nets and clipboards. Well……nothing except people walking their dogs and letting them off the leash to run free. Don’t get me started on this one. So, we looked around a bit and left the nature center to the kids and moved on to the state park – which was lovely and big and relatively kid-less.

gunpowder fallsThere is a small cost for entry ($3) but well worth it to visit the park and enjoy all the amenities. It is big enough (maybe 18,000 acres) to handle several busloads of kids without noticeable impact. There is a beach for swimming, meadows for playing, a boat launch for cruising and fishing, rails-to-trails hiking, and a few good habitats (waterfront, streams, marshlands, woods, meadows, etc.) for birding. But there weren’t many birds to be seen this day. We did find an area that was relatively birdy on Graces Quarters Road over by the marina and boat launch – at least it sounded that way because we heard lots of birds singing but didn’t see too many willing to show themselves to us. (DNR Guide to Gunpowder Falls State Park)

Whatever – on to the next place – lunch! I discovered that the upper parts of Maryland and lower parts of Pennsylvania are filled with silver diners. Oh, the names are different but these restaurants are all the same – big silver metal sided buildings with lots of parking and lots of menu selections inside. Lunch is good.

fishingThen it was on to Conowingo. The Dam is off the main road a bit but easy to find and easy to access. Although birders go there often, I had wondered how easy it would be to get there and if you would have to walk a good distance to get to the best spot for seeing the eagles. While it is true that you cannot get too close to the Dam itself – way too dangerous, there is a small park open to the public called the Fishing Pier with paved parking and several options for viewing the river and the birds and fishing, of course. Emily’s blog had advised that one should park by the porta potties to see the eagles fishing near an island in the river and possibly landing in the trees to eat their catch. Emily’s advice was to move up closer to the Dam to see eagles fighting and scuffling away from the trees. Her advice was good. I think the biggest problem in the winter might be standing around in the cold weather not to mention competing with the number of birders and photographers who come and take up the choice viewing spots and parking spaces…and using porta potties. In the summer, you do not have these problems except for the porta potties part. We found a few photographers set up near the “island view” but there were plenty of vacant parking spaces and several available picnic tables. We also headed up near the dam (easy walking and a short distance so we could have walked) and parked near the ramp going down to the area that seemed to be preferred by the fishermen of which there were plenty. And they seemed to be catching quite a few fish.

juvvieThere were tons of gulls and cormorants near the dam. They were easily viewed with binoculars but a more powerful scope would have been better for making precise identifications or looking for the rare ones. There were quite a few Great Blue Herons – I stopped counting at twenty-five (25). And the island was completely swamped with Black and Turkey Vultures. But there were not so many bald eagles….as expected. We did see about five (5), maybe ten (10)…..most were juveniles who didn’t have full adult plumage. But they were all beauties and put on a pretty good show – a little fishing and a little fighting.  Alas, the distances were too much for my small camera. I think that on future visits, I will take Emily’s advice and rent a camera with a big ole long lens that can spot a flea on a skunk’s back from over half a mile.

eagles adultWe stayed at Conowingo for a couple hours and then headed into Pennsylvania and up towards Lancaster. You know, I have been to Lancaster many times in the past and I thought I knew it relatively well. But it turns out; I had only passed near Lancaster visiting the Amish markets out in the country and had never gone into the city at all. Our trustworthy GPS remedied that situation right away. Everywhere we tried to go, the GPS directed us right back through Lancaster….but not the same part of Lancaster every time. I did not know there could be so many one way streets within a two block radius of a city…. outside of Washington, DC, that is. But we managed to find them all, every single one of them, along with a couple streets that were closed for construction that our dear “Road Witch” did not seem to know about. It’s a pretty neat city though with lots of row houses that reminded me very much of Baltimore and Philadelphia.

silver mineBut we did manage to find a couple parks to explore – Longs Park which was more of a family oriented recreational park with a few domestic ducks but no birds otherwise – and a great little park called the Silver Mine Park near Conestoga outside of Lancaster. This last park was big, included several different habitats that would be great for birding, walking trails, and natural water sources – creeks and ponds. But best of all, the park had benches along the walking trail. I am big on benches in parks. They allow you to rest when you get tired and to sit and let the birds find you which they are apt to do once everyone settles down and stops making so much noise. We did meet one gentleman walking there who told us that, yes, there was an old silver mine on the property and they (the parks service?) used to give tours of the mine until it got too dangerous. Now you can hike near the mine but cannot go in to explore. What with the price of silver these days, I wonder that no one has decided to sneak in and find out if any silver remains down deep in the mine and ready to be appropriated.

chickies overlookWe managed to find several other great parks that would be good for birding but we did not see too many birds. Maybe the heat had forced the birds deep into the woods but we saw very few along the areas we explored. We did take a relatively long and difficult (rocky) hike up to Chickie’s Overlook near Colombia where we were treated to great views of the Susquehanna River and a couple of little birds I think were Pine Warblers. The markings seemed good for Pine Warblers and they were certainly feeding in a couple pine trees but they just wouldn’t cooperate by being still long enough for me to get a good picture that I could check against the guides later when I got home. They did match the info in my mobile apps so I’m going with the call. These two birds were about the best sighting of the trip….okay, except for the Bald Eagles…and the Herons…and the Cormorants. Yep, they are all the “best” for me……even the Vultures.

deck buildingBut, all in all, what with all the meandering and looking around, the “best” birding I did was at the GAiN site. While the men worked on building the deck, I listened to an audio book and did a little casual birding of the fields of corn and the farmer’s house nearby. I saw mostly yard birds – nothing rare or unusual – but the birds I saw were entertaining and beautiful as always.  And, that’s enough for me on any given day. The Blue Jays and Cardinals and Chickadees reminded me of the birds at home – waiting patiently for us to return from our meandering and head on back down the road to home and the important stuff – like keeping those feeders full of good black oil sunflower seeds, millet, and safflower.

mallard hybrid

The full quote from J.R.R. Tolkien:

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”3

References:

  1. Anonymous phrase. [I looked it up but no clear person or source could be identified for this commonly used phrase.]
  2. “Let Time Go Lightly” (Lyrics); Greatest Stories Live (Album); Harry Chapin; 1976; Elektra. [Youtube Audio/Video Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gvhkr3v8iU ]
  3. The Fellowship of the Ring; J.R.R. Tolkien; United Kingdom; George Allen & Unwin (publisher); UK; July 29, 1954.
  4. The Hobbit There and Back Again; J.R.R. Tolkien; United Kingdom; George Allen & Unwin (publisher); UK; September 21, 1937

clover