Travel – Page 21 – Birding Boomers

Time to Meander – PA

September 20, 2014joannie65353 Comments

The 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.

We 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?

We 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.

There 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.

Then 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.

There 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.

We 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.

But 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.

We 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.

But, 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.

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:

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

Costa Rica – Not All Birds

April 22, 2014joannie6535Leave a comment

It is somewhere around 5:00 AM and the Howler Monkeys have started their morning symphony. It is a wake-up call for us. We are not so much on getting up so early – the “crap of dawn” as my friend, Glo, calls it – but we have adjusted to it so that we can go birding with our guide before breakfast. I throw off the damp towel I have taken to wearing to bed to keep my neck and head cool during the hot tropical nights…..another thing I was trying to adjust to on our recent trip to Costa Rica. The Howler Monkeys continue their morning song as I head into the shower to get ready for another day of birding. It is not only birds that we are seeing and enjoying in this country. There is life everywhere – it may be the reason for the saying we kept hearing so much in Costa Rica – Pura Vida – pure life. When we said hello to the people we met and asked how they were, someone would inevitably answer, “Pura Vida”, as if to say life is too short not to appreciate all it has to offer. We picked up the thought and carried it with us as we traveled and now that we are home. Indeed there is too much life to limit your exposure to it.

But those Howler Monkeys did not allow for too much pondering about life or nature or even the day’s agenda. They were up and sounding out the warning that this was their territory and other tribes need to listen up and stay out of the way. We saw the first Howler on our first evening at Selva Verde but he wasn’t doing too much howling at that point. I suppose it was evening and he was settling down for the night. The next day we saw a group of 10 or so in the same area so figured they all belonged to the same group. These were Mantled Howler Monkeys. Since we came home, I have been trying to download a ringtone for my phone but am not having much success at it. But if you would like to hear the sound of a Howler Monkey, click here. While looking for the sound video on YouTube.Com, I was surprised that people indicated that the sound was frightening to them. That was not our experience at all. The call of the Howlers seemed natural and right for the rainforest and we enjoyed hearing their “wake up call” every morning. That howl can travel quite the distance though – about three miles in the forest. We missed them when we moved on to another lodge. Perhaps, knowing that the monkeys are vegetarians eating only leaves, fruit, nuts, and flowers or seeing them high in the trees living out their lives takes away the apprehension. Because some of the trees contain alkaloids and other poisons, the monkeys tend to eat only the topmost and newer leaves which would have less poison so they spend their days high in the trees. And they do not howl to scare people, they howl to mark territory and communicate with other Howler Monkeys. Nothing to be afraid of, right? (More about Howler Monkeys.)

On the other hand, we didn’t have to get up early to see a Sloth. On our first full day of birding, we had stopped at Braulio Carillo National Park and spent a couple hours walking a trail through the forest there. As we emerged from the forest pretty much exhausted from our first foray into the hot and humid rainforest, our guide told us to hurry, to come and see. Now there wasn’t much hurrying in me at this point – I was dripping sweat and my clothes were wet through and my knees were already aching so I wasn’t about to run to see anything at this point. Turns out the guide, Erick, was making a little joke since the Sloth he was pointing out wasn’t going anywhere fast either. It was a beautiful Brown Throated Three-Toed Sloth and in full view. Because the sloth is not a very fast moving creature (sort of like me that day), Erick had plenty of time to tell us all about the animal. And it is a very interesting animal. The sloth spends most of its life in the treetops… in fact, mostly in a single tree scientists call his “modal” tree. They eat, sleep, give birth, etc., in their tree or one close by. They sleep about 10 hours a day hanging in the tree by their claws which are very long and sharp. The sloth comes down from the tree once a week to take a little bathroom break – digs a hole, does his business, and then buries it. The leaves, twigs, and bark that the sloth eats are not very nutritious so they tend to move very slowly to preserve energy. And they do not like to spend too much time on the ground since that is when they are most vulnerable to predators. By far, the most interesting thing about sloths is that a sloth’s body is an ecosystem unto itself. The hair on a sloth’s body hosts two species of symbiotic cyanobacteria, which provide camouflage for the animal and, because of the bacteria, the sloth also hosts small non-parasitic insects. One of the insects is a small moth that lives in the sloth’s fur and, when the sloth is at the bottom of the tree taking a potty break, the female moth jumps off and lays its eggs in the fecal matter and then jumps back on the sloth’s back for the return trip back up to the treetop. The eggs hatch and the hatching feeds until the larvae becomes a moth and finds a sloth (perhaps the same one) to live on and the process starts all over again. And, what does the sloth get in return? It is thought that the moth fertilizes the algae that live in the sloth’s fur that helps to camouflage the sloth in the treetops. It is all very complicated but works out quite well for the sloth. (More about sloths.)

But it wasn’t all monkeys and sloths, there were iguanas and lizards and frogs everywhere. Everyone loved the iguanas, mostly the Green Iguana, and there were specimens at two of the sites we visited – Selva Verde and Villa Lapas. And the iguanas also spent their days lazing around in the sun on a tree limb somewhere so the opportunities for photographs were abundant. I didn’t have as much trouble with blurry iguana photos as I had with the birds.

But I think I liked the Basilisk Lizards more than the iguanas. The Lizards are part of the iguana family but were loads quicker and, there I was, back to taking blurry photos – this time of lizards. You may have heard of Basilisk Lizards. They are also called “Jesus Christ Lizards” because they can run across water. I don’t think it is any sort of miracle – just more speed and agility. More recently, you may have heard of these lizards because one was featured in one of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. The lizards do like to bask on rocks in the warm sunshine but that’s not where the name comes from. Okay, I couldn’t resist the pun on the name. The name comes from the Greek word, “basilskos” which means “little king”. In mythology, the lizards could turn things (like people) into stone merely by looking at them and made problems with this habit for Harry Potter. But the lizards did not turn anyone to stone that I am aware of on our trip – just entertained us a bit when they ran across the water. (More on Basilisk Lizards).

But our favorite reptile was the frog. We saw several in the rainforest to include the Red-Eyed Tree Frog which was beautiful. Alex, the naturalist at Selva Verde, helped us to see, appreciate, and photograph the gorgeous frog on our first evening there.

We also saw Black & Green Poison Dart Frogs – in fact, they were everywhere around the grounds at Selva Verde so were very cooperative for numerous photographs.

But, drumroll please, our very favorite frog was the little Red Poison Dart Frog whose nickname is the “Blue Jeans Frog” because he has denim blue legs. What made this frog special? Other than being so darned cute? Well, the Poison Dart Frog is known for its manner for reproducing. The rainforest is very humid but there are not so many puddles and ponds for frogs to use for laying eggs. The frogs live in the trees and come down to earth to lay the eggs in the leaf litter on the forest floor. The eggs are fertilized externally – the female lays the eggs and then the male fertilizes them. There is no physical connection between the two frogs. Per a movie we watched at the lodge, the male will also keep the eggs wet by bringing bits of water to the site until the tadpoles hatch. But the interesting part is that the tiny tadpoles cannot live on the forest floor so the female carries the tadpoles one at a time on her back up into the trees. When she finds a bromeliad plant that has collected water in its cup, she deposits the tadpole there and leaves it to mature. She might also lay some un-fertilized eggs in the bromeliad so that the tadpole has something to eat while it grows. We were lucky enough to see a tiny female with a tadpole on her back climbing up a tree on one of our walks at La Selva Biological Research Station The photo isn’t great but you get the gist of it and can appreciate why we absolutely loved those little blue jean frogs. (More on poison dart frogs.)

But, oh my, I haven’t even gotten to the American Crocodiles. No, they are not just named American because they come from the US of A…..they didn’t. American Crocodiles are native to and live in the neotropics. I believe there are a few in Florida but nowhere else in the US. Basically, they are huge! I didn’t realize how big they were. I thought they were smaller than alligators. We saw these monsters in the Rio Tárcoles near the Pacific Coast.

There is a bridge over the river on the Coastal Highway and, believe it or not, everyone (i.e., all of us tourists) stops there and walks across the bridge to look at the crocodiles in the river below. There are fruit stands/souvenir shops on the north side of the bridge where you can get a tasty fruit smoothie or a coconut milk drink or a whole bunch of souvenirs. I got a Blackberry Coconut smoothie that was delicious. I am not sure if the blackberry we have here in the states is the same as the blackberry in Costa Rica because I have never heard of blackberry juice here but there, they have wonderful fruit juices available at every meal and blackberry turned out to be one of our favorites. But I digress, back to the animals; I also got a chance to see the beasts close up on a river cruise that came as a part of our tour. I have seen American Alligators quite a bit on trips to Florida and they are scary enough but I have to say the Crocodiles were very fierce and scary. I was very glad the boat was as big as it was. When we were at Selva Verde, we also went for a boat ride and saw a Spectacled Caiman which was awesome enough but nothing to compare to the crocs. I had noticed the Caiman but I had noticed that the local people were also on the river swimming and fishing and enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon. They didn’t seem to be bothered that Caiman might also live up river. On the other hand, when I asked about people swimming or wading in the Rio Tárcoles where the crocodiles live, I was told, “Sure, people can swim in this river…..ONCE”. Another little boat guide joke there. There actually were people fishing in the river but closer to the tidal parts nearer the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t see anyone in or near the water where the big crocs were lounging around. (More on American Crocodiles)

Gosh, I haven’t even mentioned the Collared Peccaries which are sort of like wild pigs that roam throughout the rainforest.

And I haven’t mentioned the tiny little Central American Agouti we caught sight of near the entrance to La Selva or the White-Nosed Coatis who stole the fruit right off the bird feeders at Bosque de Paz or the Blue Morpho Butterflies in the rainforest and in the butterfly garden/pavilion at the Doka Estate Coffee Plantation, or the Long-Nosed Bats we glimpsed in broad daylight perched tightly to a tree trunk over the river at La Selva or the two types of squirrels – Red-Tailed and Variegated – or the Leaf Cutter Ants that caught our attention that we tracked all along the paths as we walked at La Selva – they have a whole ‘nother story of their own. So much I do not have time to mention……So much life. Pura Vida indeed.