Two new birds in Louisiana! (LA LA) Added to the three John got on the first day of the tour, that is all five target birds he was hoping to get. Tours are great! You have an experienced leader and lots of eyes to help spot the sneaky little birds.
Saturday, November 3rd, the group headed for Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana. In a coastal marsh, Dan Lane called up a Seaside Sparrow 669! They also saw tons of shorebirds, seabirds and sandhill cranes, all of which John had seen already in his big year. It isn't a waste of time for him. He enjoys seeing and photographing all of the birds again. He even keeps track of which subspecies he has photographs of.
Since I wasn't officially signed up for the tour, I stayed at the hotel Saturday. Laundry needed to be done, so I carted it all to a laundromat, stuffed all the clean clothes in pillowcases and lugged it back to the hotel. Somewhere, between the laundromat and my hotel room, I lost a pillowcase filled with John's underwear. Sunday, after giving up the search, I bought two weeks worth of new underwear and socks for him. Someone out there was probably pretty disappointed with their find. Not much market for used men's underwear, even if it was clean!
Sunday, November 4th, the group headed for the piney woods through heavy rain. The rain eased up once they got there. The standard birds were all there, Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-Headed Nuthatch, Pine Warbler, etc. The fun one for John was the Bachman's Sparrow. They had chased a few and finally had one surrounded. John had a clear view and helped a few others get a good view for their life list. Dan played a Barred Owl, in it flew! His tape must say something nicer that ours does. We only got it to call back. John got great pictures and he prefers to have a visual for his big year list.
Then they went back to the rice fields. A possible Sprague's Pipit morphed into a Chestnut-Collared Longspur. Several people were happy with that. John would have preferred the pipit. Dan Lane has an alarm call tape that brings in all sorts of little brown jobbies from the tall grass. Among them was a Le Conte's Sparrow 670! Ending the day on a nice note, John saw yet another Yellow Rail pop out from in front of the rice combine in a nearby field.
The Field Guides tour, Yellow Rails and Crawfish Tails, was a great success. Thanks, Dan Lane.
Showing posts with label Dan Lane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Lane. Show all posts
Monday, November 5, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Cajun country combine
After a week of wandering through gorgeous fall color and not finding new birds, John and I arrived in Scott, LA (Cajun country) for a Field Guides tour with Dan Lane. John wanted to go on the first of Dan's two tours even though it did not have room for me. Lucky for me, a few of the participants were going to be late arriving, so Friday, November 2nd, I got to join in on the rice harvest. Before we got to the rice field, Dan found John a Swamp Sparrow, number 666 on his big year list!
Yellow Rails migrate south and winter along the Gulf coast. The miles and miles of rice fields are a rail magnet. Then comes the harvest. The huge combines cut the rice like giant lawn mowers, suck in the stalks, separate the rice heads and spit out the chaff. Only a few people could ride on the combine at a time. They needed dust masks and ear plugs. The rest of us walked around on the cut part of the field watching for rails to pop out ahead of the combine. The ground was mostly dry, but you still had to avoid wet holes amongst the ruts. A few of us took some hard sprawls.
John scared up a Yellow Rail out of the cut stuff on our first walk 667! To identify the Yellow Rail you have to see the white on the trailing edge of the wing. The rail pops up, flies out sideways to the already cut area, drops down and disappears. The cut stuff is less than a foot high. The combine scares up Virginia Rails and Soras too. They look dark brown all over. Lots of little brown jobbies scare up too.
When I rode on the combine, I got to be in the cab with the farmer. Great view and no dust! I saw all three species of rails pop out.
After my ride, the group got serious about taking pictures. To do that, we had to mark the spot where a rail flew to after it popped out. We ran over there en masse. We surrounded the spot and walked towards the center. Invariably, the rail would pop up unexpectedly and fly to another spot. We would run and repeat until the rail escaped to the edge of the field and tall grasses. Even though we were sure where the rail landed, it would slip unseen through the stubble and pop up from under someone's foot well away from where we thought it was. John did get some pictures of a Yellow Rail in flight. As far as we could tell, no birds were physically harmed, though they all probably had some nasty nightmares last night.
Next to where we had parked, Dan called out a Sedge Wren 668!
I slept like a log! John messed up setting the alarm, but we both woke up at 6:30 AM anyway. The tour is going to Cameron County today. I am doing laundry. I bought a boudin sausage for my supper.
Yellow Rails migrate south and winter along the Gulf coast. The miles and miles of rice fields are a rail magnet. Then comes the harvest. The huge combines cut the rice like giant lawn mowers, suck in the stalks, separate the rice heads and spit out the chaff. Only a few people could ride on the combine at a time. They needed dust masks and ear plugs. The rest of us walked around on the cut part of the field watching for rails to pop out ahead of the combine. The ground was mostly dry, but you still had to avoid wet holes amongst the ruts. A few of us took some hard sprawls.
John scared up a Yellow Rail out of the cut stuff on our first walk 667! To identify the Yellow Rail you have to see the white on the trailing edge of the wing. The rail pops up, flies out sideways to the already cut area, drops down and disappears. The cut stuff is less than a foot high. The combine scares up Virginia Rails and Soras too. They look dark brown all over. Lots of little brown jobbies scare up too.
When I rode on the combine, I got to be in the cab with the farmer. Great view and no dust! I saw all three species of rails pop out.
After my ride, the group got serious about taking pictures. To do that, we had to mark the spot where a rail flew to after it popped out. We ran over there en masse. We surrounded the spot and walked towards the center. Invariably, the rail would pop up unexpectedly and fly to another spot. We would run and repeat until the rail escaped to the edge of the field and tall grasses. Even though we were sure where the rail landed, it would slip unseen through the stubble and pop up from under someone's foot well away from where we thought it was. John did get some pictures of a Yellow Rail in flight. As far as we could tell, no birds were physically harmed, though they all probably had some nasty nightmares last night.
Next to where we had parked, Dan called out a Sedge Wren 668!
I slept like a log! John messed up setting the alarm, but we both woke up at 6:30 AM anyway. The tour is going to Cameron County today. I am doing laundry. I bought a boudin sausage for my supper.
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