Birding on a Soap Opera

My wife is addicted to Days of Our Lives, a US soap opera. I will admit that I do watch and enjoy the ridiculous story lines. Ok, stop laughing. In any event, we were watching it today and two of the characters were birding! Here's a snapshot:

The character on the left remarked that the American Goldfinch was "much too far north for this time of year." The guy on the right responded, "To me they're just rats with feathers." That's a Peterson Field Guide in his hand, the 5th edition. Pretty funny.

A gull of the Ivory variety

In case you haven't heard, an immature Ivory Gull was found in Cape May, NJ on Friday. This is the 5th record of this species for NJ - 1940, 1955, and 2 in 1986. So, as you can imagine, the NJ birding scene and much of the mid-Atlantic is buzzing about the bird. As you may recall, I saw my first Ivory Gull in Piermont, NY in 2007. That didn't stop me from going to see this one in my own state. So, down I headed the 2+ hour drive very early on Sunday. I got to the marina that it favors and only had to wait 15 minutes or so before the gorgeous white creature appeared. I was joined by friends from VA and NJ and we spent a long while photographing and observing the bird. It was insanely accommodating, doing circuits over the crowd of birders, perching close by for photos, and picking from the water. It was nuts. Here are some photos.

Cape May Ivory Gull Photos - Nov. 29, 2009

Oh and did I mention it was a spectacularly sunny and warm day for late November? After viewing the gull, we hit some of the other Cape May hotspots. We got word of a Selasphorus hummingbird at a local feeder which we got to see. We also saw Eurasian Wigeon, Common Eiders, a few lingering Baltimore Orioles, a Bald Eagle or three, and a few lovely Red-shouldered Hawks. We struck out on the Swainson's Hawk that's been down there for nearly a month. All in all, it was a great day to be out. The gull is still being seen as of today. So if you didn't see one of the Massachusetts birds last year, you get a second shot. Although not an adult, this bird is still a beauty and it's a chance to see a bird that is not only rare in the US, but becoming more rare globally.

Pelican Blood Movie Trailer

Wait, what's this? An actual post! Watch the trailer below for the British film, Pelican Blood, based on the novel by Cris Freddi. The main character is a birder or a twitcher as the case may be. Warning: Foul language.

Pelican Blood Trailer from TOBY COURLANDER on Vimeo.

Welcome our new baby!

Julian Patrick Belardo

Born: 10/2/09 5:57 PM 9 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 1/4" long

Mom and baby are doing great!!!

You can read our birth story here and you can see a slideshow of photos here.

MADCAP HORSE

For some reason, this just popped into my head today. It's a mnemonic I learned for tree and shrub identification: MADCAP HORSE. It is used to help you remember which trees and shrubs have opposite leaves. It works here in NJ at least.

Maples
Ashes
Dogwoods
CAPrifoliaceae - viburnums and honeysuckles*
HORSE Chestnut

*I think viburnums are now in the family Adoxaceae, so this may be a bit confusing

I'm sure there may be exceptions to this mnemonic, but it's worked for me.

Moth Night Photos

Last night was "Moth Night" sponsored by the East Brunswick Environmental Commission. I was joined by John at A DC Birding Blog. Lots of families with kids, lots of good questions, and some pretty neat moths. Here are photos. If anyone cares to make some IDs for these, please do. I'll be checking them in the field guide over the coming days.

Cricket Crawl

If you're local to NY and free on September 11, you can join the Cricket Crawl. It's a citizen sciene survey of 7 common cricket and katydid species. The web site has a link to learn the calls of these 7 species, so that's useful, even if you can't attend.

Filmy Dome Spider

My parents have a group of spiders living in a large hedge that separates their yard from the neighbor's yard. The spiders build dome-shaped nest and are possibly Filmy Dome Spiders (genus Neriene). I was able to get a photo of the web, but not the spiders themselves. My point-and-click camera wouldn't focus on them. The spiders are about an inch long including legs. There are several webs in about a 3 foot square area. The detail of the dome webs is incredible. The web shown below is about 8" across. The second photo is a zoomed in version of the first photo.