Old World Species (!)

Those three words have echoed in the distance at certain pre-meaningful moments in this one life. Old. World. Species.

I miss those moments, those places, those few people per, those wayward individual youngsters that brought us to those Whens and Wheres.

Old World Species. chase..

White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) , Roy Guerrero Park, Austin, Travis County, TX 9 February 2020

Glances at European and Asian fieldguides seem to suggest from plumage characteristics perhaps a first-winter female of the ocularis subspecies. It often seems to be the young birds that get blown about, off course, while trying to figure how to do life as a wagtail.

The first lower 48 Bluethroat, observed while working San Clemente Island off the coast of southern California was “first-fall” female.

This particular formerly first-fall female brought me to the eroded cliff’s edge with people and faces I’ve not seen since the end of a life now past. For that I am thankful, as a certain affirmation perhaps unknowingly needed, was gleaned from that crumbling precipice.

These cropped images, with grain and some lack of clarity, emphasize the distance, low light, and misting rainy conditions falling upon the joyous observers. Observes happy for the bird. Observers, happy for the others there. Happy to see those not seen since.

Old world species.

-Bluethroat 4

Bosque Carpintero

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Another post serving as more a documentation note, as opposed to fine prose. I’ll start writing again, as I have in past blogs… past lives. At the moment I am working out a new-to-me web host and getting in the practice of placing my photos somewhere.

Pileated Woodpecker had been reported late 2019 in one part of the county along the Brazos River. This species, a denizen of the east Texas Piney Woods, is a rarity in McLennan County. Potential habitat exists, though mostly along riparian corridors, in a limited scope.

The same observer reported this species the 3rd of January along the Bosque River and I chased it the following day. The photo is from January 4th at Waco Lake Hike & Bike Trail.

A bit of a ghost, loud and location-giving when vocal, a single Pileated Woodpecker has been a tough tick to pick up for interested birders. For a woodpecker the size of a crow with white wing flashes below, above a jet-black body, and an erect red crest, this individual has proved remarkably enigmatic.

New Year, Excellent Bird

Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis), along with Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) and Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)

First discovered by a group of participants of the Waco Christmas Bird Count, a female basic plumaged Long-tailed Duck was discovered far south of its tundra pond nesting habitat, at the City of Riesel water treatment ponds in McLennan, Co. Texas.

Formally known as “old squaw”, the Long-tailed Duck has continued atleast through 9 January 2020.

Long-tailed Duck wintering range spans down both coasts of North America though typically no further south than California and the Carolinas. An extreme rarity in McLennan County, is also a sought after bird in Texas and most any location in the interior lower-48 of the United States.

Photos above are from my observation on 1 January 2020.

re-Introduction

I have had blogs before in my life. Two blogs, in fact. Both of which are now defunct, sort of kind of: mwyork.blogspot.com and bigbendnature.com. The latter of those two I like to think is not totally dormant; because it had quite the audience. The former I am not even sure the password to get into it, as it was allied with an email address gone by.

I am who I have always been, a bird nerd with a side hustle of lepidoptera. I am still a field ornithologist, however now a majority of the time (though not all) is avocation and hobby, and spirit, and life, and breath… rather than occupation. I do have some side gigs in the field.

As it is now, I am playing more the important role of uncle to three rapidly growing kids. Son and brother who is not always across the continent… or off it for that matter. While I have squashed geography in regards to immediate family, I have not lost interest in wildlife.

In fact, avian fauna is often all that really makes sense in my life currently (sometimes feels as if all I know or understand); and even that is changing with climate.