This year seems to be accelerating as we get closer to the end. I probably sound like a broken record by now – although technically more like that annoying scratch in the licorice pizza that keeps skipping the needle back about three grooves. I am sure that analogy is lost on today’s generation along with the whole “concept” album where you need to keep focus for 40 minutes to take in the progression of songs. Getting way off track here “kaachuuuuunnnk” (see what I did there, threw in a throwback to the 8-track ha). Back on needle point, I can’t believe it is the last day of November. Less than a month to get through family gatherings, Intrigued staff performance reviews and pack for the trip south. The good news is, I am finally digging into all the captures during our January trip to Texas. Filling up the queues for upcoming posts (including topic fodder during our travels). Between Brad and I, we have plenty of adventures to keep you entertained well into next year and we will be constantly adding from all the new field work in the plans.
To help set the mood, thought I would feature one of those birds found back in January, New Year’s Day to be exact.
Hit the jump to read about one of the masters in the Art of Deception!
For those of you in the Information Technology arena, I’m not talking about Kevin Mitnik (link here – note this is not an endorsement of his book). I am not a fan of his, but if you want to get around any technical security, go after the people. I will give him credit for the clever title as it does perfectly fit the clever American Bittern.
Granted I cheated a bit for you and tried to position myself to limit its natural ability to blend into its preferred habitat. Without that, these long necked shorebirds can be very hard to pick out among the brown reeds and weeds. When alerted to danger, this large Bittern will straighten out its long neck and point their bill skyward. The brown coloring with strategic placed white lines down the neck enable it to blend in with its surroundings. There it will sit motionless or even sway ever so slightly to mirror the reeds until a predator loses interest and moves along. If you recall, the last time I featured the American version I didn’t get a chance to witness this clever behavior (link here).
I probably posed less of a threat in that first encounter as we were up on a boardwalk at Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas, TX. This first day of the new year encounter took place at eye-level while visiting Walter E. Long Lake in Austin Texas. To no fault of the subject, it was spotted completely by accident. There was easy pickings for +1s now that a new Average Year had begun (link here). My shutter finger was on full throttle while standing on the bank taking sweeping bursts across the target rich lake. With The Beast, I was shooting well beyond the foreground and completely forgot about the reeds on the bank I was standing in front of until the arms succumbed to the glass weight. That is when the extra hues of yellow on the bill were noticed.
Well, well, well, what do we have here. Humans are gifted with exceptional eyesight so its clever ruse was up. We also have very good edge detection which made the eye circle more distinguishable. I say that a bit in jest as I obviously didn’t notice it on first pass ha. Regardless, now I was on it and this Bittern apparently knew it. “If I can’t fool him with the reed trick, I’ll make it a pain in that ass for this biped to get a picture!” This is when I immediately realized they may be even better camouflaged when they are more horizontal to the reeds. The feather coloring and textures are absolutely perfect for this particular habitat.
To its credit, it didn’t seemed too startled and proceeded to calmly stroll in this small boat dock area intent on any movement in the water. Of course, it kept reeds and other obstacles between him/her and The Beast resulting in a shocking number of images hitting the circular file cabinet in the digital darkroom.
How about some interesting tidbits on our stealthy shorebird. The good news is just about anyone in North American and down into Central American has a chance to experience this bird in the field at some point in the season (sorry Alaska, you are right out). Following the traditional bird movements, they tend to breed northerly which includes the upper half of the States and well into Canada. From there they will migrate through the middle states until reaching their wintering grounds along the southern border and all of Central America. Austin is a bit north of where Cornell indicated for their nonbreeding home. I didn’t realize it until I went to put in the eBird sighting last week that this was considered a rare sighting for that lake. Ooops! I try to be timely on my reports, but when you are birding every single day of the month from sunup to sundown a few drop off from time to time.
The calls of the American Bittern will never be mistaken for a song bird. I am going to quote Cornell’s description as it is better than what I can come up with for their guttural vocalizations – “booming, clacking, gulping”. They also referenced their quirky nicknames “Thunder-pumper, water-belcher and mire-drum”. Who’s with me from here on out always revering to them as Thunder-pumpers!?! You want to change bird names… that is one I can actually get behind. Something new for me is their yellow eyes supposedly turn orange during the frisky months. I am definitely going to add that to my list of “Target Shots”.
I should point out that they have a much more diminutive kin named the Least Bittern (link here). You will never mistake the two as the American is over 23 inches long, weighing in around 14oz with an impressive 36 inch wingspan. Contrast that with the Least’s maximum length of 14 inches, only weighing ~2.5oz with a meager 17 inch wingspan. For the record, I have NEVER seen a Bittern actually fly so taking Cornell’s word on that.
The needle has come to the end of the record now and time to gently lever it back to the storage position. Hope you enjoyed this tasty tune from Texas. Take care everyone, see you in December as we start wrapping up 2023. Now the rest of the Intrigued staff need to start submitting their self-assessments!
Life Intrigued 