It is the final countdown and I can honestly say I am ready to get this over with. We are squeezing in a final dog show this weekend up north. Linda is trying her hardest to get the boys qualified for next year’s CPE agility nationals – actually delayed the surgery to get these last two weeks of shows in. Raven is as steady as always and Ruger is trying to make up for last weekend’s rather hmmm…scatterbrained performance. When he is on, he is ON, when he is off…good thing he is so damn cute ha. Ron and I were also able to get one last field outing in yesterday to close out the mid-year cycle. We are in the dog days of birding and pretty slim pickings at the cross section of the birds I still need and the winged ones that are braving the Midwest heat. Managed to notch a new +1 for the year bringing the Average Year total to a shocking 390! It has been a difficult road since that fateful day on Oct 12th (5:26am to be exact) and at this point, the ankle has clearly given all it had left (struggling to hold weight today). The real hardship is knowing that this is one of the big ultra race weekends of the year and I miss suffering with my peeps in the heat and hills out on the trail.
Today will be my last post as Brad will take the helm likely through the rest of this month and maybe beyond depending on how things go. Thought I would go with a final featured feathered friend that has also brought its share of frustrations over the years.
The fact you can tell that is a bird is in large part due to absolute luck. Hit the jump to learn more about a bird sure to bring a chuckle to all high school boys.
There is always one mainstay on the hunt agenda whenever we find ourselves in Las Vegas. I place that bird on the task list with a significant amount of trepidation as it means double the work. First task is to find it in the field – this is difficult for sure, but pales in effort compared to the second task of trying to get something in the tin. The digital darkroom floor is full of abstract mosaics depicting the finest fingerpaint abstracts from the local kindergarten pre-nap craft hour.
The Bushtit may look like a clumsy ping-pong ball with a tail (visual courtesy of Cornell), but in reality it is a super-charged, Pixie-Stik guzzling, paparazzi hating and master of concealment member of the Aegithalidae family. Translated – an absolutely nightmare for long glass carrying members of the birding community. You might hear their quiet notes, you might even spot them as they dash between low scrub and nearby trees in small flocks and you just might consider hurling your camera at them in absolute frustration. Note, Linda will usually have the B&H website up whenever I come back from a Bushtit encounter expecting the worst.
Over the last four years I’ve managed to get cards full of beaks and/or tails jutting out from branches and sprigs. This (short) series comes to you from January 2024 which FINALLY netted a few shots in the middle of panic bursts showing a decent profile of the bird – yep, ping-pong ball. Par for course, this year’s check came courtesy of our first visit to Sedona, AZ, managing to capture a single craptastic shot of one blasting through nearby bushes out on the SugarLoaf Trail. Linda gave me the visual assist on that one allowing for the cross off. Needless to say, you are never going to see that shot eva, eva, eva hehehe.
There are three specific locations I look for the Bushtit around Vegas. The first place is the Clark County Wetlands. There is a set of dense bushes on the side of the trail cutting through the middle of the wetlands. These birds do not really have a song, rather a collection of higher pitched chirps that is some form of “I am Groot” language to let the flock keep tabs on each other – they probably can’t see each other either! Basically, I just listen for those calls coming from the target bushes and then prepare for a battle royal to get the barrel on any feathers that break through the leaf plane. Apologies for any visitors that happen upon us because I’m usually emitting quite the tapestry of colorful words.
Another good place to find this elusive bird is at Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, we rarely see them at the easily accessible Corn Creek Fieldstation that sits near the entrance of the refuge. They tend to hang out in the desert scrub along the road that continues past the station and up towards the mountains. Caution, the warning sign proclaiming only high clearance vehicles on that road is absolutely accurate. Check the nearby shrub for small flocks of ping pong balls fluttering about while your tire tread is ripping through rock marbles – Jeeps Rule!
Lastly, there is Lake Mead National Recreational Area – particularly the 33 Hole Overlook. In my opinion, this is the best opportunity to see them and hopefully get something in the tin. This comes with a price to be paid in sweat as you need to make your way down to the water. This year I made it down there on a broken ankle, so no “but, but, but Bri’s” out of y’all. The flats at the waterline are filled with scrub sure to attract their share of these tiny hyper birds. Again, keep the ears open for the chirps and the eyes open for a smallish flock moving between the greenery. Best part, there are not a lot of other people down there so let your full sailor verbal assault sail.
How about some interesting tidbits about this rather drabby year long resident of the southwest – apologies to the females who do have a bit of flair. You might have noticed that in 4 of the 5 shots in this series, the eye coloring is quite stunning. That light ring in the eye signifies the female of this species. Males do not have that – see the third shot in this series. A slight shift of norms in most of the birding world as the male typically gets the extra snazzle to woo the ladies. They have deftly adopted the upside down hunting of the similarly sized Chickadees as they forage for tiny insects and spiders with their tiny rounded bills. One final intriguing aspect of the Bushtit is there are regional differences in their coloring. Those along the west coast are darker and have brown crowns, however, as you move away from the coasts, the overall coloring lightens and they adopt grey caps which contrast with brown cheeks. For those in Texas and down into Central America, you are likely going to see them sporting a blackish mask. Granted this could be all speculation as few get a good look at these damn birds!
Going to put a bow on it there. Hope you enjoyed this “brief” look at an extremely elusive bird. Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite spot to find Tits – the birds of course hehehe. Take care everyone and thanks for all the well wishes that have been coming in – it has been a big help getting me through this bump in the trail. I am looking forward to seeing what Brad has in store to keep you entertained while I am out.
Life Intrigued 