Birdy Campus

Today on campus there were hundreds of Chimney Swifts flying around the chemistry department.  It was like my dream come true...birds and chemistry.  Then, later on this evening, a Cooper's Hawk flew over the drillfield and was mobbed by some crows, which made for an exciting walk in the rain.  Last but not least, I heard a House Wren in a nearby tree, so of course I stalked over to it in the middle of a crowded sidewalk, probably gaining some odd stares from my peers.  I don't see House Wrens on campus very much (or ever really) though so I couldn't resist.  Good thing I have a boyfriend who accepts my random stares into the distance at the first note of a bird song.  I also saw a rain-drenched, bedraggled cardinal looking forlorn that I just couldn't leave out of this post.  All of this, along with Bird Night (we watched Raptor Force videos in an empty classroom), and along with The Big Year trailer coming out made for a wonderfully busy Tuesday.  I ALMOST FORGOT...this morning I got to learn how to take a blood sample from a canary!  I'm doing undergraduate research in the ornithology lab, and I got to learn how to hold them properly so as not to stress them out, how to sterilize their bracheal vein and pierce it, then use a capillary tube to get a small amount of blood for later use.  We'll be doing this on captured house finches once the experiment starts, but I got to practice on canaries (who were very docile and patient with me, bless their hearts) before we get the finches.  A VERY BIRDY DAY TO YOU ALL.

THE BIG YEAR AHHHHHHH

THE PREVIEW IS HERE!  It looks absolutely nothing like the book, but it looks like it's sure to be a laugh!

Here, my 3 loyal followers, is the preview:

Hiking (with a little birding in between)

For our student chapter of The Wildlife Society we go camera trapping every Sunday, which is basically hiking through the woods on a mountain all day.  It's an excellent opportunity to look for mountain-dwelling birds, unless your group walks too fast and leaves you in the dust.  I know there are a bunch of species of warblers that nest up there, but I have yet to see them.  Today, however, I saw an Eastern Wood Pewee, a few Turkey Vultures, heard a Hairy woodpecker, and I heard all of these tinny, high-pitched chippings that were so frustratingly hard to identify I almost went insane.  They were all over the woods, chirping back and forth to one another to warn each other of our trespassing.  I'll have to go back up there and find them once and for all.  Today they only gave me a glimpse of fleeting shadows through the leaves.  Someday...

It was, however, chipmunks galore up on the mountain.  I find it such a treat to watch these little rascals scamper through the woods.  We had a pair of them living in our yard in Virginia, but when we moved to Pennsylvania, I pretty much never saw another chipmunk ever again.  Being back in Virginia, it makes me appreciate these little devils in all their hyper glory.  Mountain Lake is a wonderful place for hiking, birding, and chipmunk watching, and it was the location for the set of Dirty Dancing.  What could be better than spending the day up there.

Today was my first birding trip of the new school year.  It was quite a large group, since many of the Master Naturalist students were there as well as the regulars from the bird club.  Unfortunately, it was quite humid and foggy, making the surrounding habitat look monotone and gray.  It also had the unfortunate effect of silhouetting birds against the gray sky, making colors and patterns harder to identify.  We actually ended up seeing some more cool bugs than birds, but it was enjoyable all the same.  Here's a list of what we saw:

Chimney Swift
Carolina Chickadees
Tree Swallows
Female Indigo Bunting
Juvenile Cedar Waxwings (and then a whole flock of them, they were gorgeous)
Song Sparrow
2 House Wrens
Eastern Towhees
2 Downy Woodpeckers
Cooper's Hawk (an excellent view of a young male surveying the land from a silo)
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
and we heard a Brown Thrasher


we also saw you basic robins, crows, mockingbirds, starlings, etc. but you know....whatever.

The most exciting part of the day, ironically, was when I went to drop off my boyfriend, and noticed a flycatcher sitting on the fence nearby.  It turned out to just be an Eastern Phoebe, but it was still the most exciting bird of the day.  It had more yellow on it than I've ever seen on a Phoebe before, and it was bobbing its tail like mad.  Ah well, we did see some AWESOME garden spiders

and a Monarch Caterpillar (we also found a chrysalis).  Then we saw some grasshoppers and praying mantises doing the nasty.  Another cherry on the top of a delightful day. 

The most exciting news, however, came when I found out that the group leader, who teaches ornithology at my school, is going to be holding "Bird Tuesdays" in a classroom.  Basically he's just going to be showing movies about birds (this week's is Raptor Force).  I'm so there.  My life is wonderful.  I also found out that the park we were at was a great location to find Loggerhead Shrikes, so I'll be going back there regularly until I find one.  It's my goal for the year to see a Shrike in action.  I think they're fascinating birds.

That's about it for today, but I'll keep you updated on the Shrike hunt and Bird Tuesdays :)

Good Birding!

I just joined the ABA :)

I am now an official member of the American Birding Association!  I'm also going to apply for a student membership award for The Auk.  Gotta get a kick start to my ornithological career!

Upcoming Birding Events

Just so I can get my calendar organized in my own mind, here's what's going on in the near future:

First NRV Bird Club trip - Saturday 9/3/11
Seminar on Campus - Conservation in an era of climate change: Can we
save saltmarsh birds as the oceans rise? - 9/8
Rocky Knob Hawk Watch - 9/10
Midwest birding Symposium - 9/15-9/18 (Oh, how I wish I could go)
VSO Chincoteague Trip - 9/16-9/18
Glen Alton and Hanging Rock (hawk watch) Birding Trip - 9/16 also
Heritage Park Birding Trip - 10/1
Eastern Shore Birding and Wildlife Festival - 10/7-10/9 (another wish-list trip)
The Big Sit! - 10/9
Seminar On Campus - Galapagos finches and the unfinished
business of Charles Darwin - 10/27
Seminar On Campus - Understanding the social and reproductive dynamics
of a cooperative lek-breeding bird - 11/3

Looks like it's going to be a bird-filled Fall :)

As if I do not have enough social networks to check daily...

So here I am, succumbing to the world of bird blogs.  Along with my facebook, tumblr, twitter, and the various other bird blogs I check daily (most of which are on blogspot, which is why I created this one) I now have to update the cyberworld with my birding ventures in the field.  But first for an introduction:

My name is Casey.  I am a 19 year old Wildlife Science student at Virginia Tech in the lovely Appalachian foothills of southwest Virginia.  I have been fascinated with birds since I was very young, but I never really put in the time to study and learn all of the North American species.  I have been to Cape May during the Spring Weekend several times, but each time I found my knowledge sorely lacking.  It was not until last year (my freshmen year of college) that I really became serious about birding.  I began going on outings with the New River Valley Bird club, and I met some wonderful and skilled birders along the way.  This past summer, I worked at a wildlife rehabilitation center, where I got some up close views of native birds of Pennsylvania (where I'm from) and I went on several birding trips with the local bird club there as well.  Now that I'm back at school, I have scheduled a birding trip for most every weekend and every bit of free time I can manage.  I just finished reading The Big Year by Mark Obmascik and I'm almost done with Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kauffman.  Next on the list is Wild America, Roger Tory Peterson's classic.  All this talk about Big Years is so inspiring to me, I hope to someday try one for myself.  As for right now, I'm simply trying to learn as much as I possibly can about birds, meet the awesome people in the birding community, and have some fun along the way. 

Good birding!