Long Time No Post!

Hello people! I'm terribly sorry that I haven't posted in 2 months and that I haven't even looked at my own blog for a month. This time I'm not saying (like last time I said "I'm sorry" on a post) I was busy, or something hollow like that. I'll say that I just totally forgot about my blog for the last two months. That's not being hollow and unsincere, is it? My lack of posts have certainly not been because nothing interesting has been happening in my life; on the contrary my life has been very interesting these past two months in which I have neglected my blog. Since I last posted I have been to Cave Creek Canyon, Arizona twice, taught a bird class to middle school students, and have done 2 months at Rio Gallinas Charter School in Las Vegas, NM. I've had plenty of things to post about; going to Cave Creek Canyon, teaching bird identification to 12 and 13 year olds, and how living in New Mexico is like for a 14 year old birder.

Well, lets get started with confessions and news alerts. The first thing I have to say is that living out in remote northern New Mexico is pretty fun! I have Lewis's Woodpeckers and Spotted Towhees at my feeders and I have been on several bird trips with Central New Mexico Audubon Society throughout New Mexico. I've met several other young birders in the Albuquerque area who have done several excursions with me and have gotten me into keeping a list of NM birds I see. Birding has probably kept me sane; I've gotten rather frustrated with my school and I've been kept from birding by other things (tests, workouts, and other oddments that I do not need to go into detail about).

I have been practicing digiscoping with my camera and scope and am getting better results then two months ago (obviously!). I have some tips for anyone who is interested in digiscoping or is looking for help in the activity. You can email me at casseagle@gmail.com or just read this post! (Digiscoping tips are at the end of this post).

Like I said at the beginning of this charming post, I've been to Portal twice these past couple months. I went once in late January for my 14th B-day and once on my spring break (March 9th-15th). I did not see the bird I've been looking for for a year; the Elegant Trogon, but I did see lots other birds. On both visits I saw Blue-throated Hummingbird and Hutton's Vireo and on the March visit I saw Ash-throated and Vermillion Flycathcers. In March it is not peak season, but it is still pretty good birding down there. I might be going down there in April which will be very birdy.

Touching apon a subject which I believe I have never posted about is my two breeding budgies, Coco and Verde. I got them at a bird store in Santa Fe called Feathered Friends in September and paid about $18.50 for each of them. They mated in early January and laid their eggs in February. Unfortunnately, only two of the four chicks hatched (that is common in budgies) and that was that. The two chicks are about 10 days old now and are beginning to grow in their down and primary feathers! They can not yet even support thier little necks that much and support eachother in their little nest box! The currently unnamed chicks will fledge when they are about 4-5 weeks old and will be independent at around 6-7 weeks! I will keep you updated on the antics of my little fluffballs and anounce the big day (fledgling day)!

I think that I have bored you enough, so its Hasta Luego for now!

Cassidy

Digiscoping!

Sorry about lack of posts during the holidays, we had 12 people over for Christmas and its been kinda crazy.

Well anyway, there was certainly a big highlight on X-mas! I already have a Swarovski 65mm scope and I have been wanting to start digiscoping. Well, I got a 50mm Nikkor lens for our Nikon and a DCA camera adapter from my mom and dad!! I have a Nikon D80 and a 300mm zoom lens which I use for bird shots. My mom had been researching and a lot of folks said that the Nikon 50mm Nikkor lens was the best choice for digiscoping. So far its been GREAT! I've been taking pics of the birds in our yard and have got some pretty good ones.

Well aside from that I'm doing the Christmas Bird Count on Saturday with a birder from Santa Fe! I think that I may be live-streaming on a radio station that day at 10:10 mountain time!

One question:

Do you think that I should delete my trip list and start a new one or just ad to my trip list?

Anyway, here are some of my digiscoping pics:

Death Glass-November 29th, 2008

When I woke up this morning I found a dead Sharp-shinned Hawk on our patio. It looked like it had hit the window of the sunroom yesterday evening because it had a layer of snow on it. I then buried it in our yard (woods) and then came back inside.
Later that morning I was sitting in the living room and relaxing. Just then I hear a "BANG" on the window and I sit bolt upright. I run outside and find a Pine Siskin lying on the ground. Its not dead but not in great shape. And it doesn't get better when Zia picks it up in his mouth and starts munching on it. I run up to Zia, carefully open his mouth and get the bird out of his mouth. Unfortunately for the siskin, Zia ripped its tail off as I got the bird out of his mouth and it was sopping wet. I put Zia inside and then tried to think what to do with the siskin. Of course now it can't fly with its tail off so we put it in a box and put it on top of our hot-tub.
I really think that the most dangerous thing for birds is windows. I call them death glass because so many birds die from hitting windows. We have hummingbird stickers on our windows that are suppose to catch birds attention and make them keep from killing themselves on your death glass. I think that everyone should have some kind of window sticker or something like that to keep the death rate down on birds in your backyard.
This year already, about 15 birds have hit our windows and about 7-8 have died. In September a Black-headed Grosbeak hit my window but its mostly been siskins that have hit windows. Either they're a little dull in the head or they just can't tell whats outside and whats inside our house.
On the brighter side of things I just got a new scope! Its a Swarovski 65mm Standard and it is really good! We're also getting a camera. Well, good birding to all you folks and happy holidays!

Las Vegas NWR-November 2, 2008

This Sunday I went out with the Santa Fe Audubon group to the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge from 7:00 to 1:30 p.m. We saw a total of 33 species and I saw 1 lifer. On the way back to the headquarters of the refuge, I saw a Ferruginuos Hawk which is a lifer! It was gorgous. With a white chest and tail and a reddish back it, in my opinion is one of America's prettiest birds. We chased it for a while and finally got it rioght over the highway!

Sorry, I don't have much time to write anything and we lost our camera so I'm unable to put up any pics.

Good Birding!

Cassidy

Here is the bird list from Sunday:

Ducks, Geese, & Swans:
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser

Grebes:
Pied-billed Grebe
Clark's Grebe (1 adult, 2 immature)

Pelicans:
American White Pelican

Cormorants:
Double-crested Cormorant

Herons, Bitterns, & Allies:
Great Blue Heron

Hawks, Kites, Eagles, & Allies:
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk

Falcons:
American Kestrel

Rails, Gallinules, & Coots:
American Coot

Cranes:
Sandhill Crane

Gulls, Terns, & Skimmers:
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Pigeons & Doves:
Rock Dove

Crows & Jays:
Common Raven

Larks:
Horned Lark

Thrushes:
Mountain Bluebird

Starlings:
European Starling

Towhees, Sparrows, & Allies:
American Tree Sparrow
Grey-headed Junco

Blackbirds:
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark

Here are some pictures from the trip

Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Mission, Texas

Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge-Alamo, Texas

Great-horned Owl
Tucson, Arizona

Transitions-October 13th, 2008

Now we are really back home. Teslin and I started school on August 22 at a charter school called Rio Gallinas and dad is working at El Centro, a Health place. It feels weird, stopping in one place more then a week. The guy we bought the house from is a birder and has a whole bird habitat in the backyard. We have 14 acres, all scrub-land, and there are plenty of sparrows and bluebirds. When we got here on August 2nd, there were lots of Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lewis's Woodpeckers, and Lesser Goldfinches. Now there is just occasionally a Red-winged Blackbird or White-crowned Sparrows. I've seen a couple lifers (Lewis's Woodpecker and Lark Bunting) and plenty of old ones.
Before we came here we were on Cape Cod with my grandparents for a month. I saw 2 new lifers there, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow and American Oystercatcher. Of course I saw plenty of seabirds and shorebirds, but not many new ones. We had a great time on the Cape and celebrated mom's, dad's, and grandma's B-day in July. One of the highlights was 18 miles offshore, were I caught a 90-pound Bluefin Tuna off my grandpa's boat! It me half-an-hour to reel it in and when I finally got it in the boat, my arm was aching! Teslin and mom came to New Mexico on a Southwest flight on the 2nd of August and dad and I rented a Penske moving truck and packed up all our stuff and left for home on July 28th. I saw a lifer on the trip, a Mississippi Kite over a Ramada Inn in Oklahoma! We got to Las Vegas (New Mexico) on the 1st and then we started unpacking.
Now we have almost everything unpacked and we are finding old items every day! We kept most of our stuff but some we are going to give away. The house does not look anything like what it did when we got here and we are going to expand the house soon. When we got here my room was lime-green and then dad and I painted it orangish-yellowish. Aside from other things happening around here, Teslin got gerbils and 2 cockatiels (named Bernie and Arwen)and I got a pair a parakeets that are very much in love with each other named Verde and Coco! I think the parakeets will mate this winter or spring because they have been hanging around their nest box a lot and are very into each other. We also have a 8-week old Golden Retreiver named Zia after New Mexico's symbol that is very cute!
I joined the Santa Fe Sangre de Cristo Audubon and the first bird trip was a couple weeks ago to the Las Vegas NWR and to a private ranch (Ruby Ranch). I saw 4 lifers which were Lark Bunting, Sabine's Gull, Western Grebe and Clark's Grebe! We saw Clark's and Western Grebes on the same lake!
On the downside of things, I broke my wrist 6 weeks ago falling off our neighbor's trampoline. And on the good side of things, I get off my darn cast this Wednesday!

Updates:

Life List- at 595!
School-have done about 7 weeks
Where we live-Las Vegas, New Mexico
Books I've read recently-Brisingr, A Wizard of Earthsea
Animals-2 Parakeets, 2 Cockatiels, 2 Gerbils, 1 Siamese, and 1 8-week old Golden Retriever

June 21st, 2008, Journal Entry

This morning I woke up in an instant (very unusual) because I knew today we were gonna hike with Dave, Isabella and Eddie around Carson National Forest.

At about 8:30 I woke up and we had cereal and cleaned up poppi for D, I, and E. After a quick breakfast of frosted flakes we went down to the office and payed for our time at the KOA Campground. Just then Dave arrived with Eddie sleeping in the back seat! We then went over some maps in poppi and then went to Subway to get some sandwiches for our hike (I got an Italian BLT, dad got same, mom shared turkey one with sis and Eddie and Isabella shared foot-long tuna).

We listened to the cat tape on our way and the seating arrangements were Dave, Eddie and dad in Dave's car and mom, Teslin, Isabella, and me went in "Big White". On the way to Carson we stopped by a lookout that overlooked the valley we had drove through and some surrounding mountains! I picked up a hiking stick there too.

We got to where we wanted to hike at about 1:30 and we got on the trail (well, actually there wasn't a trail, just bushwhacking) shortly afterward. I carried the pink backpack for about 5 minutes and then I gave it to da because it was way too heavy.

We hiked all the way to the bottom of a snow field and then I gave out. The whole way I was feeling kinda queasy and had a little hard time breathing and finally I just collapsed and couldn't go any farther (at least up). So mom and I went back to the car while the rest of them went up.
On the way down I got even more queasy and then I had to move my bowls. It got worse and worse until finally I squatted down in front of a pinyon and the rest is none of your business. Actually I guess I'll tell you. Right before I "squatted in the bushes" mom and I saw 2 male hummingbirds perched on 2 different trees. At first I thought that they were just Black-chinned but then, holy-moly, they had pink bibs!! And the only hummer in the US that has a pinkish bib (other then Ruby-throated) is the Broad-tailed Hummingbird! Sooo, I figured out that I just saw my first two Broad-tailed Hummers!!!

Since right where I pooped was right above the car, we quickly went down to the Seqouia and crashed (well, at least I did). Actually we just relaxed and wrote in our journals.
After a while the rest of the Ruges and Benavidas's came back and we hopped in our cars (I was with Dave with Teslin and Isabella in the back and mom and da were with Eddie) and headed for a restaurant in Penasco (a little town near Las Vegas). Once we got to Penasco, we found the Sugar Nymph (the name of the restaurant we were going to) and had din-din. We ordered a pepperoni pizza with two goat cheese salads. After dinner we payed the bill and hopped in our cars (this time I went with mom, dad Isa, and sis) and drove to the KOA (Dave decided to stay the night).

Once we got to the campground we set up Dave's tent and built a fire. Dave played his guitar and we had s'mores and we (Dave, da, and I) stayed up till 11:30. Finally , after we had all talked enough and had enough s'mores, we hit the sack (I was with Dave in his tent).

We're Home, But Not Yet

In the past 2 weeks its been very exciting. We bought a house, decided to move to Las Vegas, and I saw about 4 lifers here. Well, were to begin... I'll start with when we got to Vegas.

We stayed in Milagro for 2 weeks and then moved out and headed for Las Vegas. We thought that we would maybe look at a few houses, see if there is any good schools or jobs for mom and dad and overall we didn't think that we would be impressed. We were wrong. First we found a fabulous school that was centered on outward-bound stuff and was 1st grade to 8th grade and then dad found a nursing clinic that he really liked that would work for mom too. And then we found an amazing house on the outskirts of Las Vegas that had a excellent birding area and a sun room where you can watch thunderstorms. There is also a room that would be mine and has room for a bed and a study. After we looked at the house 3 different times we decided to buy it!

I'm still getting over the shock of getting a house and that our trip is almost over (it ends after we come back from Cape Cod to the house on August 2).

Yesterday night we did a big hike at about 12,000 feet in Carson National Forest with our friend David Benevidas and his two kids Isabella and Eddie.There wasn't a trail and we went to the top of a snow field (I didn't go up because I was too queasy). On the way back I saw a lifer-a Broad-tailed Hummingbird- and I also saw a Golden Eagle getting mobbed by a Red-tail (hawk)! I wrote I journal entry on the hike too so you can just read the other post (June 21st, 2008). After the hike we had a campfire with Dave, Isabella and Eddie.

We are going on a plane (it'll be the fist time I've been on a plane in about a year) to Cape Cod on July 1st and are gonna visit with our grandparents for a month (from 7/1/08 to 8/1/08).

Back Home, kinda

We are back in the US of A and having to deal with cultural shock! I mean, there two very different countries and with two very different cultures. In the states you can't watch El Superbowl in Spanish or go to the zocalo and have 10 limonada minerals and in Mexíco you can't watch the Red Sox on NESN or the Diomondbacks on FSN!
Well, overall I'm a little shocked about the different cultures but am glad to be back where I can see Elegant Trogons and Flammulated Owls. Our border crossing was extremely quick, it only took 10 minutes! After crossing we drove to Del Rio and stayed at a campground with internet (wow!) and then the next day popped down and went to the Historic Prude Guest Ranch (for short Prude Ranch or HPGR) and stayed there for 4 days and did lots of fun stuff. Teslin rode with mom on a 45 minute ride (was spose to be longer) and the four of us did a half-day ride from Fort Davis Stables, about 10 minutes away from the Prude Ranch. That ride was pretty fun and I saw a lifer, Scaled Quail but afterwards I felt like I was sitting on a pointed rock for days (finally its better) and didn’t like that i couldn’t play b-ball or tennis!
During the 4 nights we were there I saw a family of Elf Owls (a lifer for me) nesting in a phone poll near our pop-up and every night I dragged myself out of bed and went to see the cute litttle owls! After 4 nights at the Prude Ranch we made for Tucson and got there the same day we left the Prude Ranch.
Now we are staying at Milagro Co-housing for a couple of weeks (at first we stayed at my aunt and uncles place). We have settled in and got a hummer feeder and a thistle bag and thistle seeds. We now have lots of hummers feeding and drinking out of the founting but the finches haven’t found the thistle yet. I was invited to a meal with two other young birders (a 9 and 13 year old) by a volonteer at the Tucson Audobon Society on May 31. I’m pretty excited for that and for meeting other youngsters like me who our into birding! I think the TAS just finished their yearly Birdathone and the meal is in that honor.
Yesterday we went to the Pualo Frier Freedom School to check it out and see if we want to go there or not and we liked it a lot! It was a little crazy though.

Terns at every Turn 5/2/08

Today we went to Rio Lagartos and went on one of the boats that tours provide with a guide that really knew his birds. I ended up seeing 7 lifers and 49 species overall. Here is how it all turned out.

6:45AM: I grudgingly got out of bed, had a quick breakfast (cereal), and got ready to go.

7:45AM: We got in the car and headed for Rio Lagartos (listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as dad drove).

9:15AM: We arrived at RL and looked for a good boat launch.

9:30AM: We found a good bird guide (named Eddie) to drive the boat and headed out into the rio.

9:30-1:00PM: We wove through mangroves and I saw 4 species of terns, Sandwich, Royal, Gull-billed, and the beautiful Black Skimmer (all of these being lifers for me). Terns were everywhere! At one place there was Caspian and Royal flying together and a Gull-billed and Sandwich on a sandbar! The Black Skimmers I saw where on a dock mixed with Laughing Gulls and a Sandwich [Tern]. I also saw my first Laughing Falcon perched right next to the waters edge! It looked at us for a while and then took off when we got too close. The Greater Flamingos were pretty fun to watch and I saw 2 Western Sandpipers (my first ones). Our guide taught me how to identify Westerns from Least (there very similar). Western Sandpipers have black legs while Least have paler legs. Also, in breeding plumage Western has some reddish blotches on its head and other parts of its body.
Aside from those 7 life birds and the 49 species I saw, I didn’t see that much. I was aiming for 30 so I guess I passed that mark. I heard a Mangrove Vireo but couldn’t find it. Here is the whole list from Rio Lagartos:

Bird List for Rio Lagartos

1. Sandwich Tern*new
2. Black Skimmer*new
3. Magnificent Frigatebird
4. Brown Pelican
5. Laughing Gull
6. Black Vulture
7. Lineated Woodpecker
8. Barn Swallow
9. Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
10. Turkey Vulture
11. Double-crested Cormorant
12. Snowy Egret
13. White-winged Dove
14. White Ibis
15. Reddish Egret
16. Wood Stork
17. Yellow Warbler
18. Common Black-Hawk
19. Great Egret
20. Great Blue Heron
21. Golden-fronted Woodpecker
22. Tropical Kingbird
23. Osprey
24. Tropical Mockingbird
25. Laughing Falcon*new
26. Spotted Sandpiper
27. Little Blue Heron-White Morph
28. Boat-billed Heron
29. Anhinga
30. Tricolored Heron
31. Common Ground-Dove
32. Least Tern
33. Greater Flamingo*new
34. American White Pelican
35. Western Sandpiper*new
36. Least Sandpiper
37. Caspian Tern
38. Royal Tern*new
39. Gull-billed Tern*new
40. Bobolink
41. Dunlin
42. Savannah Sparrow
43. American Avocet
44. Black-necked Stilt
45. Roseate Spoonbill
46. Long-billed Dowitcher
47. Mangrove Vireo (heard)
48. Cattle Egret
49. Common Moorhen

List of Tern Species I saw in Rio Lagartos

1. Black Skimmer
2. Caspian Tern
3. Gull-billed Tern
4. Least Tern
5. Royal Tern
6. Sandwich Tern