Migratory Timing at Cape May, New Jersey. Now with more graphs!

While the Gulf Coast is getting it's first influx of spring migrants, I'm stuck in Delaware, 10 degrees too high in latitude, only one week away from the last snow storm. Instead of being sad, I decided to follow up on my last post and figure out how long it would take for birds to get to me in Delaware and the rest of the north east.

I chose two of the hottest birding spots in the country in spring, Cape May, New Jersey and north west Ohio.

What followed was a frenzy of graph making that borders on overwhelming, so I decided to split this up into two posts. This post we'll focus on Cape May.

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Methods
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Because I already described the methods, I'll keep it short and mention what changes I made this time around. If you want the full methods, check out my previous post.

Because of the delay in timings I chose to take only data from March onward, and then ran it through the same filter to filter out only birds who spent <66% of their time in the area and filter out relative rarities. I also decided to filter out certain species for different portions of the analysis, this hopefully makes things easier to digest.

All in all Cape May had 201 birds identified as migrants and 37 total warbler species. It also had high numbers of checklists each week, which resulted in smooth graphs and trends.
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General Timings
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This graph was the easiest to digest and discern. The overall weighted average turned out to be May 17th, which coincides with this years Cape MAYgration Festival. Unfortunately for me, early April looks pretty bleak, but quickly ramps up and by May migration really takes off.

What surprised me the most about this is the 3 week disparity between the gulf coast and New Jersey. It takes migrants three weeks to go the 1000 miles from Tallahassee to New Jersey. For many species this isn't even close to their end destination. But for many species, New Jersey represents an end point and migrant diversity stayed high for the remainder of the breeding season. I expect this mainly to be the waders, gulls, terns, and shorebirds that nest in the region, as well as many species of orioles, warblers, and tanagers.

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Warbler Timings
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Many birders love spring because of the plethora of colorful warblers migrating through. In all North America hosts 56 species of Warblers and Wood Thrushes. Of those 56, Cape May hosts 66% of all of these species in the entire country. So when do these beauties show up and when is the best time to see them?
Luckily I made very large graphs to help you out.

To save space I used the 4 lettered Alpha Codes for species. You can download a pdf of all the species codes here. I used the first date that a bird was seen with a higher than 1% chance to filter out the extreme individuals and the accidentally overwintering birds. This should represent a conservative if not accurate average estimate of first arrival. We see Palm Warblers and Yellow-Throated Warblers are already expected to have shown up, this is largely to due a couple of years vagrants overwintered in the area. The first Louisiana Waterthrush just showed up in Delaware and New Jersey this week justifying the early timings in the data. After that, birds seem to ramp up over the second and third week in April with the first wave of typical early migrants (Ovenbirds, Prothonotarys, Hoodeds, and Black-Throated Green Warblers. Then curiously there's a large break before the final wave of migrants show up May 1st and the famously late warblers show up (Blackpolls, Black-throated Blue, and Cape May Warblers).  While I've heard of 'waves' of migrants I didn't actually expect it to show up with such a large gap.


To get at when the bulk movements of these warblers were, and if these waves are seen in the bigger picture I graphed the average timings for each species. This came up with a much different graph.

The first thing to notice is that despite some really early timings, all warblers peak in the latter parts of May. While averages are expected to be smoother we can still see certain waves, but now it could be broken up into as many as 5 different groups.
Early- Palm Warblers, Louisiana Waterthrush, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and Black-and-White Warbler
Mid-early- Ceruluean Warbler, Black-throated Blue warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and Blue-winged Warbler
Mid- Blackburnian warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ovenbird, Hooded Warbler, and Prairie Warbler
Mid-late- Tennessee Warbler, Wilsons Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Kentucky Warbler
Late- Blackpoll Warbler, Canada Warbler, American Redstart, Prothonotary warbler, Mourning Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat

While many of these make sense, the resident warblers are obviously getting pulled farther back than expected. I suspect that's why we see Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Prothonotary Warbler, and Yellow-breasted Chat on the back end of these graphs instead of closer to the beginning.

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Family Timings
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At the beginning of this work I was curious in looking at all migrant timings across families to compare when birds migrate across large areas. My first try resulted in the infamous gulf .gif that plotted every family's timing across 4 locations spanning 1500 miles. While I still want to figure out a way to graph broad scale timings like this across multiple locations, I think it's easier to digest each location separately. So I made a graph depicting the timings of 9 families just for Cape May.

 The most surprising part to these graphs is how quickly most of them spike. I expected all of the graphs to turn out like the Warblers and Shorebirds with smooth ramps to the peaks and gradual drop offs. This is most likely due to the large amount of species and numbers incorporated in the Shorebirds and Warblers, where as other groups like Orioles and Cuckoos may have only two species representing them. It mainly shows how concentrated the migration of any one species is, and how in sync each individual is to the timing of a species as a whole. I'll briefly go through each of these families.

The Shorebirds and Warblers peak right around when Cape May's over all numbers peak and then drops off much more suddenly than in April.

The Night Jars and Hummingbirds curiously peak at similar times and have similar graphs. They both peak slightly later than normal around the last week in May

Cuckoos true to their nature show up late and then stay at high rates of detection due to their wonderfully nostalgic and unique call.

Flycatchers are another set of late bloomers that technically peak near June and stay to breed. These include the charismatic Eastern Kingbirds that are hard to miss.

Vireos usually follow the Warblers in timings and despite an abrupt start generally follow the same graph as the warblers. They peak just a day behind the warblers and their tail end graphs look almost identical.

Tanagers, Grosbeaks, Buntings, and Orioles were groups I expected to have similar timings just from anecdotal evidence and I am continually surprised every time I find this trend still showing up in the data. Not only do their averages land on the same day (June 1st) they have almost identical graphs, and both represent strong residential populations after migration.
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That's it for now. Spend the next week staring at these graphs and hopefully learning to make your own. I'll be back April 17th to present the North West Ohio data just in time for the Biggest Week in birding!

So go out, and start looking for migrants!
-Boone

Rare Bird Alerts and You

You woke up this morning, looked at yourself in the mirror, and decided to be completely honest.
You have a problem.
You took the journey down the rabbit hole, and came out a twitcher.
You're addicted to birding.

It happens. You could have chosen sex, drugs, alcohol, or birding. We at Natural Austerity would like to think you made the better choice. 

This is your support group. We're going to support you in your new addiction.
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But first, for some of you who don't know the dirty words that are said to you behind your back.

What is a twitcher?
A twitcher is a person who chases rare birds and goes to sometimes extraordinary lengths to do so. These are the people who take off lunch breaks to go chase a county first record Spotted Towhee or first of the year Eastern Peewee. It's sometimes quite arbitrary in the grand scheme of things how rare is the bird. It's just important if it will be a first somehow.

A lister is someone who's main goal is to see as many birds in a predetermined amount of space and time. Listers run the gamet of extreme listing (big years) to more innocuous listing (life lists).

Twitchers and listers are many times synonymous. These two types of birders get a bad rap not only in the birding but conservation community as well. When you run around on a frantic quest to see as many birds as you can, you lose a certain amount of appreciation for the moment. It can be difficult to really sit down and appreciate a new life bird if you know your day light is fading. The most extreme stories of birding usually come out of these camps. Adding to their bad rap, a fair amount of trespassing and illegal behavior has been associated with finding new rare birds and being the first to do so.

So A Warning
Evolution took millions of years to evolve not just one of these airborne pioneers but over 10,000 different species of them. This is a family with members who once darkened the sky with their sheer numbers, and are capable of heroic migration sometimes spanning the entire globe. It's because of this we encourage you to take more than a second to appreciate every new bird you see. It is a wonder not only that they're here, but that you are born in a economic situation that allows you to enjoy them freely.

With that we'll move forward
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Ebird

Ebird is your first level go to for rare bird alerts. This extremely powerful online data set tracks users entries and allows you to see whats being seen on the ground within hours of it actually being seen

As part of Ebird's data screening process for citizen science data, these filters flag submitted birds as 'rare' based on expected birds in the area, time of the season, and particularly high counts.Ebird's volunteer editors use this as a first defense for screening new data for anomalies. Common year round residents like chickadees will not be flagged, while birds not from the area or arriving at a strange time will show up as rare and require a review by the local Ebird editor. All of these 'rare' and unusual sightings can be pulled up together in a convenient list.

Head over to Ebird, log-in and clicking the 'Explore Data' tab. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the 'Alerts' section.

In Alerts we can play around with various regional alerts. The regions you can choose include states, counties, or countries. For example, if you type in 'Pennsylvania' into the 'Rare Bird Alerts' section, Ebird will show rare birds seen in that last seven days in Pennsylvania. If you type the same thing into the 'Needs Alerts' section, it will show you reports of birds you haven't seen in Pennsylvania

The way to get the most of this option is to sign up for daily rare bird alerts in your state and county. If you live in a large state or a highly birded area, these emails can get rather long. The county list ameliorates this by giving you a more focused list.

More advanced birders may want to choose to receive hourly lists for their county. The great thing about this is you learn much quicker about the rare birds, and can react faster. Most of the time, the hourly list will be manageable. If you live in a sparsely birded area you may not even receive alerts for days. However, in largely populated counties like San Diego county, these hourly lists quickly become overwhelming as rarities are reported almost every hour of the day.

One of the problems with Ebird and Ebird alerts is the sometimes very informal nature of the process. Birders are not required to tell you where in a patch they found them, and sometimes may just submit a list for a rather large area giving you almost no data to act upon. Not only that, not all birders use Ebird. Many older birders in particular refuse to use it, as it requires a rather large start up time importing your previous lifelist.
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BirdsEye

BirdsEye is a mobile app that integrates with Ebird to show you sightings for any area you choose. Available on iPhones, this is an incredibly valuable field tool that gives you up to date information in an easier to navigate interface. You can set anywhere as a center point and look at the species seen recently within a certain diameter circle. It will show you both common and 'notable' birds. Notables are birds that are rare or things you haven't seen (you can input your life list into the app).

You can pick a species and find the hotspots where it has been reported and plan your day from there. This can be a great tool when you are going to be traveling to a new place. You can scout out birding spots in advance and use it once your'e there.

Currently BirdsEye is only available on iPhone, but an android version is in production.
It suffers from Ebird's faults but is a plus because of Ebird's terrible interface on mobile devices.
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ABA Rare bird alerts/news

The ABA maintains a rather exhaustive list of rare bird forums separated by regions. The regions lists are somewhat chaotic as each area is divided differently. California, for example, is split into 24 different forums, while Texas is just a single entry.

A good feature of the ABA alerts is you can search for a particular states listserv by clicking here. Once there, you can sign up for any particular states birding listserv and receive updates by email.

The ABA RBA and News list is a great way to figure out the details of a particular bird seen. The posters are usually very detailed with locations, times, and update periodically if a bird was seen recently. In addition, many people will post trip lists. These can be a good way to prepare for an upcoming trip, and get your mind set on what you might see.
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State bird forums

The most intimate and interesting look into the bird world usually starts at the local birding forums. These forums are birders main way to interact with each other. In them, you'll find information not only about rare birds, but sometimes intimate details about someones backyard birds and life. If you're looking for birds that many wouldn't consider rare, this is a great tool to figure out what birds are in an area and where to find them.

To find a local bird forum you can simply go to the link previously mentioned in the ABA mailing lists or just search Google for an areas bird forum or listserv. You'll find these sites often tied to local ornithological or Audubon societies.

Love em or hate em, bird forums represent your fellow birders and their similar love and devotion for birds. As such, be nice on the forums. Birding is not something everyone does and it can be hard to find friends who share in your passion. If an old woman wants to discuss her coffee choices more so than the birds she saw, so be it. If that same woman wants to tell you how excited she is of her Jan 1st First of the Season Northern Cardinal, let her have it.

On the flip side, bird forums like anything on the internet can bring out the worst in people. The anonymity of the internet, mixed with the binary nature of sometimes very difficult bird ID, and the inherent competitiveness of birding can breed really snarky and elitists folks. A good reminder is to not take anything someone says personally. Bird IDing is difficult and no one is perfect. Some people just need to feel special. Ignore them and don't feed their troll like nature.
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Facebook

Why not marry the one site you never stop checking, with the obsession you never stop thinking about?

The ABA runs a great group called the ABA Rare Bird Alert where users post notable rare birds around the country. While not all encompassing and sometimes on a different schedule than the normal ABA site, this format can be a welcome addition to your Facebook news feed, and a much broader scale rare bird alert for you to stomach.

There are many regional bird groups on Facebook, including many that are just for particular states. These function similar to bird listservs but are much easier to navigate and scroll through. Adding them to your facebook feed is an easy way to keep up to date with whats going on in the bird world and stay apart of sometimes good bird discussions.

They suffer from similar faults of listservs, as moderating some of the larger pages can sometimes be a daunting task. Remember to respond politely to other members. You'll usually get a nice response back.
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The North American Rare Bird Alert (NARBA) 

The North American Rare Bird Alert is a long running and iconic service which started in 1985 as a way for birders to share their rare bird reports. It's evolved from a telephone service run by a single person, to a large scale website able to notify customers instantly of new birds found around the nation.

For a fee of $50/year you can get detailed reports of rare birds including past sightings, locations, and verifications. It's the premier bird alert service used by most big year chasers.

We don't strictly condemn the use of the NARBA, it is the best resource to find all of these reports in up to the minute detail. But as budget bloggers we tend to shy away from it for cheaper alternatives. You can find most of all the information in the NARBA on the internet. It just takes much more time and effort.
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Misc outlets

Koppi2 (wikicommons)

In certain communities rare bird alerts have evolved to their final form. Mobile SMS push notifications. My labmate and fantastic birder, Tim Schrekengost, helped set up the Delaware rare bird alert onto a mobile app called #Groupme. Users download the app, sign up to the group, and post their sightings instantly. These posts get sent straight to everyones phone, allowing literal real time sightings. This decreases your reaction time down to seconds.

This worked particularly well this last Black Friday. While my friend Emily and I were shopping around Rehoboth beach, I received a text message that a Snowy Owl had been reported just 10 minutes away. Needless to say, we stopped shopping immediately and rushed down to the beach. Without even our binoculars in hand (rookie move) we managed to catch the owl within an hour of it first being sighted. Truly the internet is a beautiful thing.

I expect many more options like these will crop up as technology increases and people find more unique ways to post their sightings.
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That's it for now. Hopefully now you'll sign up for rare bird alerts and forums in your area. This way you'll become more involved with the bird community, learn new places to bird your local area, and be better prepared for planning your next long distance birding trip!

So go forth, sign up, and be overwhelmed by rarity reports!

-Boone

Snowy Owl Irruptions

My Snowy Owl this Thanksgiving. (Delaware Beach State Park)

This past week has been a whirlwind introduction for me on birding the east coast. Having just moved to Delaware, I wasn't sure the places to bird, much less what I could see. Imagine my surprise when I happen to arrive in the middle of a Snowy Owl irruption. This year alone there have already been 6 different snowy owls reported in Delaware! Every state on the East Coast is reporting them and bird watchers and children alike are reveling in this experience.

But what exactly is going on and what can we expect for the future?

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First things first, what is an irruption?

An irruption refers to an erratic movement of a particular species/group outside of it's normal range. In the bird world these are generally focused on finches and owls in winter. What causes an irruption can vary based on the species. Finches irrupt as they move south in search of food, this usually happens when fall seed production from coniferous trees turns out lower than expected. This can be due to bad weather in the spring and drought.

Finch irruptions are regularly forecasted by Ontario Field Ornithologist Ron Pittaway. He publishes an excellent report every year on conifer seed production and the expected irruption for finches. Common irruptive finch species include Red Crossbills, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks, and Purple Finches

Owls will irrupt following a good productivity year in spring. When food abundance is high, owls will hatch higher amounts of owlets. Some pairs will forgo breeding all together! Conversely, a lack of food on the breeding grounds can force an irruption in winter. As temperatures begin to fall starving owls are forced southward to find food.

Snowy Owl's are the main owl prone to irruptions. This species boreal lifestyle depends primarily on the population of lemmings in the arctic. As a result, they irrupt depending mainly on the timing and population of lemmings.

Our last major Snowy Owl irruption occurred in the winter of 2011-2012. Snowy owls were seen all the way from Georgia, Texas, and even Hawaii! While this turned into the biggest irruption in many years, it pales in comparison to some reports from the last 100 years.
(You can read more about the 2011-12 irruption as well as the historical reports here)
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What about this year? How does it compare and what can we look forward to?

We have just begun in this current years irruption. One week ago (Nov 23-24), a few Snowy Owls had been reported from New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland, but quickly disappeared the following days. This weekend (Nov 29-Dec 1) birders out on their annual Thanksgiving weekend birding trips witnessed the bloom as dozens of reports came in from Ohio, to Delaware, and all the way down in North Carolina. Currently as I sit here writing this (December 1st) there are even reports all the way in southern Illinois and Bermuda! Clearly they're moving south.

Lets look at how this irruption compares to the one in 2011-2012:

Ebird Snowy Owl reports from the early winter months in 2011 (Oct-Nov)

In 2011 Snowy Owls began appearing along the east coast, but the main population exploded down the great plains. Every plains state had reported a Snowy Owl before the end of November.

This year looks a little different:

Ebird Snowy Owl reports for this current winter (Oct-Dec 5)

We see much less movement down the central United States this year, with a higher concentration along the east coast. We notice the southern expansion along the eastern United States is already more mature than two years ago.

As we're just beginning this great year for Snowy Owl's we can look ahead at whats to come:

Ebird Snowy Owl reports from 2011-2012 during the entire winter (Oct-Feb)

In 2011-2012, the Plains states received almost unheard of numbers of owls. Kansas and Missouri shattered their previous records with total counts as high as 101 and 54 respectively. South Dakota, the center for that years irruption, had one report of 20 snowy owls over a 40 mile stretch!

As far as this year is concerned it seems the irruption is centered around the eastern United States, with the Great Lakes regions reporting the highest numbers in the US. If this irruption continues through the winter, I'd expect birds to follow the east coast and Mississippi river southward, hopefully overshooting the Ozarks into the great plains.

We'll see how it turns out, but regardless it's already been a lot of fun.
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So we know they could be showing up anywhere this year, but where should we look?

Two Snowy's perching on the sand dunes in Delaware

Snowy Owls live on the flat arctic tundra, because of this they prefer flat areas that are generally raised and light in color.  I would search any areas where the ground is lighter and open such as fields, prairies, and of course sand dunes. Their bright color can be unmistakeable, so feel free to drive around back roads looking for them.

That's all for now! Bird safe and don't harass the owls!

And if you see one don't forget to report it on Ebird and your local bird forum. Scientists and birders alike will thank you!

-Boone

What is a Good Birder

I've recently been hit with the grand almost metaphysical question of what makes someone a good birder.

Is it the master bird identifier, with a roledex of bird facts. Someone who eats, breathes, and sleeps bird ID. The person who knows the expected day of a birds first arrival, their foraging position in a tree, and has each bird personal mailing address.

Is it the trusty veteran? Who saw every first for their state. The 20 year president of the local audubon chapter, your county's ebird editor, and the go to for any birds state history.

Or perhaps the traveler? They can chronicle every bug bite they ever received on their vast travels across the globe. Their list is 5 times higher than you ever hope to be at. The person who knows the best tasting food carts in thailand, the best coffee in peru, and used to have a personal bunk bed on Attu?

Kenn Kaufmann, an all around great birder by any definition, said in response to a similar question:

 

'Birding is something we do for enjoyment; so if you enjoy it, you're a good birder. If you enjoy it alot; you're a great birder’

I like this definition better. It's freeing. It cuts through all the birders high opinions of themselves, to an easy to swallow and active definition we can all fit into.

Honestly, I'm being self serving. If I convince you of this, I will feel better about recently being proved I'm the sterotypical definition of a bad birder. I don't bird every day, I sleep in, and am not that great at bird ID.

YoUDee, our Mascot. Yes, that's his name

I recently started graduate school at the University of Delaware. Prior to this I went on a mad mission: To see as many birds as I could in the United States in one year. I did it for personal reasons. Not for glory, or for a cause, but because I needed to.I travelled across 21 states, birded over 250 different locations, and currently sit at 530 birds (15th in the United States).

You wouldn’t be remiss for thinking, like my new lab mates, that I was a good birder. It all started with a bad identification of a Trumpeter Swan who was really a masquerading Tundra Swan.

Very active birders in the community, my lab mates found out from Ebird I was in the top 100 Ebirders. When we met they already had little quips ready.

     'Oh. Did you already make a checklist for your front yard, back yard, and the building?'

My first weekend here I misidentified a Tundra Swan as a Trumpeter, which posted to ebirds rarity list automatically and the questions began. They wanted to know how I misidentified it, which lead to how I didn’t know they’re rare in the region, which morphed into talks about birding habits. I watched their faces become more baffled as I admitted I wasn’t that into hawk watching, birding every day, or even knew I could identify a Nutting’s Flycatcher by sight not call.

But that’s not why I bird. I bird to travel, for the adventure, and to explore new places. The thrill of finding a new species is exhilarating to me, but so is traveling to new places.

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Big Years are not like standard birding

Big Years are about travel, chasing rare birds, and getting the best knowledge of the best spots. You can’t do a Big Year in the United States without lots of time, money, and research. 

Most people don’t have a lot of time or money

Think about this. Say we added EVERY BIRD seen this year at 4 of these famous birding hot spots: 
-Point Reyes National Seashore, CA (165sp)

-Patagonia Lake State Park, AZ (224sp)

-South Padre Island Convention Center/WBC, Tx (283sp)

-Cape May Point State Park, NJ (276sp)

Once we filter out species seen at multiple locations we’d only have 482 unique birds.

If by some magic you’re able to bird every one of those spots every day simultaneously. Your theoretical self spanning 3000 miles, at the best birding spots, AND you were of course the greatest birder of all time able to identify every single bird at that spot, you’d still only have 482 birds this year. And I would beat you. By 50. The current leader Neil Hayward (725sp) would be beating you by 270.

*It should be noted Neil is infact on a fantastically large and amazing big year. Good luck to him on his final leg.

Stats is about manipulating things to make them show what you want, but still, you get the point

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So, are we all doomed? We’ll never see hundreds of birds! Should we just quit now? 

No. The point is this. Everyone’s life and situation is different. Quit worrying about numbers and comparing yourself to others. It takes a lot of time, money, and miles on the road to get those numbers. Do what you love and go birding at your local patch instead. We’ll help you learn to love the little things more.

And if you do love traveling, finding new species, and the thrill of birding new places on the cheap, well, we can teach you how to do that as well. ;)

-Boone