Listing Through Life

cinclus (bird) mexicanus (of Mexico)

Sunday, April 28, 2002 — 12:53 pm

Fremont County, Colorado — Arkansas River — Royal Gorge

I was watching specifically for this bird. I knew the raft trip would be my best chance to see it. So I was ready when I saw the first one as it flew low and rapidly from the right bank in front of and then to the left of the raft, disappearing upriver.

All of the Dippers I saw on the trip were in the Royal Gorge and all but one were doing the same thing the first one was — flying upstream past the raft. The one I saw best was flying downstream in front of the raft close to the narrows where the canyon is deepest. I saw where it landed and kept watching as we drifted closer. It was standing on a rock at the waters edge, dipping its entire body up and down. When we were about 20 feet away, it jumped down into the water and swam belly-deep for about two feet to another rock. It then flew downriver again, landing briefly on a flat rock under a overhanging boulder before flying downstream out of sight.

It was a plump bird with long legs and a very short tail. Its body was dark slate gray and its head was dark flat brown. It flew with very rapid wingbeats, and I never saw one more than two feet above the river surface.

nucifraga (from nucis, nut, and frangere, to break) columbiana (of the Columbia River)

Sunday, April 28, 2002 — 12:45 pm

Fremont County, Colorado — Arkansas River — Royal Gorge

I went to Colorado Springs for a convention. A coworker and I flew out a day early so we could go white-water rafting through the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River. We set off around 9:30 and paddled through Bighorn Sheep Canyon in the morning before stopping for lunch at the Parkdale landing. The river was low, and although the rapids were frequent, they weren’t particularly challenging. I had plenty of time to watch the banks of the river for animals and birds. Soon after lunch we entered the Royal Gorge. The canyon walls gradually got higher and closer as we progressed. Soon after entering the canyon, we drifted down a quiet stretch. I noticed a medium-size bird fly across the river and land in a lone pine growing close to the south bank. I had to wait until we got close since I didn’t have my binoculars, but I knew it was something interesting.

There were five Nutcrackers in the tree. They hopped branch to branch and called their hoarse calls. One flew down to a rock at the edge of the water then back up into the tree when we got close. We drifted past fast, so I wasn’t able to study them long. They were gray with black wings. Their bills were long, straight and black. Their short tails were black with broad white edges.

The next morning I drove west from Colorado Springs to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and saw several more. They were flying around an open grove of pines on a knoll in a meadow. At one point, four of them gathered on a branch in a dead pine. Two of them were putting on a display, bobbing up and down on the branch with their wings and tails spread. This gave me a good look at the large rectangular white patches on the trailing edge of their wings. I soon got to know their raucous calls.

larus (ravenous seabird) glaucoides (resembling the Glaucous Gull)

Friday, March 1, 2002 — 9:15 am

Zion, Illinois — North Point Marina — Lake Michigan

NOTE: This was a lifer when I saw it. Since, this subspecies (Kumlien’s Gull) and Thayer’s Gull have been lumped under the name Iceland Gull.

I was looking at my lifer Glaucous Gull while the guy who told me where to find it scoped through the vast flock of gulls that lined the docks across the harbor and stood on the ice. I saw him looking in his field guide. He asked me to look through his scope at a gull that looked different from the others. Although there were 30 or so gulls in view, I saw immediately which one he referred to. It looked just like the nearby Herring Gulls, but the color on its wingtips was slate gray instead of black and covered a smaller area — restricted to the outer four primaries, with a band across the feather and a narrow edging along the forward edge.

I found it in my scope with some difficulty since all the docks and all the gulls looked so much alike. It was standing on a dock about 60 yards out in the harbor. Apart from the lighter color on its wings, there was no clue to its identity. Then it flew about 20 feet to another place on the same dock. Now we knew. There was no black visible on its wings anywhere. The undersides were bright white. The top was pale gray along the length but white on the tip. Even the bit of slate gray visible on the standing bird wasn’t apparent on the flying bird.

A little while later it took off again, circled around and landed on the next dock over. I saw where it landed, so we moved down and soon found it again. (Fortunately, the slips in the docks were numbered, which enabled me to find it and point it out to other birders.) It stood there, not doing much for the next 10 minutes. I went to my car to get my camera, and when I got back it was gone.

It looked very much like the Herring Gulls, except for the color on the wings I’ve already described. It was also a little smaller. Its head was rounded with a few thin streaks on the crown and hindneck. Its bill was shorter, yellow with the obligatory red spot on the lower mandible. The legs were pink and noticeably shorter than those of the nearby Herring Gulls. At one point, I had the Iceland and Glaucous Gulls in my binoculars at the same time.