November 2013

THE SISKIN
Newsletter of the Northern Virginia Bird Club Vol. 58, No. 4 | November 2013

NVBC GENERAL MEETING
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 8 PM
Birding Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Speakers: Diane Marton and Joanna Taylor
Join us for a presentation on birding in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by two of our club members, Diane Marton and Joanna Taylor, who visited both countries in late spring of this year. To whet your appetite, read Diane’s fascinating article on the trip in this issue of The Siskin. To whet your appetite another way, we hope to be able to have some ethnic finger foods from Uzbekistan thanks to a new restaurant that has opened near our meeting place. Special thanks go to Machiel Valkenburg of Rubythroat Tours, who was the local guide on the trip, for the use of his excellent bird photos.

Early bird refreshments start at 7:30 PM. There will be a drawing for door prizes. Northern Virginia Bird Club pins will be available for members who would like to buy them ($5 each).

MEETING PLACE: Church of the Covenant, 2666 Military Road, Arlington, 22207. Directions are on page 4.

Winter Chincoteague Trip
The club’s 2014 Winter Chincoteague Weekend is scheduled for February 7-9 (Friday to Sunday). February is an excellent time to visit Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Islands (CBBT). The Refuge is loaded with wintering waterfowl and shorebirds while the CBBT is famous for sea ducks. On last year’s trip, we saw a total of 105 species including 23 species of waterfowl and 15 species of shorebirds. Highlight sightings were Eurasian Wigeon and American Avocet at Chincoteague NWR and Common Eiders at the CBBT Islands.

Plans for the weekend include birding the Chincoteague area Friday afternoon starting at 3:15 PM (optional) and Saturday starting at 7:30 AM. Activities on Friday and Saturday include birding along Beach Road, Swan Cove, and Tom’s Cove and around the Wildlife Loop. Time and tides permitting, we will also visit the Queen Sound Flats and the Chincoteague City mudflats.

We will arrange a trip to the CBBT Islands on Sunday, weather permitting. The CBBT trip requires security forms in advance and an extra fee (about $10 per person) and has a limit of 15 people per group. The trip concludes at noon on Sunday.

NVBC membership is required for this trip. To sign up, call or email Elton Morel (703-553-4860 or eltonlmorel@verizon.net). The trip is limited to 24 people and usually fills up, so please contact Elton first to ensure that space is available before making hotel reservations. When signing up, please indicate whether you are interested in Sunday morning’s CBBT Island trip and a Saturday evening group dinner. If the trip is full, your name can be put on a waiting list.

We have obtained a special rate of $73 per night on 15 rooms for Friday and Saturday nights at the Best Western Chincoteague Island Hotel on Maddox Boulevard. A two-night stay is usually required. Hotel reservations must be made by January 24 to get this special group rate. Participants should make your own reservations by calling 800-553-6117 and be sure to say you are with the Northern Virginia Bird Club. Check-in time is 3 PM on Friday, February 7, with 24-hour notice required for cancellation. Chincoteague NWR is a U.S. fee area. — Elton Morel

Presidential Peentings
As the weather starts to turn more chilly, migration is beginning to slow to a trickle for birds such as Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Brown Creepers, various sparrows, hawks, and waterfowl will begin to arrive in numbers. During NVBC trips in late September and October, some of our winter friends have already been spotted. This does not look like a great year for finch irruptions from the north because of a plentiful food supply up there, but that does not mean we are not likely to get other rarities in our region this winter. You never know what might show up at someone’s feeder. There are many opportunities for you to get out and find cold weather birds. In addition to our regular NVBC field trips, there are Christmas Bird Counts throughout our area which can give you valuable experience and also contribute to citizen science in a tangible way. As always, we welcome birders of all skill levels to participate in these adventures. The birds are out there. We just need to get out there and find them. Let’s go birding! — Larry Meade, NVBC President

Virginia birders wanted for Seneca CBC
The Seneca MD/VA Christmas Bird Count covers a large area of Montgomery County, Maryland, and, equally important, a sizeable area in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties in Virginia. The Virginia portion is about 40 percent of the total count circle, and the folks who count in the five Virginia sectors contribute significantly to the species diversity and numbers of birds for this CBC. Last year, nearly one-third of the total birds for the CBC were counted in the Virginia sectors, and four of the 95 total species for the CBC were found only in Virginia. We are looking for more folks to help count in Virginia. If you are interested in volunteering or have questions, contact me at kingfishers2@verizon.net or 301-530-6574. — Jim Nelson, Seneca CBC compiler

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia Winter Waterfowl Survey
On Saturday, January 25 and Sunday, January 26, birders of all skill levels will join up to count waterfowl in Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William counties, including the Potomac and Occoquan watersheds. Novice birders will be paired with expert bird enthusiasts. Larry Cartwright continues as the volunteer compiler for this year’s count. For more information and to join the team, email info@audubonva.org or call 703-438-6008


Birding Central Asia
Away, for we are ready to a man! Our camels sniff the evening and are glad. We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. — James Elroy Flecker, The Golden Journey to Samarkand

Joanna and I set out in mid-May, not on flying camel or carpet, but on the usual plane, through Istanbul to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for three weeks of birding there and in Uzbekistan…Joanna dreaming of rosy starlings and azure tits and I of demoiselle cranes and the northernmost flock of breeding flamingos.

Once a small riverside settlement Akmola and then a Russian fortress Akmolinsk, Astana became the capital in 1998 of a newly independent Kazakhstan (1991) and now boasts a population of over one million. We had two days to sightsee in this quick-rising, carefully planned city of shimmering blue and gold buildings (one nicknamed “banana” and others “beer cans”), zooming to the top of the landmark 300-foot-tall Baiterek or Tree of Life observation tower, taking in the exclusive shops on the ground floor of the yurt-like, climate-controlled Khan Shatyr, a recreation center boasting swimming pools surrounded by sand from Bali on its uppermost level.

Obviously this was to be a trip like no other, especially after we learned our guide found, despite a written assurance to the contrary, that he could not get a visa at the Astana airport. Stranded in Istanbul, he first met us May 29 instead of May 21; fortunately the local provider Machiel Valkenburg and his team from Rubythroat Birding Tours carried on seamlessly.

Around Astana and the Korgalzhin Lakes system we saw such standouts as red-footed falcons, short-eared owls, pallid harriers, demoiselle cranes (with chicks!), bluethroats, ruffs in breeding finery, black-winged pratincoles, black and white-winged larks, and finally—at day’s end, some sociable lapwings. But no flamingos: no reason given. We wondered whether it was an uncooperative refuge manager, who needed his palm greased.

Green carpets rolled across these flat steppes, as far as the eye could see, only to turn brown in another month. Infrequently a river with its attendant trees and shrubs cut through the carpet, and one of the low-lying lakes produced a first for the region—a long-tailed duck.

“The wind might blow,” we came to say, and here it was non-stop, easily 40 mph, blowing either dust or a cold rain. Our refuge was a guesthouse, where we ate such traditional fare as “plov” (pilaf) and the highly prized boiled horsemeat.

From Astana we flew to the former capital Almaty in the southeastern part of this huge country, four times the size of Texas, and then continued to an old, rustic Russian hunting lodge (and its nighttime European scops owl) near the spectacular red sandstone cliffs of the Sharyn River Gorge, not quite the Grand Canyon, but then…. The day brought blue rock thrushes and several species of wheatears, but the highlight was hillside colonies of chattering pink-and-black rosy starlings and above, the prize, a saker falcon, its numbers sorely diminished due to the Arab preference for using wild falcons in their hunting. We headed back to Almaty, having checked off, among others, Pallas’s sandgrouse, the gray-hooded and the chestnut-breasted bunting, the Mongolian and the crimson-winged finch.

Working our way the next morning to a private yurt camp in the Taukum Desert, we picked up such niceties as white-headed and ferruginous ducks, and gazed awestruck at fields ablaze with crimson poppies (no opium in these) and at the majestic snow-covered peaks of the Tien Shan range. Machiel sets up his desert yurt camp on a piece of leased land each May, to coincide with the birding season. Our pleasant yurt had two cots and barn swallows swooping in and out and perching along the opening at the top. We dined like Central Asian nomadic royalty, sitting amidst cushions on the floor of the dining tent and eating from low tables.

Desert memories: LOTS of larks (calandra, bimaculated, greater and lesser short-toed, crested, and of course sky lark); Turkestan, azure, and black-headed penduline tits at a riverside; a Saxaul sparrow nesting in a bus stop shelter; a white-winged woodpecker in a unique woodland area, a disappointedly distant Macqueen’s bustard viewed through the scope. And then of course herds of camels on these dusty plains, tended by men on horseback, cell phone at their ear. No Silk Road caravans today; the camels are kept for their milk.

Back through Almaty, picking up eastern rock nuthatches at Tamgaly, known more for its ancient petroglyphs and now designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site; and on to a former Russian Astronomical Observatory in the Tien Shan mountains. Led to expect the worst, we were surprised to find freshly painted rooms, new double-pane windows and delicious food awaiting the birders who flock here. The weather was sunny and mild; and the spectacular alpine peaks and meadows, the bubbling fast-flowing streams, and Big Almaty Lake yielded up a number of gems: perky white-tailed rubythroats; fire-fronted serins; blue whistling thrushes; Eversmann’s, blue-capped, and Guldenstadt’s redstarts; an ibisbill pair, the white-browed tit-warbler; and Himalayan snowcocks.

Five of our original nine birders continued on to Uzbekistan, once again without our beleaguered guide. His Uzbek visa had been incorrectly dated for 2012. We reached Tashkent Sunday noon and next encountered him in Samarkand on Tuesday evening.

The local guide, an ascetic-looking Uzbek of Russian origin, was a highly capable birder but became completely flummoxed when trying to figure out where we would next eat. Fortunately early-start mornings always meant breakfast packed by the hotel and always included a cucumber, tomato, hard-boiled egg, and pastry. Uzbekistan is the garden state for the region, and mealtime offered more variety and flavor than in Kazakhstan. We passed many a field with women working under the sun’s strong rays, babushkas tied back to keep their hair in check. Donkey carts brought farm implements or took away produce. Bird species recorded here are fewer than in Kazakhstan; and interestingly, there are no endemics for either of the countries.

But Uzbekistan gave us lasting memories: a nesting female Asian paradise-flycatcher; soaring transmission towers turned into nesting white stork apartment houses; the white-throated robin in the Zarafshan Hills; Pander’s ground jays that we assumed would be difficult to find in the Kyzylkum Desert, yet there they were running about, crossing the road, one even perching above eye-level, singing and displaying and allowing for ample photo shots; a lone namaqua dove, a first for the country; and at trip’s end, a rufous-naped tit.

What really shine in the country are the cultural treasures. In Samarkand it is the Registan, commercial center of the medieval city, three sides hemmed in by medressas (seats of higher education in earlier times), their azure mosaics, tiles and majolica bringing on a visual overload, only to be outdone at the Avenue of the Mausoleums, with some of Islam’s most ornate tile work. Timur, national hero of the country, lies elsewhere in the city in a surprisingly modest mausoleum. Bukhara, perhaps Central Asia’s holiest city, has a more subtle beauty. Leisurely stroll the historic center to gaze at and visit mosques, medressas, the Ark or fortress that housed the rulers, and, not least, the famous Kalon Minaret from 1127 that was spared by Genghis Khan when he passed through.

Truly an extraordinary trip, and a surprise a week after arriving home when the owner of the tour company called to say a substantial refund was being mailed to tour participants due to the unprecedented circumstances we had encountered. — Diane Marton

What the Northern Virginia Bird Club did on its summer vacation
The Northern Virginia Bird Club had two excellent out of town trips this summer. They were what we call “X-trips” where we leave early and drive to a relatively far-flung location and bird into the late afternoon.

In early July, we ventured up to Skyline Drive and birded the Limberlost Trail which is located near Skyland. The trip was led by Elton Morel and me. The highlight of the morning was a spectacular look at a cooperative male Blackburnian Warbler actively feeding above our heads. He even reappeared a bit later to put on a show for people in the group who had missed him when he was first sighted. We later found a female Blackburnian a little further up the trail. We also enjoyed Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white, and Hooded Warblers. American Redstarts were ubiquitous. Veery and Wood Thrushes entertained us with their singing. Scarlet Tanagers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks grudgingly let us glimpse them as they sang in the tree tops. We found some more birds in other locations along Skyline Drive such as Dark-eyed Juncos, a Broad-winged Hawk and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. As usual, there were many Indigo Buntings and Eastern Towhees.

In mid-August we ventured to entirely different habitat as we visited Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. This time we were in search of shorebirds and we were not disappointed. Even the weather cooperated as we enjoyed a mild, mostly sunny day. We had what amounts to a dream team of birders on hand with Kurt Gaskill, Marc Ribaudo, Elton Morel, and Gerco spotting birds left and right. We found most of our target birds including a Hudsonian Godwit, Western Sandpipers, White-rumped Sandpipers, and a Long-billed Dowitcher. At the DuPont Nature Center we found the immature King Eider that had been hanging out in the area. There were also Clapper Rails running around. At Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, we saw Saltmarsh Sparrows and a Peregrine Falcon. Another highlight of the day was lunch at Sambo’s in Leipsic. — Larry Meade


A Week at Camp Avocet
Elizabeth Bevins is the first recipient of the Northern Virginia Bird Club’s youth birding scholarship. She used it last summer to attend Camp Avocet, a week-long American Birding Association camp for young birders at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Delaware.

“I want to start out with saying that Camp Avocet was one of the best camps that I have ever been to. There were lots of things that made Avocet great. First of all were the other campers. Second were the birds, of course, no surprise there. Last of all were the adults. One of the things that surprised me about Avocet was how many different places that people came from. There was someone from California, at least one from Texas, and another from Canada! It was great to make friends that are my age who bird. Most of the time, the people that I hang out with, unfortunately, aren’t birders. It was just amazing to be with 21 teenage bird nerds. A few of them even started a band which created parodies of other songs. However, they didn’t just create your regular old, run of the mill parodies. They create parodies about birding! How cool is that! They called themselves Pish And Twitch. If you go onto the ABA blog and search them up, you can hear several of their songs.

On Tuesday, August 13, we took a previously unplanned trip to Assateague because there was a Bar-tailed Godwit there. I had a hard time picking out the Bar-tailed Godwit because it was in with quite a few Marbled Godwits. To make it even more difficult, before Avocet I had no experience with shorebirds. That was the day I saw 14 lifers. However, we weren’t just looking at shorebirds. One morning, we had the option to get up early to listen for migrating birds. When we started birding that morning, it was still dark and I was feeling like I wasn’t really awake. As it started to get lighter, and we could see what was going on a little better, someone called out, ‘owl!’  We all immediately looked at the pine trees where the owl had been spotted. No one could see it. Then one of the people who had called it out looked for it with a scope. That was when they realized that what they had thought was an owl was in reality a pinecone owl. We had been hearing an owl earlier so it was an easy mistake to make.

Not only was I with lots of birders my age, but I also got to meet Richard Crossley, the author of the Crossley identification guides, and Jonathon Alderfer, who does some of the drawings for the National Geographic field guides! We did some drawing with Mr. Alderfer and I realized just how much I enjoy drawing birds. I’m not able to do much feather detailing currently, but I am able to get the outline of the bird, and general markings. Bill Stuart, who was in charge of Camp Avocet, was absolutely amazing and so were the rest of the leaders. When I got back from camp, one of the first things I said to my parents was, ‘So, can I go to Camp Colorado next year?’

I also found Camp Avocet great because I just learned so much from so many amazing people. How many people have Jonathon Alderfer critique their drawings? How many get to play Frisbee with Mrs. Gordon, the First Lady of the ABA? Camp Avocet has helped me become a better birder all around, and I now can, sort of, find a Western Sandpiper in a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers just by looking at the length and shape of their bills. I would like to say a big thank you to the Northern Virginia Bird Club for helping me go to Camp Avocet, and I hope that the NVBC continues to support young birders in the future.” — Elizabeth Bevins