Encounters with Black Blobs and Other Adventures

Hello again, my lovely readers. I recently returned from a long weekend with my family in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and I thought I'd write a bit about it. I'd never actually been to the Smokies before, despite having visited Tennessee yearly for almost my whole life and driving through Knoxville several times. Now, however, we live about 8 or 9 hours away and we thought we'd give it a shot.

Driving into Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on Thursday was a neat experience. Pigeon Forge, as it turns out, is pretty much the most redneck tourist attraction in the country, advertising everything from 'Hillbilly Golf' to 'souvenirs, sunglasses, and live sharks' (true story). In other words, it was awesome.
We had almost reached our cabin in Gatlinburg when what should run out in front of our car and scare us to death but a black bear! It was the first one any of us had seen in our lives, and it was enough to boost our excitement for the weekend to come.

On Friday, I woke up early and took advantage of the balcony attached to my bedroom. Upon opening the door, I was greeted by the songs of Eastern Phoebes, Song Sparrows, and Northern Cardinals. The air was chilly, but I stood outside and happily counted birds and admired the view for almost an hour.

A flock of Pine Siskins swooped into the thicket of trees just in front of the balcony, and though the morning light mostly masked their trademark yellow wingbars from view, their buzzy songs gave away their identities. It felt strange to me to see Pine Siskins in trees with leaves on them, and actually, it was strange. According to all the range maps I could find, Pine Siskins do not breed anywhere near the Smoky Mountains. But when I researched the matter further, I found that for a long time scientists suspected that siskins nested in the Smokies, and recently proof was found. However, the nest described in the article I linked to is in Clingman's Dome, which is at a much higher altitude than our cabin. Seeing a flock of around 15 siskins was unusual in that area, and I felt lucky to have that experience.

Here's my pathetic attempt at a photo of a Pine Siskin so you can look at it and feel better if you ever feel like a bad photographer.

After breakfast, we headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Since half of my family is under the age of ten, we had to find a trail that wasn't too strenuous. We settled on Laurel Falls Trail.
The trail wound for 1.3 miles through hardwood forest up the side of a mountain to a beautiful waterfall at the top. Warblers songs floated from the edges of the trail, and I identified Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Louisiana Waterthrush. I was pretty excited about the waterthrush, as that species had been a nemesis bird of mine for quite some time and it felt so good to check it off my life list.

When we reached the falls, the rushing water drowned out all birdsong except for one loud, sweet warbling call--the song of the...I had no idea. Some kind of warbler. I stood on the edge of the trail with my toes practically hanging over the side of the mountain straining my eyes for a glimpse of the bird, but no luck. Not knowing was killing me, but we had to go back to the parking lot as my little brothers were getting tired of walking. After we got home, I took advantage of the Cornell Lab's All About Birds website and discovered that the mystery bird was a Swainson's Warbler (lifer #2 for the trip). No wonder it wouldn't show itself!

Laurel Falls

My twelve-year-old brother was quite insistent that we visit Cades Cove to look for deer and the possible bear, so that's where we went next. The road that we drove on was surprisingly rife with cars, and the occasional traffic jam occurred. We quickly found out that where there was a traffic jam and/or a crowd of people with cameras, there was some kind of animal.

Twice it was a bear--or maybe just a blob of black fur half-hidden by branches and the cameras of eager tourists. It was hard to tell.

Another sample from my repertoire of photographic fails.

Apparently, American black bears are much more common in GSM National Park than they used to be. My parents would visit the park often during college, and they never once saw a bear. But 20 years later, we saw 3 bears in 2 days. The Park staff estimates that there are now about 2 bears per square mile.
Much more often than bears, deer were the ones causing the traffic jams. They were all your typical white-tailed deer, but they were considerably less afraid of humans than usual and there were mountains in the background. These factors, of course, made taking a picture a necessity. Thus, traffic jams ensued.

A White-tailed Deer buck.

Sadly, much of the fun ended there. Most of my family members woke up sick on Saturday morning and so we weren't able to do any more hiking. But that didn't stop us from driving up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.
Clingman's Dome, because it's so high, has an ecosystem very similar to that of the northern boreal forest. The drive from the foot of the mountain to Clingman's Dome has been compared to 'a drive from Georgia to Maine'. The altitude is the reason that the Smokies are the southernmost breeding grounds for many northern species of birds like Black-capped Chickadee, Common Raven, Northern Saw-whet Owl, and Pine Siskin.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to see any of these birds. But I did get to admire the ecological anomaly that is Clingman's Dome. And I took pictures!

On Sunday none of my family felt like doing more than sitting around and blowing their noses. So we stayed at our cabin and watched Marvel movies.
Monday was our drive home. We made pretty good time for a bunch of half-awake sick people. 
And now we're at home trying to get better and waiting for summer. I hope to 'see' you guys again soon! Thanks for reading.

--Katie

New Place, New Experiences, New Birds

We just got back from vacation in coastal Alabama! We went with our grandparents, uncle, aunt, and two cousins. The reason we went was to celebrate our grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. We stayed at Fort Morgan Island, a barrier island off of Mobile Bay. We'd never been there before, and all of us but my dad and older brother hadn't been to the beach for about five years. That meant lots of fun, new experiences, and, of course, new birds.
I've always loved Alabama, but I had only been to the northern part of the state before. Southern Alabama is completely different. Firstly, it's way flatter. No mountains there. Not even hills. Secondly, the people talk different. It's still a southern accent, but different somehow. And thirdly, some of the birds are way different as well. It has most of the birds of north Alabama, but also the special birds of the Gulf Coast. So yeah, southern Alabama is awesome.
But just how awesome? Our first peek at that was as we were driving over Mobile Bay. From the bridge you could see the battleship U.S.S. Alabama, which was retired and turned into a museum. My brothers thought it was great, and so did I, but my attention was slightly diverted by pelicans, gulls, egrets everywhere! I was not ready for the Gulf's birdiness (which is a real word, I assure you).

We arrived on Friday, August 31st, but it was too late to do anything but unpack and go to bed at our rental house. On Saturday, we went to the beach bright and early. The sun was shining, the water was just right, and there were shells just waiting to be collected and birds just waiting to be found. I wasted no time kicking off my flip-flops, grabbing my binoculars and camera, and setting off down the beach. I had forgotten to change into my swimsuit, so I couldn't go in the water, but that was all right. I immediately spotted some Sanderlings, which to some are considered too common to be interesting. But you forget, I hadn't been to the beach in five years, so to me, they were a real treat. So were the Laughing Gulls, which believe it or not, was a lifer for me.

Sanderling among seaweed.

Out to sea a little ways, I saw brown pelicans and some terns I identified as both Royal and Common (both of which were lifers!).
I decided to take some notes on the Sanderlings, and followed them a little ways to where I was rewarded with yet another lifer--a Willet! It was very cooperative and did not seem to mind the ecstatic clicking of my camera. 

My lifer Willet.

While I'm on the subject of Willet, I will say this. Isn't it funny how sometimes the AOU code for some species are actual names? Like Willet is WILL. Dickcissel is DICK. And Hudsonian Godwit is HUGO. Yeah, I know, that was completely random.

So anyway, we came back to the beach on Sunday and I did something I've always wanted to do--I birded in my swimsuit! No lifers then, though.
Also on Sunday, we went to the famed Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Gulf Shores, AL. We went around midday, so that combined with all the sound we were making meant we didn't see that many birds. We saw Prothonotary Warbler(!), Great Blue Heron, and Royal Tern, among others. We also saw two dead snakes, one of which may have been a copperhead (we couldn't tell--it didn't have a head).

The boardwalk at Bon Secour NWR.

Bon Secour NWR is part of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail, and covers over 4,000 acres of maritime forest, beaches, swamps, and dunes. It is home to the endangered Alabama Beach Mouse, and is a nesting site for loggerhead and Kemp's ridley sea turtles. The Kemp's ridley is critically endangered, and is only known to nest on the Gulf Coast.

Speaking of endangered animals, I found evidence while at the beach that the BP oil spill is not completely gone. I noticed some black stuff in the tide and asked what it was. My uncle, who had been there before, told me it was the remnants of oil.

Oil in the tide.

Sunday night we took a walk on the beach at night. Wow, it was beautiful. We arrived at sunset, and only when I saw the amazing photo opportunity did I realize I had forgotten the camera. But fortunately, when there's good light, it doesn't matter what camera you use. I used my dad's iPhone. I don't have the photo uploaded yet, but I'll try to get it up here soon.

We looked for ghost crabs and found a whole bucketload of them. The art of ghost crab catching is surprisingly difficult. The crabs are so fast you must be stealthy, quick, and have good eyesight.
Once we had caught about twenty, the scene inside the bucket began to look a little too much like a crab version of the Hunger Games, so we let them go.

Monday morning dawned bright, warm, and, as is so typical of southern Alabama, humid. We went to the fort for which Fort Morgan Island is named, which was used in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World Wars 1 and 2. It was huge, interesting, and altogether very cool.

On Tuesday we went home. I had only one regret: I had not seen an Anhinga, a bird I had always wanted to see. I was just thinking about this when out the car window, in a wooded swamp, I saw a large, majestic, heronlike bird with a long, thin neck; its black and white wings stretched out to dry. An Anhinga. It wasn't a great look, and only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to put a smile on my badly sunburned face and give me one last lifer before leaving the state I now love even more. Alabama. :-)