It is the final countdown and I can honestly say I am ready to get this over with. We are squeezing in a final dog show this weekend up north. Linda is trying her hardest to get the boys qualified for next year’s CPE agility nationals – actually delayed the surgery to get these last two weeks of shows in. Raven is as steady as always and Ruger is trying to make up for last weekend’s rather hmmm…scatterbrained performance. When he is on, he is ON, when he is off…good thing he is so damn cute ha. Ron and I were also able to get one last field outing in yesterday to close out the mid-year cycle. We are in the dog days of birding and pretty slim pickings at the cross section of the birds I still need and the winged ones that are braving the Midwest heat. Managed to notch a new +1 for the year bringing the Average Year total to a shocking 390! It has been a difficult road since that fateful day on Oct 12th (5:26am to be exact) and at this point, the ankle has clearly given all it had left (struggling to hold weight today). The real hardship is knowing that this is one of the big ultra race weekends of the year and I miss suffering with my peeps in the heat and hills out on the trail.
Today will be my last post as Brad will take the helm likely through the rest of this month and maybe beyond depending on how things go. Thought I would go with a final featured feathered friend that has also brought its share of frustrations over the years.
The fact you can tell that is a bird is in large part due to absolute luck. Hit the jump to learn more about a bird sure to bring a chuckle to all high school boys.
There is always one mainstay on the hunt agenda whenever we find ourselves in Las Vegas. I place that bird on the task list with a significant amount of trepidation as it means double the work. First task is to find it in the field – this is difficult for sure, but pales in effort compared to the second task of trying to get something in the tin. The digital darkroom floor is full of abstract mosaics depicting the finest fingerpaint abstracts from the local kindergarten pre-nap craft hour.
The Bushtit may look like a clumsy ping-pong ball with a tail (visual courtesy of Cornell), but in reality it is a super-charged, Pixie-Stik guzzling, paparazzi hating and master of concealment member of the Aegithalidae family. Translated – an absolutely nightmare for long glass carrying members of the birding community. You might hear their quiet notes, you might even spot them as they dash between low scrub and nearby trees in small flocks and you just might consider hurling your camera at them in absolute frustration. Note, Linda will usually have the B&H website up whenever I come back from a Bushtit encounter expecting the worst.
Over the last four years I’ve managed to get cards full of beaks and/or tails jutting out from branches and sprigs. This (short) series comes to you from January 2024 which FINALLY netted a few shots in the middle of panic bursts showing a decent profile of the bird – yep, ping-pong ball. Par for course, this year’s check came courtesy of our first visit to Sedona, AZ, managing to capture a single craptastic shot of one blasting through nearby bushes out on the SugarLoaf Trail. Linda gave me the visual assist on that one allowing for the cross off. Needless to say, you are never going to see that shot eva, eva, eva hehehe.
There are three specific locations I look for the Bushtit around Vegas. The first place is the Clark County Wetlands. There is a set of dense bushes on the side of the trail cutting through the middle of the wetlands. These birds do not really have a song, rather a collection of higher pitched chirps that is some form of “I am Groot” language to let the flock keep tabs on each other – they probably can’t see each other either! Basically, I just listen for those calls coming from the target bushes and then prepare for a battle royal to get the barrel on any feathers that break through the leaf plane. Apologies for any visitors that happen upon us because I’m usually emitting quite the tapestry of colorful words.
Another good place to find this elusive bird is at Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, we rarely see them at the easily accessible Corn Creek Fieldstation that sits near the entrance of the refuge. They tend to hang out in the desert scrub along the road that continues past the station and up towards the mountains. Caution, the warning sign proclaiming only high clearance vehicles on that road is absolutely accurate. Check the nearby shrub for small flocks of ping pong balls fluttering about while your tire tread is ripping through rock marbles – Jeeps Rule!
Lastly, there is Lake Mead National Recreational Area – particularly the 33 Hole Overlook. In my opinion, this is the best opportunity to see them and hopefully get something in the tin. This comes with a price to be paid in sweat as you need to make your way down to the water. This year I made it down there on a broken ankle, so no “but, but, but Bri’s” out of y’all. The flats at the waterline are filled with scrub sure to attract their share of these tiny hyper birds. Again, keep the ears open for the chirps and the eyes open for a smallish flock moving between the greenery. Best part, there are not a lot of other people down there so let your full sailor verbal assault sail.
How about some interesting tidbits about this rather drabby year long resident of the southwest – apologies to the females who do have a bit of flair. You might have noticed that in 4 of the 5 shots in this series, the eye coloring is quite stunning. That light ring in the eye signifies the female of this species. Males do not have that – see the third shot in this series. A slight shift of norms in most of the birding world as the male typically gets the extra snazzle to woo the ladies. They have deftly adopted the upside down hunting of the similarly sized Chickadees as they forage for tiny insects and spiders with their tiny rounded bills. One final intriguing aspect of the Bushtit is there are regional differences in their coloring. Those along the west coast are darker and have brown crowns, however, as you move away from the coasts, the overall coloring lightens and they adopt grey caps which contrast with brown cheeks. For those in Texas and down into Central America, you are likely going to see them sporting a blackish mask. Granted this could be all speculation as few get a good look at these damn birds!
Going to put a bow on it there. Hope you enjoyed this “brief” look at an extremely elusive bird. Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite spot to find Tits – the birds of course hehehe. Take care everyone and thanks for all the well wishes that have been coming in – it has been a big help getting me through this bump in the trail. I am looking forward to seeing what Brad has in store to keep you entertained while I am out.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Nice, we have similar creatures that do not wish to be photographed, so I don’t bother trying.
Anyhow, seeing as you are going to have your feet up (literally) I thought you would have plenty of time to bang out a few posts!
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We need to get shots in order to officially count them on our Average Year endeavors – thankfully those are confirmation shots only and just need enough in there to get the approval or I probably would rarely get the check. Every once in a while those reference shots come out better than expected like in this series. I was/am a bit worried about how functional I was/is going to be before the surgery. I ended up moving all my computer equipment and my haunt lab down to the main floor so I will have more access than originally planned. Problem right now is managing some later than expected onset of pain and since I don’t take heavy narcotics – read as just use Tylenol if I absolutely have to – it has been a bit annoying. Once that is under control, hopefully I can get caught up on my posts (big thanks to Brad for keeping everyone entertained in the meanwhile), comments, reading everyone else’s posts and attack that ever expanding photo backlog. Take care B. and thanks for dropping in!
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Nice photos of the bushtit. We sometimes get them here on Vancouver Island. They seem to always be in flocks of about 14 or so. Very cute little birds.
Take care of that ankle.
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Thank you Anneli! Curious, I did go back and check the range (after first confirming where Vancouver Island is – my geography admittedly sucks but remember calling that area “the notch” in school as our fairly straight boundary deviates there) – sure enough you are at the northern end of their year round range. 14 is similar to some of my experiences – jokingly, it could have been a 100 of them and I still would have trouble getting one of them in the tin ha! Linda is making sure I do everything the doctor has prescribed and her threats of not cooking for me if I misbehave is so far keeping me on the straight and narrow hehehe. Appreciate you stopping by and apologies for the late response.
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Funny how 14 seems to be their number (or close to it). I love your photos, and it’s always good to exchange info about our birds.
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Appreciate the kind words Anneli and yes, we all learn from each other in the birding world!
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I love your descriptions ‘ping pong balls with tails’ who hate being photographed…
I also observe that some birds seem to radiate a vibe of ‘do not look at me, no photos (and no autographs)’ and respect their wishes too.
Once again, please take care, and all best to your dear ones too.
Warm wishes from Japan,
Takami
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Glad you enjoyed the descriptions Takami – not sure the ABA would approve of all my bird description – but I find them more helpful than some of the ones I’ve read in their reference books ha! You are absolutely right on some of the shy birds out there – we have plenty of them and I sure the same holds over there across the pond. Appreciate the well wishes and doing my best to take care of myself post surgery – as Linda (and Brad/Jan) would tell you, I am not the best patient when it comes to not being allowed to be as active as I usually am. Thank you for coming by and have yourself a great week!
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Nice bushtits. I remember that line from “Revenge of the Nerds.” What would they say these days with so many females removing all their hair down there?
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You win the Internet Tim – we may be dating ourselves, but you nailed the reference. Your comment made me realize that line may not resonate as much as it used to – can certainly do with less low orbit razor commercials – that and all over body deodorant is about the only commercials I see these days and the constant breaks for commercials on YouTube is close to doing in that platform for me. Thanks for dropping in Tim and apologies for the late response.
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Download DuckDuckGo browser. It has a DuckDuckGo player that plays 90% of YouTube videos, with no commercials. Sometimes, the player can’t play a restricted video, but that is rare. I never have to deal with commercials on YouTube with DuckDuckGo. Also, DDG doesn’t track you.
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Hmmm, actually I do use the DDG browser .. or maybe just the DDG browser plug-in to Firefox. I’ve seen the DDG player pop up on my phone when I go to watch a YouTube video, will have to dig deeper into that, thnx.
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If you are using the plugin in Firofox that’s the search engine. You need to download and install the browser. I’ve been using DDG search for years and the browser for a couple of years.
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I’ll look into the full browser option – at the time I looked into it, it was just delivered by extensions and not their own product. Right now fighting a horrible problem with both Chrome and Firefox as neither will render my admin pages – just sits and spins. Cleared my caches, reset all my security, etc…nothing working so far.
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A sorry state of affairs. I think you would like the DDG browser.
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Nice pics, Brian. The silvery/grey foliage it is in is a nice compliment to the bird’s coloring. Ah, and the more the effort the greater the satisfaction, yes?
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Thank Jerry. I would like to more credit for the setting, but the honest truth is I had to take whatever they were offering – as you know, sometimes we get lucky ha! You are 100% correct, effort (with success) is directly proportional to level of satisfaction. These sub-par shots don’t reveal the size of the smile on my face when reviewing the tins afterward. Same in other fronts as I can say my last ultra was my worst performance stats for any race I have ever completed, but crossing that line was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve every done. Now I am paying for it dearly, but now we are spitting hairs hahaha. As always, appreciate you coming by and take care.
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😄 These little birds are a real mystery! Bushtit is like a tiny enigma, you can never quite catch it, yet it’s such a magnet for laughs.
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Absolutely – so tiny, so hyper and so adept at hiding – quite the enigma…all along bring a constant laugh to my inner high schooler ha! Thanks for coming by Myrelar and apologies for the overly delayed response.
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I agree with Jerry – the silvery-gray foliage is a perfect backdrop to these birds. You did a great job, getting any in focus – thanks for putting in the effort to bring us these cute little guys.
From the eBird maps, I’d have to travel west past San Antonio (an almost 4 hour drive) to have a chance of seeing one here in Texas, and then he would just be passing through.
Again, best wishes for healing!
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Thank you Sam – as I mentioned to Jerry, in the case of these Pixi Stik guzzlers they choose the background more than you ha, but yes, very pleased how well the composition came out this time (you should see all the crap pictures I’ve trashed over the years of these creatures). Unfortunately, you are correct, the are going to require a bit of work for you to attempt your own shots – they have a pretty odd region mapping according to Cornell – just that swath in the high country and then over by what looks to be the Big Bend area for Texas. If you go that far, you might as well keep going to Arizona/Vegas and make it a birding extravaganza! Appreciate the well wishes, going to need all I can get at this point, at least on the recovery side – just over a week into this no weight phase and going a bit bonkers – 5 more weeks is going to take more mental endurance than any race I’ve ever run, that is for sure. Take care and let me be the example for watching your step.
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Seems the Bushtit is nearly as spastic as any species of swallow. Nicely captured. I’m sure all of the twisting and gyration while holding the camera didn’t help your ankle any. Thanks for the heads-up on locations for this bird on the upcoming assignment Jan and I have in November. Heal quickly. Jan and I are just a phone call away for home support while you are convalescing. Or if Linda just wants to get you out of the house for a little while…
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At least with Swallows it is usually a rather clear sky you need track through to get one in the tin, these devious creatures use every bit of cover they can find near the ground – honestly, you know me to well, when I’m birding all injuries simply fade away and it becomes all about the hunt so likely didn’t even notice the petulant child of a joint. They will definitely be there when you get back to Vegas later this year. Appreciate the support from the two of you. Dealing with a few hiccups as of late, but will get that past me soon enough – you need to focus on the upcoming St. Jude run and keeping our lawyer department from Project Xing the headquarters. Luckily it is show weekend so she has had a well deserved break from me these last couple of days – when the cat is away, the mouse will play (shhhhhh).
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Maybe you’ve stumbled (pun intended) onto a new form of pain management: birding. However, right now, I think the ankle needs priority, if only for a couple of weeks. I realize that will mean megatons of pent up energy in the mean time. I feel sorry for the trails once you are healed enough to run again. Thanks for the St Jude well wishes, I think Jan is ready for the 465-mile journey. AT least the temps will be below 100F this year.
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Oh, there will be plenty of pent up energy when I get released – imagining a Menthos/Coke reaction the next time my Hokas touch dirt. Fingers crossed for happy feet, white cloud cover and cool temps on her epic journey – tell her I’ll be thinking of her (keep us updated).
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Will do on St. Jude updates. I’m also betting there may be a “meep meep” sound as you take off on the trails for the first time after healing a medically appropriate amount of time.
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I am definitely looking forward to getting dirt on the shoes again – I may have to crawl out (or drag the crutches with me) to a local trail and just sit on it to help subside the crazies. I became a lot more cautious after the elbow incident…guessing I am going to be a bit apprehensive for awhile and be overly cautious in those first runs at least – there is no glory for wimps, so at some point I have to throw caution to the wind again.
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I think Linda may need that tranquilizer gun after all. What’s its range again?
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Range won’t matter, I won’t be able to dodge the dart
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“Medically appropriate” – is that their units of measure or mine???
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I liked your first photo, Brian. They are so tiny and cute. Whenever I’ve seen them, they are in groups that almost roll along together through the landscape.
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Thank you SoyBend! That is the exact same behavior I’ve experienced in several encounters throughout the years – small groups chasing across the landscape – seem so carefree and cheerful, think I am jealous ha. Appreciate the drop in and take care.
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I enjoyed seeing them as we don’t have them here. Take care!
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Glad you enjoyed Belinda, always happy when I can bring some of the birding world a bit closer to you. Take care and have yourself a great week!
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Glad your patience finally paid off and you were rewarded with a number of crisp images of these cute and hyperactive birds (to me, they will always be “Christmas tree baubles for me,” as I saw my first ones during a Christmas Bird Count.
Best wishes for the upcoming surgery, Brian. I will cross all fingers and toes for you but I’m sure you will be in good hands.
Take care,
Tanja
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Thank you Tanja, appreciate the well wishes. Now past the surgery itself and that appears to have gone well – injury was a lot worse than expected when the doctor got in there – now on the long road to recover. All those good hands you reference are currently doing their best to hold me down and follow the no-weight phase of the treatment plan – so far they are winning…so far hehehe. Take care Tanja and thanks for the encouragement.
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I’m glad to hear that your surgery went well. Best wishes for your continued healing.
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Thank you Tanja, really appreciate all the well wishes. Going to be a long road until I get back on the dirt trails, but baby steps at this point and just happy I finally found a surgeon that understood the situation. If only that had been back in October when I was seeking help….
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It’s hard not to go back in time and say “what if,” but it’s not helpful for us. So let’s try to look ahead.
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Will do!
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I’m telling myself that all the time!
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