Oh How Lovely Was the Morning

 "On the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring" of 1820, a young Joseph Smith retired to the woods near his home in Palmyra, NY to pray. The result was a vision of God and Jesus that initiated his call as a prophet and eventually the formation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Recent analysis of weather patterns and other evidence suggest that that early spring day may have been March 26, Palm Sunday and the first day of the season when temperatures in the area rose into the 50s.

To mark the anniversary of this "First Vision" I headed over to the Sacred Grove at the Joseph Smith Farm and spent a few hours walking around in the cold, overcast, and snowy morning--not as clear or warm as the day in 1830. But still signs of spring were in the air, including over 20 bird species seen or heard in the grove (eBird checklist).

All in all a nice walk in the Sacred Grove, though not as remarkable as the experience of Joseph Smith. In his own words, because he couldn't decide which church to join:

"I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

Early morning sun in the Sacred Grove

Deer in the Sacred Grove

Pileated Woodpecker workings.

First Bird of 2025

OK, it isn't Groundhog Day, but here we go again. As was the case last year, my first bird this year was a Blue Jay. So lets try this again, and maybe have a better birding year than last year?

Backburner Birding--2024 Birding Recap

So this past year has been momentous. I took a new job at the Palmyra Temple in Palmyra, New York in January, we finally sold our house in DelCo in July, and we bought a house and moved to Mendon, NY in August (new yard list up to 75 bird species by end of the year). So new job, new house, new lots of stuff. But not a lot of new birds. Or many birds at all, as birding took the biggest back seat in my life since I took a couple years mostly off to serve an LDS mission in Ecuador from 1988-1990.

By the numbers, I only saw 213 bird species this year. Ouch!

I did not leave the U.S. this year, and logged birds in only 11 states--including 199 in New York. Shoot, I just saw that. If I had been paying attention, I would have worked harder this week to have made sure that total got to 200. That's what happens when you aren't paying attention in the back seat!

I did not see any new birds for my World list or my North American list this year--the first year I haven't seen a new bird since 1987. 

Most of my birding this year was just an hour here or there before or after work. The only real birding games I tried to keep up with this year were my daily attempts to get my 20 Bird Minimum Daily Requirement and to get an All Time New Day Bird (a bird I hadn't ever seen before on that calendar day). I will have to count, but I got one or both of those on most days, though there were plenty of misses--including today (Dec 31) when I got neither.

Since I saw so few birds, it is hard to even come up with a 2024 Top 10 birds list for the year. but here goes

1. Wood Stork--the only rare bird I found myself this year, an October surprise up on the shore of Lake Ontario in Rochester, NY. Fortunately it stuck around for several days, so many people got to see it.

2. Snowy Owl--I haven't seen any for a few years, so nice to see one again at Sodus Point this fall. Definitely worth a quick drive up one afternoon between work shifts.

3. King Eider--I hadn't seen one since chasing one on the Texas coast back in 1998, so more than time to have seen one. Took several attempts to see one that spent a few weeks at Sodus Point back in February.

4. American Woodcock--since these were always a bit of a challenge to find in DelCo, it was nice to have several displaying every night at the Sacred Grove next door to my work, so I saw them over 15 times in April and May on the evenings I got out of work early enough to catch their twilight sky dances. 

5. Barred Owl--Always fun to hear them, and I heard them 15 times this year at the Sacred Grove, and saw one twice. 

6. Rough-legged Hawk--This was one of my top jinx Delco county birds, having narrowly missed it a few times--finally was able to see one at the Philadelphia Airport back in January. This may well be my last new Delaware County, PA bird ever.

7. Swainson's Hawk--a bird I see most years when I am out visiting family in Utah, but this was one that someone found in Wayne Co. New York and I drove over to see one afternoon in May before work.

8. Purple Sandpiper--Another bird I hadn't seen in a number of years, good to finally see one again three times up at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario.

9. Bonaparte's Gull--Uncommon in Philadelphia, nice to live where you can see them all the time--if you drive to the right place on Lake Ontario.  I saw them 24 days this fall (as opposed to only 8 times in 2023), a reliable get when needed as a new All Time Day Bird.

10. Swamp Sparrow--Like the Bonaparte's Gull, a fairly reliable All Time Day Bird many times this year at the Sacred Grove when needed quickly on the way to work (99 observations this year, as opposed to 27 observations in 2023 when I was birding more frequently).

Aside from the birds, it was actually a spectacular year for watching the sky.  I got to see my second full solar eclipse, my best views yet of the northern lights, and the great comet show this fall. So looking forward to what heavenly visions 2025 will bring--birdwise, astronomically, and otherwise!

Comet through my spotting scope

    

Aurora from my backyard in NY

Moon and Venus in fall NY sunset

Year of the Blue Jay/Tiyas/Di'di

My first bird of 2024 this morning was a Blue Jay I heard from inside before I even left the house. So 2024 will be the Year of the Blue Jay for me.

Enjoyed a couple hours of quick birding in the morning, managing 50 species including Mute Swan (new for my all time Jan 1 list) and lingering Red-necked Grebe and Common Loon in the impoundment at John Heinz NWR in Philly.

This is going to be a year of big changes. I will take the Lenape name for Blue Jay (Tiyas) with me as I move up to the land of the Seneca (where it is apparently called the Dí´di) to take a new job later this week.

Ask and Ye Shall Recieve

 A couple years ago I posted this on the eBird discussion group in Facebook--

Very happy that this year eBird overhauled their database so that we can report these exotic birds, track them in the database, but not have them show up in our birding totals for listing purposes. Great job eBird. 

So these Chukars from behind the Philly airport in 2020 are now officially in eBird--but they don't add to my county totals. Love it!

Chukars shown below my main Delaware County eBird list, listed with other exotics I've seen in the county, but not included on my main county list.

And Then There Were None

One of the things I love about birding is the window it provides onto the changing seasons, and the connection that fosters to the natural world. While we anxiously await the arrival of migratory breeding birds in the spring, you have to be paying even more attention to notice exactly when they disappear in the fall.

Wood Thrush (Source: Wikipedia)

I haven't heard a Wood Thrush in over a week, so this morning on my walk I stopped and listened and even tried some playback in my local park to see if any of the at least seven singing birds that had spent the summer there were still around. Nothing. Same with the local Red-eyed Vireos. While I will still find a few migrant thrushes this fall, especially if I get my NFC microphone up to record the nocturnal fall migration, the local birds have moved on.

July 2023 Road Trip

So this may be the road most travelled by for me, I-80 out to Utah and back. We've done this drive several times, and when we are in a hurry to get out West, this is our default drive--32 to 36 hours straight, depending on stops for food. We made a quick trip out for a family reunion in Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Not a lot of new birds for the year on the drive, and not much wildlife on the drive out, but the drive back was great, with a couple roadside Greater Sage Grouse in Wyoming and more Pronghorn than I've seen in a long time from Wyoming out halfway through Nebraska. 

Here's the eBird trip report, only 117 species, so again not a lot of new birds for the year, but nice to see some old friends, especially in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Note the gap in eBird checklists across Iowa--that's some major nighttime driving going on both ways there!  

6098 miles round trip, great scenery and time with family. Elk, Bighorn, Moose, Bison. No bears. A few birds. Good times.