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CAMP REPORTS 2004

2004 Young Birders' Conference Report

26-30 June 2004

By Jessica Roberts

When I first heard about the conference, it sounded too good to be true. Practically every bird would be a lifer for me. There were top birders from all over the country who would be there, and finally I would have the chance to meet other young birders about my age, who share the same passion as I do. So, by convincing Mom and Dad to let me go, and with a lot of help from the ABA, I was on the plane and headed for Bakersfield dreaming of the events that lay ahead. But little did I know, they were way beyond what I expected.

When I landed at the Bakersfield airport around noon, I had the chance to meet a lot of the young people (12-19 years old) attending the conference. I've never met a single young birder in my life before, so as you can imagine, meeting everyone there for the first time was the greatest thing ever to me. I spent most of the time there talking and getting to know some of the people. Everyone came from different places scattered across the US from California to New Jersey, Florida to Oregon, and everywhere in between. It was awesome to hear about their birding adventures and what kinds of birds that they normally see. While I was at the airport, I even got to meet some of the birding gods like Michael 0'Brien, Jon Dunn, Steve Howell, and Louise Zemaitis.

After a while, we headed back to the motel for Steve Howell's workshop on hummingbird ID. He covered the more common hummingbirds in that area like Anna's, Costa's, Black-chinned, etc. He also talked about some of the rare hummers from Mexico and the southernmost states, along with the eastern Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He talked about each species and broke them down into Female, Male, etc. and described the best field marks for identifying them. A lot of the field marks that he pointed out I never would have looked for otherwise, so I was really glad he talked about them.

When the shadows grew long and it started to get dark, we took a trip to the Kern River Valley to do some owling. The main goal was to find Barn and Western Screech Owls. We drove to a place that they have seen the Barn Owls before, though I don't really remember where exactly it was. We didn't have to wait very long though to see one. They flew all around us, putting on quite a show. What struck me the most about them is how white they look. It's like watching a ghost floating around in the sky! When they perched, it seemed like you could see every feather. We heard their harsh cry from almost every tree in the area. It was a spectacular experience to see and hear them-one of the highlights of the whole trip.

We headed out early the next morning-too early. I felt like sleeping in forever I was so tired, but I didn't want to miss a single second of birding, especially in the Kern River Valley, which was our destination for the day. When we got there, we turned on a dirt road with open fields on one side, and forest on the other side. The forest mainly consisted of cottonwood and willows, and looked so healthy and green. In the fields, I would catch glimpses of Blue Grosbeaks and Lark Buntings flying by. There was no shortage of those birds here, that's for sure. When we stopped and hiked around, we found tons of other birds like House Wrens, Orioles, Lesser Goldfinches, Summer Tanagers, an Indigo cross Lazuli Bunting, and even a Brown-crested Flycatcher. When it started to get pretty hot, we walked along a trail in the middle of one of the fields and found perfect views of Western Bluebirds popping up and down in the grass. We hoped to find Savannah Sparrows in here, but with no luck, we went on. We stopped at a place with lots of hummingbird feeders to have lunch. During this time, we had the chance to put the skills we learned from the hummingbird workshop to the test. Here we also found the rare form of Willow Flycatcher and where John Schmitt did a presentation on feathers. Even though some of the stuff that he talked about was over my head, it was unbelievable how much he knew about each feather and how he could identify what bird a certain feather came from. I only had one thing to say after his talk and that was "Wow".

Of course, we couldn't stay forever, so we went back. Louise's workshop was up next, and I was really excited for it. It was about taking, field notes-something that I've always wanted to do, just not sure exactly how. When it started, she explained that you don't need to be an artist to take good notes, and went over what you need to look for when you do like structure, size, behavior, etc. After that, she showed us some pictures of different birds and we had to draw them. Then, all of the leaders would come around the room and tell you how you could improve it. I learned so much about this that it turned out to be one of my favorite workshops.

We went owling again that night, hoping to see/hear Flammulated, Spotted, and Northern Saw-whet-basically all of the more difficult owls to find in that area. We searched in the Giant Sequoia National Forest when it was almost completely dark. All we heard was a Flammulated Owl off in the distance. We tried to go find it, but with no luck, we headed back to the motel. I wanted to get a good look of the huge Sequoia trees, but all I could see was a dark outline in the silver moonlight. Oh well, I thought. Tomorrow we would be exploring the same area, so there would be great looks at them the next morning. But for now, I was way too tired to even walk, so I crashed in bed and was dead asleep faster than a blink of an eye.

We took off really early again the next day. The drive up to the first location we went to was absolutely beautiful. There were some shrubs and ferns littered here and there among the forest floor, followed by large and dense healthy pine trees. Scattered every once and while among them were enormous pines, all of them who would make the average tree look really puny. The forest looked so rich and full of color, it was unbelievable. It looked like one of the pictures you would get on postcards it was so perfect. The birds that we found there were amazing. Some of them included Fox Sparrows, White-headed Woodpeckers, Western Tanagers, Hermit Warblers, Mountain Quail, and Red-breasted Sapsucker. All of the birds that we saw we had great views of. Take for example the Hermit warbler. It was right where we had lunch at and really up close too. The Mountain Quail that we saw ran right out in the middle of the road, and you can't forget the sapsucker. It flew right beside us in a group of willows, close enough to see every detail-even with the naked eye. The colors were so amazing. It had a blazing red head with some of the color going down about to the breast where it faded into a lighter yellow. The wing was almost completely black with a striking white line down it. The look that we had of it couldn't possibly be any better. Even though it was a somewhat of a common bird up there, it ranked in my mind as the best bird that I saw on that trip. Shortly after that, we stopped even farther up on a trail that led to one of the Giant Redwood trees. When we arrived at the spot, I couldn't believe my eyes.

There, right in front us was one of the worlds largest trees-as tall as a sky scraper, and wider than our truck. You could even walk inside of it and have plenty of room. It was unbelievable. You couldn't even see the top of it, and it took a bit just to walk all of the way around, it was so huge! I'm still amazed of the incredible size of that Redwood tree.

When we got back to the motel, we were off to a fabulous dinner at That's Italian, then back for Jon Dunn's workshop on the Sierra Nevada. He talked the geology of the Kern River Valley and what makes it such a great place to bird. There is so much habitat in a small area from the Redwoods to the Kern River to the deserts, which is one of the reasons why so many birds call it home. He also talked about geographical variations in birds as well. This was a way cool workshop because I had the chance to learn not only about the birds, but simply the area that we were in and I got to appreciate it a lot more.

At 4:45, we were off on another trip to the Giant Sequoia National Forest, this time exploring the east side. The difference I found between the two was that the west side was a bit more wetter than the east. Birds there included a lot of what we found the previous day, and also lots of different birds like Grace's Warbler, Blue Grouse, Pinion Jays, and even Cooper's Hawk and Williamson's Sapsucker nest sites. The Grace's Warbler we found singing in the top of a pine tree, providing excellent looks. There we also saw the Cooper's Hawk, its nest, and even the babies. The babies were so cute! Basically, they just looked like a big white fluffy ball of feathers. The parent paid frequent visits to the nest, often flying right over us. It was so exciting to see them so close. They looked so powerful and graceful that it was amazing. When we left, we hiked a trail where the last group saw a Blue Grouse. Everyone there was intensely scanning the trees until someone finally called it out. It was at the very top of an evergreen tree. Through the scopes, you could see it really well. Everyone took loads of pictures, and we headed to the finale stop which was at the Williamson's Sapsucker nest. We first saw the male feeding the young, then the female came to feed them as well. She flew off another direction and shortly afterward, another Williamson's Sapsucker female flew in, this time, from a completely different direction. We came to the conclusion that there were two females there at the same nest. We observed this behavior for a while. Nobody there had seen such a thing before, so we were all really surprised.

We headed back to the motel for the finale workshop with Michael O'Brien on shorebird identification. He talked about what to look for when you find a shorebird like primary projection, habitat, shape, and lots of other things. He also touched some on molt. It was a little confusing, but I was thankful that he did a workshop on that topic, because when it comes to shorebirds, I'm basically clueless.

The next day I got to sleep in a little longer, because it was the day that we left for the airport. I was sad that the conference had to end, and I wish that it could just go on forever. I went around that day trying to get people's pictures and phone numbers. As we departed for the airport, I said goodbye to some of the people there, and promised to keep in touch. While I was waiting for my flight at the airport, I talked with Steve, Niko, and Mark. The time came too soon to where I would have to leave for Riverton. I said a final good-bye to everyone and hopped on the plane. I had the time of my life at that conference, and hope I can someday go there again.

August 2004

These young birders attended the camps/events they report on with the help of ABA scholarships.