Egypt Birding

For the long weekend, my family traveled to Egypt.

I wanted to go birding, and hopefully get a good picture of a Pied Kingfisher.

On the first day we were there, Friday, I  explored the Pyramids at Giza with my parents and my younger sister. The next day, we all got up early to go birdwatching at Fayyum Oasis. We stopped along the way at a small canal leading to Quran Lake and the Fayyum Oasis. There was trash covering the ground, including hundreds of flip-flops and plastic bottles. As we continued along the path, I noticed a Pied Kingfisher on a Wire above the canal, occasionally swooping down into the water and quickly coming back up with a fish. There were also two boys on their donkeys with hay on the donkey’s backs heading to the market, with their dogs following behind.

We rode in the car for another hour and a half before eventually getting to the Oasis. When we arrived at Al Fayyum, a local man with traditional tea was waiting for us. My sister was getting restless in the car, so this was a perfect break. After we finished the tea, my mom and I walked down the beach close to the water. There were dozens of Ring-Billed Gulls in the water and in the air. Along with the Ring-Billed Gulls, several Little Ringed Plovers were in the sand, darting back and forth from the water. After about 45 minutes at Fayyum, we decided to head to the Saqqara Necropolis for a few more birds, including Crested Larks and Wheatears.

As we were about to arrive at the Saqqara Necropolis, I noticed at least five Black-Shouldered Kites on the telephone wires, which shows that many species have adapted to the human environment in Egypt. Perched on the statues near the pyramid were dozens of White-Crested and Desert Wheatears.

On our way back from Saqqara, we saw over a hundred Little Egrets in the trees about to go roost. There were also at least 20 Pied Kingfishers on the wires over a small canal that branches off the Nile River.

November 5th Jasmine Park Bird Walk

 It was an unusually windy and cool day in Ras Tanura when I arrived at Jasmine park to give a bird walk. My mom and I were fifteen minutes early, so I walked around the area I would be giving the bird walk. The first person that showed up was my mom's student. Several minutes later, my volleyball coach also showed up. We started the bird walk as my mom left to go and find her other colleagues from the elementary school who said they were coming as well. As she looked for them, I explained to Mr. Perkins (my volleyball coach) what some of the common birds in Ras Tanura are. There weren't many birds on that walk, but I know everyone learned a lot more than what they had first known before they came to the bird walk.

Global Big Day Bird Walks, October 8th, 2022

Surfside Golf Course, 6:30 A.M, October 8th, 2022

As soon as I looked outside my bedroom window at 6:00 A.M, I knew that very few people would show up at the golf course for the Guided Bird Walks I was leading. When I arrived at the golf course with my mom and dad, it was very foggy and only two other cars were there, with people that were golfing. As I got off of the golf cart, I spotted my teacher’s car pulling into the foggy parking lot. We waited for five more minutes, but nobody else showed up. We headed down the hill towards hole #18, while my dad stayed in the parking lot for a little longer to see if anyone else showed up. As we walked, I told my teacher about the different birds we might see, and what we might see if we’re lucky. We usually see a Spotted Flycatcher, a Common Kingfisher, a Eurasian Hoopoe and several House Crows.  As we walked towards the canals at the end of the golf course, we passed the area where the spotted flycatchers usually are, but there weren’t any. There were several crows and Mynas, and a Pigeon that was resting on a branch. As we neared one of the canals, I noticed a moorhen running along the cart path to the canal. There was also a kingfisher perched on a branch of a tree that hung way out over the water. As we continued along the canals, we startled a Gray Heron from the canal, who then proceeded to squawk at us. There was only another crow on the way back until we got to the duck pond. A Spotted Flycatcher was perched on one of the light poles, darting back and forth between the poles. The mosquitoes were buzzing over the pond, trying to avoid the fearsome flycatcher. As we left, we hoped that more people would show up at the tour at the Mangrove Eco Park.

Mangrove Eco Park, 10:00 A.M, October 8th, 2022

For our second Guided Bird Walk of the day, we drove to the Mangrove Eco Park, which was about 30 minutes away. We chose low tide, because the mudflats are exposed, where the crabs are, and the birds that eat the crabs. I assembled the camera, and then waited in the building while my mom and dad went out to the end of the boardwalk to scope out the scene. While I was waiting, I looked through some of the pictures I had taken over the summer. By the time my mom returned, five people had showed up for the bird walks. As soon as we stepped out of the building, I noticed a Gray Wagtail  in the mud cooling off in the shade. As I looked closer, I realized there were four other wagtails along with it, sticking together during their long migration from Europe. Once we had the scope and the camera set up at the end of the boardwalk, we started scanning for birds. The first birds we saw were herons out at the sandbar, past the mudflats and water. As we looked closer, we saw tiny stints running in the very shallow water, sifting through the sand. Way out in the water, past the sandbar, 22 Greater Flamingos were perched in the water, sifting through it for their favorite food, Brine Shrimp. There were also several swallows and Dunlins. It was a feeding frenzy in the water, and in the air as well! 

Once we had packed up the camera and the scope,   we slowly walked back towards the building, looking for Dunlins and Kentish Plovers hiding among the mangroves. There weren’t any other birds, however. As we were driving back down the road towards the freeway, I spotted a raptor gliding in the thermals, slowly making its way towards the edge of the mangroves, and the shore birds.

Scuba Diving in Key Largo, FL

We visited my cousins and Grandma in Venice, Florida for a week in August. For the first two days, my dad and I drove to Key Largo, and went scuba diving there on four dives. The drive was around 4 hours, so we left around 9:00 p.m. We stopped in Homestead, and stayed the rest of the night there. We then drove about an hour to Key Largo, and registered at the dive center. Near our hotel. We eventually found the harbor where the dive boat was waiting. There were already 20 other people on the boat, ready to dive. My dad and I got fitted for a BCD each, and then the regulators. Our tanks and weights were already on the boat, so we didn't have to carry those around. By the time we got to the first dive site, The City of Washington wreck on Elbow Reef, the waves had picked up a bit. We used the Giant Stride entry method, and then inflated our BCDs. We submerged quickly, and I had an easy time submerging, which was a relief. As I submerged, I realized how large the wreck of the City Of Washington was. Even though the ship was crumbling after a hundred years under-water, some of the areas such as the bridge were still at least partially intact. The frame of one of the hallways was made of several six-inch wide brackets, about six feet tall and curved, with four or five of them still standing. Hundreds of fish were circling the frames. As I swam across one of the plates from the hull, I saw a giant green head slowly opening and closing its mouth. I kept swimming for a few more seconds until I realized that it was a Green Moray Eel! I swam back slowly towards it and then alerted my dad and our guide, Hugh. By the time they reached me, only the Moray’s mouth was showing. We turned left slightly and continued towards the bow section of the boat. We circled back and noticed a large shape resting near the sand with its mouth open, exposing rows and rows of razor sharp teeth. As we got closer, I realized the fish was enormous, over six feet long. The size and shape of the fish revealed that it was a Giant Barracuda. A tiny fish kept darting in and out of the barracuda's mouth. That must have been a really brave fish, cleaning the teeth of the Barracuda and in turn getting a meal. We decided to leave the barracuda alone, and continue back towards the dive boat. We swam over a cannon that was uncovered after hurricane Irma, old and rusted and not on wheels, just the barrel. No one knows where it came from. As we continued swimming back towards the dive boat, Hugh suddenly motioned for us to stop, because in the distance, a dark shape was slowly swimming towards us. A Caribbean Reef Shark, Hugh explained after we surfaced. It seemed intrigued by my dad, then turned, as if to swim away, but circled back. Eventually, the shark was no longer interested in us and swam away. We didn’t see much on our second dive, except for a few parrotfish. Unfortunately, I couldn’t photograph any of the things we saw that day, because the platform to rent cameras wasn’t working. When we got back to Key Largo after diving, my dad and I went to a dive equipment store and bought a GoPro Hero10 Black, along with a waterproof case that would make it waterproof up to 300 feet. The pictures on my website are from my second day of diving, at the wreck of the M.V. Benwood and on French Reef, at the Donut Hole. The next day, as we packed up our things to check out of the hotel, my dad couldn’t find the GoPro as we were in the parking lot. Eventually, we found it, and sped towards the dive boat. We barely managed to get our equipment and board the boat before the boat left towards our first dive site, the wreck of the M.V. Benwood. The benwood was a Norwegian freighter that collided with another boat during WWII. The two boats had turned off their lights to avoid the U-Boats off the east coast. A tugboat towed the Benwood to deeper water so it would not be a threat to other boats. The Benwood is now a popular dive site. We submerged and swam towards the Benwood with few problems with my ears and equalizing. We slowly circled the wreck, which was teeming with fish. As we swam around the bow, our guide pointed out a giant crab hiding under a shelf of metal, protruding from the side of the ship. I couldn’t get a very clear picture, but you can see his claw in the picture on my website, in the Florida section. As we were finishing our safety stop, I spotted a turtle less than a foot from the surface. The turtle eventually spotted us, and abandoned the jellyfish it was chomping down on. I got several pictures, such as the one shown below.

Our final dive in Key Largo was on French Reef, at the Donut Hole. We got to swim under several rocks that formed natural arches, and beneath one of the bridges we saw several bass (shown below) slowly swimming in circles, relaxing. There were tiny tube worms coming in and out of the sand, but they were too quick for me to take a picture of them. There wasn’t much else on the dive, besides a few parrotfish. I really loved diving in Key Largo, and I can’t wait to go diving there again.

Washington Bumblebees 2022

During our stay in Washington in July, we signed up for a grid cell that included my grandpas’ houses. We had found out about the Bumblebee surveys from our friend Adriana Barsan. We had met her last summer in 2021 on Sauk Mountain while she was surveying butterflies with another group of volunteers. This summer, we had signed up for grid cell WA481. For our first survey, we headed to the Arlington Lavender Farm, because it would be easy to identify the plants, which was a requirement of the survey. The first time,we brought the nets, a few containers, and the cooler some ice packs. The owners of the farm agreed, so we tried to catch a few that day. My mom found a bumblebee first, but it flew out of the net as we tried to put it in one of the containers. The next time, we were ready with the containers. As I swooped down on it, I grabbed the top of the net so the bee couldn’t escape. I put the opening in the container, and waited until the insect was inside. As he crawled around the bottom of the container, I swiftly pulled the net away and my mom slid on the lid. Success! We had caught our first bumblebee. We set the container onto the ice packs, and waited fifteen minutes. We came back after no luck of catching anymore to discover that he still wasn’t cooled yet. Five minutes later, he was finally chilled. We set him onto the paper and took several pictures trying to identify him. As we were letting him go, I spotted another bumblebee a few feet away. I managed to catch that one and put him in the freezer. The first bee we caught turned out to be a Fernald cuckoo bumble bee. The second one was a Fuzzy Horned Bumble Bee, who looks similar but has a red band near its tail. The final Bumble Bee we caught that day was a Hunt’s Bumble Bee. It seemed harder than it should have been when we were identifying the bumble bees. The markings seemed unique, but when we looked at the list we had no idea. The next time we surveyed them, we were certain that a bag of ice would make it easier. However, it almost seemed harder to freeze them, probably because they were bigger. There were way more people than the last time, which was exciting because people kept asking us questions. There were lots more bumblebees than the first time, and they were bigger and mostly yellow. The first bee we caught was a Brown-Belted Bumblebee, and soon after we caught a Red-Belted Bumblebee. Very similar, just the color of the band around their abdomen is a different color. Another bee we caught was the Nevada Bumblebee, regular sized but just as hard to calm as the big ones. When we tried to take pictures of the bees, we realized that my camera was too big to take pictures of the tiny bumblebees. On our final encounter with bumblebees, I was mowing the lawn at my Grandpa Fred’s house when I saw one on the lavender at his house. I quickly shut off the mower and grabbed my net. Once he was trapped, he flew directly into my net. This time, we put him in the freezer since it was nearby. It only took five minutes instead of thirty. Again, my camera was too big, so we settled for the not as good quality i-phone pictures. This time, we identified this bumblebee as a High Country Bumblebee. This seemed like the best bet because the markings mostly matched on the app to the bumblebee we had captured. After he flew away, we packed away the containers for next summer. It was a fun and intense experience, and I hope to continue next summer. Thanks for reading my blogpost on Bumblebee Surveys! Pictures of the bees will be coming shortly, but for now please explore my U.S. Birds section at Pictures: Me at the Lavender farm with Bumble Bees

U.S. Birding 2022

For summer break, we headed to Washington State to see my grandparents. At the airport in Saudi, I realized that I had forgotten my camera back at the house! Luckily for us however, there was a one hour delay. My mom and I debated for what seemed like ages before agreeing to let me go back to RT to get the camera. Ras Tanura is 45 minutes away from the airport, so we had to hurry. We ran back upstairs and told my dad, who was hesitant at first. We hurried to the parking garage and hopped into the taxi. I rushed into the house and grabbed the camera. As I opened the closet door, something big, yellow, and furry banged into me. Blueberry had charged down the stairs from my room because he heard the door open. I almost wished he hadn’t come down so he wouldn’t have to see me leave again. We made pretty good time back to the airport. When we got back to the check in counter, we discovered that mom and sister had already checked in with all of our bags. “I can’t believe that they let you check in our bags without us!” Dad was surprised. “This is probably the only country where they’d let you do that.” Once we went through security, we had an easy time getting to Washington. My dad had a class about teaching and life skills online for the first week we were there, so one of the days, I went to Wiley Slough, a forest and marshland that was flooded to raise the salmon population. We walked a mile to the river but we didn’t see many birds. On our way back, we saw a few swallows and some Cedar waxwings, but they were high up in the trees. My sister and my mom walked ahead of me because I was looking for little songbirds in the bushes. When I was almost at the parking lot, I saw a Cedar Waxwing on the ground with something in its beak. As I got closer, I realized that it was a dragonfly. I got some very cool shots, including the picture of Bombycilla Cedrorum, the Cedar Waxwing that is pictured below.

I also had another encounter with some Cedar Waxwings at Goat Lake, a five mile hike from the outskirts of Granite Falls. There was a very short cutoff trail down to a bunch of logs spread out in a corner of the lake. There were at least 20 waxwings and several robins flying around for mosquitoes. I didn’t have my camera with me because it would have been too heavy to lug all the way up the mountain. We didn’t encounter many birds besides the waxwings on that hike. Our next birding experience was in Florida at the South Jetty on Venice Beach. On our final of seven days in florida, we headed to the South Jetty to get one final bird experience before Cape Cod We were walking towards the end of the pier, dodging all the fishing poles, when I nearly tripped over a Snowy Egret eating a bait fish a fisherman had dropped. There were at least 20 egrets on the pier, and all of them were stalking a fisherman who had just caught a bunch of fish in his net. There were also several pelicans, including two perched on a pole with a speed limit for the boaters. The pelicans flew up, and then dove into the canal, and then surfaced with a full pouch.

In Cape Cod, we visited our friends Greg and Lois Cronin, who have several feeders and bird boxes in their yard. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds had nested in their yard two times already this year, and there were more nestlings in a third box. Greg let us peek inside the nest. The chicks were very fuzzy covered in their downy feathers, and it was probably cold for them so they were nearly on top of each other. After we saw the bluebirds, we saw a juvenile from a clutch earlier this year possibly feeding his younger siblings. An osprey also flew overhead towards the lake, but it was at the wrong angle of the sun for a good shot. There were also several orioles at the orange feeder, and at least one breeding pair earlier this year. There was also a female Ruby Throated-Hummingbird at the hummingbird feeder. When we move back to the U.S, I want our yard to look just like the Cronin's yard. Pictures, Top to bottom: Female Bluebird feeding nestlings Juvenile Bluebird with mealworm Osprey on the wing Female Baltimore Oriole Male Baltimore Oriole

Thank you for reading my blogpost!

Maldives 2022 Blog Post

For 10 days of Spring Break, we traveled to the Maldives where my dad and I would get our PADI Open Water Diver Certificate. We first flew from Dammam to Dubai, a quick one-hour flight. After a simple layover in Dubai, we took a four-hour flight to Malé, the Capital of the Maldives. The Malé airport is really small, and it was confusing to navigate. Once we were greeted by a representative of The Mövenpick, the resort we were staying at, we stayed in the VIP lounge for about an hour, waiting for our float plane ride to Kuredhivaru, the Island in the Noonu Atoll we were staying at. When our float plane arrived, I was eager to sit in the front so I could look at the controls because I want to be a pilot some day. When the plane was taking off, I freaked out because the plane was shaking like it would fall apart. It was about a 45-minute ride, and I just looked out the window and tried to memorize some of the controls in the cockpit. The landing was less scary, and I noticed what the pilots did on landing, taking in the controls and how they maneuvered the plane. When we got off the plane, we were greeted by our “Island host” Youcef, who kindly showed us around the resort on a buggy, and told us about the restaurants and what was included. When we got to our villa, not over water but on land, there was really nice furniture and it was spacious and luxurious. We had our own mini infinity pool and a walkway down to the beach. The view was incredible, we were able to see several other islands and the water color was turquoise, just like in an island paradise. Later, we visited the Dive Center where we met Alex, our Dive instructor. On our second full day there, we visited the dive shop again and Alex showed us all of the gear and reminded us on how to use it. We already learned from the E-Learning phase. For our first Open Water Dive, we did a DSD, or Discover Scuba Diving in front of the Dive Center. I wanted to see a turtle, and on my first ever dive I did! (More on my luck later.) After the dive, Alex showed us how to disassemble our equipment and clean it. Later, after we ate we went snorkeling some more, and we saw a Blue-Fin Jack which is shown below, a large Blacktip Reef Shark and some parrotfish.

The next morning, we met Alex at the Reception. There Alex briefed us on the dive, it would be our first of five training dives. We combined some of the skills from the other training dives into this dive, such as regulator recovery and clearing, partial and full mask clearing, neutral buoyancy, and the Alternate Air Source Ascent. Before we entered the water, Alex taught us the acronym for the safety check. Blue Whales Are Really Fat. Blue stands for BCD, so check if the dumps and the inflator/deflator works. Whales stand for weights, so make sure your weights are tight and correctly positioned. Are stands for air, so smell your air and check both purge buttons, on your regulator and on your octopus. Make sure that when you breathe through your regulator, the needle on the SPG does not move, if it does that means your tank isn’t opened all the way. Really stands for releases, which includes the release on your tank. Have a buddy help you make sure it is secure by trying to move it around in its strap. Fat stands for final, which is fins, mask, snorkel, dive computer, and compass. When you are about to descend, the acronym is SORTED, which stands for signal, orientation, regulator is in your mouth, time, elevate, descend. After we descended, we started practicing the skills Alex briefed us on. Pictured below is a Dash-and-Dot Goatfish.

For the regulator recovery, the regulator is the piece we breathe from. For this skill, it would be used for example if your regulator fell out of your mouth if you see something amazing and accidentally open your mouth. The regulator recovery skill is quite simple. Bring your right arm all the way back staying close to your side, and then bring your arm in a wide sweep back around to the front of your body. Make sure to make little bubbles the entire time the regulator is out of your mouth, in case you rise a bit and the air in your lungs expands, which could cause paralysis and death. The other part of the skill is regulator clearing, like if your regulator is plugged or right after a regulator recovery there is water in it. Simply press the purge button, the button on the front of the regulator, or just blow through the regulator. Another skill is partial and full mask clearing, if your mask is foggy or full of water. Simply tilt your head upwards, and blow through your nose while lifting the bottom of the mask a tiny bit and pressing the top of your mask. For full mask clearing, do the same. You may have to clear the mask several times before all of the water is out. If your mask is foggy, just lift the bottom of your mask and let some water in. Then move your head around so the water goes throughout your mask. Then just clear the mask. Remember, you will always have a little bit of water at the bottom of your mask. For neutral buoyancy, try to find a flat and sandy bottom if you can. Empty your BCD, and let yourself sink to the bottom. Slowly breathe in, and out. When you breathe in, and barely move up, inflate your BCD a little. Keep repeating this until you rise fully when you breathe in, and then drop back down when you breathe out. As soon as you reach your planned depth, immediately establish neutral buoyancy. Neutral buoyancy could help you rise over a big rock or coral, and just breathe in and glide over it. The last skill is the Alternate Air Source Ascent. In case you or your buddy runs out of air, your buddy would share their air with you by giving you their octopus. First you signal out of air to your buddy, and then signal share air. Once your buddy gives you their octopus, form a “Roman Handshake” by gripping their right forearm with your right hand. Then slowly ascend using STELLA, the acronym for signal, time, elevate, look, listen, and ascend. Later that day after lunch, we met Alex at the Dive Center. Once we got on the Dive Boat “Aroma,” Alex briefed us on the island we would be diving at, called Dheefuram. Once we got to Dheefuram, we put on our gear and fins, and then used the giant stride entry technique. Just hold your weight belt with your left hand, and hold your mask and regulator on your face with your right hand. Look straight ahead and take a long step and let yourself fall into the water. Once we descended, we instantly saw hundreds of fish. We were swimming along and then I saw this really cool fish in the coral, called a Regal Angelfish, which is pictured below. As we were reaching our max depth, Alex banged on our tanks and pointed above us, a Spotted-Eagle Ray was gliding over us. I have a stuffed Spotted-Eagle Ray named Spotty, and so I was very excited to see the Eagle Ray. When we swam along the reef wall, we saw some clownfish, and one kept swimming right in front of my mask, and then when I breathed out of my regulator, bubbles came out and the clownfish darted back into its anemone. When we surfaced, we practiced SMB inflation, where we inflate the Signal Marker Buoy with our Octopus. When we got back to the Dive Center, we disassembled our equipment and washed it. Then we planned when and where our next dive would be, and then went snorkeling.

The next morning, we again met Alex at the Reception, and then he briefed us at the Welcome Jetty, where the float planes land. We assembled our equipment, and then entered the water using the seated entry method. We practiced a few more skills and reviewed some, such as the tired diver tow, where you grab the diver by the nozzle of the tank and bring the diver next to you and kick. This is used on the surface only. The next day, we rode on the Aroma to our next dive site, Uthuru Maa Haa. Uthuru maa haa is an underwater island that is rising, not sinking. The current was very strong, and we had to submerge immediately. We had to hang onto a rope the Aroma threw down and had to grip as tight as possible or be sucked away from the boat as it sped back to Uthuru Maa Haa. Once we got to the dive site, we had to submerge immediately, but my ear kept squeezing and I couldn't equalize. Alex just kept pulling me down, and suddenly it stopped hurting. After we reached the max depth, we started swimming around. I was swimming and suddenly I stopped. There was a Giant Moray Eel hiding among the coral, and It was huge! It’s head was larger than mine, and it was at least 4-5 ft long, and we didn’t see most of it because it was hiding in the coral. We also saw a lion fish really close to us with its spines out, which was pretty cool. First Alex had me swim with my compass in a certain direction, and then again back to the starting point. After I succeeded, it was my dad’s turn. He made it all the way to the turning point, and then used his arm to turn around again, which you are not allowed to do. We continued swimming, and then did our safety stop, 3 minutes at 5 meters. After we surfaced, we inflated the SMB and soon the Aroma came chugging over to us. Once we boarded the aroma, Alex told Dad why he failed the compass activity. To me, Alex said “ congratulations, you are now a certified Open Water Scuba Diver.” Now that we are certified, we don't have to disassemble our equipment. After we took off our fins, we planned where and when we would meet tomorrow. Our dive the next day would be a fun dive, at Christmas Rock. To me, it looked like a pile of pancakes, larger at the bottom and smaller at the top. After we submerged, I knew that my ears were going to hurt. I gave the signal to stay level, and Alex agreed. I kept sinking a little and I realized my ears had stopped hurting. As we were swimming across the bottom from the wall to the rock, we saw a Spotted-Eagle Ray far below us gliding along the bottom. As we neared the rock, we saw divers below us. We were at the maximum diving depth for Open Water divers, and their tanks had the NITROX label on them. so either they were breaking the law or they were specialty divers. As we neared the rock, I saw five lionfish spread out in the dead coral, they were pure black with bioluminescent white spots along their sides and white spines with black dots, a variation of Common Lionfish. As we circled the rock, we spotted a stingray hidden beneath the sand below us. We continued around the rock but we didn’t see much more, so we started our ascent, and then completed our safety stop. When we surfaced, we signaled the Aroma and soon we were back on board, with Mom and Sister soon joining us from snorkeling above us. They saw a rare Mobular Ray while snorkeling, which is cool. Alex and Amanda, the other dive instructor who was diving with Mario, another diver with us, discussed where we should dive next. We headed back to the resort, but this time near the over-water villas, close to the welcome jetty. We hoped to see Giant Guitarfish, but unfortunately we didn’t.

Once we jumped in, I realized the visibility was average, not as great as the other places probably because of the boats and all of the floatplanes. We submerged, and we saw a clownfish in its anemone. As we swam along, I twisted my head back to look for guitarfish and gasped. I got Alex's attention, and he banged on our tanks. We stopped, and looked at the White-Tipped Reef Shark slowly circling us, for a few minutes. After it left, we signaled the OK sign and continued swimming. Because the Guitarfish are deep, we accidentally exceeded the limit and dove down to 22 meters, where the max is 20. As we were swimming, my knee brushed against an anemone. I turned and saw a Powder-blue Surgeonfish next to the parrot fish, pictured above. We ascended, and did our safety stop. When we surfaced, I told Alex about my knee, and he said to not worry, it just brushed up against it. When we boarded the Aroma, Alex just wiped it with a cloth soaked in a medicine, and he said try not to bump it up against anything. When we got back to the dive center, Alex took my picture and then my dad’s for our scuba certificates. We said thank you and goodbye to Alex. He showed us how to access our certificates on the PADI app, which was cool. and Then we left. Unfortunately, we couldn’t dive anymore because we had to wait 24-hrs before we flew, and the next day our flight was leaving. Once we got on the float plane, I sat right behind the pilots again because I would like to be a pilot someday. Thanks for reading my blog post on our trip in the Maldives!

Mangrove Eco Park Blog Post

When the opening of the Mangrove Eco Park was announced, I knew I had to go and bring my new camera. It was about a 25-minute drive to the park, and the guides there had told us to come at high-tide, and we wondered why. When we got to the park, there were millions of mangrove trees planted in the water. As we walked out on the boardwalk, we didn’t see any birds, but the water was pretty. As we reached the end of the boardwalk, I scanned with the scope first but only saw 5 or 6 Greater Flamingos, which is not what they said we would see. On several different signs, it showed many different shorebirds, but the water level looked low in those pictures. When we got back to the main building, we asked a guide why they wanted us to come at high tide. The reason why, apparently, was because it was prettier. Wanting to see more birds, I asked when the best time would be to watch birds, and the guide said at medium tide, in between low and high tides. The next weekend, we came back about halfway between the two tides, and started scanning for birds. Without good equipment, you wouldn’t be able to see any of them. Whiskered Tern that kept swooping and diving near us

We first saw little Terek Sandpipers running, then stopping, running then stopping in the sand, occasionally poking their long bills in the sand, sifting for sand fleas and other tiny creatures. After scanning a bit more, we found a sandbar with two huge gulls and several Dunlins and other sandpipers. Because the Dunlins were so far away, it was hard to get a good shot, even with a high-tech camera and lens, but there was a Pied Oystercatcher, AKA Eurasian Oystercatcher on the sandbar, digging in the sand like the curlews. A funny, but not too unusual sight was 8 Gray Herons huddled up against the wind near a mangrove, because it was too windy for them to hunt.

Besides the herons, there were some little sandpipers and some flamingos out in the water on a sandbar, but it was impossible to get a close-up picture without it being super grainy. That was pretty much it, though that was many birds compared to the first time we came, where we saw only flamingos. The landscape was flat, and at low tide it was mostly mud, and behind us past the water were mangrove trees until they stopped and became the desert. In front was water and sand speckled with sandpipers and other waders and a few mangroves.

As of the writing of this post, It is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, and I want to go to the Mangrove Eco Park again by the 21st, so if we see the same birds and new species, the data can be a part of the GBBC data. For more pictures and captions, check out my new section on my website for the Mangrove Eco Park, once I get a few more pictures.

Padilla Bay Christmas Bird Count

The first Audubon Christmas Bird Count was in 1900. Twenty seven birders counted at 25 different points and recorded a total of about 90 bird species and is now continued annually. I participated this year with my mom, my grandfather, and Elizabeth “Libby” Mills, an ornithologist on January 5, 2022. We drove to Samish Island, in Washington State and stopped in three different places, Scott’s Point, where we saw two merlins and an American Kestrel chasing a Bald Eagle. The second stop we birded at was Camp Kirby, where we saw two Black Brant coming on to shore to eat pebbles and a Belted Kingfisher, the only one for the day. Our third and final stop was at Samish Island Public Beach Access, where we saw a Horned Grebe and hundreds of buffleheads. We started at Scott’s Point, just at the entrance to Samish Island. Instantly we were already behind in recording all of the birds. There were a plethora of Bald Eagles, both immature and adult. As we were observing an Immature Bald Eagle, I spotted two Merlins and an American Kestrel chasing after an Adult Bald Eagle. Libby Mills was excited, because it is unusual to see a Kestrel and two Merlins in the same tree within 5 feet of each other. There was a strange sight, because in a bush was either a wing or all of the body except the head of a medium sized bird. Libby suspects that the merlins killed the bird, because falcons, and merlins usually take a nip out of the shoulder of the bird they just killed. The Merlins and the Kestrel were by far the best sighting we had of the day. On our way to the car, 20 or so unidentified ducks flew over our heads. We also saw a Bald Eagle carrying nesting material. There is also a rookery nearby that the Eagles use.

Above: The American Kestrel near the Merlins. Our next stop was at Camp Kirby, about five minutes away from Scott’s Point, where we had kindly been granted permission to bird at the camp down at the beach. We were scanning the water for buffleheads and mergansers, and other seabirds when I spotted a belted kingfisher land on a branch above the water. As we continued to walk around the point, we noticed some rose bushes with holes in the place where the flower was. As Libby explained that the holes were made by wasps so the larvae could eat the rose, a Downy Woodpecker landed on one of the dead roses with wasps in it and began pecking away at it, trying to find some larvae for lunch. Another exciting event was when two Black Brant came ashore to eat pebbles to help digest the Eel Grass they eat. An uncommon little shorebird also appeared behind the Double-Crested Cormorants, Glaucous-Winged Gulls and Black Brant, 20 Black Turnstones!

Above: The Downy Woodpecker on the Rose Bush. Even though it is called Samish Island Public Beach Access, we didn’t go down to the beach, we stayed at the top where we had a better vantage point. As we were scanning the water, I came across a flotilla of buffleheads. There were at least 75, and mixed in were Common and Red-Breasted Mergansers with Common Loons and a Horned Grebe. Scopes were very important because even with a high powered camera with 600-mm zoom, the seabirds still looked like tiny black dots. By this time, our hands and feet were icicles, so we scanned for a few more minutes and then called it quits. Libby stayed a few minutes longer and saw a Hooded Merganser, a Eurasian Collared Dove, and a Pacific Wren, the only one of the day.

Above: A Common Goldeneye we observed from the top of Samish Island Public Beach Access. To be honest, this was probably the most birds I have ever seen and counted at one time, which is saying something. I saw 10 new bird species, including Horned Grebe, Double-Crested Cormorant, and Black Turnstones. In total, we saw 45 species of birds and a Grand total of 579 individual birds across Samish Island. It was mostly seabirds, because 167 of them were buffleheads! I will have other blog posts coming soon about other bird counts and other affairs concerning birds.