Mangrove Eco Park Blog 1/21/23

 

I arrived at the Mangrove Eco Park in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, about a half-hour away from my house with my parents and my sister at 9:20 A.M. on Saturday, January 21st, 2023.  I was uncertain about what to expect in terms of people showing up for a bird talk I was going to give to people who wanted to just look at the mangroves. Most of the people that would show up had no idea that there were any birds to see. The temperature was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and there were scattered puffy clouds. There was a slight breeze, which made it almost the perfect temperature to be outside. Not only was the temperature perfect, but we also scheduled the bird walk for low tide, when the birds are closest to the viewing platform.

 The first people that came were two very nice Filipino people. They took a few pictures and selfies and were about to leave when I asked them if they wanted to look through the Spotting scope we brought at the flamingos. They were surprised that there were birds and were very interested when they noticed that the Flamingos were white, not pink. The reason the Flamingos are white, not pink is because there is a bacteria that Brine shrimp eat, and that makes the shrimp pink. If the brine shrimp don't eat that bacteria, they stay white. And if the brine shrimp are not pink, the flamingos don't turn pink when they eat the brine shrimp. We spotted another clump of birds that were a lot closer than the flamingos out on the sandbar, only about 200 ft away. However, the birds we just spotted did not have the same long legs and long necks as Flamingos. These birds were Eurasian Spoonbills.  Their bills are shaped like spoons, and the bills are black, not yellow like the African Spoonbill.  After Cherry and her husband left, someone I know from school arrived with their family and her grandpa. 

One of my classmates and her family, from Pakistan, also showed up after Cherry and her husband left. My classmate’s little sister could not see through the scope because you have to close one eye and position your eye perfectly against the scope. When she finally saw the flamingos, she yelled, “ I see them! I see them!” The girl was so happy, and it made me happy to see someone who was only 9 or 10 so interested in birds. The girl’s grandpa also looked through the scope, and when he saw the flamingos, he was also very excited. 

After everyone left, we decided to head back to the main building, but I had really enjoyed teaching people from different countries and local people about birds. Several people said they had been to the Mangrove Eco Park before but had never noticed the birds until now. In total, 18 people showed up, giving me lots to write about for the Community Leadership module in the Young Birder Of The Year contest.

Eagle Watching In The Skagit River December 2022

 I woke up very excited on the morning of December 22, 2022, because we were going to drive to Marblemount, WA, and float down the Skagit River in a small boat looking for Bald Eagles. It was about a two-hour drive to Concrete, where we then rode in a van with the guide to get to the boat. The boat that was waiting for us was called the “Raptor”. As soon as we got into the flow of the Skagit, I spotted five herons on the far bank all looking for fish in the freezing waters of the river. I snapped a couple of shots of the herons, but they were all blurry because of the heat waves coming from the heaters by my feet. After the first set of rapids right after the herons, we noticed seven Common Mergansers swimming near the bank of the Skagit. Above us, I heard the screech of a hunting Bald Eagle and soon saw it dive toward the terrified Mergansers. I was hoping to get a really good action shot of the eagle diving toward the mergansers, but the eagle never got close to a merganser. After that exciting encounter, I didn't see many other eagles or other birds, until we got to a small run-off river teeming with fish. There were at least thirty eagles in a single tree, with several more trees filled with eagles. The trees were filled with mostly Juveniles, with a few adults mixed in. After getting some good shots of the eagles, we continued past the river towards the boat launch where we would head back to our car. In a tree with orange leaves on it, I saw a large adult Bald Eagle obscured by branches. As we floated behind the eagle, I snapped as many shots as possible while the adult eagle was not obscured by branches. That was the last Eagle we saw for that trip, but it made me want to go again and capture some shots of more Bald Eagles hunting on the Skagit River.

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