It has seemed like forever since I had added a new statebird to any of my New England lists. In reality it was back on back on July 28th when I saw the Red-billed Tropicbird in Maine, which meant I was in one of my biggest dry spells for adding New England statebirds. During much of this time I was in a period of lots of travel for work, so I couldn’t easily break free to chase after some local birds. So when my travel schedule finally lightened up, I decided to go after a couple rarities seen for about a week in CT – 2 Clay-colored Sparrows on the coast and a Common Gallinule at the White Memorial in northwestern CT. Though of course when rarities have been around for a while, I always wonder if I have waited too long to go after them. And right on cue, the day before my trip a birder was not able to find the 2 sparrows at their coastal location. But with a little more research I found another post of a Clay-Colored in central CT – now 3 days old but worth a try since it was almost on my route to the Gallinule spot. Plus I’ve been told that the marshes at the White Memorial can be good for Sora – my biggest nemesis bird in CT. So that gave me 3 possible statebirds to try for. And with excellent micro-directions from several local CT birders, I was excited to finally get back to New England statebirding.
I arrived at Nod Road in Simsbury at 9 AM where the Clay-colored Sparrow had been reported earlier. Although there were no sparrows in sight, I noticed a weedy field a short distance to the north that could be good for sparrows. I headed over there and started to flush quite a number of Savannahs and a few Songs, and decided to try to push them toward some brush where they would hopefully tee up and give cooperative views. This seemed to work as more and more headed to the bushes, giving at least brief views before disappearing into the thicket. At one point I got a brief view of a Spizella sparrow before it dropped back into the field. Could that have been it? I walked closer to the spot where it dropped in and flushed it out again. It perched in the open giving great views – it had a strong white supercilium and moustache but it had a pretty strong reddish cap (though with a white median stripe). In the field I decided the reddish cap meant it had to be a Chipping in winter plumage. I continued to work the field, and later got a Vesper Sparrow and a late Magnolia Warbler, but nothing else of interest. The next morning while looking at the field guides I realized that the Spizella wasn’t a Chipping at all but was indeed the Clay-Colored. It’s embarrassing to get the ID wrong, but I guess better to be conservative then to incorrectly conclude that you found a rarity. My map for Clay-Colored Sparrow below shows an interesting story – I’ve seen it in a number of central US states where this species is a common migrant or nester, as well as quite a number of states where it is an accidental migrant or wintering bird including 5 New England states.
My next stop was Little Pond in the White Memorial in Litchfield. With excellent directions I headed to the gallinule spot, set up the scope, and almost instantly found the bird swimming at the edge of the cattails. I was pretty lucky on this one since others had mentioned it took up to 2 hours to get the bird in view. A distant but identifiable phone-scoped picture (with the scope at 50X) is inserted below – you’ll likely need to click on the picture and then expand it to see the bird. The pale gray throat and head indicates it’s an immature bird.
That was number 300 for my CT statelist – my 8th state with at least 300 species. It also gives me a sweep of the 6 New England states for Common Gallinule which is diminishing in the northeast. And the map of the states where I’ve seen this bird pretty well matches its range – Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest – though I still have a few gaps to fill.
Then on to try for my nemesis bird – the Sora. The marsh throughout the northern end of Little Pond was full of cattails, which should be ideal for Sora. I played a bit of tape and instantly saw the cattails move just a short distance away. But no visuals and no calls. I walked a bit farther down the boardwalk and played a little more tape with no luck. So I walked back to my original spot and a Sora flushed from the marsh right next to the boardwalk! And I noticed some more movement a short distance away and got a visual on a second Sora. Pretty exciting since I don’t think they had been reported from the spot recently. A distant calling Virginia Rail and 3 Marsh Wrens chattering in the marsh completed the experience. My Sora map is a bit spotty – this is a pretty common bird across the US so I don’t have many excuses for missing it in most states (except for MT and ND where my lists are puny). And Sora is now my 214th species that I’ve seen in each of the 6 New England states.
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