Sedge Wren, Stilt Sandpiper, and Ruddy Turnstone in Vermont, September, 2014

As the Summer of 2014 progressed a number of possible statebirds were reported in northwest VT.  First came the report of a pair of Sedge Wrens likely nesting in Middlebury.  Then came word of a drawdown of one impoundment at Dead Creek with 1 and then 2 Stilt Sandpipers – and who knows what other rare shorebirds that might be attracted to these flats in the future.  Then there was the big news of a Brown Booby on Lake Champlain.  Unfortunately the Booby disappeared (more accurately became unreliable though still on the Lake) before I could get there.  Finally came repeated reports of a pair of Ruddy Turnstones in St. Albans.  That was more than enough critical mass to make the 3 ½ hour trek to the northwest part of VT.  This time, unlike most of my other trips, I decided to get a motel room in the area the night before my birding day to avoid having to make the 7-hour round-trip drive in one day. 

I had timed my trip to be a day before the next front in hopes that the shorebirds wouldn’t have moved on yet.  And I received excellent details from VT birders for locations for the Wren, Stilt, and Turnstone.  So I was pretty optimistic that I might get the Stilt and Turnstone.  The Wren, however, was another story.  It was last reported 11 days earlier, and it was getting really late for even these late nesters to still be sticking around their apparent nesting spot.  Sedge Wrens are reported in late summer in northwest VT most every year, and although I had tried for them twice before, I waited too long both times.  I was worried that I might be too late for this third try as well.

I was able to leave early enough to get to the Wren location in the evening of the first day.  With perfect directions I quickly found the correct tall grass field where they had spent the latter half of the summer.  It was very still and quiet, so I listened intently for their characteristic call and song, but with no luck.  So I walked off the road to get to the edge of the “their” field and listened some more, but only heard a distant Red-bellied Woodpecker.  I know Sedge Wrens are very tape-responsive, so I made a couple short imitations of their call note, and almost instantly heard one note coming from the field.  Then I heard another call from a short distance away.  This second bird popped out in the open at the field’s edge and gave me distant but good looks.  Success!  VT is only my fourth New England state for Sedge Wren.  My statebird map below also shows that I have a number of gaps in this species’ normal summering and wintering ranges.

The next morning I met up with long-time birding friend Hank Kaestner and we headed to the Brilyea Access portion of Dead Creek WMA to try for the Stilt Sandpipers.  After a short walk we were at the upper reaches of the impoundment where the drawdown was occurring.  There wasn’t a lot of habitat, but we quickly found numerous Yellowlegs (almost all Lessers), a handful of peeps, and a couple Semi Plovers - though no Stilts.  We walked off the trail to get a different view of the flats but still no Stilts.  We continued walking east to get different views, and tried really hard to turn the Yellowlegs into Stilts, but to no avail.  We finally made it to a point of land and the farthest east we could walk to get a final view of the flats.  We were now looking almost directly into the sun, so viewing wasn’t the best.  Despite the glare I spotted a Stilt Sandpiper in the distance, along with a second bird and then a third one.  A pair of Short-billed Dowitchers were feeding with them, along with some of the ever-present Lesser Yellowlegs.  A nice group of birds for comparisons of size and shape, as well as feeding habits.  VT was my last New England state for this species - my 228^th in each of the 6 states.  I’ve seen Stilt Sandpiper in most of its regular US range as a migrant, and a couple states as a rarity.

Hank and I next went on to Charlotte Town Beach for another shorebird search, and also for a quick lake watch.  There were 40 Killdeer and 1 Semi Sand on the shore, but nothing else.  We spent a bit of time looking over the lake but the sole highlights were a small number of Common Terns and Bonaparte’s Gulls flying down the lake.  The skies were starting to look threatening, so rather than continue on the lake watch, I decided to head north to the St. Albans Bay Town Park to try for the Turnstones.

After a short drive I arrived in St. Albans which is about as far northwest as you can get and still be in VT, and in the US for that matter.  There is a sandy beach at the Town Park which apparently is normally favored by swimmers and dog walkers.  But this year an algae bloom had fouled the beach and caused the town to close it.  As a result, not only were there no people and dogs to bother the shorebirds, but the decaying algae on the beach had attracted lots of shorebird food.  There had been good numbers of shorebirds there for several weeks, including the 2 Ruddy Turnstones.  I got to the edge of the beach and began to scan the narrow patch of habitat with my binocs.  I found a number of Yellowlegs and a couple flocks of peeps, but no Turnstones.  Then on another scan I noticed a large dark shorebird just a short distance away – a winter plumaged Ruddy Turnstone.  Another scan revealed a second bird, along with 2 Baird’s Sandpipers that hadn’t been reported there in the past.  I got these phonescoped photos of one of the Turnstones.

Not so easy to pick out the brown bird amongst the brown algae

Easier to spot in profile

Like the Stilt Sand, VT was the last of the New England states for me for Turnstone – number 229.  And VT was my second inland state for this otherwise common coastal species.  Though I still need it in OR.

With 3 VT statebirds on the trip that gives me 264 for VT, and 1,980 for New England.  I’m closing in on the magic 2,000!

Gull-billed Tern, Plum Island, MA, August 2014

Gull-billed Tern is one of the most common birds in MA that I haven’t seen.  Although it’s certainly not a common bird, it is reported at least annually in recent years, with most sightings occurring in and around Plum Island, and to a lesser extent on the Cape.  I had chased after this species twice at Plum Island – in 2010, and in July this year following Hurricane Arthur.  In both cases my timing was miserable as I was there the first day after the target bird was last seen. 

Fast forward to August 2014 – I was watching my e-mail on a Saturday afternoon when a post came across that a Gull-billed Tern had just been spotted at Stage Island Pool at Plum Island.  If I could leave right then I would be Stage Island Pool within 90 minutes of the sighting.  But I had home commitments and probably shouldn’t head out.  I could give it a try Sunday morning, but then I would run the risk that I would miss yet another Gull-billed Tern in MA by a day.  After a couple minutes of soul searching, I decided I needed to stay at home and would have to delay the trip to tomorrow.  I continued to watch the listserve as the day progressed but there were no other posts of the bird on Saturday.  So I wondered if it even stuck around that day, let alone whether it would be still be around for me on Sunday.

I arrived at Plum Island at 7 with pretty low expectations.  I made a couple quick stops while heading south down the island, watching for terns along the salt marsh just in case the Gull-billed was foraging in the marshes.  I arrived at the north end of Stage Island Pool by 7:30 and did a quick scan of the flats.  There were good numbers of shorebirds, cormorants, geese, and waders, but no terns.  And despite another more detailed scan there were still no terns.  With no terns at all on the island so far, it sure didn’t seem very likely that the Gull-billed was still around. 

There was just one more place to check - Sandy Point – where terns and shorebirds will frequently roost on the beach.  As I headed toward Sandy Point I noticed several birders on the observation platform at the south end of Stage Island Pool.  I don’t think I’ve seen birders on that platform in years, so I decided to see what they might have – “bird the birders” as I say.  When I got up there I asked if they had anything good and they said they had the Gull-billed Tern.  I put my scope up and instantly found the Tern in the distance on the flats.  That was the same area I scanned just a few minutes earlier so it must have just flown in.  Over the next few minutes we watched it feed low over the Pool in classic Gull-billed Tern style – flying 5-10 feet over the water with slow deep wingbeats, frequently looking straight down, and occasionally dropping to the top of the water though not diving.  I also picked out a Baird’s Sandpiper and a Long-billed Dowitcher in the south end of Stage Island Pool.  A bit later we all drove to the north end of Stage Island Pool and got much closer views of the Tern, and got this phonescoped picture.

We also had a Red-necked Phalarope swimming in the water in front of the Tern.  That was a nice collection of shorebirds for one location and a classic Plum Island experience.

That was my first Gull-billed Tern for New England – species number 427 for New England.  And it was number 404 for me in MA.  In my statebird map below I’ve seen this species in all of its normal range except for GA, and now MA as a rarity.

Marbled Godwit in RI, and Wilson’s Phalarope in CT, August 2014

With a free day coming up I started to review possible statebirding possibilities, and my thoughts quickly went to a very reliable Wilson’s Phalarope that had been seen for several days in Guilford, CT.  And with a little more digging I found a couple reports of a Marbled Godwit at Quicksand Pond in the southeastern corner of RI in Little Compton.  Though since the Godwit reports were a bit cryptic (for instance not saying where the bird was being seen at Quicksand Pond), and the most recent report was a couple days old, I was a bit worried about whether to give that one a try.  But since I had some time available, I decided to put a few miles on the car and try for both birds. 

I arrived at the Little Compton beach just west of Quicksand Pond at about 7:30, early enough to not have to pay to park at the town beach.  Now the challenge was to try to locate the Godwit in this very large pond with considerable mudflats.  As I approached the southwest corner of the Pond I noticed several shorebirds along the edge.  I did a quick scan and found several Dowitchers and a few peeps, but nothing else of interest.  Then I looked to the east and found several more peeps, but still no large shorebirds.  I didn’t see any other mudflats in the immediate area, and started to worry about my chances.  Then farther off to the northeast I noticed a distant flock of maybe 200 gulls standing in shallow water.  I scoped through these birds and got brief glimpses of a smaller, darker bird walking among the gulls.  After a few seconds it came out into the open and it was the Marbled Godwit.  I ran into a couple local birders a couple minutes later and they said the Godwit had not been seen the day before.  I guess I got pretty lucky.  That was number 314 for me in RI, and my fourth New England state for this species (see my statebird map below).  I’ve now seen it in most coastal states in its migration and wintering range, many of the states in its inland breeding range, and a few inland states as a migrant.

I spent a little more time at Quicksand Pond looking for other shorebirds and found a number of peeps near the southeast corner close to the outlet of the pond.  I was about to leave the site when I looked up and noticed a Royal Tern fly right over my head coming in off the ocean.  I watched it fly around the northern stretch of the pond for a while but then lost it in the distance.  Not a new statebird for me, but a good bird for RI.

I headed back to the car and then drove west to Guilford, CT to try for the Wilson’s Phalarope.  This bird had been seen very reliably right along the road at the edge of Leete’s Island saltmarsh for several days, and was seen that morning, so I was quite optimistic.  When I arrived another birder was already there with a scope.  She said she had just arrived and hadn’t found the bird yet.  I wasn’t too disappointed (yet), and started to scan the flats.  There were numerous peeps and a few Yellowlegs, but no Phalarope.  I continued to scan, picked out a Baird’s and pointed it out to the other birder, but still couldn’t find the Phalarope.  Now I was beginning to worry since all the posts had mentioned how cooperative the bird had been right along the road.  I started to look farther out in the marsh and realized that there was quite a bit of habitat with good numbers of peeps.  Maybe it was just out of sight at this point.  I scanned some more and a medium-sized shorebird with a white rump flew through my scope field.  I watched it land and it was indeed the Wilson’s Phalarope.  I got this phonescoped photo of the bird as it fed.

 

That was number 312 for me in CT, which was my last New England state for Wilson’s Phalarope – my 227^th species in each New England state.  And in my statebird map (below), I’ve seen this species throughout most of its normal range in the west and a number of eastern states as a rarity.