The second annual Lake Champlain “pelagic
trips” were planned for a Saturday and Sunday in mid-September out of
Burlington, VT. Last year’s trip was
tremendous with good numbers of numerous species more typically seen on the
ocean waterfront, including 3 VT statebirds for me – Red Phalarope, Little
Gull, and a distant Jaeger, sp. This
year’s trips were a couple weeks earlier in the year and more closely timed
with Jaeger migration which were my key targets. Needless to say I was really looking forward
to the 2014 trip, signing up for the Sunday trip hopeful that it would yield a
couple statebirds. And since the boat
leaves early in the morning, my plan was to get a hotel in the area the night
before, and do some birding in northwest VT on Saturday as well.
As the Sunday of the pelagic trip
approached I researched the VT listserve and e-bird for possible new statebirds
to chase after from land. But although
there were a couple recent sightings of possible target birds, none seemed like
they would be chaseable. I was quickly
coming to the reality that I would not likely get any new VT statebirds from
land. And then came worse news that the
trip was postponed due to predicted strong winds. The trips were rescheduled for the following
weekend, but I had a pelagic trip planned off the RI coast the following Sunday
which would conflict with the new dates.
To say I was disappointed was an understatement.
But then I started thinking about some
options and driving times. If I could
sign up for the Saturday option for the rescheduled trip, I would still have
time to make my way to the RI coast Saturday night before the Sunday RI pelagic
trip – after all it was “only” a 5 hour drive from Burlington to the RI
coastline. I contacted Allan Strong who
was organizing the trips, and he was able to put me on the trip the following Saturday. So I was in business, though I wouldn’t have
any extra time for birding RI from land before that second boat trip.
And with a week delay in the VT trip it was
time to re-research possible target birds.
Unlike last week, there were a couple target birds being seen in the area
that were likely chaseable – Dunlin and Black-bellied Plovers were being seen
in small numbers at several sites. And
then there were tantalizing reports of a Hudsonian Godwit at Brilyea Access and
another at Goose Bay way up at the northwestern tip of VT. Unfortunately neither Godwit was being seen
as my trip neared, so they weren’t very likely.
After receiving some excellent advice from several local birders, I was
optimistic that I might see a couple statebirds from land along with several
possibilities from the boat.
I finally arrived in northwest VT around
Noon and my first stop was the southern end of the Colchester Causeway. Local birder Ted Murin suggested I check out
mudflats that had formed to the southwest of the causeway adjacent to a small
island, and his advice was perfect. As I
neared the flats I scanned them from a distance with my binoculars and quickly
picked up a larger shorebird that was likely a Black-bellied Plover. I picked up my pace as I walked a bit further
down the causeway to get closer to the flats.
I set up my scope and started looking for the Plover. I quickly found it, and then another, and
then 3 more for a total of 5. And then I
noticed 4 larger peeps a bit farther away – Dunlin! That was both of my expected targets in just
a few minutes of birding. Also feeding
on the mudflats were a Sanderling (only my second time in VT for that species),
2 Baird’s, 6 Semi Plovers, and 3 Semi Sandpipers. Quite a nice diversity for that late in the season.
VT was my last New England state for both
the Plover and Dunlin – I now have 232 species in each of the 6 states. My statebird maps for these 2 species are
rather similar – I’ve seen both in all the coastal states and many inland
states but still have a number of gaps out west.
With a lot of time on my hands, I started
to weigh my options. I could check
Brilyea and Goose Bay to try for the Godwits, though they hadn’t been seen for
days. I could also spend time on a lake
watch, with the Charlotte Town Beach typically being the best spot. But since I was already way out on the lake
on the causeway, I decided to spend a little more time there hoping to see
something migrating down the lake. After
30 minutes I only saw one migrant, a Peregrine, so the lake watch options
didn’t seem like they would be too fruitful.
So I decided to head to Brilyea and search for shorebirds (and the
Godwit) there.
After a somewhat tortuous drive through
Burlington I finally made it to Brilyea and soon arrived at the spot just south
of Route 17 where the Hudsonian Godwit had been seen. A couple birders were there with their scope
and said they might have the bird. But
it turned out to be just a Yellowlegs, and the only other shorebird there was a
Pectoral. My next stop was the upper
impoundment which was being drawn down, and had yielded my first VT Stilt
Sandpipers earlier in the month. Along
the walk to the end of the impoundment I found a number of both Yellowlegs,
Semi Sands, Killdeer, and a distant Dunlin.
Surprisingly there no shorebirds at the upper reaches of the
impoundment, though a flock of 60 Green-winged Teal was a bit of a
surprise. And the early fall colors in
the fields and woodlands were nice too.
Although it was getting late in the day, I
figured I might have just enough time to make my way up to Goose Bay to try for
the other Hudsonian Godwit. I had good
directions to the location to get the best views of the mouth of Dead
Creek. But I was told that the birds
were far away, and not easily identifiable if there was any heat shimmer. Plus I would be looking to the west, so
afternoon viewing conditions were bad.
But despite all the negatives, I decided to give it a try. Since that was the first time I had ever been
to that spot, it would still be nice to get to know the location for future
trips even if the Godwit was no longer around.
About an hour before sunset I finally
arrived at Shipyard Road in Highgate, just 3 miles south of the Canadian border. I set up the scope and although viewing
wasn’t great, it wasn’t nearly as bad as advertised. I quickly found several Black-bellied Plovers
on the flats – eventually counting 9 in view at one time. And in the foreground (though still nearly ½
mile away), I found a flock of Dunlin that I estimated at 40. (That gave me 45 Dunlin at 3 locations and 14
Black-bellies at 2 locations.) There
were also a number of other smaller peeps too far to ID, several yellowlegs, a
number of Great Blues and Great Egrets, and distant dabbling ducks. Then I started to pan to the left and came
upon a very large shorebird feeding in the channel. It looked like a football with long
legs. Could I have re-found the
Godwit? I watched for at least the next
5 minutes until I eventually was able to see the long up-curved bill and felt 100%
sure of the ID as the Hudsonian Godwit.
That was quite a surprise since it had not been seen for almost a
week. And I was very lucky to have found
it since there was a lot of habitat where the bird would be hidden from view. I spread the word about re-finding the bird,
and it and a second one were seen in the area for the next couple weeks.
I’ve now seen Hudsonian Godwit in 8
northeast coastal states as a regular fall migrant, 3 Plains states as a spring
migrant, in AK as a nester, and now OR and VT as a rarity.
I had 3 statebirds already, and hadn’t even
gotten on the boat for the “pelagic” trip.
Which as it turns out was a good thing, since the boat trip was really
slow. On the bright side, the weather
was great – clear skies, almost no wind, and temps rising from the 50s to the
upper 60s. But migrants were few and far
between, with just a couple small migrant flocks of White-winged Scoters and
Greater Scaup, and several Red-necked Grebes on the water. Luckily one of the Grebes was on the NY side
of the lake, which was new for my NY list (now at 267). But there were no birds for my VT list. I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait for next
fall’s pelagic trip, or maybe a lake watch from Charlotte Town Beach, for a
chance at Jaegers and even rarer species for my VT list.
With 3 new species for VT I ended the trip
with 267, and now have 1,984 for my 6 New England states. Just 16 more to go to reach 2,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment