I’ve been to Pittsburgh for business trips several times this year, and have taken short extensions on a number of those trips to work on my WV statelist. I’ve successfully added 20 new statebirds, putting me 20 over the old ABA threshold. That puts me over my rather arbitrary “Reportable Plus 15” goal for WV, and at 198 for the state. Though sure would be nice to get to 200. So when another business trip to Pittsburgh was being scheduled in October, I naturally turned to my WV target list to see what statebird potential there might be, and to see if I could get at least 2 more to reach 200. But I was a victim of my own success. The list of possible new statebirds was getting pretty short, and what was left wasn’t very likely. So I was leaning toward not doing any birding on this trip at all. But then several of my meetings fell through and it turned out I would end up with almost an entire day of spare time during the trip. So I turned to my local birding friend Terry Bronson to get his advice to find for some of my targets. Terry came up with suggestions for a number of targets, but none would be easy. In fact, there was a good chance that I might not get any new birds for my list at all. But even with limited statebird potential, at least the weather forecast was a good one and it would still be a nice day to be out birding.
My first stop was the Pleasant Creek
Wildlife Management Area about an hour’s drive southeast of Morgantown. This spot is one of Terry’s favorite places, with
a large wetland and numerous sparrow fields.
And a review of the recent e-bird reports yielded two of my targets –
Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Marsh Wren. And
the wetland edges could always harbor a Wilson’s Snipe – another of my
targets. Plus a Nelson’s Sparrow was spotted
there back in October 2013. So there was
some pretty good potential here. I
arrived there at dawn and started by birding along Upper Pleasant Creek
Road. There were numerous sparrows
feeding right along the roadside, but no Lincoln’s were mixed in. Notable birds included several flyover
Siskins and Purple Finches which are not too common this far south, though
perhaps not so unusual in this good flight year. And a bit later an immature Bald Eagle flew
over startling the Canada Geese in the adjacent wetlands.
I then drove a bit farther down the road to
get to the wetlands where I thought the Nelson’s Sparrow had been seen a year
ago. I walked down to a nice area of
cattails and started to play some Marsh Wren tape. Within seconds sparrows started to respond,
with 8 to 10 perched just a few feet away.
With quick looks they all appeared to be Swamps, but I wanted to look at
each bird closely to be sure there wasn’t a Lincoln’s in the group. As I bounced from one bird to the next all of
a sudden a sparrow with an orange face pattern appeared. I watched it for at least a minute at close
range and checked off all the field marks of a Nelson’s Sparrow (including
eliminating LeConte’s Sparrow with no white central crown stripe). Statebird #1.
That was a real long shot and one I wasn’t really planning on. And quite a good bird for WV too. Not to mention a remarkable response to a
Marsh Wren tape!
WV is only my seventh state for Nelson’s
Sparrow (see my statebird map below).
Previously I had seen the coastal race as a breeder in ME and NH;
coastal and/or inland races as migrants in MA, RI, and CT; and as a wintering
bird in LA and AL. I’ve yet to see the
inland race on its breeding grounds.
I then walked another 100 feet down the
edge of the wetlands and played some more Marsh Wren tape. This time a Marsh Wren responded instead of
sparrows, staying in the open for quite a while. Statebird #2, and WV statebird #200! Marsh Wren is not a typical nester in WV, and
apparently a not so common migrant as well.
So another good tick for WV. I’ve
now seen Marsh Wren throughout the Lower 48 except for IA, KY, and TN.
It was still early, so I decided to bird a
couple other parts of the WMA before heading to my next stop. In a few minutes I was at another part of the
wetlands and noticed some birders in hip-waders sloshing through the marsh looking
for rails. I watched them for a while
hoping they would flush a Snipe, but it turned out they struck out both on
their target and mine. As they reached
the shore and I was about to tell them about my finds they told me they had 2
other Nelson’s and several other Marsh Wrens.
Took the wind out of my sails a bit.
They also told me about a Lincoln’s Sparrow they had seen just a few
minutes earlier. I went right to that
spot but didn’t see a single sparrow.
Ugh…
My next stop was Silver Lake which was
about an hour to the east and just a stone’s throw from the MD line. A Snow Goose had been reported there for
several days about a week earlier in with a flock of Canadas. Although there had been no reports (positive
or negative) from this spot since then, I hoped it would still be around, and
all the local birders who wanted to see it had already been by the spot
earlier. I arrived at the small lake and
counted 310 Canadas either on the water or on adjacent grassy shores. But no white goose was visible. I had a slim hope that more geese might be
just out of view in some hidden part of the lake so I decided to drive around
to a different vantage point. As I
passed over a small bridge I flushed 3 sparrows which landed just off the road
side. Although they looked like Songs, on
a whim, I picked up my binocs and the very first one I looked at was a
Lincoln’s. Statebird #3. Amazing that I probably looked at a couple
hundred sparrows at Pleasant Creek with no luck, but the very first one here
was a Lincoln’s. And I didn’t even need
to leave my car. WV was my 39th state
for Lincoln’s - I still need it in a few Midwest and several Southeast states.
Despite a couple more angles on the lake I
never did find the Snow Goose. But the
Lincoln’s Sparrow was a great consolation prize.
My next stop was the WV University
Reedsville Farm to try for Wilson’s Snipe.
It was another hour plus drive but through some very pretty WV
countryside so it was a very pleasant ride.
Along the way I passed through a couple rural towns, and at one point
slowed to under 25 mph to pass through “downtown” Kingwood. Just then I noticed a rather large falcon passing
overhead. Luckily I was able to
instantly pull over and get the binocs on it.
Although my initial reaction was Peregrine, I watched it for a while and
decided it was a large female Merlin.
Statebird #4. I was really lucky
not only to have noticed it but also to be able to pull over right away to see
it with my binocs. My statebird map for
Merlin is very spotty – I’ve seen it in only 34 states.
I eventually made it to Reedsville Farm and
headed to a grass-lined creek that Terry had suggested for Snipe. I spent some time walking along what seemed
to be good Snipe habitat but with no success.
As I pulled out of the area I remembered seeing a wet grassy field at
the edge of the farm and decided to give it a try. I put on my wellies and started to splash
through the wet grass. I had just gotten
done saying to myself what nice Snipe habitat this was when one flushed right
in front of me. Statebird #5. And as I walked back to the car I flushed
another Snipe. It was amazing how easy
it was after having looked for Snipe so many times in WV. I now just need Snipe in SD and MI to sweep
the mainland states.
That gave me 5 new statebirds on a day that
I thought I’d be lucky to get any at all.
Pretty amazing.
That puts my WV list at 203 – my 48th state
with more than 200 statebirds. Only IA, DC,
and HI are below 200. Plus since WV’s
old ABA threshold of 178 is the second lowest (only DC is lower), my 203 is a
very respectable 114% of threshold. That
is my 15th best percentage of all my statelists. At the beginning of 2014 my WV list was my 43rd
best based on percentage of threshold. That’s
quite an improvement over just one year.
Couldn’t have done it without the help of Terry Bronson who knows the
birds of the area so well.
No comments:
Post a Comment