Black-throated Green Warbler (but dipped again on Falcated Duck), California, November 2014

The schedule for this month’s trip to California didn’t come together very well, and I ended up with some spare time in the middle of the trip.  But that meant that I had a vacation day available for birding while in California – not a bad silver lining all things considered.  There were a couple statebird possibilities to aim for in the area – Black-throated Green Warbler near San Luis Obispo, and Northern Parula in Santa Cruz.  And even after committing some time to chase after both of them, I’d likely still have some additional birding time available.  So I planned to bird Pt. Pinos on the Monterey Peninsula.  I birded this area once before at least a couple decades ago and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to getting back there. 

On the day before my vacation day my meetings ended a bit early, giving me just barely enough time to try for the Black-throated Green before dusk.  So I changed my plans a bit, and instead of heading to the hotel, I headed to the Oceano Campground at the Pismo State Beach where the bird had been seen for several days.  Several e-bird posts included an explicit location where the bird was being seen (which is not often the case).  I arrived just a bit before sunset, parked at the edge of the campground, and took the 5 minute walk to “the” spot for this bird – described as willows over the water at the northern tip of the lagoon.  Along the way I heard numerous “Audubon’s” Warblers, so I wondered how I would pick out one wayward eastern warbler among flocks of these common birds.  Within seconds of arriving at the northern end of the lagoon I saw a bit of movement in the willows.  Although the bird was back in the trees a bit, I quickly saw glimpses of yellow on the bird, and soon it popped into the open – it was the Black-throated Green Warbler.  It was literally the first bird I saw and it took less than 30 seconds to find it!  They should all be that easy.

Black-throated Green Warbler was #371 for me in CA.  And CA is my first state for this eastern species as a rarity (see my statebird map below).

I spent a little more time in the park and found good numbers of Audubon’s and Townsend’s Warblers, and a couple Chestnut-backed Chickadees in the woods.  And had a couple minutes to get to a beach area in the park and saw the Ross’ Goose stakeout among the numerous Western and California Gulls, Coots, and Mallards looking for handouts.

That evening, as I was reviewing my plans for the next day to try for the Parula and to bird Pt. Pinos, I checked that day’s California e-bird rarity report.  The list included a Falcated Duck at Colusa NWR.  This bird had been reported there a couple weeks earlier, but with no recent reports, I had written it off.  This is undoubtedly the same bird that spent the winter of 2011-2012 at Colusa NWR, and was reliably seen from an observation platform every day for 3 months.  That is except for 2 days – 1 of which was the day I spent there looking for the bird.  So even though it would mean a long 5-hour drive, I instantly changed my plans to go to Colusa.

Unfortunately this trip to Colusa NWR was more frustrating than my 2012 trip there.  Not only did I not see the bird despite standing in a cold rain for 5 hours, but another birder there saw the bird 3 times while I was there.  Twice while he was standing right next to me.  I’m jinxed…   

Western Grebe in NH, and Lark Sparrow in CT, November 2014

November is notoriously the best month for rarities in New England.  As a result, over the last 10 years I’ve added more New England statebirds in November than in any other month.  And November 2014 was certainly turning out to be no exception, with rarities like Ash-throated Flycatcher in RI, and Townsend’s Solitaire and Gray Jay in MA reported early in the month.  The only problem was I didn’t need any of those for my statelists. 

Then came reports of a Lark Sparrow at Hammonasset Beach State Park in CT, in the same spot one was found last year.  I tried for the 2013 bird, but unfortunately I was there the first day the bird was not seen.  And I unsuccessfully chased after another CT Lark Sparrow a few years earlier.  So this was a key target for me.  The next day was very rainy and there were no reports – positive or negative.  But I was hopeful it would still be around when I could finally break free the next day – though now 2 days after the last report.  And then came a report of a Yellow-headed Blackbird in Middlefield, CT – another bird I’ve tried for twice in CT without luck.  That location was just over 30 minutes north of Hammonasset, so definitely feasible to try on my CT trip. 

And then things got even better, or maybe I should say more complex, when a Western Grebe was found on the NH coast just north of Great Boar’s Head in Hampton.  The good news was that I now had 3 targets to chase, each within my self-imposed restriction of a 2-hour drive of home.  The bad news was that I only had 1 day to search for these birds, and of course the NH coast wasn’t exactly en route to the CT coast from central MA.  But I had the time available (leaf raking would have to wait), so I decided to try for all of them.  Now the question was – do I go to south to CT first or north to NH first?  At first I decided to make CT my first stop since there were 2 opportunities there.  Though in the back of my mind I wondered about the weather forecast which predicted that winds would pick up by mid-morning.  Would that make it difficult to find the Grebe on the ocean later in the day?  As I loaded up my car the next morning for my pre-dawn departure I noticed there was no wind at all.  A calm sea sure would make it easier to find the Grebe.  So at the last moment I re-programmed the GPS and was off to Hampton, NH as my first stop.

I arrived at the north side of Great Boar’s Head at 7 under cloudy skies and some remaining drizzle, but with calm seas.  Nearly ideal conditions to search for the Western Grebe.  I scanned the water and saw numerous Scoters of all 3 species, both Loons, and both Cormorants migrating south.  But there were no Grebes of any species.  I probably spent about 20 minutes there with no luck when NH birder Jason Lambert arrived.  He had been there earlier in the morning with no luck as well.  Even if the bird was diving frequently we felt like we would have seen it here.  So we both thought that we should try to check nearby locations - Jason went to the south side of Great Boar’s Head and I went a bit to the north to check farther up the beach.  Not 5 minutes later my cellphone was ringing and it was Jason – he had the bird.  A couple minutes later I was just south of Great Boar’s Head looking at the Western Grebe.  Although it was distant, I got this heavily cropped phonescoped photo.

Western Grebe was #354 for me in NH – by far my best statelist as a percentage of the total list for that state (88% of the total NH list).  I’ve now seen this species as a rarity in 3 New England states, MD, and WI, in addition to most of its normal range (see my statebird map below).

It was only 7:30 and I already had my first target.  Still plenty of time to head to CT, so I got back in the car and headed south.  And so far my plan of heading to NH first was panning out. 

At 10:30 I was sitting at the red light just outside Hammonasset State Park and checked my e-mail – there were no updates on the Lark Sparrow.  No news was likely bad news.  But seconds later I received an e-mail that the Sparrow had been refound just 5 minutes earlier.  And the e-mail included a very specific location.  A nearly real-time update.  Things were definitely picking up.  Within a couple minutes I located the birders who had refound the Sparrow, and walked up to them.  They didn’t have the bird at the time, but thought they were watching the flock of sparrows that the Lark Sparrow had been associating with.  Over the next 10 minutes we watched the flock but to no avail.  Then a birder spotted the target bird a short distance away.  Unfortunately I didn’t get on the bird before it flew off a short distance.  We watched the flock in this new location but again couldn’t find the Lark Sparrow.  This was getting frustrating.  After a few minutes we all redirected our attention to the first spot and once again found some sparrows.  But this time I spotted a large brown sparrow drop out of a juniper tree to the grass below.  Although it was mostly obscured in the tall grass, the head of the bird was clearly visible – it was the adult Lark Sparrow.  We watched it for a few minutes, getting great views. 

Once again my plan of going to CT after NH turned out to be the right decision.  If I had gone to Hammonasset first I might well have wasted a couple hours looking for the Sparrow.

I’ve now seen Lark Sparrow in 5 New England states (just missing VT), NY, and MD as a rarity, and in most states in its regular range.  And third time was the charm for me in CT.  I now have 315 in CT, and 1,988 in New England.

It was now 11:30, and still plenty of time to try for the Yellow-headed Blackbird a short 30-minute drive away.  It had been seen the previous day in a large blackbird flock at the pond at Lyman Orchards (same location of a Pink-footed Goose back on 2/25/12).  As I arrived at the pond I scanned the area but found no blackbirds at all.  I got out to do a more thorough search and heard some very distant call notes to the northwest that could have been blackbird calls.  I took a quick walk in that direction and started spotting some blackbirds perched in the trees.  I drove over in that direction and found a big blackbird flock dropping into a harvested cornfield.  Although I spent the next 3 hours searching through the flock with a couple other bird, I never did see the Yellow-headed.  Though I did find unique Grackles with a white head, one with an all-white tail, and one with a white tail and black outer tail feathers.  At one point a Cooper’s Hawk chased after a grackle and caught it right on the yellow median stripe of the road – just 15 feet from me.  Of course I would have traded all these observations for even a quick look at the Yellow-headed.  (I ended up coming back to this spot a week later and spent another 4½ hours looking through the flock of 5,000 blackbirds with no luck.) 

I ended the day with 2 of 3 possible statebirds.  A very successful day, though of course getting all 3 would have been even better.  And with 1,988 in New England, I have just 12 more to go to 2,000.

Royal Terns, Guilford, CT, October 2014

Western Kingbird has been somewhat of a nemesis bird for me in New England.  I’ve tried for it in ME, VT, and at least twice in CT without success.  So hoping that the third time would be the charm for me in CT, I closely monitored the listserve when one was spotted in Bridgeport.  Although I was away when the bird was first reported, New England Western Kingbirds typically stick around for a few days, so I was hopeful it would still be in the area when I returned in 2 days.  Sure enough it was seen near dusk the day I got home, so it was time to put a plan in place to give it a try the next morning.  I contacted birding friend Laura Carberry to see if she would be interested in going along, and we came up with a plan to head to Bridgeport.

By this time you may be wondering how all this relates to the Royal Terns– it’s a convoluted story but I’ll get there.

We arrived at Seaside Park in Bridgeport mid-morning and found local CT birder Frank Mantlik already on-site.  Unfortunately he didn’t have the bird, and despite multiple birders there since dawn, no one had seen it that day.  We spent maybe an hour there scoping the distant fence line where it had been seen the last couple days, and saw a couple Phoebes that briefly got us excited, but no Kingbird.  A few Pipits and several migrant Sharp-shins came by while we were there, but it was really slow otherwise.  Although both of us really wanted the Kingbird, it seemed like a long shot.  And with so few birds around at all, we decided to move on to some better birding spots nearby.  Laura had never been to Milford Point, so we headed there for some general birding on this nice fall day.

The Connecticut Audubon center at Milford Point has always been one of my favorite birding spots, with numerous excellent habitats in quite a small area.  We found 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Harriers, and several distant Brant in the marsh.  The woods were alive with Yellow-rumps, and one late Blue-headed Vireo.  The beach had a nice flock of Dunlin and Sanderlings, along with the regular gulls, and more Brant.  And Laura picked out a nice male Hooded Merganser which was quite the surprise in salt water. 

As we pulled away from Milford Point I did a quick search of the listserve to check on the Kingbird, but the only posts were negative.  Then I noticed a post that Royal Terns were “still being seen” at Sachem’s Head in Guilford, with 18 Royals and over 20 Forster’s seen the day before.  Two weeks earlier several Royal Terns were spotted at Hammonasset State Park over a 4-day period.  Additionally, a flock had been reported at Sachem’s Head but from private property.  Since these birds don’t typically stick around, and the apparent best spot was not accessible, I hadn’t chased after them.  But now, more than a week after the last post, here comes a report of a remarkable flock still present.  And Sachem’s Head was 45 minutes east of us, just a few minutes off the route home.  We had to give it a try, though hopefully without getting arrested for trespassing.

Neither today’s post, nor the earlier posts, had given specific locations for the birds.  When I had researched these birds 2 weeks earlier I saw that the location given on the e-bird posts was just off-shore to the southeast of the peninsula – though who knows if that was accurate.  And one post had mentioned the birder walked across the road to see the birds from his neighbor’s yard.  En route Laura tried to get an address for the local birder but to no avail.  So that was all we had to go on.

We arrived on the Sachem’s Head peninsula and headed toward the southeast coastline since the e-bird location was likely our best starting point.  In our first view of the coast we spotted some rocks just off-shore, but there were no birds present.  We then drove a bit farther and made our way down to the water on Vineyard Point Road.  As we crossed a low causeway with rocky shoreline to the right and salt marsh to the left, Laura noticed some birds on some distant rocks to the southwest (in the vicinity of Hatch Rock).  We quickly scanned with binocs, picking out 2 Laughing Gulls on the rocks.  I was just about to move on when I noticed two terns flying near the rocks – maybe we had found the right spot.  We quickly pulled over and got out the scopes.  There were indeed 2 Laughing Gulls near the tip of the rocks.  But what we had overlooked with the binocs was the mixed flock of smaller, paler terns sitting nearby.  (In our own defense, the rocks were after all about 2,500 feet away.)  We spent the next several minutes scanning the rocks and picked out 7 Royal Terns, and 8 Forster’s Terns, along with several Laughing and Herring Gulls and a pair of Turnstones. 

These terns were still being reported several days later, meaning they were in the area for more than 2 weeks.  That’s amazing for Royal Terns that don’t typically stick around.  Plus, for a species that is a rarity in CT, this was a remarkable number of birds.  And this was the last week of October which is extremely late for Royal Tern.  In “Connecticut Birds” by Zeranski and Baptist published in 1990, the latest fall departure date was listed as September 25.  Though in recent years there have been a number of late fall sightings - e-bird has a number of other October sightings, and even a few in November. 

Royal Tern was #314 for me in CT, and #1,986 in New England – just 14 more to go to 2,000.  It’s been a good year for me for Terns in New England – 2 Royals in Maine, a Sandwich and Gull-billed in MA, a Royal in RI (though not a new statebird), and now 7 Royals in CT.  I’ve now seen Royal Terns in each Atlantic coastal state from Maine to Florida (except NY), all the Gulf Coast states west to TX, and in CA (see my statebird map below).  It’s quite a rarity in New England though increasing, so I’m happy to have it in 5 New England states (it’s certainly not an expected bird for VT).