2014 Birding Year in Review

2014 was another exciting birding year, featuring a very strong year of statebirding, 2 new ABA reportable states, an excellent year of statebirding in New England putting me just shy of my goal of 2,000, and 3 new ABA lifers. 

My big statebirding trip in 2014 was to ND and MT (my last 2 states with small lists) and SD to inch closer to the old ABA reportable threshold.  Another key objective was to clean-up a species I had on my life list, Baird’s Sparrow, which was based solely from a winter sighting in AZ in 1994 which I now question.  The good news is that I saw numerous Baird’s in all 3 states, so I definitely cleaned that one up.  See my phonescoped photo below of a most cooperative bird in Montana.

But I added another bird to my life list that will require some clean-up down the road – Spotted Redshank.  I got a fleeting glimpse of a breeding plumaged bird in the northern edge of ND during a big shorebird fallout.  The bird was with 2 yellowlegs, was similar sized, all black below, long dark bill and long pointed wings, and seen at a distance of less than 20 feet.  That description alone might sound pretty good for a Spotted Redshank.  But the problem is that I only saw it in flight and I was driving at the time.  Like I said, I’ll need to clean that one up in the future.  Sure didn’t expect a life bird on this trip!

My statebirding highlights included -

•  North Dakota.  In 3 full days and 2 partial days of birding in central and western parts of the state I saw 201 species, adding 126 to my statelist - much better than I ever expected.  That gives me 205 for my ND statelist – 6 over reportable.  ND is now my 44^th reportable state, and the 46th state with at least 200 species.  Included in my totals were several rarities – a female MacGillivray’s Warbler during a major passerine fallout at Willow Lake, a male Black-throated Gray Warbler at Lostwood NWR, not to mention the Redshank. 
• Montana.  I birded eastern MT in 2 full days and 2 partial days, tallying 161 species, adding 106 to my statelist giving me 175 on my MT list.  I was lucky enough to find 2 rarities on this part of the trip, both at the same spot – a Broad-winged Hawk and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the Wildwood Park migrant trap in Plentywood.
• South Dakota.  I spent 2 half-days birding in northwestern SD in the ponderosas and grasslands.  My best birding highlight was seeing Saw-whet Owls nesting in boxes built by local birder Charley Miller.  I saw 111 species, adding 22 to my statelist.  My new total is now 203, just 13 shy of reportable, and my 45th state over 200.

Perhaps the part of my trip I enjoyed the most was my visit to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.  Not only were there great birds, but the scenery was amazing –

And the herds of buffalo, along with numerous cowbirds, made me wonder what the area might have been like a couple hundred years ago.
 

And while birding along the northern edge of ND I realized I was very close to Manitoba one day and Saskatchewan on another day.  Since I had never birded in either province, I decided to make brief 1-hour stops in both locations, getting 40 species in MB and 48 in SK.  Later in the year I made a 1-day foray into Quebec seeing my first 63 species for that province.  Maybe this will be the beginning of an interest in growing my province lists.  I still have only 415 ticks in 6 provinces and just 237 total species throughout Canada.  Now that I have significant lists in all US states (except HI), I'll have to do more statebirding in the Canadian provinces if I want to significantly increase my total ticks tally.

Another focus in 2014 was to work on my WV list, with several trips to eastern WV near Morgantown.  When the year started I had just 178 birds on my WV list, which was exactly at the ABA reportable total.  With help from local birder Terry Bronson, I added 25 birds to my list giving me 202 for the state.  This was my 47^th state over 200 (only DC, IA, MT, and HI are below 200).  And of course that will put me over the threshold to stay.  Several of my new birds were rarities for WV like Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls, Marsh Wren, and Nelson’s Sparrow – all 4 of which I found myself.  See my phonescoped photo of the Lesser Black-backed Gull below.

In August I added a day to a San Francisco business trip for some statebirding in the Reno/Carson City, NV area.  My first key focus area was the thin sliver of NV in the Sierras, where I was successful in adding birds like Pileated Woodpecker, Willamson’s Sapsucker and Pacific Wren which are very difficult in NV.  I filled a number of other gaps in my statelist, and ended the day at Pyramid Lake salt flats searching for migrant shorebirds.  With a severe thunderstorm on the way, I was able to stay just long enough to get 3 more species for my list.  Check out the ominous clouds at this desert location.

That gave me 242 which is the old ABA threshold – my 45^th state.  However, with a bit of research I found that the official NV list as of 12/27/13 was at 492.  So if the ABA was still publishing thresholds at half the state total, the present threshold would be 246.  So somewhat of a hollow victory, and the reason I want to be at least 15 over the old ABA threshold in each state.

And speaking of the “reportable plus 15 goal”, that was my target on a September trip to southwestern LA.  I was 11 over threshold at the beginning of the year, so I added a day to a Houston trip to try to get at least 4 more.  Although I had lots of possibilities, I only added 4 new statebirds – but that met my target of reportable plus 15.

Another state where I had considerable success in 2014 was CA.  I travel to CA regularly for business, and got 7 of 8 targets on 3 different trips.  Unfortunately target #8 was a stakeout Falcated Duck which I tried for twice with no luck.  My nemesis bird! 

On all my trips I have received tremendous help from local birders.  Many thanks to all who gave me great advice! 

And of course there’s my New England birding, where I had a great year adding 39 new statebirds.  One of my more successful New England birding trips this year was to the boreal forests of ME and NH where I got all 4 of my targets – Three-toed Woodpecker, Spruce Grouse, and Bicknell’s Thrush in ME, and Spruce Grouse in NH.  I’m now at 1,993, hopefully just a few months away from my 20-year goal of reaching 2,000 in New England.

Here’s the year by the numbers -

Lifebirds -

• 3 new ABA lifebirds –
• Spotted Redshank – Bottineau, ND
• Yellow-Green Vireo – Corpus Christi, TX
• Ridgeway’s Rail – split from Clapper Rail
• But I removed Tropical Mockingbird from my lifelist which I saw in 2012 but was not accepted by the Texas review committee.
•  Plus I “sanitized” Baird’s Sparrow on my lifelist

• ABA total now at 741, US at 743, and Lower 48 at 719

Statebirding (my statebird map below with totals for each state) -

• Newly reportable in ND and NV
• ABA reportable now in 44 states plus DC 
• “Reportable plus 15” in 33 states
• 496 new statebirds – my highest annual total since 1994.  New statebirds in 17 states and 3 provinces.
• 39 new statebirds in New England – 1,993 total ticks now in New England
• Total Ticks – now at 13,197, with 12,789 of those in the U.S. 

 

Looking ahead, I think I may be only about 3 big trips away from reaching most all of my statebirding goals –

• Northern NV, eastern OR, and eastern WA;
• Western MT and the panhandle of ID; and
• Eastern NE, eastern SD, eastern ND, western MN, and western IA.

So although I likely won’t take a big statebirding trip in 2015 due to home commitments this coming spring, maybe I’m just a few more years away from the reportable plus 15 goal in all the lower 48 states.

And with no spring trip to plan for, I’m hoping to be able to really concentrate on New England statebirding in 2015.  With 1,993 total ticks, I can almost taste that long-term goal of 2,000.  Finally, with a lot of business travel across the country, I’ll likely continue to do some chasing of lifers when I can go after them with an extra vacation day here or there.  I’m just 9 short of 750 in the ABA region – a nice goal to pursue. 

Common Crane – Life Bird – Bitter Lake NWR, NM, January 2014

On an upcoming business trip to west Texas I made sure I had some free time so I could take an afternoon off to do some local birding.  As the trip neared I started my research with a scan of the eBird ABA Rarities list and found numerous posts about Common Cranes in the area – 1 near Bitter Lake NWR, NM and likely 2 near Lubbock, TX.  The NM site was closer, but still a good 3+ hour drive from work.  That would be quite the round-trip drive, but if the bird was reasonably reliable, I figured I’d give it a try.  I contacted several birders I know in southeast NM (I’ve birded there a few times in the last couple years) to try to get more information about the bird.  They reported that the bird was somewhat reliable, but not a guarantee.  It was typically seen in the early morning and evening as it roosted with Sandhills at the refuge, and during the day foraging with other Cranes in some nearby agriculture fields.  So it seemed to be worth a try.

I then started to gather more details on the bird’s habits and preferred locations.  During the day it was being seen in ag fields generally centered around East Ground Plains Rd. which was a few miles to the southwest of the refuge.  But it was in different fields on different days.  I was told to just wander around the area and check all the Crane flocks.  And early evening it would come into a roost at Bitter Lake visible from a spot aptly named as the Sandhill Crane Overlook.  Since I would get into the area midday. I figured I would start at the ag fields, and if I didn’t see it there, would head to Bitter Lake in the late afternoon.  A couple days before the trip another post came across saying the water at Bitter Lake was frozen, and although the Cranes were still roosting at the refuge, they were in an accessible location.  That meant my only chances to find the bird would be at the ag fields. 

And finally my last bit of research was to gather information on possible NM statebirds in the area.  I was only 19 over the old ABA threshold, so there were several possible statebirds to look for as well.  But the Common Crane was the key target, so I would only go for other statebirds after I found the Crane – if I find it of course.

I got out of work a bit later than expected, but was still able to get to the area by 1 PM (taking advantage of a 1 hour time change).  I headed right to East Grand Plains Rd. and drove around the area quickly to get a lay of the land.  Unfortunately I didn’t see any Cranes at all.  Then I noticed a very large flock of Cranes flying up out of a field to the east, with many circling overhead.  A few started to land in a field west of School Street, so I drove there to check them out.  In the next 30 minutes Cranes continued to drop into the field right in front of me.  At first I was optimistic that I would soon find the bird.  But as more and more Sandhills came in without their larger Asian cousin, my optimism waned.  Finally I guessed there were 1,000 birds feeding in the field.  Then at 1:30 something spooked the flock and they all took off at once– quite a scene.  This group circled over the field for a while affording good views, but I still could not pick out the target bird.  Eventually they circled higher and higher and headed off to the Northeast roughly in the direction of Bitter Lake.

Over the next hour and a half I drove around the area but found no more Cranes in the fields.  I even started to widen my search, going a couple miles from the areas where the flocks had been reported, but to no avail.  And although there were almost always flocks overhead, none landed, and instead they were quite high and heading northeast.  The only bird of interest was a Merlin I found sitting in one of the fields.  So by 3:00 I was pretty well convinved that I would miss the Common Crane. 

Then on a whim, I wondered if it would be worthwhile to head to Bitter Lake and try there.  It certainly didn’t seem like spending any more time in the fields would fruitful.  So even though the recent advice was the Cranes were no longer visible at the refuge, I decided I might as well give it a try.  What did I have to lose? 

I got to the refuge at about 3:30 and headed for the headquarters to get some advice.  As I pulled in I noticed that all the water in the refuge was open – maybe there was some hope afterall.  I found a refuge employee still there, and he said that the Common Crane had indeed been seen on the refuge that morning.  He directed me to a spot where the Cranes were roosting roughly opposite the Sandhill Crane Overlook.  Although this spot would be looking west into the setting sun (instead of the sun being at my back at the Overlook), I took his suggestion and headed right there.

As soon as I opened my door I heard calling Cranes and quickly spotted the roosting flock – maybe 500 birds mostly centered on a vegetated island in the impoundment.  I scanned the flock several times but did not see the Common Crane.  However, lighting wasn’t the best, and I realized that I couldn’t see the birds on the other side of the island very well.  So once I was convinced that the bird wasn’t in view from this spot, I drove around to the other side of the impoundment to the Sandhill Crane Overlook to try it from that side.

Lighting was much better from the Overlook, so I decided to set up my scope and hopefully wait for the bird to fly in to the roost.  Earlier posts had said the bird arrived at 4:30 or later, so I had some time to wait.  No Cranes were coming in at the time, so I scanned the flock a couple times mostly to just pass the time.  The first scan came up empty.  As I scanned back through the group I spotted a bird that seemed to have a darker neck.  It only took a couple seconds to be sure - it was indeed the Common Crane!  It had been on the part of the island which was not visible from the other side of the impoundment, and was likely there when I arrived. 

I spent at least 30 minutes watching the bird as it walked along the water’s edge among the Sandhills.  Not only was the darker neck and head obvious, but it was noticeably larger than the Sandhills, had a much larger “bustle”, was paler on the back, and had a larger and paler bill.  The bird was pretty distant, but I got these cropped phonescoped photos –

I made sure to post the details of my sighting since the recent guidance had been inaccurate - not only were the Cranes once again roosting at the Sandhill Crane Overlook at Bitter Lake NWR, but the Common Crane was there a lot earlier than in previous days.  Good thing I didn’t give up on the bird when all the Cranes left the ag fields that afternoon.

I left the bird at 4:15 and thought about looking for some other new birds for my NM statelist – several had been reported recently at the refuge.  But it was getting late, and I still had a long ride ahead of me to get back to my hotel.  I made one brief stop back at the headquarters to see what might be at the feeders (an Eastern Towhee had been reported there earlier).  But the only birds at the feeder were a flock of at least a dozen Scaled Quail.  Interestingly I had only seen that species once before in NM and remember having to work very hard to find a single bird in the Albuquerque area last year.  So I left the state with just 1 new statebird – but it was a lifer.

Common Crane was #742 for my ABA list, and #720 for my Lower 48 list.  Plus it was #284 for NM – 20 over the old ABA reporting threshold.

Black-backed Woodpecker, Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, MA, January, 2015

A report of a Black-backed Woodpecker at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston came across the listserve late one January afternoon.  This species has become exceptionally rare in MA, with just one sighting that I can remember in my 20+ years in New England.  This species was formerly more regular, even having invasion years especially tied to major die-offs in its boreal woodlands (based on information from Viet and Peterson’s Birds of Massachusetts).  So this species was not even on my target list of possible rarities to hope to see in MA.  Another birder tried for it near dusk that day without success.  But given how rare it is, and the relatively short ride from home, I decided to try for it at dawn the next morning.  Denny Abbott needed this species for MA as well (that’s how rare it is!), so we planned to try for this one together.

Denny and I arrived at the cemetery at about 7:30 the next morning and went right to the location where it was spotted the previous day.  We quickly found the conifers it was reported to be feeding in (both pines and hemlocks were in the area).  We mostly searched up on the tree trunks and larger branches, but didn’t find any woodpeckers in the area.  We spent at least an hour and a half at this location with no luck, so decided to search other parts of the cemetery.  We found a few of the regular woodpeckers, but no sign of the Black-backed.  At least 50 other birders there that morning only had negative results as well.  So after 3 hours of searching in some pretty cold temperatures, we called it quits.

Two days later came a post that the Black-backed was refound at the same location.  And this time quite a number of birders got to see it posting several photos of the bird.  They also provided more details of how and where it was feeding - on the trunks of hemlocks, and especially quite low on those trunks.  All the photos showed the bird at eye level or lower, and there were a number of photos that showed that many hemlock trunks were missing patches of bark where the bird had been feeding.  Interestingly, neither Denny nor I noticed any bark missing on the trees – we had been looking too high.  And I spent a lot of time looking in the pine trees in the area which wasn’t even the trees it was feeding in.

So Denny and I were back the next morning, arriving with 8 other car loads of birders just before the gate opened at 7 AM.  Within a couple minutes we were back to the original spot and everyone started to fan out.  Now that I knew where the bird preferred to feed, I headed directly to that grove of hemlocks, and began searching low on the trunks.  Not 30 seconds later I noticed a birder a few feet away point ahead into the grove.  In a couple seconds I was looking in the same direction and there was the Black-backed Woodpecker at eye level no more than 30 feet away! 

Over the next half hour the bird stayed on just one tree and moved no more than 10 feet.  Luckily the bird was on the side of the tree in full view of the birders – otherwise we might not have seen the bird.  And although it was tapping and flaking off little bits of bark almost the whole time, it was tapping so quietly we could not have noticed it if we hadn’t seen it first.  In fact, I wonder if the bird might have been present during our previous trip but we overlooked it, maybe even looking at the right tree but too high off the ground.  Lighting wasn’t the best, but I got these OK phonescoped photos of the bird.

 And here is photo of the bird in action tapping away.

MA was only my 7^th state for this bird of the boreal forest – joining ME, NH, VT, and NY in the northeast, and CA and ID in the west.  And this was #405 for me in MA, and #1,994 in New England.  (closing in on 2,000!)

 

8 Statebirds in DC and VA, January 2015

With an upcoming trip to visit relatives in the Mid-Atlantic states, I started to plan a day of statebirding to fill gaps in the local statelists.  My initial plan was to spend a day in VA since my VA statelist was just 7 over the old ABA threshold.  Though as I started to review my list and come up with possible VA targets, I realized that few (if any) of my target birds were really very likely.  So initially I thought that getting maybe 3 new VA statebirds would make for a successful trip.  But then as the trip neared, a number of rarities were being reported in the area that weren’t even on my target list – Clay-colored Sparrow, Cackling and White-fronted Geese, Lapland Longspur, and Snowy Owl.  And by combing through the eBird and listserve reports, there were no less than 6 other possible statebirds reported in northern VA the week before my trip.  Now maybe 6 or 7 new statebirds would be an appropriate goal to set. 

Complicating the situation was that there were recent eBird reports of a couple birds I needed for the DC list as well.  But before I get to the possible DC targets, a little background on the challenges of birding DC is in order.  First of all, the District is a very small area – no bigger than many counties.  And then of course it is very urbanized, with limited good habitat.  So although my DC list was a very small 175, it was actually 10 over the old ABA threshold, and the 8^th highest DC list reported on the ABA website.  As a result I’m probably prouder of my DC list than of any of my lists for the other states.  Now back to the trip at hand - since I would pass through DC in route to northern VA, it would be easy enough to make a couple quick side trips to try for some DC targets to start the day.  So I decided to squeeze in a couple brief stops in DC and then spend the rest of the day in VA.  It would be a full itinerary, but I outlined a plan with 3 DC targets (though only 1 was reported in the last week), and at least 11 VA targets.

As I got ready to leave the house that morning, I checked eBird one last time to see if there were any updates.  Nothing of note was reported in VA, but no less than 4 new targets were reported in DC from the previous day – Tree Sparrow, Meadowlark, Cackling Goose, and Orange-crowned Warbler.  Unfortunately, only the Goose was at a spot that was included in my original itinerary.  Maybe I could get to these other locations if the birds were really cooperative.  Then again, if I added these stops early in the day in DC I could end up running out of time at the end of the day in VA.  Since these newly reported birds would be tough to pass up, I decided to play it by ear and try all these additional locations, adjusting my timing as the day progressed.

I arrived at Kenilworth Park in DC a few minutes before sunrise.  This is the only location in DC with large grassy fields, and is the spot where I’ve gotten my only Grasshopper Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, and Pipits for DC.  The previous day a pair of Tree Sparrows were reported there, with pretty specific micro-directions provided.  A Meadowlark was also found there the day before (this is THE spot for Meadowlarks in DC), though the location was not provided.  As I neared the entrance I saw a police car with its lights flashing blocking the gate – what did that mean?  At the very least I couldn’t drive in through the main entrance.  I drove along the side of the park and was lucky enough to find a spot where I could walk in, which amazingly happened to be close to the Tree Sparrow location.  After a short walk I was in a brushy area that sounded like where the sparrows were seen the day before.  And as I arrived I could hear some sparrow chips from a short distance away.  After a couple minutes of spishing some sparrows came into view, including obscured views of 2 American Tree Sparrows.  That was easy!  I’ve now seen Tree Sparrow throughout the northeast except for DE, and still need it in its wintering range in several western states (see my statebird map below).

I spent another 15 minutes in the park trying for the Meadowlark, but without success.  Though that wasn’t too surprising since I did not have specific location to search.

The next stop was the Anacostia Park where a Cackling Goose was reported the day before.  After just a minute I found 2 small flocks of Canadas in the water.  And within only a minute of searching I found the Cackling Goose in the first flock.  I got these two phonescoped photos of the bird, providing good comparisons with the Canadas.

This park can also be good for rare gulls and Turkeys, but brief looks came up empty.  So it was quickly on to the FDR Memorial where the Orange-crowned Warbler was seen the previous day.  Along the way I started to wonder if I had time to try for this bird, especially since directions were not too detailed.  And then along the way I made a wrong turn and found myself on a bridge heading across the Potomac out of DC.  So I decided to pass on the Warbler and instead headed to two locations in DC where Common Mergansers had been reported.  The first was the Georgetown Reservoir which you can bird in seconds right from your car.  I was really hopeful I would find the Merganser reported there the previous day since that would save me a lot of time, but unfortunately there were no Mergansers.  So the next stop was on the Potomac at Fletcher’s Boathouse (which I eventually got to despite driving the wrong way on a one-way street – oops).  Although this location was just a couple minutes away, it could mean some significant walking to look up and down river for the target birds.  But luckily I quickly found one male Common Merg sitting on rocks at the first river overlook.  My statebird map pretty well matches the normal range for this species except for OH and the Dakotas.

That gave me 3 of 4 likely target birds for DC (though I didn’t try for the Warbler), increasing my list to 178 for the District.  And 2 of the 3 new birds were rarities needing details on eBird. 

I was now 15 minutes ahead of schedule and headed to my first stop in VA.  The first VA targets were White-fronted and Cackling Geese and Lesser Black-backed Gull seen from several locations along the Potomac waterfront in northern Fairfax County.  I was able to pick out the White-fronted quite quickly, even though it was backlit and sleeping at the time (I picked it out based on the horizontal white stripes where the sides and wing coverts come together).  The bird later flew to the Hunting Creek bridge area and gave excellent views.

I’ve seen this species in quite a number of eastern states where it is rare but regular – in fact my coverage for this species in the east is better than in its regular range in the central and western states.

I spent the next hour or so pouring through the Canada Geese looking for the minima Cackling that had been seen just a couple days earlier.  Although I never found that bird, I found at least 20 noticeably smaller geese – most were likely parvipes Canada Geese that had necks and bills that were smaller than the Canadas but with similar proportions to the larger Canadas.  But I also found at least two other smaller geese that had shorter bills and necks that with smaller proportions than for the larger Canadas.  I believe these would be taverner’s Cackling Geese.  And another of the smaller geese had a significant white band at the base of the black collar.  Not clear if that one was a parvipes or a taverner’s.

Several times I took breaks from staring at the Geese to look through the numerous gulls present along the river but to no avail.  But I had several other spots to try for the rarer gulls later in the day.  So 2 getting out of 3 targets here wasn’t bad.

I was now about 15 minutes behind schedule, and off to Woodbridge where the Clay-colored Sparrow had been reported.  Some posts from this spot had White-crowned Sparrows, and one had a Lincoln’s Sparrow and a Merlin – all targets for me.  I arrived at the CCSP spot and the first bird I saw was a Cooper’s Hawk perched low nearby.  Not surprisingly there was no activity there.  So I started working a short distance away and ran into many sparrows but no CCSP, nor any other targets.  I even tried across the road, finding more sparrows, but again no targets.  I had just about given up, and lamented that I had missed all my targets, when a White-crowned Sparrow popped into the open – at least I got 1 new statebird here.  That fills one of the last gaps in my statebird map – I only need it in 3 more states and DC.

Later in the day a birder posted to the listserve that he saw the CCSP about 30 minutes before I arrived – probably before the Cooper’s appeared.  And he saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull a bit farther down the road as well.   

The next stop was at nearby Neabsco Creek to try for recently reported Lesser Black-backed and Iceland Gulls.  There were quite a number of gulls there, but nothing of interest. 

Then on to the Prince William Landfill for one more chance for the rarer gulls.  But I couldn’t talk myself into the active part of the landfill, and could only view the active fill area from a distance.  A quick scan did not reveal any targets.  Then a loud sound from the landfill made all the gulls fly off and away from the landfill complex.  Rather than waiting for them to return, I decided to head out and conserve some time for my last 2 stops of the day.  But that meant I dipped on all the rarer gulls for the day.

The next hot spot was the turf farms near Remington where for some time numerous Lapland Longspurs had been feeding with Horned Larks.  And in the last couple days, another of my targets, American Pipit, was reported there too.  Even including a report from that morning.  When I arrived I popped out of the car and instantly heard a flock of Larks overhead including at least 1 Longspur.  Over the next 20 minutes there were frequent flocks of Larks calling overhead, and most had 1 or more Longspurs.  And at one point a flock of 4 Longspurs flew overhead.  I later found a flock of 60 Larks and 3 Longspurs feeding in one field.  So I estimated I had at least 12 Longspurs during my hour at the turf farms.  I still need this species in a number of states in its winter range.
 

I kept on hoping that I would hear Pipits overhead given all the Lark and Longspur activity, but to no avail. 

My final stop of the day was just outside Reagan National Airport where a very white Snowy Owl had been seen 12 consecutive evenings.  Most every day the bird would first appear on a perch within the airport complex, with the only viewing point being a very distant Gravelly Point.  The Owl typically first appears around sunset each night, which allowed me more time to hit the other spots.  I arrived at Gravelly Point just before sunset and quickly joined a group of about 50 birders and on-lookers looking toward the airport.  The Snowy Owl was already in sight, sitting on a distant windsock at the airport.  I took this phonescoped photo of the bird in the distance –

And then heavily cropped -

VA was only my 11^th state for this widespread bird.  Similar to my statebird map for the Lapland Longspur, I'm missing a lot of states in its wintering range.  I guess I don’t bird much in northern states in the winter.

That gave me 5 new VA statebirds, for a total of 244, or 12 over the old ABA threshold.  And although I missed a few of my VA targets (including 3 seen by others that day), I got 4 of the 5 rarities that had been seen recently.  Those are the most important ones to find – the others can come later.

And for the day, I added 1 new statebirds in each of 8 stops – only missing statebirds on 3 other stops.  A very good start to the 2015 birding year.