I had just completed a most successful day
of birding in north-central IA, the second of a 3-day statebirding trip, adding
22 statebirds to my IA list. (See my earlier post for a summary of the north-central IA stops.) Now I had a
4-hour drive east across northern IA to my hotel at the WI/IA border. The plan was to start birding at dawn the
next morning at Pikes Peak State Park – IA that is, not CO! My iPhone app said I would get to my hotel at
about 7 PM, roughly 45 minutes before sunset.
That would give me just enough time to do a little bit of birding that
evening. That meant in theory it was
feasible to try to add at least 1 bird to my WI list to get to Reportable Plus
15 – the old ABA reportable threshold plus 15 more to stay above the threshold
as it slowly creeps up. Wyalusing State
Park, with recent reports of 8 possible WI statebirds, was just a few minutes
from my hotel. But with very limited
time, and a large park to cover, I’d have to be very efficient in my
searches. There were very specific
locations given for recent Chat sightings, so I keyed in on Chat as my prime
target to reach my WI objective. And as
I continued across the northern tier of IA anxious to get into WI, I was able
to find a Gray Partridge along the road – though I already had it for my IA
list.
I reached Wyalusing SP just after 7, and
while paying the entrance fee at the guard shack, I took a couple minutes to
look through the huge flock of hummingbirds coming to the feeders. I guessed there were at least 25 – I’ve never
seen so many Ruby-throats at one feeding station. Just a quarter mile down the road was the
field where the Chats had been reported.
And this site looked good for another target, Orchard Oriole, so I was
optimistic. But after 20 minutes birding
around the field I found neither target, though a female Baltimore Oriole got
me excited for a few seconds. I then
spent a few minutes at the field across the street but again came up
empty. I guess it was too late in the
year for them to still be singing.
What to do…
I was tempted to just call it quits – afterall it had been a long
day. But I needed just 1 bird for my WI
list. So I decided to head briefly to
the woodlands up ahead to try for another recently reported target – Acadian
Flycatcher. One quick stop in good
habitat yielded a singing Wood Thrush, which was a good sign since I needed
that one the next morning in IA. But I
already had it in WI; and I didn’t hear any Acadians. As I drove up ahead in the next patch of
woods I heard a snippet of song that sounded like Kentucky Warbler. I stopped the car and listened – it was
indeed a Kentucky, which eventually came out in the open for some good views. A rarity in eBird, and a new one for my WI
list. I’ve now seen Kentucky Warbler in
most all of the states in its regular range, along with a few as a rarity in
the northeast (see my statebird map below).
WI was now my 37th state where I had
reached my Reportable Plus 15 goal.
Day 3 – Eastern IA
My first planned stop of the day was at Pikes
Peak State Park, right along the Mississippi River. Quite a number of my target birds had been
reported from the park going back to early summer, but there had only been a
couple eBird reports from the park since mid-June, with few targets reported
recently. To maximize the potential to
hear any song that might still continue this late in the year, I planned to
arrive at the park pre-dawn, starting first at the trail to the Bridal Veil
Falls where Yellow-throated Warbler had been reported, followed by a walk along
the Point Ann Trail where several other targets had been reported.
My route toward the park first took me along
the Mississippi River in the quaint little town of McGregor, and then up a
steep hill on County Road 56 along the western side of the park. As I started to climb the hill I realized I
was in excellent woodland habitat, and decided to roll down the windows and
drive slowly to see what I might hear.
Instantly I heard a Wood Thrush singing (IA statebird #23). IA was likely my last state to find this
eastern species.
And then seconds later I heard a song I
couldn’t place that sounded a bit like slow Indigo Bunting notes. I pulled over to try to check out this unusual
song, and while I played a few options on my BirdTunes app, a pair of Barred
Owls started to call back and forth to each other. Eventually I played Yellow-throated Warbler
and it was a match (IA #24). Then I
heard the “chip-burr” of a Scarlet Tanager (IA #25). As I continued to listen to what was becoming
a nice dawn chorus, a Red-shouldered Hawk started to call from trees on the
hillside above me (IA #26). That gave me
4 new statebirds and I hadn’t even gotten to the park yet! And since I got the Yellow-throated Warbler here,
I no longer needed to bird the Bridal Veil Trail, and could head right to the
Point Ann Trail.
The trail map for the park showed the Point
Ann Trail passing through some nice woodlands where I hoped to get remaining
targets like Acadian Flycatcher and Ovenbird.
Plus the park had been a reliable spot for Blue-winged Warbler earlier
in the summer though no locations had been given. I picked out a side-trail called the Bluebird
Trail which passed through a more open area as a possible area for the
Blue-wings. I started walking through
the woodlands and heard more Tanagers and Wood Thrushes, along with good
numbers of Pewees and woodpeckers, but couldn’t scare up an Acadian or Ovenbird. I reached the beginning of the Bluebird
Trail, and this area did indeed look excellent for Blue-wings with many acres
of low brushy trees in an old overgrown field.
The trail was very birdy, with many Bluebirds, along with a couple
families of Redstarts, but no Blue-wings.
Finally after slowly walking through quite a bit of nice habitat I heard
a short song of a Blue-winged Warbler (IA #27) – I guess they aren’t one to
sing later in the summer. I’ve now seen
this species in most of its breeding range, but still need it as a migrant in a
couple southeastern states.
With that target finally under my belt, I
headed back into the woodlands toward the point. Within a short distance I reached a powerline
cut providing an opening through some really nice mature deciduous trees. One of my low-potential targets for the
woodlands in the park was Cerulean Warbler, which typically stop singing quite
early in the summer. And since they
prefer high elevation canopies, they can be next to impossible to find after
the early summer – hence the reason why I gave myself only a 10% chance of
finding this target even though they had been reliably reported in the park
earlier in the summer. But at the
powerline cut I had great views of the canopy, so I spent quite a bit of time
searching for foraging, albeit quiet, Ceruleans near the tops of the
trees. This spot turned out to be quite
birdy, including families of Yellow-throated Vireos and Redstarts. But despite my optimism, there were no
Ceruleans. At one point I noticed a bird
perched in the open near a tree top, and as I put it in my binocs (it turned
out to be a Tanager), a Peregrine Falcon passed through my field of view in the
background (IA #28). Peregrines had
nested n a grain silo in McGregor earlier in the year, so this was undoubtedly
one of those local birds. I had planned
to spend some time looking for the falcons in McGregor after leaving the park,
so that meant one less stop for later in the day.
I returned to the trail and continued
through some excellent Acadian and Ovenbird habitat. Although both were reported regularly in the
park earlier in the summer, they were certainly being quiet that day, even
though there was quite a bit of song otherwise.
Then as I neared the point I thought I heard a distant “che-bek” call of
an Acadian. I stopped and cupped my
hands around my ears – a few seconds later I heard another really distant call,
and then another (IA #29). Would have
been easier if it had been right along the trail, but I’ll take it. Now I just needed Ovenbird, and I continued
to listen intently for a “teacher, teacher” song as I continued down the trail,
but with no luck.
Eventually I reached Point Ann, and emerged
from the trees into a clearing finding myself on a bluff high above the
Mississippi River. The views of the
river and adjacent floodplain below were amazing- this iPhone shot doesn’t do
it justice.
But despite the nice scenery, I needed to
get back to the birds. There was quite a
bit of activity along the edge of the woods, and I soon picked out more Redstarts
and Chickadees as they actively foraged.
Then I got a glimpse of a small bird that was mostly white below with a
bit of streaking on the sides – could it have been a Cerulean? A few seconds later I noticed more movement
among the leaves and this time got a good view – it was indeed a Cerulean
Warbler (IA #30). I kept watching these
trees and found another Cerulean just a few feet away, and then 2 more – it was
probably a family group. I can’t
remember the last time I’ve seen Ceruleans on their breeding grounds without
first hearing their song. And like the powerline
cut, the point provided a nice opportunity to view the woodland edge for these
canopy dwellers. My statebird map is
still very spotty for this species, especially in states where it is an elusive
migrant.
I birded the point a bit longer, and
continued to see the Ceruleans which were now quite cooperative. Other notable birds here were another Acadian
which I heard in the distance, and a couple Tufted Titmice near the northern
edge of their range. I need this one in
MN, and even though the point is less than 35 miles from the MN line, I would
be unsuccessful in finding this target to the north.
I retraced my route back through the
woodlands for one more chance to hear (or see) an Ovenbird, but struck
out. As I walked along I started to
think about my Ovenbirds back home which are very common breeders in the woods
around my yard. Though I hear them daily
early in the summer, I actually hadn’t heard one at home for some time. So perhaps this may be another species that
stops singing early in the summer. And
as I neared my car I realized I had added all of my reasonably likely eastern
IA targets except for the Ovenbird. I
had initially planned to make stops at a couple more IA locations to the north,
but figured the possibility of finding an Ovenbird, or a less likely target,
was quite low. Plus leaving IA earlier
than planned meant I had more time for MN stops later in the day. So I decided to call it quits for the IA
portion of my trip, and head to MN. (As
it turns out I probably made the right decision on not trying for Ovenbirds
elsewhere in IA since I did not have any that afternoon in MN as well, even
though a couple stops were in good habitat.)
See my earlier post for the MN portion of
Day 3 of my trip.
I ended the trip with 119 species in IA, 30
of which were new for my statelist - obviously way over my expected 19 new
species. My only reasonably likely
targets that I missed were King Rail, Solitary Sandpiper, and Ovenbird. I can’t thank Joe Jungers and Lee Schoenewe
enough for all their great help in showing me around north-central IA! Plus I added one in WI giving me 231 in that
state – exactly Reportable Plus 15.
My IA statelist is now at 208, just 3 short
of the old ABA threshold. Not bad given
that I’ve only birded in IA 3 times for a total of 6 days! With a little web research I found that the
current overall IA statelist stands at 427, resulting in a new threshold of
213.5. Again a reason to aim for the
Reportable Plus 15 goal, which for IA would be 226. One year I plan to do a spring migration trip
to include western IA, eastern SD and eastern ND, where I hope to be able to
get to Reportable Plus 15 in all 3 of those states. And perhaps I can bird with Joe and Lee again
on that trip too.
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