Snowy Search Yields one RI Rarity but not Two, December 2017

With a quick scan of late evening e-mails I noticed reports of a Le Conte’s Sparrow seen that morning in Warren, RI by local resident Tom Seiter.  Three times I’ve chased after Le Conte’s Sparrow in late fall or winter in New England and each time the bird stuck around for a while.  So I was hopeful that this one might too.  I couldn’t head out the next day but could go on the third day, so I closely watched for updates.  Unfortunately the only update that came across was that there was no available parking in the area.  That likely meant that few if any birders gave it a try, so there were no further updates on the status of the Sparrow that day.

Then later that day came a post that there was a White-winged Dove coming to a feeder at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, RI – only the 4th record for RI.  With multiple posts during the day it appeared that the Dove was being seen reliably at the feeder.  Middletown is less than a half hour’s drive from Warren, so it would certainly be feasible to chase after both the Le Conte’s and the Dove the next day.  However, White-winged Doves are often 1-day wonders in New England.  Although I’ve seen this species twice in New England which were long-staying birds in MA and CT, I’ve chased after two different birds in NH and two others in ME unsuccessfully.  And there were no positive reports on the Sparrow, though at least that species has a track record of staying around for a while. 

Hmm, what to do…  Despite some misgivings, I decided to try for both birds the next day.  And with a quick e-mail exchange from Tom, he agreed to meet me the next morning to search for the Sparrow, greatly increasing my chances for his bird.  I would start early morning in Warren to try for the Le Conte’s, then head south to the Norman Bird Sanctuary to try for the Dove.  Although I tried to stay positive and hope for 2 new RI birds, I was realistically expecting just 1, and realized that there was more than a fair chance that I could miss both targets. 

As I headed out the door the next morning I made one last check of the forecast - seasonably cold weather, light winds, with maybe a quick hit of an inch of snow in southern RI.  That would certainly be manageable.  Though as I started my drive south I ran into light snow in southern MA.  And by the time I hit northern RI the roads were already white.  When I finally made it to Warren a couple inches had fallen and it was still coming down quite hard.  I made it to Tom’s house and his unplowed road was quite a challenge.  But snow on the roads was likely to be a minor problem compared to looking for a skulking Sparrow with a deep snow cover on the ground.  We walked down to the marsh where Tom had seen the sparrow and now had a good 3 inches of snow covering the ground.  We started to walk along the marsh edges where he had the bird 2 days earlier but with no luck.  We were soon joined by 4 other birders, and all of us first walked along the edges, then trudged through the adjacent marsh, but didn’t see a single bird.  I also tried to play some tape of the Le Conte’s call note (the bird I saw in ME was quite tape responsive) but got no replies.  After about an hour we called it quits.  Maybe the bird was still around and skulking under the new snow.  Or then again, maybe it was just a 1-day wonder.

And speaking of 1-day wonders, as I headed back to my car I checked my e-mails to see if the White-winged Dove had been reported that morning.  But there were no posts at all.  Typically no news was bad news, though I tried to be optimistic - it was still early and maybe the snow had deterred birders from looking for it that morning.  Plus maybe everyone who wanted to add it to their RI state lists had already seen it the day before.  So I called the Sanctuary to ask for updates but they said that no one had looked for the Dove yet.  At least that wasn’t a negative report.  So I started the drive south luckily with just lighter snow falling.

The previous day the Dove was always seen at or above the feeder to the right of the walkway as you headed to the welcome center.  This feeding station was obvious when I got to the Sanctuary, but the only birds in the area were 5 Crows.  So after a quick look I headed in to the main building to check in, and to ask if anyone had seen the Dove yet.  The good news was that the bird had indeed been seen that morning, but it was seen all around the building not just at the feeder at the entrance. 

I headed back out and checked the entrance feeder east of the building but it still just had Crows.  Then I headed around to the south and found another feeding station with a bunch of birds, including a couple Mourning Doves, but no White-winged Dove.  I noticed more activity behind the building to the west, and found yet another feeder with more activity, and another Mourning Dove.  But still no target bird.  Now I understood why the Dove could be seen all around the building.  Now I just needed to re-find it. 

I retraced my steps and returned to the south of the building and watched that feeder for a couple minutes.  Then I noticed a large bird fly in to the top of a tree on the other side of the building.  I knew right away that was a Dove, but it took a few seconds to see enough field marks to confirm it was my target White-winged Dove.  Wonder where it flew in from?  Just a couple seconds later it dropped down out of view near the east feeder.  I headed back there and spotted it again perched above the feeder it frequented yesterday.  Then a couple minutes later it flew back behind the building to the west.  After a bit of searching I spotted the White-winged Dove perched deep inside a honeysuckle thicket just below a Mourning Dove.  I got this photo of both Doves by holding my phone up to my binocs.  Unfortunately the White-winged had just fallen asleep so I missed getting a shot of the bird’s red iris.

Good thing at least one of my targets wasn’t a 1-day wonder!  Though a bit surprising that the target that has a track record of sticking around was the one that couldn’t be re-found.  The White-winged Dove was #328 for me in RI, which was my 17th state for this species.  I’ve now seen it in most of the southwestern and Gulf Coast states in its normal range, and now in several Midwest and New England states where it is a rare but regular vagrant (see my statebird map below).

And on a bigger picture note – that was my Total Tick #14,500.  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “Total Ticks” is the sum of your state and province lists.  Many years ago I hoped to get to 10,000 Total Ticks but blew by that milestone back in 2003.  More recently I’ve set my eyes on 15,000 – just 500 more to go!