A trip to visit
relatives in MD in January gave me an opportunity to fill a few gaps in my
Mid-Atlantic statelists, not to mention pursue a few rarities. With the help of eBird Needs Alerts in MD,
DC, and VA I found several targets in the area, though they were pretty spread
out. In DC potential statebirds were
Turkeys and Lesser Black-Backed Gull both seen occasionally in Anacostia River
Park. Plus there were several sightings
of Common Goldeneye and older reports of Tundra Swan in the Potomac seen from
the Alexandria waterfront (the whole river is in DC). The VA targets were more numerous, including
a long-staying Clay-colored Sparrow at the Laurel Hill Equestrian Center,
seemingly reliable Iceland and Glaucous Gulls at the Occoquan Regional Park and
sites downriver, and a Rough-legged Hawk and Short-eared Owls at Dulles
Airport. And in MD there was one key
target – an overwintering Harris’s Sparrow at Bladensburg Waterfront Park.
That gave me a
lot to search for. Luckily I had a full
day and an early morning of another day to chase after my targets, and I’d
likely need all of that time. Of all those
targets the most important ones were in VA since my state total was 14 over the
old reportable threshold, putting me just 1 short of my somewhat arbitrary
“Reportable Plus 15” goal. So my plan
was to make a couple quick stops in DC and then spend the rest of the first day
in northern VA. Then early the next morning
I would try for the Harris’s in MD.
Anacostia River
Park is a nice urban park running more than 2 miles along the southeastern side
of the river. This stretch can have some
nice waterfowl (I had Cackling Goose here before), and wintering gulls
including Lessers and Iceland. And then
there is the potential for Turkeys – this is basically the only spot for them
in DC, though they are often elusive.
(I’ve tried for them unsuccessfully quite a number of times.) I arrived in the park at dawn and drove slowly
along the road looking for Turkeys to the inland side and gulls on the
river. But I was coming up empty on both
targets. Finally I got to the southern
end of the park and noticed a few gulls on the ice. A quick binocular scan yielded one
darker-backed bird in the distance. With
the scope I confirmed it as an adult Lesser Black-Backed, and I was able to get
this distant phonescoped photo.
DC was my 29th
jurisdiction for this rare but increasing Larid (see my statebird map below),
and it was #184 for my DC list.
I spent a few
more minutes touring the park without finding any Turkeys (again!), so with the
key VA targets still ahead of me, I quickly headed to Alexandria to try for the
waterfowl. My first stop was at the
Washington Sailing Marina and it was absolutely loaded with ducks – I guessed
3,000 to 4,000 birds total. But despite
lots of scanning I couldn’t find a lone Goldeneye that had been seen there
recently. And a local birder I ran into there
said the Tundra Swan hadn’t been seen for several days. So rather than further stops for the Swan, it
was on to VA.
My first stop
was at the Laurel Hill Equestrian Center where a Clay-colored Sparrow had been
seen daily for some time feeding with White-crowned Sparrows along the grassy
edges of the parking lot. Seemed like a
slam dunk. As I pulled into the lot I
spotted a couple birders a short distance away and asked if they had seen the
bird. One birder mentioned she had
spished it in earlier in some brambles, but it hadn’t been since recently. Another birder said to find the White-crown
flock and you would find the Clay-colored.
But there were no sparrows at all feeding at the edges of the parking
lot. And although I found a number of
sparrows including a few White-crowns in the brambles throughout the area, I
never found a pure flock of White-crowns.
After about an
hour I spotted a mid-sized raptor fly into a tree almost directly
overhead. It was a Merlin that stayed
for at least 10 minutes. Needless to say
it scattered the sparrows down below.
While I waited for it to fly away so the sparrows would come back out, I
mentally reviewed by VA state list and I realized that I actually needed Merlin
for VA – that was number 247 for VA – 15 over the old ABA reportable threshold! I now have 40 states plus DC meeting my
Reportable Plus 15 goal. My Merlin
statebird map is pretty spotty for a species which is reasonably common
country-wide.
But now it was
time to get back to the sparrow search. I spent another hour scouring the area,
finding more sparrows including more White-crowns, but no Clay-colored. Since Occoquan Regional Park was only about
15 minutes away, I decided to head there to try for the white-winged gulls, and
then come back to try for the Clay-colored again. Both Iceland and Glaucous had been reported at
the park several times recently on eBird, as well at sites farther down the
river, so I figured both would be somewhat reliable. As I pulled up to the park I could see a
couple birders already there with their scopes trained on the river and the
flock of about 150 gulls out there on the ice.
I hurried up to them only to find out that not only did they not have
the target birds, but one birder had been there for a while without
success. And worse yet - he had looked
for the gulls there several times without any luck. I asked about the spots down river and the
birders suggested they would be even longer shots. Though one birder did give me a new tip for
finding the Clay-colored.
The target
gulls certainly weren’t in the park, so I decided to head downriver to try for
the gulls there. I found good numbers of
gulls on the water and shorelines, but couldn’t tease out any of my
targets. I had struck out on the
white-winged gulls.
So I made my
way back to the Equestrian Center to try for the Clay-colored again. I figured I could give it about an hour
before having to make my way to the Dulles Airport to try for the Rough-leg and
Short-ears there. First I checked on the
grass around the parking lot and again found no sparrows at all. Then I headed to the spot suggested by the
birder at the Occoquan Park. It had lots
of sparrows, but no Clay-colored. After
my allotted hour I gave up and chalked it up as yet another missed target.
I wasn’t being
too successful in VA – things had to pick up at Dulles, right? The key location for the recent Rough-legged
Hawk and Short-eared Owl reports was a hotspot called “Dulles Airport- Snowy
Owl Observation Point”. After some
research it looked like this spot was actually a parking garage, which I
confirmed by asking a few birders I had met earlier in the day. They also confirmed that security wouldn’t
arrest a birder using a scope there to peer out over the runways. (It’s never good to be arrested while
birding.) I think I had it figured out.
I needed to get
there early enough to try for the Rough-leg but stay late enough for Short-ears
to appear. So I arrived at 3:45 to give
me maybe an hour to look for the Rough-leg before dusk. I started my scans of the areas around the
runways, and soon spotted several Red-tails perched in trees around the
perimeter of the airport, but no apparent Rough-legs. Then in the distance I spotted 3 Harriers
dive bombing what appeared to be a large dark raptor perched on a low
post. After some time I could eventually
pick out some field marks on the perched bird and it appeared to be a
Rough-leg. But it wasn’t until I watched
the hawk fly a short distance down to ground apparently to capture prey that I
could confirm it was a Rough-leg. Not
bad for a bird more than a mile away! VA
was my 30th state for Rough-legged Hawk – I still need it in a number of states
especially in the upper Midwest.
Harriers will often
roost in the exact same areas as Short-ears.
In fact, Harriers head to these roosts in the evening at about the same
time that Short-ears come out to start their “day” – a changing of the guard
kind of thing. So since there were 3
Harriers harassing the Rough-leg late in the day, I was hopeful that I might
find Short-ears in the same area as dusk approached. While I was waiting for it to get darker
(dusk was still an hour away) a couple other birders arrived, and I got them on
the distant Rough-leg. And sure enough
the Harriers were still harassing it.
And then as I was pointing out the raptors to one birder I noticed a
different bird harassing the Rough-leg – it was a Short-eared Owl! I was able to watch the owl on an off for the
next 10 minutes as it flew around the area.
Nice to not have to wait for dusk.
My statebird map for this species is really spotty – I still need it in
many different states across the country.
That gave me
249 on my VA statelist – now 17 over the old ABA threshold.
The next day I planned
to head down to Bladensburg Waterfront Park in MD to try for the Harris’s
Sparrow that had been at the park for some time. The bird was most often seen feeding in one
stretch of one of the trails with other sparrows, eating seed that had been
placed there by helpful local birders. Although
that all seemed easy enough, actually the bird wasn’t being seen on every trip
there. My guess was that if a group of
birders was at the site they might end up scaring away the sparrows along with
the Harris’s, keeping them from feeding out in the open. So to maximize my chances I decided to get to
the park as early as possible and be the first birder to the site.
Right on
schedule I arrived at the park about 20 minutes before sunrise, and quickly
took the 15 minute walk to the area where the sparrow was being seen. I was the only person there – so far so
good. As I neared the bird’s preferred
part of the trail I could see a number of sparrows up ahead feeding out in the
open. I stopped for a while
optimistically searching through them but there was no Harris’s. Then I happened to look farther down the
trail and there was another flock of sparrows feeding there as well. I got a few steps closer to that second area,
though still keeping my distance, and scanned through that second group. And within seconds the Harris’s popped out
into the open and fed right out in the trail, providing distant but excellent
looks at this continuing rarity. Isn’t
it nice when your plans come together so well.
That was #331 for my MD statelist.
MD was my 6th eastern state, along with 1 western state (WA) where I’ve
seen Harris’s Sparrow as a vagrant, along with most of the central states where
it is a common migrant and wintering species.
A nice couple days
of birding with 5 new statebirds, especially for states where I already had
pretty good lists.
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