“Sanitized for Your Protection” - Second MA Sighting of Trumpeter Swan, Milford, MA, February 2019

Have you ever checked into a motel and noticed a little ring of paper around the toilet seat printed with these words – “Sanitized for Your Protection”?  My good birding friend David Deifik has used this phrase though in a very different context.  Consider the situation most all of us have been in where, although we have a certain bird on our life lists, in the back of our mind we might question the ID, or maybe we just want to get a better view of that species in general.  Once we do get that more definitive view of the species in question we feel much better about having that bird on our list.  Hence our lists have been - “Sanitized for Your Protection”.  

I had an opportunity to “sanitize” my MA statelist a bit in February 2019 when a Trumpeter Swan was spotted with Mute Swans at the Milford Pond in Milford.  I already had this species on my MA list based on a sighting on 3/21/04 in Northampton, MA.  Undoubtedly both the 2004 and the 2019 birds were directly or indirectly associated with the re-introduction efforts occurring in the Great Lakes.  But it was only when I started reading about the reports of the 2019 bird that I realized that the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC) did not accept the 2004 bird because it was felt that the Great Lakes population was not yet self-sustaining.  So although there was no question about the ID of the 2004 bird, it was still not countable on your MA statelist if you wanted to “play by the rules” so to speak.  Instead, the first MA record of Trumpeter Swan to be accepted by MARC was a bird from Charlton in May 2018.  So if I wanted sanitize the Trumpeter Swan record on my MA list I needed to go see the Milford bird.  Assuming this bird ends up being accepted by MARC that is. 

The Trumpeter had been spotted daily since January 28, often associating with several Mute Swans.  And even though the pond froze over during that time, the Trumpeter Swan remained at the pond and was quite reliable.  Most importantly it was indicated in one post that sightings before 2018 weren’t countable, otherwise I would have continued to have a non-countable bird on my MA list.  So on February 5th I made the short trek to Milford Pond, followed the directions to park behind the NRG building on the western side of the pond, and then walked down toward Clark Island.  A couple hours earlier there was a post that the Trumpeter was sitting on the ice north of the island with a pair of Mute Swans, so I was quite optimistic. 

As I neared the island I got a glimpse of Swans out on the ice.  A quick binoc view yielded 3 birds – I likely had the Trumpeter and 2 Mutes but all were sleeping.  I needed a better view.  I walked along the trail on Clark Island and got to a spot where I was closest to the Swans.  From there scope views confirmed 2 Mute Swans now walking around on the ice a bit in the distance, and one closer Swan which was still asleep on the ice.  Undoubtedly this was the Trumpeter but I had to be sure – after all I was there to “sanitize” my list.  Here is a phone-scoped photo of the bird as it slept.

After about 10 minutes I still had no view of the third bird’s head and bill to make a definitive ID.  I started to try to compare sizes since Trumpeters are often a bit bigger than Mutes, but the birds weren’t very close together so comparisons weren’t easy.  Then I realized that the necks of the two Mutes were a bit yellower than that of the sleeping bird – but was that definitive?  Then finally the sleeping bird awoke and raised its head just barely enough to give me a view of the base of the bill – it was all black eliminating Mute Swan.  It also eliminated Tundra, though no Tundras had been reported at the site.  I had my bird – after 15 years Trumpeter Swan was “sanitized for your protection” on my MA list. 

Back in 2004, I counted Trumpeter Swan as #365 on my MA list.  Instead I should have added it in 2019 as #414.  That is assuming MARC ends up accepting this bird in Milford. 

My statebird map for Trumpeter Swan is inserted below.  The shaded states are those where I've seen this species; cross-hatched states are those in which this species is regular but I don't yet have it for that state list.  Most of my sightings in the Midwest and East have been after the Great Lakes re-introduction efforts.  I know my VT sighting in 2017 was countable and accepted by the VT Bird Records Committee.  Hopefully all the others are countable as well, or I’ll have to “sanitize” a bunch of those lists too.

Filling Gaps in Mid-Atlantic State Lists, January 2019

Trips to visit relatives in the Mid-Atlantic states can provide me opportunities to add statebirds in multiple states.  But since I grew up in the area, my lists are already pretty good, so possibilities are likely to be limited to less common species.  With a January trip to visit relatives in southern PA and northern DE, I set up eBird Needs Alerts for PA, DE, and MD.  Multiple opportunities popped up, but most were too far away to chase after given what would end up being pretty limited available time.  After culling through the reports I was left with just three possibilities – American Pipit in PA, and Ring-necked Duck and Painted Bunting in DE.  Now I just had to try to figure out how to squeeze in enough time to go after them.

The first stop on the trip was to south-central PA.  My PA list was 241, the smallest total of all the Mid-Atlantic states, so not surprisingly I had the greatest number of opportunities in this state.  But only the American Pipit was “nearby”.  That is if a 90-minute drive could be considered to be “nearby”.  Multiple Pipits had been reported for some time at a farmfield location near Shippensburg along with Horned Larks and Killdeer, with an occasional Lapland Longspur spotted for good measure.  The site was simply listed as “Mud Level Road”.  And with no specific site mentioned, I assumed there would be one field that might be of particular interest to these prairie birds, perhaps one that was recently manured.  So my plan was to get to Mud Level Road and look for the location that was most appealing to these species.  I only had about 20 minutes available at the site so I crossed my fingers that I would be able to find the right spot quickly.

Although the ground was clear when I left my in-laws’ house in Shrewsbury, I began to notice more patches of snow as I headed north.  Then as I got to Harrisburg the ground was covered in snow or ice from a recent storm.  I began to worry that the field where the Pipits and others had been feeding would now be covered, and the birds would now be dispersed.  In fact, I thought about just turning around and heading back, but figured since I had come this far I may as well give it a try.

As I neared Mud Level Road I saw a large expanse of farmfields, mostly planted in corn in 2018.  That was a lot of great habitat for these prairie birds.  BUT – everything was covered in several inches of snow and/or ice.  I started to think that now my best opportunity to find a Pipit was to search along the edges of roads where a snow plow had exposed a small area of dirt.  And just after I thought about this “Plan B” I came upon 4 birds feeding at the road edge.  But all 4 were Horned Larks.  How many miles would I need to drive to find a Pipit?  With just 20 minutes to look, maybe I could cover 10 miles.  Certainly a needle-in-a-haystack kind of proposition.

I arrived at the GPS coordinates given for the Mud Level Road hotspot and continued to see fields covered in snow and ice.  I drove a bit to the west and just found more of the same and nothing along the road edges.  I pulled over in a small parking lot to try to figure out what to do next.  Luckily I had my window down because I heard several “whit” calls of Horned Larks somewhere nearby.  But with a quick scan I still only saw snow and ice.  Where were those Larks?  

I turned around and headed back to the east and soon noticed a small area in a flooded field to the north that was not frozen (maybe it was spring fed?).  I quickly pulled over and before I could even pick up my binocs I heard the two-note calls of an American Pipit nearby.  With a glance toward the direction of the calls I spotted 4 Pipits feeding nearby among the stubble.  But that was amidst all the ice and snow.  So I next looked over to the wet area and found even more Pipits.  I estimated a total of 25 Pipits, along with 2 Horned Larks.  Not to mention 15 Killdeer that were walking around the area.  And with a closer scope view I spotted 4 Wilson’s Snipe hunkered down in this tiny wetlands.  Apparently all these birds had concentrated in this single area of exposed habitat.  I felt very satisfied that my search had been successful especially given that virtually the entire area was covered in snow and ice.

American Pipit was #242 for my PA list.  Although certainly not a rarity, it is typically seen in the Mid-Atlantic states as a migrant over a narrow window of time, so it can be difficult to add to your state lists unless you happen to be visiting at the right time.  Or if you get lucky enough to find them concentrated in a tiny patch of habitat in mid-winter.  In my statebird map below, the dark-shaded states are those where I’ve seen American Pipit; the 5 cross-hatched states are the last ones where I I still need this species though it is a regular migrant.  I guess I need to spend some more time birding the Midwest and Plains during Pipit migration seasons.

Next it was on to my visit in DE, and the Painted Bunting and Ring-necked Duck targets.  Obviously the frequency of these 2 species in the area is very different - Painted Bunting is quite a rarity while the Ring-necked Duck is rather common in migration and winter.  (I have to ask myself how come I hadn’t seen such a common species in a state in which I had birded extensively.)  The Bunting was coming to several feeding stations along a suburban road near Newark, within 20 minutes of where I was staying.  But the bird was only semi-reliable, with some birders having to wait several hours to see the bird.  Plus who knows how many others were not successful in their searches as negative results are rarely posted.  My birding time would be very limited, and I would be taking my non-birding spouse along with me.  So given the potential challenges in seeing the bird, not to mention likely comments from my wife while I stared at the feeders waiting for it to appear, I had to pass on trying for the Bunting.  

That left the Ring-necked Ducks which were also seen nearby, this time quite reliably at Dragon Run Marsh.  I had tried for this species at this same location back in April 2017, but was a bit too late in spring migration for it that time.  But on this visit I was right in the middle of its normal time to be seen in DE.  And one recent post mentioned seeing Ring-necks right from the road.  So I was quite optimistic I could quickly find this species this time around.  

But there was one other challenge the morning we headed out - it was pouring down rain with flood watches and warnings throughout the area.  As we drove down Route 9 and neared the bridge over Dragon Run Marsh we were in a deluge.  This would be fun!  While still sitting in the car I tried a quick binoc scan of the marsh to the west, but with the terrible visibility and rain pelting the windows I couldn’t see a thing.  So I hopped out and stood under the open tailgate to try again.  This time I could see a small number of ducks in the distance but they were just Mallards or Blacks.  Next I got out the scope and l quickly spotted two Aythya ducks which luckily I could just barely ID through the pouring rain as Ring-necked Ducks.  A 2-minute stop for one statebird – can’t get much more efficient than that even if the target is a pretty common species.

And speaking of common species - I had 2 key reasons to try to add Ring-necked Duck to my DE list – not only was it another “tick” for my DE statelist (#276), but DE was the last state in the continental US that I still needed this species.  Ring-necked Duck is now the 25th species I’ve seen in all the Lower 48 states, plus DC, plus Alaska.  In other words, my statebird map below is all shaded in.

I have also seen 15 other species in all the Lower 48 states and DC but not in Alaska.  Though most of those species are not typically seen in AK.  Two examples of species in this group are Turkey Vulture and Mourning Dove.

All of these species have one key thing in common - they are quite common across the US.  Though it still might take multiple stops to find them, as was the case for my Ring-necked Duck in DE.