Pacific Loon - Statebird #300 in South Carolina, Lake Jocassee, March 9, 2023

On March 4th an e-mail from the Greenville County Bird Club list popped up with this subject line – “Pacific Loon at Devils Fork SP”.  That certainly caught my attention, though I wasn’t sure where Devils Fork SP was.  The body of the e-mail read:

“Jay Mager, an ornithologist who specializes in studies of loons, reported a Pacific Loon on Lake Jocassee at Devils Fork SP around noon today.”

I remember hearing about Lake Jocassee, although I had never been there.  That is the spot that features large numbers of wintering Loons, and where a Pacific Loon was found at that same time of year in 2020.  I didn’t chase after that one as that was at the beginning of the Covid outbreak and I was pretty much sticking around home back then.  So with 3 years of kicking myself for not going after the 2020 bird, I sure wanted to give this one a try. 

The key question was whether it was just passing through or whether it would stick around long enough to chase after.  It was seen again on the 5th so at least it wasn’t just a one-day-wonder.  The next complication was that we had a short family trip scheduled for the 6th through the 8th, so March 9th would be my first opportunity to try for it.  I watched the eBird reports every day, and luckily the Loon was reported daily through the 8th, including with some excellent photos of the bird at quite close range.  The hunt was on!

I was out the door pre-dawn on the 9th feeling quite optimistic that not only would I find the Pacific Loon, but that I would find it quite quickly.  Most of the reports included sightings along the east shore of the lake near the Villa properties.  And the best viewing spot appeared to be from the Eclectic Sun rental shop.  Within minutes of paying the Devils Fork SP entrance fee I had set up my scope on the lawn in front of the rental shop to start my scan of the lake.  I first looked toward the northeast in the vicinity of the Villas but didn’t see any birds at all.  Then I turned my attention to the open lake waters toward the north and northwest, finding a couple Common Loons, but not my target bird.  With additional scans I found a few more Common Loons, a pair of Horned Grebes, and some distant Bonaparte’s Gull but still no Pacific Loon.

Could the Loon be feeding in some other portion of the reservoir that wasn’t visible from the Eclectic Sun?  Or worse yet, had it move on?  Just then a group of birders walked up to me and asked if I had found the Loon yet.  It turned out that they were the ones who first discovered the bird, and told me about a couple small coves near the Villas, not visible from my viewing spot, where they had seen the bird earlier in the week.  So I headed into the Villas and checked out those hidden coves, but to no avail.  I then drove around to the west side of the lake for another viewing angle but just came up with the same birds as before.

It was now longer than I had planned to stay, but I decided to make one more stop at the rental place.  As I started my scans I noticed a pontoon boat far out on the water owned by a group that gives tours of the lake.  I could see several people on the boat with binoculars, and watched the boat slow down each time it passed by a Common Loon.  I assumed it was giving a tour to some birders who were also looking for the Pacific, so I decided to keep a close eye on them in case they got lucky. 

A few minutes later the boat slowed once again.  A short distance ahead of them I could see a Loon on the water – the first thing that jumped out at me was that it was quite a bit smaller than the nearby Commons.  Did I have my target?  Unfortunately, the boat soon passed between me and the bird so I lost it for about 15 seconds.  Finally the bird reappeared giving me long albeit distant views.  In addition to being smaller, it was paler than the Commons, with a smaller bill.  I did indeed have my target Pacific Loon!  Not the best of views, but still definitive looks at quite a rarity for the Upstate of SC.

My statebird map for Pacific Loon is inserted below.  The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular west coast range.  And the 12 brown-shaded states are those where I’ve seen it as a rarity.

This caps off a most successful winter for rare waterfowl in the Upstate of SC – I added Red-necked Grebe, Common Merganser, Ross’s Goose and now Pacific Loon to my statelist this winter.  And Pacific Loon was a milestone for me in SC – it was #300 for my SC list.  SC is now the 11th state where I’ve tallied 300 or more species.

Three Opportunistic Chases Nets Two Statebirds in Knoxville, TN, March 7-8, 2023

My wife and I scheduled a trip to Knoxville, TN in early March 2023 to take our dog to the University of Tennessee Veterinary School for some testing.  If we had spare time, that could present some statebird opportunities in a part of the state I don’t often get to.  Though at best my time would be limited, so the targets would likely need to be nearby.  I started to watch the eBird Needs Alerts during the week leading up to the trip but initially came up with no nearby targets.  But then the day before we left a report came in of a Tundra Swan in a small impoundment at a treatment plant a short distance east of Knoxville.  It was about 10 minutes off our route to and from Knoxville, so it was one to try for likely on the way home.  At least that gave me one to look forward to.  Assuming the Swan stuck around, that is.

We made the drive to Knoxville on the 6th, and that evening I re-checked my Needs Alert.  The Tundra Swan was still around, so that was good news.  And even better, two more of my “Needs” were reported that day no more than 15 minutes away – a Red-necked Grebe and a Black Scoter, both on Fort Loudoun Lake.  It sounded like I would have some free time in the middle of the day on the 7th, so it would be feasible to chase after both birds.  Suddenly I was up to 3 statebird possibilities. 

It turned out that I had about 2 hours of free time in the early afternoon of the 7th, which was perfect to bird nearby Loudoun Lake.  I first went to the boat ramp at Concord Park where the Red-necked Grebe had been spotted the previous day.  Comments from that sighting noted that the bird was with Pied-billed Grebes generally on the far southern part of the lake.  Unfortunately looking to the south meant looking into the sun that time of day, and my initial scans came up with just a couple Cormorants in the difficult lighting conditions.

Then I panned more to the southeast in somewhat better lighting and picked out a few Pied-billed Grebes in the distance.  Had I found the correct spot?  Sure enough a few seconds later I spotted the much larger Red-necked Grebe loosely associating with the Pied-bills.  The large yellow bill and longer neck were clinching field marks.  I tried some distant digiscoped photos but each time I got everything lined up the bird dove.  Here’s a picture of the reservoir with the Grebes about 2,000 ft out.

My statebird map for Red-necked Grebe is inserted below.  The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The 4 cross-hatched states are those in its normal range where I’ve yet to see it.  And the brown-shaded states are those where I’ve seen it as a rarity – several southeastern states as a wintering bird, and 2 central states as a rare breeder.

Luckily it only took a few minutes to get the Grebe, so I quickly headed to nearby Carl Cowen Park where the female Black Scoter had been reported the previous day.  The bird was swimming in a distant tight flock of 35 diving ducks, so I figured my best shot at finding the Scoter was to look for that flock of divers.  Unfortunately, once again I was looking to the south into the sun – ugh.  Amazingly I almost instantly found a flock of divers – did I have the flock?  But like the Grebes, they were nearly a half mile away.  I counted 47 birds, and watched the flock for at least 45 minutes.  Unfortunately, not only could I not pick out the Scoter, I couldn’t even be sure of the IDs of the other ducks (though I assumed they were Ring-necks, Scaup and/or Redheads).  I bet I had the Scoter in view, but the flock was just too far away and lighting was so bad that I couldn’t be sure.  That was frustrating.

After getting negative results on our dog’s tests (yay!), we headed home on the 8th.  Luckily my non-birding wife agreed to let me take the 10-minute side trip to try for the Tundra Swan.  The bird was being seen now 3 days in a row in an impoundment at a sewage treatment plant along Route 160 in Hamblen County.  The small impoundment was right next to the road, so I hoped we would need less than 5 minutes to find my target bird.  We pulled over on the road shoulder even with the pond and I did a quick binocular scan.  Even though that large white bird should have jumped out at me, I couldn’t find it.  Had it moved on since yesterday’s sighting?  There were some cattails and other vegetation on the pond, so maybe it was a bit obscured.  And sure enough, with a closer look I found the Tundra Swan on the near shore partially hidden by cattails.  Here’s a shot with no magnification of the impoundment, and with an arrow pointing toward the Swan.

TN is now my 8th state where I’ve seen Tundra Swan as a rarity.  Though I still need it in a number of states where it is a regular migrant.

That gave me two new TN statebirds in less than an hour of birding time.  That’s pretty efficient birding, and very opportunistic given my time and geographic constraints.  And with the addition of 2 birds my TN statelist is now at 255.

Two Coastal South Carolina Statebirds While Returning from a Florida Chase, February 6, 2023

Late in January 2023 I started to notice reports of a Bahama Mockingbird in Cape Canaveral, FL.  I’ve birded south FL a number of times, picking up several rarities there over the years.  But there has never been a Bahama Mockingbird there during any of my trips.  As a result, this species has been a key target of mine.  And since this individual was relatively “close”, at only halfway down the peninsula, it was definitely one to chase after.

And of course, there was also statebird potential along my route back home through GA and SC.  My route would take me along the coast, and with a little research, I found 7 statebird targets in GA and 3 in SC.  My two previous blog posts summarized the FL and GA portions of my trip.  This post details my searches on February 6 for 3 possible statebirds in SC:

• Black-chinned Hummingbird coming to a feeder in Mount Pleasant,
• Western Kingbirds at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, and
• Saltmarsh Sparrow most anywhere in appropriate habitat along the coast.

I first birded Fort Moultrie in October 2022 with the help of local birder Craig Watson.  Craig was not only a great help in finding our target bird of that day, a Clay-colored Sparrow, but he also described how the Fort was a magnet for rarities in general.  And sure enough for much of this winter there had been a pair of Western Kingbirds reliably foraging around the Fort property. 

The feeder that the Black-chinned Hummingbird was frequenting was only a short distance from Fort Moultrie, so it would be easy enough to try for both birds in the same day.  I reached out to Craig to see if he knew how to get permission to look for the Hummingbird, only to find out that the bird was actually visiting Craig’s feeders.  Although Craig was going to be away when I was passing through, he gave me permission to view his backyard feeding station to look for the Black-chinned. 

Now for the bad news – it didn’t look like timing would be right to try for Saltmarsh Sparrows.  They and their Nelson’s and Seaside cousins are easiest to find on high tides.  Unfortunately, I would miss the higher tides during my rather short visit along the coast.  I guess this relatively common wintering bird would have to wait for another trip to the coast. 

So with my research completed, I was ready to pursue my 2 SC target birds.

I started the day at sunrise on the northern GA coast at Tybee Island, adding Western Tanager and Black Scoter to that state list.  I then hit the road and arrived at Craig’s house in Mount Pleasant just after noon.  Within a couple minutes I had positioned myself in his backyard under a beautiful spreading live oak tree, waiting for the Hummingbird to arrive.  There was quite a bit of activity at the feeders, but the hummingbird feeders were quiet.  Then about 30 minutes later I heard the Hummingbird calling behind me, likely perched in a nearby tree.  Try as I might, I couldn’t track the bird down.  I know Black-chinned calls are similar to Ruby-throated, but with no Ruby-throateds at these feeders in nearly a month, and with the Black-chinned reported on every recent visit, a calling bird would be much more likely to be the Black-chinned rather than a Ruby-throated.  Not definitive, but certainly strongly circumstantial.

I waited another 30 minutes or so but with no other observations of my target Hummingbird.  Although I was sure of the call, it would be nice to get a visual of the bird.  But I didn’t want to spend too much time here and miss out on the nearby Western Kingbirds.  So I decided to make a quick run over to Fort Moultrie, hope that the Kingbirds would be cooperative, then come back to the feeders to spend more time with the Hummingbird.

After a short 15-minute drive I pulled into the parking lot of Fort Moultrie.  Sightings of the Kingbirds this winter had been all over the Fort, though the most recent reports put them behind Battery Jasper.  So I walked right to the field behind the brick building of Battery Jasper and did a quick binocular scan.  I almost immediately picked out a bird perched on a chain-link fence in the distance.  And a quick scope view confirmed I had my target Western Kingbird.  Then a moment later I spotted the second Kingbird nicely perched in a small tree in the nearby field.

My statebird map for Western Kingbird is inserted below.  The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The four cross-hatched states are those where I’ve yet to see it where it is a regular species.  And now SC is the 6th state where I’ve seen Western Kingbird as a rarity (the brown-shaded states).  This species is certainly prone to vagrancy in fall and winter along the east coast.

I spent all of just 6 minutes at Fort Moultrie – can’t ask for a more efficient chase!  So just 40 minutes after I left Craig’s yard I was back to the feeders in hopes of better views of the Hummingbird.  After another 30-minute wait I once again heard the Hummingbird calling, this time from the live oak.  I anxiously waited for it to come to the feeders, but no such luck.  Then maybe 15 minutes later I heard more calls from the live oak – perhaps it never left and was perching there the entire time.  But unfortunately, still no visits to the feeders.  All told I ended up spending nearly 2 and a half hours at the feeders, heard the bird call multiple times on 3 different occasions, but it never came to the feeder.  That was a frustrating chase – at least it wasn’t a life bird, as I’ve seen this species in many western states and now 3 in the east as a rarity.

The Hummingbird and Kingbird bring my SC total to 299.  It’s too bad I couldn’t chase after the Saltmarsh Sparrow on this trip – it would have been a nice one to have as #300.  Next time…

And for the entire trip I added 9 statebirds – 2 in FL (which were also life birds), 5 in GA, and 2 in SC.  Although I missed several along the way, it was still a most successful trip.