Southern Ontario - 45 New Province Birds, July 2012

I’ve never really made Canada birding and province listing one of my priorities since my principal birding goal is to reach the ABA threshold in each US state.  But the province lists do count as part of the ABA Total Tick category.  So when a trip to Buffalo, NY came up, I figured why not take a day to bird across the line into Ontario and add to my province list.  And since my ON list was just 102, there was lots of potential.  Though mid-July isn’t exactly the best time of year for birding – too late for most passerine song, and too early for most shorebird migrants.  Undeterred, I contacted a couple local ABA birders for birdfinding advice, and one graciously offered to spend the day taking me around. 

I birded with five very knowledgeable and friendly Ontario birders from 6 AM to 3 PM, hitting varied habitats from Fort Erie to Port Colburne, stopping in woodlands, wetlands, farm fields, and along the north shore of Lake Erie.  We ended up with 96 species, including 45 new species for my Ontario list.  Highlights were many including –

·         13 species of shorebirds (12 were new), including a breeding plumage Stilt Sandpiper.  Most stops were at rocky shorelines of Lake Erie.  Shorebirds that normally are seen on mudflats were attracted to rocky pools with algae and other smelly organic matter.

·         A Red-headed Woodpecker family coming to a feeder – they're stunning birds at normal distances let alone when they’re only 15 feet away!

·         4 Empids – Willow, Alder Least, Acadian

·         8 species of sparrows including two calling Henslow’s which are apparently quite a rarity locally

I can’t say enough about the excellent help from the local Ontario birders.  They sure knew the area well, and were great to bird with.

That raises my ON province list all the way up to 147, with a Canada list of 185.  And of my 12,327 total ticks, just 230 are in Canada.  Like I said – Canada listing hasn’t exactly been a priority. 

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck, Massachusetts, July 2012

Late on July 3rd a post came across the MA listserve that a Black-Bellied Whistling Duck was being seen at Great Meadows NWR in Concord, MA.  I couldn’t quite get there before dark that evening, so I decided to go to Great Meadows at dawn the next morning – seemed like a good way to start the 4th.  But although I arrived at 5:15 and stayed till 10, there was no whistling duck to be seen. 

Was this going to be yet another 1-day wonder for this species?  There have been a number of recent examples where whistling ducks have shown up in the northeast, but in most every case they were gone by the next day.  In each of these cases these were small flocks of birds – in fact the same flock appeared in different locations several times.  On the other hand, I and other birders there that day discussed a number of examples where a single Black-Bellied Whistling Duck had shown up as a vagrant and had stuck around in that location for quite a while.  For instance my DE sighting was of a bird that spent many months in one freshwater lake.

So I wasn’t too surprised when 2 weeks later another post came across that the Whistling Duck was once again back at Great Meadows.  Since the e-mail came across virtually real time (thanks to the marvels of smartphones!), and I noticed the e-mail quickly, I was able to drop everything and get to Great Meadows less than 2 hours after the initial sighting.  As I arrived along the main dike I saw several birders in the distance standing around and chatting quietly – didn’t look too positive I’m afraid.  When I got up to them and asked if the bird had been seen recently, they pointed to the other side of the dike.  There was the Whistling Duck sitting on the bank at the water’s edge just 15 feet away!  As is typically the case for these birds, it was very tame and seemingly unphased by the group of birders standing nearby.  The only time it appeared to be unhappy about its surroundings was when a small jet from Hanscom flew low overhead – the duck gave its interesting call in response to the jet noise. 

Although I didn’t bring my camera with me, I was able to get a couple passable phonescoped pictures of the Whistling Duck under some harsh lighting conditions (bird was sitting in the shade with sunlit water in the background).  My statebird map for Black-Bellied Whistling Duck is also inserted below – MA is now my 5th state for this species.

Alaska June 2012 Part 3 of 3 - Anchorage and Barrow

The blog for this trip is broken into three posts - the first covered the initial Anchorage portion of the trip, and the second summarized the Nome visit.  This post addresses a short stopover back near Anchorage followed by the Barrow stop (9^th through 12^th days of the trip).  A brief overall trip summary is at the end.

Nome to Anchorage – Day 9

We arrived back in Anchorage around noon in preparation for the next day’s flight to Barrow.  Since we had quite a bit of time available between this afternoon and tomorrow’s flight, we had rented a car to be able to do some birding around Anchorage, and invited Zeke Cornell from our group to go along.  We decided to head north to try for a couple statebirds, the first being Osprey.  Although there are apparently a number of Osprey in Alaska, they are low in density, plus there are many possible nesting areas that are nowhere near roadways.  So likely many can go undetected.  But I had directions from a local birder to a nesting platform where a pair bred last year.  The directions were perfect, and we quickly found the platform and an Osprey perched on the nest (statebird #36).

Next we headed toward Hatcher Pass for some alpine birding hoping for White-tailed Ptarmigan.  Although the road over the pass was not yet open for the season, we spent quite a bit of time at 3,500 feet elevation at the Independence Mine State Historical Park – the site of a gold mine from the early 1900’s.  Our best bird there was a very cooperative and singing Dipper.  But the best memories from this site were of the tremendous scenery – rocky and snow-covered mountains above us and the beautiful valley below looking into Palmer.  Just spectacular (even though we had no ptarmigans).

Independence Mine State Historical Park, Palmer in the Distance

On the way back to Anchorage we made a small detour to pass through Wasilla – but we didn’t see Sarah.

Anchorage to Barrow – Day 10

Our free morning was rainy and foggy, but we again targeted a couple more possible statebirds.  The first stop was in the Arctic Valley ski area in the fog and showers where White-tailed Ptarmigan had been reported.  We hiked up above the parking lot for a while but never got out or Willow Ptarmigan habitat.  At one point Zeke played a bit of Willow tape and a male came flying right in.  It stayed within just 15 feet of us, calling the entire time.  By far the best observation of the day.  Two other stops to try for woodpeckers were unsuccessful and cut short by the rain and limited time. 



Willow Ptarmigan calling



We rejoined the group at the airport to await our flight to Barrow.  The flight was delayed due to weather conditions somewhere along its route, and eventually took off about an hour late.  After a quick stop in Fairbanks, we approached Barrow where the pilot mentioned the ceiling was only 300 feet.  On our first approach the pilot aborted the landing at seemingly the last minute because of insufficient visibility.  On our next approach our descent seemed to take forever.  We finally broke through the fog just a few feet above the ground, at which time the pilot increased then decreased thrust, banked a bit left then right, then finally landed.  Everyone on-board applauded the pilot and his fine work.  We found out later that they had announced in the airport that if the plane couldn’t land on this approach it would have had to go back to Fairbanks for the night.  Once we got our bags and got situated in the hotels it was too late (and too foggy!) to bird – though we briefly tried along the coast right outside our hotel.  So we called it a night and waited to start the Barrow part of our birding adventure the next day.

Barrow – Day 11

A few of the birders in our group had arrived earlier in Barrow on Day 10 and had scoped things out a bit.  One of the birds they spotted was a Spectacled Eider on the ice right outside our hotel.  So the first thing David and I did that morning was to head out to look for the eider.  Sure enough, through the fog, there was a male Spectacled Eider (lifebird #5, statebird #37) sitting on the ice along with several King Eiders.  We tried to get the rest of the group on this bird a few minutes later, but the fog had gotten worse and the views were quite lousy.

We dropped off half of our group for their ride out to the tip of Point Barrow, and we went down Gas Well Road where a white Ruff had been reported the previous day.  Along the way there were numerous Pectoral Sandpipers (statebird #38), including my first ever view of breeding males with “puffed-up” chests.  Other nesting shorebirds were American Golden Plovers, Semi and Western Sandpipers, and Red-necked Phalaropes with a few Reds mixed in.  Later we found the first of several Snowy Owls (#39), including some that were very white adult males. 



Male Snowy Owl



Passerines in the tundra grasses were common but limited to numerous Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs, along with a few Savannah Sparrows.  Pomarine Jaegers were numerous, with a few Parasitic Jaegers mixed in for some diversity.  Common nesting waterfowl were Long-tailed Ducks, Pintail, and White-fronted Geese. 

We went down to the area where the Ruff was reported the previous day with no luck, so we turned around to head back.  Shortly afterwards David and I noticed 4 shorebirds flying together over the road – 1 bigger bird and 3 smaller ones.  As they turned I noticed the larger one had a bright white chest and realized it was the Ruff (statebird #40).  The flock circled a bit, and amazingly landed right next to the van.  We then spent the next 30 minutes no more than 10 yards from the Ruff as it walked and fed in the wet grasses.  At one point it preened and puffed its white ruff – what an amazing bird!

Remarkable White Ruff

After lunch the entire group went back to the Spectacled Eider spot, and this time, the fog had lifted sufficiently to see the Eider.  And while we were watching this bird it was joined by 2 pairs of Steller’s Eiders (only my second Steller’s), and the ever-present King Eiders.  These would turn out to be the only Spectacled and Steller’s Eiders that I saw in Barrow.  A bit later I saw a group of 3 Black Guillemots fly by farther out over a lead in the ice (statebird #41).  Other flybys were King Eiders and Brant.

Our next stop was along Dew Line Road to see if Yellow-billed Loons that had been seen the previous day were still on the North Salt Lagoon.  Soon after we arrived we found two Yellow-billeds in beautiful breeding plumage (statebird #42) – I’ve only seen this species one twice before and never before in breeding plumage. 

The group then went southwest of Barrow to Freshwater Lake.  The tundra in the area was full of Pectoral and Semipalmated Sandpipers and American Golden Plovers, with a few Dunlins as well.  The lake was still pretty well iced over, though there must have been open water out on the lake since there were a number of Long-tailed Ducks flying low over the ice that then disappeared as they dropped in.

The last trip of the day was our 3-hour trek out the sand spit to Point Barrow using a local tour company.  Birding highlights were a flyover Yellow-billed Loon nearly directly over our heads, close views of a nesting Semipalmated Plover, close views of Black Guillemots on the water near their nests under a sheet of plywood of all things, some flyby flocks of Common Eiders, and a distant flock of all dark small Crested Auklets.  We also got views of an area where the local residents pile remnants of the seals and whales that they caught in spring.  These carcasses are left out on the spit so that if any Polar Bears are around during summer, they will hopefully feed on these carcasses instead of coming into town.  Although we didn’t see any bears during our trip, a group the next day saw a Polar Bear at this spot. 

Barrow to Anchorage – Day 12

Since we got all our target birds the previous day, the goal of our last day in Barrow was to try to get better views of these targets.  In the morning we took another trip down Gas Well Road and had the white Ruff again – at the same location and time as the previous day.  We also had additional Snowy Owls along Gas Well Road.  Another stop at North Salt Lagoon did not yield loons of any type.  On the way back to Barrow we stopped at NARL and found the resident Barn Swallow colony along with baby Snow Buntings being fed by the parents.  By the afternoon the low clouds and fog broke and the sun came out with a beautiful blue sky.  We took that opportunity to do a seawatch at the place where the Spectacled Eider had been (yes the Spectacled was still there).  During the seawatch we saw another Yellow-billed Loon fly overhead, a few distant Sabine’s Gulls mixed in with Black-Legged Kittiwakes, a few murres, and a couple Horned Puffins.  The common birds were flocks of Common Eiders and Brant, and Glaucous Gulls of all ages.  I love seawatches!  With the sun shining on the crystal blue water and snow white ice, we called it a day and headed to the tiny Barrow airport for the trip back to Anchorage. 

We got all the Barrow target birds, though I only saw one Spectacled Eider and one observation of the 2 pairs of Steller’s Eiders.  Numbers of both species have dropped in recent years, and Bill reported that numbers of birds in general were way down from his previous trips. 

The Trip by the Numbers

Here are a few summary numbers -

·         164 - total number of species for the trip

·         42 – number of new Alaska statebirds – my statelist is now at 209.  It’s remarkable that I’m still 44 birds short of the ABA reportable threshold in AK even though I’ve birded there for nearly 50 days and have been to the Pribilofs, Nome, and Barrow.  Just shows you how many diverse habitats there are in AK plus the number of rarities and vagrants that show up both from Asia and the Lower 48.

·         5 - new lifebirds – that gives me 729 on my ABA list (and 730 if last month’s Tropical Mockingbird in Texas is accepted)

I can’t say enough positive things about Bill Drummond and his leadership and organizational skills, and his ability to set up all the logistics for this complex trip.  It was truly a great trip all around.

Alaska is now my 40^th state with over 200 species.  The map showing my statelists and reportable states is inserted below.

Alaska June 2012 Part 2 of 3 - Nome

The blog for this trip is broken into three posts - the first covered the initial Anchorage portion of the trip.  This second post summarizes the Nome visit (4th through 8th day of the trip) and the next post addresses a short stopover back in Anchorage followed by the Barrow stop.

Nome – Day 4

Nome was our first stop with the tour group.   We met up with the group at the gate at the Anchorage airport, with everyone eagerly awaiting all the exciting birds ahead.  We arrived at the tiny Nome airport in the early afternoon and quickly headed off to the hotel to drop off our bags and get ready for some birding.  That afternoon we headed to the east along Council Road to try for various waterfowl and seabirds on the open water of Norton Sound and in the estuary of Safety Sound.  Little did we know that this ½ day of birding would turn out to be the best birding of the trip.  As we headed through the tundra toward the coast we had all 3 Jaegers – a very nice start to the day.  Long-tailed would turn out to be the most common of the Jaegers in Nome.  Lapland Longspurs and Common Redpolls were the common passerines in the tundra.  Once we reached the coast Red-breasted Merganser was the first statebird of the day (#11) as the first of many flew by the coast.  A bit farther down the road we began to see groups of Tundra Swans (#12) feeding in the shallows of Safety Sound.  Interestingly, most had very dingy heads and necks, likely stained from their feeding activities.  Pintails were the common dabbler, and pairs of Red-throated Loons were nesting in ponds along the way.  Another couple miles down the road the group stopped to get some close looks at Aleutian Terns in with Arctics.  While everyone was looking at the terns in the wetlands on the inland side of the road, I turned to look out over the open waters of Norton Sound and saw a loon pretty close to shore.  I put the scope on it and saw white flanks– it was an Arctic!  (lifebird #1, statebird #13)  I was able to get the entire group on it with great close views.  A few minutes later it flew past us and we were able to see that the white flank patches wrapped up around the base of the wing toward the rump – Arctic Loons can even be separated from Pacifics on the wing.  This or another Arctic was seen near this location each day our group visited Council Road.



Arctic Loon - White Flank Patch Visible Even In Flight



Further down Safety Sound a quick flyby Dunlin was new for my AK list (#14), but not nearly as exciting as the next find.  As we were heading down the road the driver of my van noticed a white gull flying down the coast and said to get on that bird.  My first thought was it was just another 2^nd year Glaucous Gull, which were nearly all white, and quite common there on the coast.  But with a quick binocular view I noticed tiny black specks on the plumage and yelled - Ivory Gull (statebird #15).  Everyone in our 2^nd and 3^rd vans got to see it quite well as it flew by.  I certainly had not expected to see that one on the trip – Bill Drummond had never seen it on his many AK trips.  Another notable find was Common Eider of the v-nigrum race.  Males had bright orange bills, and females were much paler than the race we see in the northeast.  Two other statebirds rounded out the ride – a flock of black Brant (#16) was feeding on the grassy islands of the lagoon, and a distant female Bar-tailed Godwit (#17).

Common Eider v-nigrum

Out last stop of the day was at the Nome landfill where Bill had found an adult Slaty-backed Gull earlier in the day.  When we arrived at the small landfill there were just 10 gulls there along with many ravens, and we quickly picked out a 2^nd year Slaty-backed Gull (#18) in striking plumage with a bold white patch in the folded wings with a darker mantle and wingtips.  I’ve seen that plumage in the field guides and always wondered what it would look like in person.  A few seconds later I found a pale-mantled gull with dark wing tips – a 3^rd year “Vega” Herring Gull.  Maybe that one will be a split some day. 

Nome – Day 5

This was our day to head up Kougarok Road to the north to try for the Bristle-thighed Curlew.  The weather was cool (40’s), windy and drizzly when we left the hotel at 4:30, so we were concerned about whether those conditions would hamper our attempt for the curlew.  But we headed out anyway, at the very least to make multiple stops for birds along the way even if we didn’t go for the curlew.  Several male Willow Ptarmigans were cooperative along the lower parts of the road. 

Willow Ptarmigan Male

One of our first planned stops was at Salmon Lake where Bluethroats had been reliable in the past.  Although we didn’t have any Bluethroats, I did see 2 Eastern Yellow Wagtails at the edge of the lake (Lifebird #2 and statebird #19).  We would end up seeing quite a number of Yellow Wagtails each day at Nome in most every inland habitat – quite a common bird there. 

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

While trying for better views of the wagtails I flushed 2 shorebirds – 1 of which as the only Surfbird of my trip.  Willows and brushy habitat in this area and elsewhere along this road was full of passerines, principally Golden-crowned, White-crowned, Fox, and Tree Sparrows; Arctic, Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers; and Gray-cheeked Thrushes and Robins.

Further stops along the way yielded the first of several taverneri Cackling Geese (#20) which were no smaller than the parvipes Canadas we had in Anchorage, though their bills did seem a bit stubbier and they had a steeper forehead.  Another stop had a number of Hoary Redpolls, though most we saw were Commons.  Later a Short-eared Owl (#21) flew by – an extraordinarily pale bird that I first thought was going to be a Snowy Owl.  The book mentions males are paler than females, but I’ve never seen any Short-ear as pale as this one.  Perhaps a paler tundra or Alaska race?  Speaking of pale – a very cooperative Snowshoe Hare was a nice find along the road.

We eventually made it to Mile 72.5 opposite Coffee Dome to try for the Bristle-thighed Curlew.  The weather had improved dramatically – the wind had died down and we even had some sun.  So after a brief talk from Bill to lay out our strategy, our group started the long ½-mile ascent to reach the general curlew area.  Luckily there was a trail on the uphill portion of the trip, making the ascent much easier, as this area has been compared to “walking on bowling balls”.  The trail allowed you to walk between the “bowling balls”, which were actually tufts of vegetation.  We reached the top and had spectacular 360-degree views of the mountainsides – not a single road, car, or building visible in any direction.  Pictures just didn’t do it justice.  American Golden Plovers were quite common on the tundra, and Long-tailed Jaegers passed overhead, but no Curlews yet.  So we gathered our thoughts, and began to fan out a bit to search for the birds.  Shortly thereafter everyone heard a Curlew call nearby, likely a bird that was calling as it flew into the area.  With 20 pairs of ears scattered around the site, we were able to get a pretty good idea of where the bird sat down and we all headed toward the apparent location where it landed.  Within minutes one of our group spotted the bird and everyone got on it for some pretty good views (lifebird #3, statebird #22).  Within a couple minutes it flew to another nearby spot, and fed continuously for at least 10 minutes giving everyone great views.  We were all very happy birders as we made our way back down to the vans.  We were away from the vans less than 3 hours total, needing less an hour to find the Curlew with great views.

Bristle-Thighed Curlew - how many bristles do you see?

We got back into the vans to head to the end of Kougarok Road for more birding.  Along the way we had several White-fronted Geese (#23) of a newly described race.  At the very end of the road was an old bridge with just a trail on the other side – a classic Alaska “bridge to nowhere”.  Soon after we got out of the vans a Bluethroat flew from the riverside (lifebird #4, statebird #24).  It briefly perched again, and later two males were seen tussling over territories.  Very fresh bear tracks in the mud along the river reminded us to be wary in these habitats, but this was the closest I got to seeing a bear on the trip.  This location also had the first good views of numerous Arctic Warblers we had on the trip. 

Arctic Warbler

As we headed back down toward Nome we saw a mother moose and 2 calves, and made a stop at a distant Gyrfalcon nest and found 3 birds perched on the ridge above.  The final statebird of the day was a Pacific Golden Plover (#25) which was on a gravel bar near to Nome.  A last punctuation point of yet another amazing day of birding.

Nome – Day 6

This was our day to make the 73-mile trip to the northwest to Teller on the Teller Road.  An intermediate stop was to be to Woolley Lagoon where 3 White Wagtails had been seen earlier in the week.  White Wagtails were formerly rather reliable in Nome, but not recently.  Before we had even made it out of town one of the vans spotted a herd of Musk Oxen.  We went back and saw the herd of at least 50 animals complete with this year’s calves.  A spectacular sight!  The first good bird of the day was a vocal pair of Rough-legged Hawks (#26) on a cliff, possibly near a nest. 



Rough-Legged Hawk - very pale mottled back

We made it to Woolley Lagoon Road and began our trek down to the water to try to find the Wagtails.  Along the way birders in another van heard and saw a Horned Lark – but that would have to wait till later.  As we descended toward sea level we started to see a number of shorebirds that were likely nesting.  We had a couple Ruddy Turnstones (#27) and a pair of Black-bellied Plovers (#28), along with 2 other Pacific Golden Plovers.  We reached the end of the road where the Wagtails had been reported, but with no luck.  Distant views of an Arctic Fox shedding its winter coat was a nice sighting, as were several very close Western Sandpipers in stunning breeding plumage.  We made it back to the intersection with Teller Road and stopped for a pitstop.  I spent some time outside to try for the Horned Lark and sure enough I heard and saw a bird fly over as it headed up to the rocky hillside (#29).  An exceptional array of tundra flowers were in bloom at this site, so this stop was a great opportunity for some pictures.

Beautiful Tundra Flowers

Although the Lark was the last statebird of the day, there were many more exciting observations along the way.  The first was a large herd of caribou (or reindeer, depending on which continent you come from), complete with males with large antlers and a number of young fawns.  While watching the herd a Rock Ptarmigan flew in and landed.  Though at a considerable distance, it gave good scope views which was lucky since it was my only Rock Ptarmigan of the trip .  Along the way I spotted a single Wheatear at 2 different locations.  Both birds were only seen by a couple birders, as they flew up from one side of the road, crossed in front of the van, and then disappeared into rocks on the other side.  Were these nesting birds that were feeding, then flying back to their nests hidden in the rocks?

At the end of the road was the tiny native Alaskan town of Teller.  We were able to talk to a couple townspeople while we stopped there.  One person told us that that although the town is only reachable by car (from Nome) 4-5 months of the year, they didn’t feel isolated because a small runway at the edge of town was kept open year round.  We realized that none of the houses had running water when we stopped in the Town Hall for a rest room stop and found that even there only a pit toilet was available.  It seemed like only the laundromat had running water, but it was out of order because of broken frozen pipes.  Fishing provided a key food source, but that was only during 2 summer months.  What a place to live!

Nome – Day 7

This day featured only 2 new statebirds, but they would be good ones.  We started back on Kougarok Road to try for better views of Rock Ptarmigan and Bluethroat.  We spent a considerable amount of time at Salmon Lake again, with no luck at the traditional spots.  Partway down the access road I heard a Gray-cheeked Thrush singing close by which I decided to investigate.  As I started my search for the thrush, I briefly noticed a small bird nearby walking on the ground with its tail cocked like a wren.  It took me a couple seconds, but I remembered reading that this was typical for Bluethroat, so I got everyone’s attention on the brushy area where the bird disappeared.  A few seconds later a bird popped up on a perch – a male Bluethroat!  A good but brief view for most in our group.

Bluethroat briefly perched

It was now lunchtime and part of our group opted to head back down to Council Road to spend some more time looking for waterfowl and shorebirds.  Our first stop was at the mouth of the Nome River where a small mudflat had formed.  Some of the first shorebirds we found we 3 male Bar-tailed Godwits in breeding plumage – pretty dramatic coloration.  Our next planned stop was to look for a pair of Tufted Ducks that had been reported previously in Safety Sound.  We arrived at the right location and found a large flock of Greater Scaup (mostly males), and began to scan.  It didn’t take long to find a male/female pair of Tufted Ducks (#30) loosely associated with the scaup.  I think that was my first female Tufted Duck.  Interestingly, the make did not have a tuft – I’ve seen a couple with small tufts but never a male with no tuft. 

Further down the road we headed toward mile 30 where a Red-necked Stint had been reported.  We got to the right general location and noticed a small mudflat – the only one in the area – so we decided to start there.  It was drizzling, so I was the only one to get out of the van to check it out.  There were just 4 birds on the mudflat – a female Bar-Tailed Godwit, a Dunlin, a Semi Sandpiper, and a redder bird a bit bigger than the Semi.  Although I first thought it was a Western, it was really red around the face and chest, so I called David out to take a look.  He quickly concluded it was the Red-necked Stint (#31).  Unfortunately, in the next few seconds while everyone was getting out of the van it had flown away.  We waited there for 45 minutes hoping it would return, and although there were a number of peeps (mostly Semi Sands) coming and going from the mudflat, the stint did not reappear.  Semi Sands were common nesters in the grasses right along the road there, and given that each bird only fed at the mudflat for a couple minutes, I guessed that maybe these were nesting birds grabbing a quick meal, then heading back to their nests.  If the stint was doing the same thing, maybe it was nesting locally too.

Nome – Day 8

On this last day in Nome the group was given several options for birding locations – I opted for another day along Council Road to try for more waterbirds.  This turned out to be the best decision, and it was a popular one as two vans headed out that way.  Our first stop on this gray, showery day was the estuary at the mouth of the Nome River.  Soon after arriving I spotted an adult Slaty-Backed Gull – great views with all the field marks including pink legs, barrel-chested body, wing tips, etc.  Next we were on to a seawatch at the quarry.  There were just a few murres flying by and not much else.  But I noticed a small group of young eiders in the distance on the water.  Although we had had numerous Common Eiders of the v-nigrum race along this road, these birds didn’t quite seem right.  The females were not the pale birds we had seen from the local race of the Common’s, and the young males had a white chest, which again was wrong for the dark-chested v-nigrum race.  After spending some time looking at the National Geo guide, I decided that these must be King Eiders (#32).  Eventually we could see that one bird in the flock was an adult male which clinched it.  It’s interesting that these dark females and white-chested young males would be typical plumages for the dresseri race we have back home in the northeast, but all wrong for the local v-nigrum race.

Further down the road one birder in our group spotted a distant group of wigeons which might be critical mass to include a Eurasian.  But before we could get closer to scope them, we heard on the radio that there were Emperor Geese up ahead, spotted by some Scandinavian birders.  So we jumped into the van and drove ahead past the wigeons to find the rest of our group.  When we arrived they were looking at 3 Emperor Geese (#33) – 2 adults and one apparent young bird likely born last year.  I’ve only seen 2 Emperor Geese before.  They gave us great, prolonged looks – just spectacular birds.

We eventually tore ourselves away from these birds, and decided to double-back to where the wigeon flock had been.  When we arrived, the wigeon were gone, but I noticed one lone shorebird on the small mudflat there.  It had a bright red chest, so I initially thought it was another Bar-Tailed Godwit.  But then I realized it not nearly large enough – it was the size of a large peep.  I said something like – “I think I’ve got a good bird here”.  Then I noticed it had a pretty long bill, and a white belly.  And then all the pieces fit together in my brain and I said – “I’ve got a Curlew Sandpiper!” (#34).  Before anyone else got on the bird it took off, and 4 of us followed it for quite a while in the air, eventually showing its white rump.  Unfortunately we watched it disappear behind a little island, landing out of sight despite our efforts to view the island from multiple locations.  If only these rarer shorebirds would stay still and in view for a while.

The next stop was to try for the Stint again, and we arrived at the mudflat to find over 30 birds there, mostly Semi Sands.  But it was now raining quite a bit, and we decided to get back in the van and head out.  With all the birds there, maybe that would have been the time to have waited for the stint to return.

We drove further down the road and it eventually turned inland away from the coast, with scenery quite similar to what we saw along Kougarok Road.  Our next planned stop was to a spot where we had local intelligence about a nesting Peregrine Falcon, with a nest actually below you on a cliff.  We easily found the spot and found the falcon on its nest – or perhaps I should say it found us.  We quickly retreated to minimize any disturbance of the nest. 

Peregrine Falcon

A mile further down we found a raven nest with 2 nearly full-sized chicks.  Another mile down the road we came to the spot where a Gyrfalcon nest had been reported, and found one parent on the nest and at least one fluffy young bird.

On our way back toward Nome we made numerous stops along Safety Sound.  At one spot we had a large flock of Brant and some dabblers on a grassy island.  We were able to find 2 male Eurasian Wigeon in the flock (#35).  We had one more Eurasian at two other locations along the way, giving us 4 male Eurasians with about 45 American Wigeon.  Pretty good ratio of 10% of the total, or maybe 20% if you consider that maybe there were also 4 female Eurasians that went undetected.  Are these nesting locally?

What a great time we had in Nome!  In 4½ days of birding I got 4 lifebirds, 25 statebirds, all the hoped-for key targets, and several rarities.  Although temps never got out of the 40s (10-15 degrees below average), and it was drizzly or showery most of the time near the coast, the weather didn’t really hamper us.  And our only time with sunshine (about 4 hours) was when we really needed it most atop the ridge looking for the Curlew.  We also ran into 4 other birding tours/groups, including my three friends from Kentucky.

Alaska June 2012 Part 1 of 3 - Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula

I’ve never been part of an organized birding trip tour group, generally preferring to find my birds on my own.  But a couple years ago when I first heard about Bill Drummond’s planned summer 2012 trip to Alaska something caught my attention.  I had been to Alaska before –in 1987 I spent 35 days traveling just about anywhere you could drive in the mainland as well as flying out to the Pribilofs - and got 167 species and most all of the target birds in those locations.  But I hadn’t been to Nome and Barrow, which were two stops on Bill’s itinerary.  And I had heard good things about Bill’s trips.  So I contacted Bill to see if it was feasible to only go on the Nome and Barrow parts of his trip.  When he said I could go on any part of the itinerary I wanted to, I contacted my good birding buddy David Donsker to see if he wanted to go along.  David was interested as well, though he wanted to go on the entire trip.  So we both signed up and began to make our arrangements.  I also decided to add a couple days onto the beginning of the trip around Anchorage to try to add some AK statebirds in that area also (David decided to come along on that part of the trip too).  So it would be a 13-day trip including travel time with parts of 4 days birding in the greater Anchorage area and the Kenai Peninsula, 5 days in Nome, and 3 days in Barrow.  With this itinerary I was hoping for 5 new lifebirds, and to get my AK statelist over 200.

My trip summary is divided into three posts - this post covers the first 3 days of the trip in Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.  The second post summarizes the Nome visit and the third post addresses a short stopover back near Anchorage followed by the Barrow stop.

Anchorage – Day 1

We arrived in Anchorage about 6 pm local time (which is 10 PM Eastern) about 16 hours after I left my house that morning.  Though I was pretty tired, the birding adrenalin was pumping so had to do at least a little birding before hitting the sack that evening.  For the last several days a vagrant Least Flycatcher had been heard and seen in a small park near Lake Spenard just a few minutes from our hotel, so this seemed like a great spot for a brief stop.

We got to the park and found 2 local birders there waiting for the Least as well.  We took the opportunity while we were waiting to begin to “calibrate” our birding to understand some of the local species.  Calling Western Pewees were pretty easy, as of course were the ever-present Robins.  When we tracked down the singing Yellow-rumps we were surprised that they were Mytles not Audubon’s.  Similarly the local Juncos were Slate-colored not Oregon.  Soon thereafter a Red-breasted Nuthatch called (statebird #1).  After about an hour of waiting we heard some Empid call notes a bit in the distance, and found the Least sparring with a Lincoln’s Sparrow (statebird #2).  It then was most cooperative, in view and calling its classic non-stop call.  A great start to the trip!

Anchorage to Homer – Day 2

The plan for Day 2 was to bird our way south of Anchorage to look for new statebirds, eventually making our way to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula.  With our internal clocks still on Eastern time, we were able to get an early start (4 AM – just before sunrise) and headed to nearby West Chester Lagoon.  We found the lake full of activity – Mew Gulls and Arctic Terns in the air, scaup and dabblers on the water, and perching Hudsonian Godwits and Short-billed Dowitchers on one of the islands.  Plus when we first pulled in there was a flock of about 40 geese that we instantly thought were Cackling – obviously much smaller with shorter/stubbier bills and darker than the Canadas at home.  The National Geo field guide indicated these were the parvipes race of Canadas, though this race was similar in size to the taverneri race of the Cackling.  Plus Cackling nests on the tundra and Canadas nest elsewhere in AK.  A little more calibration!



Parvipes Canada Geese with Mew Gulls (including juvies)

The first new statebird of the day was Lesser Scaup with at least one pair sitting very close to us on the island (#3).  While searching the island for other scaup I noticed a Starling bathing at the water’s edge (statebird #4 – though not a particularly exciting one).  Other scans of the lake revealed a pair of drake Redheads (statebird #5) among the 8 species of waterfowl there.  On a short walk along the beach during low tide conditions we had a flock of over 100 Hudsonian Godwits.

Next stop was down to Potter Marsh just south of Anchorage.  No new statebirds here, but we had good looks at expected local birds like Rusty Blackbirds on the back side of the marsh, Arctic Terns and Mew Gulls nesting in the marsh, and a pair of Sandhill Cranes.  There were also two pairs of Canada Geese with young on the marsh.  One bird had a white collar at the base of the neck – I had thought only Cacklings have the white collar.  But this is Canada nesting area.  Another example of confusion on those Cackling/Canada Geese.

Arctic Tern Watching Over Its Nest

Then on to Hillside Park in eastern Anchorage to try for recently reported Three-toed Woodpeckers.  Unfortunately we did not have specific directions to try, and after an hour off wandering the ski trails and being bitten by many mosquitoes, we gave up.  We did have a calling Olive-sided Flycatcher here though, along with a Flicker which was Yellow-shafted.

Farther south we headed to Girdwood to try for Rufous Hummingbird which is just about at the northern extent of its range.  We had 2 e-bird locations plus another location I heard about from some local birders, so I figured we should be able to get this statebird pretty quickly.  We came to our first feeder stop and waited at least 45 minutes without any hummingbirds.  Then onto the second stop, a resort, and found out that although they have no feeders, they have fuchsias hanging at the front door that the hummers may visit.  After a few fruitless minutes we decided to go to the third location, where we found a feeder on a person’s back deck – barely visible from the road.  Within 5 minutes we had a male Rufous at the feeder (statebird #6).

The last stop of the day was at Anchor Point near the south end of the Kenai Peninsula.  Didn’t have any new statebirds here, but had a pretty good seawatch which included a number Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters, Common Murres, Kittlitz’ Murrelets, 1 Ancient Murrelet, and some distant Cassin’s Auklets.  Northwestern Crows shared the beach with Glaucous-winged Gulls of varying plumages.  

Tame Northwestern Crow

2nd Year (?) Glaucous-Winged Gull

Homer to Anchorage – Day 3

A number of owls I needed for my AK statelist had been found in the Homer area in the last few weeks.  Armed with e-bird data, I headed out at 2:30 AM (2 hours before sunrise) to give them a try.  I was surprised to see that even 2 hours before sunrise it was not very dark – no flashlight needed.  My first stop was one where 2 Boreal Owls and a Great Horned had been heard on a pre-dawn stop in May.  As soon as I stepped out of my car I heard not one but 2 Boreals calling (statebird #7).  A bit later I was able to hear a third one.  I played a bit of tape and one came closer, but never in view.  I made sure that I wasn’t hearing Snipe, even though it would be most unlikely on this dry ridgeline in this boreal forest.  That was only my second ever experience with Boreal Owls.  En route to the next stop I had a Great Horned Owl fly over (statebird #8).  Later stops for Western Screech-Owl and Saw-whet were not successful, though singing thrushes (Varied, Hermit, and Swainson’s) and numerous calling Snipe were nice consolation prizes.  A great start to the day.

After surnrise we headed to Homer, where we quickly got Ring-necked Pheasant behind the MacDonald’s (statebird #9), and nice views of Sooty Fox Sparrow.  Then on to Homer Spit where some seawatching yielded good numbers of Common Murres, several pairs of Kittlitz’ Murrelets, and one Pigeon Guillemot.



Homer Spit in the distance

Then we started our trek north up the Kenai Peninsula with a first stop in Kenai to try for the local nesting Parasitic Jaegers.  When we arrived there were 3 other birders scoping out the marsh.  They turned out to be from Kentucky, and amazingly, one I had birded with just a few years ago to work on my KY list!  We would later run into these birders in Nome, sharing info on the good birds everyone was seeing. 

Then it was on to the Kenai NWR headquarters where a small colony of Aleutian Terns was nesting with Arctics.  It took us a while, but we finally were able to pick out the differences between these birds, some nearly a mile away.  The other notable bird at this site was a Goshawk that flew overhead.

Shortly after we left the refuge we got a call from our KY birding friends – they just got a lead on a nesting pair of Three-Toed Woodpeckers.  After gathering impeccable directions, we took a 20-mile side trip on some dirt roads through the refuge where we found the nest hole and chattering chicks.  Two visits from a parent over the next 5 minutes gave us tremendous views (statebird #10).

Prothonotary Warblers NESTING in Rhode Island, June 2012

One the first e-mails I look for each evening is the daily summary of Rhode Island sightings prepared by Rachel Farrell.  One of these summaries mentioned a Prothonotary Warbler at Tillinghast Pond Wildlife Area in West Greenwich, specifically along the Pond Trail.  A little bit of on-line research yielded an excellent trail map, which showed that the Pond Trail skirted the entire perimeter of the pond, and was over 2 miles long.  Without some better directions, that could make for a tough search.  So I sent an e-mail to the birder who posted the sighting, and he sent back some excellent directions to get to an observation platform in the northeast part of the pond.  Plus he mentioned that it was a singing male that he had seen. 

Two days later I arrived at Tillinghast Pond for an early morning search for the Prothonotary.  Before I had arrived at the observation platform I heard what I thought was the bird.  But the song wasn’t quite right – although it had 4 or 5 loud clear notes on the same pitch typical of Prothonotary, it ended with 2 or 3 more notes on a lower pitch, a bit reminiscent of Chestnut-sided.  So I wrote it off as an abberant Chestnut-sided and kept going around the pond to the observation platform where the bird had been located.  I arrived at the designated spot and waited for a couple minutes.  Then I started hearing that same bird I heard before, and I realized that it was indeed coming from the same location where it had been seen earlier in the week.  But it was till singing that odd song.  So I waited to get a visual, and eventually I got good views of a singing male Prothonotary.  I followed it as it flew into a maple tree and then noticed there was a second bird the tree with it – a female Prothonotary!  I watched the female for a short time until it went to the edge of a tree cavity and then dropped into it out of sight.  I waited for more than 10 minutes but the bird did not reappear.  So it had to be incubating eggs!  I later found out that this was only the second confirmed nesting of Prothonotary Warbler in Rhode Island.

My statebird map for Prothonotary Warbler is inserted below.  I’ve seen it in most of the states in its typical southeastern range.  And in some of the states that look to be outside the normal range, like KS, OK, MN, and MI, I’ve seen this species at the southern or eastern edge of the state.  So it’s a bit misleading to color in the entire state in those cases.  And now I’ve seen Prothonotary in 3 New England states.  There were quite a number of Prothonotarys seen throughout New England this spring, but unfortunately I couldn’t get out to look for any of the others (including a chasable one on the Maine coast).  Finding a nesting pair in RI makes up for it a bit.