This is the second year in a row when a close brush by a hurricane has brought some good birds to New England. Most of the best birds were seen along the CT and RI coastlines and the MA islands, including a Magnificent Frigatebird seen on the coast at the RI/MA stateline for 2 consecutive days. That would be a key target for most New England birders – including my NH friends Denny Abbott and Davis Finch. A Brown Pelican had also been seen there. So we planned to meet at a park-and-ride pre-dawn and get to the RI coast by first light.
We arrived a bit before 7 AM to a spectacular sunrise, and started our vigil to await the Frigatebird. Note all the rocks in the foreground which were pushed ashore by the hurricane.
After a couple hours with no Frigatebird we took a walk to the east to Quicksand Pond, a large freshwater lake just barely west of the MA/RI stateline. Soon after we arrived I picked out 1 and then 3 more distant swallows which I was able to identify as Caves. Good birds in any New England state, though I already had them in RI. But I need them in MA – and these birds were just a few hundred yards west of the state line and heading east. I continued to follow them to the eastern edge of the lake when they gained a bit of altitude and I unfortunately lost sight of them. I continued to scan the lake but they were gone so they must have gone into MA airspace. But I never saw them in MA so can’t add them to my list. One that got away…
There was nothing else of interest on the coast, but there seemed to be a lot of birds moving well out to sea. So we thought we might head to a south facing peninsula like Point Judith to check out the seabird migration. Just after we left I got a call from local RI birder Jan St. Jean that she had just found a Western Kingbird just a short distance away in Tiverton. A couple minutes later we caught up to Jan and she had the kingbird perched on a post along the road. It was a most cooperative bird providing great phone-scoping opportunities. A statebird for me and for Davis, but not for Denny.
RI is my third New England state with Western Kingbird (though I’ve also chased after it unsuccessfully in CT and ME). I now have it in most every western state in its regular range (though OR is an obvious gap), and now 5 eastern states as a vagrant. And Western Kingbird was #300 for me in RI!
It was now early afternoon and we were starting to run short on time. We discussed the options, but Denny didn’t care which choice we made because, as he put it, “There are no statebirds for me to go for.” To which Davis reminded Denny that he shouldn’t be so negative. Instead of heading south to Point Judith we headed north to Barrington to try for a Ruff that had been reliable for a number of days, but had not been reported since the hurricane.
About 20 minutes after we left Scarborough Jan called yet again – there was a Yellow-throated Warbler at Scarborough within a few feet of where we had the swallows! That would be a RI statebird for all of us! So we turned around made our way back to Scarborough yet again. As we arrived we could see Jan in the distance so I called her to get the micro-directions. As she was directing us to a small group of pines here comes a small bird flying out of those trees to another couple pines – it was the Yellow-throated Warbler! We got great views but only for a minute or so before it flew off toward another set of pines in the distance. If we had been more than a few seconds later the bird might have flown off to that other part of the park and we might have missed it. I’m sure Denny was happy to eat his words about not being able to get a new statebird.
That was my fifth New England state for Yellow-throated Warbler – but only my second away from a winter feeder. I’ve now seen this species through most of its range though it would be nice to fill the gaps in NY and IN.
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