Sandhill Crane, Somers, CT, November 2013

As 2013 was nearing an end, I was disappointed to have just 20 new birds this year for my New England lists.  That is way below by recent average of about 32 per year.  So I was hopeful that a mid-November pelagic trip out of Rhode Island would deliver on several realistic statebird possibilities.  My plan was to head south the day before the trip with my birding buddy Denny Abbott, chasing after any rarities that may be around in RI, and then take the boat trip the next day.

Weather is always a concern for cold weather pelagics in New England, so I watched the NOAA forecasts daily as the trip neared.  Everything was looking pretty good until early morning the day before the trip, when NOAA put up a small craft advisory for the next day.  Now the boat trip was in jeopardy, but the decision wouldn’t be made until early afternoon, after we were planning to head south.  And another cloud over the trip – no rarities were around to chase after.  Do we just wait for a decision from the captain, or start heading down to RI and do some speculative birding from land, watching e-mails along the way?  Then at 8:30 AM came a post of 3 Sandhill Cranes in northeastern CT.  I have tried for Sandhills in CT at least twice before with no luck, so this was a key target.  So my decision was obvious – at the very least head into CT to try for the Sandhills, and watch for news on the pelagic as the day progressed.

We arrived in Somers, CT just after lunch and easily found the corn stubble field where the Sandhills had been seen that morning.  Although there were no birds in that field, there were many other cornfields in the area, so we were still hopeful that they could just be a short distance away feeding in a nearby field.  We were just about to start searching other fields when a car pulled up next to me.  I was fully expecting the driver was going to be a local resident asking what we were doing.  Instead it was another birder also in search of the Sandhills, who said he just saw 3 large birds drop into a marsh just a short distance away.  Because he couldn’t stop on the road he couldn’t be sure they weren’t Great Blues, and he was about to double back to check them out.  So I turned the car around and followed him to the spot. 

The area was a large cattail and grassy marsh, pretty typical of habitat where Sandhills might nest.  I’ve looked for nesting Sandhills in very similar habitat in Messalonskee Marsh in ME, and even though they are very large birds, they can be really hard to see in a marsh.  In fact it took me 4 tries before I saw them at Messalonskee – and that was in Spring and Summer when the gray birds should have been noticeable in a green marsh.  And now in November, this marsh was mostly shades of gray, so even more difficult to find Sandhills.  That is even if they were Sandhills at all, because the first bird I saw was indeed a Great Blue Heron.  But just a few seconds later I noticed some gray colors that didn’t quite match the rest of the marsh.  And then there was movement – a Sandhill!  Within a few seconds I could see all 3 Sandhills moving together in the marsh.  By then there were 5 birders there, and we all got good views of the birds, though mostly obscured as they fed in the marsh.

We only found those birds because of an amazing string of luck .  First there was an early and timely post from the birder who found the Sandhills, then the other birder was in the right place at the right time to see them fly overhead, then that birder ran into us and passed along the news just before we were going to wander around the cornfields in the area.  And the birder that saw them fly over was actually also planning to go on the cancelled RI pelagic.  Pretty amazing.  I guess the “birding gods” felt sorry for us given that the RI pelagic got cancelled.  Little did I know that I would end up adding Sandhill Crane to my CT list instead of adding pelagics to my RI list.  I guess those RI fulmars and alcids will have to wait. 

Sandhill Crane is the 222^nd species I’ve seen in each New England state.  Despite good coverage in New England, my statebird map shows very spotty coverage for this bird elsewhere across the country even though it’s a regular species in virtually every state.  That's part of the fun of statebirding - always more statebirds to go after.

Black-chinned Hummingbird, Fairfield, CT, November 2013

Just a week after seeing a Calliope Hummingbird at a NH feeder came word that a Black-chinned Hummingbird was being seen in Fairfield, CT – both were state firsts!  At the request of the homeowner, the Black-chin was not being reported on the CT listserve nor on e-bird.  Instead, news was spreading by word of mouth.  Luckily I got a call from a CT birder with all the details – many thanks for the call!  The bird was not coming to a feeder but instead to flowers which were still blooming despite the November date. 

Now I had to figure out when I could get there, or even if I would go.  I typically limit my chasing to a 2-hour drive from home, and Fairfield was 2 hours 40 minutes away.  But as I’ve neared my goal of seeing 2,000 statebirds in New England, the possibilities for new statebirds have diminished.  And I’ve found myself driving a bit farther to chase after stakeouts.  So since this was a first for CT, I decided to give this one a try.  I couldn’t break free for 3 days, so next the issue was whether the bird would stick around till then.  It had been coming to these flowers for about a week, so as long as there wasn’t a killing freeze, hopefully it would stick around for 3 more days.  The home was located very close to the coast so the warm water would likely shelter the flowers from anything but a hard freeze.  At least that was my hope since the morning I headed out to try for the bird it was 24 degrees at my house.  At the same time the temperature in Fairfield was listed as 36 degrees so I was cautiously optimistic.

I arrived at the Fairfield address at about 8:30 and made my way to the back yard where I was told the bird had been coming to a pineapple sage plant.  But just a few seconds later the homeowner came out and said the bird had recently been coming to two other sage plants in the front yard, including earlier that morning.  So the bird made it through the night!  I walked around out front and almost instantly heard the bird chattering.  And less than a minute later it was feeding at one of the sage plants.  I got great prolonged views of this bird including vigorous pumping of its tail, a few black/purple feathers in the gorget (making it a young male?), greenish coloration to the sides, and long and slightly decurved bill.  Couldn’t have been any more cooperative.  And to think it was just a couple months earlier that I was watching a feeder full of Black-chins in the panhandle of OK, and a couple also coming to pineapple sage in the southwest corner of KS.  I think I have to get one of these plants for my garden.

Black-chinned Hummingbird was CT statebird #305 for me, and #423 for me in all of New England.  I’ve now seen this species in 15 states- 11 out west, 3 along the Gulf Coast as an increasing winter visitor, and now in CT as an extreme rarity.

Calliope Hummingbird, Manchester, NH, October 2013

It was late in the afternoon on a slow Sunday when I got a call that a Calliope Hummingbird had been coming to a feeder in Manchester, NH.  Amazingly it was an adult male, and the first state record for NH!  But although this location was just 45 minutes from my house, sunset was only 30 minutes away, so not quite enough time to try for the bird that day.  Then the details began to filter in – the bird first appeared at the feeder 2 weeks earlier, though word first got out to the birding community that afternoon.  And it was seen by many NH birders that afternoon, though I got the word just before dark – ugh!  But hopefully it will stick around at least one more day for me to try for it the next morning.  That is unless it would get too cold for the little bird – temps were forecasted to drop to the upper 20’s that night.  So I called a couple of my birding friends who also hadn’t heard about it yet, and we all planned to be at the feeders at dawn the next morning.

When I arrived at 7 the thermometer on the car said 28 degrees – is that too cold for a hummingbird?  Calliopes live in some cold mountainous areas so I was still optimistic.  And sure enough just a couple minutes later, the hummingbird flew in to the feeder.  The bird just sat there at first, not even feeding.  Eventually it started to drink, and gave good views over the next 2 visits before 7:30. 

After leaving Manchester I headed down to CT to try for a stakeout Lark Sparrow.  Unfortunately, for the second time in CT, I struck out on this species.  Not every statebird search is successful.

NH was my third eastern state with Calliope as a vagrant, along with numerous western states where it is a regular breeder or migrant (see my statebird map below).  And this bird was number 349 for my NH statelist, and #1950 for my New England list.  Now only 50 away from my long-term goal of 2000 statebirds in New England.