8 New Statebirds in West Virginia in an Hour of Birding, February 2014

Since the early 2000’s I’ve flirted with the ABA reportable threshold in WV, with my statebird total either being a few above or just below the threshold that whole time.  Although I started the 2000’s above threshold, I didn’t add any new birds to my WV list from 2003 to 2010.  During that time the threshold crept up to 178 while my total was stuck at 177.  I finally got number 178 in 2011 (a stellar Loggerhead Shrike), putting me back at the threshold, but of course just barely.  One of the challenges I’ve had in getting new birds for WV is that, over the last 15 years or so, my WV birding has been limited to the eastern panhandle.  And although there are always possible statebirds no matter where you go, I have pretty much exhausted all but the more difficult statebirds for that part of the state. 

So how could I get my list safely above the WV threshold?  I likely needed to get to a different part of the state to expand my horizons.  I started to research whether there would be potential in northern WV, an area I had never birded, but not too far from Pittsburgh where I have occasional business trips.  With an upcoming winter trip to Pittsburgh I did some research on e-bird and the listserve and found that there were three potential locations where I could get quite a number of new waterfowl for my list – Cheat Lake, the Monongahela River near Morgantown, and the Ohio River along the northern panhandle.  By the time my trip was scheduled in February, Cheat Lake was frozen, so that left open patches of water on the rivers, particularly near dams, to try for waterfowl.  And as the trip neared, most of the rivers were open, which meant the waterfowl could be spread out, instead of concentrated at the dams.  Might make it a bit tougher to find them, but still feasible.

I had planned to try to spend much of a morning on the Ohio River, stopping at several key spots near New Martinsville, WV and Tiltonsville, OH (almost all of the river is in WV).  And based on recent sightings I thought I’d be happy with 5 new species for my list.  But wintry precipitation was forecasted that day, and I was worried about getting stuck on icy mountainous roads and not making it back to the airport in time.  Luckily work was over earlier than expected the day before.  And if I hurried that would barely give me enough time to spend a quick hour in the late afternoon to get to just a couple spots.  I decided to take what I could get, and was on my way.

Heading south from Wheeling, WV I was on SR 2 which parallels the river.  It was an interesting area with steep cliffs on both sides of the river.  So I guess I wasn’t too surprised when some the first birds I saw were a pair of ravens.  Unfortunately they were on the WV side – I need them for my OH list not for WV.  A few miles later I got a quick view of the river and saw a small flock of Canvasbacks swimming by– statebird #1.  Luckily those males really standout even when you’re driving by at 50 mph.  Adding Canvasback in WV fills a big gap in my statebird map.

Finally I arrived at the Hannibal Dam near New Martinsville, WV and was surprised to see a flock of 500+ gulls above the dam, nearly half being Herring Gulls (statebird #2).  That’s a great number for WV;  recent totals in the area were only as high as 50.  And as I started to scan through the flock one of the first birds I saw was a 2^nd year Great Black-backed Gull (statebird #3).  That’s a real rarity for WV.  Later I found 2 1^st-year Great Black-backs as well.  I continued to scan through the flock and was shocked to see a darker backed bird – an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (statebird #4).  I got a number of phonescoped photos of the bird, including these below.

There are only 3 accepted prior records of Lesser in WV.  Or maybe there will be 4.  It seems that just an hour before I saw my bird another one was reported from about 30 miles upriver.  That one was a different bird since it had streaking on the head and neck while my bird had already molted into alternate plumage a bit earlier than most of the other gulls.

That was my 25th state for Lesser Black-back, and my 27th for Great Black-back (see statebird maps below).

After I was content with my IDs of all the gulls I started looking for waterfowl.  But there were very few above the dam – just some Buffleheads.  So I drove down below the dam to check out those waters but saw only a few more gulls and a couple Mallards.  On a quick scan down river I noticed a distant dark duck.  With the scope I realized it was a male White-winged Scoter (statebird #5) – later joined by a second bird.  Hannibal Dam was a very successful stop.  WV is my 8th inland state where I’ve seen White-winged Scoter.

With just a few more minutes of daylight I would barely have enough time to bird the next stop up river – called Spieler’s Club in Proctor.  This site had some good waterfowl a couple days earlier, so I was hopeful I could get a few more new species.  As I arrived 3 adult Bald Eagles were flying by – that was a nice start.  And in just a few minutes of scanning I found 11 species of waterfowl including 3 new statebirds – Redhead, Common Goldeneye, and Greater Scaup.  Another excellent stop.

So although I had just an hour of birding time, I ended up with 8 new WV statebirds.  And of course that puts me 8 over the threshold.  My goal is to be at least 15 over threshold in each state to make sure I stay above threshold well into the future.  So only 7 more to go.  And to think I was stuck at 177 or 178 for so long.  Amazing what can happen when you get to a brand new part of a state you’ve never birded in.  Though on a side note – ironically at that same time there were several rarities being seen in the eastern panhandle of WV.  There are almost always statebirding opportunities even in areas I’ve birded often.

Vesper Sparrow, South Kingstown, Rhode Island, February 2014

RI is the toughest New England state for Vesper Sparrow because it is the only one of the 6 states where it does not nest.  As a result it is typically seen in RI just as a fall migrant and occasionally in winter, and is reported in very small numbers most years.  So although rather rare, it is still one of the more common birds that was missing from my RI state list.  The first time I chased after Vespers was fall 2013 when a couple birds were seen reliably at a weedy field in southern RI.  But by the time I was able to get there they were gone.  That same day I was also unsuccessful in chasing after a Lark Sparrow in CT, though I did get the Calliope Hummingbird in NH – that was quite a day!  So along with the fact that I needed it in RI to sweep the New England states, Vesper Sparrow had become a significant target for me.

Late on a Saturday in February there was an e-mail reporting that 2 Vesper Sparrows had been found feeding along the edge of Card’s Pond Road in South Kingstown.  That’s an exceptional sighting in mid-winter!  But would they stick around?  Sure enough, another e-mail came through on Sunday that the birds were still present midday, with a very specific location provided.  A few minutes later I was on the road heading to Card’s Pond Road. 

It was mid-afternoon when I arrived at the spot but saw no sparrows feeding along the road edge – in fact I saw no birds at all.  So I turned around and drove along that stretch of road again with my windows open hoping to hear some sparrow chip notes.  Within seconds I heard several chips, and quickly found a couple Savannah Sparrows perched in some shrubs near the road.  I hopped out and soon found many more Savannah Sparrows, coming to a feeding station – I estimated 40 Savannahs.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Savannah come to a feeder, let alone such a large flock.  Then I found a second feeder at the neighboring house, with White-crowns, White-throats and Songs.  There must have been at least 60 sparrows total.  And all of this activity was within 100 feet of the spot where the Vespers had been reported.  Several other birders arrived and we all thought that the Vespers would be mixed in with the other sparrows.  So we spent the next 45 minutes staring at this nice diverse group of birds, but with no signs of the Vespers.  At one point a small group of sparrows came out to feed on the road edge.  We got all excited but they were just Savannahs.  Had the Vespers moved on?

Then one of the birders noticed some activity farther down the road.  It was too far away for an ID using just binoculars, but they were 2 pale sparrows feeding along the road edge.  These could be our targets.  I quickly ran back to the car and got out my scope and seconds later knew we indeed had the pair of Vesper Sparrows.  We watched the birds for the next several minutes and were amazed to see how tame they were – cars would drive right by them and they wouldn’t fly.  Although we probably could have gotten closer, we kept our distance and I was able to get these two phone-scoped pictures.

Vesper Sparrow was number 311 for my RI list, and it is the 225^th species I’ve seen in each New England state.  And although this bird is seen across the US, I still need it in a number of states especially in the southeast (see my statebird map below).

Thayer’s Gull, South Portland, ME, February 2014

As the weekend neared there were two great gulls to chase in New England – a Mew Gull in CT, and one or maybe 2 Thayer’s Gulls in ME.  The Mew Gull was only the second ever record for CT so I decided that one should be my priority.  Luckily I was able to find the Mew on my first try (see my previous blog post), so now I could focus on Thayer’s in ME.  One bird labeled as “Thayer’s-like” had been around for a couple weeks more than 3 hours away in Fairfield, ME.  Not surprisingly the distance and the less-than-definitive ID meant I wasn’t too willing to go after that one.  But a week later a Thayer’s was found both at the Portland waterfront and a short distance away in South Portland, just a 2-hour drive away.  This bird appeared to be a good ID, with dark wing tips though with a mantle that was paler than most.  With the Mew Gull out of the way, the Portland bird was my next focus.

Denny Abbott and I headed to Portland early in the morning, arriving at the Portland Fishing Pier by shortly after 9.  It took a while to find a place to park, and then even longer to find locations to view the water without getting in the way of active fishing operations.  Shortly after we got to a good viewing location we began to find white-winged gulls – first a couple immature Icelands, then a first year Glaucous.  Then we found a couple adult Icelands and better yet an adult Glaucous.  Most all of these birds seemed to be hanging around the site, coming back to just about their same exact perches after flying off for short periods of time.  And all the while there were a small number of large gulls in the air, many passing directly overhead.  Interestingly we never saw a single white-winged gull in any of those overhead birds, though the “local” white-wings represented at least 10% of the birds perched nearby.  But despite our success with the white-wings we didn’t see any candidates for a Thayer’s.  So after about 90 minutes, we decided to head to the South Portland site where the Thayer’s had also been reported.

Although it took us about 15 minutes to drive over to Mill Creek in South Portland, it was at most a minute away as the gull flies from the Portland Fishing Pier which we could see in the distance.  When we arrived we could see only about 100 gulls sitting at the Mill Creek estuary, but we quickly started picking out white-winged gulls.  And all the gulls were only a short distance – identifiable with just binoculars.  We counted 9 Iceland and 2 Glaucous Gulls within the first couple minutes of our arrival.  There was some movement of birds to and from this site, and in fact we watched a couple fly from Mill Creek directly to the Fishing Pier across the harbor.  And although there were never more than 100 gulls there at any time, we kept picking up different white-wings.  At one point Denny picked out a very dark “white-wing”, which we studied at close distance in our scopes.  It had exceptionally dark secondaries, dark tail band, and dark mantle with extensive mottling.  And the primaries were dark as well.  With its wings spread we saw that the outer 5 primaries had darker outer half and paler inner half, and the inner primaries were paler overall.  All very good features for a Thayer’s.  It flew off and landed on a distant pier, where I got these miserable phonescoped photos. 

In both of these pictures the wingtips look paler than the mantle, but what appears to be the paler wingtips are actually the inner primaries - looking at this bird through a scope showed that the outer/darker primaries are drooping lower and are barely visible in the photos.  But these outer primaries were only as dark as the mantle, not darker than the mantle as suggested in most field guides.  Couldn’t this have been because the mantle was so dark?  Like I said the photos aren't the best, so likely not good enough to identify this one, but sure seems like it could have been a Thayer’s.  But it was not the pale-mantled bird reported at this spot previously. 

We then turned our attention back to the Mill Creek estuary to look through the gulls some more.  One of the first birds I picked out was an adult white-winged gull with quite dark wing tips, though with pale eyes.  That made it an Iceland, but a really dark one.  I then started counting white-winged gulls to get a new tally when I spotted a first-year bird with dark wing tips and pale mantle – it was the Thayer’s reported earlier.  It must have flown in while we were looking at the possible Thayer’s in the distance.  The mantle was quite pale - either washed out or molting into 2nd year plumage, with a dark tail band, wing tips, and secondaries.  I got these phonescoped photos where I was lucky enough to catch the bird with its wings spread, showing the primaries, secondaries, and tail.

And these were my best photos of the bird sitting.  It was interesting that the mantle was so pale that most of these photos were overexposed.  And note that the primaries of this bird were just as dark as the primaries of the first darker bird that we found.

Did you find Icelands and/or Glaucous Gulls in each picture?

Thayer’s Gull was number 328 for me in Maine which is now my 15^th state for Thayer’s (see my statebird map below).  Four of my five new statebirds in New England so far in 2014 have been gulls.  And with five new birds so early in the year it’s starting to look like a good 2014 for me in New England.  If I could keep up this pace, with just 41 to go to get to 2000 in New England, I’d reach my goal much faster than I expected.

 

Mew Gull, Southbury, CT, February, 2014

An exciting second CT record of Mew Gull was reported on a Thursday in a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls at a chicken farm in Southbury.  The bird was refound on Friday, but it and most of the flock did not appear until midday.  So word went out to birders coming on future days that there was no real need to arrive until midday.  NH birding buddy Denny Abbott and I planned to make the trek down to western CT on Saturday, but thought it was best to go in the early morning just in case the bird appeared earlier that day.

I picked up Denny at 7:15 and we arrived in Southbury at 9:45.  As we approached the chicken farm site we saw a large flock of gulls circling low over a fallow field next to the farm, others were perched on the farm building, some were feeding in an upper field where rotten pumpkins had been spread, and a few were on the adjacent Housatonic River.  Maybe 500 or more gulls in total, mostly Ring-bills with a few Herrings and a couple Great Black-backs.  The flock was definitely here – now we just had to find the one target bird in a sea of many.  Surprisingly there were no other birders present, so we’d just have to find the bird on our own.  Most of the flock landed in the field adjacent to the road, so we parked on the shoulder and started to scan the group with binocs.  Although the flock kept flying around apparently spooked by an immature Bald Eagle in the area, they would return to the field.  Unfortunately we never had a chance to look at the entire flock before they flew each time, so that meant we had to start a new search each time the flock landed.  But each time we failed to find the Mew Gull.  Where was our target?  You would think it would still be around.  We started to wonder about the birds farther away on the hill, and whether there were still more in the river which was now out of sight. 

At about 10:45 we repositioned the car to check out a different part of the flock.  And literally the first bird I looked at was the adult Mew Gull, sitting in the field practically right next to us not more than 75 feet away.  By then a few other birders arrived and I was able to get them all on the bird.  I got these phonescoped photos of the bird as the bird continued to be most cooperative. 

 

Within 10 minutes of finding it, the bird flew up to the field with the rotten pumpkins, and walked among the Ring-bills for a couple minutes, showing good size comparisons.  But a minute later it was gone, not to be seen again that day, despite many other birders there looking for it that afternoon.  Boy were we lucky.

 

Mew Gull was #310 for me in CT.  And CT was my sixth eastern state where I’ve seen Mew Gull as a rarity (see my statebird map below).