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.