Western Grebe in NH, and Lark Sparrow in CT, November 2014

November is notoriously the best month for rarities in New England.  As a result, over the last 10 years I’ve added more New England statebirds in November than in any other month.  And November 2014 was certainly turning out to be no exception, with rarities like Ash-throated Flycatcher in RI, and Townsend’s Solitaire and Gray Jay in MA reported early in the month.  The only problem was I didn’t need any of those for my statelists. 

Then came reports of a Lark Sparrow at Hammonasset Beach State Park in CT, in the same spot one was found last year.  I tried for the 2013 bird, but unfortunately I was there the first day the bird was not seen.  And I unsuccessfully chased after another CT Lark Sparrow a few years earlier.  So this was a key target for me.  The next day was very rainy and there were no reports – positive or negative.  But I was hopeful it would still be around when I could finally break free the next day – though now 2 days after the last report.  And then came a report of a Yellow-headed Blackbird in Middlefield, CT – another bird I’ve tried for twice in CT without luck.  That location was just over 30 minutes north of Hammonasset, so definitely feasible to try on my CT trip. 

And then things got even better, or maybe I should say more complex, when a Western Grebe was found on the NH coast just north of Great Boar’s Head in Hampton.  The good news was that I now had 3 targets to chase, each within my self-imposed restriction of a 2-hour drive of home.  The bad news was that I only had 1 day to search for these birds, and of course the NH coast wasn’t exactly en route to the CT coast from central MA.  But I had the time available (leaf raking would have to wait), so I decided to try for all of them.  Now the question was – do I go to south to CT first or north to NH first?  At first I decided to make CT my first stop since there were 2 opportunities there.  Though in the back of my mind I wondered about the weather forecast which predicted that winds would pick up by mid-morning.  Would that make it difficult to find the Grebe on the ocean later in the day?  As I loaded up my car the next morning for my pre-dawn departure I noticed there was no wind at all.  A calm sea sure would make it easier to find the Grebe.  So at the last moment I re-programmed the GPS and was off to Hampton, NH as my first stop.

I arrived at the north side of Great Boar’s Head at 7 under cloudy skies and some remaining drizzle, but with calm seas.  Nearly ideal conditions to search for the Western Grebe.  I scanned the water and saw numerous Scoters of all 3 species, both Loons, and both Cormorants migrating south.  But there were no Grebes of any species.  I probably spent about 20 minutes there with no luck when NH birder Jason Lambert arrived.  He had been there earlier in the morning with no luck as well.  Even if the bird was diving frequently we felt like we would have seen it here.  So we both thought that we should try to check nearby locations - Jason went to the south side of Great Boar’s Head and I went a bit to the north to check farther up the beach.  Not 5 minutes later my cellphone was ringing and it was Jason – he had the bird.  A couple minutes later I was just south of Great Boar’s Head looking at the Western Grebe.  Although it was distant, I got this heavily cropped phonescoped photo.

Western Grebe was #354 for me in NH – by far my best statelist as a percentage of the total list for that state (88% of the total NH list).  I’ve now seen this species as a rarity in 3 New England states, MD, and WI, in addition to most of its normal range (see my statebird map below).

It was only 7:30 and I already had my first target.  Still plenty of time to head to CT, so I got back in the car and headed south.  And so far my plan of heading to NH first was panning out. 

At 10:30 I was sitting at the red light just outside Hammonasset State Park and checked my e-mail – there were no updates on the Lark Sparrow.  No news was likely bad news.  But seconds later I received an e-mail that the Sparrow had been refound just 5 minutes earlier.  And the e-mail included a very specific location.  A nearly real-time update.  Things were definitely picking up.  Within a couple minutes I located the birders who had refound the Sparrow, and walked up to them.  They didn’t have the bird at the time, but thought they were watching the flock of sparrows that the Lark Sparrow had been associating with.  Over the next 10 minutes we watched the flock but to no avail.  Then a birder spotted the target bird a short distance away.  Unfortunately I didn’t get on the bird before it flew off a short distance.  We watched the flock in this new location but again couldn’t find the Lark Sparrow.  This was getting frustrating.  After a few minutes we all redirected our attention to the first spot and once again found some sparrows.  But this time I spotted a large brown sparrow drop out of a juniper tree to the grass below.  Although it was mostly obscured in the tall grass, the head of the bird was clearly visible – it was the adult Lark Sparrow.  We watched it for a few minutes, getting great views. 

Once again my plan of going to CT after NH turned out to be the right decision.  If I had gone to Hammonasset first I might well have wasted a couple hours looking for the Sparrow.

I’ve now seen Lark Sparrow in 5 New England states (just missing VT), NY, and MD as a rarity, and in most states in its regular range.  And third time was the charm for me in CT.  I now have 315 in CT, and 1,988 in New England.

It was now 11:30, and still plenty of time to try for the Yellow-headed Blackbird a short 30-minute drive away.  It had been seen the previous day in a large blackbird flock at the pond at Lyman Orchards (same location of a Pink-footed Goose back on 2/25/12).  As I arrived at the pond I scanned the area but found no blackbirds at all.  I got out to do a more thorough search and heard some very distant call notes to the northwest that could have been blackbird calls.  I took a quick walk in that direction and started spotting some blackbirds perched in the trees.  I drove over in that direction and found a big blackbird flock dropping into a harvested cornfield.  Although I spent the next 3 hours searching through the flock with a couple other bird, I never did see the Yellow-headed.  Though I did find unique Grackles with a white head, one with an all-white tail, and one with a white tail and black outer tail feathers.  At one point a Cooper’s Hawk chased after a grackle and caught it right on the yellow median stripe of the road – just 15 feet from me.  Of course I would have traded all these observations for even a quick look at the Yellow-headed.  (I ended up coming back to this spot a week later and spent another 4½ hours looking through the flock of 5,000 blackbirds with no luck.) 

I ended the day with 2 of 3 possible statebirds.  A very successful day, though of course getting all 3 would have been even better.  And with 1,988 in New England, I have just 12 more to go to 2,000.