8 Statebirds in DC and VA, January 2015

With an upcoming trip to visit relatives in the Mid-Atlantic states, I started to plan a day of statebirding to fill gaps in the local statelists.  My initial plan was to spend a day in VA since my VA statelist was just 7 over the old ABA threshold.  Though as I started to review my list and come up with possible VA targets, I realized that few (if any) of my target birds were really very likely.  So initially I thought that getting maybe 3 new VA statebirds would make for a successful trip.  But then as the trip neared, a number of rarities were being reported in the area that weren’t even on my target list – Clay-colored Sparrow, Cackling and White-fronted Geese, Lapland Longspur, and Snowy Owl.  And by combing through the eBird and listserve reports, there were no less than 6 other possible statebirds reported in northern VA the week before my trip.  Now maybe 6 or 7 new statebirds would be an appropriate goal to set. 

Complicating the situation was that there were recent eBird reports of a couple birds I needed for the DC list as well.  But before I get to the possible DC targets, a little background on the challenges of birding DC is in order.  First of all, the District is a very small area – no bigger than many counties.  And then of course it is very urbanized, with limited good habitat.  So although my DC list was a very small 175, it was actually 10 over the old ABA threshold, and the 8^th highest DC list reported on the ABA website.  As a result I’m probably prouder of my DC list than of any of my lists for the other states.  Now back to the trip at hand - since I would pass through DC in route to northern VA, it would be easy enough to make a couple quick side trips to try for some DC targets to start the day.  So I decided to squeeze in a couple brief stops in DC and then spend the rest of the day in VA.  It would be a full itinerary, but I outlined a plan with 3 DC targets (though only 1 was reported in the last week), and at least 11 VA targets.

As I got ready to leave the house that morning, I checked eBird one last time to see if there were any updates.  Nothing of note was reported in VA, but no less than 4 new targets were reported in DC from the previous day – Tree Sparrow, Meadowlark, Cackling Goose, and Orange-crowned Warbler.  Unfortunately, only the Goose was at a spot that was included in my original itinerary.  Maybe I could get to these other locations if the birds were really cooperative.  Then again, if I added these stops early in the day in DC I could end up running out of time at the end of the day in VA.  Since these newly reported birds would be tough to pass up, I decided to play it by ear and try all these additional locations, adjusting my timing as the day progressed.

I arrived at Kenilworth Park in DC a few minutes before sunrise.  This is the only location in DC with large grassy fields, and is the spot where I’ve gotten my only Grasshopper Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, and Pipits for DC.  The previous day a pair of Tree Sparrows were reported there, with pretty specific micro-directions provided.  A Meadowlark was also found there the day before (this is THE spot for Meadowlarks in DC), though the location was not provided.  As I neared the entrance I saw a police car with its lights flashing blocking the gate – what did that mean?  At the very least I couldn’t drive in through the main entrance.  I drove along the side of the park and was lucky enough to find a spot where I could walk in, which amazingly happened to be close to the Tree Sparrow location.  After a short walk I was in a brushy area that sounded like where the sparrows were seen the day before.  And as I arrived I could hear some sparrow chips from a short distance away.  After a couple minutes of spishing some sparrows came into view, including obscured views of 2 American Tree Sparrows.  That was easy!  I’ve now seen Tree Sparrow throughout the northeast except for DE, and still need it in its wintering range in several western states (see my statebird map below).

I spent another 15 minutes in the park trying for the Meadowlark, but without success.  Though that wasn’t too surprising since I did not have specific location to search.

The next stop was the Anacostia Park where a Cackling Goose was reported the day before.  After just a minute I found 2 small flocks of Canadas in the water.  And within only a minute of searching I found the Cackling Goose in the first flock.  I got these two phonescoped photos of the bird, providing good comparisons with the Canadas.

This park can also be good for rare gulls and Turkeys, but brief looks came up empty.  So it was quickly on to the FDR Memorial where the Orange-crowned Warbler was seen the previous day.  Along the way I started to wonder if I had time to try for this bird, especially since directions were not too detailed.  And then along the way I made a wrong turn and found myself on a bridge heading across the Potomac out of DC.  So I decided to pass on the Warbler and instead headed to two locations in DC where Common Mergansers had been reported.  The first was the Georgetown Reservoir which you can bird in seconds right from your car.  I was really hopeful I would find the Merganser reported there the previous day since that would save me a lot of time, but unfortunately there were no Mergansers.  So the next stop was on the Potomac at Fletcher’s Boathouse (which I eventually got to despite driving the wrong way on a one-way street – oops).  Although this location was just a couple minutes away, it could mean some significant walking to look up and down river for the target birds.  But luckily I quickly found one male Common Merg sitting on rocks at the first river overlook.  My statebird map pretty well matches the normal range for this species except for OH and the Dakotas.

That gave me 3 of 4 likely target birds for DC (though I didn’t try for the Warbler), increasing my list to 178 for the District.  And 2 of the 3 new birds were rarities needing details on eBird. 

I was now 15 minutes ahead of schedule and headed to my first stop in VA.  The first VA targets were White-fronted and Cackling Geese and Lesser Black-backed Gull seen from several locations along the Potomac waterfront in northern Fairfax County.  I was able to pick out the White-fronted quite quickly, even though it was backlit and sleeping at the time (I picked it out based on the horizontal white stripes where the sides and wing coverts come together).  The bird later flew to the Hunting Creek bridge area and gave excellent views.

I’ve seen this species in quite a number of eastern states where it is rare but regular – in fact my coverage for this species in the east is better than in its regular range in the central and western states.

I spent the next hour or so pouring through the Canada Geese looking for the minima Cackling that had been seen just a couple days earlier.  Although I never found that bird, I found at least 20 noticeably smaller geese – most were likely parvipes Canada Geese that had necks and bills that were smaller than the Canadas but with similar proportions to the larger Canadas.  But I also found at least two other smaller geese that had shorter bills and necks that with smaller proportions than for the larger Canadas.  I believe these would be taverner’s Cackling Geese.  And another of the smaller geese had a significant white band at the base of the black collar.  Not clear if that one was a parvipes or a taverner’s.

Several times I took breaks from staring at the Geese to look through the numerous gulls present along the river but to no avail.  But I had several other spots to try for the rarer gulls later in the day.  So 2 getting out of 3 targets here wasn’t bad.

I was now about 15 minutes behind schedule, and off to Woodbridge where the Clay-colored Sparrow had been reported.  Some posts from this spot had White-crowned Sparrows, and one had a Lincoln’s Sparrow and a Merlin – all targets for me.  I arrived at the CCSP spot and the first bird I saw was a Cooper’s Hawk perched low nearby.  Not surprisingly there was no activity there.  So I started working a short distance away and ran into many sparrows but no CCSP, nor any other targets.  I even tried across the road, finding more sparrows, but again no targets.  I had just about given up, and lamented that I had missed all my targets, when a White-crowned Sparrow popped into the open – at least I got 1 new statebird here.  That fills one of the last gaps in my statebird map – I only need it in 3 more states and DC.

Later in the day a birder posted to the listserve that he saw the CCSP about 30 minutes before I arrived – probably before the Cooper’s appeared.  And he saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull a bit farther down the road as well.   

The next stop was at nearby Neabsco Creek to try for recently reported Lesser Black-backed and Iceland Gulls.  There were quite a number of gulls there, but nothing of interest. 

Then on to the Prince William Landfill for one more chance for the rarer gulls.  But I couldn’t talk myself into the active part of the landfill, and could only view the active fill area from a distance.  A quick scan did not reveal any targets.  Then a loud sound from the landfill made all the gulls fly off and away from the landfill complex.  Rather than waiting for them to return, I decided to head out and conserve some time for my last 2 stops of the day.  But that meant I dipped on all the rarer gulls for the day.

The next hot spot was the turf farms near Remington where for some time numerous Lapland Longspurs had been feeding with Horned Larks.  And in the last couple days, another of my targets, American Pipit, was reported there too.  Even including a report from that morning.  When I arrived I popped out of the car and instantly heard a flock of Larks overhead including at least 1 Longspur.  Over the next 20 minutes there were frequent flocks of Larks calling overhead, and most had 1 or more Longspurs.  And at one point a flock of 4 Longspurs flew overhead.  I later found a flock of 60 Larks and 3 Longspurs feeding in one field.  So I estimated I had at least 12 Longspurs during my hour at the turf farms.  I still need this species in a number of states in its winter range.
 

I kept on hoping that I would hear Pipits overhead given all the Lark and Longspur activity, but to no avail. 

My final stop of the day was just outside Reagan National Airport where a very white Snowy Owl had been seen 12 consecutive evenings.  Most every day the bird would first appear on a perch within the airport complex, with the only viewing point being a very distant Gravelly Point.  The Owl typically first appears around sunset each night, which allowed me more time to hit the other spots.  I arrived at Gravelly Point just before sunset and quickly joined a group of about 50 birders and on-lookers looking toward the airport.  The Snowy Owl was already in sight, sitting on a distant windsock at the airport.  I took this phonescoped photo of the bird in the distance –

And then heavily cropped -

VA was only my 11^th state for this widespread bird.  Similar to my statebird map for the Lapland Longspur, I'm missing a lot of states in its wintering range.  I guess I don’t bird much in northern states in the winter.

That gave me 5 new VA statebirds, for a total of 244, or 12 over the old ABA threshold.  And although I missed a few of my VA targets (including 3 seen by others that day), I got 4 of the 5 rarities that had been seen recently.  Those are the most important ones to find – the others can come later.

And for the day, I added 1 new statebirds in each of 8 stops – only missing statebirds on 3 other stops.  A very good start to the 2015 birding year.