Four Wyoming Statebirds, April 2015

A few years ago my work travels took me to Denver quite frequently.  On some of those trips I would add a vacation day for a short trip into southeast WY or western NE for some state birding.  Along with one more extensive birding trip to each state, I eventually reached the old ABA reportable thresholds in each, getting to 223 in WY which was 9 over threshold, and 232 in NE or 7 over the threshold.  But my last time birding either state was in 2010.  And the ABA thresholds weren’t static – they were calculated as half of each state’s total list.  So since the statelists generally rise slowly over time, so would the reporting threshold.  For instance the WY statelist has increased by 8 since the ABA last published thresholds in 2011; the new threshold would have gone up by 4 to 218.  So in order to make sure my lists stays higher than half the official state list for many years into the future, I’ve set a somewhat arbitrary goal of getting to at least 15 over the old 2011 ABA thresholds in each state.  That means I need at least 6 more in WY and 8 more in NE.

With an upcoming trip to Denver in April 2015, I started to do my research to identify possible statebird potential in both WY and NE.  April is late for many winter birds, and early for many spring birds, so some might say it can be a challenging time of year.  Then again, it can be a great time to get both late winterers and early spring arrivers.  In fact, I’ve had lots of great statebirding trips in April over the years.  So I was hopeful to have a wide range of possible statebirds in both states.  But since I’ve birded those areas several times, the reality was I had few likely statebirds.  Though there were still quite a number that were at least remotely possible. 

Now it was time to plan my possible itinerary.  Because it had been so long since I had birded WY and NE, I planned to spend roughly a day birding in each state, and started to connect with birders I knew in Cheyenne, WY and Scottsbluff, NE.  Plus I connected with a birder in Casper, WY who had reported Saw-whet Owls in a listserve post.  Turns out she had a Long-eared too.  And I had a lead on nesting Saw-whets in NE.  I figured I had a fair chance of getting the 6 I needed in WY to reach “reportable plus 15”, and possibilities for several new birds in NE.

But just after I landed in Denver to start the work part of the trip I checked the weather – there was a possibility for a rain and/or snow storm in the area during my 2 birding days, with a winter weather advisory for the first day in the Casper area.  I was tempted to cancel the trip, but decided to shuffle my schedule to avoid the worst of the weather, and try to still get to all my planned stops.  After all it would be in the 60s the day before the precipitation was to start, so how bad could it be?

Work ended a little earlier than expected in mid-afternoon, which gave me just enough time to squeeze in a couple unanticipated hours of birding that evening before the rain/snow began.  I decided to head to a high plains area just west of Laramie with many good-sized lakes, appropriately called the Laramie Plains Lakes.  I’ve birded there several times, and have seen quite an assortment of waterfowl there, along with a diverse group of raptors, and typical prairie birds.  In this area my targets were Greater Scaup, a rarity in WY, recently reported from several lakes among hundreds of Lesser Scaup and thousands of other divers, and a pair of Hooded Mergansers seen at one of the smaller lakes.  And with that many divers, who knows what else may be mixed in.

I arrived at Hutton Lake NWR about 2 hours before sunset, and quickly located the lake with all the divers.  With a couple quick scans I estimated 1,500 Redheads, 750 Scaup, 20 Canvasbacks, 100 Ruddies, and about 400 mixed dabblers.  I then started to focus on the Scaup, but saw no Greaters in the first flock I checked.  Then in the second flock I noticed a male with a paler back.  I eventually got a good look at its head and it was indeed rounded rather than peaked in the back – it was a Greater Scaup.  Later I would find another male plus another pair.  Probably not too unlikely to find 4 in with 750 Lessers.  I’ve now seen Greater Scaup in 42 states (see my statebird map below) – not too bad for a bird most typically seen near the coastlines.

 

I spent some more time scanning the lake hoping for something even rarer, but only found 3 Common Goldeneyes and a nice drake Pintail x Mallard hybrid. 

As I turned away from the lake to head back to the car I flushed a large raptor from the ground which flew away with a prairie dog (L) in its talons - a Peregrine Falcon.  An unexpected new bird for my WY list.  Although this species is seen across the country, my statebird map is still pretty spotty.

 

Other interesting birds at the refuge included a flock of about 10 McCown’s Longspurs, 2 adult Bald Eagles, and a Ferruginous Hawk.  But no Long-billed Curlews or Burrowing Owls which would have been remotely possible statebirds.

Next I was on to Blake’s Pond where 2 Hooded Mergansers had been reported sporadically in the last couple weeks.  This was a much smaller lake and easily viewed from the car.  I scanned the lake several times but couldn’t come up with the Hoodeds, though I did find 4 female Common Mergansers.  As I left the area I did a mental tally of the birds I saw in the area and came up with 21 species of waterfowl.  Not bad for just a couple hours of birding.

I had a little more sunlight left, so on a whim I decided to try a subdivision just northeast of Laramie where a flock of Pinyon Jays had been reported for 3 consecutive days.  But that was 10 days ago, so I thought it would be a long shot.  As I neared the area I could see the neighborhood off in the distance – it was a subdivision of maybe a dozen houses constructed in the prairie with no natural trees and only a few small ones planted at the houses.  With no typical pinyon habitat, I was sure the flock was just passing through and was long gone.  So I turned into the neighborhood and looked for a place to turnaround.  And just then a medium-sized bird flew up from a backyard and landed on a fence right next to my car – a Pinyon Jay.  Then another one, and then two others joined it.  Then these birds flew over the road and were joined by a flock of others - I counted 41 in total.  That was my third WY statebird and another one that was not very likely.  WY was my 8th state for Pinyon Jay - a species that I just seem to happen on within its range.

With 3 good WY statebirds already, before I had even planned to start birding, I was cautiously optimistic about being able to reach my goal of 6 new WY birds.  But then I checked the weather again, and the forecast had taken a serious turn for the worse.  Casper was now under a Winter Storm Warning for most of the entire next day, and the rain was to change to snow in Cheyenne as well.  Plus rain was forecasted in Scottsbluff for the next couple days. 

I spent most of the drive to Cheyenne thinking about my options and trying to decide what to do.  Part of me said to continue with my original itinerary – the meteorologists were just being too cautious.  But if they were right, owling in Casper the next evening would be in the teeth of a big snow storm.  If I cut out the Casper part of the trip, I could concentrate more on NE, but the Saw-whets and several other spots I wanted to hit were on dirt roads that were not good when wet.  Given the potential weather challenges, I decided to play it safe and fly home 2 days early, unfortunately eliminating almost the entire rest of my trip. 

But since my flight the next day wasn’t till the early afternoon, and the precipitation was supposed to hold off until midday, I could still have time for a very short stop at Table Mountain WMA to try for Ross’s Geese reported there the previous week.  Table Mountain is about 90 minutes northeast of Cheyenne, and a good 3 hours from the Denver airport.  So if I got to Table Mountain at dawn, I could squeeze in about an hour birding there and still have plenty of time to get my flight.  Luckily I’ve birded Table Mountain WMA a couple times over the years, so I was pretty familiar with the locations where white geese might be there, and thought an hour would be enough time to look for them. 

I left the hotel at 4:45 the next morning under starry skies, and was at Table Mountain by dawn at 6:15.  I pulled into the parking lot next to the main impoundment and took a short walk over to the edge.  I did a quick scan with my binoculars but saw no white geese at all.  Was this going to turn out to be a long 4 ½ hour drive for nothing?  I knew it was really late for the migrant geese, but only the previous week good numbers were reported there.  And numerous times I’ve seen an occasional Ross’s (and even a White-fronted) seemingly left behind weeks or months after the flocks had moved on. 

I then started a slower scan with my scope and the only white birds I saw were Pelicans.  But then I noticed a glimpse of white in the marsh a very long distance away.  I stared at this spot for a couple minutes until the white spot moved, and eventually a white goose stepped into the open.  But which type of white goose was it?.  Then a second bird appeared, which might have been a bit smaller.  Did I have a Snow and a Ross’s?  I tried to see bill size and shape, but the birds were just too far away to tell.  Then a Canada Goose walked next to the white geese which now appeared tiny by comparison.  Now I felt good that these were indeed Ross’s Geese.  A minute later the Ross’s settled back in the marsh and were little more than a tiny speck of white mostly obscured by the marsh grasses.  I guess I was lucky when I did see them.  WY was my 28th state for Ross’s Goose, which not too long ago was a pretty rare bird throughout most of the country.

 

That gave me 4 new WY statebirds which was very good given my brief birding time.  And although I was very disappointed to not get to Casper and Scottsbluff, I definitely made the right decision – Casper, Cheyenne, and Laramie ended up with nearly a foot of snow out of this storm.  I’ll just need to get back to WY and NE on a future trip to Denver.

Aplomado Falcon (Lifebird) and Painted Redstart, TX, April, 2015

In 2014 the ABA published several revisions to their listing rules, including one related to re-introduced native species.  In the past those species needed to be part of a viable self-sustaining population in order to be “countable”.  But according to the new rule, you can count these species if they are just breeding in the wild.  That means that species like the Aplomado Falcon in south TX was now countable on your ABA list.  However, the Falcon is still not countable on your TX list since the TX Bird Records Committee (TBRC) still requires that species to meet the viable population threshold. 

I’ve never seen an Aplomado Falcon in the ABA area (though I’ve seen them in Brazil).  Back in January 2011 I made a half-hearted attempt to find them outside Laguna Atascosa NWR.  But, instead of spending much time looking for the Falcons, I focused my searches on a countable lifer, Rufous-backed Thrush, and the “Mangrove” Warbler which would be a lifer if it is ever split from the Yellow Warbler.  I found both the Thrush and Warbler, but was unsuccessful on the Falcon.

But now that the Falcons are countable, it was time to dedicate some time to go after them.  As I’ve done several times in the past, I needed to add a vacation day to one of my regular business trips to Houston, and make the trek to southern TX.  So with an upcoming trip in April, I started my planning and research.  Most of the recent e-Bird sightings were concentrated in 3 areas – in and around Laguna Atascosa NWR, around SR 100 just south of the refuge, and on Old Port Isabel Road a bit farther to the south.  I traded e-mails with some refuge staff and heard about a pair nesting around SR 100, but the nest site was really distant.  I also contacted a birder who had seen the Falcons the previous week and they suggested another nesting pair near the southern end of Old Port Isabel Road.  So armed with micro-directions for both sites, and the general distribution of recent sightings, I was pretty optimistic about my chances of seeing the bird.  Especially since I had basically a full day available between late afternoon on the first day of my visit and most of the day on the second day, I thought I would eventually run into a bird somewhere in the area.

I arrived at the McAllen airport mid-afternoon (I got an earlier flight than expected), and an hour later I was at the nest site on Old Port Isabel Road.  The directions were perfect, and I could see the nesting box a couple hundred yards to the west.

Nest box in the distance just to the left of a stand of yuccas

The nest box was like a large cage with bars that would prevent Great Horned Owls from getting to the nest.  And using my scope at 50 power I thought could see a bump on the floor of the cage, but couldn’t even tell if it was a bird, let alone a Falcon.

"Bump" in the center of the cage is likely the Falcon on its nest

I continued to stare at the nest box for the next hour, and twice thought I saw the bump move.  And then I noticed it stand up and turn – although the view was brief and very distant I thought I could see the head pattern of an Aplomado Falcon.  So now I was pretty sure it was my target bird, but still wanted a better view.  In the meantime a singing Cassin’s Sparrow was nice, as were these Gull-billed Terns that loafed nearby.

 

At one point I turned my attention to some call notes behind me.  When I turned back around there was a second Aplomado Falcon sitting on the nest structure.  Within seconds the bird that had been on the nest walked out of the nest structure and flew off.  The second bird then walked into the nest structure and settled down on the nest.  All of this occurred within just a couple minutes – nice views, but very brief.  Then a couple minutes later what was presumably the first bird appeared on top of one of the yuccas near the nest structure, and sat there for the next 30 minutes until I left.  Although it was windy which caused a lot of vibration of the scope, I was still able to get this phonescoped photo.

The Aplomado Falcon was ABA lifer #745, and Lower 48 lifer #723.  And it was my 9th lifer I’ve seen in TX as a result of a vacation day added to a Houston business trip in the last 6 years. 

Since I was able to see the Falcon on Day 1, and in fact pretty early on Day 1, I now had time to chase after some possible TX statebirds both the evening of Day 1 and also on Day 2.  I need a number of regular migrant passerines for my TX list, so I made a quick drive to the coast to hit several migrant hotspots on South Padre Island.  I didn’t have too much time, but ran into a nice mixed flock with one each of Yellow-throated, Tennessee, and Prothonotary Warblers, along with a Lincoln’s Sparrow and 2 Indigo Buntings.  No new statebirds, but this mixed migrant flock made me think that spending more time there on Day 2 would be worthwhile. 

But on Day 2 I first needed to chase after my key TX statebird target - a Painted Redstart that was spending its second consecutive winter at a rest stop south of Falfurrias.  I’ve seen Painted Redstart in its normal range in Arizona, but it is quite a rarity for TX.  I arrived at the rest stop just after dawn, and went to the area south of the rest rooms where the bird was most often reported.  The rest stop was a large, heavily forested area, and there were quite a number of singing migrants in the woods, so I worried about how I might find this bird.  But within 2 minutes of my arrival, I noticed some movement low in the trees and there was the Redstart – what a gorgeous bird – TX statebird #420.  Good thing I saw it when I did because I spent the next hour in the area and didn’t see it again. 

There were a number of Yellow-rumps – both “Myrtle” and “Audubon’s”, and an Orange-crowned at the rest stop, but that was it for migrant warblers.  And likely local nesting Kiskadees, Couch’s Kingbirds, Hooded Orioles, Black-crested Titmice, and Green Jays were nice.  But the highlight beyond the Redstart was a pair of Barn Owls that came out of a tree cavity.  In this photo (taken with just my iPhone), can you see the head of a Barn Owl in the cavity directly over the blue trash barrel?

I then headed back to South Padre Island to once again try for some migrant passerines.  But the migrants were few and far between.  In several hours of birding at the hotspots on the island and the rest stop I had just 11 migrant warblers of 6 species.  And I dipped on possible statebirds American and Least Bitterns that had been reported in the marshes at Convention Center.

But I got my 2 key targets – Aplomado Falcon and Painted Redstart.  A most successful trip!

Eurasian Wigeon, Putney Great Meadows, VT, April 2015

Just before lunchtime came a report of a Eurasian Wigeon spotted in Putney, VT, feeding in a flooded field at the Putney Great Meadows.  Back in Spring 2014 I had decided not to chase a VT Eurasian Wigeon spotted in northwestern VT because it was a 3 ½ hour drive for me.  But this bird was in southeast VT, and although I didn’t know where Great Meadows was exactly, I knew this would be less than a 2 hour drive away.  As I rushed to head out the door I e-mailed the person who reported it and hoped she would get back to me with directions before I got to the area.  (It was there the day before as well, though the news didn’t get out.)  Luckily the local VT birder sent great micro-directions while I was en route – park on River Road opposite Ompawmet Road at the railroad tunnel.  Then climb up the bank to the railroad tracks for a nice view of Great Meadows to the east.

When I first arrived at River Road and got my first distant glimpse of Great Meadows I didn’t see any standing water in the field.  Did I have the right location?  But as I got to Ompawmet Road I saw the railroad tracks and tunnel, and new I was in the right spot.  I could see another birder with a scope up on the tracks, so I quickly got out of my car and climbed up the very steep bank to join him.  He had the target bird in his scope, and I got a quick view – a nice male Eurasian Wigeon! 

As I set up my scope to get better looks, I noticed that there was another birder/photographer out in the field quite close to the birds.  And I could hear the Canada Geese starting to “talk” as if they were upset at his presence.  I quickly got on the Wigeon, and got this passable phonescoped picture of this charming bird –

Good thing I got this shot when I did, because not 30 seconds later the photographer walking in the field flushed the entire flock of dabblers including the Eurasian Wigeon.  This was less than 2 minutes after I arrived – if I had delayed my trip by even a few minutes I would have been most disappointed.  Plus there were many Green-winged Teal in the flock, and I was really hoping to be able to check for Eurasian Teal, but never had the chance to.  The Wigeon and the other dabblers never returned while I was there.  And the photographer flushed most of the other birds in the field as well, so I didn’t have the opportunity to look for other rarities.  Those photographers….

It turns out that there was another Eurasian Wigeon in Vernon, VT that day, and one each in central MA and central CT.  That was 4 in the Connecticut River Valley on the same day.  And a couple Eurasian Teal were seen in VT the day before as well.  That’s a nice haul of European migrant waterfowl for inland New England!

VT was my last New England state for Eurasian Wigeon – the 234^th species I’ve seen in each of those 6 states.  I now have seen this species in 13 states overall – not bad for a Eurasian bird (see my statebird map below).

This brings my VT total up to 268, and 1,998 in New England.  Just 2 more to go to 2,000.