The last
time I was at the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs was November 28,
2010 when I successfully chased after a Northern Lapwing - a life bird for me
at the time. The Lapwing was foraging in
the fields around Horsebarn Hill. Little
did I know that I would be back to that same spot some 8 years later chasing
after another rarity – Yellow-headed Blackbird.
The Blackbird certainly wasn’t a lifer, but it was somewhat of a nemesis
bird for me in CT, having chased after this species in CT three times before.
It all
started on New Year’s Day when a post came across that a Yellow-headed
Blackbird was found in flock of Starlings and Cowbirds at Horsebarn Hill. I couldn’t break free that day, nor the next
for that matter. But luckily the bird
was re-found multiple times on the 1st and 2nd.
Several posts included location details, and even though my last trip
there was more than 8 years ago, I could picture exactly where the Blackbird
was being seen. The bird was seen in
flocks of Starlings and Cowbirds, with posted photos showing the birds in
pasture grasses which cover many acres throughout this area – the same
grasslands that attracted the Lapwing back in 2010.
With morning
and late afternoon appointments on the 3rd, I had a 2-hour window to look for
the Blackbird in the early afternoon. I
got out of my morning appointment and checked my e-mails for updates –
unfortunately there was just one post and it was from a birder asking for
updates. There were no reports of the
bird from that morning at all. Ugh… But I decided to head to Storrs anyway to
give it a try.
As I pulled
onto Horsebarn Hill Road I quickly spotted a large flock of Starlings milling
around the large red barns on the right side of the road. Since the posts had mentioned mixed
Cowbird/Starling flocks I was hopeful that I wouldn’t have to wade through the
many thousands of Starlings at the barns.
But at the edge of the parking lot I saw a small group of Cowbirds
foraging in the grass, so I spent a bit of time looking through that
flock. But it was just Cowbirds. Hopefully the bird was in another flock
farther to the east.
I drove a
bit farther along the road and noticed a couple birders out in the field. Maybe they had the Blackbird - “bird the
birders” as I always say. I walked over
to them and sure enough they had just seen the target bird in a flock of
Cowbirds. So the Yellow-headed Blackbird
was still around, but the Cowbird flock was no longer in the field. Now we had to re-find the flock.
With just a
bit of scanning I spotted a flock of about 500 Cowbirds a short distance
away. Was this the right flock? We anxiously looked through the birds as they
fed in the field. But the grasses were quite
tall, mostly obscuring the birds as they foraged. They were almost constantly in motion, so I
mostly watched as birds popped out of the grass to move to other parts of the
flock. As the seconds grew into minutes,
I flashed back to my previous trips looking for Yellow-headed Blackbird in CT,
spending hours poring through blackbird flocks unsuccessfully searching for
patches of yellow in a sea of all dark birds.
But just then I did indeed spot a flash of yellow – I finally had the
Yellow-headed Blackbird! I continued to
bird the area for the next hour, and although the cowbird flock was in view
most of that time, I only re-spotted the Yellow-headed a few times, and only had
it in view for perhaps a total of a minute.
You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to spot, but in all
fairness this was a female or immature so the yellow was limited and wasn’t
that bright. Plus there was no white in
the wings to look for in flight.
I took a few
photos of the Cowbird flock with my iPhone, including this one through my
windshield from the warmth of my car.
I didn’t
realize it until I looked at the photo on my computer, but amazingly I was
lucky enough to snap the shot when the Yellow-headed was visible near the right
side of the flock. Here’s a cropped
version of the previous photo.
And all of
these sightings were within a couple hundred yards from the spot where I had
the Lapwing in 2010.
As a side note - a photographer from the Willimantic Chronicle was at the site as well, taking a couple pictures of the blackbird flock as well as the birders -
My 5 minutes of fame I guess.
Yellow-headed
Blackbird was number 333 for my CT state list.
As shown in my statebird map below, I’ve now seen this species in the
east as a rarity in 4 states (FL, CT, MA, and NH), and throughout almost all of
its normal range in the central and western US.
The 3 cross-hatched states are the last ones in that regular range (though
barely) where I still need this species.
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