King Eider, Lake Champlain, VT (and NY), November, 2017

Either Eider is a rarity in VT, so when a female Common Eider was reported in mid-November at the Champlain Bridge on Lake Champlain that really got my attention.  Then later in the day came additional posts that the bird was actually a King Eider.  And then a couple days later the news got even better - a pair of King Eiders, a female and young male, were spotted a short distance to the north from the DAR State Park in Addison.  King Eider is an exceptionally rare bird in Vermont, with sightings not surprisingly mostly coming from Lake Champlain.  There are only 5 records in eBird since 1990, with the most recent being birds seen at two different spots on the lake in 2006.  Given how rare this species is in this inland state, it sure would be great to chase after them.  But that’s more than 3 ½ hours from home which is beyond my normal driving distance, so I decided to pass on them.

As the days progressed, sightings of the Eiders continued both on the listserve and eBird- they were sticking around!  And with each additional post I got more and more interested in trying for them.  Then finally I decided to make the run up there, opting to get a rental car (using one of my free days), rather than putting all those miles on my car.  Now I needed to do some research to get the micro-directions.  All the recent sightings were similar – the pair of Eiders were sticking closely together, and they were most often associating with a flock of about 30 Long-tailed Ducks.  (Those are rare birds for VT as well, though not nearly as rare as the Eiders.)  Seemed easy enough – look for the Long-tailed Ducks and you would find the Eiders, right?  One challenge was the reports from the day before my trip said the Eiders were way out on the lake, maybe in NY waters.  As a result I was less worried about finding my target birds than I was in finding them in VT (I already have King Eider for my NY list).

The day of my trip finally arrived and the weather was quite good – not too cold and only light breezes from the south.  That should make for good viewing conditions even if the birds were far out on the lake.  I arrived at the closed gate to DAR (the park is closed this time of year), parked on the shoulder, and started the short walk to the lake.  Although there was another person in the park, he wasn’t a birder, so I was on my own.  I set up my scope and casually scanned the lake but could only find a small flock of Mallards.  I scanned 2 or 3 more times, each time looking more closely than the previous search, but still came up empty. 

My vantage point next to a picnic shelter a short distance above the lake gave me a great view of most of the lake, but I couldn’t see too far to the north.  I remembered passing a sign for a trail to the shore, so I decided to take that trail to see if it gave me a different viewing angle.  The trail ended right at the shoreline, and it gave me views directly west and most importantly to the north, so I was hopeful I would find my targets.  Though now down low to the lake meant I had to deal with some heat shimmer.  But despite my different viewing angle, my scans again were not only negative for the Eiders, but I found no waterfowl at all.  Then finally on the next scan I thought I noticed tiny white dots far out on the water.  I concentrated on this area and eventually realized these were the reported flock of Long-tailed Ducks – so the Eiders couldn’t be far away.  After a couple more anxious minutes of peering across the lake I finally noticed a couple larger brown ducks close to the Long-tails.  They were really far away, but eventually I got some details on the birds, including the orange bill of the young male, and confirmed they were indeed the King Eiders.  Amazing that they were still around more than 2 weeks after first being seen off DAR.  Success, but - they were so far out that I thought that they were in NY and not VT. 

The birds were slowly making their way to the south which should make them visible from my original viewing spot.  And from that higher vantage point I would have less heat shimmer to deal with so maybe that was now the better vantage point.  So I headed back to the first spot and eventually re-found the Eiders.  Viewing was indeed better from here, and the Eiders were not only swimming south, but also a bit to the east.  Three other birders arrived, and I was able to get them on the birds, though the extreme distance made it difficult.  Over the next 30 minutes the birds continued to move a bit south and east, and all of us agreed the Eiders were eventually in VT waters, though still pretty far out.  I could finally check King Eider off my VT list.  But perhaps the crowning moment of my visit was when a group of high school students arrived on a science field trip and we were able to get all of them on the birds.  Even though they likely didn’t appreciate how rare these birds were, their reactions when they finally spotted the birds in the scopes were priceless.

King Eider was #281 for my VT list, and the 247th species I’ve seen in each of the 6 New England states.  I’ve also seen this species in 5 other northeast states as well as in AK (see my statebird map below).

As a postscript, I and the other birders at DAR that morning started to theorize about why the Eiders had stayed in this area so long.  And also why such a large flock of rare Long-tailed Ducks were in the area as well.  The local birders suggested that this spot must be a good feeding area for Zebra Mussels.  Perhaps this is also why a large flock of diving ducks typically congregates here most winters as freeze-up approaches.  So the Zebra Mussels may be an unfortunate invader to Lake Champlain, but at least they attract some good diving ducks to the state.

Trumpeter Swan and Short-eared Owl (Finally!), Vermont, March 2017

Short-eared Owl has been a nemesis bird for me in VT for years.  Not only because I’ve tried for it twice unsuccessfully over the years – after all there are lots of birds I’ve tried for but missed throughout New England.  But more importantly, it is the most common bird that I still need not only for my VT list, but for any of my 6 New England statelists.  Worst yet, since the bird is regular in northwestern VT in the colder months, it appears in my eBird VT Needs Alerts most every winter day.  Every time one of those Needs Alert e-mails show up in my in-box I cringe – It’s as if the Owls are taunting me. 

So if it’s that common, why haven’t I tried for it more than I already have?  The problem lies in its location – the Short-eared Owl’s regular spot over the last several years has been at Gage Road in Addison, VT.  That’s a 3 ½ hour one-way drive from home – well beyond my normal 2 ½ hour limit to chase after new ticks for New England.  The two times I have tried for the Owl I’ve combined it with searches for other targets in the general area, though that hasn’t exactly gotten me anywhere so far.

And that is what led to my next search for my nemesis Short-eared Owl in March 2017.  It all started when I began to see posts about a Trumpeter Swan being seen in Brandon, VT.  My first thought was to not pay any attention to it.  Not because I doubted the ID, but instead because it was about 3 hours away.  Plus the bird was undoubtedly from the introduced Ontario population that many states haven’t yet recognized as countable birds.  But then additional posts mentioned the bird was not banded, and it was the second VT state record.  That meant that VT had already accepted a previous record again likely from the introduced population.  With that issue behind me, I quickly thought about combining an attempt for the Swan with another try for the Short-ear.  A search on eBird showed no reports of the Short-ears in about 2 weeks, but I wasn’t too worried about whether they were still around.  So although it would be a lot of driving, I guess I could justify a trek to northwestern VT given there were 2 targets for the trip. 

Then again just a month earlier I made a similar trip to the central coast of Maine – 2 targets each were farther away than my typical chase distance.  But together I justified an overnight trip to give them a try.  But I missed them both!  Hopefully the results of my VT trip would be better.

My plan was to leave home late morning, try for the Swan early to mid-afternoon, then make my way north to Addison later in the day for an attempt at the Owls at dusk.  The only potential complication was the weather.  A strong arctic cold front was to arrive overnight, but that would be well after I would leave Addison.  So the temperature wasn’t the problem.  Instead the issue was that there could be snow squalls in the area in advance of the front, though the forecasts that morning reduced the chance of any snow to just 40%.  But I figured as long as I kept an eye on the weather maps I’d be OK.  Besides, if I delayed my trip to the next day it would brutally cold and windy after the front passed through, making a search for the Owls really difficult.  So my plans were set.

I left my house on time, and arrived in Brandon about 2 PM.  The Swan was being seen in a flooded field south of a railroad overpass along Route 73 just west of “downtown” Brandon.  With those pretty specific directions I was confident I would quickly find the right location.  But as I crested the railroad tracks all I could see to the south was trees.  Where was the flooded field?  I continued to slowly drive to the west down the overpass and only then looking back could I see a wetlands with open water.  I parked on the west side of the overpass, and planned to walk back to the east to get a closer view.  As I was getting the scope out of the car I looked back toward the wetlands and could see a large white “lump” in the water.  I put it in my binocs and it was indeed a sleeping Swan.  Undoubtedly it was my target bird, but I wanted to get a better view. 

I walked back to the east up the overpass and set up my scope.  But the Swan was still sleeping – giving these not-so-photogenic views. 

Luckily I had quite a bit of time to wait for the bird to wake up.  After a few minutes the bird briefly picked up its head, and I was lucky to snap this phonescoped picture confirming the ID as the second VT state record of Trumpeter Swan.

VT is my 17^th state for this species, many of which are associated with reintroduction efforts across the country (see my statebird map below).

It was only 2:30, and sunset wasn’t until 5:53.  I was only about an hour’s drive from the Owl location, and it was sunny and nearly 40 degrees.  So everything was looking good.  But as I started my drive north I could see dark clouds up ahead, and the wind started picking up.  A few minutes later it started to snow, and then I hit a snow squall complete with limited visibility in heavy snow, which was blowing horizontally and was now sticking to the roads.  (What happened to that 40% chance of snow forecast?)  But squalls are typically short-lived, and soon I was north of the narrow but strong snow band, and again I wasn’t too worried about the weather.

It was snowing lightly when I reached the western end of Gage Road, and I began to reacquaint myself with the area.  Gage Road dead-ends in a set of farmers’ fields, some planted in pasture grass and some in corn, with just an occasional hedgerow, and an old barn complex a short distance to the north.  With the exception of a few shallow ditches, the area is very flat, allowing for a nearly unobstructed 360 degree view of 200 acres of potential Short-eared Owl feeding area.  And past reports have mentioned the Owls throughout the area.  So as sunlight waned you would need to scan the entire area for foraging Owls.

But sunset was still nearly 2 hours away.  Rather than going to bird somewhere else nearby, I instead decided to stay at the Gage Road fields to see if I could find an Owl before dusk.  Short-ears will spend the daylight hours roosting on the ground, especially in protected areas such as ditches.  So I decided to walk along some of the shallow ditches in the area in hopes of finding one at its roosting location.  It seemed like the best location might be a dry stream bed just southeast of the barn toward the north.  But that area was posted, and I didn’t want to push my luck.  In fact most all the fields in the area were posted.  That meant I was limited to just walking right along Gage Road.  About 30minutes later I had walked the shallow ditches adjacent to the entire length of the road, but with no luck.  Though on my walk I did have 3 Rough-legged Hawks (including 1 dark phase), 2 Red-tails, and a Harrier. 

The Harrier is important because they fill almost the exact same ecological niche as Short-ears, only of course at a different time of day.  Plus both species will roost in the same locations.  So a field over which a Harrier is flying at dusk could well be the same one from which a Short-ear will emerge a few minutes later.

Another tidbit on finding Short-eared Owls is that with overcast skies Short-ears will come out earlier than normal.  So with the cloudy skies I decided to sit in my car and start scanning the fields, even though it was still 90 minutes before sunset.  It continued to snow at various rates the entire time, only occasionally heavy enough to reduce visibility, so the weather wasn’t likely to create any issues for me.  Despite dozens of 360 degree scans I couldn’t find an Owl.  As it was getting close to sunset I noticed a Harrier in the distance just north of the barn.  I quickly drove up there to get a closer look but the Harrier was gone.  Had it sat down for the night?  And if it did, was there going to be a Short-ear appearing in the same area?  I was thinking of relocating to the barn area for my sunset search, but the barn buildings would block about a third of the fields I had hoped to scan, so I went back to my original spot.

It was now 15 minutes before sunset so time to scan in earnest.  No more of that wimpy scanning from the warmth of my car.  The wind had died down a bit (10-15 mph from the northwest), the temp was in the upper 20s, and it was only flurrying.  So all things considered, not too bad for early March.  But scan after scan yielded no birds at all, except for a pair of Ravens passing by.  When I reached sunset I started to worry a bit.  Then it was 10 minutes after sunset and I worried some more.  Was this going to be yet another negative search for my nemesis bird in VT?

Then at 15 minutes past sunset on a scan to the north I noticed some movement low over the ground immediately east of the barn.  A few seconds later I got a second look at the floppy moth-like flight of a Short-eared Owl!  I continued to watch it fly around the dry stream bed near the barn that had caught my attention earlier.  And this was next to the field where the Harrier had likely roosted for the night.  My initial thoughts to find this bird were confirmed.  I watched the bird forage low over the field east of the barn, and then followed it as it moved north and east farther away.  After about 5 minutes I lost the bird in the distance – now a third of a mile to the north in the waning light.  I had finally gotten my VT (and New England) nemesis bird!

The Trumpeter Swan and Short-eared Owl were #276 and #277 for my VT statelist.  Plus the Owl was the 243^rd species I’ve seen in each of the 6 New England states.  My statebird map for the Owl is quite spotty – I still need this species in many states within its range.  Though in FL I have seen the Caribbean race of Short-eared Owl – maybe it will be split into a separate species someday.

As a postscript –  Although the snow didn’t cause any problems for me in finding the Owl, I changed my route home to a somewhat longer one on I-89 rather than taking the back roads likely to be snowy or icy.  But it turns out even the interstate was quite treacherous, with 2 large accidents that closed the highway along my route back.  What could have been a 3 ½ hour drive home turned out to be 5 hours instead.  It would have been even worse sitting in those backups if I hadn’t seen both of my targets.

Unfortunately I have a lot of experience on long drives home after not seeing my target(s).  Earlier I mentioned a recent trip to ME where I justified a trip beyond my normal 2 ½ hour chasing distance because, just like this VT trip, there were 2 targets to chase.  However, unlike this trip, I came up empty in my search for both of my ME targets (Bullock’s Oriole and Mew Gull).  For whatever reason, my success rate for the longer distance chases in ME is miserable – only 43%.  By comparison, chases in VT over those similar distances have a success rate of 72%.  Another point of comparison is that my hit rate for all of New England over the last 2 years has been 68%.  What’s with those distant ME birds?