The Rarest of the Rare Winter Finches, Fletcher Community Park, NC, December 10, 2020

The Fall and Winter 2020 seasons have been punctuated by irruptions of many species of northern finches.  Even as far south as here in NC!  First there were Red Crossbills nesting in white pines at lower elevations away from the higher NC mountains where they are more typically seen.  More recently there have been occasional flyover Crossbills passing over areas even farther from the mountains – I’ve been lucky enough to have one each in Polk (3rd county record) and Rutherford Counties (2nd county record).  Then came large numbers of Pine Siskins and Purple Finches, along with Red-breasted Nuthatches, pouring through the area.  Next were Evening Grosbeaks that came come through in very small numbers.  Once again luck was on my side when a pair of Grosbeaks flew over as I was doing a “Big Sit” in my yard in November. 

And finally, there is the rarest of this winter’s finches – Common Redpoll.  Early in the Fall there was a considerable Redpoll irruption in the northeast, which expanded to a few sightings in the Mid-Atlantic.  Could this northernmost of the finches make it all the way to the Carolinas?  The answer is a resounding “Yes”.  The first sighting of a Redpoll in NC came on 11/13 in the north-central part of the state.  And then there was another sighting on 11/20 in the northern NC mountains.  Just 50 miles away as the winter finch flies. 

That’s definitely one to keep an eye out for.  Or perhaps more importantly to keep an ear out for.  Redpolls have pretty characteristic calls, although they are similar to some of the calls of Siskins.  For the next several weeks my nearly daily birding efforts really focused on trying to find Redpolls.  I especially birded weedy fields that might attract finch flocks.  And then I looked in stands of birch trees and wetter smooth alder thickets.  This year both are loaded with catkins, and some seeds, which are favorite foods for Redpolls.  All the while keeping my ears open for an isolated flyover bird.  Not too surprisingly I didn’t come up with a Redpoll, or even a Siskin for that matter as it appears that most of this irrupter have already passed through.

Then on 12/10 I took a trip to the Fletcher Community Park which is part of my territory on the Henderson County Christmas Count.  The park has a nice diverse set of habitats, including woodlands, shrubby edge, and adjacent agricultural fields.  Plus one of the more unique birding spots is a small pond in the middle of the park that often hosts a surprising array of waterfowl.  The pond is surrounded by a thick stand of birch trees with smooth alder as an understory, making it quite difficult to see the waterfowl.  I’ve found the only way to try to get an accurate count of the ducks is to walk slowly around the entire circumference of the pond peering through to the water wherever there are gaps in the vegetation. 

On the 10th I was about half-way around the pond picking out good numbers of Hooded Mergansers when I heard a distinct dry “chit chit chit” call low overhead – I had my Redpoll!  It sounded as if I flushed it from the birch trees or alder thickets and it flew off toward the west.  Unfortunately it was a heard-only bird, despite efforts to re-find it in the vegetation off to the west.  I wasn’t at the park just to look for Redpolls, but in hindsight, the vegetation around the pond is about as perfect as you can get for these wayward finches.  So maybe it should have been my key target after all. 

Common Redpoll was #309 for my NC statelist, and a first eBird record for Henderson County.  NC was my 15th state for this species – 12 it in its regular range (the blue-shaded states in my statebird map below), and the 3 brown states where it’s a rarity.  I still need it in quite a number of northern tier states where it’s regular, albeit typically only in irruption years (the cross-hatched states).

 

6 New Colorado Statebirds, January 2013

A particularly heavy travel schedule for work of late had become quite trying and tedious, with no time for birding during those trips.  So as my third trip to Denver in 4 weeks came up, I decided to try to see if I could squeeze in at least a little time to fill some gaps in my CO statelist.  With 266 birds on my CO list I don’t need too many regular birds, but I was hopeful that at least a few less common birds might be staked out in the greater Denver area.  The CO listserve is a good one, including an updated statewide RBA every couple days with sightings separated by county.  So as long as you know which counties are in your area, a little research on the listserve can be a big help in planning a statebirding trip to CO. 

So I opened up the CO listserve and quickly saw that there were a number of potential statebirds being seen in and around Denver, and many had been present for some time.  Now the question was whether I could have time to try for them.  Based on my initial work plans it looked like I might have an entire morning free, along with a couple early morning hours on a second day.  So I set up my plans to pursue 6 potential stakeout statebirds.  During my free morning I would start at dawn in Fort Collins at a spot with both Redpolls (including a first state record for Hoary), then head south to Lower Hoffman Lake for Trumpeter Swans, then farther south to Valmont Reservoir for Tundra Swans.  Then in my free early morning I would start at dawn at a Red Rocks Park feeder for a Golden-crowned Sparrow and then a quick stop at a marsh at the Wheatridge Greenbelt park for a Swamp Sparrow.  All in all a very doable schedule.

When I arrived in Denver one of the first things that happened was my work schedule changed, and now my free morning was going to be consumed by meetings.  Ugh!  Hate it when work gets in the way of birding.  So now I needed to rethink my schedule.  That would mean there would be no chance to get up to Fort Collins for both redpolls, but there was a feeder in Wheatridge with a small flock of Common Redpolls that I could squeeze into a lunch break instead.  And maybe I could get to the lakes with the Swans either at the end of a work day, or at dawn before work started.  So maybe I could still squeeze in attempts for 5 targets.

As the first day’s work neared an end, it looked like we might be done at 4:30, and sunset was 5:10 so a 30-minute drive to try for the Trumpeters could be feasible, though with little time to spare for searching for the birds.  As I left the office the light snow that was falling that afternoon was just ending, so I hit the highway and quickly got to Lower Hoffman Lake.  But it was surrounded by a suburban subdivision, so it took me a few minutes to find access.  When I finally got access to the lake, all I could see was ice.  Had to be some open water somewhere.  Eventually I found a different access point and saw some open water.  Sure enough there was a Trumpeter Swan in with quite a number of dabbling and diving ducks.  And as the light waned, large flocks of geese flew into the lake to roost on the ice.  This included several Cackling Geese – one was calling as it flew in with the Canadas.  This was my 12th state for Trumpeter Swan – aided by the big reintroduction program and their subsequent expanded breeding success.

 The next day my work meetings started at 8 AM, but with sunrise about 7, I figured I could get to Valmont Reservoir before work to try for the Tundra Swans.  I had been there back in 2007 to take in the spectacular gull show that occurs in winter evenings as gulls descend into an overnight roost on the open water of this power plant reservoir.  I arrived at 7 (even though an overnight snow made the drive challenging) but couldn’t find an access point on the north side of the lake.  But then I remembered that in 2007 we accessed the lake from the east, so I headed there and was able to drive toward the edge of the lake.  As soon as I parked I noticed a flock of at least 500 gulls circling low directly overhead.  I started scanning through the flock and quickly found a small white-winged gull – either a first year Thayer’s or an Iceland.  I watched it for at least 60 seconds – it had a thin all dark bill, never saw any darker coloration to the primaries or secondaries, and its tail was only slightly darker at the tip than at the base.  So although I never saw the bird from above, I concluded it was an Iceland Gull.  This or another Iceland was seen at Valmont the next day.  CO is now my third Midwest or West state for Icelands, in addition to seeing them in 11 states in the northeast,.  And that was my 10th gull species for CO – not bad for a state in the Rockies.

Next my attention turned to the Tundra Swans.  From the car I could see only a small portion of the reservoir, but no large white birds (just 3 large dark birds which were immature Bald Eagles).  So I started to walk over toward the lake and soon found quite a bit of open water and a flock of Canada Geese.  And then with a slightly different angle I found the flock of 12 Tundra Swans at the edge of the ice.  After a quick walk back to the car I was able to drive to work with and got to my meeting with just a couple minutes to spare.  Although my statebird map for Tundra Swan is a bit spotty, it’s pretty well filled in for the eastern and western migration and wintering populations. 

The next target was the Redpoll flock coming to a feeder in Wheatridge.  I only had a small window of time over lunch before having to go back to work, so I needed the redpolls to be pretty cooperative.  After a quick MacDonald’s stop I arrived at the house, but there were no birds present.  But luckily only 10 minutes later a mixed flock of finches flew into trees next door – Goldfinches, House Finches, and a couple Redpolls.  Soon the flock dropped into the feeding station and was joined by 30 or more other finches.  There were about 8 Common Redpolls in the flock, including one where the red pigment was replaced by orange.  This bird was also quite pale, but had a light tan rump, and a couple dark undertail coverts.  It was most likely just a Common Redpoll with some pigment issues.  Although CO was my 13th state for this species, my statebird map is pretty spotty except in the Northeast.

The next morning I had 2 free daylight hours of birding time before heading to the airport.  So I left the hotel before dawn to head to the beautiful Red Rocks Park, and specifically the Trading Post where a Golden-crowned Sparrow had been visiting a feeding station for most of the winter.  It was 20 degrees and quite breezy when I arrived (I was definitely underdressed for that windchill) but there were many birds at the feeders.  Most were juncos, and I counted 6 different races – Pink-sided, Oregon, Gray-headed, White-winged, Slate-colored, and Cassiar.  It was quite a show.  After about 15 minutes the Golden-crowned showed up (a nice adult bird), though it was only in view for about a minute before running back into the adjacent brush.  I waited for another 45 minutes but it not reappear, so I guess I was lucky.  By the way the “White-winged” Juncos were only my second in the west.  I mention “in the west” because I had a junco at my feeder in Massachusetts a couple years ago that had white wingbars but I guess it was more likely an aberrant Slate-colored than a White-wing.  That was my 5th state for Golden-crowned Sparrow, and my first as a rarity away from its normal range. 

The last stop was the Wheatridge Greenbelt which is a linear suburban park along a river that flows through the Denver suburbs.  There was a post from about 10 days earlier about a Swamp Sparrow in a cattail marsh, with very specific directions to the location.  So although the post was a little old, I thought I’d give it a try in hopes that this was a wintering bird.  I got to the park at about 8:30, and although the temperature was up to 25 degrees the wind had increased, so the wind chill was likely even lower.  A short walk later I was at the cattail marsh where the sparrow had been spotted – everything was completely frozen and the wind was howling.  But a Song Sparrow was chipping in the marsh so I had some hope.  Swamp Sparrows can be very tape-responsive, and I had planned to bring along my MP-3 play and speakers.  Unfortunately I forgot to pack them (doh!), so the night before I went to the Xeno Canto website and had picked out one recording of call notes and one of songs that I could play from my iPhone.  I started to play the call note recording and almost instantly had the bird respond.  The bird eventually appeared and gave me brief views before it went back to its hiding places in the frozen cattails.  Luckily that only took a couple minutes because I was really getting cold.  I’ve now picked up Swamp Sparrow in a number of western states as a rarity –maybe it’s easier to find as a rarity than other species.  On the way back to the car I found a Snipe along the edge of the open water along the river – didn’t expect that one in January in Denver. 

So that gave me 6 new statebirds, putting my CO state list at 272.  Certainly was fun to be able to see so many of my target birds - plus finding a rarity - even though my birding time was so limited. 

Mountain Bluebird, Fort Getty, Jamestown, RI, November 2012

Just before leaving on a business trip a flurry of posts came across the RI listserve about a Mountain Bluebird seen at Fort Getty in Jamestown – just a couple miles from where the Wood Sandpiper had been seen earlier in the fall.  It had apparently been first discovered a couple weeks earlier, so I hoped that it would stick around till when I got back in town.  Each day while I was gone there were posts that the bird was being seen reliably at the small Fort Getty park (there were no negative posts as all), so I was cautiously optimistic that it would still be around when I returned.

I headed to southern RI my first day back, arriving at Fort Getty early in the morning.  A quick look around the park did not yield the bluebird, though I did find a late Blackpoll Warbler.  I ran into another birder who had been there a while who also had not seen the bird, though she found the Blackpoll too.  My optimism was waning – would I be the first birder to miss the bluebird?.  I spent the next 45 minutes walking around the little park but with no luck.  A flyover flock of siskins with at least one redpoll was a minor consolation.  I started to wonder if the bluebird had relocated to one of the pastures near the entrance of Fort Getty Road.  I mentioned my theory to the other birder, and she said she would check it out on her way out of the park.  Sure enough, two minutes later, the other birder called me to report she found the bird in the eastern-most pasture on Fort Getty Road.  Two minutes later I was at the field getting good scope views of the Mountain Bluebird.

A couple minutes later we saw the bird fly off to the west.  So I went back to the campground (after a quick stop along Fort Getty Rd to see the Cattle Egret that had been feeding in the pasture) and instantly found the bluebird fly-catching from low posts at its more traditional location. 

RI was my third New England state for this casual vagrant to the east.  And of course I've seen it in most of the states in its normal range out west.