One Life Bird - Or Was it Two, Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 4-5, 2023

In January 2023 I had a most successful birding trip to the FL panhandle.  Not only did I see my first new life bird (White Wagtail) in several years, it was also my first trip to FL from my home base in western NC, greatly expanding my horizons for potential trips.  I was now watching the ABA Rarities eBird alerts more frequently, especially focused on potential lifers.  And the most likely location for those additional lifers would be in south FL. 

Sure enough late in January I started to notice reports of a Bahama Mockingbird in FL.  These rare vagrants typically appear somewhere in far southern FL which is actually a pretty short flight from their home in the Bahamas – less than 70 miles as the Mockingbird flies.  But this bird was being seen in Cape Canaveral, making it about a 3-hour shorter drive than trying for one that might appear at the southern end of the peninsula.  I’ve birded south FL a number of times, picking up several rarities there over the years.  But there has never been a Bahama Mockingbird there during any of my trips.  As a result, this species has been a key target for me.  And with this individual being relatively “close”, at only halfway down the peninsula, it was definitely one to chase after.

Now for the research.  The Bahama Mockingbird was being reported daily just outside the eastern end of the Jetty Park campground in Cape Canaveral.  It was first reported on January 10, and it or another one was at the same site from May through August 2022.  The bird was most often seen in a sea grape hedge, or along the edge of a paved parking lot just to the east.  It seemed that most birders just had to put in some time to wait for the bird to appear, often in the company of Northern Mockingbirds.  That seemed pretty straightforward.

What about other possible statebirds nearby?  In the few days before my trip an immature Iceland Gull was being seen daily in the waters just north of Jetty Park, though many birders were missing the bird.  Certainly one to look for.

And then there is the Indian Peafowl.  In 2020, the ABA Recording Standards and Ethics Committee concluded that Indian Peafowl has been established and “countable” in FL since 2007 per their policy “ABA Area Introduced Species”.  (www.aba.org/aba-area-introduced-species)  When the new policy was published I scoured my records but couldn’t find any notes about seeing “peacocks” in FL, though I might remember seeing them in Key West decades ago.  But that would have been before 2007 anyway.  So this possible new life bird has been on my radar screen since the ABA policy came out in 2020.  And sure enough it turns out there were quite a number of Peafowl records just south of Jetty Park.  One to definitely focus on when I got to the area.

Or was it?  In 2022 eBird published an article “Important Changes to Exotic Species in eBird”.  (ebird.org/new/news/important-changes-to-exotic-species-in-ebird)  In this article eBird concluded that Indian Peafowl was a non-countable “Escapee”.  They went on to say that a population of an exotic species is considered to be a non-countable “Escapee” because it is not yet a “population that is breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years”. 

An obvious difference of opinion on the countability of Indian Peafowl.  But as I always say, see the bird first, then figure out if it’s countable.  So I would still look for it on my trip.

And of course there was also statebird potential along my route back from Cape Canaveral.  Though since the Mockingbird and Peafowl were my key targets I would take as long as realistically needed to find them.  If I had time, in FL there were relatively recent reports of Harlequin Duck and Ash-throated Flycatcher at Huguenot Park just east of Jacksonville.  Plus there were several targets in GA and SC along my route home. 

This blog post focuses on my FL searches on this trip.  Searches in GA and SC are summarized in later posts on my blog.

Day 1 – February 4

I stated on the 9-hour drive to Cape Canaveral on the afternoon of February 3rd, making it as far as Brunswick, GA.  That evening while updating my notes on my target birds I noticed several reports from that day of a male Cinnamon Teal at Merritt Island NWR.  That’s just a short distance from Cape Canaveral so definitely one to add to the itinerary if the Mockingbird and Peafowl cooperated.

With the excitement of potential life and state birds in front of me I was out of the hotel before sunrise on the 4th.  And with light traffic nearly the whole way I rolled into Jetty Park a few minutes before 10 AM.  I drove right to the east side of the park, and parked in the paved parking lot mentioned in so many checklists.  There were a couple birders in the area who shared that the Mockingbird was seen earlier in the morning, though not recently.  So I started my vigil especially focused on the seagrape hedge just east of the campground, hoping that the Mockingbird would appear. 

But over the next 2 hours the area was very quiet.  Not only was there no Bahama Mockingbird, but there were no Northern Mockingbirds either.  That was quite disappointing since both species were often seen together.  The closest I got was a Catbird I spotted in the hedge.  Then at about 11 AM a Northern Mockingbird appeared in the hedge and flew over my head to the east.  Then a second one popped out.  Although I hoped the Bahama Mocker would be with them it was not the case.

Then a few minutes later I noticed 3 birders all pointing low in the trees a few feet to the south.  I had met them earlier and they were especially looking for warblers, so I imagined that’s what they had found.  But as I say “bird the birders”, so I went over and asked them what they had.  They had just discovered the Bahama Mockingbird!  Although it just took me a few seconds, it felt like hours before I finally picked it out among the leaves just a few feet off the ground.  I wondered if I had missed it as it flew in from the seagrapes, or perhaps it flew in from the east.  Regardless I had my bird.

A few seconds later it flew to the west and disappeared into the seagrape hedge.  We all got good views of all the key fieldmarks – brown-backed instead of the gray of a Northern Mocker, streaking on the chest and flanks, lack of white patches in the wings, white only in the corners of the tail, and longer tail making it look more like a Thrasher than a Mockingbird. 

Just when we thought we had seen the last of the Bahama Mockingbird it reappeared in the seagrapes, and flew back toward us landing on the ground a few feet away.  The bird hopped right by us – I took this photo with my cellphone as it went by within 3 feet of me.

Later it foraged on the ground just a few feet away and I got this “digi-binned” photo.

What an amazing set of observations!  Certainly worth the wait for a species that I’ve wanted to see for decades. 

With the Mockingbird behind me rather quickly I had plenty of time to pursue my other targets.  Next i drove over to the northeast corner of the park to try for the Iceland Gull, and joined a couple birders already there scoping the offshore waters.  Apparently the Gull was seen early that morning but not since then.  I did quite a bit of scoping and found a number of gulls perched on distant markers and fencing, including both Lesser Black-backs and a Great Black-backed, but no Iceland Gull.  The latest theory was that the target gull was roosting there overnight, and foraging during the daytime somewhere out at sea.  If that were the case, I’d have to wait till later in the afternoon for the Iceland to return. 

Given the apparent timing of the gull I decided to pass on it and pursue my other targets.  While I was closing up my scope I asked the other birders if they had suggestions for my next target – Indian Peafowl.  They very manner-of-factly said to just drive up and down nearby Atlantic Avenue and I would run into them just walking along the road.  A great tip! 

After just a 5-minute ride I reached the northern end of Atlantic Avenue and started the slow drive south.  It was a very busy main thoroughfare through a suburban shopping district, not typically a place where you would be looking for a target bird.  But this was an exotic species very accustomed to human interaction.  I hadn’t driven more than a half mile when I noticed a male Peafowl walking in a small park to the right.  I quickly pulled over and doubled back to get these photos of 2 male Peafowl hanging out in the park.  That was surprisingly easy.

My next target was the male Cinnamon Teal discovered the previous day at Merritt Island NWR.  Although there were no reports of the bird that day, several birders reported it the previous day, and one report included coordinates of the precise location of the bird as it fed with Blue-winged Teal.  So I was hopeful.  However, despite lots of scoping through flocks of an estimated 450 Blue-winged Teal and 250 other dabblers I was unsuccessful in finding the Cinnamon Teal.  And the specific impoundment where it was seen the previous day had no ducks at all.  Notably, I did find a tight flock of 500 Long-billed Dowitchers, chattering away as they often do while feeding.  Here is a picture of one portion of the flock.

It was a bit disappointing to end the day with a miss, but I was still happy to get the Mockingbird and Peafowl.

Day 2 –  February 5

My one FL stop on Day 2 of my trip was at Huguenot Memorial City Park on the coast east of Jacksonville.  My first target here was a Harlequin Duck seen mixed in with Scoters and other seaducks on the north side of a rock jetty at the mouth of the St. Johns River.  And my second target was an Ash-throated Flycatcher seen near the parking area at the east end of the park.  Unfortunately, neither had been seen in about a week so I wasn’t overly optimistic.

When I arrived at the park the wind was howling out of the north.  And it was even worse as I got to the exposed jetty area.  This picture shows the waves overtopping the jetty.

Miserable conditions to find a seaduck.  I tried scanning the mouth of the river thinking that maybe it had relocated to these calmer waters but with no luck.  One consolation was this large flock of 200 Black Skimmers that were pinned down by the wind and tide.

The parking lot where the Ash-throated Flycatcher had been seen was only slightly less windy.  Once again difficult conditions to find a flycatcher.  I walked around the area for close to 90 minutes but found few birds out in the strong winds.  The closest I got was to find a Phoebe foraging within a foot of the ground.

I couldn’t have asked for worse conditions to find my targets.  Both birds were re-spotted a few days later, undoubtedly under much calmer conditions. 

As I headed out of the park on my way to stops in GA, I reflected on the mixed results of the FL portion of my trip.  I’m not used to missing such a high percentage of my targets (4 of 6), but if I was only able to see two, the Bahama Mockingbird and Indian Peafowl were the most important.  And I’ve decided to follow the ABA’s rules for counting the Peafowl.  Afterall, I’ve been following the ABA’s rules for countability of exotics and other species for many decades.  Per the ABA, that brings my ABA Continental list to 765, and 745 in the Lower 48.  And my FL statelist is now up to 332 per the ABA (only 327 per eBird). 

See my next blog post for the GA portion of my February 2023 trip.

28 New Quebec Province Birds, November 2015

Having recently been bitten by the province listing bug, I had made 2 short trips into southern Quebec in the last year to work on my Quebec province list.  Since both trips had been in summer and fall, I needed to make at least one winter trip into Quebec to look for those colder weather species.  I spent some time on eBird downloading bar charts for the southern counties of Quebec and noticed that numbers of many of the “winter” waterfowl actually peak in mid-November, although the northern finches and owls would be more likely in mid-winter.  Of course it can be really cold in Quebec in mid-winter, so I decided a late fall trip would be a better option even if it meant missing out on some of those mid-winter specialties. 

Now I needed to come up with a plan.  I had a realistic list of 52 possible targets, which was way too long to focus on pursuit of individual species.  Instead it would be best to identify the best birding spots with the potential to find multiple targets.  To minimize travel time and maximize birding time I decided to cover areas directly north of VT – generally south and east of Montreal and Quebec City.  It was quite a daunting task with so many possible birding spots and such a long list of targets.  But since that was the area I birded on my last Quebec trip back in September, I was familiar with several of the good birding spots in the area like Lac Boivin and Parc National de la Yamaska.  Several of my targets had been reported on eBird at both locations so stops there made sense.  I also noticed that eBird posts from the northern end of Lake Champlain near Philipsburg included many target waterfowl.  And then I found numerous posts from along the Richelieu River just a short distance to the north, where the river was seemingly teeming with waterfowl.  A bit farther afield there were many reports from Reservoir Beaudet in Victoriaville with a number of waterfowl and gull targets, not to mention 50,000 Snow Geese.  And then there were my landbird targets, some of which had been reported at the George Montgomery Sanctuary in Philipsburg just across the border.  More than enough locations to come up with a multi-day itinerary.

Then there was a rarity to consider.  There were numerous posts about a Harlequin Duck on Riviere des Prairies on the northwest side of Montreal.  It was a long way to go for just one species, and directions weren’t too detailed (and of course in French).  So I wasn’t planning to try for it until I was able to get excellent micro-directions from local birder Joel Coutu.  And if I headed into Montreal I could try the nearby Cimitiere Mont Royal where the only semi-reliable Bohemian Waxwings in the area were being reported.  But the long side-trip and the urban driving still didn’t excite me much, so I decided to play it by ear based on how the rest of my day was going. 

All told that would be 2 full days of birding in the province.  Day 1 of my itinerary would start at dawn at Philipsburg, then I would work my way north up Lake Champlain, then the Richelieu River, and maybe a side-trip to Montreal.  Day 2 would start with landbirds at Lac Boivin, then over to nearby PN de la Yamaska, then up to Reservoir Beaudet.  Based on that itinerary I felt like I could add 15-20 new birds to my province list, though 26 would be a nice stretch goal since that would give me an even 150 for the province.  And starting at dawn in Quebec required a drive through VT the day before, so that would provide an opportunity for another try for Short-eared Owl in Addison, VT the evening before arriving in Quebec. 

Day 0 – VT

I arrived in northwest VT in the early afternoon, and given the strong northwesterly winds I decided to head to Charlotte Town Beach for a lakewatch.  But the only birds moving south were 2 Common Loons and 2 distant Eagle, sp. in NY.  Interestingly I had a Red-throated Loon and several Horned Grebes on the lake – 2 species I would miss in Quebec.  A couple subsequent stops on the lake were even slower, so I headed “inland” and spent some time at the goose viewing area watching thousands of Snows in the distance.  Then it was off to Gage Road in Addison, “the” best place for Short-ears in VT.  I arrived at 3:30, an hour before sunset, and stayed until complete darkness at 5:15, but had no luck with the Owls.  Even though others had an Owl there on subsequent evenings.  Hopefully my Quebec birding would go better.

Quebec Day 1

I started a bit before dawn at George MontgomerySanctuary in Philipsburg.  Or more precisely – mistakenly I started on private property just outside the sanctuary.  After about 15 minutes of hiking I realized my mistake, and made my way back to the car.  But on the way I added a calling Redpoll flying overhead (province bird #1), and a distant calling Carolina Wren (#2).  I eventually figured out how to access the north end of the sanctuary, and found a nice feeding station that included a Red-bellied Woodpecker (#3), and a small number of Titmice (#4), along with the Carolina Wren I heard earlier – that was all 3 of my “southern” target species in one stop.  I continued hiking a bit in the southern part of the sanctuary and found the first of several Tree Sparrows for the trip (#5).

Next it was on to the western edge of Philipsburg overlooking the northern tip of Lake Champlain.  The water was as smooth as glass, and there was almost no heat shimmer, providing excellent viewing conditions.  And although there were a lot of birds on the lake, unfortunately almost all were too distant to identify.  Distant Common Mergansers were barely identifiable only in flight (#6), and luckily a small group of Red-breasted Mergansers (#7) were a bit closer.  And although a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls were identifiable in flight (#8), they were too far away to try to pick out any rarities that might be mixed in.  Lastly, 2 large flocks of Scaup numbering at least 1,000 birds were just too far away to identify, which was frustrating given that at least a few target Greaters were undoubtedly mixed in.

Far to the north I could see a number of waterfowl and gulls, so I drove a short distance north of Philipsburg to gain a different vantage.  Here I found the first of many flocks of Common Goldeneye for the day (#9), including one female Barrow’s (#10).  And a scan a bit farther to the north yielded the first of many Bufflehead (#11).  So although I added 6 new birds on the lake, I couldn’t find the loons, grebes, and scoters reported there recently.

The next stop was the northwest corner of Lake Champlain, but a quick scan yielded only a few Canada Geese and Bonaparte’s.  Since I was behind schedule I didn’t take any more time here, and instead headed for the highway for the short drive north toward Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu.  Highway 35 passed through some nice farming country which I told myself looked like a good area for raptors.  Right on cue I spotted a large buteo near the road that turned out to be a cooperative Rough-legged Hawk (#12), and a couple miles later I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk perched in a nearby tree (#13).  And just before leaving the farmlands and entering the city a flock of Horned Larks flew over the highway (#14).  That was a surprisingly fruitful stretch of highway!

Next it was on to the Richelieu River, where there were nearly a dozen eBird Hotspots from Saint Jean to Chambly.  I first picked out 2 stops along the Saint Jean waterfront that had large numbers of waterfowl in recent posts, and they did not disappoint.  First was Auberge Harris, named for the hotel next to the small roadside parking area.  Here I picked up my first Hooded Mergansers (#15 – at least 35 birds) among the 2,000 Canada Geese, 250 Goldeneye, 20 Common Mergs, 10 Red-breasted Mergs, and 20 Bufflehead.  I kept scanning through the birds not finding any rarities until I picked up a pair of large dark ducks in flight.  They eventually landed allowing me to identify them as a female Black Scoter (#16) and a female Surf Scoter (#17) – neither had been reported recently from this spot. 

I wanted to spend more time here combing through the Canada’s hoping for something rarer, but was running way behind time and instead headed a mile north to the next stop – Halte Cayer.  This spot featured 2,000 Snow Geese, 1,000 Canadas, at least 100 Goldeneye, and 3 sleeping Scaup sp., but nothing new for my list, though again I wished I had time to do a more detailed search through the geese. 

As I was making the drive north to my next stop at Fort Chambly I got a text from local birder Joel Coutu saying the Montreal Harlequin Duck was being seen most cooperatively.  But I was running pretty far behind schedule, so I wondered if I had time to try for it.  Then a quick scan of the Bassin de Chambly from Fort Chambly revealed very few waterfowl.  So with real-time updates on the Harlequin from Joel, I decided to skip my last 2 stops at Bassin de Chambly, and headed to Montreal to try for the Harlequin, and then to the cemetery to try for the Bohemians if there was enough time.

The Harlequin Duck first showed up at the Parc Nature de L’Ile de la Visitation in January 2015.  Although it was most frequently seen in rapids downriver of the main section of the park, in the last couple days it was being seen in a different stretch of rapids in the main part of the park.  Joel gave me excellent directions to this spot, and then suggested I just look for the photographers.  I successfully navigated the downtown Montreal streets, took the short walk to the proper part of the park, and could see at least a dozen photographers ahead along the river’s edge.  There was the male Harlequin swimming and diving in an area of small rapids among a flock of Canadas (#18).  I got these barely passable phonescoped photos of the bird – I’m sure the photographers with their long lenses got much better shots.

I hated to “bird and run”, but I wanted to try for the Bohemians, so I spent just a couple minutes with the Harlequin and then started to walk back to my car.  I had just climbed up from the river bank when I came upon several photographers with their lenses pointing up into the trees.  With a quick glimpse up into the bare branches I saw nothing at all.  But then I remembered Joel mentioning that this park was known for its Screech Owls.  So I looked closer and saw that one of the trees had a knot hole.  I set up my scope and sure enough there was a Screech Owl sleeping inside (#19).  Like I always say – “bird the birders”.

Both the Harlequin and the Screech Owl were bonus birds I wasn’t planning on, so this side-trip was a nice addition to my itinerary.

Next I was off to the Cimetiere Mont Royal to try for Bohemian Waxwings.  The eBird reports mentioned they were eating crabapples, so my plan was to look for the trees and then hope the Waxwings would be cooperative.  However, when I arrived at the cemetery I found crabapples everywhere, and all were full of fruit.  I spent the next 90 minutes wandering through the very nicely landscaped cemetery, finding 3 flocks of Robins numbering at least 100, but no Waxwings.  At one point I ran into another birder also looking for the Waxwings, but also unsuccessful.  Though he did just find a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers.  He pointed me in the direction where he last saw them, and I was able to refind both birds (#20).  A nice consolation for not finding the Waxwings.

That gave me 20 new Quebec province birds – already the high end of my hoped for total and I still had another day of birding ahead of me. 

Quebec Day 2

I started the day pre-dawn at Centre d’Interpretation de la Nature du Lac Boivin, a very nice park with varied habitats that I visited back in September.  First I took a walk through wet brushy habitat hoping for targets like sparrows, Rusty Blackbird, and Siskins.  But I could only find a few Tree Sparrows and Goldfinches.  Next I checked out some vantage points on the lake hoping to find a Cackling Goose reported earlier but with no luck.  With slow birding here I moved on to a nearby park where a flock of Snow Buntings had been reported two days earlier, but I came up empty once again.  It could only pick up from here, right? 

The next stop was Parc National de le Yamaska – another spot I birded in September.  Recent reports from the lake at the park had included Common and Red-throated Loons, Red-necked Grebes, Scoters, and Long-tailed Ducks, so I was optimistic I would pick up a number of targets.  Soon after I started scanning the lake I spotted the first of 4 Common Loons (#21), but I couldn’t turn any into their slimmer Red-throated cousins.  Then I noticed a pair of sleeping waterfowl in the distance that I eventually concluded were Red-necked Grebes (#22) – I would end up finding another pair elsewhere on the lake.  Two nice finds, but otherwise the lake just held a few of the expected Common Mergansers, Goldeneye, and Bufflehead. 

Next I took a short walk through the woods to the secondary dam to the northwest, which on my September trip had good numbers of gulls, waterfowl, and shorebirds.  And although there were a number of waterfowl and gulls there on this trip, there was nothing unusual.  As I was packing up my scope to head back I heard what sounded like a bugling call somewhere overhead.  Was it a Sandhill Crane?  I stood still and listened intently – there was the call again.  It was indeed a Crane!  (#23)  I ended up hearing it call 5 times, but not unlike other flyover Cranes, I could never spot it as it undoubtedly flew high overhead.  Nice to find a write-in on eBird.

With birding picking up, I was off to Reservoir Beaudet in Victoriaville.  Although I would have preferred not to have to take a long 90-minute ride to the next stop, eBird posts made this location seem like a must stop.  The reservoir featured a large flock of Snow Geese, with recent posts including targets such as Ross’ Goose, Brant, Cackling Goose, Ruddy Duck, and Iceland and Glaucous Gulls.  When I pulled up to the lake I was shocked by what I saw – Snow Geese as far as you could see covering nearly the entire surface of this small reservoir.

Other birders there that day estimated 80,000 Snow Geese on the lake.  Yet despite these large numbers, no one could pick out a Ross’ Goose that day.  Or maybe I should say because of these large numbers, no one found a Ross’ – picking out a smaller white goose in a sea of larger white geese is no easy task.  But there were at least 2 Cackling Geese in the flock, including these small Richardson’s Cackling Geese (#24). 

After looking at the latter 2 photos of the Cackling Goose I noticed two small immature white geese in the foreground - both are very small compared to the adult Snow Geese nearby, and quite a bit paler than the immature white goose to the right.  Although they are sleeping so you can't see the shape of the head and bill, the small size and paler coloration suggests that they are Ross's (#25). 

At the far end of the lake I noticed a number of gulls flying in, landing briefly to bathe, and then flying out.  In between scans of the white geese I would check out the gulls and picked out an adult and a 1st year Lesser Black-backed (unfortunately not new for my Quebec list), but could not locate the Iceland and Glaucous that had been reported here in previous days. 

I also spent some time looking for diving ducks on the lake, hoping to find the Ruddy Ducks reported earlier.  The far end of the lake had a number of Common Mergansers and Goldeneye, but nothing else of interest.  And among the white geese I only found a single female Lesser Scaup.  That is until a kayaker appeared on the lake and flushed the entire flock of geese, making for this amazing scene.

With all the geese in the air, I looked back on the lake where the flock had been swimming and noticed several diving ducks.  Amazingly the ducks had not taken off with the geese.  The first bird I looked at was a female White-winged Scoter (#26) – a bird not reported recently at the reservoir.  And a few seconds later I spotted a single Ruddy Duck (#27).  And scanning further I found a flock of 4 Scaup – 1 of which was a female Greater (#28).  It was great to finally be able to tick this one off my list after having seen so many “Scaup, sp.” earlier in the trip.  All these ducks had undoubtedly been mixed in with the geese the whole time I was there.  But despite all my scanning I was only able to find one Lesser Scaup among the larger geese, even though one would think the dark ducks would stand out among all those white geese. 

It was now mid-afternoon, and with a long drive home in front of me, I decided to start heading south, very happy with my results.  Although I only had 62 species on the trip, 28 were new for the province list.  That was way over my expected 15-20, and even over my stretch goal of 26, increasing my Quebec list to 152.  My species list in Canada increased by 6 to 277, while my total ticks in Canada is now 794.  Both are pretty meager totals, but with 40 new species and 379 new ticks in Canada in 2015, it’s a big improvement.

The next (and perhaps last) opportunity to add a significant number of birds to my Quebec list would be to a make a late spring/early summer trip to look for breeding landbirds.  With over 30 regular breeders in southern Quebec as potential targets, a 2 or 3-day trip might be worthwhile in May 2016.  Then there are still all those winter finches and owls that I missed on this November trip…

Harlequin Duck, Milford, CT, December, 2013

You would think that Harlequin Duck would be a pretty easy bird in CT.  After all, CT is a New England state with significant coastline.  Not to mention that perhaps the best place to see Harlequins in New England is in RI at Sachuest Point just a few miles from the CT state line.  But much of the CT coastline is sandy rather than rocky which is the preferred habitat for Harlequins.  Plus the CT coast is protected by Long Island, so birds heading south down the coast to winter in NJ and points south are not very likely to make stops along CT on their journey.  And a further complication is that most of the coastal sightings are of birds that don’t stay long.  As a result, this colorful duck is quite difficult in CT; in fact very difficult particularly for an out-of-state birder.  I’ve unsuccessfully chased after two different CT birds over the years – one on the coast and one long-staying bird on an inland river where I arrived the day after it departed.  And I’ve seen Harlequin in each New England state except CT – yes I’ve even seen it in inland VT.  So needless to say this is a key target for me.

Now we move forward to 2013 and Christmas Bird Count season.  As the sightings started to be posted on the listserves a post came across of a female Harlequin Duck seen on the Milford CBC at Merwin Point, first spotted in the morning and then seen again at the same spot late in the day, despite a significant ice and snow storm.  The next day, the bird was seen by several birders, though the last posted sighting of the day was a short distance to the west near Sloppy Jose’s restaurant.  My drive time to Milford is a bit more than my normal maximum distance for chasing after rarities.  But since this bird was likely to stick around, and a key target, I decided to give it a try. 

The following morning I headed out, arriving at Merwin Point a bit after 10.  This location featured a number of small rocky islands just offshore, and several man-made jetties, so quite a bit of habitat for a Harlequin.  But despite several scans, I couldn’t find the target bird.  The closest I could find was a male White-winged Scoter.  I wondered if the Harlequin could be hiding out on the back side of some of the islands, but despite looking from several locations, I couldn’t get views of the southern sides of those islands.  I was about to head to the west where it was seen late the previous day when I noticed a group of 5 small ducks at the point, diving frequently.  Unfortunately they were Greater Scaup.  But where had they been on my previous scans of the area?  Thinking that maybe the Harlequin would appear in the same way, I scanned the area again but with no luck.

My next stop was Sloppy Jose’s restaurant.  The restaurant was easy enough to find, and I parked in the restaurant's parking lot successfully avoiding the snow and ice piles.  The problem was the restaurant was a block from the water with no access or view of the Sound.  Instead, the shoreline was hidden behind numerous waterfront houses.  How would I get views of the water?  The birder that found the Harlequin from this area yesterday must have figured it out.  So I started walking along the road to look for gaps between the houses.  Eventually I found a vacant lot with a view of the water, so I set up the scope and began to scan the water and coastline.  But no luck – a few Canada Geese and some Mallards and Black Ducks were close to shore, some Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergs were farther out, and in the distance I could see the same 5 Greater Scaup I had spotted earlier.  But no Harlequin.  Yet another scan and still no target.  What next?  Could the bird be moving to the west from its initial location?  Should I drive to west to look for additional rocky habitat?  But before I left, I tried one more scan, and there it was – amazing, right in the middle of the cove that I hadscanned at least a dozen times earlier.  The bird was diving frequently, so it’s possible but unlikely that it could have been under the water on each of my earlier scans.  Maybe it just appeared, like the Scaup earlier.  In any case, I found the bird after about an hour of searching.  I always say that the best search is one you have to spend some time working for, instead of one you just drive up to and see.  So this statebird was quite satisfying indeed.

Harlequin Duck was number #308 for me in CT, New England statebird #1954, and #223 for me in all 6 New England states.  I’ve now seen Harlequins in each Atlantic coast state south to VA, all 4 Pacific coast states, as well as in WI and VT as inland states (see my statebird map below).