10 North Carolina Statebirds in October 2019

October was a great birding month for me in my new home in the mountains of western North Carolina.  I birded several days a week at nearby hotspots, and most every day just in my own yard.  I added 10 new species to my NC list in October, about half being rarities needing details in eBird.  Short summaries of each of my additions are provided below.

10/1 – Nashville Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo – Yard

My yard continues to be an excellent birding spot, with many migrants passing through the yard virtually every day.  The month started off with a bang with additions of both Nashville Warbler and a Philadelphia Vireo, the latter considered to be rare per eBird.  I had 1 or 2 Philadelphia’s in the yard each day for the next 3 days.  My statebird map for Nashville Warbler is inserted below – I’ve seen it in the shaded states, and still need it in the cross-hatched states where it is a regular species.

10/6 – Northern Waterthrush – Jackson Park

My first birding trip in the area was a birdwalk run by the local Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society (EMAS) at the Beaver Lake sanctuary.  A couple of the folks in my group spotted a Northern Waterthrush but I missed it.  Hence it was a bit of a nemesis bird for a couple months until I finally caught up with one on my first trip to Jackson Park.  It turned out to be the first of several I had in the month.

10/9 – Peregrine Falcon, Dickcissel – Warren Wilson College

A Dickcissel spotted in a sunflower field at Warren Wilson College provided my first opportunity to chase after a local rarity.  Luckily I had attended an EMAS field trip to this spot so I knew where the field was and how to bird the site.  I arrived early the next morning and met up with a couple other birders also searching for the target bird.  There were many Indigo Buntings, and a couple Blue Grosbeaks, but no Dickcissel.  Most of the birds would be seen either flying out of the field to the adjacent trees, or flying back into the sunflower field.  But in most cases the birds would frustratingly instantly disappear into the vegetation; only occasionally would a few individuals sit out into the open for even a quick view. 

After an hour of searching I thought about leaving the sunflower field and birding elsewhere, but decided to focus on my real target – the Dickcissel.  I continued to try to ID the birds coming and going from the field from various vantage points, and at one point spotted a Peregrine Falcon overhead – a nice consolation prize, but still not the target.  Then at the 2-hour point I again thought about calling it quits.  But then I realized that the Buntings that were flying into the field were changing their MO and were actually sitting in the open for a while – maybe the Dickcissel might do the same I thought.  And sure enough, just a couple minutes later the 2 other birders and I all spotted the Dickcissel perched atop a sunflower.  Then again it might not have been “the” Dickcissel – this bird seemed to be paler below than the one photographed the day before.  A second bird perhaps?  In any case, my strategy to focus on my target rarity, rather than to divert my attention to more general birding, proved to be the right one.  As shown in my statebird map below I’ve seen Dickcissel in most of its regular range generally in the central portions of the country, and have found it as a rarity in a number of eastern states.

10/10 – Connecticut Warbler – Jackson Park

Local birder Dave Minnich and I were planning a birding trip for the 10th, and decided to try Jackson Park based on a couple reports of a Connecticut Warbler there.  The bird had been reported near the southern end of the Warbler Trail, so that’s where we started our trip.  But it was pretty slow in that area, and we continued our walk along the trail all the way to its northern end.  Shortly after we turned around and started our walk south back down the trail we heard a set of odd chip notes.  And just then I spotted a Connecticut Warbler just off the trail.  This was perhaps a half mile from the earlier sighting so likely a different bird.  The bird was seen again later that day by several other birders, and in fact continued to be seen for over a week – though as is often the case with these skulkers, it was not seen by everyone.

10/12 – Warbling Vireo – Yard

During one of my nearly daily stints birding in my yard I spotted a Vireo that instantly caught my eye – brownish back, faint eyeline, white throat, and only a bit of yellowish wash on the flanks.  Earlier in the month I spent a lot of time watching Philadelphia Vireos to make sure they weren’t Warbling Vireos.  And today’s bird was definitely a Warbling and not a Philadelphia, or Red-eyed for that matter.  This species is not only rare for NC, but it was also quite late for one, so it was a nice find.  I just need to see this wide-ranging species in a couple more southeastern states. 

10/18 - Lincoln’s Sparrow – Warren Wilson College

My targets on this trip to Warren Wilson were fall sparrows.  Earlier in the month a Nelson’s had been reported from a wet ditch in the middle of the fields (why didn’t I chase it?), plus it was time for Lincoln’s to be arriving.  So a sparrow search was on!  I headed to the ditch as soon as I got to the site and soon had a number of Songs, Swamps and Savannahs.  Then in the distance a Lincoln’s popped out and gave nice views.  Later I had several other Lincoln’s there – I guessed at least 3.  I also had another at the nearby gardens, and 2 at the sunflower field.  Interesting that this species is considered to be a rarity in eBird.

10/24 – American Bittern, Vesper Sparrow – Hooper Lane

A Vesper Sparrow was reported at the sod farms at Hooper Lane, though without a specific location.  There are numerous weedy ditches throughout the site so I planned to work the ditches and hope I ran into the Vesper, or maybe I should say a Vesper.  But shortly after I arrived at the farm I heard a Greater Yellowlegs in the distance.  I located it in a wet area in the distance, and decided to get closer to it to grab a photo, and look for other shorebirds.  I snapped this passable photo holding my phone up to my binocs. 

A bit later I spotted a pair of shorebirds overhead which turned out to be a White-rumped Sandpiper and an American Golden-Plover – both eBird rarities.  But neither was new for my NC statelist.  Unfortunately, by the time I went back to looking for my target Vesper Sparrow I had run out of time.  Though the shorebirds were certainly a nice consolation.

So I was back a couple days later to give it another try.  This time I started at the southernmost ditch and started heading west, flushing sparrows along the way.  But it was just the regulars – lots of Savannahs, a few Songs, and a couple Swamps – so my interest started to wane.  I was just about to give up when I flushed an American Bittern from the ditch – this addition wasn’t even on my radar screen.  I still need this reasonably common species in quite a number of states across the country.

Later in that same ditch I spotted a sparrow in the distance with a white eye-ring.  I initially thought I had a Vesper, but realized it was too small.  Then it turned to face me and it had a buffy chest with no striping – a Grasshopper Sparrow.  Nice!  But still no Vesper.

Next it was on to another ditch, with more Savannahs and Songs.  Then I spotted another Grasshopper Sparrow – only my second and third I’ve ever found in fall migration.  And the hits kept coming – I turned to look at the pool where the Yellowlegs had been a couple days earlier and spotted 4 shorebirds.  I needed to get closer to identify them as Pectoral Sandpipers – my 6th shorebird species there that week.

I was out of time and started to head back to the car along the ditch I birded earlier.  I wasn’t watching the sparrows too closely since I had seen them all on my first pass.  But just then I spotted a larger sparrow fly into the ditch from the nearby field.  And after just a couple seconds it popped into the open and was a Vesper Sparrow.  Although it took me a while to finally get my target, I’m not complaining since I found so many other goodies along the way.



I ended the month with a NC statelist of 270 – I’ve added 19 new birds to my list since moving here just over 2 months ago.  I continue to be amazed at how many good birding spots there are within 45 minutes of my house.  And speaking of my house, my yard list as of 10/31 stands at an amazing 92 species.  This includes 22 species of warblers and 6 vireo species as the fall migration through my yard was outstanding.  What a tremendous start to my time here in the Carolinas!

7 Statebirds in WV and 1 More in PA, May 2014

Since early in 2014 my work has required me take several trips to Pittsburgh which is a location I haven’t traveled to in quite some time.  Pittsburgh is only about a 90 minute drive from some good birding areas in northern WV, and since I’ve needed to work on my WV state list, of course I’ve squeezed in a bit of WV birding time on these trips.  I started 2014 right at the old ABA reportable threshold for WV.  And then with a trip in March, I added 8 new waterfowl even though I had just 1 hour of birding time.  Then with a late afternoon in April I added 3 more – putting me 11 over the old threshold.  My somewhat arbitrary goal is to be 15 over threshold in each state (to stay above that limit hopefully forever), so only 4 more to go.  My next trip was in early May quite well timed during passerine migration.  So I connected with my Morgantown, WV birding friend Terry Bronson and he developed a plan to help me find some of my possible statebirds.  I had a couple hours in the evening and much of the next morning for birding time, so I was hopeful that I could get maybe 2-3 new statebirds.

I met Terry near dinner time of the first day and he greeted me with his list from that morning – it had been a major fallout in Morgantown with 8 birds that would have been new for my statelist.  Unfortunately I was 12 hours too late.  But maybe some would stick around.  We went right to Core Arboretum where Terry had all his birds that morning, and began to retrace his tracks.  The first area was where he had had a Cape May, several Swainson’s Thrushes, and a Least Flycatcher, but we dipped on all three.  We did have the first of several Nashville Warblers there though - new statebird #1.  We continued to bird the park, finding a reasonable number of migrant warblers, but still missing all those great birds Terry had that morning.  We eventually made our way down to the river where Terry had his best bird of the morning – a Forster’s Tern – a nice bird for WV.  We hiked to the buoy in the river where it had perched that morning, and amazingly it was still there (#2).  I’ve now seen Forster’s throughout most of the country (see my statebird map below).

A little later we finally found one of the several Spotted Sandpipers Terry had had along the streambank (#3).  We ended the day with another unsuccessful try for Great Horned Owl (my nemesis bird in WV).  So although the 3 new statebirds were already what I had hoped for during the trip, we still missed 5 birds Terry had earlier in the day.

We started early the next morning to ominous skies, and decided to try Core Arboretum again to see if it had been another good migration night.  There were less birds there than the day before, but there were some migrants so we didn’t give up hope.  Then I noticed a large bird fly in – it was a Black-billed Cuckoo (#4).  WV was the last “hole” in the northeast part of my statebird map for Black-billed.

And a few minutes later we found a Swainson’s Thrush (#5) in the same area where Terry had them the day before.  We were still birding the park when it started to rain, and when a bolt of lightning hit the ground close nearby we headed back to the safety of the car.

We decided to make our way south to get away from the rain, and we headed to Pritchett Fort State Park.  There were almost no migrants there at all, but there was a nice collection of breeding species including great looks at Yellow-throated Warbler.

With just a couple more hours available before heading back to work, we decided to go to Little Indian Creek WMA, which is a reclaimed coal mine revegetated in grasses and some small emergent trees.  One of the targets Terry was hoping for here was Palm Warbler, and soon after reaching the park we found our target.  I had a brief glimpse of a warbler in the distance in some grasses flicking its tail, and after a little searching, we found not 1 but 2 western Palm Warblers (#6).  WV was my last eastern state for this species.

 

As we continued walking through this very birdy park, we noticed many tent caterpillar nests.  And soon we began to see and hear Black-billed Cuckoos.  Several times we watched them chowing down on big hairy caterpillars.  We conservatively estimated that we saw 3 birds, and along with the 4^th one at the arboretum, that was very likely more Black-billed Cuckoos than I’ve ever seen in one day.  Two different times we also saw female Prairie Warblers fly into a caterpillar nest, and gather the silk from the web for nesting material.  Very cool.

Our time was almost up so we headed back toward the car.  Although we were chatting along the way I faintly heard a brief call that sounded like Least Flycatcher.  But this area certainly is not a typical heavily wooded located for Least Fly.  Nonetheless, we stopped to listen, and both of us heard it call several more times (#7).  That was quite a surprise.  My statebird map for Least Flycatcher shows some big gaps in the southeast, though otherwise pretty good coverage across the country.

 

We ended our WV birding with 87 species, including 19 warblers, and most importantly, 8 new birds for my WV state list.  Way over my hoped for 2 or 3.  And with 196, my WV state list is 18 over the old ABA threshold an in theory secure for a long time to come.

As I was heading back to Pittsburgh I started to wonder if there might be any migrants I might need for my PA list.  I’ve got a pretty good list for PA since I lived there for 4 years, but after checking my lists I remembered that I still needed Nashville Warbler for PA.  And since we heard and saw several in WV, maybe that one might be feasible to try for in PA.  However, the first problem was that at most I could only squeeze in an hour or two of birding starting at dawn the next day.  Plus, since I had never birded in Pittsburgh, I’d have to find a good spot for migrants.  I looked on the map and found a small suburban park called Robin Hill Park that seemed nice and was nearby.  So I had a plan.

I arrived at Robin Hill Park just after dawn and was greeted with a singing Hooded Warbler – a nice start.  I then noticed some warblers feeding at the top of an oak tree, and after wading through some Yellow-rumps and Black-throated Greens I picked out a Nashville Warbler – success!  I ended up with 2 other Nashville’s over the next hour.  Now that I’ve seen Nashville in WV and PA, my statebird map pretty well matches the typical range map for this species, which is common in much of the country except the heart of the Rockies and the southeast.

I also got several warblers we didn’t have in WV, including a Bay-breasted that I didn’t need in PA but did need in WV.  Ugh!  I also got an Orange-crowned, which is a good spring bird in PA though not a new one for me.  That gives me 239 for my PA list.