Lower Rio Grande Valley Trip Nets 6 Mega-Rarity Life Birds and 7 More State Birds, Jan. 5-9, 2024, Part 2 of 2

Before retiring in 2018 I would travel to Houston for work about a week a month.  I’d often squeeze in a little local birding time during most of those trips, working on my TX state list and sometimes even my LA list.  But the real attraction was the opportunity to bird in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which after all was only an hour plane flight from Houston.  On a number of my trips, I would add a vacation day to chase after some extreme rarity from Mexico (or even farther away).  As a result, I’ve made 14 trips to the LRGV and nearby areas in south TX over the years, with each of the most recent 9 trips targeting a single life bird. 

Fast forward to mid-December 2023 – I started hearing some buzz about rarities being seen in south TX this winter.  I did a quick eBird Needs Alert for TX and was blown away by the number of rarities on the list.  There were no less than 5 mega-rarities that were seemingly quite reliable –

• Roadside Hawk and Gray-collared Becard (first record for TX) at Resaca de la Palma State Park
• Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and Mottled Owl at Santa Margarita Ranch – property only accessible by hiring a guide
• Cattle Tyrant (a first for the US) in downtown Corpus Christi

Needless to say, all 5 would be life birds for me.  What an amazing group of rarities!  Plus there were sightings of 2 parrots that I had never seen before - White-fronted and Lilac-crowned.  Although these “exotic” species are countable per eBird rules, they are not countable per ABA and the TX Bird Records Committee. 

And there were more than just potential life birds to pursue.  Although my TX state list was already pretty respectable at 452, there were quite a number of possible TX state birds also being seen.  Key targets included – Long-tailed Duck, Western Grebe, Limpkin, Mountain Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Iceland Gull, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and Hermit Warbler.  Another great list of targets!

With all those potential life and state birds it was a no-brainer that I had to give it a try and make my 15th trip to the LRGV.  After all, I’ve taken numerous trips to the Valley for just 1 potential life bird.  Albeit those trips started in Houston instead of western NC.  I found a window of free time in my schedule in early January, and made reservations to fly to TX on the 4th, returning on the afternoon of the 9th, giving me 4 and a half days of birding in south TX.   

All things considered I hoped to find 4 or 5 lifers, and an additional 5 state birds.  That’s quite a step up from my recent trips to the Valley hoping for just 1 target bird.

This post summarizes the second half of my trip.  The previous post summarized the first part of my trip.

January 7 – Corpus Christi and Vicinity and Parrot Search

The plan for the 7th was to travel to Corpus Christi where the key target was a long-staying Cattle Tyrant.  This flycatcher is typically a South American species (I’ve seen it several times in Brazil), which is normally not seen any closer to the US than Panama.  Though there was one being seen in Costa Rica now.  It’s unclear whether the Texas Bird Records Committee will decide to add this species to the state list.  But it’s best to try to see it in the meantime, and then await the Committee’s decision.  Interestingly, eBird already considers it to be countable. 

After (hopefully) finding the Tyrant, my plan was to chase after 3 rare potential TX state birds – Bar-tailed Godwit Iceland (Thayer’s) Gull, and Long-tailed Duck.  All 3 were being seen near Corpus Christi, or along the route back to the Valley.  Then I would get back to Brownsville by sunset to look for Parrots at an evening roost. 

I developed an itinerary that would in theory give me enough time to try for each of my targets and still get in all that driving time.  But that itinerary went out the window when I overslept – I guess I was really tired from my late night with the Owls.  I got out of the hotel an hour later than planned, and spent a lot of time on my drive to Corpus Christi going through the options to get back on schedule.  I ended up deciding to skip my search for the Bar-tailed Godwit.  Although that would be a great bird to see, it had not been reported for 10 days despite multiple checklists in the areas where it had been seen.  Plus I had planned on a lengthy 90-minute search for the bird, so skipping that one would give me more than enough time to find my other targets.

The very tame Cattle Tyrant was being seen in downtown Corpus Christi principally in an area covering one city block.  And one its favorite spots was a blue dumpster near the corner of Water and Lawrence Streets where it would eat flies and other unmentionable insects.  I finally rolled into downtown Corpus Christi at 9:45 and parked near that dumpster hoping for a quick look at the bird, but came up empty.  I took a slow walk around the city block but still no Tyrant.  At one point an employee of one of the local businesses came up to me and said he had seen the bird a bit earlier that morning, so at least it was still around.  By 10 some other birders started to show up and a few of us exchanged phone numbers to spread the news when it was sighted.    

During one slow period I checked my TX Needs Alert for updates and found a report that the Godwit was seen just an hour earlier, and a specific location was given.  That meant I should add the Godwit search back into my itinerary, but would I have time for all my stops? 

It was now 10:30 and still no sightings.  I was standing back at the dumpster when one of the birders I met earlier came by to say she had just found the Cattle Tyrant around the corner.  After a short brisk walk I turned the corner and saw these 2 birders standing in the road up ahead.  That’s the target bird in front of them walking in the road.

I walked a bit closer and got these nice digi-binned shots.

Cattle Tyrant was ABA Lifer #5 and State bird #8 – at least for now pending the TX Committee’s decision.

It turns out that one of the birders with whom I exchanged numbers was the person who re-found the Bar-tailed Godwit that morning.  Before I left I was sure to get very specific directions from him – he mentioned it was on the short rocky jetty at Indian Point Park.  That was 1 of 3 hotspots where it had been sporadically reported over the last month, and was just 10 minutes away.  So I was cautiously optimistic.  But since it took nearly an hour to find the Tyrant I might need to delay my try for the Long-tailed Ducks until tomorrow, unless I could find the Godwit quickly.

After a short drive I parked at Indian Point Park and walked right to the jetty.  I had a couple Willets and a Turnstone, but no Godwits.  It was indeed a very short jetty and there was nowhere for a large shorebird to hide, so I hadn’t overlooked it.  I then turned my attention to a small wetlands close to the jetty that had a Marbled Godwit and a few Black-bellied Plovers, but still no target.  So much for hoping to find the bird quickly.

Just northeast of the jetty was a large impoundment that looked like great habitat.  But that wetlands stretched some 2 miles to the north, and the Godwit had been reported throughout this impoundment.  But since the bird had just been seen on the jetty, maybe it hadn’t gone far.  I set up my scope and started to scan the southern end of the impoundment.  I was especially focused on the larger shorebirds, picking up another Marbled Godwit and a Long-billed Curlew.  Then I came to a large shorebird in the distance that was pale below.  I increased the magnification on my scope and confirmed I had my target Bar-tailed Godwit – creamy white below, lighter brown above, and upturned 2-toned bill (State bird #9).  Here is a crummy distant phone-scoped photo of the bird.  Nice that it picked a spot to be all by itself so it would stand out. 

Bar-tailed Godwits would normally be wintering in Australia or New Zealand, so this is quite a rarity for TX.  I’ve now seen this species in 4 states as a vagrant, along with AK as a breeder.

While I was looking at the Godwit two birders from CO arrived.  They were from CO and said they didn’t know their shorebirds well.  So I not only put them on the Bar-tailed, but also a Marbled Godwit, Long-billed Curlew, and Piping Plover.  Not birds you see in CO very often. 

Since it only took a few minutes to find the Godwit I was now only a few minutes behind schedule – maybe I’d have time for all my targets after all.

And that next target was an Iceland Gull.  This was an adult of the Thayer’s subspecies that was being seen along the John F Kennedy Causeway.  It was always reported at either of 2 fishing piers across a narrow channel from each other.  It seems the bird was looking for handouts among the Laughing Gulls there, and all the posted photographs showed the bird perched on posts at one of the piers. 

I pulled into the parking lot of the first fishing pier, the Cos Way Bait and Tackle, and scanned all the posts.  I had a few Laughing Gulls and a couple Pelicans, but no Iceland Gull.  Then I looked across the channel to the other fishing pier, the Red Dot pier, but again just found Laughing Gulls.  There were also small gull flocks resting in the shallows nearby, but all were still just Laughers.

I guess I might just have to wait a while for the bird to return.  From the Cos Way pier I could see both piers, but I was looking into the sun in order to see the Red Dot pier.  So I decided to drive over there and look back to the north at the Cos Way pier with the sun at my back. 

I drove to Red Dot, and although lighting was much better, I still couldn’t find my target.  The tide was pretty low at the time, and I wondered if the Iceland might be resting on a sand bar somewhere nearby.  I noticed a sleeping flock of gulls a short distance to the northeast beyond this boat.

I pulled out the scope and instantly noticed the third bird from the right was larger than the Laughing Gulls.  It was an adult gull without a hood but had considerable streaking on the head, had a pale back, and a small unmarked bill.  I had the Iceland Gull (State bird #10).  There were 2 other birders there at the time and I was able to get them on the bird as well.  Here’s a distant digi-scoped picture of the bird, of pretty poor quality I’m afraid.

My state bird map of Iceland Gull includes my sightings of both the Thayer’s and Kumlien’s subspecies, as they have recently been lumped into one species.

I was only 30 minutes behind schedule when I headed off so I should have enough time for my entire itinerary.  Especially if my next target, Long-tailed Ducks, were cooperative.  These diving ducks were surprisingly feeding in a shallow saltwater pond in Port Mansfield.  The eBird reports were quite confusing as to the ducks’ exact location, so I reached out to two birders who had recently reported the birds to get directions.  Both gave me directions to a pond just west of the point, labeled as the Port Mansfield Marine Sanctuary hotspot, requiring a short walk to the pond.  But one birder also mentioned they were sometimes seen in a lake east of the point - the Laguna Point Recreation Area hotspot.  He gave me directions to both lakes, so I should hopefully be all set. 

I drove to the small town of Port Mansfield, parking at the corner of Fox and Allen to take the short walk to the pool at the Marine Sanctuary.  But there wasn’t a single duck on this very small pond – just a couple Black-necked Stilts on the bank.  At least it was a short walk back to the car.  I then drove around to the Laguna Point pond.  I did a quick binocular scan and spotted several ducks near the eastern end of the pond.  The first ones I got on were a group of 4 Lesser Scaup.  Then a couple seconds later I spotted the black-and-white plumages of the pair of Long-tailed Ducks (State bird #11).  Here is a picture of the pond – my target birds were in the back below the blue arrow.

Not only were these diving ducks in a shallow pond acting like dabblers.  But they were also very far from their typical wintering range in the northern portions of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and Great Lakes.  TX is now the 6th southern and central state where I’ve seen Long-tailed Duck as a rarity. 

The last stop of the day was an evening Parrot roost at Oliveira Park in Brownsville.  Some recent reports included hundreds of Parrots of up to 4 species – Red-crowned was the most common but there were also a few White-fronted and Violet-crowned which I needed as potential new countable life birds per eBird.  (Though they are not countable per the ABA and the TX Committee.)  And then again, some checklists had few birds and only Red-crowned.  I pulled into the park about 4:45 and found 3 other birders there also waiting for the Parrots.  The birds often don’t come in until close to sunset, which was still an hour away, so we birded the park a bit waiting for the evening flocks to arrive.

Around 5:30 I spotted a large flock of perhaps 100-200 Parrots flying in the distance.  This was looking promising.  But that flock never came to the park.  Finally a flock of about 50 birds flew overhead, circled a couple times, but never landed.  These were mostly Red-crowned but I also picked out at least 2 Red-lored with yellow cheek patches (I’ve already seen this species countable only per eBird), and 2 Yellow-headed (not countable by anyone’s definitions).  Unfortunately that was the end of the Parrot show for that night.  That was quite disappointing, missing both of my targets.  Though at least neither of them are countable per the ABA and TX Committee.

January 8 -  Second Tries for Fan-tailed Warbler and Mountain Plover

This day and the next were designed to be clean-up days to go after anything I had missed from the earlier part of the trip.  And the key miss was the Fan-tailed Warbler.  Since I tried for it on the 5th the bird was seen or heard multiple times on the 6th, but just once on the 7th.  Most sightings were from the original spot on the north side of the resaca, but a couple in the afternoon were from the south side of the resaca.  And there were several heard-only observations, as the bird gave its “tseee” call.  So the bird was still around, and despite its elusiveness, I decided to try for it again on the 8th. 

I arrived at the college campus around 7:30 and was greeted by a stiff wind coming out of the south.  That put the wind right into my face as I stood watch for the bird at its original location.  Soon I was joined by a number of other birders, but once again I couldn’t come up with the bird.  We all wondered if the wind was making it even more elusive than normal.  Then again, at one point I was quite sure I heard the bird giving its “tseee” call several times coming from the brush right in front of me.  I turned to other nearby birders to see if they thought that was the Fan-tailed, but no one even heard the calls.  I wasn’t going to check it off just based on the call notes, especially if no one else heard them.  So after a 4-hour vigil, no sightings by anyone that morning, and seeing almost no other birds, I decided to throw in the towel on the Fan-tailed Warbler. 

The other target that I had missed earlier in the trip was Mountain Plover, which was spotted once again in those same plowed fields the last 2 days.  I had the whole afternoon to try again for these birds, though I had to get there first since it was a hefty drive from Brownsville.  I arrived at the Edinburgh fields at 1:30 and spent the next 3 hours looking for the elusive shorebirds.  I covered 3 times the area I birded on my first trip, and was joined by some other birders who covered some additional area.  We found big flocks of Horned Larks, Mourning Doves, and Western Meadowlarks in the fields, but no Plovers. 

Near the end of my search I spotted a Falcon perched on wires in the distance.  I pulled over to check it out and it turned out to be a Kestrel.  But then I noticed another larger Falcon fly in from the distance.  I first noted it was brown above, and then it passed nearly right overhead giving me a great view of its dark underwing coverts and axillaries – I had a Prairie Falcon (State bird #12).  There was one sighting of a Prairie Falcon in the area 3 weeks earlier, but that was the only other sighting of this rare wintering species in the area this season.  So this species was not on my radar.  And along with sightings of a Merlin and Peregrine that day, it was a nice sweep of the local falcons. 

I only need this Prairie Falcon in 2 more states within its regular range.

January 9 – Third and Final Try for Fan-tailed Warbler

My flight out of McAllen was at 2 PM, giving me the whole morning to bird in the area.  After spending 7 hours trying for the Fan-tailed Warbler and seeing very few birds in general, my first thought was to end my trip at some location that was likely to be a lot more birdy.  Frontera Audubon came to mind - I’ve had great birds there in the past, and a couple rarities were being seen there this winter.  But then I got an email from a birder I met at the Fan-tailed spot mentioning the bird was seen and heard again on the afternoon of the 8th.  I hated to give up on the chance of seeing a life bird, despite the very low odds.  So with some misgivings, I decided to head back to the university campus and give the Fan-tailed Warbler one more try.

The temperatures were in the low 50s when I arrived at the Warbler spot – that’s pretty chilly for a Mexican bird.  So I headed across to the south side of the resaca where the vegetation was in the sun thinking that might be the preferred location for this chilly bird.  Here’s some of that vegetation on the south side of the resaca.

But as I stood there I remembered that birders had the bird at the original north side location at about 5:30 the evening before.  Maybe they were there as the target bird was going to its evening roost, and it might start its day today there as well.  I walked across the bridge to the north side to test my revised theory and there were several birders peering intently into the vegetation.  There had just been a sighting but only by a couple birders.  Darn – I guessed wrong with the feeding-in-the-sunlight theory, but at least the bird was in the area.

I spotted a little movement in the brush, but it was just the resident Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers – undoubtedly the same ones I had seen there several times before.  Over the next hour there were no more sightings.  Had I missed it yet again?

Then about 9 AM I heard the Fan-tailed Warbler’s distinct “tseee” call 3 times coming from the brush.  Surprisingly once again no one else heard it so I alerted everyone.  And just a couple minutes later I heard another call just to the east - the bird must be moving east through the brush.  But still no sightings. 

And then at 10 came word that someone had a sighting of the Warbler a bit farther east.  It turns out there was a trail through the brush that would allow you to stand right in the middle of the thickest vegetation, and the Warbler was passing right through that area.  I got to this spot and almost instantly had the briefest of views of the bird – large for a warbler, with a dark back and long tail.  But that was all I could see.  And then finally at 10:30 I spotted movement down the bank to the resaca and there was the Fan-tailed Warbler – steely gray above, long fanned tail held cocked up a bit with white tips, yellow crown patch, and yellow below with a bit of an orange tint.  After 10 hours of searching over 3 days, I finally had the Fan-tailed Warbler (Lifer #6, State bird #13). What an excellent way to end the trip!  Though I was at the university so long that they almost made me sign up for classes for the spring semester.

Trip Summary

I ended the trip with 162 species, including 6 life birds.  An excellent tally especially compared to my expectations of 4 or 5 lifers.  That allowed me to reach a milestone of 750 for the Lower 48.  I’m now at exactly 750 by ABA’s accountability rules, and 753 by eBird’s rules.  The differences are related to whether several introduced species that I’ve seen are countable.  And my ABA Continental total is 770 per ABA and 772 per eBird.

I was lucky enough to tally 13 state birds, great results compared to my expectations of 9 to 10.  My TX state bird totals are equally as fuzzy.  My TX state list is now at 465 per ABA and 468 per eBird. 

Here is a link to my eBird Trip Report - Lower Rio Grande Valley, Jan 2024 - eBird Trip Report 

As a postscript, I put together this little summary of my 14 prior trips to the LRGV and nearby south TX locations -

·       April 1985 - 21 lifers, including my only ever Tamaulipas Crows

·       April-May 2000 - 12 lifers, including Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, White-collared Seedeater, and Muscovy Duck

·       January 2005 - 4 lifers - Rose-breasted Becard, Green-breasted Mango, White-throated Thrush, and Crimson-collared Grosbeak

·       December 2009 - 1 lifer - Northern Jacana

·       January 2011 - 2 1/2 lifers - Black-vented Oriole, Rufous-Backed Robin, and "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler

·       February 2011 - 1 lifer - Yellow-faced Grassquit

·       January 2012 - 1 lifer - Golden-crowned Warbler

·       November 2013 - 1 lifer - Amazon Kingfisher

·       June 2014 - 1 lifer - Yellow-green Vireo

·       August 2014 - unsuccessful attempt for Collared Plover

·       April 2015 - 1 lifer - Aplomado Falcon

·       August 2015 - 1 lifer - Collared Plover

·       April 2016 - unsuccessful attempt for Blue Bunting

·       February 2018 - 1 lifer - Blue Bunting

And now on my 15th trip in January 2024 – I saw a whopping 6 lifers – Roadside Hawk, Mottled Owl, Prairie Falcon, Gray-collared Becard, Cattle Tyrant, and Fan-tailed Warbler

Long-eared Owl, Saw-whet Owl, and Thayer’s Gull, Rhode Island, December 2014

That’s not exactly a trio of species you would typically get on one trip into RI.  But this wasn’t a typical trip.  It all centered around my first ever winter pelagic trip, to depart out of Galilee, RI at 7 AM.  With such an early departure I reserved a hotel room the night before in southern RI just 15 minutes from the dock.  And since I would be there the night before, why not bird in RI the day before as well?  There were two potential statebirds for me that had been reported from RI recently - a Long-eared Owl and a Saw-whet Owl.  The Long-ear was found in the black pines of East Beach on the west coast.  Although these birds are likely present there every winter, they are very difficult to find and not exactly reliable.  The Saw-whet was heard on a Christmas Count at the Norman Bird Sanctuary.  And with a couple e-mails I got excellent directions of the location of that bird.  I then contacted RI birder Laura Carberry to see if she wanted to come along, and we planned to spend a morning trudging through the scrubby East Beach pines to try for the Long-ear (I would be on my own to try for the Saw-whet that evening). 

We arrived at the East Beach parking lot at 9 and started walking east into the pines.  I was disappointed to see that a significant number of the trees were dead or dying, meaning that the owl habitat was a bit reduced.  We spent more than an hour peering into the thicker pines, making it about a mile from the parking lot, without seeing any owls or pellets or whitewash in the trees.  And the woods were pretty quiet, except for a significant number of Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers taking advantage of all this new habitat.  So we decided to end our needle-in-a-haystack search and head back down the trail to the cars.  We had only walked a short distance when we both saw a medium-sized raptor cross the trail.  We spent the next couple minutes trying to decide what we just saw.  Although it was just a brief view we both saw these field marks – mostly brown, short tail, owl-like body structure, direct flight.  If it were an Accipter, Buteo, or Harrier it would have had a longer tail.  Plus the bird seemed too brown for most of these options.  And if we could indeed eliminate hawks, that left the owls as possibilities.  It was too small for a Great Horned and Barred, and didn’t have the moth-like flight of a Short-eared.  We looked at each other and somewhat reluctantly realized that we had just seen a Long-eared Owl.  I say reluctantly because we sure wish we had had a better view.  We spent the next several minutes looking through the pines where the bird may have landed, but without success.  But I guess a quick view is better than no view at all.

Long-eared Owl was #316 for me in RI, and only my 6^th state for this species.  Needless to say, my statebird map below shows pretty spotty coverage for this elusive but widespread species.

By late afternoon I made my way to the Norman Bird Sanctuary to try for the Saw-whet.  In fact in the last week no less than 6 species of owls had been heard at the Sanctuary.  I birded the area a bit, with the best sighting being a Woodcock which I saw fly overhead interestingly at treetop level.  By dusk I got to the location where the Saw-whet was heard earlier in the week, and despite playing quite a bit of tape, I couldn’t get any response.  Or at least that was what I thought at the time.  Several times after I played a taped call I heard a single very soft toot of similar quality of the string of toots included in the typical Saw-what call.  But the call was almost inaudible, and I've never heard Saw-whets give single toots. A few days later I noticed a post from a RI birder who had several Saw-whets pre-dawn one morning, including several giving single, very soft toots.  Sounds just like the ones I heard.  Given the fact that Saw-whets really can make the calls I heard, and the lack of other feasible options, I decided that I actually heard one (or more) Saw-whets.

The next morning I was at the Frances Fleet dock at 6:45 anxiously awaiting the pelagic trip.  The weather and seas were predicted to be remarkably nice, especially for winter – partly sunny, highs in the upper 30’s, winds from the NW at 5-10 mph, and seas no more than 2 ft.  And there was a recent report of several Fulmars, Dovekies, and a Thick-billed Murre in the area – 3 possible statebirds for me.  In fact, I had heard that Fulmars and Dovekies were very likely in the RI offshore waters, especially beyond Block Island.  So I was quite optimistic about the upcoming day. 

We left Galilee and headed southeast with the wind, so it felt almost calm as I stood out on the bow, and seas were less than a foot as predicted.  Skies were overcast meaning no sun glare, with temps around 30.  So far so good.  Before we reached Block Island we had a number of Razorbills as flybys, and a couple Common Murres cooperatively sitting on the water near the boat.  But in general the birding was a bit slow.  As we headed beyond Block Island to the southeast I noticed the skies had darkened and we were heading toward an area of precipitation.  Within a few minutes it started to snow on us, and soon it was snowing hard enough to reduce visibility a bit.  More importantly, my binocs and glasses had water spots which certainly complicated things.  And the deckhands had to put down salt on the decks to avoid icy spots.  Except for a few flyby Razorbills and Gannets, birding was pretty slow.

We eventually got well offshore where a number of commercial fishing boats were working.  The ones pulling out their nets were surrounded by a flock of gulls which were feeding on the off-catch.  Here we hoped for Fulmars mixed in those flocks.  The snow had now turned to rain, and we were starting to get pretty wet.  We all scanned through each flock, but could only pick out an occasional Black-legged Kittiwake.  Then I heard someone call “Dovekie” from the upper deck, but without a location or direction.  I was down on the bow, and all I could do was quickly scan the water directly ahead of me, but to no avail.  But it was still early and everyone said there would be more Dovekies – so I didn’t worry too much.  Unfortunately, there was only one more Dovekie sighting on the trip, and that story was about the same.  Again I was on the bow, and they were spotted by birders on the upper deck.  And again, no directions were given as a flock of 4 birds flew by.  And as before, I was not lucky enough to be looking in the correct direction as they passed by.  Very frustrating, but pelagic birding can be that way.

Later in the day I heard rumors of a possible Thayer’s Gull flying around one of the fishing boats.  I have to admit that my first thought was to be skeptical – I didn’t know who reported the bird, and of course identification of a distant bird is difficult especially from a bouncing boat with wet optics.  The buzz about the bird disappeared, so I went inside to put on my rain suit.  As I came back out to the bow, there were some very manner-of-fact comments about the Thayer’s Gull still being around.  It took a while, but I found out that it was circling one of the boats to our port side – amazingly one of only 3 birds circling that boat.  I quickly picked out the bird which was an adult, and first noticed a small unmarked bill.  Then as it circled overhead I could easily see the limited black coloration under the wingtips.  Lots of photos were taken, and I was able to see photos taken by the birder next to me, right on his camera screen, that confirmed the identification.  Amazing – an adult Thayer’s Gull in New England!  Certainly not one of my targets for this trip.

Thayer’s Gull was #318 for me in RI, and RI is my 5^th New England state for this species – though all the others have been first year birds.  That gives me 1,993 total ticks in New England.  Interestingly, earlier in 2014 I also added Thayer’s Gull to my statelists in ME, NH, and CT.  I’ve now seen this species in all 3 of its regular Pacific coastal states, a number of Mountain and Midwestern states where it is a rare but regular wintering bird, as well as in MD and New England as a vagrant. 

Soon after seeing the Thayer’s Gull we started our 3-hour trip back to land.  Although the rain had stopped, we were now heading into the wind, meaning an effective wind speed of about 20 mph.  The only way to continue to bird was to get out of the wind, which meant standing at the stern and looking just behind the boat.  A few more Kittiwakes and Gannets was all I found.  By the time we returned I was felling quite hypothermic, and happy to be back.  Although our weather conditions were better than average for a winter pelagic, it was still quite challenging.  I can’t imagine successfully birding in more typical colder, windier, and rougher conditions.

Although I missed the more likely statebirds on the pelagic trip (Dovekie and Fulmar), the Thayer’s Gull is certainly much rarer in RI.  Maybe I’ll get Dovekie and Fulmar from shore some time, or on a Block Island ferry ride, or maybe even during a seawatch from Block Island.

Thayer’s Gull, South Portland, ME, February 2014

As the weekend neared there were two great gulls to chase in New England – a Mew Gull in CT, and one or maybe 2 Thayer’s Gulls in ME.  The Mew Gull was only the second ever record for CT so I decided that one should be my priority.  Luckily I was able to find the Mew on my first try (see my previous blog post), so now I could focus on Thayer’s in ME.  One bird labeled as “Thayer’s-like” had been around for a couple weeks more than 3 hours away in Fairfield, ME.  Not surprisingly the distance and the less-than-definitive ID meant I wasn’t too willing to go after that one.  But a week later a Thayer’s was found both at the Portland waterfront and a short distance away in South Portland, just a 2-hour drive away.  This bird appeared to be a good ID, with dark wing tips though with a mantle that was paler than most.  With the Mew Gull out of the way, the Portland bird was my next focus.

Denny Abbott and I headed to Portland early in the morning, arriving at the Portland Fishing Pier by shortly after 9.  It took a while to find a place to park, and then even longer to find locations to view the water without getting in the way of active fishing operations.  Shortly after we got to a good viewing location we began to find white-winged gulls – first a couple immature Icelands, then a first year Glaucous.  Then we found a couple adult Icelands and better yet an adult Glaucous.  Most all of these birds seemed to be hanging around the site, coming back to just about their same exact perches after flying off for short periods of time.  And all the while there were a small number of large gulls in the air, many passing directly overhead.  Interestingly we never saw a single white-winged gull in any of those overhead birds, though the “local” white-wings represented at least 10% of the birds perched nearby.  But despite our success with the white-wings we didn’t see any candidates for a Thayer’s.  So after about 90 minutes, we decided to head to the South Portland site where the Thayer’s had also been reported.

Although it took us about 15 minutes to drive over to Mill Creek in South Portland, it was at most a minute away as the gull flies from the Portland Fishing Pier which we could see in the distance.  When we arrived we could see only about 100 gulls sitting at the Mill Creek estuary, but we quickly started picking out white-winged gulls.  And all the gulls were only a short distance – identifiable with just binoculars.  We counted 9 Iceland and 2 Glaucous Gulls within the first couple minutes of our arrival.  There was some movement of birds to and from this site, and in fact we watched a couple fly from Mill Creek directly to the Fishing Pier across the harbor.  And although there were never more than 100 gulls there at any time, we kept picking up different white-wings.  At one point Denny picked out a very dark “white-wing”, which we studied at close distance in our scopes.  It had exceptionally dark secondaries, dark tail band, and dark mantle with extensive mottling.  And the primaries were dark as well.  With its wings spread we saw that the outer 5 primaries had darker outer half and paler inner half, and the inner primaries were paler overall.  All very good features for a Thayer’s.  It flew off and landed on a distant pier, where I got these miserable phonescoped photos. 

In both of these pictures the wingtips look paler than the mantle, but what appears to be the paler wingtips are actually the inner primaries - looking at this bird through a scope showed that the outer/darker primaries are drooping lower and are barely visible in the photos.  But these outer primaries were only as dark as the mantle, not darker than the mantle as suggested in most field guides.  Couldn’t this have been because the mantle was so dark?  Like I said the photos aren't the best, so likely not good enough to identify this one, but sure seems like it could have been a Thayer’s.  But it was not the pale-mantled bird reported at this spot previously. 

We then turned our attention back to the Mill Creek estuary to look through the gulls some more.  One of the first birds I picked out was an adult white-winged gull with quite dark wing tips, though with pale eyes.  That made it an Iceland, but a really dark one.  I then started counting white-winged gulls to get a new tally when I spotted a first-year bird with dark wing tips and pale mantle – it was the Thayer’s reported earlier.  It must have flown in while we were looking at the possible Thayer’s in the distance.  The mantle was quite pale - either washed out or molting into 2nd year plumage, with a dark tail band, wing tips, and secondaries.  I got these phonescoped photos where I was lucky enough to catch the bird with its wings spread, showing the primaries, secondaries, and tail.

And these were my best photos of the bird sitting.  It was interesting that the mantle was so pale that most of these photos were overexposed.  And note that the primaries of this bird were just as dark as the primaries of the first darker bird that we found.

Did you find Icelands and/or Glaucous Gulls in each picture?

Thayer’s Gull was number 328 for me in Maine which is now my 15^th state for Thayer’s (see my statebird map below).  Four of my five new statebirds in New England so far in 2014 have been gulls.  And with five new birds so early in the year it’s starting to look like a good 2014 for me in New England.  If I could keep up this pace, with just 41 to go to get to 2000 in New England, I’d reach my goal much faster than I expected.