Loggerhead Shrike in West Virginia, ABA Reportable State #39 (at least for now)

For a number of years I’ve taken trips into the panhandle of WV to work on that state list while visiting relatives in the Mid-Atlantic.  At one point I was a seemingly safe 7 birds over the ABA threshold, only to have the threshold go up a whopping 8 birds in the last few years.  So the last couple years my total has been one short of reportable in WV.

We planned a trip to the area over Christmas this year, so I started to review the WV listserve for possible target birds.  Although I have a number of possibilities, few are likely in the panhandle.  The one exception is Loggerhead Shrike, which is being seen in a couple locations this winter in eastern WV.  With the help of excellent advice from some local birders, I planned a trip to a field just outside Charles Town.  Though I tried not to get my hopes up too high since all the WV birders mentioned that the shrikes are not necessarily very reliable at this location.  I arrived at 7:30 and there were no shrikes to be seen.  But at about 8 AM I started to hear a Loggerhead calling in the distance.  It continued to call for a couple minutes which enabled me to key in on its location.  Eventually I spotted it perched near the top of a 10 ft tall brushy tree.  I’ve attached a couple phone-scoped pictures I took of the bird (you need to enlarge them to get better views of this distant bird).  At one point the bird dropped down into the brush out of sight, and then came back to the same perch with a small rodent in its bill.  A little later it dropped back down to the ground with the rodent.  It reappeared a couple minutes later without the rodent – maybe it was breakfast or it was cached for a later meal.  The bird was still in that same tree at 9 AM when I left.  Other birds in the fields were a female Kestrel and a female Harrier.  A flyover Raven was also nice to hear. 

That gives me 178 for WV, exactly at the ABA threshold.  Needless to say I won’t remain reportable for long, unless I can add some additional birds in WV. 

My statebird map for Loggerhead Shrike is inserted below.  Although I’ve seen it in a number of eastern states, all those sightings are a number of years ago.  It’s been many years since I’ve seen on in the East (outside of FL that is).

ABA Reportable in Ohio! November 2011

With a brief business trip to Cleveland I was able to squeeze in a couple hours of birding time along the Lake Erie waterfront.  Being just 1 short of the ABA reportable threshold for Ohio, I was optimistic I could find at least a couple new birds to put me over that magic number.  With the birdfinding help of my Cleveland birding friends, my first stop was Sims Park on Lake Erie that featured a stakeout flock of all 3 scoters - White-winged and Surf were new for my list.  Reportable in Ohio!  But not one to rest on my laurels, there were other places along the lakefront to check.  My next stop was Headlands Beach State Park which can be an excellent spot, but that day it was pretty slow.  Including no luck with the Eared Grebe that had been reported there earlier in the day.

Next I decided to take a short trek to Ashtabula where a Black-tailed Gull had been seen for the last several days.  It was apparently best seen at dawn or dusk, so my arrival a bit before sunset was theoretically right on time.  There were easily 50 birders in the area looking for the bird, though with no success since the early morning.  A few minutes after I arrived a birder spotted a dark mantled gull sleeping on a very distant warehouse – the gull was identified as the Black-tailed.  Everyone hopped in their cars and got to a much closer viewing spot for a better view.  When I arrived (I was the last one there – my directions weren’t the best), all the birders were claiming victory with such great views of this mega-rarity.  I put my scope on the bird and realized it was “just” an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull – very streaky head, size of a Herring Gull, and pure white tail.  When I broke the news to the birding throng, there were some very unhappy faces.  So everyone piled back in the cars to go to the original viewing location and continued to scan for the bird.  A few minutes later another dark mantled gull was found – but this one had a relatively unmarked neck and head, and was smaller than the Herrings it was with.  Although very distant, this one was indeed the Black-tailed – I’m just glad I didn’t need it as a life bird (it was already on my RI and VT lists).

The next morning I had just a couple free hours at dawn, so I headed back to Headlands Beach State Park.  The first bird I had when getting out of my car was a flyover calling Pipit – my 4^th new one for OH.  After such a great start, I was hoping for a good early morning seabird flight which can be spectacular there.  Unfortunately, it was not to be that day.  Though there was a good flight of Bonaparte’s Gulls, a fair number of Common Loons migrating by, and 4 dark-winged scoters in a flock of Red-breasted Mergs.  It’s always amazing to see thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers passing by in their tight flocks.

My Ohio list is now at 214, ABA reportable but just by 3.  Of course those thresholds keep inching up over the years, so I need to get back to OH to put some more distance between my total and the threshold. 

I’ve inserted below my statebird map for Surf Scoter (shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species).  I’ve seen it along most Atlantic and Pacific coast states, and a couple along the Gulf.  And now Ohio is my 6^th inland state for Surf Scoter.

Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coast, November 2011

An impromptu business trip to the Mississippi Gulf coast gave me a little opportunity to add some statebirds for both my MS and AL lists.  Luckily I’ve birded both coasts before so I know the areas fairly well.  Plus I got excellent directions and advice from several very helpful local birders.  Although I have quite a number of possible new statebirds in both states, they are scattered in a number of different habitats.  So with limited birding time, I needed to prioritize the locations target just a couple key spots.  I was already reportable in both states, though I was less over the ABA threshold in AL than in MS.  So although my work location was in MS, I chose to do most of my birding in AL.

In Alabama I first headed to Dauphin Island in hopes of several shorebirds.  There I was successful in adding 3 new statebirds -

#1 – Snowy Plover – several at Pelican Island and 1 at West End of Dauphin Island

#2 – Marbled Godwit – 1 way out on Pelican Island (4 mile round trip walk!)

#3 – Nelson’s Sparrow – just 1 at the Dauphin Island airport

I also found and photographed a 1^st year Lesser Black-backed Gull there – though it wasn’t new for my AL list.

The next day I had a brief couple hours available at dawn and headed to the Mud Lakes Blakely Island impoundments again for shorebirds.  There I found another new statebird - Long-Billed Dowitcher – 20+ in one impoundment.  I had hopes for several others, but no luck.  Though I did find another rarity that wasn’t new to my AL statelist – an adult Vermillion Flycatcher (see photo below).  I was told that this was the first one in AL for a number of years.

Then over to work on the MS coast.  Had no real time for birding, but I needed White-winged Dove for MS, so I decided to drive around the local town a bit to try for one sitting on an exposed perch somewhere.  Within a couple minutes I found one on some telephone wires.

Then back to the Mobile, AL airport to fly home.  But first I had an hour to try for a Green-tailed Towhee that was spotted the day before at a feeder just a short distance from the airport.  (A Black-chinned Hummingbird was there too, but I already had that one for my AL list.)  The Towhee showed up at the feeder just a few minutes before I needed to go to the airport.  Statebird #5!

That gave me 238 for my AL list and 229 for my MS list.  I’ve copied in below my statebird maps for White-winged Dove and Green-tailed Towhee – 2 birds that I’ve seen in a number of states in their regular western ranges, and a few other atypical states for these species that show up as regular vagrants in the east.

Curlew Sandpiper, New Hampshire, September 2011

Another call from Len Medlock means another rarity – and this one is a real rarity – Curlew Sandpiper in NH!  Once again I dropped everything and drove to Plaice Cove to try for the bird.  When I arrived a veritable Who’s Who of NH birding was present – at least 15 birders staring at the bird feeding in the rack line among Sanderlings, white-rumps and others.  Amazingly excellent views!

A couple phone-scoped photos are below – one showing the bill profile while preening its chest, and the other showing the body in profile with a White-rumped.  My statebird map is at the bottom.  NH is now my 5^th state for Curlew Sandpiper. 

Wilson’s Phalarope, Exeter Wastewater Treatment Plant, NH, September 2011

When the cellphone rang, I looked at the screen and saw it was Len Medlock.  It must mean he’s got a good bird.  Sure enough a Wilson’s Phalarope had been found at the Exeter Wastewater Treatment Plant the day before, and was still present.  I dropped everything and headed out.  I keep a pair of good but small binoculars in the glovebox of the car for exactly these situations.  But as I headed up to Exeter I realized that a scope would likely be helpful if not necessary.  I called Len back to see if he might still be in Exeter looking at the bird, but he had already left the plant.  But Len graciously offered for me to pick up his scope en route to Exeter. 

With Len’s scope in hand, I arrived at the plant and went to the northeast lagoon per Len’s directions.  A quick scan with the binocs didn’t reveal any shorebirds at all.  So I started scanning with the scope more slowly right to left.  I got to the far left (NW) corner and there was the Phalarope – swimming close to the water’s edge.  (If I had started scanning from the left I would have seen the bird right away.)  I got a bit closer for a better look and very nice views.

My Wilson’s Phalarope map is inserted below.  In addition to the more typical western states, I’ve seen it now in a fair number of eastern states too.

Black Tern, New Hampshire Pelagic Trip, September 2011

Black Tern has been a real nemesis bird for me in NH.  Many years ago I saw a flock of 6 feeding in Herrick’s Cove in VT, no more than 50 feet from NH, but they wouldn’t cross the state line.  And then there was the report of 300 on the coast the day Irene passed (though my MA sightings that day were certainly a worthwhile tradeoff).  And there was even a belated post this fall of one in Hudson, NH (just 40 minutes away) that I looked for without luck.  Most NH sightings are of low numbers passing down the coast (seen from shore or on a pelagic trip), or on the Connecticut River, but they usually don’t stick around so not generally chaseable. 

I signed up for this year’s Fall NH Audubon pelagic trip with Black Tern as one of a pretty short list of realistically possible statebirds to hope for – Puffin would be the other key target in NH.  The initial part of the ride had a few good birds on the Isles of Shoals (Whimbrel, Lesser Black-black), but not much was being seen on the open ocean.  Most birds were found following fishing traulers, with fair numbers of shearwaters mixed in with the gulls.  Then a distant group of Common Terns caught everyone’s attention.  As we got closer the call went out that 3 Black Terns were in the flock.  We got great views of the birds, so no doubt on the ID of course.  The only question was which state they were in – a quick review of the GPS showed they were indeed in NH waters!  Finally!  As the day progressed I ended up seeing 4 other Black Terns – quite a number after missing them for so long in NH.

By far the best bird on the trip was an immature Long-tailed Jaeger – right next to the boat for several minutes.  And seeing nearly a dozen Lesser Black-backed Gulls among the Herring/GBB flocks was excellent too.  Puffin will have to wait for a future trip.

My statebird map for Black Tern is inserted below.  I’ve got it now in 5 of 6 New England states.  And it’s quite a common bird in much of the rest of the country – NH was my 38th state.

Black Skimmer and Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Maine, Sept 2011 (Irene Post #4)

After last year’s northeast hurricane, there were a number of Black Skimmers noted on the NH and southern ME coasts as much as a week or more after the hurricane.  I was able to get Skimmer on the NH coast during that time, but never went up to ME to pursue any of the ones spotted up there since they seemed to be just one day wonders (or even “one tide wonders”).  I was kicking myself that I didn’t go after them, not knowing when my next opportunity might be for Skimmer in ME.  So when several Skimmers were spotted after Irene’s passage, it really got my attention.  Then there were posts of at least one at Pine Point several days in a row – finally one that might stick around.  And just when I started to put plans together to head to Pine Point, a birder posted a group of 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers nearby in South Portland at a playing field complex.  Two statebirds to go after!

On Labor Day, David Deifik and I headed up to Maine to try both for the Skimmer and the Buff-breasteds.  Since the Buffies were at a soccer field, we thought we should hit that spot first before the first group of the day’s soccer players flushed them off.  Then we could go to Pine Point, where a high tide at dawn would be falling by early morning, and just starting to reveal some mudflats for the Skimmer to roost on.  And we could hopefully still get away before I-95 was backed up with all the vacationers coming home.

We arrived at the field complex, and had perfect directions where the Buffies were yesterday.  We hopped out of the car, and within seconds we could see at least 2 in the distance walking in the grass field among some Ring-billed Gulls.  We walked a bit closer, and got great scope views of all 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers.  They aren’t usually that easy.

Then after a short drive we arrived at Pine Point.  The tide was falling but still very high, and there was just a bit of exposed mudflat.  I scoped the mud and found many gulls – Great Black-backed, Herring, and Bonaparte’s, a few Black-bellied Plovers, but not much else.  On my second scan of the same flat I found the immature Black Skimmer.  Another easy one!  Two Maine statebirds in just an hour.  Over the next 20 minutes or so, the Skimmer mostly just slept on the flats, but it did fly a couple times and even skimmed the surface once.  Several other birders arrived in this time and we were able to get them on it.  Now 8 days after Irene had passed and still there were birds on the coast displaced by the storm.

A Marbled Godwit had also been at Pine Point for the last couple weeks.  Although I didn’t need that one for Maine, David did.  We went over to the end of the pier to view the ever growing flats from there.  And after a little scanning I was able to pick out the godwit.  We stayed at Pine Point a little longer, picking out a broad array of the expected shorebirds along with 4 Red Knots – these are always special birds.  Interestingly there were no terns of any species.  Pine Point is one of my favorite Maine birding locations – and once again it lived up to its reputation.

By late morning we were heading south to beat the rush of tourists on the highway.  But on a whim we decided to make a quick stop at Seabrook Harbor in NH to try for Black Tern (both of us needed it for NH).  We had 80 Sterna terns including 10 Forster’s (a high number for NH), but alas no Black Tern.

Skimmer was my last Irene-related statebird.  Over 8 days I added at least 6 statebirds in 4 states that were associated with Irene – Tropicbird and Sooty Tern in MA, Sanderling in VT, Brown Pelican and Sooty Tern in RI, and now Skimmer in ME.

The Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Black Skimmer give me 315 now in Maine.  My statebird maps for these two species are quite different.  Most of my states with Buff-breasteds are in the northeast instead of the central part of the country where they are more typically found.  But in the northeast they are reasonably easy to chase even though they are in very low numbers.  The states where I’ve seen Skimmer are much more similar to the Skimmer range map, though northern New England is certainly not in their typical range.