Kittiwake and Pacific Loon, Block Island, RI, February 2012

I call the Block Island ferry ride a “poor man’s pelagic”.  Although just an hour each direction, it covers quite a bit of open ocean between Galilee and Block Island, and certainly gives you the potential to see some species not likely encountered from shore.  I’ve ridden the ferry twice so far, once in summer and once in fall, with some very good results.  So with several recent ferry reports of significant numbers of alcids (4 species) and kittiwakes, I decided to make my first winter trek on the ferry.  Given the limited ferry schedule in winter, I’d have about 2 ½ hours on the island before heading back on the next ferry.  This would give enough time to bird Great Salt Pond and Sachem Pond, with the help of a taxi of course.

With my statebirding buddy Denny Abbott, we first headed to Sachuest Point NWR to try for a Snowy Owl that has been reported there for some time.  We only had an hour there before having to head to the ferry, and unfortunately it was not visible during that time.  (It was reported there later in the day.)  Then over to Galilee to catch the ferry.  Weather was very cooperative – mostly cloudy with limited sun shining on the water, light breezes, temps in the 40s, and at most 1-2 feet seas.  Birds were rather limited though, and not very cooperative for the most part.  We had 2 large alcids on the water that dove before we could get close views, 1 Razorbill, and 4 Common Murres on the water that allowed for better views before diving.  At one point there was a fair amount of bird activity which included 6 Black-Legged Kittiwakes (new statebird), Bonaparte’s Gulls, and diving Gannets.  When we arrived into the Block Island marina Denny found a Peregrine Falcon on the channel marker at the end of the jetty.

Once on the island we got a taxi to take us to Sachem Pond, which although had a lot of ducks, had nothing out of the ordinary.  So we called the taxi to come get us and take us to Great Salt Pond.  After some scanning I picked out a distant Loon of interest – 3/4 the size of a Common, paler neck, rounded head, horizontal bill, smaller head/neck/bill than a Common.  Denny got on the bird and agreed that we had a Pacific Loon – likely a first year bird (another statebird). 

Then back on the ferry to Galilee where birding was again rather slow – 2 Razorbills, 4 Common Murres, and 13 kittiwakes.  Much better views of the Murres this time, including seeing the dark brown coloration instead of black of the Razorbill.  Though a stiff northerly wind made for a much lower wind chill than the trip to the Island.

I’ve inserted my statebird maps for both the Kittiwake and the Common Murre.  Both maps are similar – seen both species in most of the Pacific Coast states, and several New England States.  And I’ve seen both as accidentals in a few states – Kittiwake in IN and Pacific Loon in UT, CO, and MD.  And of course in the New England states it is very rare, though annual.

Harris’s Sparrow, Connecticut, January 2012

Early in January a Harris’s Sparrow was found in southeastern CT in the town of Lebanon.  Due to heavy work commitments throughout most of January I couldn’t get away to try for it till late in the month.  So I crossed my fingers that it would remain for a while, and I continued to save all the posts with the micro-directions and suggestions.  Then I started to read that a local birder was putting seed out for it, so I was optimistic it would stay put for a while.

Finally with a small window to chase after it, I left in the early morning to make the 2-hour trek to the location.  When I arrived another birder was there and he reported he had seen it a few times already that morning.  So I just stood quietly and watched the area where the seed had been put on the ground.  After about a 30-minute wait it arrived and fed on the ground, along with lots of White-throats, Songs, and Tree Sparrows.  What a handsome bird.

I then drove up to the Windsor, CT landfill for my second try at Thayer’s Gull (one had been seen there earlier in the week).  No luck with the Thayer’s but 2 first-year Icelands were a nice consolation.

My statebird map for Harris's Sparrow is provided below.  Although Harris' is a common wintering bird in the central and southern plains, it is a frequent vagrant across the country.  I've now seen it in more states as a vagrant (7) than in its typical wintering range (4).

Golden-Crowned Warbler, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, January 2012

I had planned a January business trip to Houston going way back to mid December.  As the plans were coming together, I checked the TX RBAs and NARBA to see if any chaseable rarities were being around.  Sure enough, a couple Golden-Crowned Warblers were being seen in the Lower Rio Grande Valley – a possible new Lifer for me.  So I added a couple days to my trip, and an extra round-trip to and from McAllen, TX.  Now I had to cross my fingers that birds being seen when I made my reservations would still be around when I got to TX weeks later.  As the trip neared, one of the warblers seemed to be somewhat reliable (at Frontera Audubon), while the second bird was no longer being reported.  So I was hopeful.  And a few others that would be TX statebirds (but not lifers) were also being seen.  The key target was the warbler, so I was willing to spend many hours over the 2 days at Frontera to look for it.

With plans all complete, I started my day of flights to south TX.  On a layover I checked the listserve and saw that a Blue Bunting was recently reported – another possible lifebird.  So while on the last leg I developed new plans to go immediately to the bunting location, then try for the warbler the next day.  I arrived at the bunting spot to find 2 other birders already there – though they had not been successful after several hours of searching.  Habitat was extensive, and access was limited, so you’d have to be really lucky to find the bird.  I spent the last 2 hours of daylight there but with no luck.  But I was able to talk with the birders and get some advice on the warbler – one said it was easy if you hear its call, and the other said it was not easy at all (one birder had given up after a 4-hour try).

The next day before heading out I downloaded calls off Xeno Canto to help me know what to listen for.  I arrived at Frontera Audubon a few minutes before the 8 AM opening time.  At 10 of 8 the gates were opened and I headed right to the spot where the warbler was most often seen.  Within a minute or two I started to hear a series of soft “chet” call notes that sounded a lot like the on-line file.  Sure enough there was the Golden-Crowned Warbler!  I had given myself 2 days to find it and I had it before 8 AM on the first day.  I spent the next couple hours birding the Frontera thicket, and was able to refind the warbler both times I went back to the original area just by listening for the call.  In both cases I pointed it out to birders who were there just for the warbler – helping more than 25 birders get a lifer. 

In other stops over the weekend I got only one more statebird – a stakeout Mountain Bluebird at Santa Ana NWR.  But mostly I spent the weekend just enjoying the local birdlife.  That included 3 hours watching a feeder station at Bentsen SP seeing the stakeout Black-Vented Oriole – likely the exact same bird I saw almost exactly a year earlier just a mile away.  The feeding station was covered with birds like Green Jays and Altamira Orioles – I don’t think I’ll ever say that I’ve seen enough Green Jays.  Interestingly the woodlands had few landbirds - fewer than I remember seeing on any winter trip to the Valley.  Maybe the extensive TX drought has something to do with it.

One stop during the trip was to a plowed field area where Mountain Plovers winter.  For the second year in a row I stopped there without luck for Plovers, but saw several Sprague’s Pipits.  I also had a longspur in with a group of Horned Larks – but only a brief view as the flock flew away.  Any longspur would be a good species in the lower Rio Grande, but unfortunately my view did not allow for identification (though the plowed field habitat might be best for McCown’s).

The Golden-Crowned Warbler was ABA #724, and #706 in the lower 48.  My state bird map for Mountain Bluebird is copied in below.  The location is Frontera Audubon where the Golden-Crowned Warbler has been seen.

2011 Birding Year in Review

My 2011 birding year had some truly memorable experiences, featuring excellent results in New England, 4 new ABA reportable states, and 4 new ABA lifers. 

For many years I’ve had the goal of reaching 2,000 statebirds in New England.  For the last 15 years I’ve been averaging about 30 new statebirds per year, as I slowly inch toward the magic 2,000.  But in 2011, I ended up with 50 new statebirds, the highest I’ve had in a year since 1997.  My great year was a function of more chasing than normal, plus a close brush by Hurricane Irene.  Just a day before landfall, the remnants of the hurricane were predicted to pass directly over my town, so my initial thoughts were on the safety of the house rather than birding.  But the storm’s track ended up moving a bit farther west, passing over western MA.  With everything safe at the house, and the rain already ending on our east side of the hurricane though the storm was still southwest of us, it was time to try to chase after windblown rarities.  I decided to head to the large Quabbin Reservoir in western MA as it would be the largest body of water close to the remnants of the eye of the storm.  An afternoon there along with my birding buddy David Deifik resulted in two mega-rarities – a Sooty Tern and a White-tailed Tropicbird – along with a couple Jaeger sp. and Black Terns.  The next day at dawn I was standing on the VT/NH border hoping for hurricane birds to fly down the Connecticut River.  There were no real rarities, but a small flock of Sanderlings were likely storm-related and new for my VT list.  The real highlight was watching a huge amount of debris washing down the river from the tremendous flooding that had occurred upriver especially in VT.  Storm-blown birds continued to be reported along all the New England coastlines, so later that week I headed to the RI coast along with supreme New England total ticker Denny Abbott with fingers crossed.  Within a few minutes of arriving I spotted an adult Brown Pelican, and later an immature Sooty Tern – both were not only new for me but also for Denny.  A couple days later I added Black Skimmer in ME giving me 6 statebirds in 3 states related to Hurricane Irene.

My first extended distant birding trip of the year was a short 2-day trip to western KS in March to fill numerous winter-bird gaps in my statelist.  It was a really fun trip, including finding 3 species of longspurs, and an out-of-place Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  I ended up with 28 statebirds which was more than twice what I expected. 

My big birding adventure of the year was my annual May trip to work on my statelists.  This year it was an 8-day loop through north-central and northeastern Oklahoma, southwestern Missouri, and eastern and central Kansas.  With the help of advice from some great local birders, I added 128 new statebirds - 65 in KS, 57 in OK, and 6 in MO.  That put me barely over the ABA reportable threshold in KS, and also put my total ticks over 12,000.  I had 223 species including 27 species of shorebirds and 27 species of warblers.  Probably the premier highlight of the trip was birding at Cheyenne Bottoms, KS, where one 4-square-mile impoundment was covered with at least 10,000-20,000 Long-billed Dowitchers, 5,000 Stilt Sandpipers, and 5,000 smaller peeps.  I also found or refound several rarities on the trip –

·         Neotropical Cormorant in OK

·         California Gull in KS

·         Dusky Flycatcher in KS

Another highlight of my trip - while trading e-mails with one OK birder she suggested that I start a blog for my statebirding hobby.  So with my daughter’s help, I started this blog right after the trip.  It’s been fun to prepare the posts after finding a new statebird, though I didn’t keep up with it this year as I kept racking up the New England statebirds.

A sobering part of my trip to tornado alley turned out to be the time I spent in and around Joplin, MO.  Just a couple weeks after my visit a massive EF-5 tornado devastated the area right around where I had birded.  Luckily my local birding friends all made it through the tornado OK.

During the year I also targeted reaching the reportable thresholds for MI and OH.  With 2 partial-day trips as part of business trips to each state, I exceeded the thresholds in both states, though just barely in OH.

Here’s the year by the numbers -

Lifebirds -

• 4 new ABA and Lower 48 lifebirds –
• Black-Vented Oriole (Bentsen State Park, TX), Rufous-Backed Robin (Laguna Atascosa NWR, TX), and “Mangrove” Warbler (off South Padre Island, TX) on the same day - though the warbler is not a fully recognized species (yet?)
• Yellow-Faced Grassquit (Goose Island State Park, TX) on a second trip to south TX
• Yellow-Legged Gull – Hyannis, MA
• ABA total now at 723, US at 725, and Lower 48 at 705

Statebirding -

• Newly reportable in KS, MI, OH and again in WV (after the threshold passed me by last year)
• ABA reportable in 38 states plus DC  
• 263 statebirds added in 17 states
• 50 new statebirds in New England – 1894 total ticks now in New England
• Total Ticks – now at 12,107, with 11,929 of those in the U.S.
• Added state birds in AL, MO, and IN to put a bit more room between my totals and the thresholds

My statebird totals for each state are in the map below (you might want to click on the map to expand it).

As for 2012, statebirding will continue to be my priority.  I’ll be pursuing my lifelong goal of being reportable in all 50 states plus DC – 12 more to go!  I also need to continue to add statebirds in states where I’m just a bit over the ABA threshold since those thresholds continue to inch up over the years.  I have 12 states where although reportable, my total is less than 10 over the threshold, so not very safe.  Chasing after New England statebirds will continue, though they get harder and require more chasing each year.  My goal is to get to 2,000 – with my great year in 2011 I may be just 4 or 5 years away. 

Of course I’ll still chase after lifebirds where feasible.  My big birding trip this year will be more for lifers than for statebirds – going to Barrow and Nome, AK in June as part of a group (with a short side trip to Anchorage on my own).  Although I’ve birded the AK mainland and the Pribilofs, I’ve never been to Barrow and Nome so there are a few likely lifebirds, along with any number of more remote Asian possibilities.  I’m also tentatively considering an April trip to southern NV, southwest UT, and northwest AZ if I can squeeze it in before AK.  Then there are my regular business trips to various spots around the country, including 3 planned January trips in areas where semi-reliable mega-rarity lifebirds are staked out. 

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.