Friday, November 25, 2011

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 4th 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 6th inland state for Surf Scoter.

Friday, November 18, 2011

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 1st 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.