Saturday, March 2, 2024

A Big Night

 


  For years, I've planned on going out during the first rainy night in March to look for salamanders and frogs. Every year when the time comes, I get lazy and don't go. The first warm, rainy night after the ground thaws (this happens in March, but March 2 is very early!) amphibians make their way to vernal pools to mate. For some, like Wood Frogs, they will stay in the pools for a couple of weeks. For others like Spotted Salamanders all the action happens in that one night. By morning, the salamanders are back in the woods hiding.

   I was always lead to believe that "Big Night" was just that, one night and not plural. So, I have always assumed that if I missed it, I'd have to wait another year. I just learned last month that not all amphibians will mate during that first warm, rainy night. The season could last almost until May. Because of this new fact, I plan on going out on multiple nights this spring.

   Knowing the weather forecast for Saturday was going to be rainy, I have been planning to go out for a few days. Despite knowing I'd be out Saturday night, I did a piss poor job of planning. To start with, when I went looking for my rain pants I realized they were not in my car. Also, when I went to get my small camera the battery was dead. So I had neither my rain pants or my camera. I did have my phone to take photos with but my camera does take better photos. 

 


    I had Laurie drop me off at a conservation area in Norton. I did not want to leave my car at a parking area since technically the conservation areas are open "sunrise to sunset". So she dropped me off about 6:45. The area I chose has a vernal pool a two hundred yard walk from the parking area. It only took a couple minutes to get to it but I was immediately glad I had waterproof boots on. The trail was basically a muddy canal. 

   It didn't take me long to find my quarry. My biggest hope was to see Spotted Salamanders. I'd only ever seen two in my life. That changed tonight. About fifteen minutes after looking in the water I saw one come up for air. Since I was so surprised I saw one I actually doubted myself. Luckily, a few minutes later I saw another and I knew I wasn't crazy. I watched the second one go back down to the leaf litter not too far from shore. I tried to get out on a log and pick it up but it was just out of reach.

  Not long after, I found a third that I could reach. I put my hand in the water and to my surprise it didn't try to swim away. I picked it up, brought it to the shore and took some photos before releasing it again.

   Soon after, I found a whole bunch of Spotted Salamanders. At one point I could see five very close to each other. Since I may have seen a couple of them more than once, I conservatively estimate that I saw eight  different ones tonight. I didn't see any other frogs or salamanders other than Spotted. However, that was the one I really wanted to see. Some of the big ones were eight inches including the one I caught. I did see some weird shrimp and insect larvae swimming around but I forgot to bring my net so I didn't get any photos of them. It was a great night and I can't wait to do it again!




Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Rare Sparrows

Vesper Sparrow

    Last Saturday, Laurie and I went to Richmond, RI and saw a rare (for New England) Vesper Sparrow. I'd only seen four in my life. On this day we saw three more bringing my total to seven! They were in a small flock with Song and Savannah Sparrows. They were not afraid of people or passing cars feeding right along the edge of the road. 

   Today I hung out with my friend Charles in Newport. We saw an even rarer sparrow. It was a Lark Sparrow that has been hanging around Fort Adams for over a month. Lark Sparrows are a sparrow of open fields and meadows in the Midwest. Why this bird decided to take up roots in Rhode Island I do not know. It has been seen by dozens of birders over the last few weeks. Today was my second time seeing it. It was the first bird we saw when we pulled into Fort Adams. I was still driving! I wish Lady Luck was always that generous


Lark Sparrow

*Note- I finally got a job. I'm working at Bass Pro Shops in the fishing dept. This explains why my blog has been quiet as of late. Hopefully, as I get back into the groove, I'll spend more of my days off on adventures. For the past few weeks, most of my days off have been hosting bird club events.

*Note #2- I messed with the white balance on my camera completely ruining most of my sparrow photos. I didn't notice until I got home tonight. While I did delete some washed out photos of the Lark Sparrow that would have been calendar worthy if I didn't f them up, I'm lucky to have salvaged a couple decent photos of both birds.

Below are a couple of other birds I saw in the last couple of weeks.

Ring Necked Pheasant





Short Eared Owl


Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Bonnie Yellow Birds

 

Hermit Warbler

 I was on my way to Trustom Saturday when my friend Nicole texted me to tell me the Hermit Warbler in New London was showing. This is a bird that has been seen on and off sporadically for a week. It hadn't been seen for a few days so it wasn't on my radar. Hermit Warblers are a west coast species. Their entire range is west of the Rockies. So this poor little guy is dreadfully lost. However, being a boreal species, it will probably not die of cold or hunger. 

    I drove past Trustom and thirty three minutes later I was in New London. Nicole was kind enough to wait for me with her friends and I was on the bird very easily. It had been kind of a skulker but this day it was right out in the open. As I was driving there it spent thirty minutes on the ground which is unusually for a species that likes pines. When I got there, it was spending time in cedar trees fluttering in and out of view. My looks were great and I enjoyed the bird for quite some time while talking with Nicole and her friends.

   On Tuesday I went down the Cape to look for the Western Tanager that has been there for well over a month. Laurie and I tried for it the day I went on a Cape rarities chase. Like the day we went, Tuesday was cold and windy. The wind at the water was howling. I looked for it for an hour while my nose froze off. While I was there a guy also started looking. After I gave up I went in my car to warm up before driving. I could hear the guy playing the song of the Tanager. I watched him with his phone out until he turned a corner. 

 

Western Tanager

 A few minutes later he saw me as he walked back to his car he saw me. He walked over to me and told me he saw the Tanager. I got out of my car and asked where. He brought me to the tree he last saw it. Of course it wasn't there. No doubt it was in that tree because he played the song. None the less, I knew where it had been and it was doubtful it went far. I kept walking into the woods and coming back to that tree. On my third look I saw the Western Tanager eating berries off the cedar. It was probably in the tree the whole time but blended well. 

    That night Laurie and I went to Middleboro to look for Short Eared Owls. We saw two. I didn't get any photos because I left my memory card at home from the Tanager. Still it was an awesome sight!







Thursday, January 25, 2024

Red Fox and Red Headed Woodpecker

 


   I went on a birding trip on Cape Cod two weeks ago looking for rare birds. There were seven possible species at various locations. One of those locations was Race Point. We worked our way to P-town stopping at all of the potential rare birds on the way. Because we dipped on some, we spent too much time looking for them. So I got to the Race Point parking lot around 2 pm instead of the 12:30 time I hoped. I rushed out to the rip but by the time I got there it was about time to turn around. I had to meet Laurie who came for the ride but made it clear she wasn't walking over the Race Point sand if she went.

    When I got back to the lot a friendly Red Fox was begging for food. There wasn't any doubt it had been fed. I started taking photos of it. Because it was on the asphalt and the lines of parking spaces were in front of and behind it, most of the photos suck. However, I got a few decent ones. At one point it was too close to me to focus and I had to stand up to make it back off. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt me, but it was about six feet from me. Though I saw some of the birds I wanted to see, the fox was by far the highlight of the day. Laurie got to see it too. Woodpecker story below photos.





   My friend Nicole babysits for a family on a working farm. She is a hardcore birder and the family she works for loves birds. They even allowed her to do a Christmas Bird Count on the farm in golf carts for "Birdability" which is for people that have a hard time getting around. 

   On the farm there has been a Red Headed Woodpecker for a month. This farm and Nicole live in Connecticut so it is a long ride for me. One to piggyback things to do I decided to go for the Woodpecker and hang out with Nicole. After that, I would bird RI stopping first at Misquamicut to see the Snow Buntings. Also that day I put up two Screech Owl boxes so it was a busy day.

   I met Nicole at the nature center where she works. She showed me around and I got to hold a lot of the animals. By far, the most exciting animal I held was a very tame Hognose Snake! I got to hold some turtles and a toad also. It was very nice of Nicole to let me see everything.

   We went to the farm after leaving the nature center. It was a ten minute ride. We got on the golf cart and went out to the field that had some huge oaks. The Red Headed Woodpecker wasn't there so we went down other trails. Finally on our third and last pass we saw the Red Headed Woodpecker. I didn't get any great photos but it was still awesome to see. Thank you Nicole!




 This week I also got a photo upgrade of the super rare Ross's Goose that has been hanging around the Newport Country Club for a month



Saturday, January 13, 2024

Little Gull

 


  I went birding yesterday in Rhode Island. I spent all day birding in the hopes of collecting rarities. The bird I most wanted was a Little Gull. Little Gulls are actually the smallest gull in the world. They primarily live in Eurasia. There are small colonies around the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay, but other than those places they are rare in the rest of North America. Though not the first ones to visit RI, this is the second one to come to RI since I became a birder. It turns out, there are three in Rhode Island right now. However, the most consistent ones are between South Kingstown Town Beach and the Ocean Mist.

   The problem is there are probably two thousand gulls in that are right now. Due to all of these Nor'easters gulls have been pushed to the shore by the thousands. It really is amazing to see so many birds. The other problem is Little Gulls look a lot like Bonaparte Gulls. Bonapartes are also small though not as small as Little Gulls and they have a black patch on the side of the head as do Little Gulls this time of year. As Dan Berard said "it's like looking for a needle in a stack full of needles"

  The first place I went yesterday was South Kingstown Town Beach. Speaking of Dan, he was there looking through the gulls.  Dan is the best birder in Rhode Island or at least tied for that spot. He has a memory to remember field marks and ears to hear songs like no other birder. So I was thrilled Dan was there. I knew if I didn't find the bird he would if it was around.

   


That is exactly what happened, twice! He found the Little Gull on the water with a flock of several hundred Bonaparte Gulls. Twice he got it in his scope for me to look at and twice I couldn't see it! Between the wave action and my inexperience with this species, I just could not pick it out in a scope view full of thirty birds huddled together in the few seconds before they would lift to avoid a wave..

   So I realized my best chance to see it was to find it when it flew. Though Little Gulls can be told apart from other species by their size, a dark smudge on top of the head, and their roundish wings, those were tough field marks figure out when you only have two or three seconds before the bird moves in the waves. The key field mark is they are the only gull with a completely dark underwing. Find a gull with the underwing almost completely black and you found a Little Gull. 

   Every time a part of the flock took off or rose to avoid a crashing wave I looked at them with my bins. After an hour of this strategy I finally saw the adult Little Gull. It was down the beach to the left but it flew slowly towards us. I called it out to Dan and the other birders and we watched it for the minute or so before it landed. Once in the water I lost it again in the hoard of gulls. We saw the adult fly twice. A juvenile also flew by giving great looks to the group but I did not see it.

    Later in the day after looking for other birds my friend Richard Tucker texted me asking where I saw the Little Gull. After I told him, I went back to the beach to help find it. Though I actually did little to help find it someone spotted it and we got great looks at it flying. Since the sun was more behind us, I got my best photo of the bird near sunset.

   With the Little Gull, I have gotten three lifers since January 1. I got a total of four lifers all of last year, and one of those was in Missouri. However, I got two of those four in December (plus two RI state birds), so I am finally on a pretty good run. I hope it continues.




Thursday, January 11, 2024

Two weeks into January, My second Lifer, Zero Good Photos

 


  I had a doctor's appointment in North Attleboro today. While I was sitting in the room waiting for the doctor someone found a Northern Shrike at Snake Den Farm. As it was, that was only twenty two minutes from where I was sitting. I had never seen a Northern Shrike but have tried multiple times. Needless to say my routine doctor's visit couldn't get over fast enough.

    Northern Shrike are little predator birds. They are smaller than a Blue Jay and look much like a Northern Mockingbird. They mostly live in the evergreen forest south of the Arctic Tundra. During the winter they will occasionally make their way south towards New England. In my years of birding, this is only the third one that I know of in Rhode Island. They hunt small birds and will actually use the barbs of barbed wire to impale their prey. 

  Off I went to Snake Den as soon as I walked out of the office. I pulled into the parking lot and got my scope out. I scanned the tops of trees in the distance and found it pretty quickly. I called over some other birders that were looking in a different direction and we all looked at it in our scopes for twenty minutes. Eventually, when the sun went below the tree line the Shrike took off and we lost it against the darkness of the forest. I took some digiscoped photos with my phone over my scope's eyepiece. They are crap, but technically I did get a photo. The Shrike was probably a quarter mile away or more so I'm just happy I found it.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Oh God, I forgot my camera chasing a lifer

Barrow's
GoldenEye 

 Last night I got a message from my friend Danielle Stebbins that a MacGillivray's Warbler (from now on just Mac) was seen during a Christmas Bird Count in Raynham, MA. It was still being seen yesterday. So we made plans to go look for it today.

Mac's are western birds. Even when they migrate south they stay west of the Rockies. So yes, this one is lost. One was seen last year in Providence and I chased it but dipped. When I got there, at least ten birders who had seen it were still there. I saw the movement in the brush but never actually saw the bird. From me on, no one else that showed up saw the bird that day or ever. That sucked.

    Danielle and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time this morning. When I got out I realized I left my camera at home!!! Not much I could do about it but I felt naked. We had the bird fairly easily, it called most of the morning and between us and a New Bedford birder, one of us would hear it every few minutes. It is the nature of a Mac to stay hidden and this one put on a clinic. I saw the bird about seven times. But never once other than flying quickly across the path did I see the whole body at once. All of my looks were for less than two seconds and only once did I see the head. Still al lifer because if you played the game Operation before, all of my sightings did add up to a full bird and it was beautiful. Even if I had my camera I never would have gotten a photo. It was too elusive.

   However, not having my camera lead to another dilemma. Did I want to continue birding without it. I had hoped to find some other good birds but I wanted my camera for proof photos. I went anyway.

 

Northern
Shoveler 

  I went to Buttonwood Park in New Bedford where there was a Northern Shoveler and a Cackling Goose. I found the Shoveler before I got out of the car but couldn't make any of the Canadas into a Cackling.

  Next I went to the harborwalk in New Bedford and spent way too much time looking for but eventually finding the Barrow's Goldeneye. Another western bird that summer's in Alaska, but a couple do show up every winter.

   Lastly I went to Fairhaven and heard Clapper Rails that have been around for months. Another easy bird. I hoped to go to Newport and look for the Ross's Goose or to Westport and look for Snowy Owls but time got away from me today. I was pissed I left my camera at home but glad I got some good birds.