BIRD PHOTOS AND IDENTIFICATION
PICTURES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

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Month of January, 2012

January 21: I don't get over to Florida's west coast too often, but since we were at a wedding in Tampa on January 20, the next day provided a perfect opportunity to follow up on a word-of-mouth lead on a pair of Barred Owls in Sarasota.

Month of December, 2011

December 31: Today we conducted the annual Christmas week bird count in our assigned territory in the Hypoluxo/Wellington/Boynton Beach area of Palm Beach County. The total this year was only 78 species, down from last year owing largely to the fact that some of what were our best natural areas are now fenced off and no longer accessible due to ever-expanding development. We have almost no natural habitat left to count - virtually all of it is developed area, gated communities, and man-made lakes. Sad. Best birds of the day were three Roseate Spoonbills and an adult Bald Eagle, common in other parts of Florida but always a treat in Palm Beach County.

December 7: Back in Florida for the season. First visit to Green Cay Wetlands had just the usual resident species. Unlike several years ago, Roseate Spoonbill now seems to be an annual fixture here.

Month of November, 2011

November 26: This morning I drove up to the UMass campus in Amherst, Mass. in hopes of photographing a Cackling Goose that has been seen on the campus pond for the past week amongst a flock of about 1000 Canada Geese, and reported on Ebird a half dozen times.  The lighting was perfect, and the campus pond is conveniently narrow so that all the birds are viewable at quite close range.  The goose in question was scoped for the small group of birders present by a staff member at UMass who has been viewing the bird daily.  Although the overall small size of the bird is right, I was troubled by the absence of the typical stubby bill of a Cackling Goose.  Accordingly, I asked a number of Connecticut experts to look at the photos for their opinion, and they were unanimous in their conclusion that this is in fact an example of the parvipes subspecies of Lesser Canada Goose, and not a Cackling Goose at all.

November 20:  A Yellow-breasted Chat with perfect lighting in a thicket at the west end of Hammonasset State Park, being repeatedly harassed by a Northern Mockingbird. Common Loons seen daily from our deck at Pilots Point.

As an aside, no one has seen the Snowy Owl in East Haven since November 16.

November 16:  Late yesterday afternoon a Snowy Owl was reported in East Haven, CT. It gets dark so early here these days that it was too late to have any hope of photographing it yesterday, but the owl was still in the same area this morning and provided a fine view for many of the usual Connecticut folks who converged on the area to see it.

November 2:  Winter ducks are beginning to show up in Connecticut. This afternoon at Hammonasset, two first-year male Buffleheads.  Also a flock of ten Snow Buntings in the field by the nature center, a spot where this species may be reliably seen every year at about this time, and a nice side by side study of the difference in appearance between first-year female and nonbreeding male.

Month of October, 2011

October 30 & 31:  One female White-winged Scoter, from our deck at Pilots Point, Westbrook, CT; first time I have seen this species at this location. The bird was back again the following morning.

October 7:  Along the New England shore, September and October are both good months to observe migrating shorebirds, especially juveniles. At Hammonasset State Park in Madison, CT the muddy fields and puddles near west beach offered close-up views of both White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers. The large open field by the nature center is annually a good spot for a few American Golden Plovers, and this year was no exception. They often keep company with Black-bellied Plovers for which they can be, and often are, mistaken, but seeing the two species side by side makes the differences quite apparent. Besides the subtle coloring, the American Golden Plover has a less plump appearance, with a smaller head and a darker cap.

Month of September, 2011

On September 9 we flew to San Jose, CA and stayed in Carmel in preparation for the following morning's first of four planned pelagic outings with Debi Shearwater.  Each year in August, September, and October countless seabirds migrate through the food-rich waters off central California, giving pelagic birders from all over the world an opportunity to view species that are difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere.

The boat departed Monterey Harbor at 6 AM on Saturday, September 10 out to the Albacore Grounds.  It was foggy and windy, wet, and rough, not the most ideal of conditions, especially for photography, but after mid-morning the conditions improved steadily throughout the day.  Over 40 birders from many states and several countries participated, including some well-known, and two birders were in the midst of big-year quests.  This first day's outing produced seven of the fifteen life species total for the four trips, and numbered in red.

The first new species was Pink-footed Shearwater (1), easily distinguished from the also numerous Sooty Shearwaters by the light-colored bill and white on the underside.  Soon we saw the first of the day's at least 40 Black-footed Albatrosses (2) that came up in the wake, sometimes as many as eight or ten simultaneously. An occasional Buller's Shearwater (3) was noted by its crisp dark cap and extensive, almost complete, white under parts. Several South Polar Skuas, (4) members  of the jaeger family, were seen during the day, distinguished by their dark, bulky silhouette and the striking white wing markings visible even at a long distance over the water.

Sabine's Gull (5) is a breeder of the far north, but is seen during migration over the open ocean. This is a small, black hooded gull, with a fine black bill with a yellow tip, and strikingly contrasting white and black wings. They were seen in small numbers on each outing, usually just flying by at a considerable distance from the boat.  They do not tend to follow in the boat's wake like the numerous California and Western Gulls that accompany the boat nearly all day, chasing the popcorn that is strewn off the stern, and thereby attracting other species into the wake, drawn by the gulls' noise and feeding activity.

Jaegers are often an attractive feature of pelagic excursions, and these were no exception. In addition to South Polar Skuas, all three of the other jaegers were seen at various times during these four west coast outings. I had seen Pomarine Jaeger before off the Rhode Island coast, but both Long-tailed Jaeger (6) and Parasitic Jaeger (7) were new. On this day, one Long-tailed Jaeger showed off its namesake long tail plumes, while a second one had no long tail feathers at all. One Parastic Jaeger offered very close-in photo-ops, while a second one was observed characteristically chasing and harassing an Elegant Tern in the Monterey inner harbor, and there were a couple of immature Pigeon Guillemots.

The second Monterey Bay outing the following day yielded four more new species. It began slightly later and under much more favorable conditions with no fog, and relatively calm seas. This made for dryer equipment, more stable footing for photography, and much easier visibilty of birds sitting on the water. Small alcids such as Cassin's Auklets (8) are virtually impossible to see in rough seas, but on this day we observed a number of them, although they were always some distance away when spotted, and invariably would fly off on a heading directly away from the boat as it began to approach them.

Several small groups of migrating phalaropes were also seen on the water, usually a mixture of Red-necked Phalaropes and Red Phalaropes. (9) Both of these species, especially the Red Phalarope, are spectacular in their brilliantly colored breeding plumage, but during migration they are just small plain gray and white birds. The Red has a plain gray back while the Red-necked has noticable streaking on its back.

One group of birds especially sought after by the emininent birding group aboard was the storm-petrels. On this day photo ops were limited to a good number of Ashy Storm-Petrels, (10) many of them in one large flotilla, as well as a few scattered individuals here and there. However, the most unusual sighting of the day turned out to be a single Manx Shearwater, (11) which was spotted sitting conspicuously in the water among a group of noticeably larger, darker, Sooty Shearwaters. This species is seen regularly off the Atlantic seaboard, but it is a rarity in the Pacific.

On September 12, we visited Pinnacles National Monument, which happens to be right on the infamous San Andreas Fault. Here we climbed half way up, but when a group of birders on the way down reported no California Condor sightings, we headed back down and instead looked for Lawrence's Goldfinch near the campground where this group had seen two earlier in the day, but to no avail. We did see three Yellow-billed Magpies along highway 52 near the town of Tres Pinos.

On September 13, after a morning at the spectacular Monterey Aquarium, we drove up California Highway 1, across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was so shrouded in fog that both stanchions were invisible, and up to Bodega Bay for the September 14 pelagic outing. This was the spot for storm-petrels, with numerous Ashys, and several Black Storm-Petrels, (12) along with numerous delicately toned Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, (13) many of which flew across the wake very close to the boat. There was also one Flesh-footed Shearwater (14) (all dark with a light bill and rare in North American waters), and two very entertaining Laysan Albatrosses (15) which stayed with the boat for a long time and turned out to be real crowd-pleasers. There were also photo opportunities for numerous other previously seen species including both light and dark morphs of Northern Fulmar, Rhinoceros Auklet, Common Murre, Black Oystercatcher, and Black Turnstone.

After two days visitng wineries in Sonoma and Napa, and a side trip to both Lake Berryessa (lots of Western Grebes) and Lake Hennessey (a pair of Clark's Grebes), the last stop was Half Moon Bay for the final pelagic outing on September 18. The beach here had nine Whimbrel and a pair of Marbled Godwits, and the marsh had small groups of Northern Shovelers, and phalaropes which turned out to be all Red-necked. The Half Moon Bay outing itself featured a couple of Tufted Puffins, a juvenile Mew Gull, another Laysan and a number of Black-footed Albatrosses, Sooty, Pink-footed, and Buller's Shearwaters, two more Skuas, all three jaegers, and lots of Rhinoceros Auklets and Common Murres.

Month of August, 2011

August 27:  Just before the arrival of Hurricane Irene here on the Connecticut Long Island Sound shore, four Black Terns made an appearance over the sandbar - the first time I have ever seen this species here.

On August 15 on the sandbar at Pilots Point in Westbrook, CT, along with the usual assortment of shorebirds and gulls, we had a total of nine American Oystercatchers - the most I had seen in one place at the same time, until I counted no fewer than 32 at the exact same spot a few days later.

Month of July, 2011

July 8:  An unusual opportunity to view a family of five American Kestrel chicks in a nesting box in Colchester, CT. Note especially the backward-facing barbs on the tongues of these impressive little raptors.

Month of June, 2011

On June 17 I flew from Hartford via Minneapolis to Duluth, MN to visit Sax Zim Bog again and make a concerted effort to get some photos of the elusive Connecticut Warbler, the last regularly-occurring North American wood-warbler still not represented on Birdspix.com. Sax Zim Bog, located some 35 miles northwest of Duluth and encompassing some 200 square miles, is a particularly attractive birding destination as it is far from human sprawl and boasts a wide variety of unspoiled specialty habitats that attract some species that are hard to find elsewhere.

Sax Zim holds numerous Connecticut Warblers, but while through the silence, one can often easily hear the song which carries a long way, the bird is usually 100 yards or more distant in habitat so dense and inhospitable that it is simply not possible to enter. I make a scouting trip the first afternoon and first hear a singing Connecticut Warbler at the intersection of Zim Road and McDavitt Road, and soon a second one along Admirals Road, although there is no chance of seeing either bird. The same Admirals Road spot however does provide the first surprise look at a Great Gray Owl. I then check out Stone Hill Road, just east of Zim Road off Country Road 7, which has a Sandhill Crane and, on the lake itself, a pair of Trumpeter Swans.

I am joined the following morning by Mike Hendrickson.  Despite pea soup fog in Duluth, we set out at 5:30 AM anyway, and by the time we reach Sax Zim it is a not unpleasant, albeit gray, day. Since Connecticut Warbler is the top target species for the trip, we concentrate on another singing male along Owl Avenue,  This requires wading (with waders) across a ditch and traversing a 30 yard span of open boggy terrain into a frank Black Spruce/Tamarack bog, from within which the Connecticut Warbler song is ringing out loudly and clearly. Actually finding the bird requires plodding through branches and treacherous footing into the heart of the bog, following the song while fighting off the voracious swarming mosquitoes. We have no trouble finally spotting this bird, but he remains at the very top of the spruces where the camera angle is either upward, or blocked by other trees if one tries to back away for for a better angle.  Despite our hearing Connecticut Warblers in five or six locations, this individual is the only one where approach turns out to be possible, and I return the following morning to spend two hours struggling to get an open angle for a few pictures. All this would be impossible without "Deep Woods Off."

Birding in Sax Zim is done mostly by driving slowly along the dirt roads with the windows open and listening.  It is very quiet. The car fills with mosquitoes, but there is no other way, and the huge numbers of mosquitoes after all is what makes the birding so good. Nashville Warblers and Alder Flycatchers are practically everywhere.  One field is full of Sedge Wrens. The unmistakable and incredibly complex song of the Winter Wren is heard here and there.  There's the song of a Mourning Warbler, and there's another Connecticut.  This field has Bobolinks and Clay-colored Sparrows, then there's a moose in the road, later on a coyote and a porcupine. I spot an Olive-sided Flycatcher at the very top of a dead snag, but it flies before I can get the camera on it.  I get a few bad pictures of a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

On June 20 I start on Stone Hill Road and I'm not half a mile from Road 7 when I spot a large shape on a telephone wire - another Great Gray Owl. This one is actively hunting along the road and pays no attention to me or to any of the occasional passing cars. Often it perches quietly in the trees and looks around, occasionally darting off for a quick foray.

The last morning, June 21, I make a concerted effort to find LeConte's Sparrow. Sax Zim has numerous spacious damp fields of high grass, perfect habitat for LeConte's. I concentrate on just such a field on Arkola Road, just west of the RR tracks, and sure enough there is the faint "tzzzzzzt" just by the side of the road.  There is no mistaking LeConte's Sparrow - it stays mostly hidden in the deep grass and you can occasionally get a fleeting glimpse of one through an opening as it scurries along the ground, but occasionally one pops up and flies a short distance before dropping back down.  The flight is very weak and slow and more like a flutter - nothing like the dashing flight of the Savannah Sparrows that share the habitat.  The Savannahs perch on the wires, LeConte's never does, but this particular field has LeConte's Sparrows calling everywhere, and two hours of patience is rewarded with a few birds briefly perching up just long enough for a photo.

The final target bird is Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, which likes the mid-level, brushier growth at the edge of the bog and is often found not far from Connecticut Warbler habitat. I find a very cooperative individual at the intersection of Arkola Road and Owl Avenue. I had hoped to come across a Ruffed Grouse at some point during the four days, but none ever makes an appearance.

May 30 through June 12 featured a trip to the Baltic, including visits to Copenhagen, Visby, Tallinn, Saint Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. Although this was expressly not a birding trip (and I conceded to leave the big camera at home) I couldn't help noticing a few species that are very uncommon in North America, although common in Europe. One of the most common Gulls in Europe is the Black-headed Gull, seen in every port we visited. The species name is technically a misnomer, as the head is really a rich chocolate-brown rather than an actual black.

In Visby, Sweden, on the Island of Gotland, in a park with a pond with lots more Black-headed Gulls, pigeons, and Mallards, I found a pair of quite accommodating inquisitive Eurasian Jackdaws.

In Saint Petersburg, Russia, while walking the grounds of the magnificent Peterhof Palace, the summer residence of Peter the Great, a White Wagtail caught my attention, and six days later I later spotted another one in a park in Stockholm, Sweden. Also in Stockholm, a pair of thrushes pulling up worms in Berzelli Park turned out to be Fieldfares, and on the lawn outside the VASA Museum was a small flock of Barnacle Geese (below, left), a species that was also seen in several other locations.

Another bird commonly seen in numerous public places in northern Europe was the Hooded Crow, although the species is not normally seen in North America.*

*By the sheerest coincidence, a first-ever U.S. sighting of a Hooded Crow was reported in Staten Island, NY the week of June 20.  Not surprisingly, it is believed that this bird most likely did not get to North America on its own, but "hitched" a ride from Europe on a ship to the port of NY. The photo at right was taken not in Staten Island, but in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Month of May, 2011

May 26:  The extensive saltmarsh on the Guilford/Madison, CT line is an ideal habitat for both Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrows. Saltmarsh Sparrows are especially numerous here and seem to outnumber the Seaside Sparrows by about 10 to 1.  Like the other members of the Ammodramus genus, both of these sparrows spend most of their time hiding in deep grass, although they will fly short distances low to the ground and occasionally perch up briefly, sometimes to sing.

May 21:  It is well worth a visit to the Stewart McKinney NWR in Westbrook, CT where every spring the abundant lush second growth habitat is reliable for hosting numerous nesting Blue-winged Warblers. The woods on either side of the entrance drive have many singing Wood Thrushes.

May 20: Back in Connecticut, first visit of the year to Hammonasset State Park in Madison this afternoon produced the best view one could ever hope for of a Clapper Rail. It was calling loudly and somewhat uncharacteristically was visible right out in the open.

May 10: In response to a tip, a mid-afternoon jaunt down to Richardson Park in Fort Lauderdale produced two very brief looks at a female Connecticut Warbler, although the bird was deep in a thicket and no photos were possible.

May 9:  Today we add the third new species for 2011, a Bahama Mockingbird, seen this morning at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This uncommon visitor to the U.S. is brown in color, quieter, and noticeably larger and bulkier than its common and widespread U.S. cousin, the Northern Mockingbird.

Unfortunately the annual quest for a migrating Connecticut Warbler was unsuccessful both this morning at Hugh Taylor Birch, and yesterday at Spanish River Park in Boca Raton.

Month of April, 2011

An unventful month here in Florida, with a lot of the winter residents having departed, and a lack-luster migration season so far, so Terry B. and I made an overnight jaunt down the Keys to see what we might find there. We looked for an Antillean Nighthawk at dusk and dawn at the Marathon Airport, but they appear not to have arrived yet. We did find two other reclusive target species that we had hoped to photograph - a single White-crowned Pigeon in Marathon, and a single Mangrove Cuckoo off Card Sound Road in Key Largo. Warblers were sparse except for many singing Prairie Warblers in numerous locations, but otherwise just a few American Redstarts, Black-throated Blues, a couple of Cape Mays, and a Black and White - hardly worth mentioning. We also noted several singing Gray Kingbirds at various locations between Black Point Marina and Marathon.

Month of March, 2011

On March 26 I flew to Dallas where my first stop was the beautiful Trinity River Audubon Center in hopes of perhaps finding a Harris's Sparrow that had not yet left its wintering grounds, but it was a hot afternoon, the birding very quiet in the still heat, and among the few sparrows seen alas no Harris's was to be found. Then it was two hours down I-35 to Temple, Texas, on the northeast margin of the Edwards Plateau some 30 miles south of Waco.

The purpose of this trip, and choice of this location, was to concentrate on the two local Texas highland specialties, Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. The first morning was at Miller Springs Park in Belton, just below the massive Belton Dam which forms man-made Lake Belton, and later in the day at several other local parks. There were plenty of Carolina Chickadees, Black-crested Titmice, uncountable numbers of Northern Cardinals and White-eyed Vireos, and the unmistakable song of a Golden-cheeked Warbler or two, but no sighting.

The second day, March 28, I met Gil Eckrich at a pre-arranged spot on the grounds of Fort Hood. Gil is intimately involved in planning and maintenance of the ecology on the vast Fort Hood expanse and is also an accomplished photographer and expert on the ecology of the local avifauna. After unsuccessfully searching briefly for a lingering wintering Sprague's Pipit, we concentrated on just the two target species.

Although the Golden-cheeked Warbler is found only in the Texas highlands, it is actually quite common here and possibly even the most common warbler species in some local spots. If one looks in areas of oak and mature juniper woodland, the distinct buzzy song is soon easily heard and the flash of the bright yellow head spotted in the upper branches. We heard many, and there were some good photo ops.

The Black-capped Vireo is another story altogether. This tiny bird, with it's distinctive black hood, white mask, and red eye, occupies an entirely different habitat of dense, second-growth brush. Like the Kirtland's Warbler's need for young jack pines in Michigan, the brush for the Black-capped Vireo can not be too tall or the birds will abandon the area. Just like with the jack pines, areas of overly mature growth must be leveled (on Fort Hood this is done with powerful mulching machines) and new growth allowed to reach just the right height. There are few areas where this is done, and consequently few places where the vireo can be found. In the right habitat, many Black-capped Vireos are heard, often mixed in with the somewhat similar song of its abundant White-eyed Vireo cousin.

Once heard however, actually seeing this bird, let alone photographing it, requires the utmost of patience and perserverance, as the song is invariably emanating from a concealed spot deep within some thicket. Moreover, the bird doesn't move much and therefore doesn't easily give away its exact location. Only occasionally is one's patience rewarded with a momentary glimpse, almost always partially obscured by brush and twigs. Almost never does this bird perch up in plain view.

It became apparent that to get good photographs of Black-capped Vireo (Gil's own portfolio includes some that are spectacular), unless one has uncommon luck, requires extended time on repeated visits. On this one day I was able to get just one single half-way usable photo, and even in that one the bird is partially obscured by twigs., but the photo does perfectly illustrate the frustrating experience of trying to view this maddingly secretive little bird.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon at Stillhouse Hollow Park where there were additional Golden-cheeked Warblers, and on Stillhouse Hollow Lake there were three Common Loons and five Eared Grebes, four of them in their resplendent breeding plumage.

At Gil's suggestion, the last morning I went to nearby BLORA (Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area) to look for Franklin's Gulls, and was rewarded by a small group on the sandbar accompanied by numerous Bonaparte's Gulls, and some Herring Gulls and Forster's Terns. I also got found more Golden-cheeked Warblers here, but it was frustrating not being able to go back onto Fort Hood to spend more time on the Black-capped Vireo. Unfortunately, unaccompanied birding on Fort Hood is strictly off-limits to the general public, and there is no other suitable Black-capped Vireo habitat in the surrounding area. So even though I was just three miles from the habitat, I could not return to it alone. There are other places to search for this species in the more southwesterly area of the Edwards Plateau, such as Neil's Lodges, Lost Maples, Kerr WMA, and Devil's River - all of which are publically accessible. Another time.

March 25: This morning a visitng couple from Vancouver, B.C. met me early for a day of viewing local species. The first stop was Green Cay Wetlands where we found the Virginia Rail within five minutes of arrival at its location, but later at nearby Wakodahatchee Wetlands we were surprised to find two more Virginia Rails out together in plain view, with one of them appearing to be doing a kind of display. We also had a very unusual startlingly close-up view of an American Bittern brazenly out in the open not ten feet from the boardwalk. I was surprised to find that there were still some Painted Buntings in residence and there are always a few Florida-resident warbler species such as Palm, Prairie, Northern Parula, and Black & White, although it's still just a bit early for the anticipated influx of migrant passerines.

March 7: It's not often one gets a chance to photograph a Virginia Rail at four o'clock in the afternoon, but such was the case this afternoon at Green Cay Wetlands. It was skulking in the reeds where the Soras usually are. Also, the Purple Martins have returned - always an early harbinger of spring migration.

Month of February, 2011

February 20: Earlier this month a visit to the marsh by the library on Sterling Road in Pembroke Pines was unsuccessful in finding any of the formerly resident Purple Swamphens for two out-of-town birders. Apparently these particular birds were victims of the statewide effort to extirpate the species from Florida - an effort which was subsequently declared a failure. So today, I visited a pair of alternate sites hoping to nail down a new reliable spot to find this introduced species. Abutting the north end of the parking lot at the Fire Station on Hiatus Road in Tamarac, there is a marsh where three Purple Swamphens were seen immediately upon getting out of the car. A noisy flock of no less than 17 Blue-crowned Parakeets then flew in and alit in a nearby tree. Then at the large marshy pond in front of the City Furniture complex just to the north and across Hiatus Road, we found nine more Purple Swamphens, four of them feeding on the lawn.

February 5: A visit to Okeeheelee Park in Lake Worth, FL to look for a first-year female Dickcissel that has been seen there for the past week. The feeders behind the nature center have traditionally been a reliable place to see Painted Buntings, but today there were more than I had ever seen in one place before - a count of nine females and five males.

Month of January, 2011

On January 2, Alan Summersgill, Terry Baltimore and I did our annual Xmas week birdcount in our assigned area of Palm Beach County, encompassing West Boynton Beach north to Wellington. Despite this "territory" now being comprised nearly entirely of residential developments, we managed 91 species for the day, despite few ducks and no shore birds at all. There was nothing especially unusual, but we did have five Grasshopper Sparrows, and a field with three immature Snail Kites hunting together. New for Birdspix.com was a pair of Egyptian Geese, a non-native, non ABA "countable," species occasionally encountered in residential Florida neighborhoods.

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