Kirtland's Warbler Tour in Grayling Michigan

         

Mural on building in Grayling

           After returning from a four day birding trip in Vermont with Dave Eberly and Gary Becker, Sharon and I headed out to Michigan to take the Kirtland's Warbler tour and then drove up to Mackinaw Island on Lake Huron. We made the 11.5 hour drive in one day and spent the evening in Grayling. At 7AM the next day we met the Forest Service officer who gave us a 15 minute presentation about the warbler and it's habitat requirements. 

          We then made the 15 minute drive to a young Jack Pine stand.  As soon as we got out of the car we could hear the warbler singing away. We walked into the stand about 100 yards and started searching. The bird was singing about 50 fifty feet from our group but we just could not find the bird because he was singing from a low perch. Fortunately, Kirtland's Warbler are known to sing constantly during breeding season. After more searching we finally were able to spot the warbler.

Kirtland's Warbler in its preferred habitat

          While searching for the warbler we also found many other species. An Alder Flycatcher was calling, and there were many species of sparrows including Vesper and Lincoln's. The coolest thing that I saw was a Common Nighthawk doing his display flight. The nighthawk would fly around over the female, all the while calling, then suddenly goes into a stoop and at the bottom of the stoop I could hear the loud noise that it makes when the breeze whips through its wings. 
          We also looked for Upland Sandpipers but dipped on them. Another pretty cool thing was finding a Vesper Sparrow nest located 10" off the trail where we were standing.

Young Vesper Sparrows in nest

            One of the main reasons that the Kirtland's Warbler is endangered is the fact that Cowbirds parasatize the nest. So the forest service actually capture the cowbirds and remove them from the area. By "remove" from the area, they mean euthanize the birds. They catch the birds in a trap, as seen below.

          Once the eggs are laid the females never leave the nest. The males do all the hunting and bring the food to the nest site to feed the female and the young.

Male with food in it's bill.

           It was a very interesting tour and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I have done this trip in the past out of the town of Mio but I enjoyed this one even more because the trees were much shorter and the birds, once found, were easy to follow and study.

Vermont Birding Weekend

View from Dave's Mountain Community

       The unconventional birding trio of Dave Eberly, Gary Becker and myself made the long trek to the alluring state of Vermont the first weekend of June 2013. This was a quest for the recently added species Bicknell's Thrush (split from Gray-cheeked Thrush) and other goodies the state of Vermont had to offer. We left Pennsylvania around three in the afternoon and drove well into the night arriving at Dave's mountain home at 11PM. Unfortunately the weather forecast was for rain the entire weekend and that was mostly true.

         Friday was supposed to be the worst of the days weatherwise so we did not chase the Bicknell's Thrush until Saturday. We started the day at Dave's, finding Least Flycatchers, RT Hummingbirds, American Redstarts and Blackburnian Warblers right at eye level from his balcony.

Gary watching the show from the balcony

 

             A quick drive around the community produced a great looking Mourning Warbler, more Blackburnians and Bobolinks.

Bobolink

            We then headed to a place called the West Rutland Marsh and as soon as we arrived the rains followed us. We got out of the car, walked about 100 feet and Gary got his lifer Virginia Rail. We were walking on a boardwalk and one flew up right in front of us. We spent some time looking for the bird and eventually Gary saw it walking though the reeds. At this same location we had the chance to compare the Willow and Alder Flycatcher calls, as both were singing within about 30 feet of one another. Exploring the area we also found Wood Thrush and Veery, E Kingbird, Yellow Warblers and Marsh Wrens.

Virginia Rail crossing the road

          We drove around the corner on this little side street and got out of the car. Right in front of us was another Virginia Rail and two young birds. I looked further up the street and there were four more Virginia Rails and emerging from the reeds we started counting 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 black downy young  Virginia Rails looking for mama.

 

Virginia Rail chicks 

           After the impressive rail showing we headed to out next stop outside of the small town of Brandon. We stopped at the covered bridge and found a lot of species including Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Scarlet Tanager, plus Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and we watched the Cedar Waxwings hawking for insects over the creek.

Birding in the rain outside of Brandon

          As you might remember, the state of Vermont was hit very hard by Hurricane Irene. Brandon was on of those towns that got clobbered. The creek runs right through the middle of town and it washed houses right down the main roads.

There used to be a pizza shop right here. Not any more.

          Next we went to Hollow Rd, another place outside of Brandon. Here we pulled up to a clear cut for high tension wires. We walked up a trail through the scrubby growth and were lucky enough to find a gorgeous male Golden-wing Warbler. Also in the area were Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrow and Chestnut-sided Warblers.      

           Later that day we changed from birding to botany and headed to the Spirit in Nature Trail.

         This was an area of dense forest with paths that were named after different religions, like Buddhist and Hindu paths. It also included a Labyrinth where you would follow the trail to the center and offer a gift to the gods.  

Gary offers his gift to the birding gods

          Walking the trails there were many flowers in bloom but the one that I enjoyed the most was the Pink Lady Slippers.

Pink Lady Slippers in bloom

Dave falling off the beaver dam with Gary coming to rescue

  

Dave showing off his photography talents

          Last stop of the day was to the Green Mountain National forest to look at the Texas Waterfalls. There was a quite impressive drop of about 200 feet in a series of falls surrounded by hemlock forests. A real nice setting.

Bridge over Texas Fall showing the hemlock forest

A couple of rain soaked sightseers

          After a short nights sleep we were psyched to be going to Mt Mansfield. Mt Mansfield is the highest mountain in Vermont with a summit that peaks at 4,393 feet (1,339 m) above sea level. The summit is in Underhill and the ridgeline, including some secondary peaks, extends into the town of Stowe. When viewed from the east or west, this mountain has the appearance of a (quite elongated) human profile, with distinct forehead, nose, lips, chin, and Adam's apple. These features are most distinct when viewed from the east. Unlike most human faces, the chin is the highest point. Mount Mansfield is one of three spots in Vermont where true alpine tundra survives from the Ice Ages. 

Stunted forest at summit of Mt Mansfield - home to Bicknell's Thrush

          We could not drive up the toll road to the summit until the toll gate opened at 9AM. This caused some trepidation because we always heard stories that you have to be in Bicknell's habitat just after sunrise. But we ventured on nevertheless. We arrived at the toll gate at exactly 9AM and started the drive to the summit. At the entrance gate the visibility was about two miles but as we started climbing it deteriorated abruptly. At the summit visibility was about 200 yards when the mist from the clouds cleared but at times it was only about 100 feet and very wet with winds around 30 mph. 

          We walked around the parking area for a while but heard nothing but Blackpolls and White-throated Sparrows. So we ventured out a little farther and suddenly we heard the singing of a Bicknell's. We felt lucky at this point but that feeling dissipated after hunting  for the bird for about two hours and not getting a look at anything that even resembled a thrush. 

           Needing a little rest and a new strategy we headed back to the car. We drove down the road about a half mile and tried another location, but no luck. So we returned to the sight of the bird that we knew was on territory. After another half hour the bird came in to within fifty feet of our position and sang his little heart out. Unfortunately, trying to look through this thick forest was impossible and we missed our opportunity. Another half hour passed and we relocated to a better viewing area on the forested mountainside. With a clearer view suddenly the bird was singing within 100 feet and then all of a sudden there is was on a tree branch right in front of us about 15 feet away. The Bicknell's immediately saw this crazy trio of birders and took flight never to be seen again, but after a four hour effort we had accomplished our goal.

Bicknell's Thrush - Photo from internet 

Birding Nescopeck State Park in Luzerne County

       As the month of May was winding down I was getting tired of birding the same spots around Delaware County. So I packed a lunch and headed north to Luzerne County to visit Nescopeck State Park. This is a large, mostly forested park, over 3500 acres in size, with a couple of small lakes, ponds and a few bogs. Dave Kruel was leading a bird walk and I thought that I would take advantage of his local knowledge. I arrived a little early and birded around the parking lot and office building and was rewarded with a nice look at a male Cape May Warbler along with a Blackburnian Warbler.

Cape May Warbler & What's behind him? Photo by Laura Erickson

        The action kept coming with an Osprey flying over the main lake and a rare visitor to the park, a male Orchard Oriole. Red-eyed, Warbling and Yellow-throated Vireos were spotted along the wooded trails and we heard a Rose-breasted Grosbeak but it was not located. A highlight for me, besides the Cape May Warbler, was an Alder Flycatcher seen and heard in a small bog. Just outside of the bog there were a couple of Least Flycatcher also calling. Raptors included Sharp-shinned, Red-shouldered and Broad-winged Hawks.  
       We were hearing a tremendous amount of Ovenbirds but not seeing any. Dave kept trying to test the new comers to see if they were learning the Ovenbird's song. As we were walking along we spotted a Wild Turkey and one of the new birders shouted "Now that's an Ovenbird".

Wild Turkey

       Other birds of interest were Black-capped Chickadees, 2 Common Ravens, Black-and-White, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green and Canada Warblers. A colorful addition, that we saw in the parking lot, was a beautiful male Purple Finch.

Male Purple Finch

        So I enjoyed the day trip to the northern tier of Pennsylvania and got a taste of their breeding birds and some late migrants as well. Next year I'll try to get there a little earlier in May to see the major push of migration through Luzerne County.

Cape Island Coyotes at the World Series of Birding

We thought this was a good sign but it was just an advancing thunderstorm

        It was 1:30AM on May 11, 2013, when a knock came on the door telling me to get out of bed and let's get birding. It was Bill Roache, reluctant captain of the BCDC Cape Island Coyotes World Series of Birding team gathering his team of birders. I rolled out of bed and met in his kitchen along with the other constituents of the team, Susan D'Amico and Jason Kessler. Enthusiasm was high as we made the short drive over to the Cape May Meadows where we would commence our big day of birding.

        As we hiked the trail towards the ocean we immediately noticed the lightning coming off the Delaware shore heading our way. We also noticed the complete lack of nocturnal bird sounds. We were able to scratch out some Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Mallards and calling Least Sandpipers before we were hit with a downpour of mega proportions. Of course none of us had on rain gear. That was all left back in the vehicle because we knew we wouldn't get caught in the rain. No way.

           Back at the car after a change of clothes we moved on to Bayshore Ave in search of owls. When we arrived we searched for owls but no luck. We did manage to pull out a Chuck-Wills-Widow calling from the canal area. Higbee Beach also wasn't giving up any of its owls that evening. Let's just say the rest of the nocturnal birding wasn't a big producer of birds. 

           Just before dawn we went to the concrete ship and scanned the bay. Forster's Terns and DC Cormorants were the most common birds but we also managed some gulls and one Black Scoter. At the state park we picked up the pace with Great Egret, Glossy Ibis, Purple Martins and three species of swallows. Along the beach we observed Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, Gadwall, Lesser Black-backed Gull and a good find were 2 Caspian Terns.

American Oystercatcher at Plover Ponds

            Departing the state park we arrived at Higbee Beach. Warblers were hard to find but we did manage to find a few. Prairie, Black-throated Blue and Green Warblers, Northern Waterthrush, Redstarts and Parula were seen, plus a fly over Summer Tanager was one of my highlights. Blue Grosbeaks and Orchard Orioles were quite common today but thrushes of any kind were non existent throughout the day. We had fly over shorebirds at Higbees also. Solitary Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers and Black-bellied Plovers. Also we found Pine Siskin and White-crowned Sparrow.  At the Cape May-Lewes Ferry jetty we found Purple Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Red-breasted Merganser and Black Skimmers.

           Off again, this time to the beannery. Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireo plus Eastern Bluebird were seen. The difficult to find below the canal in Cape May category produced Hairy Woodpecker, but missed the Prothonotary Warbler. As all of spring migration so far this year, today was in general pretty gruesome. We couldn't find a nuthatch or Great Blue Heron. No thrushes and just a few warblers.

            

Parasitic Jaeger

           Once again the rains came and so we went to the store at the concrete ship and stood on the covered porch for a sea watch. We were told that we just missed a Western Grebe but we made up for it by spotting Common Tern, Sanderling and Dunlin, both loons and best of all 5 Parasitic Jaegers. We also saw a flock of about 12 Black Scoters fly past our location. But as of yet, 1:00PM we still haven't found a Northern Gannet. We could tell by now that this wasn't going to be our best day.

  

             The World Series of Birding teams were not able to get on the Coast Guard Station this year but at the harbor we did find some lingering Brant, one Ruddy Duck and a flock of shorebirds that contained some Whimbrels. Bill thought he saw a Bald Eagle but it disappeared quickly behind some buildings and we never did find one today. In fact, raptors of any kind were impossible to find. One of the big misses for the day was Black Vulture. The next day they were everywhere around the cape. A quick trip to Poverty Beach only produced a Black Tern but no Royal Terns.

              We finished the day at the Meadows where we were rained on once again and added nothing. We finished the day with a below average total of 128 species. We managed to come in second place once again this year. Our only consolation was that all teams reported low totals. The winning team for the whole state only reported 186 species when usually they get 220. It was amazing that Brian Quindlen's (a Delco guy) youth team won the event beating out the favorite DVOC team by 4 birds. So after 18 hours of birding we headed home for a long night's rest and start planning for next year.

Susan D'Amico, Bill Roache & Jason Kessler

Susan D'Amico with the bicycle team in the background

           The next day we met for the breakfast banquet and awards ceremony. Since my wife Sharon was coming down to pick me up I left the ceremony after breakfast. We went over to the state park and were just getting ready to walk the trails when Susan called me and told me they just got word of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher along Seagrove Ave which was just around the corner from us. So we quickly hopped in the car and drove over. There was already a crowd of about 30 cars parked along the road. We managed to spot the Flycatcher almost immediately. In another 15 minutes most of the participants at the awards ceremony appeared at Seagrove Ave also.

   

BCDC Cape Island Coyotes

           

Begging calls heard at Delco Raven Nest Site

Glen Mills Quarry (Entrance Restricted)

Early this morning on the way to the Bridle Path I stopped by the vantage point that allows a look down on to the structure that holds the raven nest in the Glen Mills quarry. The nest itself is not visible from this point.
As I approached the edge of the cliff two ravens flew up from below in pursuit of a red-tailed hawk soaring high overhead. They disappeared and nothing happened for about 10 minutes until a raven flew in low from behind my right shoulder. It floated down & entered the structure. I then heard calls that could only have been begging calls of ravens. They were deep hisses similar to what I have heard from turkey vulture nestlings but then raven-like elements became discernible at the end of the hisses. After the adult left the nest the calls continued briefly and died down. It certainly sounded like more than one bird was begging.

This is a busy quarry and we have failed in one attempt to gain repeat access to view the nest but will try again. Hopefully we will be able to document when the birds fledge.

David Eberly

Raven flying to nest site

 

April snowfall forces birds to roadside

      While we are enjoying spring weather (almost), my son Bryan, who is currently living in Longmont, Colorado, experienced 13 inches of snow overnight. So he decided to do a little birding, like any rational person would do. He drove out to the rural fields not far from is house. Since there was nowhere for field birds to feed, because the fields were buried under snow, the birds chose to feed on the roadsides of the less traveled roads. Bryan was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. He managed to find a large flock of Horned Larks and commingled with the larks were three species of longspurs, Chestnut-collared, Lapland and McCown's. He managed a few good photos.

Chestnut-collared Longspur

Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspur

     After scrutinizing the flock, Bryan noticed that one of the longspurs was sick or injured, but was still able to fly. It was struggling to keep up with the flock and was obviously hanging out on the edge of the flock. Then an American Kestrel came flying in and chased the flock. It dove into the flock of Horned Larks and longspurs. Unfortunately for the longspur, the Kestrel took advantage of its weakness and chased it across a field and snatched it mid-flight. 
 

American Kestral with Longspur

Ravens, Owls and Eagles

       On the afternoon of April 11, 2013, Dave Eberly and I made a quick check of some large breeding birds in Delaware County. We went to the Glen Mills Quarry to check on the Common Ravens that we found nesting there earlier this year. Unfortunately, the manager of the quarry was not around so the staff wouldn't let us on the property. So we settled for a less than satisfactory view of the building where the nest is located. While viewing the building one of the Common Ravens flew out and headed to an area of the quarry where we lost sight of the bird. We were hoping that the bird would return with food in it's bill to confirm that they pair had young. The bird did return within ten minutes but without food. So we concluded, perhaps wrongly but hopefully, that the pair are still sitting on eggs.  
      Afterwards, we drove to a site that reportedly had a nesting Great Horned Owl. We arrived and quickly located the nest and saw a young bird staring over the rim of the nest at us. Dave was getting set up to take some photos when a second youngster popped up to check us out.

Great Horned Owlets (Photo by Dave Eberly)
 

       After this we made a quick check on the nesting pair of Bald Eagles at the Springton Reservoir. We set up the scope on the nest and saw one of the adults standing in the nest. Then while I was looking through the scope a fuzzy little eaglet lifted himself up to look around. The other member of the adult pair arrived on the nest and the adult birds changed shifts as the first one than flew off. Dave thought that he might have seen a second young bird but for now we'll say that the pair has just one eaglet to raise.

Tufted Duck at Parvin State Park near Vineland NJ

Tufted Duck at center rear

      Sharon and I made an attempt today for the Tufted Duck found at Parvin State Park near Vineland, NJ. We arrived around 9:45AM and started scanning the lake and found lots of Greater Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, Buffleheads, Wood Duck and Horned and Pied-billed Grebes. Then I was joined by Armas Hill and we talked to a passerby who told us that there is another lake that the bird is being seen on this morning. So we hopped back in the car and headed to Thundergust Lake about 1/2 mile away. We arrived there and quickly knew that the bird must be present as we couldn't find a parking spot. That was a good indicator. 
      We strolled down the path alongside the lake and found the crowd and quickly got on the duck. It was a nice looking male, in good sunlight, with a thick, long tuft hanging down the back of its head. My photos were not great, as you can see above, but you should check out the ebird sighting list here to look at better photos.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13483054
       The park is only about an hour drive from Media, and is easy to get to, so you should consider a quick trip over to see this rare and wonderful visitor from Europe.

Florida Trip - Day 5

       We began today's adventure at Loxahatchee NWR. As we turned off the main road and were driving along the side road to the entrance gate we stopped to checked out the utility wires for any parakeets that might be hanging around the area. We didn't spot any, and as I was ready to drive on, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a large, strange bird walking along the roadside we had just driven past. So I quickly did a U-turn and pulled alongside this creature which turned out to be the first of many Limpkins.

Limpkin

         Moving on, we decided to take the Cypress Swamp Boardwalk Trail located behind the visitors center. We found lots of Northern Parulas and Red-bellied Woodpeckers and than we heard the call of some kind of parakeet. We never did see the birds but I'm guessing it was either a Monk or Nanday Parakeet.
        Back in the car we drove to the main area of the refuge, which is the water impoundment section. We walked about half way around finding lots of Common Gallinules, Pied-billed Grebes and herons. At this point we climbed an observation tower and started scanning. Luck was with us as we spotted two distant Snail Kites. As we went further around the impoundment we managed to get some good close views of the kites.

Snail Kite with Apple Snail in talons

        After finishing up at Loxahatchee we went back to Green Cay Wetlands for a second visit. I got a quick glimpse of the La Sagra's Flycatcher again. At the visitor's center the Painted Buntings were still coming to the feeders and along the boardwalk we managed some close up photography as well.

Tri-colored Heron

       Along the boardwalk there was a knot in the wood that reminded me of a lion's face. I thought that it was pretty cool.

Lion's Head

        We finished our visit at Green Cay and tried Wakodahatchee Preserve for a Fulvous Whistling-Duck but only came away with about 30 Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. Having the need to really see some sort of parrot or parakeet we went back again to Loxahatchee. Good thing we did because on the same wires that we searched for the birds before there were now two Nanday Parakeets perched on the wire. Lifer number three for this trip.

Trust me - they are Nanday Parakeets

        We headed north after this and went to the town of Jupiter, which was on our way back toward the airport. We took a quick look at the Jupiter Lighthouse and then headed to Jonathon Dickinson State Park.

                            Jupiter Lighthouse

       At this park we were searching for the Florida Scrub-Jay but all we found instead were some Sandhill Cranes. Leaving the park we headed for the West Palm Beach airport and a non-eventful flight home. Below are some more photos from various places.

Common Gallinule

Mottled Duck

Egyptian Goose

Little Blue Heron

Iguana

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

Old Missile site in Everglades NP

Anhinga

Bromilead of some type

Rough Green Snake