Song Sparrows

The Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) is common a year-round resident in my backyard.  With its loud and distinctive song, and bold field marks (see below), it is one the easiest species to identify here on the East Coast; and therefore, is one of the first birds that I was able to identify for my life list. 

My "typical" Song Sparrow - note its gray and brown head streaks

and broad brown breast streaks and large central spot

Here, in New Jersey our Song Sparrow is the "atlantica" subspecies (below).  They are easily attracted to your feeders; and when phished, tend to quickly pop up and will usually sit out in the open providing a good look. If there was any sparrow that I could have said that I felt comfortable identifying, it would have been the Song Sparrow. 

M.s. atlantica - Barnegat Light, New Jersey

However, like the Savannah Sparrow, the Song Sparrow also has a number subspecies, and I learned this year that some of the subspecies along the West Coast look very different from the "atlantica" subspecies in my area. Fortunately, was able to photoraph two of these West Coast subspecies.

I saw my  first new Song Sparrow subspecies ("kenaiensis") while up in Seward, Alaska this past June.  Fortunately, I heard the familiar song of a Song Sparrow first, and then was able to locate the singer - a large, dark sparrow. If I had seen this bird first, my initial impression would have been that it was a dark Fox Sparrow, and not a Song Sparrow.  Its was also much shyer and didn't respond to phishing, and therefore,  it took me several days before I was able to get a decent photograph  (below) of it.

M.s.kenaiensis - Seward, Alaska

I observed a  second new subspecies ("morphina") this August, on Washington's Olympic Penninsula.  This subspecies is also darker that our "atlantica" but not as big or dark as a "kenaiensis"; and as you can see from the photo below, it was also molting which didn't help.  Fortunately for me, it also was readily attraced to a feeder and was not a shy as a "kenaiensis".

M.s.morphina - Sequim, Washington

These two recent encounters with different and distinct looking Song Sparrow sub-species just helped to reinforce my opinion that when I am traveling, I need to try to photograph all of the species I encounter.

West Coast Gulls

The week before Labord Day, I took my son on a vacation out to Seattle and over to the Olympic Penisular. Since it was not an official birding trip for me, I birded whenever I could and still managed to get get 92 species including 5 lifers.  However, Gulls were the one group that I did get to spend a lot time on, especially around our hotel in Port Angeles, identifying 9 species over 8 days (Glaucous-winged, Herring, Western, California, Glaucous, Mew, Ring-billed, Heermann's and Bonaparte's Gull). Unfortunately for me, it was probably the absolute worst time of the year to try and ID these gulls!  Right now, I am so glad that I took that class on Gull ID earlier this year. Understanding that both year class and molt were significant factors in their ID probably saved my sanity!! Problem #1 was that for each of the 9 species, I might have been looking at an adults, juveniles or between 1 and 3 other year classes (cycles); Problem #2 was that any two of the first 5 species could hybridize; and Problem 3 was that  it seemed like just about every gull that I looked at that week seemed to be in some stage of its pre-basic molt.  Take a look at what I was up against:

The red spot on this gull identifies this bird as an adult, and the more grayish color to the primarys suggest a Glaucous-winged Gull, however; where are the white tips to the primarys? and don't these primaries look darker than is normal for a Glaucous-winged Gull? Initial impression - it is a Glaucous-winged Gull.

The all black bill makes this gull a juvenile, but based upon the appearce of its wings, it is well along on its1st cycle pre-basic molt.  Unfortunately it is hard to tell if those primarys are going to be black or gray. My initial impression - it is a possible Glaucous-wing Hybrid.

The black tip to this bill, means this is an immature bird, based on the appearance gray on some of the secondaries, this bird is in its pre-2nd cycle molt.  The brownish color to the primaries indicate they are old and bleached out, and probably were black not gray. My initial impression - a possible Herring Gull hybrid??

The black tip to this bill, means this is bird is also immature; however, based on the large amount of gray on the secondaries, this bird appears to be in its pre-3rd cycle molt. The older primaries are bleached brown, while the new ones are black. My initial impression - a possible Herring Gull hybrid??

This gull also has a bill with a black tip, but the rest of the bill is red. Fortunately only one of our West Coast gull has this combination - an adult Heerman's Gull.  This one is in its adult pre-basic molt. 

As you can see trying to ID West Coast Gull's in late August/early September can be an extreme birding challenge.  Many an experienced birder would just ignore the whole group. What was I thinking? If I wanted to be challenged by a difficutly group, I could have gone to Central America for Flycatchers.  Wait, what am I saying?  I am going to Panama at the end of October. The good news is  there I will have a guide to help me.

Dragonflies

Don't know how it happen but it suddenly just a week before Labor Day.  Was it just mid-June when I got back from Alaska?  Where did the summer go?  I think my problem was that I didn't get the opportunity to do that much birding this summer;  although, I did spend a lot of evenings sorting through the 1950 photos I took in Alaska (I'll post more Alaska Photos later).  While up in Alaska, I started playing with my camera's macro setting by photographing a variety of small Tundra flowers.  I learned that I could just trust my macro autofocus and just "blindly" snap photos. Turned out to be a great lesson, for when I was able to get out this summer, it was usually in the afternoon when it was sunny and hot - not great for birding but a great time of day for observing insects like Dragonflies and Butterflies. Dragonflies are a challenging group to photograph; however, I've learned that a perched dragonfly usually did not view my camera and out-stretched arm as a threat, allowing me to get my camera to within inches of it.  Knowing that I could shoot "blind", I was able to get the following photos.  Enjoy.

Bar-winged Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

Halloween Pennant

Blue Dasher

Bristle-thighed Curlew

One of the primary reasons birders make a pilgrimage out to Nome in early June is to find the Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis). The Bristle-thighed Curlew is an Asian species, similar in appearance to the Whimbrel, and is the rarest breeding bird for any birder to see in North America. It probably is not that rare a species in Alaska; however, except that it prefers to breed on dry tundra of exposed ridges.  Nome just happens to be the "closest/easiest" location in Alaska to where you can find breeding pairs. 

We left Nome early on the morning of June 7th, to drive north ialong the Kougarok Road for about 72 miles, out to a location called the Coffee Dome.  Five vehicles parked on the side of the road and a line people walking up the hill about a quarter of mile above us, told me we had arrived at the Coffee Dome.  Next came the "fun" part - walking over 1/2 mile up-hill to the top of the ridge. Tundra is very deceiving, it looks very flat and dry, but can be very wet and hummocky, so you have to carefully pick your way through it.  As we got over the first ridge, we could see over 20 birders standing in one location on the next ridge, binoculars up.  A Bristle-thighed Curlew overhead in a display flight.  After circling, it landed about 70 yards off to the side between my small band of climbers and the main group.  For the next hour or so, the bird and 1or 2 more put on a great show for us, making the even harder trek back down the hill well worth it.   My pilgrimage to Nome was now a success!

     Bristle-thigh Curlew on its High Ridge Habitat

                        Bristle-thighed Curlew

       Birders waiting for the next display flight

Arctic Tern

I just spent two weeks on my first birding trip to Alaska. It was a fanastic trip, with over 145 species, I am still working out how many were lifers (about 30) or new subspecies (another 30+) and took lots of photographs that will take me a few weeks to get through.  I look forward to posting plenty of highlights from the trip over the next few days/weeks.

My wife and I arrived in Nome on June 5th, met with our guide, and after checking in at our hotel did a brief trip down along a portion of the Council Road to Safety Sound.  Along the way, we came across this Arctic Tern sitting on the ground just 5 feet off the road.  It turned out to be sitting on its "nest" (really it was just a small depression in the sand) containing two spotted, brown eggs.  The bird and her mate were fearless defenders of the nest, so we never got closer than 15 feet from their nest when we tried to get out of the car. As long as we stayed in the car, the bird would quickly settle down and return to the nest, allowing me to get these photos out the car window. We noted the location of the nest and planned to visit it throughout our 5-day stay in Nome.  For the first 3 days, we found the bird sitting on the nest as we slowly passed by its

location; however on day 4, the bird was missing. As we drove closer, we noticed that the eggs were also gone!  We never did find out what happened; although I suspect it was a preditor that had found the nest, I still hope that the eggs hatched and then the 2 chicks were led away from the road and down closer to the water line.

Great Crested Flycatcher

The Great Crested Flycatcher is the largest flycatcher commonly found in my area. They tend to be very vocal, with a distinct and easily recognized call, making them a relatively easy species to identify and then locate. Unfortunately, they also tend to stay high up in the canopy, making them difficult subjects to photograph. So imagine my surprise on Saturday afternoon when this bird landed on a sign just 10' away from where I was standing and decided to pose for me.  Some days you do luck out!

                            Great Crested Flycatcher

Warbling Vireo

Saturday moring was my last scheduled Birding Class for this Spring. Since it was later in the season then I normally lead these trips, I knew the trees would be fully leafed out, and expected it would be a challenge to locate any of the warlers, vireos, orioles, etc, that we should hear singing up in the canopy. So it came as no surprise initally that we were having trouble locating a Warbling Vireo. However, something was different about this bird. Normally a singing Warling Vireo would call only a few times from one location before moving, and it is this movement that should ultimately give away its location. However, for some reason this bird continued to sing from the same location. Finally, after a few minutes of searching in the area where I thought the Vireo had to be hiding, I spotted a nest, and there sitting in the nest was the Vireo singing away! Although woodland species sing on their territories, they tend to be secretive about their nest location, so it was a surprise to see this Vireo singing from its nest. 

                   Warbling Vireo singing from its Nest

                        

The heat wave we had earlier is month has definately affected the birding in my area. While most of our summer migrants and summer resident species seem to be on schedule, except for White-throated Sparrows, most of our winter resident species and waterfowl already have departed for the summer up north.  Usually I can find most of these species throughout most of April, but not so this year. As a result, there have been few birds around for me to photograph this month. So for the last few weeks I have turned my attention to other winged creatures (Butterflies and Dragonflies).  They are also fun to watch, can be  a challenge to identify, and because of their small size diffuclt to photograph. They tend to fly off just before I can get close enough to take a picture.  With so few birds around, I had time to work on my approach.

                             Black Swallowtail Butterfly

                  Female Blue Corporal Dragonfly

European Starling

The European or Common Starling is very common species here in New Jersey and along with two other common species, the Pigeon (Rock Dove) and Canada Goose, one of our most detested. Introduced into New York City's Central Park 120 years ago, it is an agressive species that has spread across the United States and nearly wiped out our native Eastern Bluebird.  Most birders rarely give it a second look once they have IDed it. However, an unexpected result of my recent class on Gull Identification is that I've also started to take a closer look at some of these overlooked species. As it turns out, I find European Starlings in their breeding plumage to be an interesting species.  Next time you see a Starling, take a second look and see if you agree.

Ring-billed Gulls

I built on the lessons that I had learned on plumage & molts from last weekend's Class on Gull Identification by spending this week reviewing all of my gull photographs, trying to ID each gull to year class. The Ring-bill Gull takes 3 years to become an adult. Although, it is a common gull here in New Jersey (especially in Winter), I found that I had been over-looking 2 year old birds (2nd Cycle), thinking that they were just dull looking adults. Juvenile and 1st cycle birds clearly look very different from the adults; however, differences between 2nd cycle birds and adult are much more subtile (bill color, the amout of white on wing tips).  Gull Identification is definately advanced birding! 

                                Juvenile

                                             

                             1st Cycle

                            2nd Cycle

                      Adult - Basic Plumage

                   Adult - Alternate Plumage

American Herring Gull

I went down to Cape May on Saturday for a full day of class on Gull Identification. We spent most of the day focusing our attention on the American Herring Gull. We must have looked at close to 1000 gulls in the field and then viewed more on slides in the class room.  Herring Gull Identification? How hard can it be to identify the most common gull on the Jersey Shore? The answer is it depends! Adult Herring Gulls look nearly identical in either their Basic (non-breeding or fall) Plumage or in their Alternate (Breeding or Spring) Plumage and just about anyone can recognize an adult.  The problem is that it takes a Herring Gull four years to become an adult and each immature year class (called cycles) also has a different appearance in their Basic and Alternate plumages. A first cycle Herring Gull looks very different from an adult. Suddenly we now are up to eight different plumages for the species (and we didn't even address subspecies variation). Then to make matters even worse, they don't molt and grow in their new feathers over night. So a molting a gull will have an intermediate appearance that can be anywhere in between its Basic and Alternate plumages! Talk about a challenge! Now for the good news, most species of gull go through a similar sequence of molts from juvenile to adult. So knowing what a Herring Gull looks like at all ages and molts becomes essential when you are scanning a large flock of gulls trying to locate one rare gull. Turns out Gull Identification is very advance birding.

                               Immature - First Cycle 



             










                             
                    Adult - Basic Plumage 

                 

                           Adult - Alternate Plumage

Carolina Chickadee

Sometimes it is the "easy" birds that are the most difficult.  A friend from Massachussets, John Mitchell, was down in the area on business and wanted to do birding trip with me a week ago Friday.  Prior to the trip, I sent him the NJ Bird List and asked him to identify what species he wanted to see/photograph.  Based on his Target List, I decided we would start our trip at Barnegat Light, then drive down to Cape May for a few hours and then hopefully have enough daylight left to finish off the day at Brigantine (Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge). It was a great day of birding, with good weather and mostly very cooperative birds that allowed us to hit all 3 birding locations. Out of the 71 species we saw that day, 16 were on John's Target List including at least 3 lifers. Although most species were very cooperative (one mixed flock of Dunlin and Purple Sandpipers actually landed at John's feet as he was photographing some nearby Harlequin Ducks), it always seems that one lifer species just will not cooperate. For John that day, it turned was the Carolina Chickade! Although, both Carolina (south) and Black-capped Chickadee (north) are common here in New Jersey, there is only a narrow band in central New Jersey where their ranges overlap. The Carolina Chickadee, especially down in Cape May, should have been an easy bird to find and then photograph.   

                               Carolina Chickadee

                         Black-capped Chickadee

Long-tailed Duck

The jetty at Barnegat Lighhouse in winter is one of my favorite birding locations. With temperatures rising into the 40's and winds out the west-northwest, weather conditions yesterday and today were nearly perfect (a little windy) for trips out to the end of the jetty. Here Harlequin Ducks, Purple Sandpipers and Dunlin can be so tame that it is almost guaranteed that you will have great, almost at your feet, looks at all three species. Other species (including all 3 Scoters, Common Eider, Long-tailed Duck) are also usually seen but rare are they as cooperative. However, today was was one of those rare days when Long-tailed Ducks nearly stole the show away from the Harlequins. This Long-tailed Drake was especially cooperative.

American Woodcock

Two Snow Storms in the last week have dropped at least three feet of snow here in South Jersey, which has had a significant impact on our local birds especially ground foraging species.  One of these species is the American Woodcock, normally a very secretive species. Under normal conditions, I would either locate an American Woodcock too late in the day for a decent photograph or only see it as one explosively took off close to my feet. However, knowing that American Woodcock have been forced out of the woods by the deep snows, I drove down to Cape May today hoping to get some decent photographs of one. It seemed like just about any bare patch of over a few square feet harbored some birds, mostly White-throated Sparrows and American Robins, with a few Fox Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and/or Yellow-rumped Warblers mixed in. Then with just a little more effort, I managed to locate two American Woodcock. 

"Rare" Gulls

Just before I needed to head back to the Duluth Airport last Monday, we visited Canal Park at the entrance to Duluth Harbor to scan the Gull flock for rarities.  I was hoping for an opportunity to get my lifer Iceland Gull (missed) and/or to photograph a Thayer's or an Adult Glaucous Gull.   Unfortunately the gulls were too far off to photograph.  Although, I did relearn an important lesson.  One of the first gulls I noticed was a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull. To me no big deal, Great Black-backed Gulls are common all year round here at the Jersey Shore, so I continued scanning the flock to locate the juvenile Glaucous Gull my guide had just spotted.  However for my guide, it was the Great Black-back Gull that was the rare visitor to Duluth, to him the Glaucous Gulls were relatively common.  I had traveled out to Duluth and then braved their sub-zero temperatures to see birds that were very rare back home, but had forgotten that what I considered to be a common bird back home just might be the real rarity in Duluth.

Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Glaucous Gull

Pine Grosbeaks

One of my reasons to travel out to Duluth this past weekend was to photograph winter finches. At a length of 9", the Pine Grosbeak is the largest of these finches and is one of the most colorful. Fortunately for me, we found a flock of at least 20 very cooperative Pine Grosbeaks at one of feeding station setup close to the road in the Sax-Zim Bog Area.  Definately a species worth my braving Subzero Temperatures (-15 one morning) to photograph.

Male

Female

Juvenile Male

Nobody goes to Duluth!

Nobody goes to Duluth, especially in Winter, states my wife as she playfully teases me as I prepare for my 2nd winter trip (4th over all) out to Duluth, Minnesota.  So why would I want to go back again in winter, and possibly to brave temperatures/wind chills as low as 40 below zero?  The answer is simple: a chance to see birds that consider Duluth the South! Especially 3 owl species (Great Gray, Northern Hawk & Boreal) that I missed on my first winter trip, and then there are Snowy Owl, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Gray Jay, Black-backed & Three-toed Woodpeckers, Boreal Chickadee, and all of the winter finches to name a few of the species that can be found in the area around Duluth during the winter.  Duluth in winter may be cold, but the birding is hot! Well worth the trip

Snowy Owl

Three-toed Woodpecker