The Wild Land of Lincoln: Bird Identification Field Trip

Showing posts with label Bird Identification Field Trip. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Black-headed Gull = Birdwatchers Galore!

So, I was bored Thursday, March 23. I was in the middle of an English paper, and it wasn't going well. I was out of ideas on how to interpret the poem in front of me. I was going birding with a local class at 3:45, so I had a little time to kill. Idly, I checked my phone. On Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts, an email group that generally notifies me of rare birds three hours or more away,
there was an email from the greatest living birder in Illinois. (Well, at least one of the greats.)

H. David Bohlen, the man who wrote the definitive guide to birds in Illinois, aptly named The Birds of Illinois, had spoken, or rather, written. He birds Lake Springfield as part of his job, and I've occasionally encountered him. I once asked to look through his scope at my lifer Sabine's Gull, but that's about it as our social interactions go. Every month he lists what birds he's seen, usually long and full of rarities not seen by any of the other local birders. I don't mean that as a criticism, that he's making them up. He isn't. Bohlen seems to spend most of the day driving around Lake Springfield and environs birding, to the partial envy of the other birders in town. Since he birds so much, he gets birds on Lake Springfield I could only dream about. That being said, he only emails in these lists once a month after the end of the month, and the February one had already been posted.

What on Earth was this email about?

I read the email- BLACK-HEADED GULL, offshore from Lincoln Greens Golf Course. I rushed out the door immediately. Now, for those who don't know what a Black-headed Gull is, I'll tell you. Actually, I'll show you. While I don't have great pictures, Colin Dobson, one of the best birdwatchers in my area, did get a photo and here is the bird:

Image may contain: bird, sky, outdoor, water and nature

Image may contain: bird, sky, outdoor, water and nature

For those of you who wonder what all the fuss is about, Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) are from Europe, and rarely come over to the East Coast. Finding one in Sangamon County is therefore an event. This species has only been found in Illinois seven times. I didn't know that at the time, or I would have tried for a good photo. I only saw the bird in flight, and when there's four hundred Bonaparte's Gulls around it, it stands to reason that I might get them mixed up.

Above is the hot water discharge of the power plant, putting off steam due to the cooler air around it. Almost all the gulls in these photos are Bonaparte's Gulls (Chroicocephalus philadelphia) or Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis).

I did take a few photos, however. Now, I could be wrong, but I think the upper gull on the far left might be this gull. I saw it in flight through my scope, and reported it. The Black-headed Gull is hard to identify, since you have to see the dark underside of the wings for a conclusive identification.

On top, and if you don't see the head, it looks just like a Bonaparte's Gull, pictured above. The white front edge of the wing, a hint of black on the tips, and a tendency to weave back and forth over the water- all these are characteristics of both Bonaparte's and Black-headed Gulls.

If that's not confusing enough, a few of the Bonaparte's Gulls, like this one, had already-darkened heads, and the lighting can make the underside of the wing appear darkened, as in this case, too. I'm frankly amazed I found the correct gull, to be honest. Black-headed Gulls are a little bigger than Bonaparte's Gulls, so that helps.

I got bored of watching gulls, so I watched Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), eighty or so of which danced about on the water in front of me, along with the four hundred Bonaparte's Gulls.

It was a happening place!

Off to my right, a flock of gulls gathered around the American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus).

I then ran off to meet up with Tony Rothering and a Bird ID field trip through Lincoln Land Community College. I was participating as a guest on this field trip, and I snapped several photos of all the good birds along the way, including the incredibly rare Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), a bird I see or hear only about four times a day. That being said, I'm not sure what's going on with its leg:

In similar fashion, this American Robin (Turdus migratorius) seems to have emerged from a war zone, and the barbed wires only accented that impresssion:

Still, all's well with the world, as the big draw here at the Lake Springfield Beach House was EIGHT Common Loons (Gavia immer), a new high number for me. Only one loon came close:

It was about this point that I met Colin Dobson and Tony Ward for the first time. Colin Dobson is an remarkable birder. He's a bit younger than me, and I'm on the young side myself. Despite that, he's found about double the number of bird species in Illinois that I have. I envy Colin's discoveries, while at the same time often following them up to get new species for myself. I did this Sunday... but that's for the next blogpost.

And with that, let's get back to our feathered friends. We said good-bye to Colin and Tony, and hello to a bird-on-a-tree-next-to-the-apartments,-black-and-white-with-a-red-crest-holy-smoke-that's-a PILEATED WOODPECKER! (Hylatomus pileatus) Next to a Black-headed Gull, a Pileated Woodpecker near the Beach House is about the rarest thing we could have seen. These birds drill holes in the sides of trees that I could stick my arm into. As a result, they need lots of big trees. Center Park, where we were, doesn't have too many trees that big, so it was a shock to see this shy bird there. I alone also saw a Peregrine Falcon fly by, and the day's good birds kept on going.

The main reason I went with Tony Rothering's field trip and didn't stick around with the Black-headed Gull was to see this, the local Great Blue Heron rookery, where dozens of herons build their nests together for communal protection. I've never seen this before, and I was very impressed.

I can honestly say I've never seen this many herons up in a tree. It reminds me of a story by my third-grade teacher, Mr. Morgan. He used to go rollerblading through Washington Park in Springfield, and once he saw a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) sitting far up in a tree. Beneath it, dozens of people walked, not once looking up to see this amazing bird. He had the bird all to himself to watch. No one walking by him inquired what he was looking at. They were all too focused on looking forwards to look around. It's a story that I have remembered ever since, and it's just about the only memory I have of third grade.

Looking around ourselves while others drove, we found this Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), one of five for me that day. Then we found a bird I didn't expect... again!:

This is the world's most stereotypically Southern bird, the Northern (What?) Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). We found two on the drive. Their population seems to be increasing here, I think. There's another somewhat Southern bird that's also expanding its population in Sangamon County, but I'm not going to reveal what it is yet, and I'm never going to say where it lives. It is hopefully going to be the subject of an upcoming blogpost, and I don't mean the same one as I teased earlier...

Back at the Beach House, I met Joe Phipps, another birder I'd never met before. Several of the Common Loons from earlier remained, and they swam about the lake in front of me. It was a fine conclusion to a very full day!

At the Beach House the following morning, I found a gull that was a bit bigger than the rest, as well as another Herring Gull (Larus argentatus smithsonianus). The local herons have been giving these a wide berth since the Herring Gulls will chase down herons and try to steal their fish:

Over at Lincoln Greens Golf Course, a crowd of Bonaparte's Gulls remained, with no Black-headed Gull. This was much to the disappointment of the large crowd of birders gathering that day.

I met Ron Bradley, Kevin Richmond, Keith McMullen, Susan Zelek, Ted Wolff, and Phil Doncheck for the first time, as well as Joe Gardener and Jim Mordacq, local birders I already knew.

We fell to small talk and watched the cormorants fly by, which reminded me of this photo, taken several days ago during the Lesser Black-backed Gull hunt:

In the upper left, the smaller bird was flying alongside, not behind, this group of cormorants. It "might" be a rare Neotropic Cormorant, or it could be a gull that I happened to catch in the same frame. Either way, it's interesting that it flew with the cormorants around it, and this bird warrants further investigation around the lake.

The local pelicans flew up at the same time. At this time of year, American White Pelicans develop a knob on their bill. It's something or other with breeding.

I decided, when the Lincoln Greens birders weren't having any luck, to drive down the lake and scout out any other Bonaparte's Gulls and possibly the missing Black-headed Gull. I ran into an American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea) alongside a Chipping Sparrow along the way. The Chipping Sparrow, a bird of summer that's migrating into our area, hid, while the wintering American Tree Sparrow flew down a little ways and watched me from a perch.

Further down still, at Lincoln Memorial Gardens, a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) posed for me on a branch. The Northern Flicker's patterning resembles a person with no fashion sense, mixing spots and stripes and various tan shades. Yet, for some reason, there's some fascinating quality to it.

Emerging Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) flowers indicated that it was high time I went out in the woods looking for flowers and gave up all this bird nonsense. Still, I was a man on a mission.

No angry Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) would deter me from my quest.

I took several photos of the nearby mass of ducks trying to avoid boat traffic on the lake, when a family walked up with a dog. Dogs are not allowed at Lincoln Memorial Gardens, and I was about to tell them this, when the mother asked, "Do you have a yellow car?"

Huh? "It's beige."

She gave me a confused look, which probably matched mine.

"Beige is sort of tan."

"From the 90s?" (Oh, it definitely is. Beige is the most 1990s car color ever invented.)

"Yes. Why?"

"You left your lights on." I thanked her, said nothing about the dog, and after snapping a couple more photos, high-tailed it back to the parking lot. The mission to refind the Black-headed Gull was temporarily put on hold. I did find my car's lights on. Thankfully my car started!

A quick stop further down the road at Cotton Hill Park yielded a surprise female Canvasback (Aythya valisineria), a duck I rarely ever see on Lake Springfield. I then heard the chattering of another local lake bird, the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), which thankfully posed for me:

A train then raced by, and I took the photo back at the beginning of this blogpost, before looking down the tracks. Crossing the tracks yielded about four hundred cormorants on one of the lake islands. However, as I went further down the lake, the numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls kept decreasing.

Near sunset, I ended up in the Chatham Wildlife Sanctuary, with American Coots (Fulica americana) skipping across the water on amusingly oversized feet. There was no Black-headed Gull, there were few Bonaparte's Gulls, and I had reached the end of the lake.

After the first Thursday, no one ever saw the Black-headed Gull again. I'm glad I raced out there when I did, although in the future I'm going to try and get better photos of such a rare bird! It was a lot of fun, however, meeting so many birders, including some of the best in Illinois.

After two frenetic days of birding, I went back and finished that paper Saturday. Then came Sunday.

TO BE CONTINUED-ISH

Saturday, March 11, 2017

The Big Day- LOTS OF BIRDING!

In the birdwatching world, there are many kinds of birdwatchers. Some set up a feeder and just sit by and watch the birds eat. Some people relentlessly chase down any rare bird in the state, trying to get as many as they can on their life list. Others enjoy studying how migrations change from day to day and year to year. Still others do Big Days... and they are the crazy ones.

A Big Day is finding as many species of birds in a day as possible. The Illinois state record is 191 species, and you can read about how that happened here on the official American Birding Association website. Finding, by the way, includes hearing birdcalls only, so long as it's identified. This is a personal problem for me, as I don't know most bird calls unless the birds live in my neighborhood.

In order to do well on a Big Day, you have to get out early and stay out late, spending most of the day on the road. You have to know where certain species will be and go straight to those locations. Basically, you can't bumble about, waiting until well after dawn and coming in just after twilight, spending lots of time here or there, getting lost, driving hours out of your way after random plant species. Or you could do exactly that and have a great time anyway... like I did.

I had originally intended to get out at 5:00 AM and bird Revis Hill Prairie Nature Preserve for Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, and whatever sparrows I could scare up. However, I also had begun Stranger Things, the Netflix TV show, recently, and I was on the last episode. At that time of night, the decision was to continue and watch the very last episode of Stranger Things or get out early and birdwatch at Revis Hill Prairie. (These are the tough decisions I have to make in life.)

If you've seen Stranger Things, you'll know what I did and probably why I did it. I know Revis to be an underrated naturalist's paradise, and I will return to prove it another day. I never found any of the species I listed above anywhere on the trip. Missing Revis cost me any chance at beating records, which in my book is fine- I'm out to have fun.

My theoretical first stop of the day was actually not going to be for birds- I was after Snow Trillium. I believed that some might be found at Parklands Nature Preserve. That, however, would require finding Parklands Nature Preserve in the first place. As an old-growth woods, I hoped for some of the woodland birds on the side, too, maybe even an owl. Yeah, nothing happened there.

My actual first stop of the day was at Elkhart Hill. There's a private nature preserve on the hill, with an old-growth woods, and I figured I might get Carolina Wren or Eastern Towhee here, which as mentioned didn't happen. Instead, I heard a Pileated Woodpecker as I took photos of the little stone chapel in the cemetery adjacent to the nature preserve. This is a fairly large woods, but it's very isolated, so the Pileated Woodpecker surprised me greatly! It was the first of many surprises to come.

Next stop was Parklands, in theory. It's inside Mackinaw State Fish and Wildlife Area, so I assumed there might be trails to get to it. That would not be the case. I never found Parklands Nature Preserve, although I knew its general location. In this case, there was so much brush and ravines, and so few birds or flowers, that I was uninterested in proceeding further. I returned to the parking lot, which proved to be wise. I spotted a Yellow-breasted Sapsucker, a very hard woodpecker to find this year, and then I spotted an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), the only one of the day. (that phrase will come to be repeated often):

Wild Turkey and Wilson's Snipe along the side of the road brought up the day's total to twenty-six species, and it was nearing 10:00. It was at this point I realized I'd be setting no records. Generally, in a Big Day, you get most of the species you need early in the morning, giving you the rest of the day to tick off the ones you missed. Still, I rushed across Tazewell County, and decided to try my luck at Powerton Lake, a reservoir in the Illinois River Valley that had some wet woods behind it and a huge expanse of open water... and cold wind. I did not pack a warm jacket, as it was sunny and the forecasts had varied widely, from low fifties to high sixties. I prepared for higher temps, and the actual temperatures went lower.

Powerton Lake got me a few good birds to add to the day's list. The day's only Belted Kingfisher called from the creek behind the lake. I got a few more birds here, but overall it was very species-poor and I was cold, so I went to my next stop, Spring Lake.

Spring Lake, which I had never visited before, proved to be one of the best stops of the day. Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) were everywhere, with a couple of Trumpeter Swans thrown in the background for no reason. I only noticed them later in the back of a photo!

A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on a nest provided my first look at this fairly common species. Actually, this nest is remarkably easy to see, and you can easily get too close.

A small neighborhood on the shores of Spring Lake looked far nicer than most settlements along the river. Someday I will get a picture of the unincorporated community of Goofy Ridge to demonstrate what I mean. Suffice it to say I've never seen so much littering in my life. Therefore, it was quite nice to see a river settlement that wasn't actively polluting everything around it!

Speaking of litter, the south end of the lake was littered with American Coots (Fulica americana). After Red-winged Blackbirds, this was the most numerous species seen all day. I saw about a thousand total, which is actually somewhat lower numbers for this part of Illinois at this time of year.

One of the more interesting birds along the Illinois River is the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus), simply because it's the easiest place to find this range-restricted bird. When I say range-restricted, I mean in the United States. Technically, it's found throughout Eurasia and has been introduced to almost every continent outside the Old World. However, in the United States, this bird is found almost entirely within Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. It was introduced in St. Louis in the early 1900s, and it hasn't gotten much further in a hundred years.

On a side note, this is my first time seeing this bird in a genuine tree! They seem to prefer bushes.

As the sky clouded over, I spotted a huge flock of mixed ducks on a shallow pond adjacent to Spring Lake. Within moments, I had twelve species of ducks, including my two favorites, American Wigeon (Anas americana) and Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), above. (Male and female Bufflehead, and American Wigeon in foreground)

Overhead, American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) soared on their huge wings. I'm amazed something so large can stay in the air so effortlessly.

Below them, Eastern Meadowlarks (Sturnella magna) hid in the brush and I scared Chorus Frogs, seeing some for the first time all year. The noise of calling frogs from the nearby bottomlands was quite loud! I looked in vain for the elusive Illinois Chorus Frog, but I couldn't even get a photo of the usual Western Chorus Frogs in the area.

After about ten or fifteen minutes, I realized it was time to leave. The gnats were becoming obnoxious, which isn't something I usually say in March and which does not bode well for the summer. Every dark speck on the car window below is a gnat, and they all wanted to fly in and bother me:

Hoping the gnats would improve down the road, I went to Chautauqua, passing through the aptly-named hamlet of Goofy Ridge on my way to that parking lot. A Hairy Woodpecker waited in the parking lot and after being identified immediately departed. "You need me, right? But a photo wasn't in my contract! Goodbye!"

A mass of calling blackbirds in the wet woods adjacent to Chautauqua's Mud Lake made me curious if any of my nemesis Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) were present. They were!

I've been looking for Rusty Blackbirds for a bit, so I'm glad to finally find a few. Once you get over 200 species of birds in a state, it's a lot harder to find new ones! Rusty Blackbirds dwell in wet woods, presumably because some bird has to and they drew the short straw.

Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were FAR more common. Indeed, they were the most common bird of the day, easily outnumbering everything else except possibly American Coots.

The nearby lake was full of ducks, but all of them except one species I'd seen before. That species was the Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), one of my personal favorites:

As you might be able to tell from the spray, this diving duck had just emerged from the water. Ruddy Ducks are in a special group of ducks called Stiff-tailed Ducks. There's only five species, and for some reason there's one to every continent (excluding Antarctica and lumping Eurasia together.)

Many sparrows flew up around the edges of the lake, but they were all Song (Melospiza melodia) and Tree Sparrows, so far as I could tell. I missed out on a large number of sparrows by not visiting more prairie fields. After seeing something that looked suspiciously like an early Osprey, but which flew out of view before I could identify it, I moved on to the refuge's headquarters.

It was while driving between the two that it hit me- I wasn't enjoying trying to get as many species as possible. From then on, I'd take my time and enjoy the places I visit, like I would on any other trip. At the Headquarters, I heard an odd-sounding Sandpiper, but I could not identify it from the call and I could not find it by the lake. I then went into the woods. where I got quite lucky.

All at once, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Red-headed Woodpeckers, and the Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) seen above appeared, all three of which had eluded me earlier. I may have called the Big Day off, but it wanted to keep going! I was sitting at sixty-seven birds by the time I left for Emiquon Nature Preserve- in other words, the majority of the species I would find.

The Red-headed Woodpecker was the last of all seven species of woodpecker in Central Illinois for me to find that day. Finding all seven is known as a Woodpecker Shutout. To top that off, I got my best-ever photos of a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) only ten feet away from me:

Emiquon may not have gotten me many new birds, but I did find more species there than I expected. I found these Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) with many other ducks, including my first Hooded Mergansers. However, for sheer number of duck species, I found nothing to rival Spring Lake Bottoms, which I would consider the third-best find of the trip, first two being new species.

Not everything in the area was ducks- this immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), eating a fish, proved a wonderful photography subject!

Then I found a bird or two I didn't expect, as a few lingering Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) flew overhead. A few weeks ago, this area would have held hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of Snow Geese. Even earlier that morning Chautauqua had hundreds, according to an employee I met up there. Only a dozen remained at Emiquon, insofar as I could see.

On the shoreline, these Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) battled it out among themselves, ignoring me as the two on the right chased away the two on the left. The vociferus part of their name was well-earned! They wouldn't shut up at all, especially not when they finally decided I was too close.

For some reason, their cries didn't disturb the world's best hidden bird, in the photo below:

If you give up, it's just a little above the lower left corner. Here it is, the second lifer of the day, the completely unexpected Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis):

Snow Buntings deserve their name- they breed in the Arctic Circle, which is really, really, really far north, and winter down here. This bird, as you can tell, has a thick layer of insulating feathers to keep warm on cold nights. Actually, Emiquon's almost as far south as they've been seen this winter. This bird should be on its way north by now.

However, as you can see below, all the wing feathers have been ripped out on one side. I don't know why, but I suspect some predator has attacked this bird, only for it to escape. It has plenty of food in the spot where I found it, and I let it be. Even with its injury, this bird was remarkably tame, letting me approach without running away. The Snow Bunting didn't seem to be doing this out of weakness, as it ran up and down the shoreline multiple times while I stood about looking for ducks.

Even with its injured wing, if the Snow Bunting can regrow its feathers and that's all that's wrong with it, it has a chance. After all, it's not the easiest bird to see. Find it again, I dare you.

(It's halfway between the big dirt mass on the shore and the left side of the photo).

Another unusual bird for this time of year was the Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), a very early migrant feeding on bugs like the gnats from earlier. Since the bugs were up sooner than usual thanks to the warm winter, the Tree Swallows have come north to eat them. I wonder how many birders have observed a Tree Swallow and a Snow Bunting at the same time?

Overhead, another surprise came, in the form of Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons), which I assumed had moved north a bit earlier, like the Snow Geese with which they often associate.

Like the geese, I moved north, deciding to visit the areas to the north of Emiquon. I was cruelly tricked by someone's Snow Goose hunting decoys, and drove past a fithy cattle pond as I went to go see the imitation geese. This pond proved to be full of Wilson's Snipes (Gallinago delicata), whose appetites weren't so delicata as their Latin name suggests. Unfortunately, it was still overcast, so the lighting was execrable. That's a word I recently found, and intend to use.

Still, I had a great few minutes watching the snipe, and I spotted a flyover Rough-legged Hawk at the same time, pushing me to 72 species. I feel that I've become quite a proficient snipe hunter in the space of a week! Literally, it's been a week since I saw my first one.

At this point, it was getting late, so I drove back across the river. Sitting in a tree directly left of the bridge was a Red-shouldered Hawk, species 73 for the day and completely unexpected. I drove around for a bit near the Havana Power Plant, which has given some birders very good birds. I got a Northern Mockingbird once I got lost in the vicinity, species 74. I found my way out and to Matanzas Prairie Nature Preserve, a place for Illinois Chorus Frogs. At this point, however, it was too cold for any calling frogs, so I looked at flowers.

This is the Pussy Willow (Salix discolor), a new plant species for me, and one quite abundant in the wet shrub prairie. It got starring role as the title photo, though I had to hold the branches tight to keep them in focus! This plant is used by certain churches as a replacement for palm branches on Easter Sunday, especially churches in Eastern Europe.

After finding the Pussy Willow, I then went looking for American Woodcocks. (Yes, I know. I can hear my family now- "Watch your language!") At this time of the year, Woodcocks, which I prefer to call Timberdoodles, are mating in Sand Ridge State Forest. They make a sort of call in the woods that sounds like "Bzzeeent! Bzzeeent!" Once they have the attention of the female, the male Timberdoodle flies hundreds of feet straight up in the air and then comes back to earth. Then they go back to "Bzzeeent!"-ing again. I saw this just after sunset, and, exhausted, went home.

The High Senior General Grandmaster-Admiral of Illinois Big Days, Greg Neise, who was one of the members of the group that did the record Illinois Big Day, commented on my Facebook post about this: "72 for early March isn't bad at all!" (Technically, it was 75, I forgot the Pileated Woodpecker and the Rock Pigeons in the initial count and I found the Black Ducks in a photo afterwards.) This makes me feel quite good about the thing, and I might do it again- with someone else. A solo Big Day is somewhat tedious at times, if still good fun.

In summary, I had a great time doing a Big Day, but it certainly is exhausting and not my preferred method of birdwatching. I'm an explorer at heart- I want to see new lands and new spots. I also like more than just birds- I was looking for plants and herps too! In my mind, the perfect trip combines all of these interests, so this trip, while amazing, didn't suit me perfectly. I'm glad to have found this out, and I got two lifer birds in the process!