Crazy Good Birding

When I write my posts I try to tell it like it is. Sometimes that means I did not have a very good day, sometimes it does. A couple of posts back I wrote about how I had a terrible day birding until 3 pm. When I reread my post, it sounded like I was a Debbie Downer. The truth is, your not going to see a lifebird every day. When I go fishing, I'm not going to catch twenty five schoolies every time out. I'm not going to catch a personal best carp once a week. When I go to New Hampshire, I am not always going to have perfect weather and hundred mile views. I try to reflect these things in my posts.

However, when I have a good day, I hope that is reflected in my posts as well. When I post a picture of an albie, I hope you can tell the shit eaten grin on my face is real. I feel blesssed when I'm out in the woods or have a rod in my hand. When I see a new  bird or hike to the top of a mountain and the sky is blue, I assure you, I am happy.

Today was one of those days birding. I took a ride to Covenrty, RI to see the Red Crossbills at Nicholas Farm. Red Crossbills are a bird of the far north. There is a big invasion of them this year because their food supply ran out up there. If they have adequate food they would never migrate. I looked for them without luck a couple of times over the last two weeks without any luck.

Female Red Crossbill

I got to Nicholas Farm about 8:30. There was another birder named Mike there. He said the birds had been coming by in small flocks from about 7-8 am. A few minutes in, we had a lone Crossbill fly over us. So at least my ride wasn't  wasted. Things were slow until 9:30 or so and the flocks that Mike had seen earlier came back. All told, we probably had roughly fifty birds. Numbers didn't matter to me. I was just hoping to get some good looks. One of the flocks landed in a tall pitch pine right on the trail. Although the birds were thirty feet up a tree they were right above us. We got fantastic views in good light before they moved on.

Besides the Crossbills, we also had Rusty Blackbirds, Ravens, and a lone Pine Siskin. All of these were new year birds for me in Rhode Island. Pretty impressive morning to get four yearbirds on November 30th. When I left, I was more than satisfied.

My next focus was Narragansett. There were reported Glaucous Gulls and Black Backed Gulls there. It is a long ride from the Connecticut border in Coventry to Narragansett Beach, I can tell you that. When I finally got to Narragansett, I went to the beach parking lot. The Black Headed Gull was supposed to be right in the lot. It wasn't there when I drove in. I went down to the beach to look for it. I saw a Bonaparte Gull but dipped on the BH Gull. No worries, I've seen one this year. I was just hoping for a good photo op.

I went to Scarborough Beach in hopes of finding the Glaucous (I saw my Black Headed there in Feb, so there was the possibility one could also be there). There were a ton on gulls on the beach. In front of the main building I could see hundreds to my left so I walked that way. In the mix was a giant white gull. It would have been impossible to miss. That was the Glaucous Gull. I took a bunch of pictures of it. There was bait in the water and the gulls were feeding on it (no fish were present). The Glaucous went after the bait  a couple times which is when I got shots of it flying.

After half an hour I was heading back to my car and I noticed how many gulls were by the jetty. I took a walk down to look for the Black Headed Gull. I didn't see any, but found another Glaucous!. This one was in much closer to shore. I got some pics of that bird also. It started to sleet so I went back to my car. At this point it was almost 3 pm, and decided since it was sleeting I may as well try to beat the commuter traffic.

The Red Crossbills and Pine Siskin were lifebirds. I had technically seen a silhouette of Rusty Blackbirds flying before but since the view was so bad, I didn't count them. Therefore, the Rusty's are another lifer. The Glaucous Gull lives in the far north, most likely in Iceland or the Arctic, so that is a very good bird even though it is "just a gull". The best part was I got to use my trusty camera and got some pretty decent shots. What a day.

More photos below. Check out the size difference from the Glaucous to the more normal Ringed Bill Gull.

This photo shows how big the Glaucous Gull is. The
bird on the right is your run of the mill Ring Billed
Gull that will steal your food at the beach.

Red Throated Loon