Barnacle Goose

Photo credit goes to Sue Palmer. I didn't get any
photos anywhere near this good. Thanks for
letting me use the picture

   As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, after work today, I was chasing a Barnacle Goose. This is a very rare goose for this area. They live in eastern Greenland, Scotland, Scandinavia, and Ireland. They do show up occasionally, but when they do it is a big deal. I had never seen one, so if it was still there today, it would be a lifer.

   While I was at work this morning the bird was seen by two of my birding friends Matt S.and Sue Palmer. I was happy it was still there, but it only added to my anxiety that I couldn't leave work. About noon, another friend, Amanda P said she was there but there weren't any geese in the field. This didn't bother me too much because  I knew they move around these huge sod fields.

   Luckily, I was in our kitchen today, so when I was done I could leave. I wasn't scheduled to stay until a certain time. I got done with my job at 2 pm and headed straight for North Kingstown. As I was driving down I read a report the Barnacle Goose was back and it was near an intersection. When I arrived at the intersection no one was there.

   I pulled out my scope and looked through the 200-300 geese a couple of times. Finally after around 10 minutes I spotted the Barnacle Goose. It is much smaller than the Canada Geese and has a really cool almost silver coloration. Others showed up and I showed at least three people the goose in my scope.

   I stayed roughly an hour in the brutal cold. I spent half of that time looking for another would be lifer, Cackling Goose. I didn't find one in the geese close enough to identify. I made it home both before the evening traffic and the much anticipated snow squalls.

Trumpeter Swan

Trumpeter Swan

   When DJ and I went out west in 2010 we saw a Trumpeter Swan. We were driving south of Jackson Hole, WY. We were driving through the prairie and I saw a very small pond to my right. I saw white birds on it. One of my goals on the trip was to see Trumpeter Swans. I had a list of animals I wanted to see. Most of them were the big mammals of the west. I wasn't into birding like I am now, but I was happy to see any wildlife. However, an exception to my large mammal list were Trumpeter Swans.

   I pulled over on that day in 2010 because if I didn't, I knew I'd regret it forever. It turned out that my intuition was correct and we saw Trumpeter Swans swimming in that small pond. We saw dozens of bighorn sheep, hundreds of pronghorn and elk, but we only saw the one pair of Trumpeter Swans. The thing I remember most was my son, after seeing the virtual zoo known as Yellowstone he was still pretty excited to see those swans. I hadn't seen one since.

   Yesterday, a Trumpeter Swan was reported in Milford, MA. This morning on Massbird, people were emailing that it was still there. I planned my work day to finish up in our Bellingham store. From Bellingham, Milford is only a twenty minute drive. The bird was on Milford Pond which is a mile off of I-495 on Route 85. It couldn't have been easier to get to.

    I pulled in and walked down to the boat ramp. It was in the only open water in front of me. It was far enough away that photos weren't going to be mind blowing. I watched it for a half hour then it started to snow a little bit. Despite the cold and the bad light for photos, I found it hard to walk away. Seeing the Trumpeter Swan brought back the memory of being in Wyoming. I relived it in my mind a bunch of times while watching the bird.

Trumpeter Butt

   My son is still on his huge trip. Right now he is Kazakhstan on a train. Sort of wish we could go back in time to that Trumpeter Swan on the prairie followed by the weeks we still had in front of us on that trip. Instead, I am worrying about a 23 year old that is in his fifth country on his journey.

 
On another note, while I was looking at the Trumpeter Swan, my Rhode Island friends were all looking at a Barnacle Goose in North Kingstown. If the roads are clear tomorrow afternoon, that will be my next mission

Add caption

102

 

Species number one hundred for 2019
Juvenile White Crowned Sparrow

One of my goals this winter was to see if I could see 100 species of birds in January. This was going to become more difficult when I found out I was going to work two weeks straight without a day off from January 13-25. During those days I worked I tried to take a walk after work to see if I could pick up a few birds.

I started my day off on Friday with 97 birds.  I had earlier in the week contacted the manager of Fisherville Audubon Sanctuary. Everyday, Evening Grosbeaks stop the feeders. I secured permission to stand by the manager's residence and wait. I had never seen an Evening Grosbeak. I tried for them two weeks ago when I spent almost five hours waiting for them without any luck. The grosbeaks are a northern species and they have rarely came south the last few years.

The manager told me the best time to see them was at 9ish. I got there at 8:30 am. I didn't want to miss them. Luckily, the Evening Grosbeaks did show up. They were a beautiful bird, especially the male. (species 98).

Later in the day, I saw a  Greater Yellowlegs (species 99). Quite honestly, besides seeing the Evening Grosbeaks birding sucked. I was pretty disappointed I didn't reach species one hundred. I left my house before dawn and left the birds at dark, so only seeing two new species was tough to handle

Saturday morning I got up early and went to Sachuest to hopefully find Purple Sandpipers and/or Red Necked Grebes. No luck. Then I went to St. Mary's Pond to see if I could find Northern Shovelers and Green Wing Teal. Again, a miserable fail. I did see a Bald Eagle which was cool. However, on my way out, I saw juvenile White Crowned Sparrows (100!!!).

On my way home I stopped at Pardon Gray hoping to find Eastern Meadowlarks (101). Not only did I find them, but also saw Northern Flicker (102). My friends Dick and Marge Bradley were only a mile away. They came to Pardon Grey to see the Eastern Meadowlarks with me. Fortunately, they hadn't moved and we all got great looks.

I had to be home very early today, so I rushed through the three places I went. I am happy to be over one hundred species in January. To put that into perspective, in 2016, I saw my 100th bird on April 3 and in 2018, last year when I aw 232 species, I saw number 100 on April 12. So I am way ahead of the game.

The leaders in Rhode Island have seen 121 species. Both of them are retired and I had missed an entire weekend of birding for work, so I am not complaining. I also saw this beauty this morning also

Least Bittern and Walks

For the most part I'm stuck close to home this week. Our GM is in the Dominican this week so I am on call everyday. This means I can get a phone call at any point to handle an emergency at work.  However, so not to get burned out, I've been going on walks after work.

One day I hit the trails in Lincoln. Yesterday I went to Blackstone Park and Swan Point in Providence. Today I took a little chance and went to Trustom Pond. I was going to ask my boss if I could do a half day tomorrow, but since the weather is going to be bad, I left a little early today.

In the last three days I have seen three Barred Owls. I saw one in Lincoln on Tuesday and two today. I also saw a dozen deer on Tuesday. The highlight of my afternoons was a Least Bittern I saw today. This very small bird in the heron family has been hanging around Moonstone Beach for weeks. I saw it in 2018 but only parts of it. It hides in the reeds most of the time. Today I got great looks at it while it was fishing. I saw it catch two small fish.

After I left the Bittern I walked all of Trustom's trails. I saw another deer and a Fox Sparrow. I took a few pictures of the birds at the feeders.

Downy Woodpecker

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Hooded Mergansers

Black Headed Gull

As you would have guessed, I went birding today. I had planned on fishing during the afternoon but last minute I decided to walk to the end of Napatree Point and back. It is probably just as well, I needed the exercise.  I got two really good birds today. I saw a Greater White Fronted Goose in North Kingstown and a Yellow Breasted Chat at Trustom. One bird I went after but had already seen was Black Headed Gull. I saw two last week at Scarborough but couldn't get a picture. It is one species I've always wanted a picture of. So I carved out a few minutes hoping it was still there. One of the two was still there. I snapped a few photos. Black Headed Gulls do indeed have a black head during the summer. In the winter they look like this. They also have bright red legs.  Below the gull is a Downy Woodpecker. A very common bird, but this one wanted to pose.

Today was one of those days you dream about

After working the last six days I couldn't wait to get outside today. Even though the temperature took a massive nose dive over the last 36 hours, I was going birding. The cold be damned! I still wanted to get a bunch of "yearbirds". I put together an itinerary of all the places I wanted to hit on the East side of Narragansett Bay. The problem was, I made this plan on Tuesday, so I had a long wait before I could carry it out.

I was in Tiverton, RI before 6:15 am in the hopes of hearing owls, specifically Great Horned and Screech. No luck. Then I went to Pardon Grey where I also struck out with Meadowlarks and Killdeer. I wasn't thrilled to be 0-4 before 7 am!

From there my luck changed. I saw a bunch of birds. I got my nemesis bird at Rueker, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. I went back to Pardon Grey and had a Coopers Hawk put on a photo shoot.

From Tiverton, I went to Boyd Marsh in Portsmouth and saw a Eurasian Widgeon. I was happy to get it, because they are fairly rare. I was surprised to find out that it was the first one reported in 2019. However, it was there all of December, so I can't believe no one else had seen it.

I left Boyd's Marsh for Easton's Pond where I saw a mess of ducks including Ring Necked, Canvasback, Common Mergansers, and Ruddy Ducks. Also in the water were American Coots, which were a target bird.

I left Easton's Pond for Third Beach. I picked up all three Scoters there. I was hoping to see Surf Scoters and White Winged. When I saw them I actually did a fist pump.

Knowing I wanted to leave my long hike for the afternoon I went to Brenton Point next before walking hiking trails. At Brenton Point I saw some Snow Buntings and a Winter Wren. I wanted to look for birds on the ocean (specifically Red Necked Grebe) but the wind was so cold I managed to look for less than two minutes.

I stopped at Fort Adams. There wasn't anything unusual but the common ducks were close to shore so I got a couple pictures of Bufflehead and Common Eider.

I went for my hike during the warmest part of the day (it was still frigging cold). I had two species I wanted to find: Purple Sandpiper and Snowy Owl. I dipped on the Sandpiper but as you can see I found a Snowy Owl. It was standing on a piece of driftwood on a rocky shoreline. I was above it on the trails. When I saw it, I got close enough for pictures but not to scare it. The photos are cropped. I have made a conscious choice not to scare owls for the sake of a photo. I am not posting any of the photos on Facebook or any bird reports.

As if that weren't enough, on my way home I stopped at some woods and heard a Great Horned Owl just before dark. Talk about getting lucky.

I ended up seeing 13 new year birds. I was hoping for around 15-20. The early morning strike outs kept my number low. That said, I'm sure as hell not complaining. I got a 2 owls, and many birds that gave me trouble in 2018, especially the Sapsucker. Today was fantastic.

To pour more fuel on a great fire, I took about 150 pictures today. All but 10 came out crisp and clear. Normally, I just hope for one good photo of each species I take pics of. Before today, I had exactly ZERO pictures of a Snowy Owl that weren't blurry, now I have 75. I wish every day were like today! Here's hoping for tomorrow!!!

Multiple pictures below (no not all 150, don't worry)

Coopers Hawk

Adult male Bufflehead

Bufflehead

Common Eider, Ft. Adams 

 The photos below are of the Snowy Owl

Off to see the world

Saying goodbye at Logan
Airport

After 20 days at home my son is off again. He is not going west to his job in the Grand Canyon. Instead he is going east embarking on a grand tour around the world. First stop- Madrid, Spain.

For the next 4-6 months Dominick Pacelli III is going to travel across Europe and Asia. He is spending  three days in Spain, then heading to Africa to spend a couple days in Morocco. After they leave Morocco they are going back to Europe to spend a couple weeks there before heading to the Far East. They do not have a timetable. Nor do they really have any set plans after leaving Morocco other than going to Croatia and maybe Greece.

My son also convinced his friend Sam to go on this grand adventure. They worked their butts off at the Grand Canyon and saved enough money to take this once(doubtful this will be the only time my adventurer son does this) in a lifetime trip. As a parent, of course I've had a million worst case scenarios run through my head. However, I have faith that he will not put himself in bad situations.

It is no secret that I love to travel and sometimes get insomnia because of my wanderlust. It is safe to say that DJ (and Sam) have taken wanderlust to a totally different level. Honestly, DJ has the biggest balls I know. Some of the things he wants to do and is willing to actually go out and accomplish truthfully blows me away. I could never go to all of these countries where very few natives speak English, he relishes the thought. His lack of fear is truly awe-inspiring.

So DJ, if you are reading this on the plane right now. Have a great time. Be smart to stay safe and take a lot of pictures. I love you

New Year/ New Birds, A Pelican showed up

Pine Siskins

January 1st is Christmas day to birders. When the ball drops all of the old birds are new again. Even a robin or a herring gull gets a look because we get to count them as a "yearbird" again. Since most folks have New Years Day off, I can tell you many birders are out BEFORE the crack of dawn listening for first of the year owls. I, of course, had to work.

So for me, my New Years Day was Thursday/ Friday. I did go close to home to get Common Redpolls in Lincoln on Tuesday after work and then I went to the Cumberland Monastery and got your typical feeder birds Chickadees, Titmice, White Breasted Nuthatch, etc...

However I could barely sleep Wednesday night. It was rainy Thursday morning which only turned my anticipation into agony. My son went birding with me on Thursday. On Friday he hung out with a high school friend so I went alone. Both days I hit multiple places. I decided to chase rare birds and pick up the more common species as they come. This plan will make my number a little lower, but in the end it should get me more birds.

The only problem with this plan is you can waste a lot of time waiting for a rare bird to show. This happened to me both days. Thursday, DJ and I tried for Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeaks near the Connecticut border without any luck. Between waiting and driving, that cost us five hours.

Today, I went back looking for those birds. I got the Siskins but dipped again on the Grosbeaks. At the end of my day, I looked for the Yellow Breasted Chat at Trustom, my last bird of 2018. I waited until dark, but it never came out of the brush.

Although I really wanted these two species (about 7 hours of daylight melted away while looking for these birds) I still managed to see some really good birds. Part of my plan was to look for the species that gave me trouble in 2018. If I could get them out of the way early then I wouldn't have to waste time on them next winter.

As usual, I dipped on the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. However, I got Red Breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and Hairy Woodpecker while striking out with the Evening Grosbeaks. I saw a Peregrine Falcon on the Jamestown Bridge. At Beavertail I got a Long Tailed Duck and Razorbill. All of these species gave me fits in 2018. I saw a flock of Pine Siskins at a feeder today, They were a lifer for me a month ago and the one I saw was a flyover. I was happy to study them in my binoculars to start the new year. I found the Red Crossbills at Nicholas Farm. There is no guarantee they will come back next winter.

Another bird I saw today was a raven. I got one in December but I only heard it. Today I saw one as it flew parallel to my car for a few seconds. Two other good birds were Iceland Gull and Black Headed Gull. Flying over the ocean I saw a Northern Gannet. DJ and I also saw a Bald Eagle yesterday.

All told I've saw 66 species so far. Most of those over the last two days. I would be thrilled with this but one guy already has 93 species!!! I don't know how that is even possible.

As I said, I chased rarities. I wasted a lot of time on two species I didn't get. I'm sure I could have gotten 70 (NOT 93!) if I had that time.  It was really nice to get my nemesis birds on Jan 3,4.There are still a lot of birds out there and I hope to get a bunch more next week.

The best bird of the day was a BROWN PELICAN. It was reported at the fishing docks in Galilee this morning. I didn't see the report for two hours but I was on my way to Scarborough when I saw it so I was only minutes away. Matt Schenck was walking back from it and told me right where to go. It was a few feet from fishermen unloading a boat. It was cold, but not hungry because the fishermen fed it. I took 20 pics from six feet away. I left after only a few minutes. I felt bad for the pelican. This cold climate is far from it's comfort zone. Doubtful it will survive.  More photos below

Pine Siskins and the photo below

Red Breasted Nuthatch

Goals for 2018

Usually in early January I write down my list of goals for the upcoming year. This past January all I could come up with were things to do. Going places isn't really a goal, at least not a hard one to achieve. I mean, if I want to go to Charlestown Breachway in August to look at shorebirds or albie fishing in September, all I have to do is go. Nothing is holding me back if I want to go. Therefore, I don't consider them goals. However, trips that require long drives or planning obviously are.

Before it got nice out in April, I sat down and really thought about what my goals were.  I didn't publish them because it seemed a little pretentious. However, looking back, I pretty much accomplished what I set out to do. There is no question that the top two things on the list were by far the most important and would have been happy finishing the mountains and taking a few nice pics. Notice, on this list, there is no mention of breaking any of my personal best birding records. It was never a priority.

1. Finish the New Hampshire 4000 footers. I have two hikes left. Mt Cabot which I'm going to do as a backpack trip. The other is Mt Adams and Madison. That will be a hard one.

I obviously finished the 4000 footers. It is one of the things I am most proud of I have done. I did Adams and Madison as a day hike.

   

2. Take more good photos than I did in 2017 

    This became an easy task once I bought my 500 mm lens. I also was more aware of light, the horizon, and the subject even before I bought my lens. In 2017, I really felt my photos were lacking and wanted to work on that in 2018

3.  Spend two weekends at Plum Island birding.

Mission accomplished. I took off two Wednesdays in May to give me two 3 day weekends. One of my trips I saw 72 species on Plum Island. The other trip I didn't count them I just concentrated on photos

4.  Go to Maine to go on a Puffin Cruise and visit Scarborough Marsh.

I took a third 3 day weekend in June. I went on the Puffin Cruise. I not only saw Puffins, but also Black Guillemont, Harbor Porpoises, two whales, and Seals. It was as fun a three hours as I had all year. At Scarborough Marsh I had two lifers, Tricolored Heron and Nelson's Sparrow

5.  Spend more time trying to catch keeper stripers in Rhode Island.

I didn't necessarily try to catch more stripers (night fishing) but I did end up catching more keepers than 2017. I let them all go.

6. When we go to Acadia in September, hike the Precipice Trail and/or the Beehive.

I only had time to hike The Beehive. That was scary enough. The Precipice is twice the height. I'm glad I did the Beehive. I was scared hiking it, but once I was on top I was sad it was over

7. Get good photos of Warblers and Orioles.

I got pictures of warblers that I have not only never photographed, but had never seen. 

8. See and photograph a spring Red Knot. This is actually on my overall Bucket List along with #1

May 30th I had a flock of Red Knots in front of me and the sun at my back. I photographed them for over an hour

9. Catch a legal sized tautog

Finally! I caught four of these elusive bottom feeders this year. Two of them were of legal size and absolutely delicious!

It is pretty rare that I accomplish all of my goals. Rarely do I get much over half. What I thought was important in January, may not be nearly as important once nice weather comes in April.

Red Knot