Ending March on a high note.

 

That little speck of a duck is a Blue Winged Teal.
I couldn't get any closer because it was on private
property with No Trespassing signs everywhere.

 I had Thursday and Friday off this week and had to work the weekend. Honestly I should have gone fishing. I thought about it. I knew there would be very few new birds to get and birding all day probably wouldn't lead to much. On the other hand, I could have gone trout fishing in Plymouth. I could have hit a bunch of lakes if I wanted. The downside of fishing would have been the cold water. I think that since the water is still very cold, my only chance at getting a bunch of fish would have been Powerbait. I really don't think they would have chased lures. I hate Powerbait. It usually kills the fish which I had no desire to keep and it is no fun to me.

However, the deciding factor was my competitive nature. If I could have gotten a bird or two, birding would have been worth it. The long and the short of it was, I got one new bird on Thursday and none on Friday. I heard a few Pine Warblers and saw one, all at Great Swamp. I also saw a baby Great Horned Owl on a nest, this of course, was awesome. My only other highlight was an Iceland Gull at Galillee Fish Docks. I'd seen this bird before, but it landed five feet from me and I had great light for a photo shoot.

On Friday, I realized pretty quickly I wasn't going to get any new birds. I started talking to this guy from Gloucester, MA. Gloucester is easily a two and a half hour drive from Trustom. He had been to Trustom a couple times before but I could tell he wasn't very experienced. Since I had nothing better to do and it was only noon, I acted as his "bird guide". Even though I'd never met the guy before, I made it my mission for the day to help him out. I took him to a couple of spots in South County and got him three lifebirds.

Iceland Gull

    The first lifer was a Blue Winged Teal. I had seen it on my third attempt at finding it on Tuesday. Luckily, it was still in the same pond. The duck, Randy told me, was his 200th bird of his life.  

From the little farm pond we went to a beach looking for Piping Plovers. We didn't see them at first but while we were scanning a pond for ducks three of them flew in towards us. We got terrific looks and watched them for ten minutes. This guy was pretty pumped to see plovers. As luck would have it, while we were looking at the Piping Plovers behind them in the surf was a Red Throated Loon. The normal loons we all see on lake in New Hampshire and Maine are Common Loons. Red Throateds live much further north and winter down here. Randy got some really good looks in his scope of the plovers and the loon. So even though I didn't see much on my days off, I felt at least Friday was productive.

Much to my dismay, there has been an American Bittern seen on and off at Succotash Marsh in East Matunuck for about ten days (it was seen three of those ten days). I have tried for this bird five times. I went both of my days off and three times earlier in the week. American Bittern is a very hard bird to get. They are fairly rare and they blend in very well. They spend most of their time out of sight in cattails and reeds. I had seen one last year, and know I need every possible species to reach my goal. 

My friend Jan StJean saw the bird this morning. It was her eighth attempt looking for it (she does live much closer, but still, she has put in her time looking for it).  When she found it, she reported it on the Rare Bird Page. I had to work so I couldn't rush down to see it. To make matters worse, another friend Sue Palmer saw it later in the morning and a dog walker scared it into the reeds. Still, I had to try.

So right after work I dragged Laurie the hour drive to East Matunuck. As we were driving it rained on and off. As we pulled down the road, a light rain started again. I scanned the edges of the reeds and didn't see the Bittern. I really had very little hope of seeing it. After scanning the edges with my scope, I looked in the tall grass near the water. Sure enough, there it was feeding. Although it was only 25 yards from me, I couldn't see it with my naked eye. It blended in so well. Even looking in the direction my scope was pointing I didn't know how far away it was.

American Bittern

    After a couple of minutes, it popped out into some shorter grass and I could take a couple of proof pictures. Another birder I know, Alex Patterson, pulled up and called him over to look at it in the scope before it took off. Three minutes after Alex got there the bird walked behind some reeds and went out of sight. If I'd have left work five minutes later or Alex got there three minutes later we would have dipped on the bird. It started raining harder so after being out of the car a total of six minutes, we made the hour drive home.

So even though the last four days of March only produced two new birds, it ended on  a high note. The American Bittern is a very good bird and there is no guarantee I'll see another. Even if another shows up, every bird I can get now means I don't have to chase it later. I end March with 144 species for the year so far. This puts me in a tie for third in RI. The leader, Jan StJean has 151. Second is Carlos Pedro at 148. Jan and Carlos are retired and the guy I'm tied with Don Heitzmann works for RI Audubon leading bird walks. That said, even if I keep getting good birds, I will drop in the standings over the next two months. A lot of migrants will pass through and some so quickly, I won't be able to get them on days I'm working. 

As I said, my goal is 250. If I reach that, it doesn't matter what place I finish in. That would be a huge accomplishment for me. I can tell you this, next year, I will not be making six trips to East Matunuck just to see one species of bird. But this year, that's the game.

The Snowy Owl has finally flew the Coop

 Unless you don't have electricity coming to your house, it would have been impossible not to know about a Snowy Owl that wintered near Newport. This owl had feature stories done on it by both the Providence Journal and WPRI Channel 12. Besides the newspaper and television channel, the bird was plastered all over Facebook. I am happy to say the Snowy Owl has finally headed north.

   When we see Snowy Owls in southern New England it's because they are hungry. Their food source, for whatever the reason, can not sustain them. The reasons could be a poor rodent year or deep snow. The point is, they are weary travelers. As such, when people approach too close they start to burn much needed calories. Even if they don't fly away, their heart rate increases and the added stress is unhealthy. For these reasons, it is far more important to keep a safe distance than get a killer photo.

    Most of the time when Snowy Owls winter in Rhode Island they hang out in places where they can be viewed at a distance. The very first Snowy I ever saw was at Trustom Pond. It was standing on the rocks in the middle of a pond eating a duck it had just killed. Another great place to see Snowy's is Island Rocks at Sachuet. The rocks are a hundred yards offshore and the owl that hung out there last winter had a virtual all-you-can-eat-duck buffet. These places are perfect to see Snowy Owls without interfering with their resting and feeding routines.

   This owl was different. It had been hurt and rehabilitated by humans. It had no fear of people like normal Snowy Owls. The First time I saw it, I was the only birder around. It was on a log on a gravelly beach. I was up above it on a small cliff. I took some halfway decent photos. As I was walking away, I saw an older couple on the beach looking for rocks and seaglass. They were getting far too close to the owl but they didn't even see it. As they got to within 30 feet and my heart was racing, I yelled down to them to "Please don't get too close to the owl". My voice scared the owl away, and I felt terrible that I was the reason it wasted calories. To the defense of the couple, they had not seen it until it flew. They were not purposely infringing on its personal space.

   That night I vowed not to bother the owl again. I got some decent photos during the day. A few days after I saw the owl, it took up residence at the Visitor Center. Everyday it would perch right above people that filled the parking area to get a photo. I was sick to my stomach thinking about this poor bird. With all these people so close, how could it hunt? When would it rest? Sometimes it would fly down right next to the road and perch on a No Parking sign. You can imagine how close the photographers got to it then.

The owl stayed in the area of the Visitor Center for months. Every local (and non-local) idiot would come for a photo. The parking lot was like Black Friday at Walmart. Cars coming, going, and stopping on the access road if the owl was on the sign. Although I vowed not to disturb the owl, I still wanted to walk the trails there. I was in the midst of a disappointing search to find Purple Sandpiper. Besides Beavertail and Napatree which I was also striking out at, this place used to have a flock of wintering Purples.

I won't pretend that a Snowy Owl isn't an amazing creature. It is up there with Puffins, California Condors, and Whopping Cranes as birds everyone wants to see. Even non-birders want to see a Snowy Owl. So when I would go to this place, I would stop for a minute or three and watch it. Most of the time it was sitting either on the roof or in tall grass doing nothing. Two minutes is enough to admire a sleeping animal. However, my issue was with the photographers that would go and watch this owl day in and day out. Some of these people would tell me "I was here six hours yesterday, I got within fifteen feet of it". Another one I heard was "I've been here three days straight and yet to get a decent flight shot. These people were not birders, they were photographers. And quite frankly, two minutes watching these people made me sick and it was time to go.

Seeing such a beautiful creature shouldn't be so easy. I'd usually see it for a half mile away while driving in. Seeing wildlife as majestic as a Snowy Owl should take either some effort or at least luck. It felt way to cheap to walk right under it to go use the restroom. To be surrounded by all those photographer whores even for a few minutes felt dirty. Since I got my Purple Sandpiper on Block Island, I have not been back.

There is no doubt that this Snowy Owl made hundreds if not thousands of people happy. We will never know the number of people who got to cross seeing a Snowy Owl off their bucket list. It seems as though it made it through the winter healthy. It was hunting, and frequently landed in the grass to catch mice and voles only feet from where the cars were parked. From what I read, people were respectful of the owl's personal space. This owl's "personal space" is/was far smaller than most Snowy's. It seemed to be comfortable around people, which made me feel a lot better about its chances of survival.


So, Godspeed to you Snowy Owl. If you come back south again, please find a different location. I will be quite comfortable never seeing another Snowy Owl.

Here are a few photos of the owl. No need to think "wow" or "amazing". As I said, these photos were too easy and cheap to come by. Normally, I have everything on this blog copyrighted. However, for this post I give permission to download, copy, or steal any pictures of the owl you may want. That way, if you see a snowy owl that prefers to keep their distance from humans, you won't need to take "one more step closer" because you will already have pictures of a Snowy Owl.

Please, NEVER,NEVER, try to get a picture of any owl on your cell phone. These were taken with a 500 mm lens and cropped, even the ones on the No Parking sign (and my car was a blind, until I could get through to the parking area).

I was stuck in traffic to get to the
parking lot because it was sitting
right along the road. 

Sights from the ocean, Galilee, 'gansett, and beyond

Yesterday I took a cod boat out to do some pelagic birding. I went with Carlos Pedro. While the cod fishermen were tending to their baits, Carlos and I looked for pelagic birds. I ended up with two lifers, Black Legged Kittiwake and Common Murre. Most of the birds were very far away so getting an ID was hard but getting any photos worth posting was impossible.

After I got in, Jan StJean, who had been birding on the Block Island Ferry, texted me that she was looking for the Glaucous Gull. It had been seen at the fishing docks in Galilee, which I was parked merely one hundred yards from. I joined her and we ended up finding the gull that had been photographed but it turned out to be an Iceland Gull. Also at the docks were a variety of birds and a seal only a couple yards from my feet.

Today I got up late and slowly made my way down the coast birding. I stopped in Jamestown  and got a first of the year Great Egret. Then I went down Route 1A stopping at Narragansett Beach but it was dead. Then I stopped at Scarborough and saw the Black Headed Gull I'd seen a month back. It is starting to get its black hood and shedding out of its winter garb. On my way out of town I saw some turkeys. 

I worked my way down to Trustom Pond. There I scanned through a thousand ducks but found a Pied Billed Grebe. This was a target bird I was pumped to get. I also saw a Brown Headed Cowbird at Carpenter's Farm. 

Lastly I went to Great Swamp and walked the loop around the pond. If I found one bird I'd move into a tie for second in the state. By the end of next week many early migrants will show up. They include Tree Swallows, Osprey, Wilson's Snipe, Kestrel, and Blue Wing Teal. I just needed one (or two) to be a few days early. I was banking on Kestrels being the most likely. I didn't find any in the fields. Surprisingly, I did see about 8 tree swallows over the swamp. They were pretty high up. My camera wouldn't focus on a tiny bird in a smoke gray sky. So I manually took a few pictures. One came out better than I would have expected as a proof shot. 

Along the way over the last two days, I came across a Great Horned Owl in a nest, but for the safety of the owl, the location will not be disclosed. 

Razorbills

The giant windmills off of Block Island

Point Judith

This photo and the two below are of the Iceland Gull.
Notice the white wings

Non-breeding Common Eider male

Grey Seal. This is uncropped. It was right next to
the docks

Male Red Breasted Merganser

Black Headed Gull, Scarborough Beach parking lot

Wild Turkey

The first documented Tree Swallow of the year in my
bird group

Great Horned Owl
Heavily cropped

American Woodcock

   Today I saw a pair of American Woodcock at Ninigret Park in Charlestown, RI (there was a third one about 75 yards away). They were feeding on the side of the road. I pulled up very slowly and watched them. They did not mind my presence in the car at all. They were about 18 feet away when I got there but got to within six feet of my car while feeding. Many an earthworm died today at the bills of these two. I know this is way too many pictures that look similar, but the light was perfect and the birds were so close. It was hard to choose

. Although they did not mind me while I was in my blind (car) some people came down the road walking their dogs. The woodcocks froze. That is their defense mechanism instead of flying. When they froze, one of them was in shorter grass directly in front of me. It would have been impossible to screw up the photos. When the dog walkers got a safe distance away, the woodcocks went back to feeding on earthworms in the dirt.

Cooper's Hawk at Work

While at work today a lady came through our drive thru and said there was a baby owl in a tree. Obviously, this got me excited and I went outside looking. I knew that there wouldn't be any baby owls this time of year but I was thinking there might be one of the smaller species, such as Screech Owl.

It turned out the "baby owl" was an adult Cooper's Hawk. The hawk was only feet from our drive thru lane. I had my camera in the car and ran over to get it. The hawk was more than happy to pose until a car that had a barking dog came by. The light was perfect and the bird was close. I will probably never get better photos of a Cooper's Hawk than I got today.

Plenty more photos below

Halfway There

Bird #123 Pileated Woodpecker

There is no way I can compete with the top birders in Rhode Island. Although I am currently in third place, I have no chance of coming in the top five no matter how hard I bird. First and foremost the top birders are simply better than me. On top of that, most of them are retired and spend many days a week birding. Lastly, I like to fish too much. So instead of competing against the Jan StJean's and Matt Schenck's of the world, I am competing with myself and the birds.

Late last year, I decided for 2019 I was going to see how many species I could see in Rhode Island. Really putting forth effort will mean less trips to Plum Island. It would mean more chases after work to see rare birds that have been reported. It may even mean (deep breath) missing out on some fishing. Doing this "Big Year" is a challenge I'm enjoying but have no desire to repeat next year (next year I want to take trips to Plum Island and Cape May, NJ in May).

My goal this year is 250 species of birds. This is a doable number but by no means guaranteed. Today I reached the halfway point of that goal. I saw three species today, bringing my total for the year (in Rhode Island) to 125.

For statistics sake- There have been 152 species seen so far this year. The top birder has seen 137. To only be 12 birds behind the leader leaves me ecstatic. To put that in perspective as of March 1 last year there were 151 species seen and I had seen 72. The leader had 132.

This morning I went to Fisherville Audubon Sanctuary and looked for a Pileated Woodpecker. I found it and saw it a few times as it was bouncing from tree to tree. From there I went down the Narragansett coast looking for but not seeing any Bonaparte Gulls.

Next I went to Trustom. I took my scope out to the water looking for a Pied Billed Grebe without any luck. But I did see a Hermit Thrush which was a bird I am happy to see early in the year. Lastly, after sitting in traffic in two places and taking almost two hours to get home, I stopped at Lonsdale Marsh to see the Wood Ducks that my friends Dick and Marge Bradley found earlier today.

Birders are a pretty unselfish lot. They are happy to share information with the group. Quite a few of the good birds were reported by others, I've gotten to see because of their unselfishness. I have become pretty close with a few birders and have even enjoyed a nice supper with them after celebrating a Short Eared Owl. The above mentioned Jan StJean, has been pushing me to make sure I chase the rare ones and double checks that I saw the reports. She has been very helpful. The point is birding can be a team game and we all do better when we help each other. I am always glad to help other birders and have appreciated help I have received.

 I hit 232 last year which means I need to get another 18 species that I didn't see last year to reach 250. In truth I need more than that. There are just some species that were so rare last year there is almost no chance of seeing them this year. Some of these rarities are Scissor Tailed Flycatcher, Curlew Sandpiper, and Little Egret. There are others. Some birds are rare enough where one might show up a year such as Hudsonian Godwit. Those birds I will have to chase and hopefully be lucky enough to find. As of right now, I have seen eight species this year that I did not see last year in Rhode Island (three of them lifebirds, Barnacle Goose, Cackling Goose, and Evening Grosbeak). Whether  I reach 250 or not is still a long way away. That said, I am very happy with my start.

Bird #54, January 4
Brown Pelican