Chasing birds

 

Swamp Sparrow

Yesterday I drove all over hell and creation chasing rare birds. I left my house around 5 am and drove through Coventry to the Connecticut border to listen for Ruffed Grouse. Ruffed Grouse aren't rare in many states, in fact, in some states they are very common. In Rhode Island there are very few reliable spots to hear them. Luckily, waking at an ungodly hour paid off. I listened to two grouse drum until 7:30.

   As I was driving away, Jan sent me a text that she found an Upland Sandpiper in Richmond, RI. So I headed up that way. I had seen a few Upland Sandpipers in South Dakota, but they are rare around here. Lets put it this way, Jan has been birding over 30 years and routinely sees 300 species a year, yet she has only seen seven. So, as you can imagine, it was a bird I should chase. Upland's are a pretty big shorebird and it was walking around a turf field. Once I started looking in the correct field (thanks Linda) I spotted it pretty easily.

   On Wednesday afternoon, Jan and I spent over two and a half hours scoping through a huge flock of Glossy Ibis looking for a White Faced Ibis. White Face look almost exactly the same except they have red legs, a red eye, and a little more white on the face. After 2.5 hours we never saw the bird.

   While I was looking at the Upland Sandpiper on Thursday John Magill showed up. I had him look at the bird in my scope then he found it in his. While we were there, we decided to go chase the White Faced Ibis. I was already two for two on rare birds and it wasn't yet 9 am.

 

The first small flock of Glossy Ibis to come back

John drove faster than me so he got to Simmon's Farm in Middletown first. When I pulled in there were ten birders looking at a couple hundred ibis. It was going to be easy to see it because it was out in the open and all the birders had their scopes on it. I no sooner step out of my car and the entire flock got spooked by a Red Tailed Hawk. The huge flock of 250 ibis circled around for ten minutes then flew away. I was crushed. All the birders left because they had seen it except John stayed. John got a quick look before I got there but he decided not to leave. The owner of the property came out and talked with us for a while. I told John he should leave but he said he wanted me to get the bird. Finally after over a half hour looking at an empty field ibis started flying back in. The huge flock didn't come back. They were coming back every five minutes in groups of 5-10. When the fifth flock came in and there were only about forty birds in the field the White Face Ibis was one of them! John and I both got good looks at it. We shook hands and parted ways. It is doubtful I would have stayed and talked to the owner of the property for an hour if I was alone. It was a class move by John to stay.  Later in the day I saw the very common Yellow Warbler to give me four new birds for the day.

Friday

    Rain was predicted most of the day. I figured I could squeeze a quick trip to Trustom  showers. I slept in leaving the house about 7 am. My entire drive to Trustom was dry but it started raining as I entered the parking lot. I waited it out for 45 minutes in the car. When the shower finally stopped I went for a walk. Within minutes I was rewarded with an Indigo Bunting sitting right on the trail.  After I saw the bunting, I looked for Brown Thrasher and White Eyed Vireo. They are two fairly common spring migrants that are responsible for 500 miles on my car over the last week and a half. I didn't find them today either.

    I walked out to Osprey Point. I saw a bunch of swallows. I found two Bank Swallows flying in the group. I also saw two Green Herons fly across the pond. I went back looking for the vireo and the thrasher but was still unsuccessful.

   Since the weather held out I figured I'd press my luck and do the four mile loop around Great Swamp. I was rewarded almost immediately. Within a hundred yards of my car I saw a Ruby Crowned Kinglet. Those little birds have been giving me fits. It is a bird that some will over-winter but I had yet to see one. I was really happy to put a "tick" on my list to get it out of the way. Just past the marsh I saw a couple of Ovenbirds. They are a brown and white warbler that sings a pretty song. The rest of my walk was unspectacular and didn't see anything else. About 20 minutes from my car the sky opened up and it rained hard. Luckily it only rained about five minutes. Despite my raincoat and rain pants getting wet, they were fairly dry by the time I got back to the car.

   Since I have to work everyday until the rest of April and the weather over the next week looks awful, I probably won't get many more birds this month. As of April 26 I have 177 birds in Rhode Island. I was hoping for 150 before the end of the month so I am pumped. If the year ended today, it would already be my second highest total beating my 2016 number of 161. Somehow I moved up to a tie for second place for the year so far. We will see where I stand after May. I still think my final standing will be somewhere between 4th-7th place. But I think 250 is within my grasp.

House Wren