Another Crazy Lifer

 

 Another crazy rare bird is in Rhode Island. This time it is a Varied Thrush. This is a bird that summers in western Canada and Alaska. Some don't migrate at all, but those that do hover around the U.S. west coast. This is the fourth sighting in RI. The first was in 1966.

 

  One of these birds showed up in Glocester RI under some ladies bird feeder. She posted photos on ebird and Facebook and that was all that was needed for the stampede to start.  The bird feeders can be seen from the road with very little invasion of privacy. The woman loves birds and was okay with birders stopping by anyway.

   I went late this morning because the roads were still icy early. I got there about 10:15. Many of my friends had seen the bird between 8-9am and I hoped this would be a quick one and I'd be back home to do some chores at 11 am.

   No such luck. A fellow birder had been there since 9:30 and hadn't seen it. He had missed it by fifteen minutes. We waited, he left, other birders came, we waited some came, some of them left, and so on... You get the picture. I have to work tomorrow so I didn't want to leave. Finally just before 2 pm the bird showed itself. What a beauty. It is a male with a bright orange chest. Very pretty. It hung out for ten minutes and flew off. That was my que to warm up my toes and go home. 

#292- My friend Jess Bishop hit 300 birds today and I think another friend Linda Gardrel also did Congrats! Nice bird for 300th

 

291!!!

   

Clay Colored Sparrow
My 291st bird of the year and a lifer. 

If you read my blog from last year, you couldn't get away from the fact I was doing a Rhode Island Big Year. The goal was to see how many species I could see in Rhode Island in 2019. I not so secretly wanted to reach 250. My previous high was two hundred and thirty-two. When I reached that on June 1, the number I next wanted and hoped for was 263. Why such a strange number? My friend Marge Bradley had retired the year before and her husband Dick had already retired. They got to spend the 2018 birding whenever they wanted. They ended up with 262. I figured if I could reach one more bird than that I knew I had a good year. Dick and Marge are very good birders, so to surpass good birders that were retired the following year just meant I was trying hard. I passed 263 and chased everything right till the end and ended up with 290 species. 

   Also if you read my blog in December of last year and January of this year, you read a broken record about how I had no plans to do it again. I put thousands of miles on my car, went through a set of tires, and may have blown a head gasket. The more likely reason I wasn't going to get anywhere 290 again was I had too many things planned in 2020 that had nothing to do with birding in RI. I was going to do eleven overnight trips plus take a vacation to Florida in November. Between hiking in NH, birding in Maine, and whale watches out of Gloucester, getting anywhere near my previous high was not only unrealistic but not even a goal.

   Here is the thing, just because I didn't have plans for a big list did not mean I stopped liking birding. January was fairly mild so I went birding on all of my days off. I ended January 2020 with one hundred and twenty five species which was more than I got in January 2019. Still, this meant nothing. Getting all those birds in January just meant there wouldn't be much to look for until early migrants showed up in mid-March.

   Then, as we all know, things got ugly and everything shut down. So, like everyone else, my plans got cancelled. So I did what I always do on my days off, I went birding. Spring birding was good and I missed very few species. I ended up getting my 250th bird on May 31. One day sooner than the previous year. Up till this point, I stuck to my plan of keeping miles off of my car. I would bird far from home on days off but stay close to home on work nights. I would not "chase" birds after work. I only broke this rule to see a White Pelican in Tiverton, but for god's sake its a pelican in Rhode Island so give me some slack.

   During the summer I missed some tough but getable birds including Marbled Godwit, Baird's Sandpiper, and the bane of my existence, Royal Tern. However four mega-rare birds that I have wrote about often showed up between June 28- Nov 1. I was lucky enough to see all four. I managed to see most of the expected shorebirds and terns highlighted by Black Skimmers that flew right by me the day after I bought my new camera.

   Throughout the fall I was still getting birds. I went on a pelagic on Sept 8 that went one hundred miles south. I got four birds on that trip.  Last month someone found a Dovkie in Trustom Pond. I was close by and got a very unexpected lifer. That bird put me at #290 and I tied my previous personal best.

   The last couple of weeks I have alternated my time looking for the very rare Pacific Loon and the beautiful Evening Grosbeak and Snowy Owl. Those three species were my best chance of getting a species that is "expected" in RI. No luck. 

  On Sunday my friends Jan and Jess found a Clay Colored Sparrow in Portsmouth. I couldn't go because I worked. Today I went there and looked for it. Jan came down and we spent another two and a half hours looking for it but dipped. We left.

Thirty minutes later Jess was there and the bird popped up for her in the same spot as Sunday. So I turned around and went back. I ran out to Jess. She moved down the path looking for other birds. She told me where it was and I waited. The bird popped up within five minutes!!! Not only was it #291 but it was a lifer! Great way to break my PB. 

Stats- 

If there is one thing birders like as much as birds it is numbers. Here are some- Last year I ended up seeing the forth most birds in RI. I was second in the entire state for people with a job (tough to compete with retired folk, especially retired people that are among the best birders in the country). 

This year I am fifth on "the list" but realistically I think I am eleventh between people whose numbers I know and people that I know that are better, retired, work from home, and obsessed. Also, and this is surely true, there are a lot more people birding this year than last. Yes, this is due to the pandemic. When a good bird used to show up the same ten people would rush down to see it. I knew all of their cars. Then, the next day or two a few stragglers would hope it was still there. Now, thanks to amazing networking and unselfishness forty or fifty people will go look for the bird in the next few days.

By no means is this making excuses. If  #291puts me in eleventh place when all I wanted to do was see birds, then Que Sera. I'm more than happy to hold down that number. This has been a great year for rare birds and many birds. The RI record is in jeopardy. I have four friends that have reached 300 and others within a bird or two. I don't think before this year there were ever three birders in the same year to reach three hundred. Congrats to them!!

291

9 lifebirds (plus one in MA-Ruff) Thick Billed Murre, Tennessee Warbler, Terek's Sandpiper, Red Necked Stint, Little Stint, Pomarine Jaeger, Common Cukoo, Dovkie, Clay Colored Sparrow

2 other State birds Lark Sparrow and Wilson's Pharalope

The best bird I found myself- Wilson's Pharalope

  

Things I am Grateful For in the Outdoors

 

The best photo I got of any of the 
mega-rare birds, Little Stint

Yikes, this is not an easy year to write my annual Thanksgiving Day post but I will give it a try

1. First, although no one close to me has died, I am not going to give thanks for that, at least not here.. Many others have suffered because of this virus, and I feel awful for them. I have not known anyone personally to die. However, someone I worked with lost a father, and someone I went to school with lost a father-in-law. I don't feel "blessed" this virus hasn't hit home for me, I feel lucky.

2. This has been the best year of birding in Rhode Island possibly ever. Four Mega-rarities from across oceans landed in RI. These birds no one would ever expect to show up from half way around the world gave thousands of birders a chance to see them. Besides the crazy rare birds, many other great birds showed up this year such as Wilson's Plover and Red Headed Woodpecker. I had seen those species before, but I have gotten eight lifebirds so far this year. I never would have dreamed that possible.

3. I am thankful that Dave is still my friend despite the fact I bird way more than I fish. I appreciate his phone calls and catching up for more than he knows. He is a good friend.

4. I am amazed I actually crossed something off of my bucket list this year. For the first time, I saw whales breach and I got to photograph it. What an absolutely unbelievable memory I will never forget.

5. I am grateful I live near the ocean and mountains. 

6. I don't get political on here often, and this will be my only comment about politics... I am looking forward to the new administration fixing many of the environmental rollbacks of the last few years. Many of them affected me personally. National Monuments have been shrunk that I have visited. The Migratory Bird Treaty that survived presidents from both parties for over 100 years had been watered down as was the Endangered Species Act. I like clean water and clean air and I am happy those regulations will be restored.

7. I am happy for my birder friends. We are pretty close knit and talk most every day. Many of them get to bird everyday. Most of the time I'm not jealous they are out birding, I'm jealous I can't be with them. You all know who you are, and you're probably the only ones still reading after #6

8.  I am happy I made one trip to New Hampshire. Though I only spent two days there all year, I packed in a lot. I hiked Mt. Tremont to a gorgeous summit view, I saw a bear, went birding, and took tons of photos of peak foliage. I've said it before, it is nice that the mountains are close by.

9. I am grateful for May 16, 2020. For ten days the east side of the country was pummeled with north winds. This held back millions of birds heading north. When the winds shifted the night of May 15 all of these birds that had been bottlenecked took flight. Then around 10 pm it started to rain. This forced the birds down. When we woke up the next morning birds were everywhere. I went to Miantonomi Park in Newport as did almost every other birder. The place was dripping with birds. Every tree had multiple good beautiful birds. It was an incredible experience.

10. I am grateful that I was asked to go on the dedicated pelagic on Sept 8. We saw a lot of good birds, Pilot Whales, and Atlantic White Sided Dolphins. I also got to catch a Mahi-mahi and my largest fish yet a Yellowfin Tuna. Thank you Carlos.

11. Of course, thanks to Laurie for not complaining too much when she comes over on Sunday's unsuspecting that she will be dragged on another bird chase. 

12. Lastly, as always, I love living in this country. The amazing scenery, wildlife, and history are all thing I cherish. Without these things, I would have no purpose in life. But because of them I have an entire notebook of bucket list ideas that range from catching a Peacock Bass to hiking trails in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. 

Another MEGA- RARE Bird Comes to Rhode Island

 A few months back I wrote a post entitled "The Rarest bird I am ever going to see in Rhode Island.

http://southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-rarest-bird-i-am-ever-going-to-see.html

It turns out I was wrong. A bird just as rare as June's Terek Sandpiper showed up at Snake Den today. The bird that showed up is a Common Cuckoo. Common in Europe and common in Africa where it winters, but not common in the USA. Common Cuckoo has only been seen twice in the United States before today. One in 2012 and the other in 1981! Al Schenck found it this morning and reported it after he realized what it could be. Within an hour Snake Den was a zoo. Dozens of birders descended on the small parking lot. 

I got to see the bird today for about an hour. This is about fifty nine minutes and twenty seconds longer than I got to see the Terek's Sandpiper in June. I took what turned out to be 220 photos. I easily deleted three quarters of them when I went through them. I got lucky with a couple of dozen or so.

From what I have learned, the Common Cuckoo prefers open country. It does summer in Europe where the population is rising in Scotland and it winters in Africa. How it got here is anyone's guess. The poor bird was exhausted. The good news is it ate throughout the day. I personally saw it eat a huge nightcrawler and caterpillars. I don't know what the fate of this bird will be. If it can tolerate Scotland in the spring, then the weather this week should be tolerable. I can only hope for the best.

Many more photos below-

Red Headed Woodpecker and Surfers

 

   This morning I birded with my friend Sue when I should have been out car shopping. We birded in Burlingame Campground. There has been a Red Headed Woodpecker family there for a week or so. I hadn't seen it. Sue and I walked all over the campground looking at other birds as well. The second best bird was a Black Throated Blue Warbler. Both species were photo upgrades for me.

   Later on I met my friend Dave and we fished for a little while. Fishing stunk so I decided to stay at Point Judith and get some photos of surfers. I took at least a hundred and most were boring. These are the best. I played around with my settings and got a "ghosting effect" of a surfer.

A Nice Autumn Day in Concord, MA

    Instead of birding, today Laurie and I went up to Concord to capture photos of autumn there. It's no secret that Concord is my favorite town in MA. I haven't been up there this year just because I've done everything in town a dozen times. However, foliage season gave me a new challenge to photograph. 

   For reasons I don't understand, when I uploaded the photos to blogger they came up backwards. Meaning the first photo below was my last. I tried fixing it, but there must be a glitch in Blogger right now. So here I telling you about Concord in reverse order than I saw it. 

   When we got there it was still raining, but five minutes after pulling into Great Meadows parking lot the clouds were gone and the sky was bright blue. This wasn't all good because it meant dealing with harsh light and bad shadowing. I thought I'd have some time to photograph in cloudy conditions but never had a chance. Not that I am complaining. The temp rose to sixty degrees and it was a beautiful fall day. 

This is the Paul Revere capture site below. He was caught by the British soldiers during his famous midnight ride at this spot.

This huge tree near the capture site was the object of many people's selfies and photos.

These kids were having a tough time trying to get up to the first branch, but they were having fun

This is Buchman Tavern. People were taking a peak inside since they can't go in anymore. Thanks Covid

After the initial conflict between the British and Minutemen there was a running battle all the way back to Boston Harbor where the British soldiers were stationed. They had another sixteen miles to go and they had already been up close to 24 hours

The Wayside House at points was a home of Louisa May Alcott and Nat Hawthorne 

The Orchard House below. This is where Alcott wrote Little Woman

The photo below is of Brewster Spring. Henry David Thoreau used to bird watch here. One of the things I wanted to do was get a photo of a bird, any bird, from this spot knowing Thoreau was in the same spot a hundred and seventy years ago. This proved tougher than expected. There were a few birds but with all the trees, leaves, and sticks, my camera did not want to focus on any of them. We even saw a bald eagle soaring over the trees. Finally I got a couple bad photos of a hawk and a Tufted Titmouse, but mission accomplished.

Red Tailed Hawk photographed from Brewster Spring

Tufted Titmouse

We spent an hour walking around downtown. Most of Concord is very old. These diners were eating at "The Colonial" which is where we had my brother's bachelor party.

There were a lot of people early voting today. The line was socially distancing, but it would have been pretty long anyway

Most of the old buildings were decorated for fall

I don't know how old the home below is. It reminded me of a fairy tale house.

This brick building is the Concord Museum. It is home to one of the lantern of "one if by land, two if by sea" fame. Also, it houses Emerson's library and a bunch of other amazing historic artifacts.

A very Liberal Church in a very liberal town. Biden signs were everywhere. I never saw one Trump sign.

Side view of the above church

Laurie and I went to a play at this little theater once. Not my favorite play ever.

I liked this scene when I saw it. But I knew that light post was going to drive me crazy. But I chose to show it because I wanted to show the bright red tree in the photo. I really couldn't maneuver for a better angle. We were standing at the edge of a rotary and there was a lot of traffic. On the bright side the trees frame the church nicely. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

One of the first things we did was stop at the North Bridge. Incidentally, the bathrooms are open for public use.

The Minuteman Statue by Daniel 
Chester French who was only 23 at 
the time!

We stopped at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which is the final resting place of Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and French

Emerson

Alcott

Henry David Thoreau

The very first thing we did was go to Great Meadows. I thought it would be lit up like a Christmas tree with fall colors. But it was surprisingly very dull. The four birders in the photo also said the birding was dull. I agreed. Other than some Great Blue Heron's and some flyover ducks, there wasn't anything around.

The Concord River. Much duller than I expected.

The only real color we found was this fading rainbow. Still, we had a nice day