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| Redwing |
A few weeks ago another really rare European visitor visited the lower 48. This one was not in Rhode Island but in Portland, ME. The bird is known as a Redwing. It is a bird of fields and meadows and sort of resembles a Robin. The closest they regularly occur is Iceland. There have been very few sightings in the USA. A bunch of my friends went on a Saturday in January to see it. Because of Covid they all took separate cars. I had to work and my friend Sue had to babysit. Neither of us were terribly upset because it was during that cold spell. The high for the day was eight degrees and the wind was whipping.
The bird has not left the spot it was found for weeks. Although it is really rare, it is usually very easy to see in the brush near the "Henry bench" at Capisic Pond Park. Sue suggested we go up to Maine and look for it. Besides the Redwing, another rare bird had been seen there, a Black Headed Grosbeak, a native of western grasslands. To add more sweetener to the trip a pair of Dickcissel have been hanging around. I have seen a few Dickcissel, but never got a decent photo of one.
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| Dickcissel |
So Sue and I got a Covid test and once we got our negative results we planned our trip. If time was not an issue Sue wanted to bird the New Hampshire coast and we both wanted to try Salisbury for a variety of birds. Salisbury Beach has had Crossbills, Snowy, Short Eared, and Long Eared Owl this winter. Not to mention Redpolls, Snow Buntings, and White Winged Crossbill. Most important to me was the Long Eared Owl which I have dipped on but would be a lifer.
Within five minutes of pulling into Capisic Park we had the Redwing. A couple of people were looking right at it. We watched and photographed it for fifteen minutes. Fifty feet down the path I saw a flock of House Sparrows was in the brush. Knowing that Dickcissel associate with House Sparrows I watched them. A Dickcissel popped out right out in the open for us. Again we watched this bird for quite some time.
After seeing our two targets, we looked around for the Black Headed Grosbeak for about ninety minutes. It hadn't been seen for a few days but we gave it the old college try. We left more than happy that we got the Redwing and Dickcissel and it still wasn't noon.
We drove along the New Hampshire coast and stopped at Hampton Beach. Sue is hoping to get one hundred species in each New England state. We were pleasantly surprised to find an Ipswich Savannah Sparrow and eight Purple Sandpipers. I think we left New Hampshire with about twenty birds.
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| Extremely cropped photo of my lifer Long Eared Owl |
I'll be honest, despite the long list of good birds I named four paragraphs up, all I really wanted at Salisbury was the Long Eared Owl and maybe the very unlikely White Winged Crossbill. I went up specifically for the Long Eared a couple weeks ago but dipped. I didn't care if I saw Snowy Owl or Common Redpolls. Long Eared would be a lifer, and with our luck so far, I was optimistic. After heading straight to the bathroom we started birding. The Long Eared Owl has been in a clump of pines for three or four weeks. The problem is sometimes it stays well hidden.
From the rest room parking lot we could see a bunch of cars around the pines. We got excited because that many people wouldn't be there if it wasn't visible. Sure enough when we drove over we were rewarded with views of the Long Eared Owl. It was well hidden behind a lot of brush in a cedar tree only three feet off of the ground. This did not make for a good photo shoot, but seeing it was awesome. We watched it for quite a while, while also showing other birders where it was through Sue's scope. We left the owl, and looked for Crossbills and Redpolls, but the best we could do was a Red Breasted Nuthatch upgrade.
Needless to say, we had a fantastic day. I got two lifers, Redwing and Long Eared Owl (Sue had seen Long Eared Owl before). I also got photo upgrades of Dickcissel and Red Breasted Nuthatch. If you throw in the Pink Footed Goose from yesterday I got life or upgrade photo of five species of bird in about eighteen hours.
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| Red Breasted Nuthatch not cropped |
I owe a huge thank you to Sue for suggesting the trip. I also went with her to get Covid tested which has very easy and completely painless. I never would have taken the trip alone. We had a lot of fun and saw some great birds. A few more photos below
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| A Red Tailed Hawk that only had one red tail feather |
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| Another look at the Redwing |
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| Dickcissel in a different tangle of brush |
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| Yesterday's Pink Footed Goose |
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| Well named |
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| I'm told this Red Tailed Hawk flew so close to my head yesterday that I should felt the wind from its wings. I didn't, but it did land in a tree six feet from me after it flew over me. |
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