Red Fox and Red Headed Woodpecker

 

   I went on a birding trip on Cape Cod two weeks ago looking for rare birds. There were seven possible species at various locations. One of those locations was Race Point. We worked our way to P-town stopping at all of the potential rare birds on the way. Because we dipped on some, we spent too much time looking for them. So I got to the Race Point parking lot around 2 pm instead of the 12:30 time I hoped. I rushed out to the rip but by the time I got there it was about time to turn around. I had to meet Laurie who came for the ride but made it clear she wasn't walking over the Race Point sand if she went.

    When I got back to the lot a friendly Red Fox was begging for food. There wasn't any doubt it had been fed. I started taking photos of it. Because it was on the asphalt and the lines of parking spaces were in front of and behind it, most of the photos suck. However, I got a few decent ones. At one point it was too close to me to focus and I had to stand up to make it back off. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt me, but it was about six feet from me. Though I saw some of the birds I wanted to see, the fox was by far the highlight of the day. Laurie got to see it too. Woodpecker story below photos.

   My friend Nicole babysits for a family on a working farm. She is a hardcore birder and the family she works for loves birds. They even allowed her to do a Christmas Bird Count on the farm in golf carts for "Birdability" which is for people that have a hard time getting around. 

   On the farm there has been a Red Headed Woodpecker for a month. This farm and Nicole live in Connecticut so it is a long ride for me. One to piggyback things to do I decided to go for the Woodpecker and hang out with Nicole. After that, I would bird RI stopping first at Misquamicut to see the Snow Buntings. Also that day I put up two Screech Owl boxes so it was a busy day.

   I met Nicole at the nature center where she works. She showed me around and I got to hold a lot of the animals. By far, the most exciting animal I held was a very tame Hognose Snake! I got to hold some turtles and a toad also. It was very nice of Nicole to let me see everything.

   We went to the farm after leaving the nature center. It was a ten minute ride. We got on the golf cart and went out to the field that had some huge oaks. The Red Headed Woodpecker wasn't there so we went down other trails. Finally on our third and last pass we saw the Red Headed Woodpecker. I didn't get any great photos but it was still awesome to see. Thank you Nicole!

 This week I also got a photo upgrade of the super rare Ross's Goose that has been hanging around the Newport Country Club for a month

Little Gull

 

  I went birding yesterday in Rhode Island. I spent all day birding in the hopes of collecting rarities. The bird I most wanted was a Little Gull. Little Gulls are actually the smallest gull in the world. They primarily live in Eurasia. There are small colonies around the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay, but other than those places they are rare in the rest of North America. Though not the first ones to visit RI, this is the second one to come to RI since I became a birder. It turns out, there are three in Rhode Island right now. However, the most consistent ones are between South Kingstown Town Beach and the Ocean Mist.

   The problem is there are probably two thousand gulls in that are right now. Due to all of these Nor'easters gulls have been pushed to the shore by the thousands. It really is amazing to see so many birds. The other problem is Little Gulls look a lot like Bonaparte Gulls. Bonapartes are also small though not as small as Little Gulls and they have a black patch on the side of the head as do Little Gulls this time of year. As Dan Berard said "it's like looking for a needle in a stack full of needles"

  The first place I went yesterday was South Kingstown Town Beach. Speaking of Dan, he was there looking through the gulls.  Dan is the best birder in Rhode Island or at least tied for that spot. He has a memory to remember field marks and ears to hear songs like no other birder. So I was thrilled Dan was there. I knew if I didn't find the bird he would if it was around.

   

That is exactly what happened, twice! He found the Little Gull on the water with a flock of several hundred Bonaparte Gulls. Twice he got it in his scope for me to look at and twice I couldn't see it! Between the wave action and my inexperience with this species, I just could not pick it out in a scope view full of thirty birds huddled together in the few seconds before they would lift to avoid a wave..

   So I realized my best chance to see it was to find it when it flew. Though Little Gulls can be told apart from other species by their size, a dark smudge on top of the head, and their roundish wings, those were tough field marks figure out when you only have two or three seconds before the bird moves in the waves. The key field mark is they are the only gull with a completely dark underwing. Find a gull with the underwing almost completely black and you found a Little Gull. 

   Every time a part of the flock took off or rose to avoid a crashing wave I looked at them with my bins. After an hour of this strategy I finally saw the adult Little Gull. It was down the beach to the left but it flew slowly towards us. I called it out to Dan and the other birders and we watched it for the minute or so before it landed. Once in the water I lost it again in the hoard of gulls. We saw the adult fly twice. A juvenile also flew by giving great looks to the group but I did not see it.

    Later in the day after looking for other birds my friend Richard Tucker texted me asking where I saw the Little Gull. After I told him, I went back to the beach to help find it. Though I actually did little to help find it someone spotted it and we got great looks at it flying. Since the sun was more behind us, I got my best photo of the bird near sunset.

   With the Little Gull, I have gotten three lifers since January 1. I got a total of four lifers all of last year, and one of those was in Missouri. However, I got two of those four in December (plus two RI state birds), so I am finally on a pretty good run. I hope it continues.

Two weeks into January, My second Lifer, Zero Good Photos

 

  I had a doctor's appointment in North Attleboro today. While I was sitting in the room waiting for the doctor someone found a Northern Shrike at Snake Den Farm. As it was, that was only twenty two minutes from where I was sitting. I had never seen a Northern Shrike but have tried multiple times. Needless to say my routine doctor's visit couldn't get over fast enough.

    Northern Shrike are little predator birds. They are smaller than a Blue Jay and look much like a Northern Mockingbird. They mostly live in the evergreen forest south of the Arctic Tundra. During the winter they will occasionally make their way south towards New England. In my years of birding, this is only the third one that I know of in Rhode Island. They hunt small birds and will actually use the barbs of barbed wire to impale their prey. 

  Off I went to Snake Den as soon as I walked out of the office. I pulled into the parking lot and got my scope out. I scanned the tops of trees in the distance and found it pretty quickly. I called over some other birders that were looking in a different direction and we all looked at it in our scopes for twenty minutes. Eventually, when the sun went below the tree line the Shrike took off and we lost it against the darkness of the forest. I took some digiscoped photos with my phone over my scope's eyepiece. They are crap, but technically I did get a photo. The Shrike was probably a quarter mile away or more so I'm just happy I found it.

Oh God, I forgot my camera chasing a lifer

Barrow's
GoldenEye 

 Last night I got a message from my friend Danielle Stebbins that a MacGillivray's Warbler (from now on just Mac) was seen during a Christmas Bird Count in Raynham, MA. It was still being seen yesterday. So we made plans to go look for it today.

Mac's are western birds. Even when they migrate south they stay west of the Rockies. So yes, this one is lost. One was seen last year in Providence and I chased it but dipped. When I got there, at least ten birders who had seen it were still there. I saw the movement in the brush but never actually saw the bird. From me on, no one else that showed up saw the bird that day or ever. That sucked.

    Danielle and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time this morning. When I got out I realized I left my camera at home!!! Not much I could do about it but I felt naked. We had the bird fairly easily, it called most of the morning and between us and a New Bedford birder, one of us would hear it every few minutes. It is the nature of a Mac to stay hidden and this one put on a clinic. I saw the bird about seven times. But never once other than flying quickly across the path did I see the whole body at once. All of my looks were for less than two seconds and only once did I see the head. Still al lifer because if you played the game Operation before, all of my sightings did add up to a full bird and it was beautiful. Even if I had my camera I never would have gotten a photo. It was too elusive.

   However, not having my camera lead to another dilemma. Did I want to continue birding without it. I had hoped to find some other good birds but I wanted my camera for proof photos. I went anyway.

 

Northern
Shoveler 

  I went to Buttonwood Park in New Bedford where there was a Northern Shoveler and a Cackling Goose. I found the Shoveler before I got out of the car but couldn't make any of the Canadas into a Cackling.

  Next I went to the harborwalk in New Bedford and spent way too much time looking for but eventually finding the Barrow's Goldeneye. Another western bird that summer's in Alaska, but a couple do show up every winter.

   Lastly I went to Fairhaven and heard Clapper Rails that have been around for months. Another easy bird. I hoped to go to Newport and look for the Ross's Goose or to Westport and look for Snowy Owls but time got away from me today. I was pissed I left my camera at home but glad I got some good birds.

First of the year fish and rarity

   

Goldfish

One of my friends already has ninety three species of birds under her belt in Rhode Island alone. I went out for a walk on New Year's Day and saw a Chickadee. So, if I cared, she has a ninety two bird head start on me. Today, a friend of mine thought it would be a good idea to go seining. Yes, it's January so maybe not our smartest decision. Despite a major strikeout on seeing anything we still had fun. We only had until 1 pm because he had to be in Cranston in the afternoon so I dropped him at the Attleboro Train Station for him to make his appointment.

   Deciding it would be nice to see something new for the year, I went up to La Salette Shrine to see their Goldfish. Goldfish have been breeding in the pond for a hundred years so at this point they are wild. Much of the pond was skim ice but I saw two bright orange Goldfish under the ice. This made me happy. 

   As I was getting into my car, there was an alert that a Townsend's Warbler was at Swan Point. This was presumably the same bird as a month before. I really didn't want to go to Providence but I was five minutes from the highway and from the exit only fifteen minutes after that. So I went. I saw the bird rather quickly since Sue Talbot was there and she is a great birder. She came across it high in a pine tree. It was in beautiful light with the sun behind it. I took a lot of photos but one of them stood out from the rest. It is probably a photo upgrade.