Dec 22-27 2010 - Josephine lives!

Not too much birding on the UK trip this Christmas Recent and still standing snow meant lots of birds in Dad's garden and a chance to get reacquainted with the locals such as Jay, great-spotted woodpecker and the like.

Mid-afternoon a THUD on the patio window and a squeal from the girls found a female blackbird suffering the consequences of a collision with the glass. Fortunately just stunned, the bird, quickly festively named Josephine by Robyn, recovered after several minutes While she was recovering however a fox came down to investigate the bird food but fortunately stayed the other side of the pond. Walking through Chichester town centre on Christmas Morning and absent it usual background noise the noise from the crows and pigeons echoed round the empty streets. In "Chi-gate" a couple of large Euro-Herring Gulls prowled the car park looking for scraps and an occasional black-headed screamed overhead. A few Great Cormorant flew around the canal area where Santa and the reindeer were on their usual barge.

Smile please!

A few shots from the around on a damp, cold Sunday

Keep off the ice....

It's a wee bit chilly out there. I called in at the patch on my way to lunch. The pond is largely frozen apart from the receiving pond ( as I've apparently decided to call it) under the Green Heron trees, and the areas around the fountains (poor water quality have some advantages sometimes). Most birds were around one if the fountains with 72 ring-bills and a Herring gull. Also 15 of the 18 Hooded Mergansers were there.....time for lunch

i spy dinner...

Another couple of days keeping the eyes on the feeders for Project Feederwatch.



House Finch number have gone right down, now we are lucky to have two at a time. Chickadees are still numerous (if you can call 3 at a time numerous) and the House Sparrows come en masse a couple of times during the day.



Yesterdays highlights were multiple visits by a rather large (presumably female) Coopers Hawk and a smaller (male?) bird, both brightly colored adults. No doubt the gatherings of birds on the deck is providing an attraction to them.....

Winter arrives at the park

A cold and breezy day at Riverbend saw few visitors, human at least. The feeders were busy with lots of Titmice and others. The seed was low so many birds were attracted to the suet. However the woodpeckers rules the roost when they chose. There was (at least) a pair of Downy and a couple visits from a 'bellied' The river was high and flowing fast and I only managed 4 Common Mergansers and 8, very cute, Bufflehead. Towards the end of the day I found this eagle eating (apparently a bird) across the river

Another day at the seaside

An ultimately fruitless return to Chincoteague after news that the arctica Dunlin was seen last weekend but nevertheless an enjoyable day.

I explored further down the beach than I had done previously, it helped me find the first flock of smithsonius Dunlin of the day in the northern corner of the pool. It was a chilly NW wind but a spectacular beach-scape, feeling very remote with (for most of the time) no sight nor sign or anyone else. Alone that is, except for the company of Yellow-rumps! In many of the bushes (or what remains if them) there were groups of them. The bush below contained maybe 35-40 birds, some of which got a little agitated by a little light pishing.

On the sea, their was a little scoter movement and a few Gannet but the big difference from three weeks ago was the number of Loons. Several hundred flew south and, a bit later, many were seen on the sea, often just beyond the breaking waves. A nice, cleanly marked, dark Red-throated caught me again (as this plumage often does!), but it didnt look convincing enough to be anything else. A few Sanderlings and the odd Western? Willet paraded the beach and three adult Lesser Black-backed Gull  went north along the sand. The Willet feeding in the pool were deep-wading birds, a habit indicative of Western.

On the pool there were 14 Tundra Swans (and 54 from the wildlife loop later), a Cackling Goose joined a couple of the swans.

poor record shot of the Cackling Goose

Along the creek opposite the visitor center, a female Greater Scaup rested and eventually gave up a few decent photos

Female Greater Scaup, showing the white spreading to the inner primaries, and a good head shape

Later in the day an increasing passage of Bonapartes Gull was seen at first struggling to get good distant looks (a 'real' "SEA GULL"?) - I then found 40 odd on a mud bar in Tom's Cove, only for them to be found, on the rising tide, feeding alongside the roadside near the visitors centre....

1st W Bonapartes Gull, Tom's Cove, Chincotaegue, 12/4/10, digiphoned & cropped

The tide running away to a midday low tide didn't help keep the waders in one place as the uber-hide tides of last month must have. I check all the Dunlin that I could find but to no avail...

<Sure there was more to be written here....> !




On the wildlife loop, impressive numbers of wildfowl were constantly being shuffled by one  of the adult eagle. But that did give the oppportunity to hear the Long-billed Dowitcher flock (54!) calling for confirmation of their ID. At one point it looked like it was going to take a Teal but the duck escaped shortly before impact.
There was a huge flock of Tree Swallows over the water, I guestimated 750 although there was probably more than that.

An adult eagle about to shuffle several thousand Duck

Play by FoxSaver®

Of odd gulls and waxwings...and a dance

Cold morning but with the cloud cover breaking around dawn, it warm a little by the end of my walk at 8:40

Nothing on the lake to start with and the first bird was an adult Ring-billed Gull that has large white blotches in the grey back and wings. I've seen a similar plummage partially albino bird here before, maybe it's a returning visitor. Along with the relatively light gull passage this morning, two groups of four American Herring (or should that be Smithsonian) Gulls flew over.
An excellent candidate for Black-capped Chickadee showed well at Pooh Bridge, a big, constrasty, bull-necked bird, with large white cheek patch,white bordered secondaries and some white on the coverts. I'd have like to have seen a Carolina nearby for comparison but had to wait thirty minutes before doing so (of course they are visiting the feeders at home every minute!)
Just above the slope to the riverbed, 14 Waxwings were feeding in a berry bush and taking refuge in the tree above.
Finally back near the Rusty Bridge maintenance shed, 2 Mockingbirds played out a comical dance as they faced off with each other hopping this way and that in a choreographic dance

Trying to get a good look at Chickadee's at the feeders but BOY they move fast! There are undoubtedly many Carolina around.
A very smart adult Cooper's visited the garden behind, sitting on the fence and deck for a few minutes.

C c c c cowbirds and an odd heron

38* with chill NNW breeze



No sign of the Beaver this morning but the partial lodge is still under the Green Heron tree although it doesnt look like it has been added to much.



Nearby, a flock 400 or so cowbirds were feeding near the road. They were quite tame allowing fairly close approach before taking off in unison and flying straight over me before wheeling back round.

Cowbirds, just after take off, video grab

From the river bed, looking back towards the Holmes Run 'warterfall' a Great Blue Heron attracted my attention. Seemingly a juvenile moulting/moutled into adult plumage. However, looking more closely, the thigh feathers were whitish. On the folded wing there was just a small area of rufous, not always visible. When I approached the area from above (near the softball field / warbler corner) the bird flushed quickly.

GBH - yucky lighting

Mammal morning

A couple of nice looks at mammals this morning. A beaver seems to have taken up residence in the small end of the lake, beneath the Green Heron tree and was watched going about the business of building a new lodge. Of course how long it will be allowed to stay is another thing but they certainly seem to be persistently returning to the site despite efforts to move them away

As I was pondering the beaver, near the building on the far side of the lake, a Raccoon came bundling out towards the road. It was scared by a passing car , changed direction and headed straight towards me, passing within 10 feet of me before seeking the shelter of the water and the Lake edge. It then swam back to roughly where it started from!

Dull and showery morning (55* though, crazy warm but will cool as the front passes). Avian activity was pretty slow. Few crows today and they seemed to be largely local birds, wandering.
On Pooh bridge, I pished up several sparrows, mainly white-throated. A winter wren joined then and was watched investigating an old new, presumably for hiding insects.

At the feeders today

A male House Finch with a badly diseased right eye at the feeders today.
Busy with Carolina Chickadee, 10 or more Doves But no sighting of the Coopers for several days

Still busy researching and documenting the Dunlin, waiting on a few folks to respond.....

Inactivity and adaption

A dull, misty day led to general inactivity amongst the passerines. The resulting dullness presumably led to the protracted departure from the crow roost with birds dispersing all through my visit with no particular pattern to the species mix.
On the lake there were 19 Hooded Mergansers until they started to depart around 7:40, flying off downstream toward Eisenhower.
Another adaption to the made made environment of the park, the new flood lights on the soccer field have been adopted by Starlings with 120 or so birds at first light. How long before the Coopers discover them?

Rare Wigeon and Dunlin

Odd weekend as far as birding goes. The trip to Mason neck found the ducks WAY over the other side and too distant to pick out a Euro Wigeon (2 are present)

Lots of Dunlin research. -last w/e bird is turning into quite the bird.... Is it an arctica? Or is it a Russian bird as Persson is suggesting? All very interesting... Trying to get some info on arctica moult timing now.

Filled up the feeders buy only a couple of Chickadees and a single house finch today... Bas start to Feedwrwatch.

Flying visit west

Almost no time in a quick 24 hrs in San Diego but the usual Western Gulls around the car hire. As the car was dropped off a pair of Brewers Blackbird flew down expectantly. The male showed a nice pale iris, the female a dark eye.

The rest....and the absentees

The Rest

A nice Hermit Thrush jumped on a sparrow we were studying (White-throated as it turned out)

The Dunlin still look extraordinarily long billed to my UK eyes. The one exception being a bird that retained a significant amount of black on its belly

This from Sibley :

Greenland breeding populations (recorded several times on Atlantic coast) are smaller and shorter-billed than American, drabber in breeding plumage, and paler-breasted and grayer in nonbreeding; they molt during or after fall migration

article on arctica Dunlin

Dunlin with black belly with Sanderling and Snow Geese

Small black-legged Calidrids with Dunlin

Also wading around the Geese were Semi-p Plover, Least Sandpiper (all but one in adult type plumage), and a few small black legged peeps that should be Western Sandpipers











The Absentees

There were :

Only 3 Laughing Gulls all weekend, the Ring-bills got all the bread!

Only 1 Snowy Egret and no Tricolors, both often very numerous a little earlier

There was no mud at low tide, except around the very edges, the tides were very high. At high tide the larger waves were washing over the sand dunes and washing into the (formerly) fresh water of the pool opposite the visitors center