Gulls are back!

The gulls have come back, and we are very glad about that!  Our family gathering on Christmas day was near the landfill, so some of us cousins headed down to a wheat field where the gulls were milling.  There were roughly 2000 sitting about a hundred yards off the road, and we could scope them very well.  The highlight was a first cycle Glaucous, a major nemesis for Joseph, that showed up after about an hour.  We also saw a gull that doesn't seem quite right for any particular species.  There is a possibility that it is a Cook Inlet (Herring x Glaucous-winged) which would be very rare, although I did see one at the sandpit nearby last winter.

First cycle Glaucous Gull

Thayer's Gull wing pattern.

Possible Cook Inlet Gull.  What are your thoughts?

Possible Cook Inlet Gull.  Thoughts?

Bryant and I made a run to the landfill again today.  We had a third cycle Thayer's, something we Kansans don't see very often, an adult Glaucous, and 6 Lesser Black-backeds, our best count for this winter so far.

Poor pic of the adult Glaucous.

Adult Thayer's Gull.

Adult Herring that flew right by the truck.

Hopefully we start to get some mega rarities soon!  

Andrew

The Hybrid Gulls of Winter 2014-2015

With gull season slowly heating up, I've been impatient to get out and spend some quality time with some larids. Unfortunately school has kept me too busy to do much birding, but I have gotten around reviewing some of our gull photos from last winter.

I meant to post a summary of the gulls we saw last year, but seeing that didn't happen I guess I'll  whack out a quick post detailing the hybrid gulls we found.

I was watching gulls at the sandpit on January 22 when I saw this gull whip by. I looked up, thought "Oh, just another Thayer's" and shot a quick pic. Glancing at the back of the camera I thought it looked a little odd, but promptly forgot about it...

 Until, on the 20th of February Bryant and Andrew came upon this gull at the landfill. From their photos, I immediately recognized it as either the same bird I had seen or a nearly identical individual. With their much better photos it seems clear that this is a "Nelson's" Gull, a hybrid between Glaucous and Herring Gulls

Photo by Andrew

 The unique primary pattern, with P8-P10 "slatyish" nearly to the base but P7 mostly pale was the first thing I noticed. This is quite different from both Herring and Thayer's, but apparently standard for a 4th-cycle "Nelson's."

Photo by Andrew

 Note the short primary projection, large, blocky head, high eye-placement, and thick bill, all pointing to Glaucous influence

This great comparison shot shows the large size and paler mantle color of the hybrid well in comparison with Ring-billed and Herring.
Photo by Andrew

In retrospect it seems pretty obvious, and I'm surprised I didn't notice it in the field.

Andrew was gull-watching on the 3rd of February when he spotted this unusual gull. He sent to a few gull authorities who agreed that it was a "Cook Inlet" Gull, a Glaucous-winged X Herring Gull hybrid.

Andrew also found this gull which didn't seem to tick all the boxes for any particular species. Our best guess is that this is another "Cook Inlet" Gull. This hybrid, originating in the Cook Inlet area of Alaska, has rarely been sighted east of the Rockies, and this seems to the first record of this hybid in Kansas.

Anyway, hopefully we will get some good northern gulls here soon. So far this winter we have only found a few Thayer's and Lesser Black-backed.

Joseph

Cheney Comes Through!

Early on the morning of the 14th, Joseph, Anthony, Bryant and I loaded up and headed out toward Cheney.  We went straight to Yoder Point, hoping to be there when the gulls headed out from the lake.  After some brief scanning of the usual gulls and waterfowl, Anthony noticed some large wading birds.   Upon closer examination with the scope, we could tell they were Whooping Cranes!  Neither Bryant or I had seen them in Reno before and they were also year birds for everybody!

That is what Whooping Cranes look like from 1 mile away.

We stayed there for about 45 minutes and had several nice flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls, year birds for Joseph.

From there we worked our way down to the dam, stopping at several points along the way.  We did not see much, but when we got on top of the dam we saw a vast swath of waterfowl far out on the lake.

That dark out there is all ducks!  This was only part of the flock.

We got as close as we could and started scoping.  The majority of them were Mallards, Redhead, and Scaup, but there were also good numbers of many other species.  When my turn at the scope came, I noticed two large Grebes in with the ducks.  They were Western/Clark's types, but before we could look closely at them a boat came and scared all the birds further out.   We managed to refind one of the Grebes, and after extensive viewing we were pretty sure it was a Clark's.  Unfortunately, separating the two is very challenging and we couldn't ever tell for sure.

This is the distance we were dealing with on the Grebes.

While we keeping an eye on the Grebe, I took a quick binocular scan around and almost immediately saw a Black Scoter!  A lifer for everybody!  It was swimming closer to us, but the the same boat that scared the other birds came by and scared it off.  I was pretty annoyed.

Black Scoter

Black Scoter: picture by Bryant.

We stayed and watched the Grebes for a while, hoping they would come closer.  Unfortunately, the occasional boat kept them a long way off.  As we were walking back to the vehicle, Anthony and Joseph noticed a swallow.  Any swallow is exceptional at this time of year, but the most expected would be a Tree Swallow.  It turns out that this was a Barn Swallow, about the third latest it has ever been seen in Kansas!

As we headed out we stopped at a couple more points and found a Winter Wren, a year bird for Bryant!

It felt good to have another really good day of birding since, none of us have had a good one for a while!

Since all the other pics in this post were terrible, I will throw this one to hopefully counteract that:)

Andrew

India 2015 | Part Two: Dimapur

This is the second of several posts I've been writing about our trip to India in late April. The first post can be found here, India 2015 | Part One: Kolkata.

We landed in the mid afternoon at the not-so-bustling Dimapur Airport. We were greeted by many Asian Palm Swifts and other unidentified swifts swirling around.

Landing in Dimapur

Once we arrived at our host's house I popped outside to see what I could find. It was hot and there was little to see in the middle of the afternoon, but I did find some of the more common species such as Red-vented Bulbuls, Common Tailorbirds, and  Oriental Magpie-robins.

A loudly chirping Red-vented Bulbul.

 These somewhat annoying bulbuls (they sound like this) were ubiquitous everywhere we went in India.

Typical village scene

Asian Palm Swift

This is currently my best digibinned photo of a swift, by a very large margin.

In contrast, here is a wretched real-camera pic I snagged of a fly-by probable Grey-hooded Treepie. These corvids reminded me a lot of our jays and magpies back home with their loud, grating calls.

Photography was quite challenging due to the prevalent low light, (we arrived at the beginning of the monsoon season) so please excuse the poor photo quality in these posts.

Grey-breasted Prinias were quite common in Nagaland. This individual was singing loudly, a trill reminiscent of Chipping Sparrows.

I saw a few other interesting species (full list here ) including a White-throated Kingfisher and a White-rumped Shama (amazing birds) the next morning before leaving for a village deep in the hills of Kohima state.

And with that, stay tuned for the next installment; From the Village of Tseminyu.

Joseph

First State Record!!

Yesterday morning I found an interesting skipper in the lavender plants by our front porch.  When I saw it I immediately knew that it wasn't anything I had ever seen before.  The first thing that came to mind was Ocola Skipper, but I wasn't sure.  I took a bunch of pictures and then went inside to check it out.  Turns out, it was indeed an Ocola!  This is the first Kansas record and also the first record from the genus Panoquina!  Joseph came over after school and managed to see it, but unfortunately it was gone when Bryant and I got home a little later.

Ocola Skipper

Ocola Skipper

Ocola Skipper

While Bryant and I were trying to refind it, we did found this Skipperling.  It appears to just be a Orange Skipperling, but the upperwings look similar to a Southern Skipperling, which would be another first state record!

Skipperling sp.

Skipperling sp.

The strong south winds around here for the last couple of days probably brought many stray butterflies up here.  Joseph also had a Texan Crescent and a Bordered Patch at his place this evening, both southern butterflies.  Hopefully all the southern stuff hangs around for several days.  

I haven't done much birding lately, but I have seen some good stuff in the little that I have done.

This Killdeer was killed and impaled by a Shrike.

One of the Nelson's Sparrows that hung around the Sparrow stretch for several days.

Vesper Sparrow in the morning light.

Short-eared Owl against the sunset.  This was year bird #264!

I also had two Common Redpolls in the yard about two weeks ago.  They were lifers, but unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures.  They were also the earliest seen in Kansas by a week!  All in all, it has been a good fall!

Andrew

A Sixteen Sparrow Saturday

A Marsh Wren in the early morning light

I made the discovery last evening that a weedy dead-end road nearby (which we affectionately refer to as "the sparrow stretch") was thick with sparrows and wrens. I ended up with ten species of sparrows including my first ever Nelson's Sparrow! I was not able to get any good photos of it, however, so I was back before sunrise this morning.

 The first good sparrow I found was this very confiding Le Conte's. It calmly sat on the wire as I stalked up.

Uh...Ahem there!

Dwight and Anthony soon showed up and we started looking seriously for the Nelson's. We weren't finding them where I had seen it last night, so we stumbled through the adjacent CRP field in search of more. There were indeed Nelson's there! We estimated at least ten of them, along with a few additional Le Conte's and a handful of Marsh and Sedge Wrens.

True to form the Nelson's kept very well hidden,  allowing us only a few decent shots.

I was fascinated to hear the the flight calls of both the Nelson's and Le Conte's Sparrows. The Nelson's was distinctly buzzier than the thin, clear call of the Le Conte's.

We had accumulated over a dozen species of sparrows by now and decided to see if we could beat our previous one-day record of fifteen species. A quick check of some sandhill plums thickets revealed a few more; including a nice male Eastern Towhee, only the third I've seen in the county and number sixteen for the day!

A grouchy looking Clay-colored Sparrow

Bryant and Andrew soon came over to look for the Nelson's. Unfortunately the sparrows were fairly uncooperative, and treated us only to brief glimpses in flight.

I think that Nelson's are likely far more common than current records indicate. Their habitat (small patches of cordgrass) is seldom birded at this time of year. So if you have cordgrass nearby, right now is probably your best chance for a Nelson's.

Joseph

Eclipse

On Sunday night, there was a supermoon combined with an eclipse.  The last time this happened was in 1982 and it won't happen again until 2033.  I decided to go out and take some pictures, but due to a major bone-head move I didn't get any while it was full.  Anyway, here they are!

I now wish I had stayed up until it was completely over, but sleep is important too:)

I think this is only the fourth or fifth eclipse I have ever seen, but this was definitely the most fun one for me!

Andrew