Fall Crazies

This morning I decided to do some quick birding around our place.  There was some nice action, but nothing too crazy.  The best bird was a Black-throated Green Warbler that apparently missed his flight south.

Black-throated Green Warbler

I got a call from Anthony at about 10 o'clock, saying very excitedly that he had a Townsend's Solitare up near his place.  Joseph and I converged to the location quickly and got excellent looks at it before it flew off to the southwest.

Townsend's Solitare.  State lifer!

We birded a little more at a cordgrass marsh near there where we had seen Nelson's Sparrow's in the past.  There wasn't much, but we did see several Le Conte's Sparrows.

Le Conte's Sparrow

Later in the afternoon, I noticed a bunch of skippers on some flowers in our yard.  Upon closer inspection, I was shocked to see a skipper of the genus Panoquina!  Only one other Panoquina had ever been seen in Kansas and that was also in our yard almost a year ago to the day.  I quickly got a bunch of pictures, which revealed that this was indeed an Ocola Skipper!  

Today's Ocola Skipper!

Today's Ocola Skipper!

We identified the one last year as an Ocola as well, but after the fact an expert who had experience with both Ocola and Purple-washed from south Texas told us that he thought it was actually a Purple-washed.  The more we looked into it, the more we agreed.  So, I guess we'll just have to admit that we initially made the wrong identification.  Anyway, a Purple-washed is very rare as well, in fact, it is much rarer than an Ocola, even though they are both first state records.

Purple-washed Skipper from last year.  Notice faint row of spots on the wing and overall purple-ish sheen

Dan Jones deserves a shout-out for setting us on the right path on this ID.  Here is a link to his very interesting blog.  

Only a little longer till gull season!

Andrew

Sabine's!

After school today, Joseph, Bryant, and I went on a quick run to Quivira hoping to see the Sabine's Gulls that had been recently reported. On arriving at the east side of the Big Salt Marsh we found a nice flock of 16 Red-necked Phalaropes.  When we got to the main lake, we were impressed to see thousands of coots covering the water. Their wings made an impressive roar whenever they took off.  We then started scoping the massive flock of Franklin's Gulls for Sabine's with no success.  Then I quick glassed out to the south of where we were and almost immediately saw a Sabine's Gull!  We soon found that there were three present and we got decent looks, even though they were pretty far out.

Bad pic of a Juvenile Sabine's Gull.  Note the distinctive wing pattern

All three in one pic

While we were watching the gulls, several flocks of American Golden-Plovers flew over, year birds for Joseph.  We left the Big Salt Marsh briefly and headed to the Black Rail Field where we heard a Sedge Wren (a year bird for me) and a Virginia Rail calling.  We decided to stop by the Big Salt Marsh again before we headed home, and the Franklin's Gull numbers were amazing!

Some of the Franklin's Gulls

There was also a continuing Lesser Black-backed Gull hanging around.  Although they are sometimes seen in the summer, they are much more common in the winter.

Third cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull

I always love this time of year, when all the winter birds are just showing up and the late migrants are in full swing!

This female Yellow-headed Blackbird posed nicely

 Andrew

Large Orange Sulphur!

I was surprised when I found a large, whitish sulphur flying around my flower beds this afternoon. It looked similar to a Cloudless Sulphur but was white instead of chartreuse. Knowing it was likely a southern species I made a quick dive for the camera. A few pics and a quick glance at the field guide showed that it was obviously a female Large Orange Sulphur, a species I've had my eye out for for a while.

Large Orange Sulphur female

While far from the first record in Kansas, this is one of the few modern, non-specimen records, so I was pleased to be able to photograph fairly well.

 Unlike the resident Cloudless Sulphurs, it chilled on a Lantana plant the entire time it was present.

 Here's one of the Cloudless (below) for comparison.

Cloudless Sulphur

I've also had a number of Gulf Fritillaries hanging around the yard recently. These are, in my opinion, the most elegant butterfly we get here.

Gulf Fritillary

 Look at those silver spots!

Gulf Fritillary

It was nice to see a rare lep again since this year had seemed a little lacklustre so far after last years amazing stray show.

Keep your eyes peeled, there could easily be more southern species around with the continuing south winds!

Joseph

Quick Fall Migration Update: We're still alive!

Hi there,
We have indeed been birding the last few weeks, but what with school starting and all we haven't had much time to post. This post will hopefully bring you up to date on our recent birding adventures

First off, this hummingbird visited my feeder briefly back on August 14. It was only there for a few minutes and I never got great pictures, but it appears to be a Black-chinned Hummingbird. The blunt rounded primary tips are fairly diagnostic for this species and the long bill (visible in other photos) also supports this ID. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised, as this was only the next day after the pewee/goldfinch craziness.

Painted Crescent

Moving on, Anthony, Andrew and I visited Quivira NWR on Aug 21. Birding wasn't phenomenal, but we did happen onto a large population of Painted Crescents. Going from never having seen one to suddenly seeing literally dozens was a bit of a shock.

Painted Crescent

Also that weekend, a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk showed up in my neighborhood and remained for a couple weeks. Central Kansas seems like an odd choice to spend its summer.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Passerine migration finally came to life during the first week of September with a sudden influx of warblers and flycatchers. One particularly good Saturday morning brought a half-dozen species of warblers and a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher to the area.

Black-throated Green Warbler

The flycatcher is moderately rare here, rare enough to be a Kansas Bird Records Committee review species, but not anything you'd drive very far for. Empidonax species can be pretty tricky to ID, but thankfully this one was calling, so we were able to identify it with reasonable certainty.You can listen to my recording of the bird here.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Photo by Andrew

We'll hopefully be birding more regularly in the coming weeks as migration ramps up, so stay tuned for more of our reports from the plains.


Joseph

Western Vagrants!

Early this morning I went to a local hotspot near Arlington.  Almost right away, I heard what I was sure was a Western Wood Pewee.  I played the call, just to make sure, and it came in and started singing loudly.  Definitely a Western Wood Pewee!  The differences between Eastern and Western Wood Pewees are very slight.  The only way to make a reliable identification is to hear them calling or singing.  Luckily this one was.

First Reno county record of Western Wood Pewee!

 I called Joseph to let him know right away, but he unfortunately couldn't make it till later. The rest of the area was mostly devoid of birds at the time, so I decided to head home for a while.

     We decided to meet there again shortly after noon.  Bryant and I got there first, but couldn't locate the pewee immediately.  I started hearing a song that I didn't recognize.  There were several goldfinches hanging around, then one flew in that had wing-bars.  Lesser Goldfinch!  We could hardly believe our eyes.  Just then Joseph, Anthony, and Michael pulled in, and I relayed the information to them.  They covered the distance in remarkably little time and we all managed to see it.

This was the crummy photo I got

  We moved on to try to find the pewee then, and after a little we found it!  It obligingly sang several times and perched out in the open giving us great looks.  It was impossible to get good pics with the harsh light unfortunately though.  We circled around to try to relocate the goldfinch.  Anthony and I got a little closer, but still the pics weren't great. Two review list species in one day!  We haven't had that since last August.

Lesser Goldfinch

Update: I went back on Sunday afternoon and got much better pictures of the Lesser Goldfinch!  The Pewee was still there as well.

Lesser Goldfinch

Maybe some more crazy stuff from the southwest will show up!

Andrew

Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area | 7-22-16

Summertime busyness and roasting temperatures have kept us from doing much birding, but since my dad and I were in Barton County last week anyway, we swung by Cheyenne Bottoms for a quick look-see.

It was the middle of the afternoon and I didn't expect to see much, but found quite a few birds out and about. While the cormorant nesting island was abandoned (no Neotropics for me), there were good numbers of shorebirds, herons and gulls.

While scanning a flock of dowitchers, I glanced up at a couple large terns. Caspians! This was, somewhat embarrassingly, a state lifer for me.

After checking out some ibis and more shorebirds, the 105 degree heat prevailed over us and we headed on.

While this was only a brief stop, it was fun to get back out and do some birding after a fairly quiet summer.

Joseph

Monsoon Birding, Laughing Gull and Brown Pelican

With an abnormally wet spring so far, Kansas has been having some odd birds.

A Red Phalarope showed up at Quivira one day last week, so we headed out there Sunday afternoon with a small bit of hope that we would be able to refind it. Long story short, we were a day later and a dollar short, our special feature as usual. We did, however, stumble across a Laughing Gull, not a bad find and a state bird for all of us.

The long lanky wings and large bill are a dead giveaway, even without the other supporting plumage features. Photo by Andrew

On Monday evening the extended family of Andrew, Bryant and I had a Memorial Day picnic at Kingman Lake. I was one of the first there and quickly checked the small lake for anything interesting. I had seen a fairly distant something, driving in, that didn't quite fit for any expected birds, so I checked it out right away. Well, it was a Brown Pelican, that was unexpected. While these are nearly annual in Kansas, (and no longer even a review list species), it was surprising to find one on a small state fishing lake and not one of the larger reservoirs.

It stuck around the rest of the evening but never let us get very close.

These first pics were, yeah, not so great, but thankfully we got another chance when Andrew, Anthony and I returned on Thursday evening. This time, it was chilling on a small island with a small flock of American White Pelicans and allowed us to get within about fifty yards

There we go! Photo by Andrew

The Brown Pelican has been observed feeding successfully by plunge-diving (fide Andrew Burnett), so it may remain for awhile. We won't mind if it does!

Anyway, it seems likely that these birds, (and the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks), were brought in by a large storm system that moved through a couple weeks ago. It may have brought other rarities as well, so keep your eyes peeled!

Joseph

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

This morning, dad and I went to Cheney hoping to see Prothonotary Warblers.  Unfortunately, the water levels, way up with the several inches of rain over the last week, prohibited us from accessing the area where they had been seen in years past.  However, there was a immature male Summer Tanager and a immature male Painted Bunting singing lustily along the road near Deweese Park.

Bad pic of a Summer Tanager

The rest of the lake was pretty quite, so we decided to head over to Newton where there was a pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks being seen.  When we got to the place they had been seen, they were nowhere in sight.  They were seen in a housing development area with a small drainage ditch.  The landowners feed some local Mallards and Geese, and this was where they were hanging out.  We drove around the area, trying to see into the willow trees along the ditch.  It was nearly impossible without going on private property.  Finally, we decided to ask two men who appeared to be the landowners about walking back there.  They were extremely helpful and immediately said they could take us back there.  We started walking along the ditch, but could not find them.  We had walked all the way back and we getting ready to go look in some other wetlands around the area, when dad motioned me over.  There, not 30 feet from us were the ducks!  We had walked right past them earlier about 10 feet away, and they hadn't flown.  We took some pics, then told some of the other birders in the area that we had found them.  Everybody got great looks!

Life Bird!

They were gorgeous birds!

Other migration of note over the past couple of weeks included these birds:

This Veery cooperated very nicely for pics. 

Willow Flycatcher

Philadelphia Vireo 

We were surprised to find this Northern Parula around so late in the season.  Maybe it will stay for the summer,

 Also, Joseph and Anthony found a Blackburnian Warbler near their places on the 21st.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there it was too dark to find it.  As a consolation prize, we did find a Alder Flycatcher singing and calling its heart out in the near darkness.  It was my 10th flycatcher species for the day.  The best we have had!

Andrew

Quivira Big Day, 2016

May 14th dawned not-so-bright and very chilly on six birders at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge--we were taking part in the annual "Global Big Day" with Barry Jones. We started out at about 6:00 A.M. and slowly collected some of the more common species.The weather for this count was definitely less than ideal, overcast and about 39 F, and we had rather low hopes of beating last years record of 154 species.

 The first good bird of the day was this Olive-sided Flycatcher, not counting the Yellow-breasted Chat and Bewick's Wren that refused to cross the road into Stafford County where we needed them.

 This Tree Swallow teed up nicely beside the road.

 We found a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in the middle of house construction. Here, the female is just leaving after making a few changes to the structure.

The male wasn't super impressed that we were hanging around and kept scolding at us.

This Eastern Kingbird in the same grove was quite tame, and let me get some nice pics.

After birding a few woodlots, it was time to head to the Big Salt Marsh at the north end the refuge. Here we cleaned up on a lot of shorebirds and waterfowl, including several Sanderling, Dunlin and most of the rest of the "peeps" around right now.

We came upon this American Bittern standing stock-still in the ditch. It was under the impression that it was invisible and slowly backed into the grass.

This Red-headed Woodpecker popped up while we were watching several Bobolinks at the Black Rail field

 A couple of Black-bellied Plovers were a nice addition to the list, and two Whimbrel a bit later were even nicer.

We then hit a couple more woodlots, finding a few more species including Eastern Wood Pewee, American Redstart and Swainson's Thrush.

We also found this caterpillar, I think that it is probably a Variegated Fritillary cat, but I'm not 100% sure on that

The Catalpa Grove

One last swing by the Big Salt Marsh and a nearby Prairie Dog town netted us two Burrowing Owls, a couple Short-billed Dowitchers and a Belted Kingfisher.

Burrowing Owls have got to have about the weirdest flight style of any bird, it's an exaggerated, swooping bounce.

Wilson's Phalarope

We left the refuge with 129 species, below last year but not too bad. We stopped at a few of our regular spots back home to clean up on a few common species we had missed earlier.

This Lark Bunting was a very nice surprise.

This Western Meadowlark sang from a nearby fence post.

Killdeer

I finished the day with 141 species, not bad for this year and enough to have me finish in the top 100 birders for the day in the United States, although just barely, at #98. Anthony also had 141, but Andrew missed out on a few species we saw later and finished up with 136.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day, and we're definitely looking forward to next year!

Joseph