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

Big Day: May 9

For the last two years, Barry Jones, the public relations person for Quivira, has let us come along with him on the second or third Saturday in May to do the North American Migration Count.  We try to get as many species as we can in one day.

This year Dad drove Joseph, Anthony, Michael, Bryant and I up there early so as to be there at first light.  It was a very overcast morning, and when we met up with Barry it was still quite dark, so we decided to head up to the rail field first thing.  We stopped to listen along the way, and when it got light enough we stopped at a grove to pick up some passerines.  We found an Eastern Wood-Peewee, several Swainson's Thrushes, and a singing Tennessee Warbler among other more common birds.  We stopped along NE 170th street to check out shorebirds and found a lot of the common shorebirds and managed to see a Short-billed Dowitcher, a pair of Sanderling, and two Ruddy Turnstones, all good birds.

Short-billed Dowitcher: photo by Andrew

We continued toward the Rail field and Barry started playing rail calls on his ipod.  At the second stop we heard two Virginia Rails, but we never got any Soras to respond. We continued to a spot where there are reliable Barred Owls.  Barry can do an amazing vocal impression of a Barred Owl and in three tries he got them to respond.  One even flew into the tree right above us!

There is a Prairie Dog town up north of the Big Salt Marsh that has had Burrowing Owls in the past, so we decided to check it.  We picked up many common birds, but never saw the owls.  It had started to drizzle by then, which was a little discouraging, but we thought that maybe it would force the migrating birds down.  We hadn't done much woodland birding yet, so we thought we should tromp into some of the groves and see if there were any birds in there.  The first one was the Bur Oak Grove and the soaking grass soon transferred its moisture to our pants and shoes.  But at least there were swarms of Mosquitoes there to provide some excitement.  The grove also turned out to be swarming with birds, and Anthony managed to pick out a Philadelphia Vireo, a lifer for Bryant, Anthony and Michael!  There were many other new birds to add to the list, including Blackpoll Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  When we got out of the grove we had 109 species and it was only about 10:30.  We made a brief stop at the Catalpa Grove, but there wasn't much activity, so we went to the Deadhorse Grove after a short look around.  Deadhorse turned out to be hopping with birds, and we soon found another Blackpoll Warbler.  We were working our way along an old shelter belt when Joseph yelled "Chuck-will's-Widow!"  We looked over and sure enough, a Chuck was flying away rapidly.  Wow!

Chuck-wills-Widow; photo by Bryant

As the cameramen were photographing the Chuck, Barry and I heard a strange song, and when we found it we were surprised to see a gorgeous male Magnolia Warbler!  The cameramen quickly abandoned the Chuck and raced our way.  On the way out, we flushed a second Chuck.

By then it was about lunch time, so we headed back the Environmental Education Classroom to eat lunch/ dry our soaking socks.  On the way back we picked up a Black-headed Grosbeak and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  After lunch we had to put our wet socks back on (the dryer did almost nothing) and headed out.

After lunch, we really hit the wetlands hard and had good success, largely due to  the fact that we could go back into the restricted areas.  We found several Willets and Hudsonian Godwits to add, and also found a lone Piping Plover.

Piping Plover: photo by Andrew

There was a large flock of Ibis sitting near the road that we stopped to check for Glossy.  Sure enough, I soon spotted a lone Glossy among the White-faced.  This is probably one of the most overlooked birds in Kansas because of their similarity to White-faced Ibis.  It was one of my main nemesis birds and I was glad to finally see one.

Glossy Ibis: photo by Andrew

We quickly went around the Wildlife drive because Barry had to leave soon.  We saw several Forster's Terns flying around and two Least Terns on a sandbar in the Big Salt Marsh.  At our last stop on the loop, Bryant found three Dunlin out with the hundreds of Wilson's Phalaropes.  Our last new bird on the refuge was a Belted Kingfisher at a spillway on the way out, giving us 140 for the day!

We went by some puddles and marshes on the way out, going out of the way to find some stakeout birds. Our last bird of the day was a Cooper's Hawk, giving Bryant and me 154 species.  Joseph finished with 153 and Anthony finished with 151.  This broke last years record of 146 birds!  Maybe next year we'll get even more!  One can always hope.

Andrew