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

Blue-winged Warbler

This morning I woke up early and decided to go birding on Frank Blodgett's land about a mile away from our house.  It was a perfect morning, cool and clear, and I was feeling like it might be a pretty good day for the birds.  When I got the at a little after 7:00, there was a lot of activity.  Unfortunately, most of it was common resident birds.  I was rather disappointed that there were so few birds, and the only thing that was very interesting was a Philadelphia Vireo.  I was watching a Trail's Flycatcher feeding in a locust tree, when a small, bright yellow bird flew in.  I saw that it had white undertail coverts and immediately thought of a Prothonotary Warbler, but I then I saw that it had a black eye-line and blue wings with white wing-bars.  BLUE-WINGED WARBLER!  I frantically began snapping pictures and trying to call Bryant.  It kept feeding in the same tree for a while, and then disappeared.  Luckily though, we were able to find it again when Bryant came.  This is a casual visitant in our area of Kansas and it is on the KBRC review list for this part of the state as well.  Anthony and Michael came down about two hours later, and were able to see it.  Unfortunately, when Joseph came over this evening he couldn't refind it.
  

Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

While we were watching it we found a nice flock that also had Black-throated Green Warbler, a year bird.

Black-throated Green Warbler

I also had a nice Phaon Crescent that posed for me.

Phaon Crescent 

This was only the second Philadelphia Vireo I have seen in Reno.

Philadelphia Vireo

Hopefully this good birding continues!

Andrew