2016 Birds in Review

2016 was a quite good year for birding in Kansas. The year started out strong for us, with a great showing of gulls at our local hotspots.

Half-a-dozen species of gulls.

Spring migration was fairly good, and we found a number of uncommon species such as this Veery.



May brought in many more migrants including this Piping Plover at Quivira NWR which had been banded in North Dakota the summer before.



Our annual Quivira big day, on May 14th, was a great success with a total of 141 species including the Lark Bunting above and the Olive-sided Flycatcher below.  
 


The end of May brought a pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks to some lucky birders in Newton. Andrew and his dad chased it after a fairly slow morning at Cheney reservoir and got some great looks and photos, (below)




While unsuccessfully chasing a  Red Phalarope at Quivira, Andrew, Anthony and I found this snazzy Laughing Gull, our first in Kansas.



Just a few days later, on Memorial Day, I ran across this Brown Pelican at a family picnic at Kingman SFL. Luckily it stayed around for a couple weeks and many people were able to get great views of this Gulf Coast rarity.



We didn't find much else until mid-August when a weather system brought in a great assortment of western rarities. In one day we found a Western Wood-Pewee, a Lesser Goldfinch, and a Black-chinned Hummingbird, all quite rare birds for this area.










The rest of Fall migration was fairly slow until the end of October, when several Mountain Bluebirds and a couple Townsend's Solitaires showed up.



 Only around for a few hours, these bluebirds were certainly accommodating.



This Townsend's Solitaire was almost as accommodating when it appeared at Andrew's house.



The year finished strong with a few good trips to Cheney reservoir and our local gull spots. This Thayer's Gull showed well with several other species on the last day of the year.



Overall, it was a great year. I can't wait to see what this year brings!

2015 in review

     Well, as you all have probably figured out, 2015 is over.   At the beginning of 2015, Joseph and I decided to do a sort of Yard Big Year.  We took it fairly lightly, but I managed to finished to finish with 145 and Joseph got 123.  We also usually have a mini competition among us to see who can see the most species in Kansas and Reno county each year.  This year I finished with 269 in Kansas, Joseph with 254, and Bryant with 256.  In Reno, I had 230, Joseph had 212, and Bryant had 210.

     Here are some of our favorite photos from 2015.  We are birdwatchers, not bird photographers, so some of these are not necessarily first-class:)

Dickcissel: photo by Andrew

Vesper Sparrow: photo by Andrew

American White Pelican: photo by Andrew

Bonaparte's Gull: photo by Andrew

Herring Gull: photo by Andrew

Iceland Gull: photo by Andrew

Long-billed Curlew: photo by Andrew

Red-necked Phalarope: photo by Andrew

Le Conte's Sparrow: photo by Joseph

Pine Siskin: photo by Joseph 

Yellow-headed Blackbird: photo by Joseph

Hybrid Spotted x Eastern Towhee: photo by Joseph

Philadelphia Vireo: photo by Joseph

Cackling Goose: photo by Joseph 

White-rumped Sandpiper: photo by Joseph

I (Andrew)  have set a goal of 270 species in Kansas for next year.  This is a fairly modest goal for some birders, but I don't travel very far and wide to find birds usually.  I currently have 92, so I guess I still have a ways to go.

Andrew and Joseph

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

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