Spring Pushes

Spring is coming early this year!  I am ready for the change, but in some ways it seems like we hardly had winter this year.  This made it hard to get some of the normally common winter birds. However, I am not going to complain!

I guess I will start with butterflies!  I have only seen about a dozen species this year so far.  The most interesting being an Olympia Marble.

I saw several of these Olympia Marble in my yard one afternoon!

Their underside is a striking bright yellow!

Question Marks are always one of the first butterflies to show up in the spring.

Now for the birds!  Stuff has really started moving around lately, with the early migrants such as Killdeer and Eastern Phoebes now all over the place.  Purple Martins are back as well and I've also seen a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows and a Barn Swallow.

One of the Northern Rough-winged Swallows that was at a local pond for several days in a row.

There was a Baird's Sandpiper and a Greater Yellowlegs at our pond and Joseph had Least Sandpiper at a different pond.  This spring we have already noticed a push of White-winged Doves.  Anthony has seen one at his place for a couple weeks, Joseph had one at a nearby farm, and I saw a pair a few miles from my house.

Monday evening, Joseph called to say that he and Anthony had a Burrowing Owl at a worked field near Abbyville.  Bryant and I rushed out to try to find it.  I managed to get a brief view in the fading light, but unfortunately, Bryant missed it.

Tuesday afternoon I went to Hoskinson's Sandpit for about an hour.  I was hoping to see a some Fish Crows, since we had seen them there regularly at this time last year, but I couldn't find any.  However, I did pick out a late 2nd cycle Thayer's Gull out of a bunch of Ring-bills.  According to Birds of Kansas, this is the third latest they have been seen in Kansas!

2nd cycle Thayer's Gull at the sandpit.

So far, my year list sits at 123 species.  Not bad for late March!

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

Hoskinson's Sandpit: April 7

Bryant had a piano lesson in town today, so I got to go to Hoskinson's Sandpit for about an hour and a half this afternoon.  Over the past several weeks we have seen a gradual increase in Franklin's Gulls and a gradual decrease in Ring-billed and Herring.  Today they were almost all Franklin's with only about thirty Ring-bills and no Herrings.  As I sat there I saw a small bird swimming away.  I looked over and it was an Eared Grebe, I was pretty pleased because it was only the second time I had ever seen one in Reno county.  It was also a pretty good year bird.

Eared Grebe 

 I walked around the sandpit and got my first of season Cliff Swallow along with a fly-over Osprey.  I started walking back and saw a Swainson's Hawk, I saw a pointy winged raptor flying behind it.  I looked at it and was amazed to see a Peregrine Falcon, which is a good bird at this time of year.  Unfortunately it was too far off to get any pictures, but it was a very neat bird!  As I walked back to where I would wait for Bryant, I saw a large bird fly out of a tree.  It was a Black-crowned Night Heron!  It circled back around and came by me so I could get some okay pictures.

Black-crowned Night Heron

 I then sat down to check out the Franklin's Gulls again in hopes of finding a Bonaparte's Gull.  After a little bit I saw two gulls flapping around and identified them as Bonaparte's.  To top it all of I had two first of year Purple Martins fly over, giving me year bird #140 in Kansas.  It was a gorgeous day to be out, but it was a bit warm.

Bonaparte's Gull  (center)

Fish Crows

Today I went to Hoskinson's Sandpit for the first time in a couple weeks.  When I was last there I had found three Fish Crows, but I could not get a good recording of their call.  This was a first Reno county record and I hoped they were still there.  When I got there one of the first things I saw was a Fish Crow.  There were two of them sitting on one of the machines used for pumping the sand out.  After a brief scan of the rest of the lake I went over there and got a recording of them before they flew off.  It is a bad recording as mine usually are, but you can just hear the birds! The only other good bird were my first of year Horned Grebe, Pied billed Grebe, Tree Swallow, and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

You can't really distinguish between American and Fish Crow's from a picture, but this is a Fish because of the call. Photo by Andrew

Hoskinson's Sandpit Report: February 17

Today I went to the sandpit for about 3-1/2 hours.  When I got there it was fairly pleasant.  There were a lot of gulls loafing around about a hundred yards out and I saw a couple of adult Thayer's.  I was beginning to think that though there were chances of rain for the afternoon they might have been inaccurate, when Joseph called and said that "it's snowing and raining at our place and probably will be there soon.''  This inspired me to search for shelter, which I found in the form of a metal trailer of sorts.  It snowed for a little while and after it stopped I could look at the gulls again.  The same intermediate 2nd cycle Thayer's/Kumlien's that we saw on the 12th had flown in, but it was too far out to get more conclusive pictures.  The wind had really kicked up and was blowing very hard, making it very difficult to I.D. the sitting gulls.  After a while a bunch of gulls flew in and among the Herring and Ring-billed  I saw my first Lesser Black-backed of the day.  By now I was getting pretty cold so I called mom to see when she was coming by to pick me up.  She said it would be another hour.  Wow! By the time she got there I was really cold, and had only seen one more Thayer's as compensation.  Overall this was one of the worst days as far as gull numbers that I have had this year with only about four Thayer's, two Lesser Black-backed, and about five hundred of both Ring-billed and Herring.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Photo by Andrew

Andrew

First cycle Iceland (Kumlien's) Gull

Yesterday I went to Hoskinson's Sandpit in Hutchinson.  Upon arriving, one of the first gulls I identified was an adult Lesser Black-backed!  Over the next hour there was a constant stream of gulls coming from the landfill including a couple adult Thayer's.  I also had a Killdeer, which is the earliest I have ever had one.  During the last fifteen minutes that I could be there, I looked up and to my surprise saw a very pale gull flying over!  I quickly put my binoculars on it and saw right away that it was either a very pale Thayer's or a Iceland(Kumlien's).  I frantically took several pictures before it started to circle higher and higher.  I quickly called Bryant, who was at piano lessons in town, but it disappeared out of sight about two minutes before he got there.  We rushed over to the landfill, which was in the direction it had disappeared.  When we got there we scanned the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of the gull.  We were beginning to despair when Bryant yelled," There it is!"  Sure enough, there it was, circling high over head.  It disappeared out of sight about a minute later.  When we got home we looked over our pictures, but we were not sure enough to call it a Kumlien's.  So we sent it to Jon King, the ebird reviewer, and he agreed that it is a Kumlien's!  This is about the fifteenth record for Kansas of an Iceland Gull.

Iceland(Kumlien's) Gull

Iceland(Kumlien's) Gull

Andrew

Cook Inlet Gull

On Tuesday the 3rd of February, I went to a local sandpit to watch gulls for a couple of hours.  Aside from the usual Herring and Ring-billed, I had one adult Lesser Black-backed and at least six Thayer's.  Towards the end of my stay I had a interesting second cycle Gull come by.  I first thought it was a Nelson's Gull (Herring x Glaucous), but was not at all sure so I sent it to the ebird reviewer for our area, Jon King.  He then sent it to Chris Wood and Marshall Iliff who both agreed it was a Cook Inlet Gull, which is a Glaucous-winged x Herring Gull hybrid.  This is the first record for the state, but is probably largely overlooked due to the problems in identifying them.

Cook Inlet Gull

Andrew