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!

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

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

Chickens and Curlews

A few days ago, Andrew, Anthony, Bryant, Michael Yutzy and myself finally made the trek down to southern Kansas to look for Lesser Prairie Chickens, a gaping hole on our state list.

Photo by Andrew

After cruising down some very bad back roads, we finally arrived at the lek just before sunrise. We could see several males actively lekking a couple hundred yards of the road right as we pulled up,  at least that was an easy lifer.

 Since it was still fairly early in the morning when we left, we decided to run over to the Sun City area to check the area of the Anderson Creek Fire.

It turned out to be a great decision, starting with a Burrowing Owl we found just down the road from the lek, chilling in a Prairie Dog town.

Photo by Andrew

We continued on, finding a clump of balloons originating in Colorado Springs, and more importantly, a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks and couple of Long-billed Curlews in a random wheat field beside the road.

Photo by Andrew

Had the hawks been a couple miles further west they would have been a new Kiowa County record.

One of two Long-billed Curlews. Photo by Andrew

When we got to Sun City we were impressed by the amount of fire damage that far north. I knew about where I had taken some landscape shots last summer and thought it would be kind of fun to get a before and after shot of the burned area.

Before the fire

And after the fire. I was surprised how close I actually got to the same view!

More burned prairie south of Sun City

We decided to stop in at Kingman State Fishing Lake on the way back home. Birdwise it was a little drab, but we did find a female Falcate Orangetip, a lifer for all of us.

Falcate Orangetip, note the hooked, "falcate," wingtip.

This is a really amazing looking butterfly, although a lot smaller than I expected.  They are very well camouflaged on the underside, so we would occasionally lose it when it landed.

Falcate Orangetip

There were also several Olympia Marbles flying about. Although these are my best photos so far, I still haven't quite gotten that perfect shot yet

Olympia Marble

It was a great morning out, and we definitely plan to do more of these outings to other parts of the state.

Joseph