Quivira NWR on August 16th

 Joseph texted me after church on Sunday and asked if I wanted to go to Quivira with him and Anthony.  It did not take long for me to figure out that I did, and we set about getting plans laid.  
    We got to Quivira at about 3:00 and headed to the Big Salt Marsh right away.  Anthony had just got a new camera, and he was eager to try it out.  When we got to the east side of the marsh, we found it loaded with shorebirds and ducks.  We picked out two Red-necked Phalaropes almost right away, feeding close to the shore.  We tried to get closer and were quite disappointed when they flew.  Luckily though, they circled back around and came right back to the same spot!  The cameramen quickly, although not very quietly, crawled down on to the shore while the rest (Dwight, Franklin, and Michael) stayed up on the road.  Shutters clicked madly as they made their way by us, not more than ten feet away!  When they were past, we got up feeling rather smug and continued on our way.  After our first loop, we came back and manged to get some more pics of one of them.

Red-necked Phalaropes flying in.

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope up close

                           

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

       
     They were loads of peeps, but the most numerous bird was definitely the American Avocet.  Their bold black and white pattern was quite striking when they flew.

Part of an Avocet flock

        
We also managed to pick out this Western Sandpiper out of a small flock of peeps.
     

This Western Sandpiper was horribly backlit

We saw several of these Dragonflies on the Wildlife Loop.  I don't know what kind for sure, but I think Halloween Pennant is close.  Do any of you know?

Halloween Pennant?

At this time of year there are also large numbers of Snowy and Great Egrets.

Great and Snowy Egrets

This female Blue-winged Teal was cooperative.

Blue-winged Teal

As was this Sachem.

Sachem

I hadn't been to Quivira for a while and I am always amazed how many birds are there at this time of year!

Andrew

Louisiana Waterthrush, A Reno County Nester?

This morning my dad and I were measuring a roofing job near Sylvia when I heard a loud and unfamiliar call coming from a nearby spring-fed swamp.




Luckily I had my birding gear along and trotted over to check it out. I was really surprised when a waterthrush popped out in response to my pishing. I assumed it would be a Northern Waterthrush (even though this would be near record early), but I was surprised to see its broad white "eyebrows" flaring out behind the eye, whitish underparts and an nearly unmarked throat. This was obviously a Louisiana Waterthrush!

Louisianas are fairly common in eastern Kansas, but are very scarce in the rest of the state. (This was a first county record.)

Per usual, my camera focused skillfully on the twig in the foreground when the waterthrush turned broadside. It would have been a nice pic...

Louisianas nest as near by as eastern and extreme southern Kansas, but are typically found near clear, fast-moving streams     a habitat not usually found in flat, dry Reno county. This stream, however, while not fast flowing, was crystal-clear. This bird seemed very skittish, skulking along the stream bank, but would vigorously chase other birds off other birds that came too near. This territorial behavior makes it seem possible it was nesting nearby. I thought I heard a second bird calling at one point, which would make this seem more likely.

The habitat where I found the waterthrush

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Butterflies have been pretty slow lately, other than a few Least Skippers I saw while tracking down the waterthrush. I did find a Pipevine Swallowtail (county lifer!) the other day as well as this cooperative Goatweed Leafwing that teed up nicely on a willow twig.

Joseph

Strays from the South: Sisters and Sickle-wings, Oh My!

Butterflies are on the move! 

I was planning to go butterflying with Anthony yesterday afternoon, but had some other stuff come up and wasn't able to go after all.  He called presently with the news that he had found what he thought was a White Admiral. That would be really remarkable here, so I immediately hopped in the truck and hurried the two miles to where he was. When I saw the butterfly I knew it was not a White Admiral, but some sort of "sister" (Adelpha sp)! I didn't know what species, but no sisters are expected here. Luckily it was very tame and allowed us to get some great photos, confirming it as an Arizona Sister, apparently only the sixth record for Kansas! (per Butterflies and Moths of North America Online, BAMONA for short)

Arizona and California Sisters  are very similar. We determined this was an Arizona because of the pale edging all along the back of the white stripe on the hindwing as well as the single orange bar near the base of the wing. A California Sister would have an incomplete pale edge and double orange bars near the wing base. BAMONA staff verified our identification.

This is definitely one of the most beautiful butterflies I've seen. With a 3-5 inch wingspan, it was an impressive sight as it glided slowly around my head, with an occasional flap thrown in now and then.

Anthony and I had also done a little butterflying together after church earlier in the afternoon. Not far away, we found a Red-banded Hairstreak, a species we definitely did not expect here, although isn't nearly as rare as the sister.

Red-banded Hairstreak

A couple of weeks ago, Anthony photographed a butterfly he couldn't identify. When he showed me the photo I recognized it as a Sickle-winged Skipper, which I knew would be really rare here. (I honestly didn't even know if they'd been seen in Kansas before.)

Great pic courtesy of Anthony Miller

I checked the range map on Butterflies and Moths of North America and it appears that it is the third state record! Unfortunately it was a one day wonder, so no one else got to see it.

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Another butterfly of interest I've seen lately is this Southern Dogface, a really striking sulphur I'd never seen well before.

I didn't remember they had such stubby antenna.

 They really get flashy in flight, with their bold black and yellow pattern.

If you're thinking about getting into butterflies, now would be a great time to start! As I've mentioned previously, Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Texas is a great reference for learning the butterflies of this area.  For more advanced butterfliers, check out the Kauffman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. I'll end with a shameless plug. If you want to see more of our butterfly (and bird and mammal) photos you can check out our Flickr photostreams. Mine here, and Bryant and Andrew's here.

Joseph

India 2015 | Part One: Kolkata

This spring I had the opportunity to accompany my father on a short trip to India. Needless to say, I was very excited about this chance to visit another part of the world! This is the first (brief) post I'm writing about our trip.

After many hours of traveling, we arrived in Kolkata late on the evening of April 22. After having some hassle involving our luggage not making it with us, we headed to our hotel. We had a connecting flight the next morning, so although I didn't have much time, I woke up early, eager to see what birds I could spot from our hotel window. There were quite a few! Common Mynas, House crows and Red-vented Bulbuls were all over the neighborhood. A couple Little Cormorants flew past in the distance, and a Spotted Dove appeared on the rooftop next door.

A Common Myna holds forth.

An inquisitive House Crow

A Spotted Dove

After a quick breakfast of scaldingly spicy curry, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Dimapur, in the far north-eastern state of Nagaland. We spent the next several days with the Naga people, exploring the villages and learning about their history. I'll write more about our time there in a later post. 

And no, despite our proximity to Nepal during the earthquake, I did not feel it. My dad did, but we felt fortunate that the area we were in was not at all affected.

Joseph

More About Butterflies

There are a lot of butterflies around here as well and I have not seen many birds lately, but I did manage to find year bird #252, a White-winged Dove in Hutch. We have a large Privet bush in our yard that has produced some interesting butterflies of late.  It is nice that it is so close, so I can check it often.  The nice thing about butterflies is that for the most part, they will let you get close enough to actually photograph them.  Birds, on the other hand, require much more patience to actually get a good picture.  Here are some of my pictures.

This Coral Hairstreak was feeding on the flowering Privet bush in our yard.  It was a lifer!

Even though these are supposed to be rare, Joseph and I have seen close to ten Gray Coppers
this year.

This is only the second Funereal Duskywing that I have seen.

I saw this Variegated Fritillary in our neighbors alfalfa field.

This Arogos Skipper was my 71st life butterfly in Kansas.

One neat thing about butterflies is that since I don't know very much about them and haven't been watching them for very long, there are lots of new things to learn about them!

Andrew

Leps of Late

With migration over, we birders are now allowed to pay attention to other things besides birds, in our case, butterflies. There is quite a good selection here in Kansas, with day lists often topping 20-30 species (and even 40, if you're really lucky) in late summer. The best one-day total I've tallied this year is only 26 species, but I've also managed to find a few lifers, bringing my Kansas life list up to an even 70 species.

I found this Little Wood Satyr (a lifer) near our farm a few days ago. This had been somewhat of a nemesis butterfly for me, so I was glad to finally catch up with one.

American Snouts, with their unique labial palps (think nose), are around again.

 Summer Azures are back, fluttering around the Rough-leaved Dogwood clumps.

Checkered Whites are one of the most common butterflies around right now. Its caterpillars (along with those of the Cabbage Whites) are the ones that destroy your cabbage and broccoli plants.

A Clouded Sulphur nectaring on a thistle.

This Hackberry Emperor was feeding on rotting cherries a few mornings ago.

I found this Funereal Duskywing (a lifer) as well as the Gray Copper below while swathing hay earlier this week.

And finally, a Delaware Skipper, one of our most common skippers.

If you are interested in getting into butterflies a good guide to start with is Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Texas. Although it only has 100 of the most common species in the covered area, it covers pretty much everything you'll be able to identify.

Joseph

Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira on June 1

Last weekend, our uncle Bill from North Carolina stopped by our area to visit family.  Bill is rarely in this area without making a run to Quivira sometime during his stay, and he's usually obliging enough to take his eager nephews along.  At about 5:45 Monday morning, we (Bill, Andrew, Joseph, and I) piled into Bill's minivan and headed to Quivira and nearby Cheyenne Bottoms for a morning of birding.

We headed straight through the Big Salt Marsh to the rail fields at the north-west end of the refuge.  We hopped out of the car to listen and before long, a Black Rail began calling not far away.  With that year bird acquired for Joseph and Bill, we headed back around the Wildlife Drive.  We were surprised to flush a flock of eight Black-crowned Night-herons from among the cattails, but that was the most unusual sighting.

Things began to pick up some when we revisited the road (NE 170th St.) we had passed over quickly on our way to the rail field.  A variety of shorebirds, forced onto the road because of the high water, gave us great looks.  The highlights were eight Sanderling, three of which were in alternate plumage, and a Ruddy Turnstone.

Alternate plumage Sanderling: photo by Andrew

Ruddy Turnstone: photo by Bryant

Having scanned the Big Salt Marsh at Quivira, it was time to head to Cheyenne Bottoms.  We stopped briefly at the Visitor's Center and then headed out into the marsh.  The east side produced very little, and it was only when we got around to the west side that the birds started being more cooperative.  We were driving along scanning the marsh, when Andrew yelled, "Neotropic Cormorant."  As soon as the van stopped, we all piled out and took a look.  Sure enough, a small cormorant with a long tail was flying away.  Some of us even saw the white line on the edge of the gular patch; certainly a Neotropic.  They nested there last year and appear to be staying the summer this year as well.  Lifer for Bill and a year bird for Andrew and me!

Neotropic Cormorant: photo by Bryant

This Forster's Tern came waltzing by, giving us good picture opportunities: photo by Andrew

A short while later, a small heron-like bird perched on the cattails caught our attention.  The Least Bittern stayed put long enough for us to get pictures.  Another year bird for Andrew, Bill, and me!

Least Bittern: photo by Andrew

Strength in numbers!  Three pairs of Canada Geese and their goslings joined forces.  I'm not quite sure why, but they probably had a reason: photo by Bryant

A closeup of some of the geese: photo by Bryant

We finished our run of the marsh and were on our way out, when Andrew stopped us.  He thought he had a Western Grebe.  As it turned out, it was not just one Western Grebe, but nine!  This was a lifer for Bill and a year bird for Andrew and me.  One pair even treated us to their unique mating dance, in which they run on top of the water with their necks arched!  What a fascinating sight, and also a very unusual one for Kansas.

A pair of Western Grebes: photo by Bryant

What a great day of birding with Uncle Bill!

Bryant