Winter Zooties!

The last three Saturday mornings, I have gone to one of my favorite birding haunts near Arlington along the Ninnescah river.  This is an incredible place for wintering birds.  The combination of running water, thick brush, and marshy areas really draws the birds in.  There is also a strong El Nino this year, and although I don't have hard evidence, I believe that there is a direct correlation between that and some of the out-of-season birds I've been seeing there.

The only place we had seen a Pileated Woodpecker in Reno, until last December, was Cheney.  Now, there is a resident along the Ninnescah River. 

I have managed to call a Virginia Rail out of a marsh for three weeks in a row.  They are hard to see, but I did manage this one trash picture.  These are normally only around in the summer.

This Eastern Phoebe is another summer bird that showed up.  The previous late date for these in Kansas was January 4th.  I've seen this guy the past two weeks I was there. 

One of the many Yellow-rumped Warblers that winter there.

Lincoln's Sparrow, a normal migrant that is rare in the winter.

Hopefully I will turn up some more good rarities this winter!

Andrew

The Butterflies of 2015: A Photographic Review

Since Andrew got the obligatory "2015 review" on birds done, I've taken it upon myself to do the butterfly version.

Simply put, 2015 was a fantastic year for butterflies. I finished with a total of 71 species in Kansas, by far my best ever. But that wasn't the most exciting part. This summer was apparently on of the best for strays in the last 20 years (fide Chuck Ely). We found, in order, a Sickle-winged Skipper (3rd state record, seen by Anthony only), an Arizona Sister (6th state record), a Long-tailed Skipper (3rd or 4th state record, seen by Joseph only), a Tailed Orange (7th state record), and last, and definitely not least, an apparent Purple-washed Skipper Andrew found in their yard. You may recall that we identified it as an Ocola Skipper, the geographically closest Panoquina, in our earlier post about that sighting. However, Dan Jones, of Rio Grande Valley Butterflies, pointed out that the field marks were consistent with the Purple-washed Skippers he sees down there. Any Panoquina would be a first for Kansas, but Purple-washed was completely off our radar!

Sickle-winged Skipper. Photo by Anthony

Arizona Sister. Photo by Joseph

Arizona Sister. Photo by Joseph

Long-tailed Skipper at the Dyck Arboretum in Hesston. Photo by Joseph

Tailed Orange. Photo by Joseph

Presumed Purple-washed Skipper. Photo by Andrew

Presumed Purple-washed Skipper.  Photo by Andrew

Note the small white spot anterior to the large arrowhead-shaped one visible on the far upperwing, this, along with the purple sheen and straight line of dots on the underside of the wing, is apparently fairly diagnostic for Purple-washed.

Red-banded Hairstreak. Photo by Joseph

Surprisingly, I found two Red-banded Hairstreaks in Reno Co this year. They are common in southern Kansas, but seldom come this far north.

Little Wood Satyr. Photo by Joseph

Bordered Patch. Photo by Joseph

Southern Dogface. Photo by Joseph

Melissa Blue. Photo by Joseph

American Snout. Photo by Joseph

Common Wood Nymph. Photo by Joseph

Silver-spotted Skipper. Photo by Joseph

Delaware Skipper. Photo by Joseph

I'm really looking forward to "lepping" this year, and while my butterfly list is currently zero, I hope to get at least 75 species. Now, to go and find some Viceroy hibernacula to get my list started!

Joseph

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

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