Lost in the Wilderness . . .

south on Elyria Rd. off SR30, then right onto Wilderness

After such a successful morning of #LifeBirding, and plenty of time on the way back to Columbus, who doesn't want to stop a the moss pits of Wilderness Rd??  It's a great shorebird location, but today was special. No American-Golden Plover or Buff-Breasted Sandpiper . . . yet . . . but I did get

Sabine's Gull

Juvenile

Splish Splash taking a bath

An unusual and distinctive arctic gull that breeds at high latitudes but winters near the tropics. Juvenile Plumage--Grayish-brown wash on crown, nape, and sides of breast. Forehead, lower cheeks, and throat white. Brownish back and upper wing coverts, with scaled appearance








And just as I was leaving, another birder says "Did you see the Wilson's Phalarope in the first pond?"
Well, NO!! but now . . . YES!!

Wilson's Phalarope

Wilson's phalarope is slightly larger than the red phalarope at about 9.1" in length. It is a dainty shorebird with lobed toes and a straight fine black bill. Young birds are grey and brown above, with whitish underparts and a dark patch through the eye. In winter, the plumage is essentially grey above and white below, but the dark eyepatch is always present. The average longevity in the wild is 10 years

This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #330 for the year!!

#329 Sabine's Gull--9/12
#330 Wilson's Phalarope--9/12



Next up:  I need OHIO FOY's . . . like BAD before they migrate south

Life Bird chase to the Lake!! #556

And off we go for another round of BirdChasers!! A new show, a new location, which produces new birds!!  Thanks to the Ohio listserv, from Sept 9th-16th, a rare thrush(Family Turdidae) from the Arctic circle somehow got lost on his way back to Asia, and decided to make a stop at Headlands Beach SP near Mentor, Ohio right on the shores of Lake Erie.

Northern Wheatear!! Code 2

Life Bird #556

The northern wheatear is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in open stony country in Europe and Asia with footholds in northeastern Canada and Greenland as well as in northwestern Canada and Alaska. It nests in rock crevices and rabbit burrows. All birds winter in Africa.  In the case of the wheatear, it refers to these birds' return to Greece in the spring just as the grapevines blossom.  Breeds in Alaska and parts of northern Canada; also Eurasia. Eastern Canada birds migrate east (BINGO!!) through Greenland and Europe, and winter in Africa. Alaska and northwestern Canada birds cross the Bering Strait and make a long westward flight across Asia, also wintering mostly in Africa. Found in grasslands, rocky tundra, and barren slopes.

 A group of wheatears are collectively known as a "bowl" and a "shaft" of wheatears.

 This was only the 4th state record of a Northern Wheatear in Ohio; Jan 1988(near Magee Marsh), Nov 1998(Big Island), Sept 2009(Holmes cty) and Sept 2014(Lake Cty). Interesting that the 2009 sighting was the same September dates at the 2014 sighting.

Gambill Family Archives:
My father Buddy first saw the bird on June 2, 1980 in Gambel, Alaska. Can you believe it!?! And the birder who discovered the bird here, Ray Hannikman from Elyria, Ohio was with Buddy on Attu Island, Alaska in May 1980. BAM!! Another reason I'm doing this blog, to retrace the steps of my family and birding.
Red and Louise, my grandparents, reported seeing this life bird on June 4, 1991 in Nome, Alaska as their ABA#757, just after they saw a Bluethroat #756 lifer earlier that day. They also saw the 2009 bird here in Ohio.

American Pipit

Not to be out done, but in the same picture frame as the Wheatear, there was a pair of American Pipit's foraging on the beach. Hey, I just got a life bird and FOY, cha-ching!!

FOY

This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #328 for the year!!

#327 Northern Wheatear--9/12
#328 American Pipit--9/12

8:40am arrival

Ohio has a Lighthouse??

"Just walk down and on the right"

Lake County  . . .Surf Ohio

Next up: Wilderness Road time . . . again

Reddish Egret in Ohio??? White Morph

While I'm on vacation in Vegas, getting my lifer--Gray Flycatcher#555, I kept up on the http://birding.aba.org/maillist/OH site. Just to see what is happening in my home state. And wouldn't you know . . . someone reports a Reddish Egret seen in Delaware, Ohio.  What does this mean? Could it be a mistake? These birds don't even appear up here, usually they are in Florida or south Texas. But after all the known parties got to see the bird, it was confirmed, a white morph Reddish Egret.

White form all white with two-toned bill and dark grey legs.

Resting on the ground. DC Cormorant in foreground

Delaware county new reservoir

According to ebird.org, this is only the 2nd state record of a Reddish Egret. The first was 6/5/2008 by Craig Holt up at Conneaut Harbor, also a white morph juvenile.
A medium to large heron of shallow salt water, the Reddish Egret comes in a dark and a white form. It is a very active forager, often seen running, jumping, and spinning in its pursuit of fish.

I dipped on this bird in Florida this year, and didn't make it to South Padre Island, TX like last year; so this was a great surprise for a new FOY for me. Now all I need is the American Bittern for the year, and then for the 2nd year in a row, I'll be Ardeidae family-out, meaning I saw all of them except for the code 4's and higher. This Reddish Egret is a great add to my Ohio life list.

This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #326 for the year!!

#325 Reddish Egret--9/5
#326 Savannah Sparrow--seen 8/15 at South Kuhlwein wetlands
                                       --confirmed by Ronnie Clark

Juvenile Savannah Sparrow

 Next up: Life Bird chase to the Lake!!

Viva Las Vegas!!! Life Bird #555

I'm gonna give it everything I've got
Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shoot a seven with every shot
Viva Las Vegas, viva Las Vegas, viva Las Vegas
Viva, viva Las Vegas

OMG! Kittens Slot Machine. Needs a Gunther

I'm back from Las Vegas, Nevada. What a great vacation. Short, but well desired. There is something to be said about 106 degree dry heat, and the low of 79 degrees is perfect, especially at 6am PST. This was the third year in a row I've gotten to visit Vegas, and the third time I've meet up with Birdingpal.org guide John Taylor. He is a local guide and volunteer at the Henderson Birding Preserve. And that's exactly where we went on Tues Sept 2nd morning. In just four hours there, Whitney Mesa and Sunset Park produced 65 total species for the day/16 FOYs/1 LifeBird

daybreak and beautiful

Red-Neck Phalaropes

 We saw about 50 of the phalaropes, we hoped for a larger Wilson's phalarope in the group, but to no avail this time.

Gambel's Quail

 The official bird of the Gambill family, the Gambel's Quail. Not named after us, but we'll take it. A bird of the Desert Southwest, Gambel's Quail is common in much of the Southwest, particularly southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Roadrunner . . . beep beep @ Sunset Park

Mission, Texas homebase

      

Black-neck Stilt & American Avocet

Black Phoebe

Cinnamon Teal

Loggerhead Shrike

Townsend's Warbler

Also seen in Colorado in May

Yellow-Headed Blackbird--YHBB

Costa's Hummingbird-Male

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Life Bird time: So at the end of our 4 hours at Henderson, me and John decide to take one more loop around a pond to see if we can get any other birds. On the way back, I saw this large gray bird, on top of a small tree, in the wash between pond 7 and pond 4. It had prominent eye-ring and wingbars, back gray, belly white and constantly wags tail slowly downward. I said "it looks like a Gray Flycatcher" and John gets out and and confirms!!! A life bird for me, and a first Nevada bird for John. I didn't get a picture of it, as it flew farther away, but got a second look with my bins. Below is a stock photo from the internet.

Gray Flycatcher, Life Bird #555

Birding!! check out the bumper sticker

Nature Center at Henderson BP

New York New York Casino at 5am PST

Home Base in Vegas at 5am PST

This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #324 for the year!!
#309 Gambel's Quail
#310 Greater Roadrunner
#311 Black-chinned Hmbrd
#312 Anna's Hmbrd
#313 Costa's Hmbrd
#314 Gray Flycatcher  ABA#555
#315 Black Phoebe--I'm Phoebed out!!
#316 Ash-throated Flycatcher
#317 Verdin
#318 Bewick's Wren
#319 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
#320 Crissal Thrasher (heard)
#321 Orange-crowned warbler
#322 Abert's Towhee (heard)
#323 Yellow-headed blackbird
#324 Great-tailed Grackle 

Next Up:  a rare heron in Ohio?? I need that bird for the year!!

Life Bird #554

Egyptian Goose!!! ABA #554 Probably will be listed as a code 2 bird. It was originally on the Exotics list for years, but finally the ABA has voted to add it to the checklist, only if you've seen it in southeast Florida. And that I did!!  Back on March 28, 2014, I was in Florida, (see my April blog post), at the Wakodahatchee Wetland, and this big beautiful goose flew right up to me and landed on the railing. So I took a picture and moved on.

Egyptian Goose Alopochen aegyptiaca

a must visit place in Florida if you can

http://blog.aba.org/2014/08/aba-checklist-committee-adds-egyptian-goose-to-aba-checklist.html

Above is the blog post regarding the add. Excerpt below:

Yesterday, the ABA Checklist Committee (CLC) unanimously (8–0) accepted the Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) as an established exotic in southeastern Florida (Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. The Egyptian Goose is species #986 on the ABA Checklist

This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #308 for the year!!
#304 Pectoral Sp
#305 Stilt Sp
#306 Black Tern
#307 Hudsonian Godwit
#308 Egyptian Goose