Ammodramus

With the recent pictures of several Henslow's sparrows singing at Slate Run Metro Park in Canal Winchester, I wanted to get over and see the birds. But I didn't make time. I have not seen a Henslow's since 2014 at Magee Boardwalk. So I checked ebird.org for local reported sightings. I noticed a report from 4/16 of up to 10 birds at Seip Mound in Ross county, right next to Paint Valley High School.  My wife graduated from there, and I was planning on visiting the in-laws for the weekend. So Sunday morning at 8:30, I took the 14 mile trip over to the mound site.

I followed back towards the mound, then to the right and the "interpretative trail" signs towards the field/prairie. Once there, I can see this is perfect habitat for Ammodramus sparrows, and sure enough . . . just listen for

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Henslows_Sparrow/sounds

Small songbird

An uncommon and famously inconspicuous bird, the Henslow's Sparrow breeds in weedy grasslands of the east-central United States. Its population numbers have declined steadily over the past few decades, largely because of habitat loss. 

Mostly brownish, with sparsely streaked breast

 Henslow's Sparrow

Large head

Short tail

Henslow's, Magee Marsh 2014

Just after seeing this great FOY bird, I listened for the distinctive sound of another grassland sparrow


https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Grasshopper_Sparrow/sounds

Small songbird

Mostly brownish, with an unmarked buffy breast

Dark crown with a pale middle stripe

A furtive bird of open grasslands, the Grasshopper Sparrow takes its name not only from its diet, but also from its insect-like song. It is found during the breeding season across much of the eastern United States and Great Plains, nesting and feeding mostly on the ground.


















Grasshopper Sparrow










So a great morning out in the field, making the most of both a family trip, early morning trip, while birding in Ohio. Now I'm off to getting ready for an Arizona trip that will be epic.

Life Bird seen:
Henslow's sparrow--ClearCreek MP, Ohio 5/17/87
Grasshopper sparrow--Arizona 7/29/86  possible first group of 100 recorded birds for me

Next up:  Arizona Hit List

Wecolme to Lost Wages and +1 Lifer

Now the second part of my spring break journey.  I flew out of HRL at 4:30 on Saturday March 19th, and after a delay in Houston(shocker), I landed in LAS at 8:00pm PST, so I gained two hours, but off to bed. Birds in the morning.

Sunrise Corn Creek Preserve

Almost there . . .

There's always something special watching the sunrise when your on west coast time.  I"m already three hours ahead by east, so it's a beautiful sight
to see. I highly recommend it if you can.








We where in hopes of seeing Sage Thrasher and Sagebrush Sparrow, but no luck this time. Damn.  But we did hear a thrasher signing off into the brush.  After several minutes, and hoping it was a Sage, the bird popped up and sang on top of a bush, it was a  . . .

Crissal Thrasher Code 2

Phainopepla, female

Say's Phoebe

Now's where it gets good.  After birding on the backside of the wooded trail, down from the fish exhibit, we hear this loudly singing bird. We walk down and locate it singing on top of some bushes, then if flies over to another bush, then tree. Clearly it was singing to mark it's territory and attract females. I spot it in the bincolours, it is small, grayish overall, small warbler beak, white eye ring . . .

Lucy's Warbler

ABA Lifer #579

 One of the smallest warblers, the Lucy's Warbler is a bird of the hot Sonoran desert. It occupies the driest habitat of all the warblers breeding in that area.







https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Lucys_Warbler/sounds

Lucy's

Holy Cow!!! I thought I had correctly identified the bird, but was not sure until I got home that I needed it for a life bird.  So sure enough, another trip to Las Vegas has paid off.  Thanks Mr. Lucy's Warbler. Nice doing business with you.

This now leaves me with only 3 common wood-warblers that I need for for lifers.  Code 2 Swainson's warbler, Code 1 Comila & MacGillivray's warblers.  I know where to get this guys, just need to plan some trips.

Now off to the mountains and 8500 ft elevation. I visited Mt. Charleston in September, but March, boy was it colder, 78 degrees in the valley, but down to 53 degrees in the mountains . . and SNOW?!?

Lifer Snowmen in Nevada

SCOTT!!!!!

Team #BrambleOn

Townsend's Solitaire

Yellow-headed Blackbird @HBP

On Monday, we visited Henderson Birding Preserve, my go to place, and Clark County Wetlands. No lifers, but several FOYs and birds commonly seen here. The Nevada trip ended up with 68 total species.  Not too bad.

 By the time I got home Tues night at 11:30pm, I was tired, jet-lagged, sore, and birded out.  My Fitbit had read that I averaged 9500 steps a day, or about 3.8 miles/day for the trip.


Next up: I'm heading to SE Arizona April 29th . . . more lifers!!

Texas Roundup

Howdy Ho Cowboy, Bienvenido to the Valley!!!  There are two airports to fly into the valley, McAllen(MFE) and Harlingen(HRL).  I always fly into HRL because Southwest Airlines only fly there. Both airports are about 45 minutes apart and are close to all the birding spots. The trip this year was only targeting LIFE birds.  I was only going to be there for 72 hours, so I had to make it count, and I did just that with 4 lifers (previous post). This post I wanted to share other birds I saw, including a rare Code 4, that I had seen back in 1988, so a re-lifer!!

Out of the 133 species that I saw, 22 where Code 2 or higher. That's 16.5%!! So one out of 16 birds were a birding highlight reel. Here's some good ones . . .



Rarest bird seen: Blue Bunting--Code 4 ; originally seen by me 4/4/1988  @ Bentsen SP

Male

seen at Frontera 3/17/16

In dense thickets and woodland edges of Mexico and northern Central America, this dark bunting is fairly common. In our area it is a rare and irregular visitor to far southern Texas, mostly occurring in winter.





Code 4: Casual.
Species not recorded annually in the ABA Checklist Area, but with six or more total records—including three or more in the past 30 years—reflecting some pattern of occurrence.


2nd rarest bird seen: Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl--Code 3  lifer 3/18/16 @ King Ranch Norias division

Lifer #577

82 species on the ranch

 
Code 3: Rare
Species that occur in very low numbers, but annually, in the ABA Checklist Area. This includes visitors and rare breeding residents.




Total seen:  133
Code 2s:       18    
Code 3s:         3   Ferr. Pygmy-Owl, Tropical Parula, Clay-colored Thrush(Robin)
Code 4:           1   Blue Bunting

Code 2: species have a restricted North American range, are more widespread, but occur in lower densities, or are quite secretive making their detection often difficult. We readily acknowledge that some Code-2 species are harder to find than some species that have higher codes.

Audubon's Oriole Code 2

Northern-Beardless-Tyrannulet

NOBT Code 2

Ringed Kingfisher Code 2

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, male  Code 1

Horned Gazelle

Birding the Ranch w van

Hargill Plaza, Snowy Plover

Next up:  Viva Las Vegas . . . spring break part 2

I HEART TEXAS +4 Lifers

Welcome home Big Week Birder!!! That's right, back in good old sunny Ohio, but its good to be back. I spent three days in late March in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, getting some winter birding in. It was a chance to start my year list off quickly and hopefully add some much needed #LifeBirds. And guess what? I did just that, with a total of 133 species and +4 lifers,

This first blog is a recap of my LRGV hit list birds needed to add to my ABA area life list. The next entry will be more winter LRGV rarities, FOY's, and a stop in Las Vegas for 2 days of birding and gambling

Lifers seen:

• Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, code 3, King Ranch trip, seen 3/18/16

 

Where's this little owl??

The northernmost subspecies, commonly called the cactus Ferruginous pygmy owl, was a listed Endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

ABA Life #577

The Ferruginous pygmy owl is small, typically  5.9 in, and stocky with disproportionately large talons.There are two eye spots on the nape.




My father Buddy first saw the owl at Falcon Dam State Park, Texas April 9,1980.  Red & Louise first saw the owl at Salineno, Texas on Feb 13,1985 and was life bird #708. Also many more times at Bentson SP on a regular basis.

 Here's a little video for you. 2nd bird seen on the trip once thru the gate. Heard it calling when we arrived.

• Sprague's Pipit, code 2, King Ranch trip, seen 3/18/16

Where's the Pipit??

Sprague's Pipit

A rare and declining songbird of the northern prairie, Sprague's Pipit is a small bird of the open grasslands. Though it feeds and nests exclusively on the ground, the species performs the longest known flight display of any bird.

ABA Lifer #578

• Prairie falcon, code 1, McCook fields with Mount. Plover, get lucky w flyby?? Yes we did and a pretty pose too

Prairie Falcon

ABA Lifer #575

Flying away, upper left

Prairie Falcons are brown above and pale with brown markings on the breast and belly.
They have a pale stripe above the eye and a brown mustache stripe.

• Snowy Plover, code 1, Hargill Plaza, 2 birds reported, saw only 1, but he's a Snowy

Snowy Plover

ABA Lifer #576

A small plover of beaches and barren ground, the Snowy Plover can be found across North and South America, Eurasia, and Africa. In North America it is restricted to the Gulf and Pacific coasts of the United States, and scattered inland localities from Saskatchewan to California and Texas.






Back pale tan. Underparts white. Dark patches on sides of neck reaching around onto top of chest.

Lifers missed:

• Mountain Plover, code 2, McCook fields, many reports. Just missed theses guys, reported only 48 hours earlier, we did not see any of the up to 50 birds that last two weeks. Damn.  I did see the Prairie Falcon, Swainson's Hawk and Crested Cara Cara's in the fields. So those birds of prey might of pushed them out, plus I think many had migrated north by then.  Right place, wrong time.  See ya next year??

.
Up next: More Texas and southern Nevada birds seen and places visited

Spring Break 2016 Hit List

Current ABA list list: 574
Last one seen: #574--Black-headed Gull 12/31/15Code3




I will be visiting south Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada for the next week and get to relax, eat some cheese, catch some rays and of course see some #lifebirds.  #Bigyear2016 begins


Lifers needed:  Texas

• Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, code 3, King Ranch trip
• Sprague's Pipit, code 2, King Ranch trip or Anzalduas Park
• Mountain Plover, code 2, McCook fields, many reports
• Prairie falcon, code 1, McCook fields with Mount. Plover, get lucky w flyby??
• Snowy Plover, code 1, Hargill Plaza, 2 birds reported

Lifers needed:  Nevada

• Sage Thrasher, code 1, Corn Creek WA, spring migration
• Sagebrush Sparrow, code 1, Corn Creek long road in

Year Birds:
 Tons of them out there, since I only have 75 Ohio birds for the year, I'm basically going to start in Texas at my Ohio number, then after the trip add up my balance from both states. Hoping for 175 YTD total species??

Goals:
130 birds for the trip
4 life birds

Next up:  The star are bright . . . to late at night . . . deep in the heart of TEXAS!!

Christmas Bird Count, in the late 80's

The Columbus Dispatch article

Last time I was at my aunt and uncle's house, they wanted to share this article they found. It was from back in the 1985-89' timeframe we think. Fellow birder and nature lover James Fry would write a bi-weekly article for the Columbus Dispatch. I remember as a young birder meeting with and birding with Jim Fry out at Pickerington Ponds, Greenlawn Cemetery and Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking county.

My father and uncle Mike helped conduct the annual CBC that year at Hoover, and even uncle Mike spotted the American Woodcock.  As you can ready, my father Buddy with ID help, confirmed the Baird's sandpiper, too bad this was not his illustration of the bird. 

This article shows how much change in the birding world we have seen in the decades since.  Birds that are common place now, where spare back then; and today it's hard to imagine that a house finch would be considered rare. So take a read and enjoy a little bit of Christmas Bird Count and central Ohio birding history.

Next up:  Spring Break 2016!!! Birds Birds and more life Birds . . .