July 1, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Spoonbill makes the headlines

In her column in today's News Leader, YuLee Larner wrote about the Roseate Spoonbill that strayed off course and spent a few days near Waynesboro recently. (I was one of the fortunate ones to see it, racking up another notch on my life bird list; see June 18.) YuLee was clearly "tickled pink" (the same color as the bird!) by this special event:

The Augusta County roseate spoonbill will be the first documented Virginia record if accepted by the Virginia Avian Records Committee (VARCOM), and this is my rarest column since 1977.

There's no doubt that this sighting will be accepted, but I'm not so sure that my sighting of the Scissor-tailed flycatcher will be accepted. In any case, here's an old photo my brother John sent me a few years ago:

Roseate Spoonbill, somewhere in Florida, in 2000 or thereabouts, courtesy of John Clem.

Summer yard birds

Not much to report, as far as serious bird outings; we're in the summer doldrums now. The hummingbird is still showing up at our feeder a few times a day, and we get occasional House finches, Cedar waxwings, Cowbirds, and Catbirds. Grackles remain a nuisance, Starlings somewhat less so. Today I heard a familiar song near our back porch, and soon spotted the source: a male Goldfinch who was nibbling at one of the sunflower plants, which have grown to well over six feet tall. He called, and soon a female showed up. Goldfinches have paired up by now, and are getting ready to start their (late) breeding season.

English bird seed

In response to a friendly solicitation, I added to my Wild birds blog page a link to the The Really Wild Bird Food Company, located in Hampshire, U.K. I know that at least a few baseball fans in the U.K. and on the Continent follow my Web site / blog, but I don't know if any bird watchers do.

June 18, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Life bird: Roseate Spoonbill!

More often than not, whenever there is a rare bird alert in this area, I miss out on it, or so it seems. Yesterday, however, I got lucky. A Roseate Spoonbill was sighted across from the Waynesboro Nursery in Lyndhurst earlier in the week, and on Wednesday afternoon I headed out that way in hopes of seeing it. At about 4:00 I arrived at the indicated location on Shalom Road, just across the South River bridge, and after a few minutes of scanning the fields with my binoculars, sure enough, there was the Spoonbill standing in a big mud puddle about 300 yards away. Absolutely incredible! There is no listing for that species in Birds of Augusta County,* so this must be the first one ever confirmed in this area. So, I started walking along a dirt track next to a corn field that soon got very muddy, and eventually I got to within about 100 yards of the bird. It was at least close enough to get a good look at the strange shaped bill, which is apparently useful in probing for food. Adult Spoonbills are deep reddish pink, whereas the young ones such as the one I saw are much paler. While I was there, Thelma Dalmas and another birder from the Lynchburg area arrived. We talked about the Calliope hummingbird that I saw west of Lynchburg back in January.

Just as we were leaving, a Cooper's hawk flew over, scaring the Indigo buntings, Bluebirds, etc. into hiding.

Later on, I stopped at Bell's Lane and was rewarded by the prompt appearance of a male Baltimore Oriole. Also seen: Grasshopper sparrows, Kestrel, and Willow flycatcher.

The Roseate Spoonbill was life bird # 384, my fourth new bird of the year. And so, I have updated my life bird list page.

* Coincidentally, the editor of that reference book, YuLee Larner, had a column about rare bird sightings in the Wednesday News Leader, and she mentioned my name with regard to the Scissor-tailed flycatcher I saw on May 28; see blog post of June 3.

I didn't expect to get very close to the Spoonbill, so I didn't bother to bring any camera, but Brenda Tekin had better luck today, as you can see at birdsofvirginia.com.

Hummer is back

We have been sad that almost no hummingbirds have come to our feeder since the early June, but two days ago, one showed up (a female), and to our delight is now making regular appearances several times a day.

June 7, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Return to Highland County

I joined an Augusta Bird Club field trip led by Dr. John Spahr to Highland County today, and even though the results weren't quite as spectacular as on the same trip one year ago, I did see several very special birds. The weather was nearly perfect, with clear skies and slowly warming temperatures. The camaraderie among bird enthusiasts was high, in what will probably be the club's last field trip until fall migration season. I met some birders from other parts of Virginia, one of whom I had known through the shenval-birds e-mail list. We followed almost the same itinerary as last year, beginning at Bear Mountain Lodge, then crossing into West Virginia, returning to the Straight Fork valley, going to the O'Bryans' home north of Blue Grass, and concluding just south of Hightown. This year our lunch break was at the retreat home of John and Nancy Spahr, very gracious hosts. For me the most outstanding sightings were a Vesper sparrow (which I had not seen since 2003) and a Mourning Warbler. We heard Veeries singing at at least three different places, and got a great look at one of them. The following list of highlights of what I saw, in rough chronological order, includes all the locations at which we stopped, lumped together.

• Kestrel
• Yellow-rumped Warblers
• Blackburnian Warbler
• Vesper sparrow
• Dark-eyed Juncos
• Veery
• Chestnut-sided Warblers
• Mourning Warbler
• Scarlet Tanager
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Indigo Bunting
• Kingfisher
• Alder Flycatcher
• Common Yellowthroats
• Magnolia Warbler
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Kestrel
• Phoebe
• Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
• Goldfinches
• Red-shouldered hawk
• Broad-winged hawks
• Bald eagles
• House Wren
• Yellow-throated Vireo
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Bald Eagle (J, A)
• Goldfinches
• Cedar Waxwings

Notable by their absence or shyness: both kinds of Orioles, Yellow Warblers, Both kinds of Black-throated Warblers (Blue and Green), Red-eyed Vireos, Blue-headed Vireos, Canada Warblers, American Redstarts, and Red-tailed hawks. Most of those we heard but did not see, and the same applies to the Golden-winged Warblers.. Missing that one was a disappointment, but it didn't detract from what was otherwise a very successful day. Many thanks to John Spahr for leading the trip.

Prairie state birding

Chestnut-collared Longspur, at the Grand River National Grassland near Lemmon, South Dakota, courtesy of John Clem.

June 3, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Scissor-tailed flycatcher!

Sometimes you see the most amazing birds when you least expect it. I was driving home from Waynesboro on Thursday evening, just about dusk, when I noticed a strange bird with an extremely long, floppy tail flying over the road right in front of me. It was medium-sized, about as big as a Robin, but the lighting conditions were too poor to make out colors. I quickly pulled into the next driveway, pulled out my compact binoculars, and got a second look at the bird as it flew in back of a tree. It definitely was not carrying straw or other nesting material, those were its own tail feathers! I talked to one of the residents of the house who was curious what the heck I was looking at. I explained what I was looking for, and the guy confirmed that he too had seen the strange bird with the very long tail. For me, that cinched it, and I have no doubt that it was a Scissor-tailed flycatcher, possibly the same one that was seen just north of Port Republic earlier this month.

Scissor-tailed flycatchers breed primarily in the south-central states, and winter throughout Central America, but they are known to wander far from their usual range. I have seen them in Oklahoma (1998) and in Nicaragua (2005). About ten years ago, I recall, a pair of them was spotted somewhere in Central Virginia, possibly Orange County, and they actually raised a brood of "younguns." None were reported in the following years, however. Anyway, whenever a rare bird like this is spotted, the observer is obliged to submit an official report to the Virginia Avian Records Committee, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Carolina wren nest

A friend of Jacqueline told us she found a bird nest in a decorative basket on her porch, so I went to get a picture before the babies had fledged. For most people, it would be hard to tell what species they are, but I have seen Carolina wren babies before, and the very bulky nest in the strange location is the modus operandi for that species.

Carolina Wren babies, which have since gone on to bigger and better things.