Birding, listing, and digiscoping in Kent Co., Michigan and beyond.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
"Ross's Goose" update
Well, it appears this bird is not passing muster. I received the opinions of several experts and about half were of the opinion the the bird's bill base/facial junction would not be good enough to pass a records committee vote. Specifically, they judged that the rearward incursion at the gape (the corner of the "lips") makes the feathering above it to bulge forward into the bill base, such that it appears to have a slight influence of Snow Goose genes. It is possible that the bird is transitioning from a curved bill/facial interface as a juvenile into a flat one as an adult, and that the incursion is a vestige of this changeover, but this is anecdotal and not enough to rule out the hybrid/intergrade explanation. So, it looks like we'll have to wait for the next potential Ross's before we add it to the Kent Co. list. Helluva find regardless, Randy!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Putative Ross's Goose
Received a call today from Randy Vandermolen (up and coming Kent Co. birder extraordinaire) that he had briefly viewed and photographed a small white goose in with 20 or so Canadas, which landed out of sight. After some deliberation, and based on his description, I decided there was a decent chance the bird was a Ross's candidate. Upon meeting Randy and looking at his photos from his SLR screen, I was convinced the bird was far too small for a Snow Goose. We found the bird around 3PM and snuck up on it, getting these photos:
As with all Ross's Geese, one must consider and eliminate all possibilities of Snow Goose X Ross's Goose hybrids and backcrosses in order to count such a bird. This one is no exception. My analysis is still underway, but currently goes about like this:
Pro Ross's traits:
1) Body size (not as small as some Ross's, but not too big to cause alarm as there is sexual dimorphism in this trait).
2) Blue base to bill, extending from bill base to nares
3) Lack of a grin patch on the tomium of the bill
4) Beak not too long or bulky overall
Indeterminate traits:
1) Verticality of the bill base/facial junction.
To me, this bird's ID hinges upon this latter trait. The classic Snow Goose trait here is a long, regular, sloping curvature to the bill base, especially where it meets the upper mandible. The classic Ross's trait is a perfectly vertical junction. This bird is somewhere in between, but I think it is much closer to the Ross's condition, and probably within the range of variation of that species. Specifically, if you take away the small incursions at the gape and the upper lobe of the bill (perhaps relicts of juvenile bare parts? [this bird is last year's young based on the retained juvenal gray crown and mantle feathers]), the feathering which meets the upper mandible is indeed vertical. So at this point I am leaning that this is a pure Ross's Goose. That said:
There is no universally agreed upon definition for where to draw the line between "pure Ross's Goose" and "slightly introgressed SNGOXROGO", so each records committee member who votes on this species will draw their own line and vote accordingly. (An aside: Michigan no longer reviews this species, which turned regular several years ago.) But in this case, the final answer may differ for different individual birders. I am soliciting the opinions of several experienced observers and will update this blogpost with their opinions once I hear back.
As with all Ross's Geese, one must consider and eliminate all possibilities of Snow Goose X Ross's Goose hybrids and backcrosses in order to count such a bird. This one is no exception. My analysis is still underway, but currently goes about like this:Pro Ross's traits:
1) Body size (not as small as some Ross's, but not too big to cause alarm as there is sexual dimorphism in this trait).
2) Blue base to bill, extending from bill base to nares
3) Lack of a grin patch on the tomium of the bill
4) Beak not too long or bulky overall
Indeterminate traits:
1) Verticality of the bill base/facial junction.
To me, this bird's ID hinges upon this latter trait. The classic Snow Goose trait here is a long, regular, sloping curvature to the bill base, especially where it meets the upper mandible. The classic Ross's trait is a perfectly vertical junction. This bird is somewhere in between, but I think it is much closer to the Ross's condition, and probably within the range of variation of that species. Specifically, if you take away the small incursions at the gape and the upper lobe of the bill (perhaps relicts of juvenile bare parts? [this bird is last year's young based on the retained juvenal gray crown and mantle feathers]), the feathering which meets the upper mandible is indeed vertical. So at this point I am leaning that this is a pure Ross's Goose. That said:
There is no universally agreed upon definition for where to draw the line between "pure Ross's Goose" and "slightly introgressed SNGOXROGO", so each records committee member who votes on this species will draw their own line and vote accordingly. (An aside: Michigan no longer reviews this species, which turned regular several years ago.) But in this case, the final answer may differ for different individual birders. I am soliciting the opinions of several experienced observers and will update this blogpost with their opinions once I hear back.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Ruffed Grouse!
I know, I know, not a big deal for most of Michigan, but Ruffed Grouse is a declining species along the southern periphery of its range, due mainly to the alteration of the forested landscapes to increasingly fragmented patchworks of suburbian desert. Plus by the time I really got serious about Kent Co. listing last summer, it was already past drumming time so I wrote the species off until 2011.
Regarding the species' decline: consider Berrien Co., where the species is now down to a precarious few individuals which are very difficult to find now. This is what the situation looked like during the first breeding bird atlas during the 1980s, just 25 years ago:
This map will include at most one block for the second atlas period, shockingly. Kent Co. is not nearly as far along in the fall to oblivion as this, but reports from staff at Howard Christensen Nature Center in the Rogue River State Game Area, as an example, indicate that they were common each year until about a decade ago when they stopped seeing them on site. However, based on reliable hunter reports that they are still present in the Rogue, I have been snowshoeing in to look for them over the past 2 weeks. (An aside: Why, you ask, don't I wait until April and just listen for them drumming? The answer: impatience and an obsession with increasing the county list ASAP. Plus I need the time in April to find 3 species of terns here!).
Ayway, today was my third foray into the alder/tamarack swamps off 20 Mile Rd to try to locate one of these elusive birds. The first trip, about 10 days ago, yielded fresh tracks, droppings, and even a roost site of a Ruffed Grouse, but no bird (I did see 4 very unexpected White-winged Crossbills, however!). The second trip yielded no sign and no birds. Which led me to today. I hiked in at least 1 mile through dense alder thicket, still mostly snow covered, in search of signs of this species. It really is beautiful habitat:
This habitat consists of Whorled Loosestrife tufts along Spring Creek (in summer this would be nearly impassable even with waders). Although greater than 95% of the ground is still covered with over a foot of snow, the numerous seeps in this area (which apparently feed the headwaters of Spring Creek) have melted out small pockets of the forest floor such as this:
In fact it was exactly at this location where I flushed, at the very end of my walk and not far from 20 Mile Rd, my Kent County Ruffed Grouse. I was basically about 6 feet from the bird (unbenounced to me) when it flushed underfoot in an explosion of wingbeats. It had been roosting silently underneath this snow bank:
It happened so fast I couldn't document the bird itself (I did not see it again as it flew long range). However droppings were present where it had apparently been standing for some time:
No wonder I couldn't find tracks in the snow anywhere- the bird(s) seem to stick to the seeps! I also found droppings in one location apart from this. The bird appeared to likely be a "red" morph (as opposed to the gray morph), as I thought I was seeing a rufous background color to the tail (its black subterminal band was obvious as it flew) during my brief view. Here is the wingprint left by the bird as it flushed along the snowbank:
A final excitement for the day was finding my first flower of spring, what I assume is a young Skunk Cabbage (please correct me if I am wrong all you botanists out there!):
#226 and counting! Onward and upward!
Regarding the species' decline: consider Berrien Co., where the species is now down to a precarious few individuals which are very difficult to find now. This is what the situation looked like during the first breeding bird atlas during the 1980s, just 25 years ago:
This map will include at most one block for the second atlas period, shockingly. Kent Co. is not nearly as far along in the fall to oblivion as this, but reports from staff at Howard Christensen Nature Center in the Rogue River State Game Area, as an example, indicate that they were common each year until about a decade ago when they stopped seeing them on site. However, based on reliable hunter reports that they are still present in the Rogue, I have been snowshoeing in to look for them over the past 2 weeks. (An aside: Why, you ask, don't I wait until April and just listen for them drumming? The answer: impatience and an obsession with increasing the county list ASAP. Plus I need the time in April to find 3 species of terns here!).Ayway, today was my third foray into the alder/tamarack swamps off 20 Mile Rd to try to locate one of these elusive birds. The first trip, about 10 days ago, yielded fresh tracks, droppings, and even a roost site of a Ruffed Grouse, but no bird (I did see 4 very unexpected White-winged Crossbills, however!). The second trip yielded no sign and no birds. Which led me to today. I hiked in at least 1 mile through dense alder thicket, still mostly snow covered, in search of signs of this species. It really is beautiful habitat:
This habitat consists of Whorled Loosestrife tufts along Spring Creek (in summer this would be nearly impassable even with waders). Although greater than 95% of the ground is still covered with over a foot of snow, the numerous seeps in this area (which apparently feed the headwaters of Spring Creek) have melted out small pockets of the forest floor such as this:
In fact it was exactly at this location where I flushed, at the very end of my walk and not far from 20 Mile Rd, my Kent County Ruffed Grouse. I was basically about 6 feet from the bird (unbenounced to me) when it flushed underfoot in an explosion of wingbeats. It had been roosting silently underneath this snow bank:
It happened so fast I couldn't document the bird itself (I did not see it again as it flew long range). However droppings were present where it had apparently been standing for some time:
No wonder I couldn't find tracks in the snow anywhere- the bird(s) seem to stick to the seeps! I also found droppings in one location apart from this. The bird appeared to likely be a "red" morph (as opposed to the gray morph), as I thought I was seeing a rufous background color to the tail (its black subterminal band was obvious as it flew) during my brief view. Here is the wingprint left by the bird as it flushed along the snowbank:
A final excitement for the day was finding my first flower of spring, what I assume is a young Skunk Cabbage (please correct me if I am wrong all you botanists out there!):
#226 and counting! Onward and upward!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
County listing; new arrivals
For almost a year now I have, for the first time in my birding "career," become interested in county listing. Like with state listing, the game is primarily about longevity, with a lesser role played by money and time, the two primary limiting resources. But in the end, it's primarily a matter of being around for as many chasable rarities as possible, with a smaller amount of self-finding involved. At the county level, finding one's own birds becomes more important because birds which are not state birds are more likely to remain county needs, and finding them by one's self is less of a "needle in the haystack" game.
Anyway, because I am planted in Kent Co for the foreseeable future, and because the of the paucity of local interested birders (hey, maybe I can actually "win" at one of these listing contests!), I decided to start building my list here. At the time I started I had only around 170 species for Kent Co., and was still missing stuff like Northern Pintail and Redhead (ouch). But with one year's effort I have buffeted up to 225 and eliminated the majority of the common species. Here are my newest county additions starting with the most recent:
25 of these were found without chasing. For these I searched out available habitat and hit it hard during the right time of year, and got a little lucky (LBDO!). Most of the remainder from this list were found by chasing someone else's bird. Speaking to that, we do have a budding county listing crowd building in this county. I know of at least nine birders who are part of the phone tree now.
Anyway, I have several species in the bullseye for finding in Kent Co. over the next couple months. One of them, Northern Goshawk, not known to be a breeder here, (but possibly nesting somewhere in the deeper woods of Cannonsburg or Rogue River SGAs), could also be scored as a migrant at some place with excellent visibility. One such place, Fisk Knob, was brought to my attention via eBird. It was described as having Kent Co.'s highest elevation, at 1,075 feet, with good visibility of the horizon. I finally made it to this location today while traveling through, and was amazed by the view. Here is the property (a Kent Co. park) from the parking area:
This video give a good idea of the quality of the vantage atop the "knob":
This location is 3/4 mile south of the Newaygo Co. line, but fortunately the greatest visibility (over 20 miles!) was to the south, where every bird you see is in Kent. So, to the birds. Despite heavy winds and well subfreezing temperatures, the place was VERY birdy. Before I had even exited the car I had this bird in sight:
Birds were plentiful throughout the watch, and included 3 MI year birds, 2 of which are here:
The final year bird was a lone Killdeer, winging north through the icy wind, silent as could be. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing some neat species up on this hill in the next 2 months!
Anyway, because I am planted in Kent Co for the foreseeable future, and because the of the paucity of local interested birders (hey, maybe I can actually "win" at one of these listing contests!), I decided to start building my list here. At the time I started I had only around 170 species for Kent Co., and was still missing stuff like Northern Pintail and Redhead (ouch). But with one year's effort I have buffeted up to 225 and eliminated the majority of the common species. Here are my newest county additions starting with the most recent:
25 of these were found without chasing. For these I searched out available habitat and hit it hard during the right time of year, and got a little lucky (LBDO!). Most of the remainder from this list were found by chasing someone else's bird. Speaking to that, we do have a budding county listing crowd building in this county. I know of at least nine birders who are part of the phone tree now.
Anyway, I have several species in the bullseye for finding in Kent Co. over the next couple months. One of them, Northern Goshawk, not known to be a breeder here, (but possibly nesting somewhere in the deeper woods of Cannonsburg or Rogue River SGAs), could also be scored as a migrant at some place with excellent visibility. One such place, Fisk Knob, was brought to my attention via eBird. It was described as having Kent Co.'s highest elevation, at 1,075 feet, with good visibility of the horizon. I finally made it to this location today while traveling through, and was amazed by the view. Here is the property (a Kent Co. park) from the parking area:
This video give a good idea of the quality of the vantage atop the "knob":This location is 3/4 mile south of the Newaygo Co. line, but fortunately the greatest visibility (over 20 miles!) was to the south, where every bird you see is in Kent. So, to the birds. Despite heavy winds and well subfreezing temperatures, the place was VERY birdy. Before I had even exited the car I had this bird in sight:
Birds were plentiful throughout the watch, and included 3 MI year birds, 2 of which are here:
The final year bird was a lone Killdeer, winging north through the icy wind, silent as could be. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing some neat species up on this hill in the next 2 months!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Lake Michigan waterfowl and reviving the blog
All- (assuming you're still out there checking this blog!), I first have to admit being negligent on updating the blog. Usual excuses, yada yada. I will say this, however: I will be updating it more regularly now that a few important deadlines are behind me. Let today be the first day of a new era for Avian Tendencies!
So, I was lucky to bird all day today, from Traverse City (for the male Harlequin Duck which has been seen for some time now and the 9+ year long Eurasian Collared-Dove "colony" south of town) down the Lake Michigan shoreline as far as we could get before dark, scanning for Barrow's Goldeneyes and other rarities at various vantages. It was a beautiful day, with light winds, mild temperatures, and generally lots of birds. First off, I missed the Harlequin in Traverse due to freezup of most of the bay, but this was made up for later in the day (read on). Our stop at Chums Corner to check on the status of Eurasian Collared-Dove at this site was successful in locating a single Collared-Dove, and one which convinced us adequately that it was neither an African Collared-Dove, nor a hybrid/backcross African X Eurasian Collared-Dove. The underside of R6 featured extensive black in the outer web (though not extending laterally all the way to the edge, but very close to it). Importantly, this black extended farther toward the tip of the feathers than the black of the inner web of R6 and the black of the other rectrices. Furthermore, the undertail coverts were darker than the surrounding feathers, and the primaries were considerably darker than the upperparts. Here are some photos.
Here is the undertail pattern, which was perfectly symmetrical.
Next it was on to a slew of stops along Lake Michigan, starting at Frankfort and ending at Pentwater. We were very interested in searching for the possible adult male Barrow's Goldeneye reported 2 weeks ago at Manistee and not seen since. Unfortunately, despite looking through 1000+ Commons, we did not find the/a bird. We were treated to over 900 White-winged Scoters (and 0 Surfs!), including at least 500 at Portage Point in Manistee Co., possibly a lot more than this in actuality. Ring-billed Gulls put in a good showing, at a bare minimum of 1300 birds for the day (mostly at Ludington Harbor, where 950 were present).
A real treat has been checking the Ludington Storage basin outflow twice in the past couple weeks. The angle of viewing from the bluff is spectacular- you are overhead of the waterfowl a couple hundred feet with perfect frontlighting (sun behind you). The distance and lightinging (late day, overcast) were not great today but I just had to try a digiscoped video of displaying Red-breasted Mergansers.
But of course the real excitement at this site were the 3 Harlequin Ducks which were still present despite not having been reported since late January by Brian Allen and David Dister. The 2 gorgeous males and single female were still present, though very distant, and this video and photo was all I could manage.
This is the most Harlies I've seen in Michigan at one place.
All in all this was a much-needed, very relaxing day with a good friend. I need to do this more often...
So, I was lucky to bird all day today, from Traverse City (for the male Harlequin Duck which has been seen for some time now and the 9+ year long Eurasian Collared-Dove "colony" south of town) down the Lake Michigan shoreline as far as we could get before dark, scanning for Barrow's Goldeneyes and other rarities at various vantages. It was a beautiful day, with light winds, mild temperatures, and generally lots of birds. First off, I missed the Harlequin in Traverse due to freezup of most of the bay, but this was made up for later in the day (read on). Our stop at Chums Corner to check on the status of Eurasian Collared-Dove at this site was successful in locating a single Collared-Dove, and one which convinced us adequately that it was neither an African Collared-Dove, nor a hybrid/backcross African X Eurasian Collared-Dove. The underside of R6 featured extensive black in the outer web (though not extending laterally all the way to the edge, but very close to it). Importantly, this black extended farther toward the tip of the feathers than the black of the inner web of R6 and the black of the other rectrices. Furthermore, the undertail coverts were darker than the surrounding feathers, and the primaries were considerably darker than the upperparts. Here are some photos.
Here is the undertail pattern, which was perfectly symmetrical.
Next it was on to a slew of stops along Lake Michigan, starting at Frankfort and ending at Pentwater. We were very interested in searching for the possible adult male Barrow's Goldeneye reported 2 weeks ago at Manistee and not seen since. Unfortunately, despite looking through 1000+ Commons, we did not find the/a bird. We were treated to over 900 White-winged Scoters (and 0 Surfs!), including at least 500 at Portage Point in Manistee Co., possibly a lot more than this in actuality. Ring-billed Gulls put in a good showing, at a bare minimum of 1300 birds for the day (mostly at Ludington Harbor, where 950 were present).
A real treat has been checking the Ludington Storage basin outflow twice in the past couple weeks. The angle of viewing from the bluff is spectacular- you are overhead of the waterfowl a couple hundred feet with perfect frontlighting (sun behind you). The distance and lightinging (late day, overcast) were not great today but I just had to try a digiscoped video of displaying Red-breasted Mergansers.
But of course the real excitement at this site were the 3 Harlequin Ducks which were still present despite not having been reported since late January by Brian Allen and David Dister. The 2 gorgeous males and single female were still present, though very distant, and this video and photo was all I could manage.
This is the most Harlies I've seen in Michigan at one place.
All in all this was a much-needed, very relaxing day with a good friend. I need to do this more often...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Apparent intergrade Flicker in Kent Co.
For the past 2 days I have hosted a Northern Flicker at my house which appears to be an intergrade Red-shafted X Yellow-shafted. The former subspecies occurs in the American west, while the latter is found in the east, with a fairly narrow band of intergradation in the Great Plains states. I have not hears of any records of Red-shafted Northern Flickers in Michigan, nor of any intergrades, and would appreciate knowing of any such records.
The bird in my yard is certainly mostly a Yellow-shafted Flicker (red nape patch, yellow inner primaries, incoming black malar, etc.). But the pro-Red-shafted features included obviously reddish rectrix shafts and inner webs, at least some outer primaries with reddish inner webs, and gray from the nape invading the rear of the auricular. I was somewhat surprised to read in Sibley (2000) that intermediate birds are "frequent over most of the continent." I had though they were more limited to the Great Plains and adjoining states. I have certainly seen intergrades in eastern Montana, but not western Montana during my four years there (1999-2003). Anyway, here are the photos:
This photo shows the gray of the nape invading at least the back of the auricular, rather than the typical all-brown auricular sharply demarcated at its rear by the nape typical of Yellow-shafteds.
Here you can make out the red/orange inner webs of the rectrices, all of which appeared to share this coloration. It was difficult to make out the exact shade of these feathers, but whether it is orange or reddish, it stands out very obviously against the yellow webs of the inner primaries and secondaries.
Here you can see the obviously reddish/orangish rachis of the rectrices, and how it contrasted to the yellow shafts of one secondary and some of the primaries. I was unable to photograph the outer primary shafts, but I saw them clearly several times and at least 1-2 of the outer primaries had a coloration similar to that shown here on the rectrix rachises.
As always, thoughts on the provenance of this bird are solicited. Can a "pure" Yellow-shafted ever show this coloration on any of its flight feathers?
The bird in my yard is certainly mostly a Yellow-shafted Flicker (red nape patch, yellow inner primaries, incoming black malar, etc.). But the pro-Red-shafted features included obviously reddish rectrix shafts and inner webs, at least some outer primaries with reddish inner webs, and gray from the nape invading the rear of the auricular. I was somewhat surprised to read in Sibley (2000) that intermediate birds are "frequent over most of the continent." I had though they were more limited to the Great Plains and adjoining states. I have certainly seen intergrades in eastern Montana, but not western Montana during my four years there (1999-2003). Anyway, here are the photos:
This photo shows the gray of the nape invading at least the back of the auricular, rather than the typical all-brown auricular sharply demarcated at its rear by the nape typical of Yellow-shafteds.
Here you can make out the red/orange inner webs of the rectrices, all of which appeared to share this coloration. It was difficult to make out the exact shade of these feathers, but whether it is orange or reddish, it stands out very obviously against the yellow webs of the inner primaries and secondaries.
Here you can see the obviously reddish/orangish rachis of the rectrices, and how it contrasted to the yellow shafts of one secondary and some of the primaries. I was unable to photograph the outer primary shafts, but I saw them clearly several times and at least 1-2 of the outer primaries had a coloration similar to that shown here on the rectrix rachises.
As always, thoughts on the provenance of this bird are solicited. Can a "pure" Yellow-shafted ever show this coloration on any of its flight feathers?
Monday, September 20, 2010
Frigatebird
Today I got my coolest birthday present imaginable: a frigatebird at St. Joseph, Tiscornia Park. Received the call upon waking up and was pleased to see that the bird which had been found in flight 1-2 miles out over Lake Michigan had come in to land on the lighthouse!! Upon arrival it was still there, where it sat for a few hours before taking flight and putting on quite the aerial show.
I believe the bird is an adult male, either Magnificent Frigatebird (leaning to based on size) or Ascension Frigatebird, both of which lack alar bars (which the Berrien bird clearly does). Of course, as there are no ABA area records of Ascension, I would assume this bird is most likely Magnificent, but need to do some more research before calling it with certainty. I will say the this bird felt every bit as large as the Magnificents I have seen in Florida and Belize and the Caribbea Here are my best photos and video clips of this incredible record. (and a big thanks to Tim Baerwald for getting the word out yet again!)
Today I
I believe the bird is an adult male, either Magnificent Frigatebird (leaning to based on size) or Ascension Frigatebird, both of which lack alar bars (which the Berrien bird clearly does). Of course, as there are no ABA area records of Ascension, I would assume this bird is most likely Magnificent, but need to do some more research before calling it with certainty. I will say the this bird felt every bit as large as the Magnificents I have seen in Florida and Belize and the Caribbea Here are my best photos and video clips of this incredible record. (and a big thanks to Tim Baerwald for getting the word out yet again!)
Today I 
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