Explaining to do

Okay, it seems I have some explaining to do. I my last post, I thought I had found a Thayer's Gull. Several things about the bird didn't seem quite right to me, and I thought it might even be a Glaucous-winged Gull, which is much rarer in Utah (although Thayer's are also pretty rare here). So, I sent photos and videos to several list-serves requesting help in my identification. I received responses from nine different people, and as any student of the gulls would guess, there was little consensus. Opinions ranged from pure Thayer's Gull to pure Glaucous-winged Gull to pure Slaty-backed Gull, but the most common opinion was that I had photographed a hybrid between a Glaucous-winged Gull and a Herring Gull. This was one of the possibilities I had considered, but it wasn't the identification I thought was most likely. Even after hearing all the opinions of the experts, I am still not confident in identifying this bird, and it will stay in my records as "Unidentified gull, probable Glaucous-winged x Herring hybrid".

Someone asked me before if it's embarrassing to publicly misidentify a bird. If I had called this something outlandish, then maybe I would be embarrassed. But gulls are notoriously difficult, and I feel pretty good about how I did with this one. In fact, David Sibley says of the Thayer's Gull, "Very difficult to distinguish from hybrids of other large gulls such as Herring x Glaucous-winged." After all, if the gulls can't even tell each other apart when it's time to find a mate, how can we be expected to sort them out as juveniles!

Okay, so I'm not counting the Thayer's Gull that I posted about before. Then why is Thayer's Gull still in my year list at the right? Well, I feel more confident in the identification of a different bird that we saw on the same day was a Thayer's Gull. One photo of this bird is above: the Thayer's is on the left and a California Gull is on the right. This Thayer's Gull has darker wingtips than my previous mystery gull, but it has a distinctly small, round head and petite bill, two traits I was looking for on the mystery gull but was having trouble with. So, the photo may be wrong, but I still think I saw a Thayer's Gull that day. Although I'd be happy to hear comments from the experts about this gull as well.

Evening Grosbeaks and Thayer's Gull

It's been a while since my last post, but it's not because I haven't been birding. I have. Desperately. I'm so close to the record that I've spent ten or fifteen hours each weekend for the last two or three weeks birding, plus several hours during the week wherever I can fit it in. But, of course, the new birds are now few and far between.

On Friday, a school holiday, Stephanie and I hiked around Swan Peak looking for some of the mountain species I still haven't been able to find like Pine Grosbeak, White-winged Crossbill, and Evening Grosbeak. We didn't find any of these, but we did find nine Dusky Grouse, a species I took a special trip for a few weeks ago.

Yesterday Craig Fosdick and I birded all day, from the south end of the county to the northern border with Idaho. We were mostly looking for species that winter on the ocean but get lost inland this time of year, like the scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, and Pacific Loons. We didn't find any of these either, but while we were scanning Hyrum Reservoir, Craig heard a single call note above and quickly pointed out a flock of eight Evening Grosbeaks passing high overhead. The birds continued out over the reservoir, and we never saw them land. These birds are probably part of another kind of migration happening right now: the vertical migration. Rather than flying from north to south, these birds may have come from higher elevations down into the valley. Other vertical migrants we found in the valley today included Red-breasted Nuthatches and a Townsend's Solitaire.

Today I wanted to take a quick trip to Sue's Ponds to look for shorebirds, because I'm still hoping I can pick up a Dunlin or maybe something completely unexpected. The shorebirds were there in good numbers, and included ninety Long-billed Dowitchers, eight Pectoral Sandpipers, and one Stilt Sandpiper. But the highlight was not a shorebird, it was another surprise gull: at least two Thayer's Gulls (one is shown in the photo above - note the pink legs; brownish, not black, wingtips; and the relatively rounded head). I thought I might be able to find this species later in the winter, but I didn't expect them this time of year.

Wellsville Hawkwatch

Craig Fosdick and I have a running joke that any time we go in search of a certain species, we'll often find something even more rare but miss the target bird. Today at the Wellsville Hawkwatch we broke that pattern with a well-planned and fortuitous day of watching migrating raptors.

Perhaps the rarest raptor that has occurred more than once in Cache County is the Broad-winged Hawk. Craig and I knew that we would have to make the steep hike at a very specific time of the year in order to find this species, so we planned a hike for today, September 27th. This is the closest weekend day to the median date of passage of Broad-winged Hawks at this site, according to the reports posted by HawkWatch International online. Still, since an average of only five Broad-winged Hawks are seen each year by these paid full-time observers, we knew our odds were slim. But I was encouraged when I read last night that a Hawkwatch site about a day's flight north of here had its best day ever yesterday, including an amazing five Broad-winged Hawks!

Today Craig Fosdick, Mike Sipos, and I started up the trail at about 8:30 AM. We reached the HawkWatch site at about 11:00 after climbing 3000 feet in 3.5 miles. The migration started slow but picked up rapidly about 1:00, and at about 2:30 we were treated to an immature Broad-winged Hawk flying past! (Photo above.) Within an hour, amazingly, we had seen two more, and the raptors were passing at a rate of about 100 an hour. The Wellsville Hawkwatch site was on its way to its biggest migration day so far this year. When asked if she thought it was a good day of birding, I overheard Audubon Society member Jean Lown (in white hat, below) say that it was, to paraphrase, "a fabulously amazing day," and long-time Cache County birder Reinhard Jockel said that it was his "best HawkWatch ever!" It was great to have a planned bird actually come to fruition, and especially in the midst of such an amazing spectacle of migration.

Guided to a Grouse

Today Stephanie and I took a much-deserved day off and headed up Logan Canyon in search of Dusky Grouse. I've spent at least three birding trips looking specifically for this species, only to come up empty-handed. Stephanie took a little bit of pleasure in this, since this is the only species that she's seen in the county this year, but I haven't. But she was still nice enough to lead me to a place near one of her field sites where she's seen them somewhat regularly.

It took us about an hour of wandering up and down the steep forested hillside, but the fall colors alone would have made it worth it, and the Dusky Grouse, which I flushed and then was able to photograph (below), was a welcome bonus.

After the grouse, we went up to Tony Grove to hike towards Naomi Peak in search of White-winged Crossbills and American Three-toed Woodpeckers. We found an American Three-toed Woodpecker just a couple hundred yards from where I found one two years ago, and Stephanie and I both got great looks as it worked its way around a dead tree. On the way down the mountain we also found a Merlin, a species that usually winters here in small numbers. It felt like a warning that winter is coming soon, but with only six birds left to beat the record, I'm ready for some more winter migrants!

More Migration

Today I birded Hyrum Reservoir in search of Sabine's Gulls. A Sabine's Gull would be a lifer for me, and one that I'm really looking forward to. I did find lots of gulls, including one early juvenile Herring Gull and hundreds, maybe thousands, of Franklin's Gulls, but no Sabine's. However, I did find what appears to be the best shorebird habitat around the county at the moment, at the east end of the reservoir where the Little Bear River flows in and forms mudflats. There, I found several species of shorebirds, including two Pectoral Sandpipers, which I haven't seen since I took Ornithology in New Hampshire in 1999, and three Black-bellied Plovers, a lifer for me. (Two of the Black-bellied Plovers are shown above.) I hesitated as I thought about whether to even continue today, since it's been so long since I had found two new year birds in one day, and I wanted to end on a good note. But I got greedy, and decided to head up to Sherwood Hills Resort, a place Kris Purdy had recommended for Cassin's Vireos in fall migration.

At Sherwood Hills, I started to regret my greed. In the first fifteen minutes, I had not seen or heard a single bird there. Just as I was about to turn back to the car to give up and head home, I heard some Black-capped Chickadees in the distance. Knowing that other species might be associating with the chickadees, I chased them down and found an active mixed flock which included at least two Cassin's Vireos, my target bird! (One of these Cassin's Vireos is shown below.) That made a total of three new year birds for the day, my best day of birding in months!

An "Easy" Empid

The Pacific-slope Flycatcher's scientific name is Empidonax difficilis, but I think that's a bit unfair because almost all of the flycatchers in the genus Empidonax (commonly known as "Empids") are difficult to identify. Empids are generally very similar, and very unremarkable. That is part of why it was exciting to find a lifer Empid today. Craig Fosdick and I were hiking in High Creek in search of Dusky Grouse. I had seen several of this species on a hike on the same trail on the same day last year, so I thought it would be worth trying the same place again. We didn't find the Dusky Grouse, unfortunately, but we did see many good birds including two migrating Townsend's Warblers, and Craig did a great job of pishing in an angry flock of Mountain Chickadees, including the one shown in the photo above. But the highlight was the Gray Flycatcher. I've been trying to get better at identifying flycatchers in this notoriously difficult genus, but this bird was relatively easy to identify because of its behavior. Empids all flick their tails upwards, except for this species, which wags its tail gently downwards. We did see several other field marks which confirmed the identification, but this slight difference in behavior was the most convincing, allowing me to add another species to my county year list and to my life list.

The Lifer Before the Storm

I birded around Cache County with Craig Faulhaber today. We started up Deep Canyon in the Wellsville range. Craig Fosdick had seen several Nashville Warblers here last week, and that is a species I had not seen yet in the county. In fact, I'd never seen one before anywhere. Birding was very slow here with a total of eight species in about an hour and a half of hiking, but we did see one Nashville Warbler, a first for both of us.

We next went to the Logan Wetlands, where there were hundreds or maybe even thousands of Franklin's Gulls but nothing unexpected or new for the year. Shorebirds were sparse, with a few Killdeer, a Black-necked Stilt, and a dowitcher that I assume was a Long-billed. On the road to the south of the Logan Landfill, we saw and heard three Blue Grosbeaks, one adult male and two females/immatures. Blue Grosbeaks have been seen several times along this road this year, and the presence of multiple females/immatures may indicate that they successfully bred here. Cache County is further north than their typical breeding range.

We finished for the day at Rendezvous Park and the Logan River Golf Course trail, which was almost eerily quiet. There was a storm approaching and the birds seemed to be hunkered down in preparation. After about a half hour of birding here, and only four bird species, the storm hit and the high winds started knocking branches off the trees. Fearing for our lives (photo at left), we hurried back to the car and ended the day's birding just as the rain starting coming down.

Field Work - the Bane of My Quest

You're right, those aren't birds. They're Northern Leopard Frogs, and if I don't end up making it to 236 species in Cache County, they will have been the reason. I think most of my blog readers already know, but in case one or both of you don't, in my "real" life I'm a herpetologist. For my dissertation work, I'm studying the genetics of this frog species. And to do that, I have to travel around the West collecting genetic tissue from frogs. I love the work, I love the species, and I love the travelling, but it has been painful to see some of the birds that have been seen in Cache County while I've been gone. Earlier this spring, I missed shots at Lewis's Woodpecker, Dunlin, and Clay-colored Sparrow (among others) while I was collecting frogs. Of course, I've also gotten to see some other great birds that haven't been reported in Cache County, like my lifer Orchard Orioles and Dickcissel in Colorado last month, and the Sage Grouse I saw two days ago in southern Wyoming (shown below), but they won't help me reach 236. And now that I'm waiting out a storm in a hotel room in Wyoming, it's hard not to think about all the fall migrants I might be missing while I'm trying to chase frogs.

Hummers on the Move

This week is approaching the peak of migration for Rufous Hummingbirds, so yesterday I did a feeder stakeout at the hummingbird feeders at Spring Hollow Campground in search of this species. The campground host has put out about ten hummingbird feeders, and they draw quite an array of hummers. I saw about 25 Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, ten Black-chinned Hummingbirds, two Calliope Hummingbirds, and one female Rufous Hummingbird. The female Rufous Hummingbird was a first of the year for me. This species breeds in the Pacific Northwest US and western Canada, all the way up to Alaska. It has an interesting migration pattern, moving north along the coast but returning south across a broader swath of the continent, including through Utah, so we usually only get them in the fall. I also saw the first ever Rufous Hummingbird from my yard today, the 55th species seen or heard from my yard. The bird above is a female or juvenile Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and was photographed at the feeders at Spring Hollow where I saw the Rufous Hummingbird. I also got a photo of the Rufous, but this one's better.

Black Tern

I just got back from a little over a week in Seattle visiting friends and family. The visit was great and I wish I could've stayed much longer, but as soon as I got home I knew I needed to get my bird fix. I had missed four potential new species while I was gone, and it was time to play catch-up again. My housemate Jake and I headed to the Mitigation Ponds to look for the Semipalmated Plovers and Sage Thrasher that were reported there about a week ago, just after I had left the area. Not surprisingly, the birds had left the area, too - they're probably well south of here by now. Coincidentally, Craig arrived there just when Jake had to leave, so Craig and I went to the Polishing Ponds to look for the Solitary Sandpiper he had seen there last week. We also couldn't find the Solitary Sandpiper, but we lucked out in finding another bird I had given up on, a Black Tern (photo above). One of these was spotted in the spring migration but I missed it and I thought I wouldn't get another chance, so this was a pleasant surprise.