Only Suitable for 4-wheel Drive or Rental Vehicles!

Eastern Turkey May 1989

One of the best and funniest birding trips I’ve been on. I had scanned these old prints of a  twentysomethings clean-up, mega-trip to Turkey with some of my birding pals, Simon “shag” Smethurst, Guy “shocker” Shorrock, Bernard “chin” Lee and yours truly! Time waits for no man! A little bit of nostalgia from days gone by.

Somewhere in the Eastern Caucasus Mountains. One of the many times our Fiat Miriafuri did us proud! This car got stuck in marshes, served as a platform for seeing over tall reedbeds, as well as providing a place for us  to eat and sleep.  Picture taken shortly after ‘shocker’, cheered on by a convoy of stalled Turkish truck drivers, drove the car deftly through a muddy, washed out area of road on the side of a cliff after a mudslide rendered it impassable. En route to Caucasian Blackcock lek, the alternative was a 3 1/2 hour detour. From left to right: Guy, Bernard and moi!

Where are the F!!%%$$$  Greater Sandplovers???  ”Shag”, after showing off his James Hunt skills and showing that ‘doughnuts” can be done on a dry lake bed, suddenly found us a wetter spot than we’d have liked. No town for many miles. We sent our ‘driver’ in the direction of those far hills to look for help. After many hours had passed, a bunch of villagers appeared complete with tractor. After seeing women pulling yokes by hand to till the fields, this was possibly the only tractor in Eastern Turkey! After several hours of trying to dig out by ourselves, all it took was giving away an alarm clock, two pens and $10 and we were on our way. And we still never saw a Greater Sandplover!

The car never let us down. We drove it over mountains, through rivers, got it stuck in an old well, drove it down wadis, across flood plains, river estuaries and down a track of acacia trees that we found was a little too narrow for the car. It was brand new when we picked it up. When we took it back two weeks later, it had a cracked headlight, a busted windshield wiper (that we tied back on with a shoelace) and we’d put 4000km on it. When we brought it back, all ‘cleaned’, we were all quite proud of the restoration until the woman from the rental desk came out and on seeing the car and the mileage,  just burst into tears!

Having just bagged White-breasted Kingfisher on the way to the airport, we found a suitable river to drive the car into to give her a ‘clean’. Bernard, myself (with the only clean clothes I had left) and Guy complete with signature, banana-hammock speedos!

NEW EDG VR Fieldscope

 I wanted to pass this blog post along to you. Bill Schmoker (a Nikon Prostaffer) and Mike Freiberg spent a morning in the field with the new EDG VR Fieldscope. They were extremely successful with our images and videos. Here is a blog written on the fast growing American Birding Association blog. Thanks to Bill Schmoker for providing some great information for Nikon’s latest and greatest.

 

http://blog.aba.org/2012/01/whole-lot-of-shakin-not-going-on.html

NY Oriole-a solution

I’m not that familiar with fall Bullock’s as vagrants in the east (the only one I have seen is an adult male in Goshen, CT in the 90s) but I think this is a first-winter female Baltimore. Worn brownish flight feathers and pointed, worn tail feathers age it as a first-year and the predominantly yellowish-orange tones and clean, unmarked mantle imply it’s a female. Female Baltimore’s can be really variable, but the coloration is strong on the breast and has an orange tinge – good for Baltimore and bad for Bullock’s. The mantle is brown-toned, the ground color of Bullock’s being more grey (often washed with olive), so again good for Baltimore. Also, the undertail coverts, while variable, are bright orange-yellow, another feature, while not diagnostic, is supportive for Baltimore.

HY (First-winter) female Baltimore Oriole, Central Park, NY, Dec. 2011 (David Speiser)

The upper, median wingbar is clean white and seems to lack the pointed dark centres typical of HY Bullock’s (even allowing for the scaps covering the upper wingbar, I think you’d see the pointed centres poking out from underneath). The feathering in front of the eye is slightly ruffled, but I don’t think there is a dark loral line, the kind I’d want to see on a putative Bullock’s. Also, the crown is fairly uniform without a subtler, paler supercilium. In Bullock’s the malar and sides of the earcoverts are often the brightest yellow (rather than the breast) superficially reminiscent of a fall Cape May Warbler.

HY (First-winter) female Baltimore Oriole, Central Park, NY, Dec. 2011 (David Speiser).The areas of the head, upper breast and vent are predominantly orange-toned, which is good for Baltimore,not clearer yellow as in Bullock's. The head pattern, lacking dark lores and a paler, contrasting supercilium are also pro-Baltimore features.

To compare, here’s a link to a similar-plumaged Bullock’s in New Brunswick, that has the appropriate credentials. Thanks to Louis Bevier for comments and bringing this link to my attention and to David for allowing me to use his great shots!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stubirdnb/6517531719/

 

NY Oriole – a load of Bullock’s or what?

These great shots of an oriole were taken in Central Park, New York by David Speiser last week. The bird’s identity had been discussed as to whether it was a Bullock’s or Baltimore.

Birds that look like this, in early winter, often throw up that same question. Bullock’s Oriole is a likely vagrant to New England. So if you were faced with this bird in the field, what features would you look for on a putative Bullock’s Oriole that would help eliminate a late Baltimore?

What do you think?  Is it all just a load of Bullock’s?

A solution to follow, but in the meantime, have a go and send in comments!

Oriole, Central Park, NY, December 2011 (David Speiser)

Oriole, Central Park, NY, December 2011 (David Speiser)

Hendrix – before and after

No sooner had I arrived at daycare to pick up Alex,  he ran up to me, beaming and proudly thrust his drawing he had done into my hands.  Encouragingly, I said “Awesome”, but realized as someone of an artistic background (i.e. someone who used to draw) that I was obviously failing my offspring in the drawing department.

Before Lesson

One night when we got home, I said “Hey, why don’t we do some drawing?” He said he liked to draw planes and I said “We can do that!”. So, sketch pad and biro in hand, on the spur of the moment we started off with simple shapes e.g. a circle and figured he could follow my lead. He’s four, so even holding the pen at this point takes some dexterity. However, within an hour I was amazed at what he threw down on the paper!!!!!

"Daddy..this drawing thing is easy...I bet you could do it too. Who's Jimi Hendrix.. is he in the Wiggles?"

After Lesson

There’s hope yet! Now, if I can only get him to pick up a pair of binoculars!

Fantasy of Light- an interesting loon

Local CT birder Keith Mueller kindly allowed me to post a few images of a loon seen recently off a Rhode Island pelagic, November 2011. I noticed the bird on his blog and it’s appearance  immediately caught my eye. In the photos, it’s obviously a large loon with a thick neck, heavy, pale bill, (which appears slightly upturned), predominantly ‘frosty’ above with pale feather markings and a very pale head – lacking the clear divide of black and white seen on Common Loons.  It seems to be a juvenile Yellow-billed Loon! Or is it? (CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES)

Yellow-billed Loon is a high Arctic species, an extreme vagrant  rarely recorded in the east. The two most recent records, both adults, were seen in PA in May 2007, http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/id73.html  and in Maine in October 2010 http://www.mainebirdingtrail.com/Odyssey10.htm  It is definitely a species that should be looked for in New England waters.

While it does look unusual, dissecting the bird, thanks to digital technology, reveals some clues, that together, identify it to species. YBLO is a large, thick-set loon with a powerful, upturned bill, large feet and a thick neck. In juvenile plumage the upperpart feathers are quite pale-fringed and give a frosty appearance to the upperparts, moreso than on Common Loon, whereby the fringes are duller and not as contrasting. The bill is ivory-yellow, though at a distance exact colors may not be evident. The sides of the head on the RI bird are very pale, isolating a dark eye in a plain face, quite unlike Common Loon which is typically blackish and well delineated from the white neck. All these features are somewhat close to the above bird, but we need to look closer and take into account the vagaries of light on dark and light tones when assessing loon plumages.

The bird is in fact a Common Loon and an educational individual. The one main feature I left out is that YBLO show pale primary shafts at all ages, a feature hard to see in flight but lacking in Keith’s photos and point to Common Loon (which has brownish primary shafts). But still, the other features superficially recalling YBLO need some explanation. I had initially thought the bird to be a juvenile due to the pale feather fringing and asked an acquaintance of mine, expert Irish birder Killian Mullarney to comment on the identity. He kindly replied as follows, confirming the bird as a Common Loon rather than the rarer alternative:

“The  liberally white-spotted wing coverts establish that it is an adult, not a juv. The uniformly light greyish colour of the bill is strongly indicative of Common Loon. Even in opportunistic shots such as these, I’d expect to see some hint of a more ivory-coloured or pale yellowish tip to the bill, as well perhaps as a bluish-grey shade toward the bill base, especially the lower mandible and the nasal groove of the upper mandible. The dark culmen of Common Loon is often very difficult to make out in photos like this, it can so easily be ‘lost’ against the background colour. The extent and shade of winter head pattern does look unusual for a Common Loon, reminding me of how they often look when they are in transition from basic to alternate plumage in spring, when the head and neck can appear much lighter and mealier in texture than a typical winter adult.

The bill pattern is hard to make out, especially the extent of dark on the culmen, but any dark on the cutting edges of the bill aren’t obvious, but still, as Killian notes, some darkening at the base of the bill and a more ivory-tinge to the bill perhaps should be evident.

 

Deceased adult Common Loon, Plymouth, Mass. Feb. Note white upperpart spotting, extent and darkness of black on head and neck and darker culmen and cutting edges to bill. Not much compensation for dipping an adult Ivory Gull!

I saw my first Yellow-billed Loon (also known as White-billed Diver) in the UK in 1987 when I was 18 and include a scan of my journal which notes in detail, the features typical of Yellow-billed Loon noted above. Enjoy!

 

Yellow-billed Loon, Filey Brigg, UK (from field journal, J.R. Hough)

 

Rufous vs Allen’s -Addendum II

For readers in need of a basic primer on the Rufous/Allen’s ID issues, see Sheri Williamson’s post from Life, Birds, and Everything:

http://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/rufous-vs-allens/

More interesting notes from Sheri on the Guilford, CT female, who kindly took the time to add the following:

Not only do molt patterns in other families not translate well to hummingbirds, but even generalizing from one hummingbird species to another in the same genus can lead you down the wrong track!

Like most highly migratory northern hummingbirds, Rufous normally undergo the most important parts of the molt (flight feathers and gorget) in winter. My first-hand experience with overwintering Rufous is limited, but the BNA account indicates that primary molt takes place mainly from late December through March, with females running 10+ days behind males. (Calder didn’t distinguish between age classes, but juveniles often average later onset and completion of primary molt than same-sex adults.) For a juvenile female, primary molt at P6 inmid-November (more than halfway along) would be ~8 weeks down the early side of the bell curve for Rufous, though apparently consistent with our limited understanding of molt in Allen’s.

Outlier characteristics often catch our attention, but attaching too much importance to them too often results in unproductive detours. As an extreme example, focusing solely on this bird’s primary molt would make HY Anna’s and Costa’s, both of which replace primaries mainly from early summer through late fall, stronger candidates than Rufous.

The diagnostic “pinched” tip of R2 is subtle, but it would be extremely unusual to find on a juvenile female and unusual *not* to find on an adult female or juvenile male. Here’s a new addition to my Flickr gallery that illustrates this difference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzunun/6385547925/in/set-72157619893017097/

Had R2 not been visible in any of the photos of the CT bird, the contrast in the gorget feathers would still have suggested a juvenile female, though with less confidence.

Within the “bee” hummingbird clade that most Americans and Canadians are familiar with, juvenile females are typically most “generic” in feather shape and pattern, while juvenile males and adult females tend to be more similar to each other than either are to juvenile females. This is one reason that I encourage birders to familiarize themselves with the broader aging and sexing criteria for hummingbirds before taking on the more challenging species.

If you know of any local/regional organizations that might be interested in a workshop on hummingbird identification and natural history, I’d be delighted to hear from them.

 Good birding,

 Sheri

 

Rufous/Allen’s – addendum

I emailed Sheri Willimason (well known and respected birder with a penchant for hummingbirds) about selasphorus hummingbird identification, as it pertains to Rufous/Allen’s types and the ageing and sexing. With regards to my post on the CT bird, she corrected some information and kindly wrote the following illuminating reply:

Hi, Julian,
Though primary molt is often helpful in hummingbird identification, in this case it’s a red herring. The “generic” shape and narrow white tip of R2 (cp. Peterson Field Guide to Hummingbirds, pl. 24-25) are characteristic of a juvenile female, though in this case one in precocious primary molt (early even for an adult).

Gorget pattern is highly variable in female and juvenile male Rufous and Allen’s. Juvenile females may have nearly immaculate gorgets with no orange iridescence and bronze-green spangling concentrated at the margins, heavy bronze-green “five-o’clock shadow” typical of juvenile males, lightly marked gorgets with small central patches of adult-like iridescence, and anything in between. The presence of extensively iridescent gorget feathers next to predominantly white ones with small, drab spangles is strongly suggestive of a juvenile female acquiring her first adult gorget, which would not be surprising considering the condition of her primaries.

The amount of rufous in the uppertail coverts is highly variable within and between age/sex classes of Rufous/Allen’s, but I’m unaware of any evidence suggesting consistent species-specific differences that would be useful in identification.

Both probability and tail characteristics argue in favor of Rufous, but juvenile females are the most difficult age/sex class to identify. Even their measurements overlap extensively; a few individuals remain ambiguous with the bird in one hand, calipers in the other, and Table 1 in Stiles 1972 available for reference. To rephrase what I wrote to Nick: The options supported by the existing evidence are “probable Rufous” and the more conservative “Rufous/Allen’s.” The only practical ways to absolutely confirm the ID beyond a shadow of a doubt are in-hand measurements by a bander or new photos after she replaces her tail.

Hope this helps.

Sheri L. Williamson

Thanks to Sheri, it seems that the matter of identifying these two species is even more dire than I thought!

19th November – Selasphorus Saturday, Rufous or Allen’s?

Selasphorus hummingbird reports are now an annual occurrence in CT. Most of them are Rufous/Allen’s types, but  since the identification of Allen’s is almost impossible without banding them, proving one in CT is an uphill task. That many of the state’s selasphorus can be attributed specifically to Rufous is due to the banding efforts of Mark Szantyr and Jayne Amico. However, they can’t band them all, and so many reported birds are left as selasphorus sp. There are several records of Allen’s in the mid-atlantic states and New England (my only Allen’s was at Cape May in November 2000), so there is a good possibility that one will occur in CT sooner or later and each report should be checked out if, possible, to ensure we don’t overlook a potential Allen’s.

With this in mind, Nick Bonomo and I visited a bird coming to the feeder in nearby Guilford to see if we could slap a moniker on it, or at least try and get spread tail shots to help determine it’s identity – in Allen’s, the outer three tail feathers are narrower than in Rufous, so it was our mission to try and photograph the bird’s spread tail.

 Rufous Hummingbird, adult female, Guilford, Nov 2011. The obvious moult contrast in the primaries, with worn outer primaries and new inners, combined with some iridescent throat petals, made us age it as an adult. Juveniles would show more uniform wings with a spotted throat. The face was rather cold, lacking any rufous-wash, with a uniformly green back.

 Note prominent white forecollar, rufous flanks, fresh inner primaries and reduced rufous fringing to uppertail coverts

I confess to being confused with some of these birds, it’s a group I’m not that familiar with and so each time we get one of these it’s quite a learning experience, not only identifying them, but especially trying to age and sex them. Howell’s excellent Photographic Guide to Hummingbirds of North America was our reference.

We saw the bird well and photographed it from a distance, but unfortunately in the time we had, we were never able to get shots of the open tail, so it was destined to remain unidentifiable. According to Howell, one feature of adult female Allen’s is a propensity to have the uppertail coverts strongly fringed rufous. Our bird had some obvious rufous fringing , but without a baseline, our lack of experience left us asking “how much is enough?”. With Mark out of town, banding at present wasn’t an option, so it seems destined to fall into the selasphorus sp bin until Mike Moccio got  great shots of the spread tail which confirmed the bird to be a Rufous.

 Note in this fantastic shot, the relatively broad outer tail feathers compared with the narrower feathers that would be expected in an Allen’s. Also note the rufous on the uppertail coverts is limited to the fringes and is not that predominant. (Photo courtesy of Mike Moccio)

A cool bird, and as usual a challenging and educational experience! For instructional photos of an Allen’s banded in PA in 2009 see here: http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/id93.htmlLooking at these images the narrow pointed tail when seen from behind seem rather different from the broader, full tail of our bird. Also, in the flight shot note the obvious rufous uppertail coverts, perhaps two features to key into?

Here’s two shots of a (AHY female?) Rufous that was banded by Mark and Jane back in 2006.

Alterus race Nelson’s Sparrow in CT

Nelson’s Sparrow (alterus), Hammonassett, CT, Nov 2011. Very bright and contrasting bird, note strength and color of facial triangle and contrasting back pattern. Flanks show well-defined streaking.

Nick Bonomo and I came across two Nelson’s-type sparrows at the west end of Hammonassett. One of the two gave nice looks and showed itself to be a quite bright and striking individual.

Subvirgatus, the Atlantic coast race, breeding in Maine and occurring here during fall and winter is the expected species, generally separated from the interior races, nelsoni and alterus by virtue of its rather drabber plumage and blurry-streaked flanks.

Nelson's Sparrow (subvirgatus), Milford Point, CT, winter 09. Note blurry flank streaking, lack of clear buff breast band and subdued facial 'triangle'.

Individual variation across the races, combined with a lack of knowledge of the status of the interior races compounds the identification issues of non-subvirgatus Nelson’s in CT.  Clearly this bird appears to be alterus/nelsoni rather than subvirgatus due to:

- clean, unmarked crown pattern

- intensity of the back pattern

- quite well-defined flank streaking

- brightness and clarity of the supercilium (with muted grey auriculars)

- underpart patterm showing a well-defined whitish belly and buffy breast band

Nelson's Sparrow (alterus), Hammonassett, CT, Nov. Same bird as above. Note underpart pattern consisting of a nice buff breast demarcated from white belly

Separating these two races can be tough, and being wary of trying to shoehorn each Nelson’s Sparrow into neat little boxes, the following features do seem to be good for alterus:

- broad gray crown stripe

- quite well-defined flank streaking

- very bright, clean orange facial triangle with ill-defined gray center

- white belly contrasting with streaked, buff breastband.

- upperparts quite contrasting with well-defined white “tramlines” (though lacking any blackish in the scaps shown by nelsoni)

 

Nelson's Sparrow (alterus), Hammonassett, CT, Nov. Note back pattern and broad, clean gray median stripe.

Nelson's Sparrow (subvirgatus), Milford Point, winter 09.

This synthesis was aided by a topical and educational article by Fletcher Smith, published in North American Birds, whose photo-essay showed an educational array of photos of the various races. See here: http://www.aba.org/nab/v65n2sparrows.pdf

Fletcher was kind enough to offer the following comments on this individual.

“Julian,
I agree that this bird is likely a nelsoni/alterus type bird rather than a subvirgatus for all the reasons you mention.  Subvirgatus (as you know) is a really dull looking bird, and this bird has a good bit of color to the face and pattern in the dorsum, along with black streaking in the cap. 

I think that nelsoni would have more black mottling in the cap, but the view here is not complete.  Alterus tends to have distinct streaking in cap, not mottling like nelsoni, and this bird looks like it has streaking not indistinct mottling.  The dorsum is also not strongly patterned and has no dark centers suggesting alterus not nelsoni.  The cheek patch looks like it is mostly gray, not infused with ochre color.  This is typical of alterus.  I tend to lean alterus on this bird, I see no characters that suggest nelsoni at all. 

Very little is known of the migratory routes of these birds, and my hope is that the article I wrote will push subspecies ID to the forefront on these birds and allow for a more complete knowledge of the migration routes. “