The Luck of the Ivory!

An Ivory Gull (adult) Eastern Point Gloucester, Ma.

Chuck Caron and I did a little scouting, for next week's Superbowl of Birding, in Essex County today. We checked out places down in Nahant, Lynn and then back roads of Essex that we'd never birded before. About 1:30PM we decided to head to Cape Ann rather than doing more scouting for land birds. We were eating lunch at Jodrey Pier, before getting out to bird, three cars pulled up with Connecticut plates.

As they got out of their vehicles I spotted a Black-headed Gull flying past, Chuck and I jumped out to get a better look and exchanged greetings with the Connecticut birders, mentioning the passing Black-headed Gull. One of their group said, "hey did you get the Ivory Gull". YOU HAVE OUR ATTENTION ! "Its down by the Eastern Point Lighthouse", which is only a few miles away.

We left Jodrey Pier in our "wake" and the Black-headed Gull "for dead" and were off. Ten minutes later, after being stuck behind seemly some of the slowest %$#&@! drivers in North America, we were watching an adult Ivory Gull, flying back and forth a mere 50 to 100 yards away from the Eastern Point parking lot, with about 30+ other birders. At times the bird would land on and pick at the ice and nearly dissappear, being white on white with the ice. The bird continued its back and forth flight pattern for an hour+, until we were almost....almost.... sick of watching the thing (well.....not really). I digi-binned the few photos here, but judging by the cameras and talented birder/photographers present, real photos will be posted on the web... check massbird.org for addtional information and photo links.

A fuzzy digi-bin photo of the Ivory Gull.

The bird was initially found by Jeremiah Trimble, who quickly got the good news out.

Milford, NH Snowy Owl 1/10/09

A Snowy Owl was reported a few weeks ago in Milford, NH; which was found during the Nashua-Hollis CBC. Fortunately this bird has stuck around and has been enjoyed by many birders, and finnally...me. I arrived at Hayward's Icecream Stand about 10AM, got out of the car and began scanning the large fields. Nothing....I put the glasses down, looked up and realized while I had been concertrating on long distance scanning, the bird was only 50 yards away sitting atop a pile of old railroad ties...NICE!

Snowy Owl on a pile of Rail Road ties

I got back in the car and repositioned the vehicle so I could enjoy the bird from inside, better for both the owl and me. While watching the owl I noticed a flock of waterfowl, in flight, about 400 yards out and one stuck out as being different, either a drake Common Merganser or Northern Pintail. I watched the owl another few minutes as it sat tight and I decided to see if I could find those ducks.

Digi-binned photo

Digi-scoped Photo

After driving North River Road on of all places... the north side of the river, I decided to walk some conservation land with trails along the river. Many robins , some starlings and a few Cedar Waxwings were feeding on bittersweet along the river. After crossing a few foot bridges I was along a stream and noticed some movement in the water...there was a drake Northern Pintail, which immediately flushed and moved on, there was also a some of the Mallards and an Amercian Black Duck.

The Snowy was on a nearby roof top later in the afternoon, before it flew off and perch upon a dirt pile several hundred yards away.

A bit further on the trail I heard the call notes of a Winter Wren and got a 1/2 decent look at it too, but not good enough for a photo.

The Sharp-shinned Hawk below chased some of the many robins and missed them all and proceeded to perch in a birch tree. It sat tight and I got the photo below.

Digi-bin of the "shin".

I had not noticed there was a some Bittersweet below the Sharp-shinned, nor did I see the American Robin, that perhaps had frozen still when the hawk perched above it. But, the "shin" had and when I tried to get a better photo of the hawk, it flew toward me, did a "180" back into the thicket and nailed the robin. I could hear the robin's last calls as it was carried off, the "shin" finished off the robin on the snow before moving into the pine grove with its meal.

There was lots of Oriental Bittersweet, along the Souhegan River, which attrached the robin which attrached the hawk.

An American Robin, well....what was left after it "flew off".... attached to the above Sharp-shinned Hawk....to an uplanned dinner.

Another nice surprise was a Great Blue Heron that flushed from the stream. That pintail made another close pass, while watching it I was able to pickup a small group of 4 White-winged Crossbills, in flight and calling.

American Goldfinches, note the one to the right (reaching down to feed on a seed head) was a "white-capped" bird, having white were the normal black forhead would be in their alternate (breeding) plumage.

Besides having some nice birds, I had the good fortune to bump into some nice folks, including Jerry Coffee and Scott Spangenberg.

The complete bird list from the day:

Canada Goose....86
American Black Duck....1
Mallard....20
Northern Pintail....1
Great Blue Heron....1
Sharp-shinned Hawk....1
Red-tailed Hawk....1
Rock Pigeon....35
Mourning Dove....24
Snowy Owl....1
Downy Woodpecker....2
Hairy Woodpecker....3
Blue Jay....15
American Crow....12
Black-capped Chickadee....20
Tufted Titmouse....4
White-breasted Nuthatch....6
Winter Wren....1
Golden-crowned Kinglet....3
American Robin....75
Northern Mockingbird....1
European Starling....75
Cedar Waxwing....2
American Tree Sparrow....8
Song Sparrow....1
White-throated Sparrow....1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)....8
Northern Cardinal....3
House Finch....4
White-winged Crossbill....4
Pine Siskin....6
American Goldfinch....25
House Sparrow....30

Niantic, Ct. (Hooded Merganser X Common Goldeneye Hybrid 1/3)

On Saturday 1/3, I helped Chuck Caron cover a portion of the New London CBC on coastal Connecticut. While we were overlooking the water from a park in the village of Niantic, Chuck spotted an odd duck mixed in with a flock of 20 Common Goldeneye. These birds were about 200 meters off shore. The flock was busy feeding and spending more time under water than on the surface. After a good deal frustration I was able to capture a few digi-scope photos of the bird, once the flock finally setting down and stayed afloat.

This bird was about the same size as the nearby Common Goldeneye. There is a good deal of chromatic aberration, the most prevalent color is a purple cast. Chuck did note detecting a bit of purple while viewing the bird through his scope. Though, on my PC monitor I pickup a little bit of green on the head in one photo. To me this bird fits nicely into the Common GE X Hooded Merg hybrid.


Hybrid, upper right, with female Common Goldeneye and Herring Gull

A nice side view

Head tucked in, the purple cast is from the scope/camera.

Hybrid with Common Goldeneyes

Hybrid with Common Goldeneyes. On my monitor I can pickup a bit of green on the back of the bird's head.

Later in the day we had the good fortune of this American Pipit landing in front of us while we scanned the ocean

Digi-bin photo of American Pipit.

The sunset as we walked back form Black Point at the day's end.

The day's list from our section (Only) of the count:

Brant...23
Canada Goose...138
Mute Swan...9
American Black Duck...106
Mallard...89
Northern Pintail...4
Ring-necked Duck...103
Surf Scoter...20
Black Scoter...18
Bufflehead...12
Common Goldeneye...30
Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser (hybrid)...1
Hooded Merganser...14
Red-breasted Merganser...65
Red-throated Loon...5

Common Loon...21
Horned Grebe...16
Red-necked Grebe...1
Great Cormorant...2
Great Blue Heron...4
Turkey Vulture...3
Northern Harrier...1
Sharp-shinned Hawk...2
Cooper's Hawk...2
Red-tailed Hawk...2
American Coot...5
Ring-billed Gull...166
Herring Gull...753
Great Black-backed Gull...18
Rock Pigeon...33
Mourning Dove...21
Great Horned Owl...1
Red-bellied Woodpecker...4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker...2
Downy Woodpecker...11
Hairy Woodpecker...1
Northern Flicker...3
Blue Jay...23
American Crow...39
Black-capped Chickadee...74
Tufted Titmouse...31
White-breasted Nuthatch...11
Carolina Wren...15
Winter Wren...1
Marsh Wren...1
Hermit Thrush...4
American Robin...10
Gray Catbird...5
Northern Mockingbird...16
Brown Thrasher...2
European Starling...25
American Pipit...1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)...7
Eastern Towhee...1
American Tree Sparrow...4
Chipping Sparrow...1
Fox Sparrow...3
Song Sparrow...57
Swamp Sparrow...1
White-throated Sparrow...119
Dark-eyed Junco...28
Northern Cardinal...40
Red-winged Blackbird...14
Brown-headed Cowbird...1
House Finch...58
Pine Siskin...17
American Goldfinch...45
House Sparrow...269

Seen by Chuck and not me were Ruby-crowned Kinglet... 1 and American Kestrel... 1

Lunenburg "Nelson's" Gull 1/1/2009

I had nice looks at this bird as it fed on "scraps" along the waterfront at Whalom Lake. Initially it was near a Great Black-backed Gull and was very close, if not equal in size and dwarfted the nearby Herring Gulls, clearly a large bulky gull.

I saw it head on and thought immediately it was a probable Glaucous, the dark primaries and tail where hidden. The lighting was harsh, bright sun light and not optimal for photos, the picture were all digi-binned except for one (perched on the lake) through my old Swift scope.

Seems to have the face and head of a Glaucous Gull

Showing a more rounded head, but large bill, in this pose. Note the dark primaries.

Fairly angular and "Glauc-y expression" in this pose.

None of the photos here show it, but the base of the bill was pinkish.
The tail is fair dark, but little else to see in this shot.
A more distant view, as it flew onto the partially frozen lake and perched by itself.

Fairly dark primaries

Feel free to comment here or at alurap@verizon.net

Feeder Birds 12/31

The recent cold weather and snow has brought good numbers of the birds to my feeding station. Yesterday and today in approximately 60 Pine Siskins and 25 American Goldfinches have been the "headliners". It took 3 photos to show the birds that were on my deck this morning.

The morning feeder crowd just after 8AM.

The back rail
Oil prices dropped, so these guys are going to help the oil man put me in the poor house.

Close up digi-bin photo

...Another

One of the siskins was very yellow, I have seen in David Sibley's guide reference to a yellow variant that is fairly unusual but more common in the southwest. I am not sure if this is of that form, but it looks pretty close. I recall seeing a similar, but even more yellow siskin in Gardner about 5 years ago. Below are a few digi-bin shots
The yellow siskin.

"yellow" siskin near a House Finch.

Another view.

A frontal view, showing a bit of yellow.

A seemly healthy looking House Finch, on 12/30

The same bird as above, but the other side tells another story.

The was an American Goldfinch a few days previous, that had conjunctivitis in both eyes. It had to flutter a good deal before landing on a perch due to its limited eyesight. I'll be keeping the feeders clean, hopefully the neighbors will too. The Cornell web site mentions these diseased birds often show at feeding stations alone, the above House Finch was indeed a loner. I did not see it today 12/31.

12/31 feeder list:

Mourning Dove...15
Red-bellied Woodpecker...1
Downy Woodpecker...2
Black-capped Chickadee...6
Tufted Titmouse...2
White-breasted Nuthatch...2
European Starling...1
American Tree Sparrow...1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)...6
House Finch...6
Pine Siskin...60
American Goldfinch...24