The Daily Wing » Bryan’s Spring 2010 Road Trip

From the Mountain

Bryan — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:05:49 +0000

Ruth and I enjoyed a perfect day on Burnt Rock Mountain in Fayston Wednesday. From the summit, Cedar Waxwings, soaring and swirling like swallows, were catching insects on the wing. Two Bicknell’s issued their harsh, raspy “peeer” note just below our ledge. A pair of Blackpoll Warblers (a male pictured here) foraged in a nearby black spruce. And three Red Crossbills touched down briefly before marauding elsewhere on the mountain. A complete bird list below.

Complete Bird List from Burnt Rock Mountain, Fayston, Vermont – June 15, 2010

Turkey Vulture (1)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1)
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (2)
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Red-eyed Vireo (1)
Black-capped Chickadee (2)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (1)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (2)
Chimney Swift (1)
Bicknell’s Thrush (2)
Hermit Thrush (1)
Cedar Waxwing (5)
Magnolia Warbler (4)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (3)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) (2)
Blackburnian Warbler (1)
Blackpoll Warbler (3)
Ovenbird (2)
Dark-eyed Junco (4)
Scarlet Tanager (1)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (2)
Red Crossbill (3)

Turkey Vulture     1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird     1
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher     2
Blue-headed Vireo     1
Red-eyed Vireo     1
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Red-breasted Nuthatch     1
Golden-crowned Kinglet     2
Bicknell's Thrush     2
Hermit Thrush     1
Cedar Waxwing     5
Magnolia Warbler     4
Black-throated Blue Warbler     3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     2
Blackburnian Warbler     1
Blackpoll Warbler     3
Ovenbird     2
Dark-eyed Junco     4
Scarlet Tanager     1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak     2
Red Crossbill     3

Warbler Weekend Update No. 4

Bryan — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:15:16 +0000

Here’s the list through Sunday at Warbler Weekend at Highland Lodge in Greensboro. Highlights Sunday included full-frontal looks at Canada Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler and Alder Flycatcher. A female Common Goldeneye was hanging out on Caspian Lake. And we watched a Sharp-shinned Hawk harass a Broad-winged Hawk. I’m still working on video. So stay tuned for that …

GEESE and DUCKS

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser

LOONS

Common Loon

CORMORANTS

Double-crested Cormorant

HAWKS

Sharp-shinned Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk

SANDPIPERS

Spotted Sandpiper
American Woodcock

PIGEONS and DOVES

Mourning Dove

OWLS

Barred Owl

HUMMINGBIRDS

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

KINGFISHERS

Belted Kingfisher

WOODPECKERS

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker

FLYCATCHERS

Alder Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe

VIREOS

Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo

JAYS and CROWS

Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven

SWALLOWS

Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow

CHICKADEES and TITMICE

Black-capped Chickadee

NUTHATCHES

Red-breasted Nuthatch

CREEPERS

Brown Creeper

WRENS

Winter Wren

KINGLETS

Golden-crowned Kinglet

THRUSHES

Veery
Swainson’s Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin

STARLINGS and ALLIES

European Starling

WAXWINGS

Cedar Waxwing

WOOD-WARBLERS

Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler

SPARROWS and ALLIES

Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

CARDINALS and GROSBEAKS

Indigo Bunting

BLACKBIRDS

Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak

Warbler Weekend Update No. 2

Bryan — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:03:16 +0000

A spectacular morning on Barr Hill in Greensboro. We arrived to a singing Lincoln’s Sparrow and a pair of Dark-eyed Juncos tending to hatchlings in a nest. Warblers followed. All the usual breeding species were on territory, including Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler and lots of Blackburnian Warblers. Our Blackburnian views are particularly knee-weakening.

Here, in late May, the birding is nothing like what we’ve seen in migration. Males are singing on territory. That means they’ll sit on exposed perches for us. We’re looking at warblers and other songbirds through spotting scopes. Honest. Here’s video of a Northern Parula and a Lincoln’s Sparrow, for example. I’ll include video of an Ovenbird tomorrow morning.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kingbird Barfing

Bryan — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:15:14 +0000

In Southeastern Arizona, the two rare Tyrannus (Kingbird) species are Tropical Kingbird and Thick-billed Kingbird. During my Vermont Bird Tours trip to Arizona in 2008, Heidi Rich became quite likely the only person in the world to see both species coughing up a pellet in the period of just a few days — a distinction of which I am most jealous. On my most recent trip to Arizona, my birding group got to see a Thick-billed Kingbird hacking up a pellet. And I managed to get video. So here’s the world debut of Kingbird Barfing, an independent film by Bryan Pfeiffer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Little is known about the feeding habits of Thick-billed Kingbird. Like all flycatchers, it consumes flies (duh!) and others insects and arthropods caught in mid-air. Yet not all animal parts are edible. Owls are well known for forming then coughing up pellets composed of indigestible fur and bones. Many birders don’t know that some songbirds form and discharge pellets as well. Most times I’ve seen it, I’ve been unable to locate the pellet. (I did manage to recover a Virginia Rail pellet once). But the Kingbird’s pellet is almost certainly indigestible insect exoskeleton — the chitin that makes bugs crunchy.

Thick-billed Kingbird breeds in fairly restricted area extending from extreme southwestern United States (AZ) south through western Mexico. Tropical Kingbird’s range extends from extreme southeastern Arizona (and southern Texas) through central Mexico to central Argentina. They’re always nice finds north of the border on a birding trip. But it’s even nicer to see them hacking up a good one. Thanks to Terry Wright for lending me his camera to get the digi-scoped video and still image.

More Birds

Bryan — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:07:49 +0000

A few more images from birding in Texas and Arizona this spring. I’ll be back home to Vermont on Wednesday.

Acorn Woodpecker

Painted Bunting

Yellow-breasted Chat

Magnificent Hummingbird

Lark Sparrow

The East

Bryan — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:20:31 +0000

In my world, the high plains have now surrendered to tall trees. Eastern Kingbirds have replaced Western Kingbirds. And I’m seeing clouds and rain (lots of it) for the first time in nearly three months. I’ll enter Michigan today to see my family. Then home to Vermont next week to conclude a road trip that began March 7. I have nothing profound to offer at this point. Some folks have asked for a photo of me on the road (instead of my truck). So here’s my new plumage (a lousy self-portrait after a shave), inspired mostly by orioles, like that adult male Hooded Oriole on an Ocotillo (below) and all those first-year male orioles with goatees (check your field guide) I’ve seen throughout the Southwest. I’ve thrown in a Black-chinned Sparrow from Chiricahua National Monument for good measure. Next Vermont stop: Warbler Weekend at Highland Lodge!

Wandering Home

Bryan — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:15:37 +0000

I looked for but did not find Callophrys mcfarlandi (Sandia Hairstreak) in Cibola National Forest in north-central New Mexico. At the very least, I had wanted to find it before my friend and colleague Kent McFarland (no relation to the butterfly, as best I can tell) finds one of its congeners, Callophrys lanoraieensis (Bog Elfin), in Vermont. Bog Elfin has never been seen in Vermont. It’s my Quixotic lepidopteran lot in life. Kent’s looking for it this year. In any event, here’s a Brephidium exilis (Western Pygmy-Blue) from Patagonia, Arizona. Blog readers may recall that I discussed this butterfly, one of the smallest in the world, during my Grand Canyon trip. With a wingspan of no more than half an inch, it is barely visible in flight. And it’s even smaller with its wings folded like this when it lands.

And here’s me demonstrating what is arguably the greatest skill I’ve gained in 40 years of birdwatching. I was entertaining the troops (or at least trying) after not finding Swainson’s Warbler during the Vermont Bird Tours Texas birding trip. (We later got good looks at Swainson’s Warbler.) Yeah, that’s the legendary Jon Dunn smiling behind me (and using his hand to balance his scope). He was guiding a WINGS outing. (Damn, that guy is a good birder.) I’m now in the Texas Panhandle on my way home. First stop today: McClellan Creek National Grassland just north of Interstate 40 east of Amarillo.

Southeast Arizona – Complete!

Bryan — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:31:17 +0000

My Vermont Bird Tours trip to Southeast Arizona ended at sunset Sunday with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers mobbing and swooping on Mexican Jays perched high on Octotillos. Rufous-winged Sparrows sang their final serenades of the day. As the sun dropped behind distant peaks, Lesser Nighthawks began to fly and feed overhead. So we left the quiet desert for a late supper and some overdue sleep.

I’ll now leave Arizona. And I’ll leave you with a few more bird images from this amazing trip, highlights from which are too numerous to mention, but included five encounters with Elegant Trogon (yeah, that photo is from an earlier AZ trip), four species of Tanager (including Flame-colored Tanager), a dozen hummingbird species, and rarities ranging from Tropical Kingbird to Crissal Thrasher to Olive Warbler. I’ll soon post a complete update, including a new species list for my trip. For now, here below is a White-winged Dove (common on this trip but cool nonetheless), Spotted Owl and Hermit Warbler. I’m heading home, not sure in which direction. But I think I’ll wander over to Black Kettle National Grasslands in western Oklahoma to see what’s flying there. I’m about to shift into HPIM (High-Powered Insect Mode).

Southeast Arizona Update No. 3

Bryan — Sat, 15 May 2010 02:32:11 +0000

The little bird with the long name called an airy, energetic “peeeh-peeeh-peeeh-peeeh!” Each rendition was a reminder that we were out of the mountains and into the the riparian lowlands in the good company of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet. Breeding in the US only in riparian thickets of southeastern Arizona and southern Texas, this is our lone member of a large tropical subfamily, Elaeniinae, composed mostly of South American flycatchers. Yep, it’s plain — but this is a bird with pep and spirit. (There is indeed a Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet but not in North America.) Click on that image for a larger view.

The Swainson’s Hawk below also has pep and spirit. It’s a female who had just completed a meal and a copulation. Take a close look at her beak to find a few feathers and at what’s in her left set of talons, the remains (pink legs and feet) of what I believe was a White-winged Dove. She was eating happily until a male came along and mounted her. (Sorry, I wasn’t quick enough to get the dirty photos.)

Other highlights from the Patagonia- Sonoita Creek area include Gray Hawk (that’s him up top at my blog title), Thick-billed Kingbird, Tropical Kingbird and Violet-crowned Hummingbird. I’m up to 13 hummingbird species on my trip (including Lucifer Hummingbird, Berylline Hummingbird and this one below, White-eared Hummingbird, from back in the Huachuca Mountains a couple of days ago. Two more day of birding on this Vermont Bird Tours trip, and I don’t want it to end. But, oh, will I have photos for you when I’m done!

Southeast Arizona Update No. 2

Bryan — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:28:09 +0000

Oh, once again I’m too busy to log time at this computer. So here’s mini-update: it’s raining hummingbirds here. Other wild and rare birds include great encounters with a Golden Eagle (taking a jackrabbit), Elegant Trogons (we’re up to five encounters), Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Crissal Thrasher, Juniper Titmouse, Olive Warbler. I gotta go birding. Here’s a Berylline Hummingbird, quite rare out here, with a breeding range normally restricted to western Mexico into central Honduras.