Storm Birding - Stay Safe

To all you nutty birders out there chasing hurricane birds, good luck and stay safe.  I wish I were there to join in the fun.

Be safe and smart, but of course enjoy the storm birding.  I will be vicariously enjoying the storm birds you all find.  Maybe this fog will clear and I'll get some action on Southeast Farallon Island as well tomorrow.

~Luke Musher

What A Gaggle

By Cory Ritter

We have had a bit of weather over the past few days here in Duluth, and we even had a weather day on Tuesday the 23rd due to fog and drizzle all day. So, after holding out at the overlook for a little while in the morning to check for any potential clearing, Karl alerted me of a group of geese at the Bayfront Park in Duluth.

This wasn't any regular group of geese, however. From what I heard, this group was found by Don Kienholz. It was apparently reported to him as a family group that consisted of a mother, father, one young, and one albino. Take a look for yourself.

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Geese, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose with Cackling Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose with Cackling Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose with Cackling Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Cackling Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Cackling Goose, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Likely Ross's x Snow Goose, juvenile, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Likely Ross's x Snow Goose, juvenile, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Likely Ross's x Snow Goose, juvenile, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Likely Ross's x Snow Goose, juvenile, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

The entire group, Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN, 10/23/2012

Just a few Photos

Common Raven, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

The birding has been a little slow the past couple days, but hopefully something good will come in soon.  The sea-watching has been great, though, with good numbers of Buller's, Sooty, Black-vented, and Pink-footed Shearwaters.  In addition, Northern Fulmar numbers are increasing rapidly each day.  Here are some photos from yesterday.

Grasshopper Sparrow, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Lapland Longspur, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Anna's Hummingbird, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Gray Ghost

By Cory Ritter

With their clean white underparts and gray upper side, the adult male Northern Harrier makes for a stunning raptor. These birds are certainly crowd pleasers.

Take a look at this adult male Northern Harrier that was caught by Frank Nicoletti at Hawk Ridge's main banding station in late September. Hawk Ridge naturalist, Margie, is displaying this bird for the public.

Adult male Northern Harrier, 9/24/2012, Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN

Adult male Northern Harrier, 9/24/2012, Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN 

Adult male Northern Harrier, 9/24/2012, Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN

Adult male Northern Harrier, 9/24/2012, Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN

Here are some photos of an adult male Northern Harrier in flight that I took while counting hawks at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory this spring.

adult male Northern Harrier, 5/27/2012, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, Paradise, MI

adult male Northern Harrier, 5/27/2012, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, Paradise, MI

This is what I like to call the 'directing traffic' pose of the adult male Northern Harrier

adult male Northern Harrier, 5/27/2012, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, Paradise, MI

adult male Northern Harrier, 5/27/2012, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, Paradise, MI

Early Season Raptors

By Cory Ritter

Early to mid-September can produce some decent flights--and not just big broadwing days. Take a look at a short collection of some birds that came by Hawk Ridge in the middle of September.

Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk, 9/11/2012, Duluth, MN

Immature Northern Harrier, 9/11/2012, Duluth, MN

Immature Northern Harrier, 9/11/2012, Duluth, MN (same individual as above)

Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk, 9/13/2012, Duluth, MN

Male American Kestrel, 9/11/2012, Duluth, MN

Male American Kestrel, 9/11/2012, Duluth, MN (same individual as above) 

Adult Bald Eagle, 9/15/2012, Duluth, MN

Quite the Catch

By Cory Ritter

Early to mid-September is a great time for hawkwatching. Big kettles of Broad-winged Hawks are probably what first come to mind when thinking about September raptor migration. Here at Hawk Ridge, however, it is the chance to see an out of the way Mississippi Kite or Swainson's Hawk that is most exciting to me.

Last year, we tallied one Mississippi Kite. This particular bird was high overhead among a kettle of broadwings, and I was too busy counting other distant kettles to look for it. Therefore, it was quite a treat to get to see some MIKIs this season.

I posted some photos of one Mississippi Kite the other day. As I mentioned in the post, that was the second of the season. What I didn't mention was that Nova Mackentley and I spotted one from her banding station the previous evening, which won't go on the official count. Then, we saw one last Mississippi Kite on the 16th of September, and now have three MIKIs on the official count for 2012!

As for Swainson's Hawks, we had another great year. Our count of 18 this season was a considerable increase over the 10 seen last year. In fact, we had 7 fly by on the 9th of September alone. However, the best day of the season for Swainson's Hawks had to be on the 15th of September. We only counted two that day. What really made the day, though, was that Nova caught one of them! From the counting platform, we were able to watch the Swainson's Hawk, call it in to the banding stations, and watch as it stooped into Nova's station.

Only two Swainson's Hawks had previously been trapped at Hawk Ridge, so it was quite the experience for all of us!

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012 (Caught by Nova Mackentley at Hawk Ridge)

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012 (Caught by Nova Mackentley at Hawk Ridge)

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012 (Caught by Nova Mackentley at Hawk Ridge)

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012, (Caught by Nova Mackentley at Hawk Ridge)

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, release photo

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, release photo

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, release photo

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012,  Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, release photo

Hatch Year, intermediate/dark  Swainson's Hawk, 9/15/2012, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, release photo

Wave Days are the Best

Today is my first real break since a four day wave starting on October 10 with only a few arriving birds and peaking on the 11th and 12th with hundreds of arriving landbirds, including likely over 100 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and perhaps more than 150 (>200?) Zonotrichia sparrows (mostly Golden-crowned with one third as many White-crowned and a few White-throated), many first of fall birds, and a few rarities.

"Western" Palm Warbler, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Rock Wren, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Aleutian Cackling Goose, one of seven total seen, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

HY Peregrine Falcon

White-throated Sparrow, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

"Bicolored" Red-winged Blackbird, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

One of the few dozen Pine Siskins during the wave

We continue to band Burrowing Owls every night, and continue to find unbanded owls each day.  This is apparently the best year ever for Burrowing Owls on the island in terms of numbers.  Our daily high count is 17, shattering the previous record of 11.

This rather late Olive-sided Flycatcher was one of the first birds I saw on wave day (October 11th).

As I said, the wave pretty much started on the 10th with a few new birds such as Cackling Goose, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and several other new arriving songbirds.  However, the 11th was the big day.  I rolled out of bed expecting nothing new, or at least very little in terms of arriving birds, since the the winds were very strong.  However, the cloud ceiling was low enough that the mainland wasn't visible, and when I walked out the door to start my AM area search, there were dozens of sparrows and kinglets flitting about and calling in the tree and shrubbery by the house.  As I continued my search, I turned up more and more new arrivals such as Olive-sided Flycatcher and Townsend's Solitaire (less than 50 records on the island; anything under 100 records is a pretty good bird), among the hundreds of other birds.

Common Raven on wave day, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Townsend's Solitaire, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Townsend's Solitaire, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

My favorite bird of the day, though, was found at the lighthouse just 30 minutes or so after I got down from doing my shark watch from there.  Sophie Webb radioed down that she was looking at a "lovely male Evening Grosbeak sitting on the lighthouse."  We spent some time attempting to scope it from below, but could never find it, and the bird eventually flew somewhere that Sophie could not tell.  I spent the next hour or so hiking around the island looking for the bird.  It began raining, so the rocks on all the hills were slippery, and I had to keep my camera under my shirt to keep it from getting too wet.  Just when I was ready to give up, I heard it call from the lighthouse, and I saw it flying in my direction.  The bird landed about 20ft from me, and I was able to get some okay photographs given the rain and lack of light.  There are only 5 previous records for Evening Grosbeak on Southeast Farallon Island.  Of course after all that effort, the bird flew into one of our nets, and I got to band it.

Adult male Evening Grosbeak, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Adult male Evening Grosbeak, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

It was hard to beat the wave on the 11th, but the 12th still brought in a number of new birds, including a few island birds for me.  Ash-throated Flycatcher and Swamp Sparrow were among them.  On the 13th we were treated to a few new birds, and a Brown Booby that loafed around all day with the cormorants on Sugarloaf (small island/large rock just off of the island).

The best bird of the day was a probable Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (would be 3rd record for the island)/possible Red-naped Sapsucker (would be 6th record for island).  I saw the bird flying around the lighthouse (but to me only identifyable as a woodpecker), but Jim Tietz was at the lighthouse and was able to photograph (photos here) the bird during it's brief stay at the lighthouse before it flew off never to be seen again.  Of course there is always the possibility of hybridization, and the experts don't seem to agree on the identity of this individual, some going so far as to say they won't put a name on it from the photos.  Several people think it is Yellow-bellied, though.  The back pattern, to me looks great for Yellow-bellied, but I haven't seen enough Red-naped, and don't know enough about hybridization in these taxa to make a call myself.  Comment with your opinion.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Swamp Sparrow [Photo by Dan Maxwell]

Brown Booby [Photo by Dan Maxweel]

One of the most interesting occurrences on the 12th was seen only by Dan Maxwell, as this adult Peregrine Falcon snatched a Sabine's Gull (I need that bird for the year!) off the water.  This cropped, distant shot is still identifiable. [Photo by Dan Maxwell]

Until next time –

Luke