#382: Least Flycatcher - one nemesis bird down, one to go!

Today I spent about 6.5 hours in a woodlot in Montgomery County, Ohio. I wasn't there to bird but for work - however, I have eyes and ears, and the woodlot was full of migrants. During lunch, I pulled out my crappy field binoculars and looked around. Loads of warblers - Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green, Nashville, and Hooded. I also had a Yellow-throated Vireo, a truly beautiful bird.

But the best was that I finally saw a Least Flycatcher, a common migrant anda bird that has been avoiding me for the past four years. I heard it calling and tracked it down and had a halfway decent look at it while it called. SCORE!

Least Flycatcher: Life bird #382, ABA bird #340, Ohio Bird #289, Year bird #200, and Ohio Year bird #178!

T-minus 100 hours and counting....

This week is going to be hell at work. I'm already having problems concentrating on my work with my trip to Florida rapidly approaching. To illustrate the potential of this trip for me, here's a list of the potential life and ABA area birds that I could see next week (compiled from Bill Pranty's A Birder's Guide to Florida). I'll publish a follow-up post after I return, so we can compare this list with what I actually see.

Potential Life Birds:

1. Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
2. Fulvous Whistling Duck
3. Mottled Duck
4. Masked Duck
5. Cory's Shearwater
6. Audubon's Shearwater
7. Leach's Storm-petrel
8. Band-rumped Storm-petrel
9. White-tailed Tropicbird
10. Masked Booby
11. Brown Booby
12. Red-footed Booby
13. Least Bittern
14. Reddish Egret
15. White Ibis
16. Roseate Spoonbill
17. Greater Flamingo
18. Swallow-tailed Kite
19. White-tailed Kite
20. Snail Kite
21. Crested Caracara
22. Clapper Rail
23. Limpkin
24. Snowy Plover
25. Wilson's Plover
26. Upland Sandpiper
27. Gull-billed Tern
28. Elegant Tern
29. Roseate Tern
30. Bridled Tern
31. Brown Noddy
32. Black Noddy
33. Black Skimmer
34. White-crowned Pigeon
35. Eurasian Collared-Dove
36. KeyWest Quail-Dove
37. Budgerigar
38. Monk Parakeet
39. Green Parakeet
40. White-winged Parakeet
41. Red-crowned Parrot
42. Smooth-billed Ani
43. Burrowing Owl
44. Antillean Nighthawk
45. Red-cockaded Woodpecker
46. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
47. Florida Scrub-jay
48. Red-whiskered Bulbul
49. Bahama Mockingbird
50. Western Spindalis
51. Bachman's Sparrow
52. Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
53. Seaside Sparrow
54. Painted Bunting
55. Bronzed Cowbird
56. Spot-breasted Oriole

Potential ABA-area birds:

1. Magnificent Frigatebird
2. American Oystercatcher
3. Royal Tern
4. Sandwich Tern
5. White-winged Dove
6. Common Ground-dove
7. Mangrove Cuckoo
8. Gray Kingbird
9. Black-whiskered Vireo
10. Cave Swallow
11. Bananaquit
12. Shiny Cowbird
    

The weirdest bird-related story you'll read this weekend

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7379554.stm

Talk about sexual confusion...and determination!

May Day birds at Greenlawn Cemetery

Eastern Phoebe, near the crypt where it nests

I spent two hours at Greenlawn Cemetery before work this morning, looking for migrants. Greenlawn Cemetery is a local Important Bird Area, and is especially attractive to migrants as it features large numbers of mature trees, a former gravel pit that has filled with water, and a little wooded ravine. I tallied 46 species of birds there, including six first-of-year birds: Swainson's Thrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo and Baltimore Oriole. A few photos from this morning's visit are presented below.

I have to try and hit migration hotspots when I can this week, as I will be gone for the remaining weekends in May (two weekends in Florida and one in Chicago). Tomorrow, I plan on hitting Whetstone Park in the morning in hope of getting Least Flycatcher, one of my Ohio nemesis birds (the other being Marsh Wren). Sunday, we're going to take Henry on a walk on the pet trail at Highbanks Metropark, which just happens to be a good spot for birding as well, with recent sightings of Summer Tanager and Golden-winged Warbler. I'll be hitting the local ravine every night as well, taking Henry there on his walk. Last night's walk was productive, as I added Wood Thrush and Kentucky Warbler to my neighborhood list, making it an even 50 (oddly, I still need Yellow-rumped Warbler for the list).

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Blue-headed Vireo

Shawnee State Forest in the spring

Last Saturday's Avid Birders trip was to Shawnee State Forest in Scioto County, with a few visits to places in Adams county afterwards.

Overlooking the Ohio River from Shawnee State Forest.

Shawnee State Forest, or just "Shawnee" for short, is a favorite place for many Ohio birders for early spring migrants. This is a great place to tick off the arriving warbler wave, and Saturday was no exception, with 20 species of warblers sighted or heard by the group (I myself only had 17 species in Shawnee, with an additional species sighted in Adams County). Highlights included great views of Broad-winged Hawks, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanagers, White-eyed Vieroand of course, the warblers. The best warbler of the day was an obliging Cerulean Warbler, who came down and foraged just above eye level for us (on a side note, after getting back and taking Henry the Pug for his walk, I had even better looks at a Cerulean Warbler in Walhalla Ravine!). Shawnee is gorgeous in the spring, with all the dogwoods and redbuds blooming, imparting a palette of pastel whites, pinks and greens to the landscape - a perfect background to the boldly colored birds! I took a lot of photos, but only a few really came out. The best ones are below.

Cerulean Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler, living up to its name

Prairie Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

In all, I saw 81 species on Saturday, a pretty awesome day of birding! I added 30 new birds for the year, so I'm now at 191 species for the year and 168 for Ohio. My first of year birds from Saturday include (species followed by location of first sighting):

Green Heron (Shawnee Marina [SM])
Broad-Winged Hawk (Shawnee State Forest [SSF])
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (SSF)
Great Crested Flycatcher (Edge of Appalachia Preserve, Adams County [EA])
White-eyed Vireo (SSF)
Warbling Vireo (Pike County)
Red-eyed Vireo (SSF)
Bank Swallow (SM)
Cliff Swallow (Pike County)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (SSF)
Gray-cheeked Thrush (Walhalla)
Wood Thrush (SSF)
Gray Catbird (EA)
Blue-winged Warbler (SSF)
Northern Parula (SSF)
Blackburnian Warbler (SSF)
Prairie Warbler (SSF)
Cerulean Warbler (SSF)
Black-and-white Warbler (SSF)
American Redstart (SSF)
Worm-eating Warbler (SSF)
Ovenbird (SSF)
Kentucky Warbler (SSF)
Common Yellowthroat (EA)
Hooded Warbler (SSF)
Yellow-breasted Chat (SSF)
Scarlet Tanager (SSF)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (SSF)
Indigo Bunting (SSF)
Orchard Oriole (SM)

Some nice neighborhood finds this morning

I decided to get up a little earlier than usual and take Henry out for a morning walk to Walhalla Ravine, to see if any warblers had decided to show up yet. I wasn't disappointed, having a look and listen to a Yellow-throated Warbler and a Black-throated Green Warbler. Besides these warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Veery also made it onto both my neighborhood and year lists, while a Chipping Sparrow was new for the neighborhood. Pretty productive little walk, although I did end up missing my bus!

Getting close to Florida time

Tomorrow marks two weeks from the start of my Florida birding trip. This will be my first week-long birding adventure that I've ever taken. Previously, the longest stretch of time I've spent that was solely devoted to birding was a three-day weekend a couple years ago in New Jersey. That trip was originally meant to be a pelagic outing, but the company canceled the trip due to heavy seas while we were already halfway to New Jersey, so we just went ahead and birded the coast.

This trip promises to be exhilirating, with tons of life birds awaiting me. I think at a bare minimum I will add 20 life birds and three ABA region birds to my list, but I bet I'll double those numbers, as I'm going to be traveling with some really good birders. I'm still figuring out the best way to pay for the trip - Bush's $600 bribe, I mean rebate, will cover most of it but that check will probably not arrive until after the trip. I may just take some money out of savings and replace it with the federal bribe money.