Searching for Ceruleans on the Roanoke

The Cerulean Warbler is a special bird.  Not only is it the only member of the huge wood-warbler family that is entirely blue and white, but it also has the tragic distinction of being one of the most rapidly declining neotropical migrant songbirds. On average the population shrinks 3 percent each year and has been doing so for decades.  It isn’t entirely understood why the species is struggling so, but the downhill trajectory combined with a low population density has earned it a spot on the IUCN’s endangered species list where it carries the label, “Vulnerable.”

Because Ceruleans nest in emergent trees in mature forest, they are nearly impossible to spot without first being heard. To get at this bird typically requires a special trip to a special known breeding location during the late spring when the males proclaim their presence with a buzzy song that sputters like a tiny gas motor trying to start.  Since ~99.9% of Cerlueans breed in the mountains, that’s where nearly everyone goes to add this special bird to a life, state or year list.

What we set out to do was find that remnant 0.1% of the population that somehow persists miles from all its relatives in a completely different physiographic region in riparian forest along the Roanoke River in the coastal plain of North Carolina.  

The team -- photo by Ken Hackney

Paul Taillie, Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, Mark Kosiewski, Nick Flanders, and I paddling a 15-mile stretch of river going downstream from Weldon, listening intently, hoping to pick out that Cerulean song.

Birding by kayak

We had perfect weather—clear skies and highs around 75—and perfect timing.  We were late enough to avoid fishing boats (we saw two all day) and early enough to beat the mosquitos (my count was one individual for the weekend).  And the river was flowing nicely, so that in the early hours of the morning when the birding was best, we scarcely had to paddle, but would just drift and listen.  

And the river was gorgeous and fantastic for birds.  At any given time two or more Bald Eagles were typically in view.

Bald Eagle

And Prothonotary Warbler was among the most abundant species of the day.  

Prothonotary Warbler

 This Prothonotary nestling enjoys a spectacular view of the Roanoke from its dead tree trunk penthouse (penthole?). 

Prothonotary Nestling

We found 15 warbler species on the day.  It was a little late for migrants and we detected only two: Blackpoll and Yellow, but we recorded 10 singing males of each of two rather secretive and rare breeders, Swainson’s and Kentucky, and got great looks at both.

Kentucky Warbler

And yes, we found our Cerulean Warblers…six males singing away, perhaps hoping to lure in a female from what must be a severely limited supply.  We beached our boats and clambered up the steep bank to try to spot one…

!!

We were thrilled to see our first of 3 seen Cerlueans on the day, but what was shocking was the trashed habitat where this one had decided to stake out its territory.

Prime Cerulean Warbler habitat?

While there were some tall Tulip Poplars (a species they tend to prefer), the forest cover was fragmented by little clear-cuts. Even where the canopy was mostly intact there was evidence of active selective logging.  We saw stumps and freshly downed tree crowns.   

Singing

Sadly this bird may be singing in vain.  Even if he is able to successfully breed in his fragment this year, will there be anything for him in 2013?  Indeed the prospects for this tiny population are grim (even more so than they are for the species as a whole).  

Were the Roanoke Ceruleans, with their isolation, given thousands of years to breed and respond to selective pressures, they might genetically drift to a novel subspecific identity.  But I’m not sure if this population will make it through the current century. 

One of North Carolina’s preeminent birders and naturalists, Harry LeGrand, recently reported zero Ceruleans in at least 12-15 trips to the Roanoke this spring (all working on foot, essentially just in Halifax and Northampton).  He concluded that Ceruleans are "...in considerable decline here."

The good news is that there are large swaths of Roanoke riparian corridor that are protected (i.e. by the nature Conservancy), though I’m not sure how well they correspond with these Ceruleans’ Alamo just south of Weldon. And the problem may very well be with wintering habitat, or something unrelated to the state of the forest buffer along the Roanoke.

Of course, we were having far too much fun to worry too much about the birds’ fate.  With the stream flowing well we made it to the Tillery camping platform (reserved through Roanoke RiverPartners) before 3pm, leaving plenty of time to relax, have a swim, and fish.

Camping on the Roanoke

And it was a spectacular flawless weekend.  We ended up with 90 or so species as a group.  Other highlinghts included one Scarlet Tanager, a singing Horned Lark, a singing Grasshopper Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrikes, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and a stop by Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park to see the menagerie before heading back to the Triangle on Sunday.

So I would highly recommend having a paddle on the Roanoke. And if you hope to find Cerulean Warblers away from the mountains, I would recommend planning your trip soon!

locally grown Yellow-crowned Night-Herons

Over the weekend I investigated the suspicious rumors of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons nesting in marshes around Durham and Chapel Hill.  What could these birds possibly be doing around the triangle, when they should be down at the beach?  Eating crayfish and raising young?  Likely story!

And by "rumors" I just mean great photos of nests taken by top local birders...clearly this was a mystery in need of investigation!

Luckily I was able to convince Will Cook to let me cover the highway 54 waterfowl impoundments for the Chapel Hill Spring Bird count.  I had never birded these spots before (until recently I thought they were duck prisons and I'm not into captive birds), so I wasn't sure what to expect.

But when I arrived at dawn, lo and behold the trees were filled with Yellow-crowned Night-Herons!

Yellow-crowned Night-Herons at the New Hope Creek waterfowl impoundment

Well, actually I only counted 7, but it was still a heck of a lot more Night-Heron action than I expected to find!

When I passed back by their haunt at 9 am, there wasn't a single one left to be found.  They had all gone off to roost for the day I assume.  They are Night-Herons after all, so-called because of their nocturnal (or maybe crepuscular?) behavior.

Look at those toes! How can that be comfortable?

I'm not sure whether the local population is growing or it's just that birders aren't at these little artificial highway-side marshes at dawn very often (I suspect both).  All I know is that there is a ton of habitat similar to the area I covered that is either inaccessible or virtually never checked. 

A simple extrapolation leads me to believe that at least several dozen Yellow-crowned Night-Herons must breed in the area.  Yet until 5 or 6 years ago these birds were almost never detected on area spring bird counts.  The previous record high count for the Chapel Hill Spring Count was 11 individuals.  If only I could have been at two impoundments at once perhaps I could have broken the record... 

Oh well, maybe next year!

Spring Sprang Sprung

It has been a whirlwind the past few weeks with birding, term papers and field work…and now I find myself finally updating this blog with the first week of May gone.  Most of the exciting spring migrants have already passed over the rapidly warming central piedmont in favor of higher latitudes and elevations. 

Blackpoll Warbler

I saw this Blackpoll Warbler out my window the other day; a harbinger of the beginning of the end of spring migration.

According to the old-timers at the Carolina Club’s 75^th Anniversary meeting in Raleigh this past weekend, the rain storms just didn’t come at the right time to cause the fallout that every birder prays for in spring.  As a result many of the uncommon transient warblers were downright rare.  Nevertheless through two full days of leading area field trips for CBC participants I was able to turn up 21 warbler species.  Not bad at all!

Of course this says more about the sites I was assigned than anything else.  

On my Saturday morning trip to the ever popular birding hotspot, Mason Farm, we stumbled upon one migrant flock that had a Magnolia and Cape May Warbler—both gorgeous males!  And the entry marsh had a about a dozen sandpipers: mostly Solitary with a few Least and a Spotted. 

In the afternoon I took a smaller group to Eno River State Park where we got Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanagers and lots of Black-throated Blue Warblers.  But the coolest sighting might have been the Red-shouldered Hawk that flew by with a snake in its bill.  

My co-leader, Mike McCloy, showing CBC members a Kentucky Warbler at Howell Woods

On Friday I led a group to Howell Woods down in Johnston County, which is thick with bottomland swamp species such as Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler and Acadian Flycatcher. 

Acadian Flycatcher

It even has the elusive Swainson’s Warbler, which cooperatively sat up and sang for the group giving nearly everyone fantastic looks and me a passable photo of lifer #1553!

Swainson's Warbler!

Legendary naturalist Scott Weidensaul was in our group and even he was thrilled by this bird.  Or at least he said as much before electrifying the club and visitors with a talk about the wonders of bird migration.  Both Scott’s presentation and the venue, the recently completed North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, left me awestruck.  It was a fantastic way to cap the meeting.  

~~~

Last weekend I covered Quail Roost with Tom Krakauer for the Durham spring bird count again and we crushed our total from last year by about 10 species.  We had Natalia Ocampo-Penuela partially to thank for this; she came along to get a few life birds and ended up spotting one of the better birds of the count: a gorgeous male Blackburnian Warbler!  But the best bird for me was a flock of about 120 Bobolinks we found in a field of alfalfa. 

Bobolinks! Durham bird #204

Since the count was in late April, it was the first chance to see many of the returning breeding birds singing away on territory, such as this Blue Grosbeak…

Blue Grosbeak

…or this Yellow-breasted Chat.

Yellow-breasted Chat

We also saw a nice male Orchard Oriole.  

Orchard Oriole

There’s still time for some late-moving migrants, but once June rolls around and the summer heat really fires up I recommend visiting the beach or the coast...and to bring a bathing suit as well as binoculars!

Mountain Bluebird in the Sandhills?!?

I woke up early this morning to investigate a possible Mountain Bluebird in a Fayetteville gated community with two of Durham's most famous birders, Jeff Pippen and Will Cook.  The photos we had seen looked really promising, but since this would represent just the second record for the state and the first for the Piedmont/Sandhills province(s), care has to be taken with assigning a label.

Wayne Irvin, who kindly arranged access for us (thanks Wayne!), had arrived before us and found the bird, but in typical chase fashion by the time we arrived it had eluded him.  Dang!

But as we exchanged pleasantries I pointed out that a bluebird was calling and it was re-spotted...

Well that's certainly a bird

...unfortunately at the top of the tallest tree in the area (hence the mediocre photos).

In bad light the bird looked dingy in gray with buffy/brown hints in the chest and throat, but once it eventually left its tree top and perched in some low pine saplings I could clearly see light blue in the wings and tail.

My best closest photo and she had to be looking away

It seemed to have picked up a pretty male Eastern Bluebird boyfriend and Wayne said that before we arrived they had been investigating a nest hole.  The pair stayed together the entire ~40 minutes we observed them and at one point the male chased the female who evaded him acrobatically.

star-crossed lovers?

I last saw them fly off into the sunrise together over the treetops toward the East-southeast just before 9 am. Looking at satellite images, there appears to be a powerline cut in that direction.  All sightings so far have been in the morning; maybe that's where they spend their afternoons?

My last half decent photo before she took her beau and bounced

Based on what I've read I don't think there's any chance that this bird is simply some sort of mal-feathered Eastern Bluebird.  Even if it were an Eastern somehow missing all its orange pigmentation it should still have a white belly and a bicolored bill, which were lacking on this suspect.

But the budding romance we witnessed does bring up the possibility of hybridization. I have read that Mountains are known to hybridize with Western Bluebirds and Jeff told me that there is a population of Eastern/Mountain hybrids, but what are these birds supposed to look like?  I can't find any photos anywhere.

My main hesitancy to call this bird definitively a Mountain Bluebird (apart from my lack of prior experience with the species and its rarity) is that I could not discern any shape differences in the field between the pair. The field guides I have in front of me, Sibley and Nat Geo. 6th ed. (thanks for the bday present, mom) say that Mountain Bluebird should have a longer tail, longer wings and primary projection. Even when the two were sitting branches apart or in flight together any differences were too subtle for my eye.

I did happen to capture a relatively deep fork in the tail of female, which I didn't notice until I reviewed my photos.

Could this obviously forked tail be an indicator for Mountain?

Both field guides show Mountain as having a more obviously forked tail and doing a Google image search I found that a few shots capture this in Mountains, but I could not find any photos of an Eastern with this much of a fork.

While I'm at it here are a couple more marginal shots of the bird preening that show some wing shape and primary projection.

Preening

She's got a date tonight; gotta look pretty

hmm does that count as "long primary projection?"

More on the Hatteras pelagic...

To give my last post a bit more context, the Black-browed Albatross will be only the fifth formally accepted record of the species for the United States (once the NC records committee gets a chance to vote on it) with 10 or so other unconfirmed reports over the years (source). And it is only the second report of any kind from North Carolina waters with a first being a sight record of two birds seen in the 70s .

Obviously the Black-browed Albatross, for its incredible improbability and stunning beauty, stole the show from what had already been fabulous winter pelagic trip off Hatteras.

The weather was mild and the sea was calm (at least by afternoon). Our first rare bird of the day appeared almost instantly: an Iceland Gull, not 15 minutes out of port in the sound. I had seen a few of these on the pelagic trip I took February last year and got some great photos, so like lack of sunlight and photo opportunity didn't bother me.

Moments later we cruised by a flock of about 60 Brant, a goose species found on salt water that can be elusive within North Carolina (NC bird #302!).

Out on the open ocean we weren't finding the incredible density of alcids that we had last year; one Dovekie skittered away from the boat and I saw small groups of Razorbills here and there. But we found almost all the typical winter pelagic species that I had missed last year including a few Manx Shearwaters (lifer #1546), Great Skuas (lifer #1548), one lone Northern Fulmar (lifer #1549), and several groups of Red Phalaropes.

Red Phalaropes (lifer #1547!); so cool to see shorebirds at home on the open ocean

The phalaropes were working along an obvious contrast between warm blue gulf stream water and cold green water.

more phalaropes with a Bonaparte's Gull; at a distance these two birds can look remarkably similar

The confluence of nutrient-rich cold water and the gulf stream drives a hotspot of primary productivity, attracted fish and other marine macrofauna. Not-birds included Bottlenose and Spotted Dolphins, but most impressive were the abundance of Loggerhead Sea Turtles.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

We noticed 30 to 40 bobbing past and several that exhibited some really odd behavior...turtles swimming on their backs with flippers out of the water. One even craned its head out of its shell above water and opened its mouth showing its beak. I guess this was some sort of threat display because it proceeded to approach our boat and bite at the hull! Weird. I hope some turtle experts can offer some interpretation.

Black-browed Albatross off Cape Hatteras

Black-browed Albatross; pelagic off Cape Hatteras on Feb.18, 2012

Full Adult; the first adult of the species photographed in the US?

With 1st-cycle Great Black-backed Gull; I wonder how often these species meet?

With Northern Gannets; another unusual juxtaposition!

In flight; notice how close we are to the shoreline in the background. Also note the molting flight feathers.  I have read that albatrosses have to take a year off from nesting to molt.

During the ~45-minute view, it mostly sat on the water. This is the only glimpse of the underwings I captured

Overexposed and cropped photo shows a dark iris; an indication the bird is from the nominate race/subspecies and may be from the Falkland Islands off Argentina (rather than Campbell Island)

My first photo of the bird at 4:40 pm; imagine if it had disappeared after this shot

And the second capture; nice and blurry like most of my pelagic photos

Bob Fogg aboard the Stormy Petrel II (captained by Brian Patteson) with the Albatross in the background.  Bob spotted the bird fly into the wake (apparently they go for chum)

Jeff Pippen taking an iPhone photo of the bird to be sent instantly to his lawyer for safe keeping.  Jeff led a group from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University that fortunately included me!

And in case anybody wants to see some HD video (be sure to watch in 720p!):

Sorry about the shakiness, the boat just wouldn't hold still.  This clip is better for shake than many of the others I took (too much zoom), but just to be safe, you may want to pop some dramamine. 

Huge thanks to Captain Brian, 1st mate Kate and spotters Bob and Dave for a fantastic trip.  It was a phenomenal day even discounting this bird (lifer #1550 and my 5th of the day!).

Deja vu? Western Tanager! (again)

When I heard from Ali that there was a Western Tanager visiting a feeder in Durham, I couldn't resist going to see it.

Western Tanager in Durham!

This one was a female, so not quite as pretty as the one down in Pinehurst from last month, but it is the first one documented in Durham County.  Pretty Cool!

motion blur

These birds don't linger on the feeder and shooting through a window on a low-light cloudy morning makes it tough to get a crisp photo.

Cloaca!

See you later! 

I wonder when it might migrate west?

A big thanks to Della Zimmerman and her mother for hosting!

Birding Bald Head

When John Voigt invited me down to Southport to lead a couple of field trips for the Carolina Bird Club, I enthusiastically agreed.

Later I found out that the trips I would be leading would be to Bald Head Island, a place I hadn't visited since I was about 9-years-old and had never birded.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but luckily Derb Carter, who had covered the island for the Southport Christmas Bird Count, emailed me some basic instructions and advice on birding spots (thanks Derb!)

Bald Head, for those of you have never been,  is a pretty special place. It is unique for the North Carolina coast in that cars are prohibited, meaning that the principle modes of transportation are bicycle and golf cart. We rented several 4 or 6-passenger Pebble Beach buggies and rallied them about the island.  Like slowing driving a Prius with the windows down, this is a great, quiet way to bird!

Golf carts!

While I'm not familiar with the history of development at Bald Head, clearly much care has been taken to respect and preserve the natural landscape.  The maritime forests are the most ancient and luxuriant I have seen except for perhaps Cumberland Island down in Georgia (another rare triumph in coastal preservation). But I digress...on to the birds!

Despite the beautiful forests, many of the common winter land birds are difficult if not impossible to find. No chickadees, titmice or nuthatches were to be found either day.  Yellow-rumped Warblers were, of course, rather abundant.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

And in one of the many flocks of "butterbutts" we managed to find a Black-and-White Warbler.  Pretty cool bird to see in January!


And we did find this Towhee that seemed to be missing its tail.

Eastern Towhee sans tail

But one doesn't make the trip to Bald Head for land birds. One highlight was the roosting waders we found around a pond on Middle Island (thanks to Derb for the tip!) I estimated 40 Tricolored Herons (the most any of us had ever seen in one place), 20 Black-crowned Night-Herons and White Ibises, with a few Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets mixed in.

The most noteworthy bird was probably an immature Common Eider at the southwestern end of the island.  On Friday when it was rough, we also spotted a Jaeger here out in the chop harassing terns and Bonaparte's Gulls.  

A nice surprise was that we were allowed to cruise all 18 holes of the golf course both days.  This gave us a chance to see a Common Gallinule and nice little variety of ducks including Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser and best of all three Blue-winged Teal.

Lesser Scaup at the Bald Head golf course

A huge thanks to the Bald Head Island Golf Club for being the most birder-friendly golf course I've ever known!

The ferry rides also provided some decent birds, most notably a Black Skimmer on the Saturday trip, as a well as a gorgeous sunset Friday evening.  Unfortunately leading these trips makes me doubly forgetful about trying to get photos.

The birding was awesome and I got to meet some really fantastic birders and wonderful people.  We ended up with 70 or so species each day with a two-day total of 82.  

On the Sunday I went out with fellow "young" trip leaders and bird bloggers, Robert Meehan, Nate Swick and Michael McCloy for some target birding.  Mark Kosiewski even drove down from Pittsboro to meet us. Here's a team photo Mark took at Greenfield Lake in Wilmington:

Lots of birding going on here!

We found some Great Cormorants at Masonboro inlet (NC bird #299) and then visited Bruce Smithson's yard to see his resident Black-chinned Hummingbird (lifer #1545 and more importantly NC bird #300!). Bruce's feeder also had a female/immature and an adult Ruby-throated Hummingbird visiting regularly, which made for nice comparisons with the potential vagrant.

Black-chinned Hummingbird candidate (not that you can tell from this photo)

Immature Black-chinned hummers are essentially unidentifiable in the field, but this one looked and behaved much differently than the Ruby-throated and there has been little doubt about its identity.  Hopefully Susan Campbell will get to band it and confirm this soon!