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!).

For more on the context of this find and details about other cool birds and non-birds seen on the trip, check out my follow-up post.

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!

Western Tanager!

Ali Iyoob and I made the trip down to Pinehurst this morning to check out the Western Tanager that has been visiting a feeder for weeks, but was only recently identified and reported.

We were welcomed into the home of the friendly and gracious Marjorie Ludwig who lavished us with coffee, cookies, banana bread and fruit.  Never have I enjoyed such luxury while chasing a bird!

The tanager made a few fleeting appearances at first.  It would appear magically at the feeder and then fly off before I could even raise my binoculars.

During the down time between glimpses we were entertained by a rather comical Fox Squirrel that kept futilely climbing the base of the baffled bird feeders before sliding back down the pole in fireman style.

Fox Squirrel

And of course Marjorie's yard swarms with common feeder birds. The bright Pine Warblers kept making me double-take.

Pine Warbler (Not a tanager) and Brown-headed Nuthatch

Ali finally discovered that the tanager was snagging a peanut and then eating it in the privacy of some nearby hedges by the base of the foundation.  Here we were able to view it well through binoculars fairly well, but photos were next to impossible.

Finally, it landed on top of the feeder and then sat on the tray, giving us a nice 15-second view and an opportunity for documentation.

Western Tanager!

I knew my photos wouldn't be much compared to what Ali can capture with his camera, so I shot a quick HD video that shows the bird nicely from a variety of angles (be sure to watch in 720p!).

One thing I noticed from my photos and video is that the bird appears to have reddish coloration on the undertail coverts and vent.  I have no prior experience with this species (lifer #1544!), but I haven't seen reddish in this area in any field guides or google images.  Could this bird have some Summer or Flame-colored genetic influence or is this just an artifact?  In all other respects it appears spot on for Western to my novice eyes. 

This was also my 298th NC bird...getting close to the third century!

A big thanks to Marjorie for sharing this beautiful bird with such hospitality!

Targets for 2012

Last January I posted 5 bird targets for 2011:

1. Golden Eagle (if I were going to the neotropics this year I would replace "Golden" with "Harpy")
2. Black Rail (the Yellow Rail has me foolishly optimistic)
3. Gryphon Vulture (I missed this 4 years ago in Crete, hoping to see one in Croatia)
4. Roller
5. Eurasian Bee-eater


The only one I managed to get was Eurasian Bee-eater (several hundred in Greece!).  Since I have no plans to visit Europe this year, Gryphon Vulture and Roller will have to wait for another year.


For 2012 that leaves...

A big year for Durham?

After the crazy streak of rare shorebirds on upper Falls Lake this fall I realized I had a pretty decent Durham County list going for the year.  And with Nate Swick of the Drinking Bird doing his Triangle Big Year, John Vanderpoel on the brink of setting an ABA record, and with that awesome, star-studded, money-losing movie coming out, I figured why not jump on this band wagon?

Carteret County Rail and Sparrow Extravaganza

Jacob Socolar, Mark Kosiewski, Ali Iyoob, Michael McCloy, Nick Flanders, Paul Tallie, Elisa Enders and I set out on an epic birding trip down to Carteret County with the audacious goal of finding six rail and six ammodramus sparrow species in two days.  

The team

Merry Christmas Bird Count!

I joined Tom Krakauer and Ken (whose last name I can’t recall) in Quail Roost up in northern Durham County to help with the Durham Christmas Bird Count.  I already commented on the beauty of this part of Durham in my post about the spring count here.  

Quail Roost Farm

Terrible pictures of Beautiful birds

I finally made it down to New Bern to see the Anna's Hummingbird that has been visiting the Berher's yard (lifer #1539!).

It didn't visit the feeder while I was there, but helpfully announced its presence by making some bizarre vocalizations from atop a tree in the yard.  It sat for several minutes and I was able to view it through my scope and take some distant photos. 

I guess the Anna's just wasn't thirsty today?

After awhile it zipped off with a flurry of angry-sounding tweets as if on an urgent mission. I might have stuck around hoping to get a view of its gorget illuminated by sun, but I had my own pressing plans...

Fall Recap: chases and finds

With the November bird eating competition completed and Frasier Firs going on sale everywhere, the fall is certainly behind us. It has been a busy one for both work and birds and I just haven't had a chance to post some rather remarkable sightings.

I made a trip out to see the Allen's Hummingbird in Catawba County with Mark Kosiewski. This may have a set a chase-distance record for both of us, so I'll admit we were both a bit hesitant when we were making our plans.  But this was not only the second NC record for the species (which I've told told is a tricky find even in its native California), but also a gorgeous adult-male!  Plus success was virtually guaranteed since the individual was regularly returning to Dwayne Martin's feeder outside of his Riverbend Park office.

A xenophilic day in Durham

I started off by going to the Eno River to chase the Great "White" Heron that had been reported.

White morph Great Blue Heron

Sure enough.  This thing was no Egret!

A gorgeous morning of birds in SWAMP

I led a group of students from the Duke Student Association of Wetland Scientists (SAWS), Nicnats and the Duke Natural History Society (DNHS) out on bird walk in SWAMP yesterday.

Awesome people (from left Kai, Katie, Tong, Paul)

The weather and leaves were equally gorgeous and birds seemed especially active as if wanting to make the most of the warmth and sun.  Every dense patch of grass and bushes seemed to be saturated with calling sparrows.  The resident Red-shouldered Hawk cooperatively posed for photos by the dam.  

Birding on the Job

Part of my responsibility as teacher assistant for the Nicholas School of the Environment wetland ecology and management class is to help with the field trip: a visit to wetlands in coastal North Carolina.  Oh, the drudgery!  

Actually, this trip is -the- highlight of the course for student and instructor alike.  It does chew up fall break…but what better way to spend it than a bunch of beautiful marshes, bogs and swamps? It was a great opportunity for some on-the-job birding as well, and we stumbled upon some cool wetland species and birds of prey.  

Jones Lake, Bladen County, NC

Our itinerary covered more sites than I care to describe here (see photo above), so I’ll just stick to the ones with the most noteworthy birds.

y(Y?)ellow-bellied flycatcher

There have been quite a few recent local reports of Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, a rather rare migrant to North Carolina.  It seems that this is either a great fall to see the species or a great fall to see another of the confusing Empidonax flycatchers, such as a first-year Acadian with yellow-washed belly, and report it as a Yellow-bellied.  

Without hearing birds of this genus vocalize, identification can be quite tricky, and many a cautious birder will stick with Empidonax sp. Even under ideal viewing conditions.  

Take this bird I photographed at Brickhouse Road over the weekend…

 Not a great look, but definitely some sort of empid.  

Moments later I came upon another empid. that may or may not have been the same individual.  This one clearly had a yellow belly, green back and even a yellowish-looking throat. 

I followed it for several salleys along the path and it spent time along the forest edge on both the more mature side as well as the denser, younger wet side.

After a while it took a break from foraging and settled cooperatively for a few minutes in this tree.

What's it doing eating a caterpillar?  I thought these things were supposed to catch flies!

So this post has turned into an ID quiz for which I have no answer key.  Can anybody tell me what this bird is?

Previously I had never seen an immature Acadian nor a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  Surely this bird is one or the other… but which?  

If the photos aren’t enough… Check out this video… 

No it doesn't vocalize or do anything super-exciting.  It just looks around, and more importantly stays in focus  (I have several other clips in which my camera decided that a twig was far more interesting.)

I'll admit I'm not flycatcher expert, but I'm starting to lean toward Sierran Elaenia =P

Update 10/14/11:

After consulting carolinabirds and frontiers in bird identification listservs there was no consensus among expert opinion.  I think I got a total of 5 votes for Yellow-bellied and 4 votes for Acadian.  In general folks in the Acadian camp were more confident in their ID.

Jeff Pippen's advice was probably best: go get Ken Kaufman's book and figure it out yourself.  

So I ordered: the Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding

The section on empids is really helpful for determining which attributes are most useful (i.e. bill size/shape, primary projection) and which are not (i.e. color, tail flicking).  

The main problem with the pictures I posted is that they show more of the less-useful indicators.  I captured the bill from several different angles, but it's size seems to change from one photo to the next.  

The result was a crazy juxtaposition of comments, such as...

Expert A: "...the smaller bill...seems to point towards Yellow-bellied."

Expert B: "The bill is clearly broader at the base, longer, and pointier than Yellow-bellied, Least, or Willow/Alder Flycatchers."

So I went back to my original photos and videos and found that some of my "bad" pictures actually illustrate the important field marks better than the "good" photos above. 

In these photos (of the same individual) the bird here is in direct sunlight and the color is washed out...

...BUT the primary projection is shown much more clearly

...AND it is easier to see the width of the base of the bill.  

The apparently broad bill seems to fit much better with Acadian than Yellow-bellied. 

The primary projection also looks to be long...perhaps not too long to rule out Yellow-bellied on its own, but I think it also favors Acadian.  

So after chasing my tail all over the place and being pulled apart by conflicting opinions, I'm right about where I started with my best guess for the ID.  

Big thanks to everybody who has commented and emailed me about this bird...especially to those who voted for Yellow-bellied Flycatcher!  Unfortunately I don't think I can, in good faith, mark it down as such (especially since it would be a life tick).  

I've certainly learned a lot and hope others have as well.  Also, further comment and discussion is more than welcome.