What's Next?

One of my favorite eBird tools is the arrivals/departures report, because one of the funnest things in birding is to track when each species returns each year. Thus, one for example can create a report of arrivals for all of New Jersey in 2011 so far, and see that a number of traditional March arrivals are already in: Tree Swallow, Forster's Tern, Piping Plover, Laughing Gull, and Osprey - and all but the last got here in February, not March! There is a definite trend in earlier and earlier arrivals, in part due to increased observer effort and in part almost certainly due to global warming.

So, what's next? Well, a check of last year's arrivals proffers some likely candidates, like Cattle Egret (last year on March 16), Barn Swallow (March 20), or Glossy Ibis (March 24). I'm going with Cattle Egret, but await even more eagerly the first Louisiana Waterthrush of 2011, just because I love this species and its voice and all it recalls: fast flowing streams, trout lily blooming on the banks, and perhaps trout in the creel. In south Jersey they're in slower, but still moving water. Right around the first of April is when Louisiana Waterthrush will be back in south Jersey, perhaps a few days later in the northern part of the state.

The next blog will be the Belize edition, since we're off to that tropical paradise next week, where, come to think of it, I could find my first Louisiana Waterthrush of 2011 on its way north!

[This Cattle Egret was found by Tom Reed in Cape May on March 16 last year; here it glares at the Little Blue Heron that joined it March 22. I'm guessing Cattle Egret as the next NJ arrival of 2011, though there are plenty of other candidates. Click to enlarge.]

Identification Tip: Redhead

[Several Redheads have mingled with the Canvasback flock at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, late afternoon today. How would you pick the two center birds from the pack?]

I was talking with some folks the other day about sifting diving duck flocks for Redheads, and the age-old problem of separating this species from Canvasback came up. It's really not that hard, and the great thing is that if you are a shape/structure birder, you can do it readily, and if not, color works too.

As to color, check the photo above. Even at this fairly great distance, Redhead heads are RED - not orangy red - but the real key is the back color. Canvasback is a very pale duck, any plumage, while Redhead is more like a scaup, with a gray back. It's also got a blue bill with a black tip. We're talking about males here, though even female Canvasbacks are paler than female Redheads.

As to structure, Canvasbacks have heads that slope. Think of a doorstop, the slanted device you stick under doors to keep them from closing. Redheads have steep foreheads and shorter bills - their heads wouldn't slide under a door.

When you're checking out Canvasbacks, or Redheads, in your field guides, check out their range maps. A number of North American birds migrate nearly as far east-west as north-south, and this pair does just that.

Red-throated Loons Staging at the Mouth of Delaware Bay

[This Red-throated Loon was remarkably confiding as it pushed prey up against the beach near the Cape May Ferry terminal, a definite weekend highlight. Click to enlarge photos.]

As we crested the dune at Douglas Park, north of the Cape May Canal near the ferry terminal, we were delighted to find a Red-throated Loon feeding literally against the beach. When it dove, I raced down to the water and plopped down in the sand, hoping for the closest photo opp. I've ever had on this species. A game of cat and mouse ensued - the loon was not at all shy, but covered a lot of water on each dive and surfaced unpredicatably. Eventually I just settled in one place and waited for it to give me a chance. Great fun, and a wonderful opportunity to study this species at close range.

We bumped into Mark Garland and his group at the park. Mark pointed out 3 Horned Grebes in the channel, and we discerned an adult Great Cormorant perched on the channel marker at the end of the Higbee jetty. The shorebirds Vince had (see his comment on the winter shorebird post below) were apparently somewhere else, but Kathy and Roger Horn found one of the Black-headed Gulls farther north along the bay.

March is the month Red-throated Loon numbers begin building in Delaware Bay. At peak, thousands may be present at one time, but the phenemon lasts for weeks so many more individuals could be involved, staying a while and then moving on. An iconic field trip is to hit Sunset Beach and nearby points in latest March or early April, to see not only loons but also Northern Gannets, which can be in the hundreds or thousands as well.

The Common Redpolls continued at my feeders all weekend (though to the chagrin of some visitors, not constantly!), and several other CORE reports emerged around Cape May.

Common Redpolls!

[American Goldfinches repel a Common Redpoll while another counts his blessings, at my feeders in Del Haven, NJ today. Click to enlarge.]

Tchip. Tchip Tchip.

I know that sound. . .running late for work, but freeze in my tracks and go back for the camera, because it's a new yard bird, Common Redpoll. More than one actually, at least three, joined the American Goldfinches at my feeders this morning. In the last month, a minor rash of CORE's (banding code for Common Redpoll) has appeared in NJ:

[Common Redpoll sightings in NJ in the last 60 days - all have been in the last month. Courtesy of eBird.]

I.D. Tip: Lessons from a Red-winged Blackbird

[Red-winged Blackbird, Nummy Island, NJ, Feb 23, 2011. Click to enarge.]

Good friend Tony Leukering is working up an article and needed some Red-winged Blackbird photos, which set me to re-examining this one of a stretching male from Stone Harbor last week. There's a lot going on, the sort of stuff that gives us the chance to practice the adage, "Know thy common birds."

Most birders would recognize this bird as a male Red-winged Blackbird, but is it an adult or immature (second year, SY, or after second year, ASY, in bander lingo)? And where, exactly, is the red (and yellow) wing patch? Answer to the latter is on the lesser and median coverts, beneath which (or to the right of in this pic) lie the black greater covers and beneath, still farther right, are the stiff flight feathers, the primaries on the outside and secondaries inside.

On the outstretched wing we can count that this Red-winged, like all icterids, has 9 primaries, and that the outermost one (P9) is short. Specifically, it is shorter than P6, a useful in-hand mark to separate Red-winged Blackbird from western cousin Tri-colored. Tri-coloreds, by the way, don't move around much and haven't been recorded east of Nevada, so we almost certainly will never need to deal with one in the east unless someone sticks it in their glove box and brings it here. So there's no need to try to pry the occasional Red-winged Blackbird with pale yellow (almost white) on the coverts into the Tri-colored hole.

And note, as you probably have on other Red-wingeds, that all that red and nearly all the yellow can be hidden under the scapulars, or shoulder feathers, of a perched Red-winged. They often hide their colors when at feeders, to avoid confrontation with other males.