Pulling the Trigger On Saturday, November 14

 

[ Look at all those pretty wind flags pointing up and left. . . = northwest winds (i.e. from the NW. I.e., migrant birds in fall. Look at those clearing skies and cool temperatures.]

I will be absolutely astonished if this Saturday, November 14, 2020 does not prove to be an extraordinary day for viewing migrant birds in the mid-Atlantic. So leave the leaves on the lawn where they belong and go birding.

 Twain wrote, “Predictions are hard, especially when they concern the future.” But the handwriting is all over the weather and the season:
1.    Mid-November: time for short-distance migrants (sparrows, yellow-rumps, others), big American Robin flights, big raptors (buteos, Golden Eagles, Northern Goshawks). Major spectacle factor is possible, and truth be told I'd pick that over rare birds anytime.

2.    An excellent irruption year for finches, especially Pine Siskins, Evening Grosbeaks, and Purple finches, plus Red-breasted Nuthatches and others.

3.    A pronounced movement of birds eastward out of the Rockies, and prairies; watch for things like Type 10 Red Crossbills, Townsend’s Solitaire, others. Hek, a Stellar’s Jay showed up in I think Illinois! Think about Smith's Longspur, Leconte's Sparrow, Pacific-slope or Cordilleran flycatcher. [UPDATE: Franklin's Gulls are being seen in numbers in the Great Lakes today, November 11.]

4.    That wacky Rhode Island Common Cuckoo flew the coop. They winter in Africa. It's going south.

5.    An extended period of poor migration weather. Saturday November 7 was okay, Sunday November 8 was lackluster, Monday November 9 featured a bunch of raptors flying around in Cape May wondering “what’s with this warm, south wind stuff?” South-southwest and warm through Wednesday (today), now rain forecast through Friday.

6.    South winds and warm may have brought vagrants from the south and southwest to points north of us. These will now want to move south again with the changing weather. Ash-throated Flycatcher is the most obvious candidate, but there are others, e.g. Vermilion Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, other yellow-bellied kingbirds, others. . [UPDATE: A Common Ground Dove was photographed at Cedar Bonnet Island, Manahawkin (off route 72) today, November 11.]

7.    Per the above graph, winds coming around perfectly Friday afternoon and staying there all night and all day Saturday.

Can’t miss.

Where to go? ANYWHERE! Including your favorite local patch, inland or coastal. But, in NJ anyway, I’d be thinking Sandy Hook, Island Beach, Stone Harbor (the Bird Sanctuary and Hereford Inlet Lighthouse), Cape Island, or “my” patch, which is Del Haven, Fishing Creek Marsh, Norbury’s Landing, and Green Greek Marsh. Which is where I’ll start.

How To Talk About Owls Without Talking About Them

[This Short-eared Owl flew in off the ocean at the South Cape May Meadows on November 5, 2011. This Wednesday is November 4, and conditions the night before look perfect for owl migration. Hmmmm...]

If I were me, I would look for migrant owls holed up for the day this Wednesday. Thinking Barn, Long-eared, Short-eared and Northern Saw-Whet Owls. Where? Conifer trees roughly from the Mullica River to Cape May Point, NJ. Except Short-eareds, look for them flying around somewhere in the morning, or sitting on a beach or something. If you find any owls, tell no one.

Is that vague enough?

Birders get all bent into pretzel shapes about other birders harassing owls. I guess they should. I do. People get too close, owls are disturbed, burn energy and risk being eaten while they find somewhere else to hang for the day.

But. What if some of that owl protecting energy and all's those righteous 0's and 1's were spent instead on, I don't know, habitat protection? Environmental activism? Taking kids birding? Talking about habitat loss and rodenticides and car collisions and other MUCH more significant factors to an owl's well being? Walking and cycling more, driving less?

I don't want to see any bird harmed unless someone or some native predator is going to eat it. But do birders disturbing owls affect owls at the population level? No, they do not. Again, don't tell people where owls are, don't flush owls from roosts while trying to get a better look or photo. But think about other places to spend some of that energy.

 

Fri-d: birds with White Where it ain't Supposed to Be

 

 ["Partially Leucistic" Semipalmated Plover, Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor, Cape May County, NJ August 13, 2020.]

This all seems like semantics, but technically it's not. As I understand the terminology, the above bird is not albino because it has pigment on some parts of its plumage and normal bare parts. It's not completely leucistic because it's white some places but normal some places. SO, it is a partially leucistic Semipalmated Plover. Others have reported it.

It gave me a startle naked-eye; when I see a lot of white on a shorebird I'm thinking phalarope or something really crazy. I guess it does look kind of crazy. . .

 

Thoughtful Thursday: The Thumb of God

 

 

 

"I love the moon when it is just a sliver like this. It looks like Gods Thumb nail:)) one of the kids in the movie "Angels in the Outfield" said that and my son Robert (6 yrs old at the time) never forgot. Every time the moon was a sliver he would say "look mom, its Gods thumb nail." That is our special little thing we have. I know when ever either one of us see the moon like this, where ever we are, we remember that time."

-Eric Olsen

A Birding Tale

[Photo copyright Joe Hernandez.]

"Shearwater! Shearwater! Shearwater! Shearwater!"

I show people birds for part of my living, and some people even think I'm good at it, but that was the best I could do in my sudden frantic state. I had no camera.

Silas Hernandez had a quiet frantic in his voice. "I don't have it."

"There! There! There! There!" Oh, I'm good at giving directions to birds, all right. Finally, "It's in front of your brother!" I suspect Silas had been looking far out into the bay, since it was a shearwater after all. Nope. The damn thing flew right at us, over the spit north of the landing, point blank.

I met Silas and his brother Joe just that morning, at Norbury's Landing, two young guys looking for birds before heading off for a wedding. We chatted, and Silas mentioned he had a milestone, I think he said he was at 398 species for North America and hoped to notch 400 this trip. I asked what he had in mind, and he said there wasn't too much in the way of possibilities. I believe it, but this was two days post-Tropical Storm Isaiah . . .

So we parted, me walking up the beach, getting up to the sandbar, raising my bins, and landing on an Arctic Tern resting belly-down on the sand. Huh, I wonder if Silas has this one? I turned and saw the guys getting in their car, so I jogged backed down the beach, yelled and waved them over.

399. Then it got interesting. I'm studying the tern and this bird flashes through my bins.

This is how people who bird a lot identify birds: we look at them and say, "Holy s--t, that's an Audubon's Shearwater." Then we identify them using field marks, which is what I did, screaming the whole time. Luckily Joe was ready with his camera.

Audubon's Shearwater from shore is stupid rare. Audubon's shearwater 40 feet away over a sandbar is double dog stupid rare.

[Audubon's Shearwater, photo's above and below copyright J. Hernandez.]