Apr 082020
 

After reading that last post about North American birds with cities as their ‘first name’, we naturally have to ask the next question, don’t we??

How many species of birds in North America have ‘first names’ that are the same as a US state?? 

Actually, there are quite a few.  I found seven species with California as their ‘first name’, and eleven with Hawaii or Hawaiian as their ‘first name’.

If we eliminate those two states, there are still ten more species. How many can you think of?  Give it some thought, but if you need photographic clues after a while, click HERE.

 

For the bonus question, can you name the seven ‘California’ species?  Click HERE for the answer.

 Posted by at 3:08 PM
Apr 082020
 

When I’m sitting at home trying to remain sane while sitting out the coronavirus stay-at-home order, the brain goes in unsuspected and often weird directions.  Something triggered a trivia question. 

How many species of birds in North America have ‘first names’ that are the same as an American city?? 

I came up with five species.  How many can you think of?  Give it some thought, but if you need photographic clues after a while, click here.

 

 Posted by at 2:19 PM
Apr 082020
 

I have been spending time during the early part of this year in Florida, enjoying the warmer weather and some of the birds that we don’t see frequently up in New Jersey.  The most visible of these species has to be Sandhill Cranes, which stroll across the yard, and are nesting and raising young at different stages within the village. I thought that I’d share some of the photos here, showing their progress.

Sandhill Cranes build a low large stick nest, high enough to keep the eggs dry and out of the marsh.

One evening she stood up to reveal two large eggs. Two eggs are the norm for Sandhills.

Then there was a little bit of egg maneuvering before incubating them again.

Two days after hatching the fuzzy chicks left the nest and the marsh to explore their new world.

Hey ma, let’s go this way!

It’s feeding time!

It’s not too long before they are nearing the size of the parents, but still sporting that rusty juvenile color.

 

 

 Posted by at 1:57 PM
Nov 032019
 

So you think it is easy being a Great Blue Heron?  Well, sometimes a bird needs to just relax for a minute, and meditate in its favorite yoga pose, just like humans. Oooommmmmmm.

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 Posted by at 7:24 PM
Oct 092019
 

Fall is a great time to be outside birding. It’s not quite as thrilling as spring birding, but it is still very good: the weather becomes more comfortable, biting insects are on the decline, and fall migrants are passing through on their way to their wintering grounds, joining the local breeding birds. On the downside, birds are not singing as much, and some of them are not sporting their bright breeding plumage, which can make identification more challenging. I received a request for a Bird Quiz featuring fall migrants, and I was happy to assemble such a quiz. In this quiz I do not include fall shorebirds or raptors, but restrict the quiz to species that you might find on a woodland stroll; warblers, vireos, kinglets, sparrows, finches, and more. Click here to start the quiz.

Can you identify this fall warbler? If not, give the new Bird Quiz a try.

 Posted by at 11:32 AM
Oct 012019
 

The past two days I have been busy assembling a list of all the bird species that have been seen in Ocean County, and only later finding out that other longer-term county birders generated their own lists. Comparing these lists, at least 410 species have been seen in the county, and perhaps as high as 420 species. Some of the documentation is quite old and some of the participants are now dead, so depending on whether we are cautious or generous with accepting the older sightings, that is where it stands.

To some extent, the exact number is not so important to me. What WAS more interesting to me was the next step: creating a list of species that have been seen in NJ, but have NOT yet appeared in the county, with an eye toward predicting those that are likely to be found here in the near future. The top five missing species in my opinion are as follows:

1. Trumpeter Swan. Their populations are increasing outside NJ, the first-ever sighting in NJ happened in 2012, and they have appeared in at least five NJ counties including neighboring Monmouth and Burlington counties.  It’s just a matter of time. The trick is distinguishing them from the similar and more numerous Tundra Swans.

A pair of Trumpeter Swans, photographed in Yellowstone, I believe.

2. Fork-tailed Flycatcher. They have appeared in NJ approximately every other year over the last decade and have been spotted in six NJ counties. We are due.

A Fork-tailed Flycatcher. They are conspicuous enough that if one is around, somebody would notice it.

3.  Brewer’s Blackbird. There have been at least 21 sightings in NJ, but none here yet. C’mon, OC birders…sort through those blackbirds.

Brewer’s Blackbird.

4.  Little Egret. There has been only one Little Egret spotted in NJ, but with so much coastline and salt marsh, OC is a good bet for the second one hiding among all those Snowy Egrets. Most likely location: Great Bay Boulevard.

NJ’s first Little Egret, on the right., from Heislerville We are due for a second one.

5.  Mew Gull. I know of only two Mew Gull sightings in NJ, but once again, with all that coastline, there has to be more hiding in the gull flocks.

A Mew Gull from California.

Other species that have not yet been found in the county (in Greg’s relative order of likelihood):
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Common Ground-dove  (edit: the first county record was found Nov. 11, 2020)
Calliope Hummingbird  (edit: the first county record was found Dec. 11, 2020)
California Gull
Spotted Redshank
Elegant Tern (edit: first county record was found Nov. 27, 2022)
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Vermilion Flycatcher
Mountain Bluebird
Pacific Golden-plover  (edit: the first county record was found May 15, 2021)
Neotropic Cormorant
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-necked Stint
Little Stint
Zone-tailed Hawk

And since we’re looking into that crystal ball, how about a wild guess for a new species for New Jersey being seen in our county?  My nomination: how about a Limpkin showing up in one of our cranberry bogs?

Keep an eye out for these species or other rarities and let’s see how accurate these predictions are five years from now.

 Posted by at 3:57 PM
Sep 292019
 

This morning I was wondering which state has recorded the most bird species. Which led to wondering which state has the second-highest total. Which led to wondering where my home state of New Jersey ranks.  Which led to….well, you get the idea.  I could never stop with a single simple question, so I had to assemble a table listing the number of species recorded in each state. The totals were obtained from Wikipedia and therefore they are not all up-to-date. But at least it is a start.

As expected, California and Texas were at the top of the list. Arizona and New Mexico (ranked #3 and #4 respectively) fare incredibly well considering that they don’t have a coast. Only two of the top ten states are from the east (do you sense my bird envy rising?). NJ ranks at #16…not bad for such a small state.  But there were some surprises for me as well. I would not have expected Oregon to have recorded more species than Alaska with its enormous size and all its Asian rarities. It was unexpected to me that relatively small Massachusetts tops more than 500 species.  My current home county (Ocean County NJ) has recorded at least 410 species, which is a higher species total than eight states. Maybe you’ll find some surprises in this list too.

Of course, this makes me wonder how many species have been seen in every country. 
But I’m not going there. That’s enough numbers for today. Time to go out and find some birds.

 Posted by at 9:15 AM
Sep 282019
 

It is hard to go outside these days without feeling like there aren’t as many birds around as there used to be.  Well, finally there is a detailed study to document that decline.  According to an analysis by an international team from seven institutions, the North American bird population has declined by nearly 30% over the last 50 years. This research, which was published in the journal Science this past week, shows massive losses among U.S. bird populations—with steep declines in every habitat.  For example, grassland bird populations have decreased by 53%, shorebirds have declined by 37%, and boreal forest birds have declined by 39%. The report is sobering, revealing a classic canary-in-a-coal-mine scenario, and should be read and understood by everybody, not just by birders.   Click here to view a summary of the report.

Cape May Warbler, credit Sue Puder

Cape May Warbler

More than 90% of the total loss of birdlife in the U.S. and Canada comes from just 12 avian families, including familiar families such as sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, and finches, and they are all decreasing. Multiple common or familiar species have declined more than 40% within that interval, including Ruddy Turnstone (down 80%), Northern Bobwhite (down 78%), Eastern Meadowlark (down 80%), and Baltimore Oriole (down 44%). Diverse species such as Bobolink, Chimney Swift, Black-billed Cuckoo, Cape May Warbler, Long-eared Owl, Eastern Whip-poor-will, and Olive-sided Flycatcher have all suffered strong declines. Click here to view the report on the state of the birds in 2019.

What has caused the decline? Ultimately, the problem boils down to having too many people on this planet.  In 1900 there were 1.6 billion people on earth; by the year 2000 there were 6 billion, and by 2050 world population is expected to reach 9.6 billion people.  This growth is not sustainable, since the earth has limited resources.  We (not sharks) are the top predator, and our consumer society means just that…we consume and consume and consume, and the planet and nearly everything else that lives on it suffers. The result is extensive habitat loss to provide homes and food and supplies for the ever-growing population, resulting in loss of plants and animals that are lower on the food chain. As our plants, insects, and other animals continue to dwindle it ultimately will come back and hurt humans as well. I highly recommend watching a video presentation by Sir David Attenborough that puts population growth in perspective.  Human-caused habitat loss is the main cause of bird deaths, followed by domestic and feral cats, window and building strikes, cars, collisions with power lines, wind turbines, and continued hunting/harvesting.

To reverse this process, steps have to be taken at governmental levels, such as protecting endangered species and passing legislation and funding efforts to protect wetlands and grasslands. But what can we do as individuals to help the recovery? Seven simple steps are suggested on the Cornell web site, including keeping cats indoors, switching to drinking shade-grown coffee, reducing plastic consumption, not using pesticides on our lawns, and promoting native plants. A more detailed description of those seven steps can be found by clicking here.  It would help if we all do our part to keep birds and other wildlife from declining further.

 Posted by at 10:16 AM
Sep 082019
 

I seem to be on a Roseate Tern fixation lately. We have been searching successfully for them in spring for the past three years, I posted recently about how they seem to be increasing in NJ over the past decade or so, and now Jeanine and I just found our first fall Roseate that I think merits some discussion.

If you want a brief recent description of their local history, you can click here, but suffice it to say that sightings of Roseates are increasing over the past few years, but locally they occur more often in spring than in late summer / fall. This might be partly due to the fact that they are easier to identify in spring, when they tend to stand out among other medium-sized terns due to their black bills (when Forster’s Tern and Common Terns usually have orange bills), long tail, and overall pale plumage.  In fall the bills of Common Terns and Forster’s Terns also turn black, and it can be tough to find a tern with a thinner black bill among all the other medium-sized black-billed terns.

But while scanning through a flock of Common Terns this week in the Sedge Islands, one bird stood out as having light plumage. It did have what appeared to be a longer narrower bill, but was it real, or was it just birder’s imagination trying to turn it into a rarer bird?  It didn’t have a long tail, which argued against Roseate. As we approached closer, we did see that it was banded, having a yellow band with black lettering, but a few weeks ago we had an interesting and confusing Common Tern that was banded, and previous Roseates that we found all had blue bands with white lettering. Finally, we knew that Roseate fall sightings are rare here in Ocean County, with only two eBird reports ever from August, and none in September. Because we were in a canoe, we didn’t have our field guides with us, so we leaned toward it being a Roseate, took lots of photos (too many of which ended up being overexposed) and hoped that when we got home we could figure it out.

Here is the bird isolated, where it is tough to make comparisons. Overall it looks bright and with a longish thin bill. Note the black edges to the outer primaries, which will become relevant later.

Now the bird looks even brighter when compared to a nearby Common Tern, and indeed the bill looks slightly thinner too. I find that brightness can change dramatically  when a bird turns, but here they are facing the same direction.

Before we get to the thrilling conclusion, a few details about the distribution of Roseate Tern might be in store.
Roseate Terns can be found world-wide, nesting on offshore islands. The population here in the northeast US is endangered, with the two largest breeding colonies, each with ~2,000 pairs, located on Great Gull Island (NY) and near Buzzards Bay (MA). After breeding, they stage until late summer in Cape Cod before migrating southward. So this is the narrow fall window for spotting them on coastal beaches in our area.

Now back to our photos. We already saw how bright this bird appeared compared to the surrounding Common Terns. In some photos the bill indeed looks longer and narrower.

In this comparison the bill looks quite narrow again compared to the Common Tern.

In some photos where the bird is resting we see that the two outer primaries are black, which is good for Roseate. The best flight photo however, shows that six primaries are darkish gray in flight, seemingly arguing against Roseate.  In support of Roseate, however, those six primaries are dark on the forward half of the feathers and light on the rear half.

Finally we see the bird in flight. It lacks the long outer tail feathers, but I only count four feathers on each side of the tail, so presumably the longer feathers are molted or worn.

The tail completely lacked the long outer retrices, but upon closer examination, I see only four tail feathers, so presumably the outer feathers are molted away at this time of year.

Here we get good documentation of the banding code, but the bill looks only slightly different from the Common Tern.

Overall, we were now convinced that we had our first fall Roseate, so we submitted a report to the bird banding lab, and within two days the report came back positive. Our Roseate Tern was banded in 2017 in CT, being too young at the time to fly. So this bird is two years old, and should be ready to breed next year.

It was a great lesson for us on the finer points of how to identify Roseate Tern in fall.

 Posted by at 9:41 AM
Aug 062019
 

I’ve always had troubles with Western Sandpipers. I could never be sure whether I wasn’t seeing any, or whether I was seeing them but not recognizing them right in front of my eyes. Plus, all of the ‘peeps’ can be somewhat difficult to distinguish, being small active shorebirds with relatively subtle differences, especially if we are viewing them from a distance or under sub-optimal conditions (poor light, windy conditions, in tight flocks, partly submerged in water, etc.).

Yesterday I enjoyed a delightful day on the Jersey Shore with thousands of shorebirds at close range, including a few Western Sandpipers. But this time I was able to identify them readily and find them quite easily from within a sizeable flock of the related and similar Semipalmated Sandpipers. I thought that I’d share the experience and a few photos with you in the hope that it might help you to find your own Westerns.

Here is a Western Sandpiper. Superficially it resembles other peeps, but more careful observation reveals the three characteristics to look for: rufous tones to the head  and scapular feathers, chevrons that extend down the side of the breast, and a relatively longer, thinner, and slightly drooping bill.

So what should we be looking for if we want to find Western Sandpipers this time of year? The distinguishing characteristics are that when compared to Semipalmated Sandpipers, Westerns Sandpipers have more rufous tones in their plumage, more extensive chevrons on their breast/belly, and a longer, thinner bill. For me, trying to find one by comparing bill sizes alone was not productive at all. But simply sorting through a flock of sandpipers by searching for birds that have the rufous tones or the chevrons proved rather easy, especially when these characteristics were combined. Plus, it didn’t matter too much which way the bird was facing; if the birds were facing me, looking for the extended chevrons was simple, and if the birds were facing away from me, I searched for patches of rufous feathers. To back up the identification, the length of the bill then became a third supporting characteristic.

Here we have a pair of photos of Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers in close proximity to each other in different positions. Notice how similar yet different they appear in direct comparison with each other.

The differences between a Semipalmated Sandpiper (sitting bird on the right) and a Western Sandpiper (upper right) become more noticeable when they are side-by-side. Notice the duller overall color of the Semipalmated and the shorter bill.

 

Here the differences in the breast pattern become more obvious, with the Semipalmated Sandpiper (on the left) sporting a more limited dull brown/gray breast band, and the Western Sandpiper in the center having more extensive chevrons.

 

We leave with one more photo of an isolated Western Sandpiper. Do you think you can find one now? As the season progresses I suspect that they will lose that rufous color. Will we still be able to find them?

 Posted by at 10:38 PM