Thursday, January 21, 2010

Two Rarities and a Double-Dip

Rarities are, well, just what it sounds like, a bird that is rarely seen in a particular location or time of year. Double-dip may not be as transparent a term. I think we discovered it while reading Sean Dooley's book, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time - a True Story About Birdwatching. Dipping is when you've gone for a rarity and you don't find it! Double-dip is my term - two dips.

We've been keeping up with Connecticut and Massachusetts' bird alerts through birdingonthe.net. The page is not intuitive to navigate through, so here's the drill: click on Regional/Specialty under Mailing lists, then scroll down quite a bit until you find the regions, then choose the one you want. For us, of course, it's the Eastern US group: Massachusetts and Connecticut Birds.

On January 12th, Connecticut Birds reported a drake Harlequin Duck on the Farmington River in the center of the town of Farmington. Not unusual to find these on the coast of Massachusetts in winter, but inland? on a small river? that's something worth getting out of bed early for! The birder who first noticed this duck also keeps a blog, here's her post for that day: http://quodlibet-sarah.blogspot.com/2010/01/down-by-riverside.html

The following day, we arrived at the described location before sunrise, allowing plenty of time to look for the bird before heading off to work. The air was still and quite cold, and the mixed flocks of geese and ducks were just stirring below us on the still-dark river. As daylight increased we could make out Black Ducks, Mallards, Canada Geese, Common and Red-breasted Mergansers.

The roosting flocks gradually broke apart and began drifting in small bunches, honking noisily as they foraged. Ten, twenty minutes passed - we walked downstream aways, then back up, scanning all of the hiding places where a small duck could be. I checked the description again, of the exact spot where the Harlequin Duck had been seen yesterday - look for the fallen tree on the opposite shore, where the tree is bare and yellowish.

Okay, try again. I've got it! We quickly set up the telescope to watch this gorgeous creature feeding, preening, swimming around the fallen tree. There is not enough light for a good photo, so we give up on digiscoping. After several minutes we lose sight of the duck, then two more before-work-birders arrive, and four of us are scanning the shores. Another ten, fifteen minutes pass, and the Harlequin reappears from behind the same fallen tree.

We filmed this flock of Harlequin Ducks a year ago on our winter birding trip to Cape Ann, Massachussets. December 27th, 2008 we were at Rockport's Pigeon Cove, and this flock along with two others were on the ocean-side of the granite breakwater.

Harlequin Duck, Histrionicus histrionicus, by J.deLeon

Sunday afternoon the 17th, we went for the Red-headed Woodpecker that's been hanging around a particular patch of woods in Windsor's Northwest Park. This was an after-work outing under low clouds and light rain, and it proved to be a rather dark afternoon. Again, there were very specific directions as to which section of which trail the bird frequents, so we made our way. Woodpeckers respond well to playback, but we came without iPod, and nobody responded to Pishing. For our chilly, wet afternoon, we had four Mourning Doves, a Black-capped Chickadee and all of the barnyard House Sparrows. We will definitely return to this park some day, there are many trails to explore, woods, fields and a few ponds, streams and other wetlands.

This is how a typical post to the birding list serve reads: from Joanne Luppi, 1-18-10, Durham, Johnson Lane, SANDHILL CRANE in cornfield, about midway between Haddam Quarter Rd. and Maiden Lane. So, in the course of a few days, we're all checking mapquest and making our collective way to Johnson Lane. After work Tuesday the 19th, Jorge enticed a grad student from UConn, Chris Fiondella, to drive to Durham to try for the crane. It was dusk when they arrived, and only got darker and darker - with no crane to be seen.

Not to be discouraged, we prepared for an early departure the next morning, and arrived at the cornfield just at 7, with the sun barely touching the treetops. We parked (both cars) alongside the road, and had a look around. Observations of the crane from yesterday's birders all said the bird seemed to favor a rise in the middle of the field, which is where we focused our immediate attention. No crane. Next move?

The morning air again was quiet, and cold enough to freeze yesterday's thawed mud into solid ridges along the dirt track through the cornfield. A well-behaved birder would have watched from the paved road, but we scampered to the back of the field, crossed the little brook at the wooded border and emerged in another field. Still no crane to be seen. We hopped into one car and circled the country block, pausing to scan every field and stream along the way. At one stop, Lynn Jones caught up with us, and we continued together. Johnson Lane, Maiden Lane and Haddam Quarter Road describe a rough triangle, no more than a mile on the long sides.

Eventually after an hour of driving, walking and scanning fields with no sign of the crane, Lynn and I had to get along to work. Jorge had excused himself until 10am so he stayed on, circled the block again and returned to the cornfield. Walking the wooded border at the back of the field he heard the crane call! (we had studied the calls the previous evening), and the sound seemed to come from an adjacent field. He drove around again, but could not gain access to that field -- so back to the Johnson Lane cornfield.

Now there was another birder just pulling a 'scope out of his car, and there in the middle of the dirt track, where we had both walked an hour and a half before, stood the crane. Jorge's thought was, after seeing that bird in my head so many times, and in images from books, nothing compared to having it right in front of me. It was so elegant, the plumage was fresh and fluffy, the colors on the head were striking.





Grus canadensis, Sandhill Crane, Durham, Connecticut, 20 January 2010, J.deLeon photo
The other birder turned out to be Don Morgan, from Coventry, who goes out birding every day, and posts very actively to our Natchaug Ornithological Society listserve, as well as to the Connecticut lists. Don gladly shared his good scope with Jorge as a crowd of birders gathered. Within half an hour of the first sighting of the morning, Don, Jorge, three couples and another guy were all admiring the crane.

Grus canadensis, Sandhill Crane, J. deLeon photo
Where was the bird when I was there? It was still too cold, the ground was still solid, foraging would have to wait until the air was warmer? Lynn was able to get back in the afternoon to see the crane, but I never did. It was last seen flying away from the cornfield at 10am the next day.
Grus canadensis, Sandhill Crane, J.deLeon photo
I mentioned a double dip, the next dip I think I'll just put in another posting, as this post is already rather too long for my standards.

Two new species to add to our Connecticut Year List, bringing the total to 57.

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