It feels like Iceland too

I spent about 45 minutes in NW gales at Tiscornia this morning.  When a common loon crash-landed amidst the gull flock (setting them all to flight) I should have known that there wasn't going to be much movement.  It was actually banded green over silver on the left leg and soon flopped back into the surf.  It was really too windy to get much use out of the scope and I headed south.

After not seeing a whole lot at the landfill (though there were loads of gulls), I headed on to 3 Oaks where Tim found a California gull yesterday (for an interesting challenge click on Tim's bird pics under Michigan links and age the bird, it's not a common one).  Today there were glaucous gulls and a lesser black-backed as well as this quite white-headed bird:

I first picked it up facing straight towards me and it stood out as its head was virtually unstreaked, contrasting from the herring gulls.  With closer study you could note pinker legs, a dainty bill and a slightly darker (but still yellow) eye than the Herrings.  The eye might briefly make a person think Thayer's, but they are more heavily hooded than a Herring generally.  I waited for it to turn broadside to see how much gray it would show (Kumlien's Iceland gulls are quite variable in this regard), and it eventually revealed neat charcoal patterning to the leading edge of the wing fading to white on the trailing edge.

Here's a comparison of another Kumlien's Iceland gull from February 07 which showed more extensive, and blacker, wingtips than today's bird.  Today was the earliest I've ever had an Iceland gull.

A tribute to the Buckeyes

As we speak Ohio State is finishing up a beat-down of historic proportions on one of my alma maters, Michigan which I guess I will acknowledge with the above photo.  I don't think I would have named my school after a butterfly, but if it works for you OSU-fan, so be it.    The pic is from some time last fall when Tim and I were trying to kick up sharp-tails. 

Earlier in the week I took this pic of a winter plumaged horned grebe in the St Joseph harbor.  I'm finishing a string of night shifts tonight so hopefully will be able to do some actual birding this upcoming week if Thanksgiving preparations and November blizzards would stop interfering...

1000 miles

Today I hit one of my goals for my Bigby year and somewhere along the way to Tiscornia beach this morning biked mile #1000.  A flyby juvie glaucous gull put me at 227 (other recent additions are cackling goose yesterday close to home - unfortunately found during 45 degree rain so no pics and faithful readers are spared another goose post, and a few purple finches about the yard).  I had somewhat hoped to get to 1200 miles, averaging 100 miles per month, but given that bicycling during the winter months here is dangerous, if not impossible, I don't think that's a goal I'm going to push for.  At this point my goal is to reach 230 which I may be able to accomplish with just 2 (or maybe 3) more rides.  Lesser black-backed gull should start roosting on Lake Chapin in a few weeks (I should probably check that it's not already there) which is about a 20 mile round trip.  Long-tailed duck and Lapland longspur should be at Tiscornia on any given December north winds day.  There's also the chance that I could run into a snow goose or shrike close to home and duck back out after them (that's what happened with the cacklers, and I attempted it with a golden eagle less than a mile from the house that crossed the road and perched in a snag as I drove home a week or so ago, but that had flown by the time I returned 10 minutes later on the bike).  I could also theoretically get motivated to go for long-eared owl should one be teed up in the Sarett pines, but at 30 miles round trip, I don't know if that will happen.  I actually toyed with the idea of trying the 65 mile trip for Franklin's gull down at 3 Oaks, but if there's one thing I've learned chasing birds, it's that gulls are not reliably re-found.  Fortunately I slept through the 4:30 am alarm I'd set this morning.

Today's pics are from the berry trees in the cul-de-sac in front of the house.  Waxwings and robins were swarming, but not being very cooperative about holding still:

Black skimmers

Today I continued my ongoing efforts in multiple states through multiple times of year to dig up any variety of saltmarsh sparrow. I added Back Bay NWR to that list of places where I couldn't find a sharp-tailed or seaside sparrow. I pished up swampies, marsh wrens, got rises from sora and (appropriately) Virginia rail, but found no candidate ammodramids.

Today's pics were taken yesterday and show some moult in black skimmers. I assume that this first bird is a bird that has nearly completed the moult out of juvie plumage and into adult winter:


This is an adult in the process of moulting into winter plumage, you can see there are still retained brownish-black feathers in the wings. The bird is only starting to form the white nape that's the hallmark of winter plumage.

This bird is still in breeding plumage with a completely black nape. I'm a little surprised that it has glossy black feathers with the fully black nape since the previous bird moulting out of breeding plumage had a lot of faded feathers in the wing. In the field my assumption was that it had completed the moult, not realizing that winter birds have white napes. I think this is a female, I also didn't realize until I later cracked open Sibley, that females are smaller with less hefty bills. I remembered seeing one smaller all black-backed bird in the group, I think this is it. Perhaps there's some difference in the sexes in the moult timing or maybe differences in how fast the feathers wear depending on parental duties.

random final Virginia Beach thoughts and pics

Here's Hazelnut at the Virginia Zoo with what I assume is a black swan. Unlike most of the zoo's denizens, this one did not qualify as "big and strong."

Cormorants in front of the sunrise:

This photo is dedicated to the stalwart souls/freakshows at Whitefish who keep track of the puny little freighters that pass through the straights. This, I believe, is the USS Eisenhower (based on the 69 on the bridge), a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Another 20% or so of the ship's stern extends out of the photo. I tried to get flight pics of the F/A-18's that were flying around (as well as some F-16's - though I didn't think F-16's were based on carriers), but the flat gray coloration just makes them disappear immediately into the blue sky if you take your eyes off them for a second to try to line up the scope. I'm told the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area has the greatest concentration of naval bases anywhere, or something like that. Some days there was a constant din of fighter jets on exercises (mostly the crappy weather/misty/foggy days). Apparently a lot of the beaches around here are owned by the military without public access or significant development.

Finally a view of a habitat you don't often see in Berrien, a cyprus swamp from First Landings State Park. It inspired me to bang out some double-knocks on the boardwalk. A bird quickly flew by and I heard a loud "kent" call. While I did see a blue jay about, I took the experience as undeniable proof of the continued existence of ivory-billeds. Oh and the cormorant sunrise photo obviously has first state record red-faced, pelagic, and Brandt's cormorants in with the flock.

the holy graelsii

Like I said last post, it's not a birding trip ... but I did get out for 2 hours this morning to First Landings State Park to (successfully) look for my lifer brown-headed nuthatch. And though it's not a birding trip, I did manage about 60 images on the beach during naptime (hooray nappytime). I focused mainly on the lesser black-backed gulls (L. fuscus graelsii) since we don't get them in great numbers in Michigan, finding multiple individuals of most of the age groups.


First is a juvie. Both of the first two pics are of the same bird. In the lighting of the first pic it has the cold dark brown typical of the plumage, in the low evening sun of the second it takes on more Herring gull warmer medium tones. ID points include the very long primaries (which I cut off on the first pic), the very neatly marked wings (especially of the greater coverts), and the cold dark gray tertials with narrow white edging:

I'm not entirely sure of the age of this bird. I think it's acquiring 2nd winter plumage given the (scant) gray coming into the back and scapulars, but it still has the juvie pattern (though very faded and blurred) of the coverts. I think (though I don't have the literature with me to be for sure) that this species probably moults its wing coverts as it acquires 2nd summer plumage as the 2nd winter typically has solidly medium brown wing coverts. I think this bird probably skipped that step. The tertials have the charcoal gray feathers with bright white marbling at the edge typical of 2nd winter plumage for lesser black-backed's though:

Here's a more typical individual acquiring 2nd winter plumage with charcoal gray feathers making their way into the mantle and coverts. Its eye is lightening (the previous bird's was dark). It too sports the brightly marbled tertial edges:

Moving along, we have the 3rd winter bird. It has nearly acquired the adult look to the back and wings, has a bright eye, but has the very dirty bill typical of this age group in this species. This one's legs are still fleshy-pink. Note this bird is also moulting its primaries and so appears short-winged:

Finally we come to the adult winter type birds. They have a quite variable amount of head streaking. Both of these 2 are middle of the road. The first bird's primaries are probably missing at least 2 feathers as they're very short:

I think lesser black-backed is probably my favorite gull of the medium and dark backed group (it'd probably be Iceland amongst the whitewings and Little for the hooded group (though I reserve the right to change those picks should I ever see an ivory or Sabine's gull. Not sure where Ross's would fit in...)

They don't look like they're laughing to me...

We're in Virginia Beach to visit my in-laws who just had a beautiful little (red-headed!) baby. And while this isn't a birding trip, I did bring along the scope, camera, bins (oh and hip waders, hopefully more on that tomorrow or the next day).

After driving through the night there wasn't time for much other than some visiting in the morning, an afternoon nap, and more visiting in the evening, but I did hit the gull flock behind the hotel (there were also brown pelicans and gannets well out).

Predictably laughing gulls were well-represented, showing all of the plumage types for this time of year, first off a first winter bird with a fresh gray mantle and retained (worn) juvie wing feathers:


I haven't entirely made up my mind on the ages of some of these birds (it's hard without bill, eye, or primary color differences that can make it easier in the big white-headed species). The two with their heads in their mantles are first winters, I'm not certain if the dark lead bird in the foreground is an advanced first winter, or more likely a 2nd winter that's still in the process of moulting the wing feathers:

Here's a similar bird on the left (also probably a bird attaining 2nd winter plumage) with a bird that's pretty much full 2nd winter on the right:

Finally we have the adult winter-type birds:

There were also good numbers of both black-backed gulls though relatively few herring gulls, hopefully I can manage some decent ranges of them as well. Tomorrow I'm hoping to try to track down brown-headed nuthatch and depending on how much time that takes, may try to hunt for sharp-tailed and seaside sparrows with the waders if I can find some habitat. (Are there alligators in Virginia???)