Listing Through Life

On Saturday afternoon, I headed up to Chatfield State Park for a failed attempt at a Golden-crowned Sparrow. I did manage to find a very tame Wilson’s Snipe.

Green-winged Teal

On Sunday, I drove up to Victor to see rosy-finches. I saw all three species, but the large flock that has been seen recently didn’t make an appearance. They’re skittish, so I didn’t even get out of my car — I just parked in front of the houses with feeders — so none of my photos are great.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

Gray-crowned Rosy-finch (Hepburn’s subspecies)

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

Black Rosy-Finch

I also saw a very woebegone and bedraggled Red Fox. It has no hair on its tail and its ears were chewed up. I don’t know if it was sick, or if it had been attacked by something and escaped.

I also had fun watching this comical and very aggressive Pine Squirrel (called Red Squirrel in Wisconsin). While it ate from a platform feeder, a much-larger magpie and a crow had to be content to wait nearby until it was finished.

tyrannus (monarch, ruler) melancholicus (melancholy)

Thursday, December 24, 2020 — 8:41 a.m.

Pine Bluff, Arkansas — Lake Saracen

This was a very cooperative bird. It was first found along the shore of an artificial lake in the middle of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, over a year ago — on December 12, 2019, to be exact. We didn’t get to Arkansas for Christmas last winter, but the bird stuck around, and I hoped it might still be in the area when we went camping in March. But camping was canceled due to stupid, and the bird was last seen on March 16 anyway, so …

But then the same bird was found in the same place again on December 7 of this year, and we were heading that way for Christmas. Would it stick around? I drove down to find out on Christmas Eve. It hadn’t been seen for six days, but I figured it was worth a shot. But there was another problem. The day I chose was very windy, with gusts up to 40 mph. Not at all ideal weather for birding. I walked the path along the lake and froze in the damp, cold wind off the water. There were a few pelicans hunkering against the lee shore, but otherwise, I wasn’t seeing much.

I decided to think like a flycatcher. Even if it wanted to be out-and-about in that wind, it wouldn’t be finding any flies. But down below the levy, out of most the wind, there was a strip of swampy woods. I walked along a road through the trees where I was much more comfortable and saw some actual birds.

And a Tropical Kingbird. I first spotted it when it flew to a mid-level perch back in the trees. After flitting here and there a few times, presumably catching flies, it landed on a low branch right along the road and posed for pictures.

Tropical Kingbirds are found throughout Central and South America. They are commonly only seen in the United States in Texas, Arizona, and California, but they occasionally wander, even as far north as Canada.

The key marks are the size (large for a flycatcher), the long bill, and the bright yellow belly. The wings and tail are brownish rather than gray. The tail is notched and without white edges. It’s almost impossible to distinguish a Tropical Kingbird from a Couch’s Kingbird by sight, but this particular bird has been verified by vocal comparisons. (It made no noise when I was there.) The buffy edges on the wing feathers are also a Tropical mark.

The flycatcher is the tiny greenish-gray spot near the direct center of the photo. The lake is beyond the trees to the left, and that’s the direction from which the howling winds were coming.

I stuck around for perhaps 15 minutes, but after its initial flurry of flying about, it pretty much just sat on the branch, out of the wind, and looked around.

Update: Three years later, after I moved to Arkansas, I was contacted by a guy from the Arkansas Audubon Society who wanted permission to use my photo on the official online list of Arkansas birds!

Wednesday, December 23 was damp and overcast, with rain expected most of the day. I drove to Heber Springs to see the Trumpeter Swans that have chosen three random ponds as their annual wintering spot. When I first visited two years ago, it was also a gloomy, damp day. There weren’t quite as many swans this year, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any.

I saw Ring-necked Ducks and Buffleheads at all three ponds, but at the third location, they paid no attention to me and allowed me to get some amazing photos.

Bufflehead

Ring-necked Ducks — Males outnumbered females by about 20-1. I wonder why?

The rain never came, so after a McRib lunch and a stop at an antique mall, I wandered around Beaverfork Lake in Conway.

On Thursday, I drove to Pine Bluff to see the Tropical Kingbird (next post). There was a twofer on rare flycatchers in Arkansas this year. Somebody found a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in rural Desha County, about half a mile west of the Mississippi. This is a South American bird, but every year one or two wander north and show up somewhere in the states. I saw one in Cook County in 2005. But I didn’t have my camera then. Since November 16, it’s been hanging around the fields along a country road — and sometimes on the road or on the wire that crosses it. There’s nothing about the spot that looks particularly inviting, particularly on this day when the wind was howling across the flats.

I parked and watched for it. Then I got out and walked. Then I got back in the car and watched some more. After perhaps 20 minutes, I figured I’d missed it. I drove south along the road for perhaps half a mile, then turned around and drove slowly back. I spotted the bird as it landed low in a bush about 25 yards off the pavement. I pulled up next to it. For the next 10 minutes, I looked at it while it looked around and tried to balance in the wind.

bombycilla (silky-tailed) garrulus (talkative, chattering, but named for its resemblance to the European Jay, whose generic name is garrulus).

Saturday, November 7, 2020 — 8:45 am

Littleton, Colorado — Hudson Gardens

I made a couple tries for this bird in northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin years ago, but had no luck. It’s been on my “chase when there’s a chance” list since we’ve been in Colorado, but there have been no chances. Until today.

The Bohemian Waxwing was found yesterday in Littleton, hanging with a flock of Cedar Waxwings. It was in a park called Hudson Gardens, along the Platte River. I arrived around 8:30. It was gray and breezy, and there weren’t a lot of birds around. I wandered until I found the pond where the flock was seen yesterday. I noticed about 10 birds in the top of a cottonwood high above my head. They were waxwings. The light was terrible, and the angle was bad, but I sorted through them until I found one that was a little larger, a lot grayer, and had dark under-tail coverts. I could see a patch of white on its wing. I had my bird, and a photo or two that might have been diagnostic if I lightened them up a lot, but I wanted a better view.

I walked around to the other side of the pond where a small group of birders (all with masks on) were standing. The waxwings were gone. I hung around for maybe 10 minutes then went for a stroll. I soon saw another group of birders looking up into a cottonwood maybe 100 yards from the first group. The Bohemian Waxwing was in the tree. He was obviously larger than the Cedar Waxwings, and he moved around a lot more, chasing insects (?) on short flights. At times he landed near the flock, but other times he was separated from them by 30 feet or so. I heard another birder saying that the Bohemian was picked on by the Cedars, but every time I saw any interaction, the Cedars kept away from the Bohemian. The sun came out while we watched, and I was able to get some decent photos.

In this shot, a Cedar Waxwing is just above it. You can see the white wing spots, the cinnamon under-tail coverts, the gray chest and belly, and the redder face of the Bohemian. It’s also maybe an inch longer.

After maybe 15 minutes, the flock took off. I wandered around the gardens to see what else there was to see. When I got back to the cottonwoods where I first saw the birds, they were back, only this time there were probably 70 Cedar Waxwings. I walked around the pond again to get the light (such as it was) behind me. It was tricky to pick out the Bohemian among the others, but I managed a couple times.

One thing kinda funny happened. Several people in the group were trying to explain to other people in the group exactly where in the tree they saw a bird they thought might have been it. I wasn’t seeing it at the time, but I noticed a steady parade of waxwings flying down to the edge of the water to drink. I just concentrated on them and soon saw the Bohemian land on a log in the water. I called out to everyone and caused a great deal of consternation because it immediately became apparent that the birds they were looking at weren’t it. The Bohemian stayed on the log long enough for others to see it and confirm my i.d., but it didn’t stay long. The flock hung in the trees for another couple minutes and then took off. No doubt they would have returned, but I’d gotten great views, decent photos, and the light wasn’t getting any better. I headed for home.