Kirtland's Round Two (06-09Oct2021)

When Dunlins show back up you know the clock is ticking, winter is around the corner.

Dunlin at FF Rocks

Peregrine instilling fear in the masses at Masonboro Waterbird Management Area.

Black Skimmers are a jumpy bunch and will seemingly take off en masse at the drop of a hat, but this time they were justified.

GBH

Going with Saltmarsh on this one due to dark streaks and disparity of colors.

Yet another Saltmarsh on another day.  I have probably spent hundreds in parking fees taking the walk on the north end of WB looking for Franklin's Gull.  At least its going to a good cause right? Oh wait its going to a private company that is being endorsed by millionaires.  We need a better public beach access system...

Sedge Wren - life is funny. It has taken me 10 months to get a Sedge Wren and now they are everywhere.  This one denuded bush had 5 of them hopping around.

Yellow Warbler at Fort Fisher

American Bittern at Fort Fisher

Prairie Warbler

Last weekend the weather forecast was miserable for the coast and even Piedmont so I decided why not head up to the mountains and enjoy the fall foliage and better forecast.  I made the crazy drive up again to Boone and slept again in the Volvo which is turning out to be way better than my truck.  I can put the back seats down and lay down my inflatable mattress and sleep in relative comfort.  The back windows are tinted to the point where people can't even see me and harass me.  At first light I was at the tree where the Kirtland's had been sighted previously.  Matt W had it on 06Oct at first light eating wild cherries and so my theory is that it spends the night in the Cherry Tree and then no one sees it during the day because it has developed another routine.  Now my ears are unreliable or perhaps unmusical due to tinnitus which causes certain frequencies of noise to be heard all the time.  So I can hear a chip note but I can't really distinguish a Palm from a Kirtland's Warbler, but I heard a chip note coming from the top of the cherry tree and then noticed a warbler sized bird pumping its tail in the crown of the tree.  I got my bins on it and immediately knew it was a (the) Kirtland's.  Dark grayish back with an incomplete eye-ring and yellow throat to belly with a white vent.  The streaks on the bottom were crisp although the photos look blurry because of the poor light and I had to pump up the contrast in order to see the field marks better.

The only warblers that pump their tails in such a way are Palm and Prairie and they can be eliminated based on the field marks I mentioned.  Palm has a yellow vent and Prairie's eye arcs are thicker with a dark eye-line in front and back of the eye.  I am very familiar with Kirtland's because I see them every other year when I go the Bahamas to my father's place.

Its a shame that I was not able to get better photos but after 1 minute in bad light, the bird dropped out of the cherry into the adjacent field and promptly disappeared for the next 4 hours I was there.  Trust me when I tell you I looked for it.  I jumped into the field and walked the whole damn acre getting soaking wet with dew in the process.

So that means this bird was present from at least the 30Sep to the 09Oct!  I bet it was there before then and after then too, but has escaped detection due to its habit of only using the tree at night.  

As for Broad-winged Hawks, they are officially my nemesis bird for 2021.  I have seen a handful but usually only glimpses flying by and not long enough for a pic.

This hawk was soaring with some vultures and got me excited but it turned out to be a Red-tailed and even started harassing or playing with the vulture.

Palm Warblers were everywhere.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

The local birders at Valle Crucis seemed to be more excited by a Sedge Wren in the fields than they were about the Kirtland's.  Most of them had already seen the Kirtland's at close range.

Red-shouldered Hawk - I was scanning the sides of the road continuously on the drive home looking for Broad-winged and stopped on the highway multiple times only to find a Red-shouldered.

As a final stop on the way home I checked eBird for Gray-cheeked Thrush sightings and found a good amount at Salem Lake in Winston.  I hiked for hours around the drained lake and the bird activity was dismal but just at the end of the hike I ran into a good flock of birds and tried a quick playback for Gray-cheeked and two of them quickly popped out of the forest. I don't feel bad about using playback this time of year and use it sparingly. I probably could have pished them out too but I was being lazy after a long day.

Gray-cheeked Thrush - note lack of buffy tones in face.

Two year birds in one day this late in the year is pretty good.  Only 6 away from my previous record and only missing photos of 2-3 birds on my list.  Not bad for a practice run....