Category Archives: Ducks and Geese

When Montana Birders Collide, Great Birds Can Happen (Report from Braden)

There was no Snowy Owl in the field. Someone had reported the owl from the field this morning, but there was nothing white in sight aside from the post office where we’d parked—not even a plastic bag pretending to be a Snowy Owl! I turned to Miles. “I thought Snowy Owls were supposed to be easy in Maine. What do you wanna do now? There was a Gray Kingbird reported from York County, Maine, yesterday. Although that’s a three hour drive…” I suggested, sure that was out of the question.

To my surprise, Miles looked at me. “Well, we missed the owl. Might as well go big or go home!” We piled into the car and headed south!

Miles Scheuering had contacted me a few weeks ago about the fact that he would be in Maine as part of a going-on-three-month road trip he’d been on this fall. I’d run into him a few times in Missoula when he’d attended the University of Montana, but never really gotten the chance to talk to him, so I jumped at the chance of birding together! He’d picked me up at my dorm that morning, neither of us with specific birding targets in mind. Now we were driving towards southern Maine on a whim, hoping that the Caribbean bird that had randomly showed up in a coastal neighborhood would still be there when we arrived. Along the drive, we began filling in our lists for the counties we passed through as I learned about how Miles’s road trip had gone. He’d struck out from Portland, Oregon in September, driving through Colorado up to Montana, and then straight down to the Salton Sea in southern California. He then had shot east through the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, around the Gulf of Mexico, and up through New England until arriving in Orono to pick me up.

**Having fellow Montana birder Miles Scheuering show up in Maine was a welcome surprise—and led to some BIG BIRDING!** **Thank you Miles!**

And now he found himself again driving south with me in tow to chase what appeared to be only Maine’s fourth ever eBird record of a Gray Kingbird, a Caribbean bird that shouldn’t have been within 1500 miles of Maine but had an unusual habit of straying north in late fall. Ironically, I had been in Florida a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving but had not even dreamed of seeing this bird then.

Driving south, we passed small, coastal towns including Biddeford and Kennebunk that had become familiar to me during the last few months, especially because I’d made friends who lived there. A few miles south of Biddeford, we hung a left, and the Atlantic Ocean soon came into view. So, too, did a large number of cars and people wearing binoculars and cameras walking along a single road bordered by a rocky breakwater. We parked, then headed toward the commotion. Almost immediately, someone pointed a small bird out to us several dozen meters away. It was actively flycatching and landing on the rocks, stopping periodically to admire the large crowd that had gathered to watch it. The flycatcher was slate gray, with a dark, raccoon-like mask and a hefty, Eastern Kingbird-esque bill. It was definitely a Gray Kingbird!

**Maine is the last place I expected to nab my lifer Gray Kingbird—a bird that shouldn’t have been within 1,500 miles of Maine!**

As Miles and I watched the flycatcher sally back and forth across the breakwater, a lady approached us.

“Hey, I know that it’s not the star of the show, but there’s a Snowy Owl on that roof over there.”

I looked up, and sure enough, spotted a large white ball perched on a chimney several hundred meters behind the Gray Kingbird. “No way! I wonder if anyone has ever had Gray Kingbird and Snowy Owl on the same list before today?” I said to Miles as he began scoping the ocean for sea ducks.

**It wasn’t the Snowy Owl we’d set out to find, but we’d take it!**

“I doubt it…got some Black Scoters though!”

Soon enough we’d picked up all three scoter species (my second time doing that in a day in Maine and my first time doing it in one spot) and Long-tailed Duck. After snapping photos of both the kingbird and the owl, which were both incredibly cooperative, and scanning a large gull flock for anything interesting, we headed out. We probably should have turned around to begin the long drive north again, but instead we continued south to investigate a report of a Black-headed Gull in the town of York, half an hour away. We pulled up at a large sandy beach—a rare sight in Maine—and immediately picked out several flocks of gulls standing beside the rolling tide. Sure enough, I soon observed a dainty gull with bright red legs, a red bill and a dusky ear spot hiding among the larger Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. Black-headed Gull was a lifer for Miles and an ABA lifer for me, and we watched it loiter on the beach as its American counterpart, a Bonaparte’s Gull, dove into the surf behind it.

**Can you find the Black-headed Gull here?**

Hungry for more, we drove to a nearby lighthouse to check for Purple Sandpipers and Harlequin Ducks. No sandpipers showed themselves but Miles quickly found two groups of mostly male Harlequins hugging the rocky coastline. It was really cool to see these in their wintering habitat as compared to the fast-flowing streams I’d usually seen them in in Glacier National Park.

**Not the best photo, but this was the first time I’d ever seen Harlequin Ducks outside of Montana!**

We decided to head back towards Orono, briefly stopping to look for a Clay-colored Sparrow in a cemetery in Portland to no avail. Miles dropped me back at UMaine at around 5 pm, and we made sure to exchange information about birding Maine and Oregon. In fact, Miles will be back in Oregon when my family heads over there for Christmas, so you may see his name pop up on another blog in the near future! It had been an epic, rarity-filled day, and I went to bed dreaming of owls on rooftops and flycatchers by the sea.

FatherSonBirding’s 100th Post Video Spectacular: Counting Down Our Top 5 Most Popular Posts!

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If you’d like to see us continue our posts, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE by filling out the box down and to the right. We promise we will not share or give away your information to ANYONE—though you can always feel free to share our posts with others who might enjoy them!

Do you remember listening to American Top 40 as a kid? Sure you do! To celebrate our 100th post, we decided to count down FSB’s All-Time Most Popular Posts—with a video!

Yes, believe it or not, this is FatherSonBirding’s 100th post! Since we seem to be evolving toward a video world, Braden and I agreed that a video post would be a fun way to celebrate our last four years of birding and blogging. Just don’t get used to it! Videos take a lot more effort than regular blogging and, frankly, making videos eats into our birding time!

A few notes about the Top 5. They may not be technically correct since for some of our early posts, we may not have been gathering statistics on views. Also, we had not yet switched to a Payola scheme by which people pay us to make sure that certain posts are more popular. Just kidding! About the Payola, that is. I’ll always be curious just how many views our first post, A Quest for Snowy Owls (published March 13, 2018) has really received!

Also, below are some quick links to the posts mentioned in this blog. They are NOT IN ORDER of popularity so there’s no opportunity for cheating here! You’ll just have to watch the video to find out WHAT IS NUMBER ONE! Also, I have misspelled “Maclay Flat” as “McClay Flats” and other permutations. You’ll just have to forgive me!

Thank you for following our birding adventures. We appreciate you and hope this winter brings you plenty of birding adventures of your own!

Links to Blogs mentioned in the video (not in order of popularity):

Lucky Day at Maclay

Birding San Antonio’s River Walk? Are You Nuts?

Incredible Birthday Birding

For Birders, Every Year is a Big Year

Are You Ready for . . . the QUACH?

To view this video post on YouTube, CLICK HERE!

A Montana Nemesis Bird in Maine (Braden’s 2nd Report from Maine)

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One thing that surprised me about the birds in Maine is that while many of the state’s breeding birds are different from Montana’s (obviously—did you read the warbler post?), many of Maine’s year-round and winter birds are the same since Bangor, Maine and Missoula, Montana are at very similar latitudes. This means that I can chase birds like Northern Shrike and Snow Bunting in both states, and I will be doing so given that I’ll be spending a portion of my winters in both states over the next four years! Many of the nemeses I had in Montana also carry over, including one that I just happened into while checking my eBird alerts last week.

If you read my dad’s and my blogs last fall, you know that we worked our butts off to get shorebirds in western Montana. While we did find quite a few, our lists still contained a massive hole by the end of shorebird season: American Golden-Plover. We went to the place that they were most frequently-reported in the state (Pablo National Wildlife Refuge) at least four times, just missing the birds by a few days each time. Ironically, I already had seen the other two species of golden-plovers: Pacific (which I got in Hawaii) and European (which I got in Iceland), despite living within the range of American. So when an American showed up on a mudflat less than an hour from the University of Maine, I began talking to everyone I knew that had a car. I convinced Hayden and Nick, two sophomores and fellow nature-lovers I’d gotten to know during the past few months, to make the trip to Sebasticook Lake with me, and that Saturday we got up early and headed west.

**Okay, this isn’t an American Black Duck—but maybe it should be! Have you ever seen a Mallard with such a black head?** **We’re thinking some kind of hybrid, but feel free to weigh in!**

Once we arrived at the lake we started pulling off at every possible point to scan the water and shoreline for shorebirds, waterfowl or anything else that happened to show up. After all, my Maine list is still fairly short, so many common species would still be new for me within the state. In one bay we found a pretty large flock of ducks including some Northern Shovelers that should’ve been much further south and seven American Black Ducks, which were lifers for me!

A few stops later, we found ourselves staring at a massive field of half-frozen mud. The plover had been reported here, along with several dozen Snow Buntings, which I would never pass up the chance to see. Lacking a spotting scope, the three of us just began walking across the mudflat towards the south end. While I scanned the area for shorebirds, Hayden and Nick marvelled over the freshwater mussels and snails that had been exposed by the lake’s receding water. The two boys were Marine Science majors, and in the absence of birds, they taught me a whole lot about freshwater and marine ecosystems. After getting to the other side of the mudflat without seeing anything other than the usual suspects (Ring-billed Gull, Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Double-crested Cormorant), we turned around and began the trudge back to the car. However, upon turning around both me and Nick spotted a small bird lift off on the opposite shore from us. After finding it in my binoculars I concluded that it was definitely a shorebird, but much too far away to distinguish anything else. We saw where it landed though, and began walking, slightly more quickly than before, in that direction.

**I had to chase American Golden-Plovers from one end of the country to the other, but finally found one!**

About fifteen minutes later we got there. All three of us began scanning the mudflats, but finding the bird seemed a bit hopeless. For one, it was a small brown bird hiding amongst a large brown background. And secondly, it easily could have flown away during our trek to where I’d last seen it land. In a last attempt, I played some American Golden-Plover calls on my phone. Suddenly, me and Hayden spotted movement about twenty yards in front of me. I raised my binoculars and there it was: my number one nemesis bird for the last year! The bird was sporting a nice golden-brown nonbreeding plumage and foraging around a log embedded in lake muck, and gave me the impression of a very dainty Black-bellied Plover, which is, taxonomically, basically what it is! I stood in place for at least twenty minutes, firing off photos and admiring the bird that we’d somehow just found. At one point I turned around to see that two more birders had set up their scope behind us and were watching it! It also took at least ten minutes to discover it, but at some point a Pectoral Sandpiper (another late migrant) had joined the plover and was foraging alongside it, although I didn’t pay this second bird very much attention. Eventually I could detect Hayden and Nick getting bored, so I said goodbye to the plover, briefly introduced myself to the other birders (who turned out to be graduate students at the University of Maine!), then we headed out. After a few more spots to try for Snow Buntings, which we did not find, we headed back to campus.

**Hey, where did that Pectoral Sandpiper come from? It was a nice bonus to discover it next to the the AMGP!**

A few days later, me and Hayden found ourselves in a car with those two grad students we’d met at the American Golden-Plover stakeout! I’d gotten in contact with Liam Berigan after hearing that he and Meredith Lewis were going down to Rockland, Maine to chase the Barnacle Goose (either a Code 3 or 4 for the ABA) that had shown up at an elementary school the week before. We decided to carpool, and were now spending our Veteran’s Day driving down the coastal Highway One for the goose. Once in Rockland, we rolled up to the school and immediately spotted the rarity—one that at least fifty people had chased throughout the week—feeding in a field with a few dozen Canada Geese. The goose was smaller than the Canadas, with a much cooler color template and a tiny black visor. Despite the fact that I’d seen the species before in Svalbard and Iceland, I still ogled at it alongside Hayden, Meredith and Liam, for all of whom it was a lifer. It was one of the easiest chases I’d ever participated in.

**Now that’s one good-lookin’ goose—and an ABA rarity to boot! Let’s honk for Barnacle Geese!**

We hit a coffee shop in Rockland to celebrate, then headed to the coast, which was about a hundred yards away, to look for sea ducks. We found a pair of Surf Scoters and several Black Guillemots in the harbor, then scoped a raft of Common Eider and not one, not two but seven Common Loons from the Owl’s Head Lighthouse. On the way back to campus, we stopped at a lake to try and get Ruddy Duck for Meredith and Liam’s year lists. We missed the ducks but saw a large number of coots, which was unusual so far north in Maine, plus two Bonaparte’s Gulls and a Mallard with a deformed head!

Riding on last week’s high, I decided to hit the Cornfield Loop this morning. After the warblers had left the state, the hotspot’s numbers had fallen dramatically, so I hadn’t been in several weeks. However, this morning started off with a lone Bohemian Waxwing perched atop a tree in the Littlefield Garden, one of the first seen in the state this fall! In the marsh I had a late flyover American Pipit, another state bird for me, and the walk concluded with a cloud of Snow Buntings lifting off the western side of the field, making their bubbly calls as they flew over my dorm and out of sight! Despite the fact that Snow Buntings are more common in Maine than in Montana, they lifted my spirits and continue to enforce that fact that birding doesn’t slow down in winter. I’m excited to see what’s next!

Rare Bird Hat Trick!

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In my last blog, My Accidental Big Year, I recounted my fun birding adventures with some of Houston’s top birders in my quest to “accidentally” break my Big Year record of 336 ABA species. Even as I posted that blog, I harbored serious doubts if I could do it. However, after this week’s—dare I call them shocking?—events, I am more optimistic. It all started when I got a great email from Will Sebern, who had read my last blog and asked if I had gotten an Anna’s Hummingbird for the year and, if not, would I like to come over and see the one visiting his feeder. The answer: No and a resounding Yes! Less than 24 hours later, I was pleasantly chatting with Will on his porch admiring a gorgeous beauty sipping at his feeder. Ka-ching! My year count rose to 328—only nine short of my goal! Thank you, Will! (Note, I picked up number 327—Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay— during a daddy-daughter trip to Salt Lake City last week!)

**Anna’s Hummingbirds sweep through western Montana every year, but Braden nor I had ever seen one—until my surprise invitation from Will Sebern!**

That said, nine new Year Birds in Montana—in winter—was not a small number. For one thing, I was not willing to race everywhere across the state to chase birds. Burning up gasoline to see birds, birds that are directly harmed by carbon dioxide emissions, has become more and more of a concern for me and other birders. I was willing, though, to travel an hour or two, especially if I could carpool with others. “Maybe,” I thought, “I might be able to run into two or three rarities fairly close to Missoula,” and began eyeing eBird rare bird alerts. During my trip to Texas, I missed quite a few opportunities, but then, a few days ago, Montana eBirder Sharon Dewart-Hansen posted a picture of a Long-tailed Duck at Brown’s Lake only an hour from Missoula! I couldn’t go that day or the next, but called Braden and asked, “Do you think it will still be there tomorrow?” He answered, “Well, ducks often stick around for a while. I’ll bet it will.”

**One of the delights of our day was the first sightings of so many of Montana’s western winter birds—including this immature Northern Shrike!**

I fired off a text to several local birders to see if they wanted to join me—and no one could make it. “That’s okay,” I thought. “I’ll take the dog and we’ll have a good time whether or not we see anything.” The next morning, though, Steve Flood texted that he could make it after all. We rendezvoused at the truck stop in Bonner and merrily headed up Highway 200.

Arriving at Brown’s Lake, a surprise flock of Common Redpolls greeted us, but though we saw some cool grebes and ducks, THE duck was nowhere in sight at our first stop. We kept circling the lake, though, and spotted a suspicious critter near the campground. I hit the brakes. “Is that it?” Steve answered, “I think it is!” Sure enough, the Long-tailed Duck paddled only fifty feet offshore. The duck, however, was just the beginning. At the campground, Steve found three distant Pacific Loons while I spotted two gulls that turned out to be Bonaparte’s Gulls. A pair of American Tree Swallows—the first of winter—put an accent on our finds.

**Seeing only my second Long-tailed Duck ever will long lodge itself in my memory banks. Never did I suspect it would be the first of three Big Year birds Steve Flood and I would see that day!**

Elated with our finds, we headed out along the backroads behind Brown’s Lake, which I had never birded, but Steve knew well. More surprises greeted us including a bevy of other new winter arrivals including my first Rough-legged Hawks, Bohemian Waxwings, and Northern Shrikes of the season! Since we were on a roll, I asked, “Hey Steve, you want to take a quick run up to Seeley Lake on our way home?” Steve was game. We turned right at Clearwater Junction and twenty minutes later pulled into the River Point picnic area on the lake’s west side. I had few expectations, but we saw Common Loons, Western Grebes, Hooded Mergansers, and another surprise flock of Common Redpolls. Then, looking through his scope, Steve said, “I have a present for you.” I peered into the eyepiece and saw . . . A beautiful Pacific Loon! Er, check that . . .

**Birding with top-notch birder Steve Flood proved not only a way to learn a lot and help reduce our carbon footprints, it was a great way to make a new friend!**

It was the same Red-throated Loon Steve had discovered a couple of weeks before! Neither of us had any idea it would still be around, and it capped a remarkable day, one that not only netted me three new Big Year birds, but almost every winter bird that Braden and I work hard to find every year. Well, okay, except for Snowy Owls, Great Gray Owls, Lapland Longspurs, and Snow Buntings. You’ve got to save something for later, right? Even better, I felt like I’d made a new friend in Steve, who is not only an excellent birder, but a pretty darned good guy! Once again, it brings up the adage, “In birding, you just never know—but you won’t unless you keep getting out there!”

Saving Birds. It’s Time.

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In just the past year, protecting birds has reached a new level of urgency. Please read and share this post with as many people as possible. Thank you!

First off, I want to announce that thanks to all of you, Braden’s last post about the QUACH shattered records for number of views and is already SECOND all-time for our posts, trailing only Birding San Antonio’s River Walk? Are You Nuts? which we posted two-and-a-half years ago! Taylor Swift, can you feel us breathing down your popularity neck?

Probably not. The truth is, FatherSonBirding will never be as popular as Taylor Swift and other celebrities, but birds SHOULD be! As we all know, they provide millions of us a steady source of fun, interest, inspiration, and connection. Unfortunately, we also know that birds are in big trouble, not only from traditional threats such as poaching, invasive species, pesticides, and habitat loss, but from the GIANT SHADOW looming over all of us: climate change. I just read an article about the recent heat wave in the American Southwest and how it might devastate food supplies for millions of migrating birds. This is the very definition of depressing news!

How, as bird-loving, sensitive beings, do we handle what’s happening to birds and other species? It’s not easy—but it is easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless about the world situation. If we want to save our planet’s incredible biodiversity for our children and grandchildren, however, we have to turn our worry into action. Braden and I have four strategies for doing this that we’d like to share with you.

**Swallows and other migrating songbirds have been particularly hard-hit in the last year due to climatic chaos that has most likely impacted their food supplies.** **(Shown: Northern Rough-winged Swallow)**

Strategy #1: Education. We don’t know about you, but we feel that education is the key to every problem that needs to be fixed, and birds offer almost unlimited ways to further education. Just taking a friend out birding and showing her what you know helps raise awareness and concern about what’s happening to birds and the importance of protecting and creating habitat. Taking a school class or group of seniors out magnifies that effect—and gives you a chance to correct harmful misinformation out there such as “Climate change is a plot by radicals to harm oil companies” or “Climate change is happening, but is not caused by humans”. If you want to show people just how dramatically our planet is heating up, you can go a step further and share this rock-solid website: NOAA Global Temperature Increase by Year. Our blog, we hope, helps further bird education, too. That doesn’t mean that people will always do the right thing once they have accurate information, but if we leave education up to Fox News or Breitbart, let’s face it, we’re sunk!

Grebes, ducks, and many other birds depend on “watery” refuges to survive—refuges that are coming under increasing pressure as the American West and other parts of the globe become more arid from climate change. (Shown: Eared Grebe)

Strategy #2: Money. We’re always surprised how reluctant many people are to donate money to groups working for causes they believe in. Sure, some people don’t have funds to spare, but let’s be honest, most birders do. If you find it hard to open your bank account, just ask yourself, “What kind of world will I or my children live in if I don’t help solve climate change, habitat loss, and other problems? What will my money be worth then?” The answer isn’t pretty, and yet for the price of a dinner out, we can all make a significant contribution to a group working for birds. Following is a short list of Braden’s and my favorite groups that are helping birds. Check ’em out, then crack open that wallet!

Cornell Lab of Ornithology—the maker of eBird and Merlin makes huge investments in science and education to raise awareness of birds and promote conservation.

Bird Life International—Braden’s favorite group works on the entire international spectrum of bird threats, and also works with local communities to help protect birds and habitats.

Audubon—still the biggest name in birding, Audubon promotes bird conservation and education, and works on legislation to protect birds. (Note: the national, state, and local chapters are all independent entities. Donations to national don’t trickle down, so consider donating to all three.)

American Bird Conservancy—also works on a wide range of bird-related issues including the urgent problem of outdoor cats.

Houston Audubon Society —a regional bird powerhouse, promoting bird education and conservation, and protection of vital habitats, especially for migrating birds. Think High Island from the movie The Big Year!

Union of Concerned Scientists—one of Sneed’s favorite groups, we make monthly contributions to this group working to fight rampant disinformation and promote rational, scientific solutions to a host of problems facing us.

Strategy #3: Reducing Consumption. As birders, we need to acknowledge that we use the planet’s resources by driving around looking for birds. This makes it especially important that we reduce our consumption of fuel and other resources in other ways. There are myriad ways to do this, from turning out lights to making sure we eat our leftovers to letting our grass grow a bit longer before cutting it. Braden’s and my biggest reason for avoiding fast food restaurants these days isn’t the food quality, it’s the amount of waste they generate. We know many families that have cut down on Christmas gift-buying in favor of donating to worthy causes, and that’s a trend we wholeheartedly endorse. After all, is your uncle really going to miss that singing trout on the wall? The possibilities to reduce our footprint by reducing consumption are almost endless. Please note: the idea of plastic recycling sounds good but is basically wishful thinking. According to the EPA, less than 10% of plastic is recycled. The vast majority of it ends up in landfills, where it will persist for hundreds or thousands of years—hopefully, but not necessarily, before it strangles or gets ingested by a bird. One solution: encourage your stores to carry products packaged in truly recyclable or reusable paper-based, metal, or glass containers and whenever possible, choose appropriately. Of course, always bring your own reusable bags when shopping!

**Plastic waste may be killing millions of birds that ingest it. It’s also a major source of mortality for birds who, like this pelican I encountered in Texas, get tangled up in it.**

Strategy #4: Let Your Politicians Know! Okay, voting for politicians who support environmental causes is a no-brainer, and let’s face it, that means voting for Democrats these days (check out this scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters). We find this partisanship mystifying since we know that millions of Republicans love birds and two presidents who enacted some of the most important environmental legislation—Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon—were Republicans. (Note there are a very few current Republican officeholders with strong environmental records such as PA’s Brian Fitzpatrick. Again, see the scorecard.) Nevertheless, it’s important to let ALL of your representatives know that you support taking steps to replace carbon-emitting fuels with renewable energy, support mass transit, protect habitats, and do other things that safeguard birds and other wildlife. We write, email, and call our state and US representatives on a regular basis, and also write letters to the editor of our local paper about key issues. Don’t know who your representatives are? No need for embarrassment. Here’s a handy website for looking up your federal reps: Congress.gov Similar sites exist for each state. Just do a search on “find my representative”. Audubon, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and other groups on our list above also do an excellent job keeping us informed about important legislation and issues.

You undoubtedly can think of other strategies for helping birds, from picking up plastic litter to running for office yourself. But here’s a closing thought: by saving birds, we are saving ourselves. Some may disagree, but we feel that if the majority of bird species don’t survive, humans probably won’t either, and really, it’s time to get serious about it. If we can cultivate an attitude among birders that each time we go out birding, we will also do something to help birds, there’s going to be no stopping us. Thanks for taking action.