Long-billed Dowitcher and other notable birds seen at Little Pond, 9/27/11

Long-billed Dowitcher photo from http://www.gobirding.eu/

Wilson's Snipe photo by Bob Stanowski

Rusty Blackbird photo by Bob Duschene

from http://www.pvcaudubon.org/

Blue-winged Teal photo by Rob Whitney

from http://www.ducks.org/

Green-winged Teal photo by Rob Whitney

from http://www.ducks.org/

Great Egret photo from

http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/

A visit to Little Pond this past Tuesday evening, 9/27, (before the latest rainstorms inundated this area with floodwaters) turned up White Memorial's first-ever (in recent times) Long-billed Dowitcher. While scanning the shoreline for shorebirds I spotted a gray bird with a very long bill probing like a sewing machine in the mud. Since Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers look very similar, and their bills are only 1/4" difference in length, it was initially very difficult to determine which species we had. Even with the spotting scope it didn't show a definite characteristic for either species. However, since Short-billed has been seen here approximately 8 times in the past 12 years, and Long-billed had not been seen here at all in that time span, I was leaning toward calling it Short-billed or just Dowitcher sp. Most of the previous sightings have been in the spring when the two species have enough differences in plumage to distinguish them. Plus, all of the previous birds gave their distinctive Short-billed "tu-tu-tu" call notes while we watched them. Fortunately for us this time, this bird let loose with its distinctive "keek" call notes several times when it flushed and flew around for no obvious reason. The call notes clinched this bird's identification as Long-billed. These calls, coupled with the lack of striping on the head and back ruled out Wilson's Snipe, which we had just seen a few minutes before spotting this bird. Other notable birds seen on and around the pond on this visit included 52 Wood Ducks, 5 Blue-winged Teal, 13 Green-winged Teal, 4 Double-crested Cormorants, 1 Great Egret, and 2 Green Herons. Notable by virtue of high numbers were Mallards (99) and Swamp Sparrows (45). The Little Pond Trail produced our first Rusty Blackbird of the fall season, 24 White-throated Sparrows, a Marsh Wren, and a hooting Great Horned Owl as notable species. In all, this visit tallied 44 species of birds in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Three days later, after 5.5" of rain had inundated the boardwalk and the rest of the area, we only came up with 34 species along the trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. and the overlook area on the west side of the pond. With no feeding habitat available for shorebirds we didn't find any, but we were surprised to find a Sora trying to forage along the edge of the woods where the floodwaters were intruding into them. For ducks, we only saw 2 Woodies, 2 Blacks, and 25 Mallards. The rest of the birds seen on this visit were common resident and migrant landbirds along the trail, including 35 White-throated Sparrows.

A Flood of New Migrant Birds in Litchfield

Wilson's Snipe photo by Bob Stanowski

Pied-billed Grebe photo by Bob Stanowski

Fox Sparrow photo by Leo Kulinski

American Woodcock photo by Bob Stanowski

The photos above depict but a few of the many species of birds which have migrated back to, or are migrating through, White Memorial this week. Even though the weather conditions haven't been particularly favorable for migration, the birds have been moving anyway. Some, like the American Woodcock and Fox Sparrow, have been present here for 3 weeks, but their numbers have increased quite a bit in the past week. Others, like Blue-winged Teal, Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Osprey, Wilson's Snipe, Palm and Pine Warblers, and Swamp Sparrow have just arrived this week. Most of these birds have settled in, at least for awhile, so readers of this blog have some time to go out and look for them. Bantam Lake continues to produce a really good number and variety of birds. These include the aforementioned Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, and Osprey plus Bald Eagle, Bufflehead, and hoards of Common Mergansers. The best places to view these birds are from the Pt. Folly and Lake Trail observation platforms. Little Pond has become increasingly productive in the past week. That's where the Blue-winged Teal and one of the Wilson's Snipes were observed, along with Northern Harriers, Ospreys, Bald Eagle, and Killdeer. The Little Pond Trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. produced the Palm and Pine Warblers. Palm Warblers were also seen at Pt. Folly along with Swamp Sparrows. Cemetery Pond is producing American Woodcock every evening after sunset. It was also the location of our second Wilson's Snipe sighting. Most of the Fox Sparrow sightings have been at the Museum Feeders and along the Ongley Pond Trail. Please remember to report sightings of these and other birds to us either directly at my e-mail dave (at) whitememorialcc.org or indirectly through the share mechansim at http://www.ebird.org/. By typing in my email address after clicking "share" on the ebird report, a copy of your report will be sent to the White Memorial Foundation Archives. This will really help the bird migration monitoring efforts.