The Raven Lunatics
were back at it this year on our quest for 200. Our team of Frank Gallo, Dave
Provencher, Dave Tripp, Fran Zygmont and myself (no Patrick Dugan for the
second year in a row) ran our statewide CT Big Day on May 16th this year, our
earliest run yet. We finally surpassed our previous record of 192, which we set all the way back in 2011.
So, yeah, it took us seven years to get back to that level!
History: This team has been
doing Big Days in CT since 2009, with a couple years off sprinkled in there.
Despite not having set a new team record in seven whole years, we have been
inching our average forward throughout this process. Now we expect to at least
approach 190 every time. As we continue to refine our route and strategy each
year, we feel that 200 species is now within reasonable striking distance.
It'll happen one of these years, but it's going to take some luck...always a
necessary piece of the Big Day puzzle.
Scheduling and Weather: Per usual we blocked off a window of 5 days so that we had some
flexibility in choosing the exact date based on weather and migration. Every
year is different. This year, the local migration could be described as nothing
short of brutal through May 14th, thanks in large part to a few stretches of
clear skies and light east winds. While breeders have no trouble returning in
that sort of weather, any easterly component tends to push migrants just to our
west, and there was no inclement weather to concentrate those migrants that
were passing through CT.
Things changed on the
15th, thanks to a night with light SW wind and drizzle and fog. Migrants were
pushed into CT and then downed by the iffy weather on that date. Birds where
everywhere. It looked like the night of the 15th would not be a good
migration night, so we figured we would make a run on the 16th with so many
birds parked in CT for what looked like several days. We were pretty confident
that whatever was downed in the state for the 15th would not be leaving that
night.
Scouting: We were able to pull
the trigger on the 16th because we had a pretty good handle on the birds
despite it being early in the breeding season. Many birds had just arrived on
the 15th, which made for some rushed last-second scouting! But we had started
scouting a bit early this year, especially on the coast, and already had some
good birds lined up.
The Big Day: When we all met one
hour before midnight, we still weren't sure exactly where we would start. Somewhere along the CT River Valley was the answer, but we ended up
deciding to start with a Pied-billed Grebe that had been reported
"singing" at a pond in Portland. PBGR has become a mega-tough
breeding bird in CT, and we had not recorded one on a Big Day before. The
problem was that nobody had been able to scout this bird at night to hear if it
was singing then, as they sometimes do. Well, nothing like starting a Big Day
with a miss! The grebe was not talking for us. The defeating amphibian presence
at this particular location was not helping either.
From there we continued northwest-ward, hitting various marshes and grasslands
and woodlands in search of species that tend to vocalize at night. We began to
tick some good birds such as Grasshopper Sparrow, Sora, Virginia Rail, American
Woodcock, Eastern Screech-Owl, Barred Owl, and Eastern Whip-poor-will. Remember
that Pied-billed Grebe we missed in Portland? Well, we were thrilled to hear
one singing (laughing, really) at an entirely different location. A new Big Day
bird for this team! A Green Heron, always a candidate for biggest PITA of the
day, squawked for us. Always nice to get that one out of the way!
Based on the silence overhead on this night, nothing was migrating. Though this
is when we usually tick migrating Swainson's Thrush, often Gray-cheeked, and
occasionally cuckoos, we came up empty. This was actually part of the plan,
however, as we wanted the weather to keep all those migrants in place for us.
Nocturnal dips also included American Bittern and Northern Saw-whet Owl -
unfortunate! Still, we had bagged a few key species on night #1. We would hope
for a nocturnal migration during night session #2.
Dawn broke in Litchfield County with Hermit Thrush and Blue-headed Vireo and
other northern goodies. We "felt" Ruffed Grouse drumming right on
cue. The "ticks" came fast and furious. We tore through the first
hour of our daytime route encountering the expected breeders. Missing, so far,
were those downed migrants. I was not about to panic; the first stretch of our
daytime route does not pass through any migrant traps, and it is not unusual to
go large stretches with only breeders evident, even on good migration days.
A few of our tougher inland birds began to fall. Solitary Sandpiper and Bank
Swallow were tallied at the same location. Solitaries peak in the first half of
May and quickly drop off come the middle of the month, so we often struggle
with that species. Bank Swallow we almost always find somewhere, but some years
it can prove rather difficult, especially as breeding colonies shift locations
from year to year.
We made one stop specifically for Belted Kingfisher and Wilson's Warbler, on
the off-chance that the singing WIWA that Dave heard here on the 15th had decided
to stay. Not only did those two species cooperate, but we finally hit a small
pocket of migrants that included 2-3 Cape Mays and a Bay-breasted Warbler.
Things were looking up! Cedar Waxwings also made their first appearance. The
waxwings, though a common breeding bird, are always a nice "get" in
mid-May as they can be somewhat scarce until the second half of the month.
On and on we went, picking up more and more local breeders all while
incidentally hearing such migrants as Blackpoll, Tennessee, and Parula. We were
able to salvage a mid-morning American Bittern, which was missed the night
before. Bantam Lake in Litchfield had been holding two lingering ducks:
Bufflehead and Lesser Scaup. Lucky for us, they held on for another day. As we
worked our way into more southern-like woodland, we picked up Acadian
Flycatcher and Hooded Warbler. It was late morning by this time, and we would
be heading for the coast soon. We said goodbye to our last chances at Winter
Wren and Common Merganser, both of which would elude us on this day. It
wouldn't be a Big Day without a few misses!
Coastal birding on a Big Day is always a bit of a
crapshoot. You're not dealing with many territorial birds. Tides matter. And so
do temperature and humidity. Too much heat and you'll be fighting shimmer on
the water all afternoon. Too much humidity and you may find certain sites
fogged in without any warning! On this day, our weather challenge would be
rain. Steady rain. For 12 hours.
It became apparent upon our arrival to the coast that
the forecast of "passing showers" would be slightly misleading. What
they meant to say was that a large blob of green on the radar would sit over
Connecticut for the rest of the day. And an east breeze at 5-10 would be more
like 10-15 sustained.
Sure, being wet for that long can take its toll. There
were times when we could not effectively scan with binoculars because we were
all shivering (well, at least I was!). It was a good thing we had a full roll
of paper towels, because we ripped through those at lightning speed. Keeping
optics dry in driving rain isn't easy, and it was something we were not
expecting to have to deal with. All that being said, give me rain over shimmer
or fog any day. The weather was helpful in some ways - we didn't have to worry
about heat shimmer on this day. And we did not have to fight any beach crowds
:)
For the most part, the coastal birds came through for
us. We began the afternoon around saltmarsh and picked up Tricolored Heron and
a late Northern Harrier in Stratford. The usual shorebirds could be seen, and
we eventually eeked out a White-rumped Sandpiper. Further east, the continuing
drake Eurasian Wigeon in Guilford was another Big Day "first" for
this team. Nearby I had a hen King Eider scouted on private land, and she was
right where she should have been.
Hammonasset Beach State Park was good to us, as
always. The continuing adult Little Blue Heron was right alongside the road as
we drove in, which saved us some time. We picked up our first Glossy Ibis here
as well. Saltmarsh Sparrow was a tick. We departed Hammonasset with 182
species, so a new record was still within reach. At this point, with time
dwindling, we had to start focusing on our biggest miss up to this
point...White-breasted Nuthatch. Before you laugh too hard at this, if we were
to miss this species, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be the first New England Big
Day team to do so! We've had some bad misses before. Hairy Woodpecker comes to
mind off the top of my head. Those two common species can be a royal pain on a
fast-paced Big Day in May, a time of year when they get quiet in the heart of
the breeding process.
Dave P. assured us that we would get WBNU in coastal
woods as we proceeded eastward. He would be correct. We were eventually able to
pish in one bird, which came in silently, of course. In fact, we didn't notice
the thing until it was clinging to a tree trunk just a few feet from Frank's
face! Crisis averted, anyway. Around this same time, our first (and only)
cuckoo of the day vocalized...a Yellow-billed.
We entered our final daylight stop in Waterford with
188 species. It would take a few good birds to get us close to our previous
record of 192. Common Eider was a gimme here. With that flock we noticed two
King Eiders, an immature male and a female. We didn't need that species for the
day, but it was a sweet find nonetheless. A young male Black Scoter got us to
190. Gallo picked out a Great Cormorant among Double-crests on an offshore
channel marker -191! Very clutch spotting by Frank. Roseate Terns had been seen
here all week (and were apparently there earlier that day, and the next day),
but we were only able to get identifiable looks at Common Terns. At one point
there were several dozen terns feeding way offshore, but they were beyond ID
range. This was a bit frustrating, as Roseates almost certainly were a part of
that group, based on odds alone. Oh well!
Darkness fell. Sitting at 191, we needed one bird to
tie our old mark and two birds to set a new one. And we still had several
possibilities for night #2. Swainson's Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush,
Black-billed Cuckoo, Great Horned Owl, Least Bittern, King Rail to name the
most probable. Actually, King Rail is not probable at all, but we happened to
have a lead on one from private property in fresh water. This would be our next
stop.
We pulled up to the freshwater marsh to rain that had
only increased in intensity. A glance at the radar confirmed that we would be
lucky to hear ANY nocturnal migrants tonight. The rain would not be letting up
anytime soon, and the cold east wind persisted. While we waited for rails to
make sounds, Frank and Fran began hooting like Great Horned Owls. Worth a shot,
right? Silence for a while. One of us clapped loudly, hoping to elicit a
response. Sure enough, that got the Virginias going. Once that happened, the
King Rail chimed in with a grunt series. 192! That lifted our wet spirits a
bit!
OK, back in the game. We just needed one more bird. We
didn't have any more leads on which to follow-up, so we went to another private
wetland location in hopes of a surprise Least Bittern, a Great Horned Owl, or
the NFC of one of those passerines we still needed. Well, the marsh birds were
silent. Nothing. Frank and Fran continued to hoot their heads off. Nothing. All
we heard overhead were rain drops whacking against leaves; nothing crazy enough
to migrate in this crap. It was 11:55pm, and we began our soaked walk back to
the car to call it a night.
Off to our left, a Great Horned Owl called. It
definitely took a few seconds for us to realize that it was the real deal and
not one of our team members. "Hey....wait....Fran, is that
you??" "Nope, not me!" I reached into my pocket as quickly
as I could for my cell phone to pull up the time...11:59. Are you kidding? Wow.
Just in time. One minute later and it would not have counted. 193, a new
CT record.
We are obviously a very goal-oriented group, so the
difference between 192 and 193 felt like way more than one bird. To us, it was
the difference between great success and...I won't use the word failure, but we
absolutely would have been at least mildly bummed if we had only tied the old
mark after putting in so much effort. Sure, either way we would have raised
money for Litchfield Hills Audubon Society, which is obviously the most important
thing. But, we hit 192 seven years ago, so we had been waiting a while to reach
a new milestone. We were really, reallllly pleased.
Dave P. had brought along some beers for celebration
were we to hit 193+, and boy were they tasty. We recounted the day's efforts
with plenty of laughs and smiles, suddenly not caring at all how wet or cold we
were. That Great Horned kept talking, too. And sometime after midnight, about
halfway through my beer, a goddamned Swainson's Thrush called overhead.
Analysis: Slowly but surely,
we are getting better at this. I felt that our pace was great throughout the
day. Rarely did we get sucked into "birding" or chasing misses at the
expense of other birds. Our route seems to vary less each year as we tweak and
refine. I don't have any major criticisms, though there are always improvements
to make. Our goal of 200 stands, and we are getting closer. It used to seem
like a pipe dream, but now we know it'll happen eventually. It will just take
that perfect (or nearly-so) day.
Misses: Given that this is
our highest total ever, there were quite a few attainable misses! As mentioned
before, Swainson's Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and Black-billed Cuckoo are
species you can reasonably expect to get at night, especially the thrushes.
None of us sniffed a Least Bittern during scouting, but they are annual
breeders, so that goes down as a miss. Winter Wren and Common Merganser should
both be seen, but this was a down year for WIWR and the mergansers can be tough
if you don't hit the right stretch of river. Northern Saw-whet Owl,
White-winged Scoter, Red Knot, Laughing Gull (we only had the 3 common gull
species today), Roseate Tern (not usually considered a miss, as we've never had
this species on a Big Day, but there had been some hanging around Waterford
this year), Mourning Warbler (not really expected because it's on the early
side still for this species), White-crowned Sparrow, and Eastern Meadowlark
(becoming harder and harder in CT!) were also missed.
Looking at that list of misses, it's not hard to imagine adding seven more
species to reach the 200 mark on the right day.
Biggest Miss: Common Merganser
Bird of the Day: King Rail. A darn
good bird in CT regardless of the day, this calling individual during a steady
rain perked us right up and put us in position to reach new heights.
As always, we could not have done this without each and every one of the active
birders in CT who contribute with their reports via CTBirds and eBird. THANK
YOU!
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| Road closed from tornado/microburst damage? Fine, we'll walk to the Hooded Warbler if we have to. |
