Author Archives: rhughes

About rhughes

Robert D. Hughes lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. His professional background is in Web site management and front-end Web development. He also writes about Web development issues and works with Joomla! CMS. When he isn't sitting in front of a computer he's out in the field looking for and photographing birds and other critters.

May 1, 2013, Finally

Montrose was really hopping this morning. It never ceases to amaze me what a couple days of south winds can do in spring. In about an hour and a half I saw the following birds (not a complete list):

Piping Plover – 1, the unbanded male
American Avocets – 2, flew in from the south and landed on the beach around 6:30
Little Blue Heron – 1 adult flying south over Lake Michigan with 2 Great Blue Herons
Green Heron – 1
Red-headed Woodpecker – 1 near the golf course pond
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
Least Flycatcher – 1
Great Crested Flycatcher – 1
Eastern Kingbird – 3
Sedge Wren – 1 in the meadow
House Wren – ~5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 2
Veery – ~4
Swainson’s Thrush – 3
Gray-cheeked Thrush – 1
Gray Catbird – 3
American Pipit – 1
Orange-crowned Warbler – 2
Nashville Warbler – 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler – ~40
Palm Warbler – ~20
Black-throated Green Warbler – 1
Yellow Warbler – 2
Hooded Warbler – 1 female in the Magic Hedge
Ovenbird – 1
Yellow-breasted Chat – 1 near the water feature
American Redstart – 1
Field Sparrow – 1
Henslow’s Sparrow – 1 in the meadow
Savannah Sparrow – ~30
Swamp Sparrow – ~40
Lincoln’s Sparrow – ~10
White-throated Sparrow – +
White-crowned Sparrow – ~10
Bobolink – 1 male
Purple Finch – 1

I probably missed a few things but you get the idea.

Smith’s Longspurs, April 28, 2013

Smith's Longspurs

Male Smith’s Longspurs. Photo by Matthew Cvetas. (click to see the larger version)

Karen Mansfield and I found a male Smith’s Longspur in the dunes this morning. The bird was initially in the open sandy and grassy area just south of the cottonwoods, but after a few minutes it flew north and landed in the dunes north of the cottonwoods. We didn’t follow the bird after the initial observation but others reported that this and a second Smith’s eventually flew off to the west and were not seen again. This is only the second Smith’s Longspur I’ve seen at Montrose in over 30 years of birding there.

In addition to the Smith’s, a Grasshopper Sparrow was in roughly the same area of the dunes. I also had a small loon flying north that was almost certainly a breeding plumaged Red-throated. Otherwise we saw nothing else of note and the slow spring migration continues, though I’m not going to complain too much.

April 26, 2013 – Big Nothing

I had high hopes for Montrose this morning but it was very slow. I guess it was too cold last night and the winds were too easterly. I saw nothing of note there. There’s always tomorrow, though at this rate it might not be until the middle of May before we see warblers.

Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, April 13, 2013

Long-eared Owl. Photo by Kanae Hirabayashi. (click to see the larger version)

Both Long-eared and Short-eared Owls were at Montrose on Saturday, April 13. The Long-eared Owl was roosting in a vine tangle near the Magic Hedge and the Short-eared Owl was flying around the point. Two Long-eared Owls were in the same area the day before. Seeing both Asio owls in the same day at Montrose is unusual, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve done this. It continues to be an unusually cold spring in the Midwest and as a result migration is behind schedule.

Goose Pond, Indiana Spotted Redshank!

Spotted Redshank. Note the prominent whitish supercillium and reddish base to the lower mandible. (click to see the larger version)

Karen Mansfield and I drove down to Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in Greene County, Indiana on March 30 to look for the Spotted Redshank that had been found there a couple days earlier. Spotted Redshank is a code 4 ABA rarity, with only a handful of inland North American records, as well as a lifer for Karen and I, so we were doubly excited about seeing this bird.

When we got near the town of Dugger, not far from Goose Pond, a thick fog developed, possibly the worst fog I’ve ever encountered, with visibilities down to about 100 yards at best. The fog didn’t let up when we arrived at Goose Pond and my heart sank a little as I realized we wouldn’t be able to see the bird in such conditions.

When we arrived at County Road 400S we saw cars from several different states parked along the side of the road and a large contingent of birders lined up on the levee at area E, one of two areas where the bird had been seen. We joined the group and waited for the fog to lift. We could hear Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers and other shorebirds in the field but the fog reduced most of these to nothing more than shadowy silhouettes. After about an hour and a half the fog started to lift and we could visually identify the birds we were hearing. Within a few minutes someone yelled out that the redshank was in field B, about a half mile from where we were, so we picked up our gear and walked as fast as we could to what was going to be our experience-of-a-lifetime Spotted Redshank. When we neared the area we saw people walking towards us, saying and gesturing that the bird had flown back to area E. Undaunted, we turned around and raced back to area E and found the bird at some distance in the same field we had just been scoping. Not more than 2 minutes later the bird got up and flew off to the north, apparently back to area B, so back to area B we raced. By this time I was working up a good sweat and a good irritation that the bird was playing so hard to get, but it settled down and gave us nice long looks and a few distant photos. All’s well that ends well.

Short-eared Owl, April 4, 2013

I had a Short-eared Owl this morning, my first of spring at Montrose. I was standing at the end of the fishhook pier when the bird flew in front of me and out over the lake. I suspect the bird flushed out of the dunes. I also had a small group of Redheads and Greater and Lesser Scaup in the lake off the end of the pier. Other than that I saw nothing else of note.