{"id":1075,"date":"2014-05-12T14:34:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T19:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/?p=1075"},"modified":"2019-03-25T18:27:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T23:27:57","slug":"montrose-big-day-may-8-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/montrose-big-day-may-8-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Montrose Big Day – 103 Species, May 8, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I did a Big Day at Montrose on Thursday, May 8. This is the first Big Day I’ve ever done there. I’ve wanted to do a Montrose Big Day for a while but I either didn’t have the time or the weather wasn’t right. Today was different. I had the time and the weather cooperated. Last night’s south winds brought in a lot of birds, which is critical because doing a Big Day at Montrose depends almost entirely on migrants. I had no stake outs waiting for me, but there were a ton of migrants to work with. The only difference between today and any other day I bird Montrose is that today I 1) stayed longer and 2) paid close attention to every single bird I saw. I started at 5:30 a.m. and had to leave at 10 a.m. I went back out in the afternoon between 4 and 5 to check the beach for gulls and shorebirds. So I put in 5.5 hours, which is meager by Big Day standards. The area I covered included the beach, dunes, meadow, Magic Hedge, peripheral plantings, and east end of the harbor, and I walked between these areas. I ended up with 99 species in the morning and added 4 more in the afternoon for a total of 103. Here’s my list:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCanada Goose
\nWood Duck
\nMallard
\nBlue-winged Teal
\nRed-breasted Merganser
\nHorned Grebe
\nDouble-crested Cormorant
\nGreat Blue Heron
\nGreen Heron
\nCooper’s Hawk
\nPeregrine Falcon
\nAmerican Coot
\nBlack-bellied Plover
\nSemipalmated Plover
\nKilldeer
\nGreater Yellowlegs
\nLesser Yellowlegs
\nWillet
\nSolitary Sandpiper
\nSpotted Sandpiper
\nLeast Sandpiper
\nPectoral Sandpiper
\nDunlin
\nWhite-rumped Sandpiper
\nSemipalmated Sandpiper
\nHerring Gull
\nRing-billed Gull
\nGreat Black-backed Gull
\nCommon Tern
\nCaspian Tern
\nMourning Dove
\nChimney Swift
\nRed-headed Woodpecker
\nYellow-bellied Sapsucker
\nDowny Woodpecker
\nNorthern Flicker
\nEastern Wood-Pewee
\nLeast Flycatcher
\nEastern Phoebe
\nGreat Crested Flycatcher
\nEastern Kingbird
\nWhite-eyed Vireo
\nWarbling Vireo
\nBlue Jay
\nAmerican Crow
\nPurple Martin
\nBank Swallow
\nBarn Swallow
\nNorthern Rough-winged Swallow
\nBlack-capped Chickadee
\nHouse Wren<\/td>\n		\nSedge Wren
\nRuby-crowned Kinglet
\nBlue-gray Gnatcatcher
\nGray-cheeked Thrush
\nVeery
\nSwainson’s Thrush
\nWood Thrush
\nAmerican Robin
\nGray Catbird
\nBrown Thrasher
\nEuropean Starling
\nAmerican Pipit
\nCedar Waxwing
\nBlue-winged Warbler
\nOrange-crowned Warbler
\nNashville Warbler
\nNorthern Parula
\nYellow Warbler
\nChestnut-sided Warbler
\nMagnolia Warbler
\nYellow-rumped Warbler
\nBlack-throated Green Warbler
\nPalm Warbler
\nBlack-and-white Warbler
\nAmerican Redstart
\nNorthern Waterthrush
\nOvenbird Canada Warbler
\nWilson’s Warbler
\nCommon Yellowthroat
\nEastern Towhee
\nField Sparrow
\nChipping Sparrow
\nClay-colored Sparrow
\nSavannah Sparrow
\nLincoln’s Sparrow
\nSwamp Sparrow
\nSong Sparrow
\nWhite-crowned Sparrow
\nWhite-throated Sparrow
\nNorthern Cardinal
\nRose-breasted Grosbeak
\nIndigo Bunting
\nBobolink
\nRed-winged Blackbird
\nCommon Grackle
\nBrown-headed Cowbird
\nBaltimore Oriole
\nHouse Finch
\nAmericn Goldfinch
\nHouse Sparrow<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I had decent shorebirds for the day. Going back out in the afternoon actually pushed my total to 100, the Willet being #100. Passerines were fairly strong in general, especially sparrows, and especially White-crowned Sparrows. Catharus thrushes were well represented too. I ended up with 17 species of warblers and I had to work hard for most of them. None were abundant. Vireos were poorly represented and wrens weren’t much better. You always miss things on Big Days though. Still, I think 120 is possible at Montrose on an exceptionally good day in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did a Big Day at Montrose on Thursday, May 8. This is the first Big Day I’ve ever done there. I’ve wanted to do a Montrose Big Day for a while but I either didn’t have the time or the weather wasn’t right. Today was different. I had the time and the weather cooperated. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[70,208],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-bird-reports","tag-best-spring-migration-days","tag-big-days"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2745,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/2745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theorniphile.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}