Backyard Big Year

Willow Flycatcher (Code 3)   25 May 2015

Area: Locally uncommon breeding species across Hunterdon County in open areas with brushy vegetation.

Yard: First record for the yard was a bird heard singing via the OldBird21c microphone at 11:43pm on 25 May 2015.

Audio: 25 May 2015, 11:43pm

Warblers still continue very sparse, but did get lucky this morning while birding in my bathrobe and flip-flop I heard a Mourning Warbler singing in my side yard.  Although I tried to see it for over half an hour, I never did get a glimpse of it, but here’s a spectrogram and audio:

Actually been having a heck of a time getting photos of birds lately now that the leaves are out.  I’ve added a few to the photo list, but none of the shots are all that great.  For example, here’s the best I could do of a Veery from a few days ago:

Without having gone through very many of my night recordings, I’m at 135 for the year.  I’m sure to have more species on some of those recordings–but when I’ve got spare time I’ve been trying to spend it in the yard, rather than on the laptop reviewing recordings.

So far this has been a painfully slow migration in the yard–with multiple warbler species being found on only a couple days, and no vireos until today (Red-eyed–no migrants vireos at all).  Surprisingly, I’m still missing the following Code 2 migrants that I would have expected by now–

Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Magnolia Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Bobolink.

I’m also missing the following hoped-for Code 3 birds–

Willow Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Orchard Oriole.

The list of Code 4 birds that have been seen in the county, but not in my yard this year, is very long–mostly waterfowl, shorebirds and owls–but a few neotropical migrants that I’m also hoping to pick up.  Here’s hoping for a good nocturnal shorebird migration–and that I’ll even be able to identify some of the more unusual and unfamiliar sounds that I’m occasionally recording!

Today I finally heard a Red-eyed Vireo in the yard, the very last of the 49 Code 1 yard birds (i.e. those expected to be easily observed).  So everything else I am able to see or hear this year is expected to take more work to find.

So far I’ve found 28/40 Code 2 birds–those that are expected but take more time and luck to find, as well as 51/73 Code 3 birds–those that are probably findable but take special effort or luck.

The ultimate final species count for the Backyard Big Year will depend on how many of the 90 Code 4 birds I can find–those that occur regularly in the county but are not expected or easily found in my yard.  So far I’ve managed only 11/90 of those.  Distant flybys and nocturnal migrants are probably the best bet for these guys, so hoping that I’ve actually got more of these already recorded on my night-time recording sessions that I haven’t reviewed yet, and that more will show up this way as we roll forward.  It’s a lot of work to go through the recordings, and I need a second computer so that I can record live while reviewing a past recording.  Hopefully I’ll be set up with that very soon!

With tree leaf out, my views of the horizon are now limited, and so I’m not getting many distant flybys.  Hoping for lots of migrants now, during the peak of migration–but daytime migration has been almost absent in my neighborhood.

Fortunately, birds are flying over each night, so the strategy for maximizing species detections now shifts to my trusty OldBird21c microphone!

A few of the new birds for the year detected so far with my microphone include Hermit Thrush, Veery, Swanson’s Thrush, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Pine Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ovenbird, Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, American Bittern, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Savannah Sparrow.  Some of these are really great yard birds–hard to get herons and shorebirds any other way 2 miles from the reservoir!

Here’s a sample of a recording–Black-billed Cuckoo giving a garbled flight call followed by a normal daytime call.

It takes a long time to review a full night’s recording manually in Audacity on my MacBook Pro.  But I’m slowly going to go through them all, and report what I can identify on eBird.  Here’s a couple sample checklists from the night of May 10 (PM) to May 11 (AM).

Fortunately, these identifications are based on recordings that can be reviewed by others.  Unfortunately, unless I’m listening live to the recording, they can’t be entered into my normal eBird account and so they don’t boost my normal eBird yard list totals.

But this is a bionic big year, so I get to add my personal yard list as well as the OldBird21c microphone list together for my Backyard Big Year total.

Stay tuned for more discoveries of yard birds that go bump, zeep, or buzz in the night!

Documentary shot, Least Flycatcher 5 May 2015

Least Flycatcher  (Code 3)   5 May 2015

Area: Uncommon migrant

Yard: Rare migrant

Observations:  2015 Yard FOY was a bird singing che-bek song at 8:50am on 5 May 2015.  At 9:02am this or another bird was calling whit notes and chased another Least Flycatcher away.

Audio: Che-bek song, 8:50am 5 May 2015

Chimney Swift high over the yard. Love having these guys back.

The dam finally broke last night.  Winds shifted and migrants started pouring into northern New Jersey.  I got a lot of sparrows calling overnight on my recording, as well as several warblers including yard FOY Ovenbird.

Presumed Ovenbird NFC, typical caterpillar shape.

In a couple hours this morning, I got yard FOY Great Crested Flycatcher, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and #100 for the year–Yellow Warbler.  Later while working in the yard I heard and then saw a male Northern Parula.

The next few weeks will be very exciting, with migrants passing overhead all night, and birds flying through the yard during the day.  How many will I be able to pick up?  I’ve already got some shorebird calls to confirm on my recording from last night, and more from today.  Hoping for a lot of otherwise really tough to get yard birds!

I was hoping to be at 100 yard birds by the end of April.  This morning I finally got a flock of 16 Cedar Waxwing in the yard (2015 Yard Bird #94.  I’ve got a lot of nocturnal recordings to review, so hopefully have more birds in there, but north winds have been keeping migration down, and leaf out is just starting to happen in my yard.  There are dozens of birds I haven’t seen yet for the year within two miles of my yard, so hoping to get more moving through.

Heartbreaker this morning were 2 terns glimpsed briefly to the north.  Wish I had a better and longer look!

It’s been a crazy week, very busy with life.  I’ve added 6 Yard FOYs this week, but unfortunately haven’t been able to get photos of the Osprey, House Wren, Northern Harrier, Broad-winged Hawk or Eastern Kingbird.  

Finally this morning while I was working on my computer, I caught a sight of one of my most wanted yard birds strolling down my backyard—

Wild Turkey (above microphone). Unfortunately my camera wouldn’t turn on so all I got were a few doc shots with my iPhone.

I’ve been scanning a hillside 3 miles away looking for Wild Turkeys, hoping to catch a glimpse of one above the wildlife management area.  I could only dream of one walking through the yard, but fortunately I was home today and saw this bird with my peripheral vision.

iPhone shot cropped even more, you can kinda see the Wild Turkey.

Migrants are streaming into Central New Jersey, but its been a bit slow and disappointing in my yard.  A storm a few days ago dropped scoters and terns on the reservoirs, but I wasn’t able to see any from my yard.  Still no warblers on the ground–hopefully I’ve got some on my nightly recordings.

I’ve been recording each night, but with rain almost every night I haven’t heard much.  I still have to review the recordings–hopefully there are some goodies in there.  This is the peak of Virginia Rail migration, and sometimes they call in flight.  Same with American Bittern and some other goodies–hopefully I’ll find one on my recordings.  Lots of work to try and find birds during the day, and go through the nightly recordings!

Unfortunately this isn’t a photo essay, as most of the birds I’m seeing in this post are too far away to photograph!  The video above can give you a sense of the challenges I’m facing in this extreme birding exercise.

I’ve spent a lot of time this year watching distant gull flocks streaming up the creek valley to the north.  The gulls can be anywhere from overhead, to 3.4 miles away.  Many times I can’t identify them, but sometimes if viewing conditions are good, and when they aren’t too far away, I can identify Herring from Ring-billed Gulls and pick out the occasional Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  On my peak day I clicker-counted over 5,000 gulls stream west past my yard early in the morning as the birds flew west from their night roosts on the reservoirs and head towards feeding grounds along the Delaware River or the dump in Easton, PA.

Lots of gulls are on the move now, and the last few days the numbers have dropped but the dynamic has changed.  Yesterday I was out pretty early but did not see a big flight of gulls.  And many of the gulls I could ID were Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  At the head of one line of these gulls was a massive pale gull–much larger than the Lesser Black-backeds.  By size alone it would probably be either an albino or washed out young Great Black-backed Gull or a Glaucous Gull.  Since it seemed like an adult bird with light gray mantle and upper wings without dark primary tips, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an aberrant Great Black-backed Gull.

This morning, birders were seeing a few Little Gulls in the Bonaparte’s Gull flocks at Spruce Run a few miles from my yard.  So I decided to spend the morning scoping out the “gull highway” to the north in hopes that these gulls would move past my yard.  There were very few gulls moving at all today.  Finally, on my third watch just after 11:30am a quick-moving flock of gulls came into view heading west.  With quick flapping wingbeats and white primary wedges I could tell they were Bonaparte’s Gulls.  And sure enough, in the swirling flock was a smaller gull with dark underwings–Little Gull!  They were moving so fast I couldn’t quite determine if it was an adult or 2nd winter bird, but by size and underwing it was identifiable a mile away–literally!

I’ll probably take some flack for calling a Little Gull at that distance.  But with all the hours of intense gull watching I’ve done this year, I’m getting a sense of when  birds are identifiable and when they aren’t, and this one wasn’t too tough.  I have to let thousands of gulls go by unidentified, but fortunately the circumstances worked out for me to be able to ID these gulls as more than mere specks.

I still haven’t been able to ID an Iceland Gull from my yard–though I’m sure I must have seen some in these big flocks.  That one will take better viewing conditions to be able to nail down–as many gulls can appear very pale at a distance depending on the light and background.  Gulls at a distance–just part of the extreme birding involved with a Backyard Big Year!