Bat Falcon and Blue Mockingbird - Texas, New Mexico
Written December 30, 2021

There are bird rarities that occur on an annual or semi-annual basis in the continental American Birding Association area. There are also mega rarities that have never occurred before or have only been recorded a few times.

In Texas and New Mexico, this November and December there have been three rarities that fit the latter category.
A very rare Social Flycatcher in Brownsville Texas, first ABA record Bat Falcon in McAllen Texas. And a very rare Blue Mockingbird near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Over Thanksgiving I was able to travel to Brownsville and see the Social Flycatcher. After Thanksgiving, I was taking a long planned trip to Mexico immediately and then would be traveling with Les over Christmas. So the Falcon and the Mockingbird would have to wait for me to chase them. I hoped they would stick.

On Monday December 27th, a plan came together. Les dropped me off at the local train station and I was off to Philadelphia Airport. I was on a flight to Chicago and after a very tight connection I was on a plane to Austin, Texas. I arrived about 8:30 pm and after picking up a rental car, I was driving south to the Rio Grande Valley. It is about 5.5 hours from the airport to the border. I did not want to do that long drive alone in the dark so after about 2 hours I took a motel room in Three Rivers. I was up and on the road again well before 6 am.

The Bat Falcon at the Santa Ana NWR near McAllen Texas has an interesting history. It was first seen, photographed, and identified on December 8th. Then it went missing until December 14th. Birders flocked went to see it when it was refound. It has played hide and seek in the refuge since that time. Some birders get good looks others only had flyby looks..
A close friend was there on Sunday and she walked several miles and only had a brief glimpse of the falcon. But on her way out at dusk, it was sitting on a pole, in full view at the refuge entrance. On Monday it again was on that post in the early morning and late in the day.
A “What’s App” text group was established just for this bird. The service was quite active as birders reported up to the minute information about the bird’s location. As I was driving to the refuge on Tuesday morning I was monitoring the situation. The bird was back on the pole in full view! Great! Then, when I was about 10 minutes away, the bird flew off the pole and disappeared. Not great! But at least I knew it was still in the area. I had the whole day to find it.
When I was about 5 minutes away from the entrance it was reported that the bird had returned to the pole. Really great!! It was still there when I pulled up and found a parking spot among the road. There were at least two dozen birders there enjoying and photographing the bird. I had seen this species in Mexico in 2016 but this was the first ABA area record. A great bird.

After looking at and photographing the bird I looked around at the birders. I immediately saw a longtime friend, and world class birding trip leader, Tom Johnson standing a few feet away. We chatted about the falcon, his trips, my trips, and all the other things birders talk about. Tom lives in Cape May and I occasionally see him there. But it was fun to reconnect in Texas while enjoying a Bat Falcon. I knew another friend was expected to be there at the falcon site, Scott Reynolds from southern New Jersey. He had arrive a day or so before and had seen the Social Flycatcher the day before. I looked around and Scott was close by. We connected and he came over to chat with Tom and I.

Now that the falcon was firmly on my list, it was time for part B of my plan. I was going to drive to New Mexico for the Mockingbird. A 750 mile drive of 10 plus hours. As the three of us chatted, Scott asked what my plan was and I told him. He immediately said “Can I come along?”. He had a plane ticket to El Paso in two days to go for the Mockingbird and was itching to go sooner. I told him yes, I would be glad to have him go with me. My plans stayed the same but his had changed very quickly.
He checked out of his motel and we dropped his rental car back at the McAllen Airport. Off we went to New Mexico.

Not much to report about the drive across west Texas. Little traffic, except as we drove through San Antonio, and for the most part the speed limits were 75 or 80 mph. We made good time but still we pulled into Carlsbad NM well after dark.

Blue Mockingbirds are skulkers that usually stays in dense or semi dense cover. This particular individual is known to come out occasionally to eat berries early in the morning but soon retreats to dense cover. It comes out occasionally during the day. It is never going to sit up on a pole like the Bat Falcon did. It was first found and identified on December 9th and has been seen almost every day since.
We were looking for a single bird that was staying in a very limited area in an arid picnic area south of Carlsbad, New Mexico. A tough assignment. Most sightings had been near one or two specific bushes/trees in a wet area. Local knowledge was key to finding the wet area, those bushes and this bird. Not being at the right place at dawn could have meant missing the bird. Fortunately we had excellent local information. Besides the resources available on eBird, Laura Keene had seen the bird right before our Mexico trip. On that trip Chris Hitt and I asked her for the specific location and I recorded what she said. And Neil Hayward has been to the location the day before we were there. He also provided very specific information. These two sources of information were critical and they were perfect.
Scott and I got to the Rattlesnake Springs Picnic Area well before dawn. There was already another car with birders there. After a bit of a false start as we matched up the information to the actual lay of the land, we got to the target area. A small group of about six birders soon assembled. We stood in silence, listening and watching. This bird resembles the American Robins which were in the area and in the dim light of predawn we wanted to be sure that if we saw a bird, it was the Mockingbird and not a robin. At 6:50 am we heard the distinctive vocalization of this mockingbird and it was quickly located in a small tree with berries right near us. The id was confirmed and lots of terrible pictures were taken. Dim light and lots of small branches. Even in Mexico where I had seen this species before, I never was able to get a unobscured full view of this species. We enjoyed the bird for about 8-10 minutes before it retreated into very heavy cover.
I had now seen the two target birds of this trip.

It was time to work toward home. Scott had cancelled his flights to and from El Paso and was going to fly back to Philadelphia from Austin like I was planning to do. So after a bit of birding around the rest of the picnic area, we started the long drive back from New Mexico to Austin, Texas. The timing worked out and we stopped at the Salt Lick BBQ outside Austin for dinner. A real Texas treat. We spent the night at a motel near the Austin Airport and were on an 8:00 am direct flight back to Philadelphia on Thursday morning
The bottom line for me was two mega rarities for my ABA list. Scott also got the two birds plus the Social Flycatcher the day before I arrived in Texas.

Between landing in Austin on Monday night and dropping the rental car off on Thursday morning in Austin, we put about 1575 miles on the rental car. Lots of driving on this chase.

I am now at home.
Good to be home. Now waiting on the Steller’s Sea-Eagle to reappear!!!!

Here are some photographs from the adventure

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Social Flycatcher - Texas
Written November 28, 2021

Les and I are in Austin Texas visiting our daughter and other relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday. We arrived on Thanksgiving Day and will travel home tomorrow (Monday).
Our family members who live in the Austin area have their traditional dinner on the day after the actual holiday. There were plans to do outdoor activities on Saturday and Sunday after a traditional Thanksgiving get together on Friday.

During this past week two mega rarities were located in this part of the country. A Social Flycatcher in Brownsville Texas and a Blue Mockingbird in Carlsbad Arizona. Both extremely rare in the American Birding Association area. But both were at a great distance from Austin and I had plans with the family every day.

The weather here in Texas at this time of the year is usually nice. Warm and sunny. But not this year. It is cool and cloudy. And as forecast, Saturday was a day of rain. That changed plans. No outdoor activities. Lisa had several projects she could do around her apartment, including setting up her Christmas tree, and Les could help with them. I was looking at a quiet day in the apartment with them.
So I looked at a map, consulted with Laura Keene who lives in San Antonio who had seen both birds in the past few days, and started to focus on chasing the Social Flycatcher down along the border. I could make that work even though it was 350 miles each way. Laura gave me very specific information about the location.

By about 8:30 I was on the road. I encountered heavy rains for the first 90 minutes but by the time I got south of San Antonio, it was just a drizzle. It is a long but simple drive from Austin to the Rio Grande Valley with good divided highways almost every mile of the way. A person can make good time when the speed limit is 75. And I had the car make a chase in. Our rental car for this trip is a fancy Camaro sports car.

Not much to say about the drive down. 350 miles. I was at the location shortly after 2 pm. I parked and walked over to the location where Laura had seen the bird a few days before. There was a group of four birders just leaving and they told me they had seen the bird but it had flown off. They pointed out another birder nearby. They said she was a local and had helped them find the bird.
I went over and talked to her about the bird. She had seen it before this particular day and was trying to get a video today. She knew the call and the habits of this particular bird. After about 10 minutes we heard it calling. Then in another 10 minutes it popped up on a branch near us. She was a huge help.
Tick!
I got some photographs and the bird promptly took off. I hung around for about another 40 minutes hoping for another view but it was playing hide and seek in the trees. There were was a nice selection of other birds around to keep us busy.
After a being there for about an hour, I thanked the gracious local birder (Michelle Cano) and headed back to Austin. Michelle was a key to my getting on the bird. Another 350 miles but when you chase and see the target bird the ride home is nice.

I was back in Lisa’s Austin apartment by 9 pm. I was a bit tired but not as much as I would expect after driving 700 miles.
Lisa’s Christmas tree looks great.
A good night’s sleep was in store but the building fire alarm went off at 4 am and we had to evacuate to the street for an hour as they determined it was a false alarm.
Home tomorrow and then off for a long planned Mexico trip for 12 days.
Maybe I will get lucky and the Blue Mockingbird will stick.

Here are some photographs from the adventure

https://ebird.org/checklist/S98152955

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Gray-tailed Tattler - Florida
Written November 3, 2021

Win Shafer and I spent a leisurely week in Florida doing some birding. This trip was planned a couple of months ago. We had a small set of target birds but we mostly centered on birding various habitats.
We flew into Oreland on 10/26 and headed up to the Florida panhandle for a couple of targets
I joked (hoped) that if major rarity showed up, we would certain head for it. And one did!
An Asian bird (Gray-tailed Tattler) showed up in the Florida Keys just below Key Largo.
That was wonderful but we were up in the panhandle of Florida, about 700 miles away. The bird cooperated and in two days we were watching the bird. A mega rarity.
The original plan was to bird the west coast of Florida for a few days but this little chase changed that. After birding that area of the Keys, we birded the east coast for a couple of days. We worked our way north and flew out of Orlando on 11/3

Fun adventure as always

Here are some photographs from the adventure

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Green-breasted Mango - Texas
Written July 17, 2021

A Green-chested Mango appeared in Corpus Christi Texas about 9 days ago. This striking hummingbird is a rare visitor to the US. I have seen them in Central America but I have never seen one in the “ABA area”. So the chase was on!
But not quickly. I was still recovering from my rodeo adventure with a horse, and there were one or two obligations that I had. That kept me from dropping everything and going. On Wednesday 7/14 my schedule was clear and It was time to chase. Les dropped me off at a local train station and I took a regional rail directly to the airport. That worked fine.
At the airport I boarded a direct flight to Houston. I had some travel options but Houston won out because I could get a direct flight in the evening. I arrived in Houston about 10 pm and after picking up a rental car I spent the night in a local motel.
The next morning I was up and out at 6 am and headed south to Corpus Christi. By 9:30 I was at the spot where the bird had been fairly regular. The homeowner had a meadow type habitat next to the house and there were several hummingbird feeders set up and numbered. When I got there about 10 birders were already there. Of course my first question was – Has it been seen? The answer was that it had not been seen since a sighting the morning before. Not a good sign. About 15 minutes later the people house sitting for the homeowners came out and said they had seen the bird in the back yard a few moments before and it quickly flew off. That got us all excited. And that was the highlight of the day.
There were some other hummingbirds round to look at but the place was not very birdy. There was a great place to stand in the shade on the side walk and see the yard.
But it was coastal Texas in the summer and it was hot and humid. Real hot and humid. The “real feel” temperature was 105.
By 1 pm I was the only birder there. About 3 pm some people showed up because the bird was somewhat regular in the late afternoon. But not that day or the day before. One of the birders who showed up offered me an extra chair which I used. It made a difference. Standing in that heat was tiring.
I hung in until 7 pm which was long after the usual late afternoon sightings. I went to a local motel, cooled down, showered, and rehydrated. I had plenty of water during the day but the heat really dried me out.

I was back at the spot at 6:20 the next morning (Friday). It was before there was enough light to see the feeders. But it soon brightened. A couple of other birders showed up including the McQuades from Florida. We knew of each other but had never crossed paths. Nice to finally meet them.
About 9 am there was a flurry of activity as we may or may not have seen a large hummingbird for a very brief glimpse. But none of us got any field marks and it was the subject of great discussion. It may have been the bird but it just as easily may not have been.
By 10:30 am I had enough. The heat was building and the hummingbird had not come to any of the feeders for 48 hours. Time to head home. There was a major detour on the way north, Must have been an accident on the four lane divided highway and all the north bound traffic was detoured to a maze of gravel roads. The truck drivers certainly were challenged. That added about 45 minutes to the drive north. I turned in the rental car, checked in (standby – thanks Ed!), and settled in at the Admirals Club. There was weather in the area, I had tight connections, and I faced the real prospect of spending the night in an airport.
And then I got the message. The bird had come into the feeders at 5 pm and was well photographed. Damn. This was Friday evening and it was the first visit to the feeders since Wednesday morning. Go figure.
If I had not been at the airport ready to go home. I might have headed back. But maybe not. Who knows.
I am writing this on the plane from Dallas to Philadelphia. Les is coming up huge and picking me up at the airport well after midnight. The trains do not run late at night.

I have been lucky seeing almost all of the birds I have chased for the past couple of years. This was a real miss but these things happen. It is not a trip to the zoo and a birder who chases must accept the fact that there will be misses.

Now on to the next chase.

Here are some photographs from this adventure

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Various Birds - Adak, Alaska
Written June 6, 2021

On Monday May 24th, an Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) was identified within the area covered by the American Birding Association. I saw this species in August of 2019 in Japan but it would be nice to add it to my ABA area list. There are only a handful of records in North America. A true mega rarity. All of these sightings occurred in the western end of the Aleutian Islands (Alaska). This particular bird was seen on Adak Island in the western Aleutians. Certainly a long way from Philadelphia - 4449 air miles. I thought about chasing it for a few moments and then decided it was just one of those birds I could not chase.

Later on that Monday, I got a text message from Laura Keene, who lives San Antonio. She had seen the report and was strongly considering chasing the bird. I wished her luck but I did said “keep me in the loop”. I mentioned to Les that there was a bird in Alaska that I would not be chasing.
As Tuesday and Wednesday went by Laura kept me in the loop. She was making arrangements. Laura was going and Liz Southworth, from Massachusetts, who I know, was going with her. Neil Hayward was hoping to go.
The lodging would be in a large multi bedroom rental unit and the nightly cost (including a rental vehicle) was reasonable when split among many people. But airfare from Philadelphia to Adak was very pricey and that seemed to be the deal breaker for me. Then other birds that I needed were reported on Adak. Besides the duck there were at least three other good birds to be seen. And I had never really seriously birded Alaska so if I went, I could see a nice bunch of birds for my lists.

I mulled it over, and talking with Les, and by mid-day on Thursday I was really leaning toward going. I worked with air miles and some other discounts and got the airfare to a point that it could be made to work. And Liz had suggested,, and Laura agreed, that after traveling that distance the chase should be extended to a week of birding. No sense getting there and leaving quickly. By Thursday night I had worked it all out. I was going. It was an opportunity that was hard to pass up. It was an area I always wanted to bird, there were rare birds there, friends were going, and Les and I would not be hosting our traditional early June garden parties due to Covid concerns. It was an opportunity to go to the western Aleutians that probably would never occur again for me. So at the “drop of a hat”, a major birding trip that was not on my radar three days before was going to happen

Adak Island is 1400 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. It was a very sleepy island until WWII when it became a major military base. It protected western approaches to the US mainland. Later it was a major base during the Cold War. The military installation had about 6000 people involved, all living on the island. The base was decommissioned in 1997 and the military pulled out. Right now there are about 90 permanent residents and scores of abandoned buildings and housing units. A modern ghost city. The harsh weather is ravaging the buildings. Adak is serviced twice a week by Alaska Airlines – Saturdays and Wednesdays. The only other option is by a private boat or on a fishing boat. And if the weather is real bad the plane will not land. Sometimes visitors get stranded for additional days and sometimes visitors cannot get there on schedule. Adak certainly is a challenge to get to and bird.

On Friday morning (May 28th) after a 6 am run to Walmart for some freeze dried dinners, Les drove me to the airport. I flew to Dallas where the flight to Anchorage originates. The flight to Adak originates in Anchorage. At the Dallas airport I met Laura who had flown up from San Antonio.
We board the plane to Anchorage and we were in Anchorage on Friday evening. Liz was waiting for us at the airport. We had hoped Neil was going to be able to join us but that did not work out. So it was the three of us on this adventure. We checked into a local motel (Hilton Garden Inn) and after a bit of a hassle with the motel not having rooms ready at 9:30 pm, we got some sleep.
At 5:30 am were in a Uber going to a grocery store. One major issue with birding Adak is that there is that on the island there is only a very small grocery store with a very limited number of items and very limited hours. And there is only one restaurant on the island and that is open only a few nights a week for two hours each night. Visiting birders need to bring food. We did our food shopping, got back to the motel, packed up and headed to the airport for the 4 hour flight to Adak. There was a stop in Cold Bay on the way. On the last leg of the flight from Cold Bay to Adak there were only 13 passengers on the 737 jet. By about 1:30 pm (Hawaii DST) we were on the ground in Adak. We were there! We were met by our contact (Moe) from Aleutian Adventures who was ready to show us to our lodging and provide us with our rental vehicle.

We loaded up our rental vehicle and headed to our lodging. Our vehicle was a real “Alaska vehicle”. A 2007 Ford Navigator. The check engine light was on, the tire pressure light was on, the rear power windows did not work, the spare took up room in the back, the rear wiper did not work, it was a bit dirty inside and outside, the door on the driver’s side had no inside handle, etc, etc. But it had plenty of room and could easily handle the potholed roads. Gas was $5.25 per gallon. The lodging was a house that was purchased after the military left and was maintained as one of several rental properties by Aleutian Adventures. It was quite nice, three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, etc. It fit our needs. And it had WIFI which was important to me because I did not have cell phone service once I left Anchorage. The WIFI Internet was a bit slow and often dropped out but it was usable. Just had to keep in mind that we were really in a remote location.

We quickly got into our lodging, grabbed our birding gear, and headed out to find the 4 major rare target birds. Liz and Laura had been to Adak before so they knew the general layout of the area. We headed directly to Haven Lake where a Whooper Swan was being reported. Easy to find a big white bird on a small lake – Tick! Then to Clam Lagoon for the Spot-billed Duck which had started this whole adventure. We got distant scope views that were diagnostic but not satisfying. We then moved on to a location in the abandoned part of town where we wanted to see a Hawfinch. It was coming to a location where seed had been spread. The location is known as the “Hawfinch Tree”. The bird was not there and we did not think it was worth hanging around and waiting. There were other things to do. In the same neighborhood, a Common Cuckoo was hanging out. I had seen this species in Rhode Island in November of 2020 but we all wanted to see this individual. We drove around the neighborhood and finally saw it darting in and out of the streets and abandoned buildings. We got good views but not good photographs – Tick! We were on a roll. Back to the feeder spot and the Hawfinch was there – Tick! Then back out to Clam Cove and we really worked on getting looks at the duck. It was a bit distant but we did get scope views and diagnostic photos. Four mega rarities in a couple of hours. We ate at the restaurant that night because it was easy to do and it would not be open again for several days. The pizza there is quite good!

There were at this point three groups of birders on the island. Jordan and Mason who Laura knew, and a group of 4 in a red truck. We never did get their names but we all shared information on a regular basis. We were at the tail end of the birding season. A week or two before our arrival there were many more birders on the island. The accessible area of Adak is not large in proportion to the actual total size of the island. The furthest places you can access are no more than 10-12 miles from the airport and town. There are a few miles of paved roads in town but for the most part travel is on gravel roads. There are many birds around, but there are only three passerine species – Song Sparrow, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, and Lapland Longspurs. The ravens and Bald Eagles are the birds of the sky. As for waterfowl, there are a few Cackling Geese, a few Greater White-fronted Geese or two, Green- winged Teal (Eurasian race), Eurasian Wigeon, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Mallards, Red-breasted Mergansers and that is about it. On the water Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled Murrelets, Ancient Murrelets, Pelagic Cormorants, Red-faced Cormorants occur. On the beaches at rocky coasts there are Bar-tailed Godwits, Semipalmated Plovers, Rock Sandpipers, and we saw a single Sanderling. Red-necked Phalaropes are abundant. Aleutian Terns, Arctic Terns, Glaucous-winged Gulls work the coast and we saw a single Sanderling working the tide line.. The marshes contain both Wilson’s Snipe and Common Snipe. Many of these birds I have rarely seen and a few I have never seen.

Birding Adak is continually checking and rechecking birding locations to see if anything new has arrived. During the time we were there, no new rarities were found. But that was OK. We got several major rarities. Locations like Clam Cove, the docks, the “Hawfinch Tree”, the abandoned neighborhood, Airport ponds, the Willows, Sweeper Creek, Airport Ponds, and other spots were checked at least once a day and often more. We also rode to more distant points like Andrew Lake, Finger Bay, and the abandoned Loran station. There were great photographic opportunities everywhere. The highs every day were in the 40s. The lows were in the high 30 to the low 40s. We had some rain and some sunny days. The winds were not real bad. They could have been worse. The sign on the airport that says “Welcome to Adak Alaska. Birthplace of the Winds” is there for a reason. The area is for all practical purposes treeless. There is a small clump of evergreens on a hillside that has been locally designated as the “Adak National Forest”

A few experiences stood out.
- Walking Contractor’s Marsh for snipe. We did scare up some snipe but could not separate the species until later in the week when we did it by call and confirmed with photographs.
- Seeing three Short-eared Owls out hunting in the daylight at 10 pm. It was still light out at 11 pm. The sun came up about 6:30 am
- Watching Parasitic Jaegers harassing gulls.
- Studying flocks of Rock Sandpipers.
- Picking out a fairly close Red-faced Cormorant in the waves after trying to identify that species on a distant rock.
- Getting a flat tire in a location that could have generated a long walk if Jordan and Mason has not come by and rescued us.
- A guard rail that jumped out behind our vehicle (you had to be there).
- A lost and refound pair of reading glasses. There is so little traffic that a pair of glasses dropped on a road was still be there, undamaged, 24 hours later.
- But there was one experience that will always come to the forefront when I think of this trip. There is a small seabird called Whiskered Auklet. It is seen along the coast lines of a few islands in the Aleutians. It is a bird that takes a real effort to see and many serious birders have never seen one. The traditional way to see it is from a boat on a specialized trip. Our outfitter offers a full day trip to see this bird at a fixed price for the excursion. Six birders can be accommodated on the boat with the fixed cost shared among the 6 birders. If there are only 5 the cost is the same with each person’s share being higher. Four people, same thing, etc. We only had 3 people and no one in the other groups was interested. Both Liz and Laura had seen this bird before but would have liked to get better photographs. We tried to negotiate with the outfitter to arrange a shorter excursion to get the cost down but the company was only interested in the full day. I gave up seeing this bird. The price was out of reach. Can’t see every bird. On Wednesday the other two birding groups departed on the plane and Laura, Liz and I were the only birders on the island. As I mentioned earlier, the key to birding Adak is checking, checking, and rechecking. After dinner on Wednesday Laura and I did some further checking. We checked the “Hawfinch Tree”, the neighborhood for the cuckoo, and Sleeper Creek for shorebirds. Then to the dock area for general checking. We scanned, with our scopes, the birds in an area of quiet water. We checking out the Pigeon Guillemots and the Ancient Murrelets. And then Laura said in a voice of amazement and urgency “Bert! Get on this bird. I see whiskers”. I swung my scope around and looked at the bird that excited her. There is was …….. a Whiskered Auklet! Seen from land! A bit distant but it was the bird! Amazing! A friend later mentioned that seeing it from land was “cheating” but we are happy to accept that designation. We stood there so amazed that we were seeing the auklet and became even more amazed as it slowly paddled closer to the shore and to us. It ended up being about 20 yards from us. In perfect light. We were stunned. After taking way to many pictures, we quickly drove back to the lodging to get Liz. It was still there when we returned. She also got great pictures. I will never forget the bird and the experience.

As I said no new rarities arrived during our stay. Here is what happened with the four we saw the first day.
Eastern Spot-billed Duck ((Anas zonorhyncha))
We saw it on Saturday the 29th as mentioned earlier. The “Red Truck Group” got a brief look at it sticking its head out of the grassy shoreline on the 30th. It was never found again. And believe me, we looked many times. We were lucky!
Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus)
It continued on the small lake and we saw it every day of our visit. On our last full birding day we worked our way to the shoreline of the lake and got closer looks.
Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes)
It was seen on our first three days. It was always hanging out in a certain area of the “Hawfinch Tree” near where seed was being spread. It did not seem to have much energy. After the third day we did not see it again. Sadly many vagrant birds, those that wander off course, do not survive.
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
This bird ranged over a wide area. It was foraging for bugs and bugs are at a premium in the cool climate of Adak. It was seen near the outfitters shop, in the abandoned neighborhood, and in the dock area. Most times it saw us and immediately flew away. On Thursday morning we located it in the dock area and slowly walked toward it as it fed. We got some nice photographs as it moved around. It is probably still in the area but we saw it only about once for every 10 times we looked for it.

As mentioned, there are few people permanently living on Adak. With the exception of people at the restaurant, we really saw very few people. The one we saw the most was Moe, the representative from Aleutian Adventures. He was great. A real resource. And with no people there is no traffic.

I have some checking to do on the bird lists but we saw about 56 total species. Laura came up huge with doing the eBird lists -thanks. That 56 species included several mega rarities. And I picked up 10 lifers. I thought I would never again get such a haul on a single trip. My Alaska list is now over 100 species. My 49th state with over 100 species seen.

I am writing this on the plane ride home. It certainly is a full day of travel! Adak to Anchorage to Dallas to Philadelphia. Tight connection in Dallas but I made it. Left Adak at 1:00 pm on Saturday (local time) and should be home by 1 pm on Sunday (local time). Adak is 5 time zones from Philadelphia.

This report/blog ended up being longer that I expected. But a wonderful trip creates a long report/blog and I had lots of time on the planes to write this. if you have any questions, get in touch.
I doubt if I will ever return to Adak but who knows. I am certainly glad I went when the opportunity suddenly presented itself. I was blessed with two super traveling companions (Liz and Laura) and for that I am thankful. All arrangements worked.

Here are a few bird pictures from the adventure
Here are a few general pictures from the adventure

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Tamaulipas Crow - Texas
Written May 3, 2021

Some trips are chases (specific target birds) and some trips are general birding trips. This past trip to Texas (4/19-27/21) fits in the latter category.
Chris Hitt and I decided to do some birding in the wonderful south Texas area. Chris wanted to see the Red-vented Bulbul in Houston, which was recently added to the ABA list, and I wanted to see the Tamaulipas Crow which has been a burr under my saddle since 1999.
Other than that and a few species I wanted to photograph in the ABA area, we were just out and about.

We flew into Austin and quickly bolted to the Houston area for the Bulbul. Easy to find.
Then over to Winne, Texas where Laura met us.
We spent time birding the High Island hotspots and Bolivar Flats.
Then over to Mico Texas where Laura and Dave hosted us at their house. Great to hear and see Black-capped Vireos between their house and their mailbox.
After a night and a day there, Chris and I bade farewell to Laura and Dave and we headed to the valley. Once there we hit the major birding spots over three days (South Padre Island, Brownsville Dump) Bentsen, Estro Llano Grande, Oliverie Park, etc, etc.)
Great birding as we expected.
At the end of the trip Both Chris and I took advantage of being in Austin and visited friends (Chris) and family (me)

It was a nice casual birding adventure which allowed us to see and identify 224+ species.

Here a few pictures from this adventure

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Grey-breasted Martin - Brooklyn, NY
Written April 3, 2021

On Thursday Doug Gochfield spotted a bird out over a lake in a park in Brooklyn, New York. While it resembled a Purple Martin it certainly was not a classic Purple Martin. He got photographs and got the word out. Some birders got to see it. On Friday birders were there, and the bird remained. It is unknown how long it had been there but the cold temperatures certainly did not insure that this insect eating bird would remain or survive.

I would have bolted for it on Friday but I had my 2nd covid shot scheduled for that evening and I did not want to miss that. So I waited.
I wanted to head up very first thing on Saturday morning but was unsure how my body would react to the shot. And would the bird survive another sub-freezing night. I contacted Mike Rosengarten and late on Friday evening we came up with plan. I would get up Saturday morning and see how I felt and see if the bird was refound. The location was only about 1 ¾ hours from my house.

Well I woke up early Saturday and felt fine. But it was to early for the bird to have been seen. I decided not to wait for a sighting and I contacted Mike and by 7:10 am we were heading north. On the way we got the news that chasers do not like getting. The bird was not seen yet this morning. Not good. But the previous morning it has roosted in a tree until things warmed up. So it was still possible the bird was there. We got to the upscale neighborhood and found a parking spot. The spot was not close but the walk to the lake felt good

When we got there about 9 am were saw some birders scattered about not focusing on any one place. We saw to birders near by and went over and as chance would have it I knew one of them. They had no new information. The bird had not been sighted that morning. As we were chatting, a guy with a bike came up and said “Hi Bert”. In the current era of masks I was not quick to identify the person. But I quickly realized that this person was Doug, an amazing birder and the finder of the bird.
I asked if he knew anything and he casually said that he had just gotten a phone call and the bird was being seen less than 100 yards away. So off we went.

If we had been alone we might have been unsure that we were on the bird but Doug quickly pointed it out to us and other birders. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. We did not have the best sun angle on it and I always struggle to photograph quick moving swallows and martins. I took many, many pictures. If anyone wants crisp clear pictures of distant trees with a blurry bird in the foreground, let me know. Attached are two pictures worth sharing.

As for right now the identification of this individual is unclear. There is a possibility that it could be a weird Purple Martin but is more likely to be a Gray-breasted Martin or a Sinola Martin. A few other species are also being considered. I will let the experts work on the ID.

We hung around about an hour and then headed home. I was home by about 12:15 pm. A quick chase.
While we were there I alerted Neil Hayward who was not aware of the presence of this bird. He quickly drove down from Boston and saw the bird about 2 pm. Glad he got the bird.

(Postscript: This bird has been identified as a Gray-breasted Martin)

Here are a few pictures froms this adventure

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Yellow-faced Grassquit and Red-vented Bulbul - Texas
Written February 27, 2021

For several weeks there have not been any birds for me to chase. Several rarities have showed up in the US but I have already seen those that showed up. Several rarities have shown up in Canada but the border is closed and they were out of reach.
But……..mid-day Monday a Yellow-faced Grassquit appeared at a water feature in a state park (Resaca De La Palma State Park) in Brownsville Texas. This species of grassquit resides in Mexico and there are very few records north of the Mexico border. It is a mega rarity.
It took a couple of hours for the word to get out and for me to mull over what to do. By dinner time I was ready to chase. Les was Ok with me going so I was going! As many of you know, Laura and Dave Keene live near San Antonio and for many of us the road to south Texas (AKA the Rio Grande Valley) gos through Casa Keene in Mico, Texas. A plan developed.

Tuesday morning I was on a 6 am flight (thanks Ed) out of Philadelphia to San Antonio through Charlotte. As the plane I was on took off from Charlotte it was really neat to see the exact planes that Ed flies on the runways at the Charlotte airport. I knew Ed was not in any of those planes I was seeing but it was nice to picture him doing it.
I arrived in San Antonio at about 11:45 am and Laura was generous enough to pick me up to at the airport. She had cleared her schedule and would be going birding with me. On the 4 plus hour ride south we were concerned that there were no reports on the grassquit one way or the other. In fact there were no reports coming out of the state park at all. We did some research and realized that the park was closed on Tuesday . We found out later that some birders did get in. The park is open to walk in people when it is “closed”. They got in but the grassquit did not appear. We got to Brownsville very late afternoon and used the rest of the daylight hours birding a rural road (Old Port Isabel Road) near South Padre Island. An Aplomado Falcon on a nest platform was the highlight of the day.
We booked rooms in Brownsville and were shut down early. It had been a full day of travel.

Wednesday morning we were at the park as it opened. The park has 14,000 acres of grasslands which is the primary habitat of our target bird. But there is only one real source of water for birds in that habitat – a water feature behind the visitor’s center. That is where the bird had appeared on Monday. So it was go to the water feature and watch, wait, and hope. There were a couple of other mega rarities also showing up at the water feature (Blue Bunting, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Dusky-capped Flycatcher) but we had seen them on other occasions and while they we would be super to see, they were not our focus.
The water feature is about 25 yards long at the most. It has a pool at one end, a meandering rivulet, and a pool at the other end. There are three viewing spots behind blinds. There was lots of bird activity and the bunting and the grosbeak both came in a few times during the day. Only a birder can appreciate that watching a 25 yard stretch of habitat for 9 hours is actually quite enjoyable. Needless to say the grassquit never appeared.
We left the park about 5 pm and headed to a local recreational park (Joe & Tony Oliveira Park) where three species of parrots fly in at dusk. Only one of those species is countable (Red-crowned Parrot). There were several hundred parrots in the air for about 20 minutes as the sun set. They were quite noisy and it was quite spectacular.
It was hard to give up on the grassquit and we decided to give it another ½ day on Thursday. We booked rooms at the same motel we had been in the night before and we settled in for the night. Standing for 9 hours in the heat and humidity was quite tiring.

Thursday morning we were back at the park and staring at the water feature by 8 am. By early afternoon we decided to throw in the towel and give up. The bird had only been seen mid-day Monday and had not appeared since. It is probably somewhere in the area but was not coming into the water feature.
We made a stop at Estero Llano Grande State Park for some general birding for an hour or two. We saw three species of orioles, 2 species of hummingbirds, a Common Pauraque, and expected species. It was quite nice to do some walking to stretch our legs after standing in the same basic spot for about 14 hours over a day and a half. We headed north and picked up food on the way and had a late dinner at Laura and Dave’s house. The bed felt good that night.

On Friday I had hoped to do some local San Antonio birding with Laura and then head to Austin to see our daughter Lisa. The plan was to have dinner with Lisa and spend the night there before heading back to San Antonio and start the trip home. But has luck would have it, the night that worked for me did not work for Lisa. She had previous plans with out of town friends. Next time!
So Laura and I had Friday for birding. We invited Dave along but he deferred, as usual.
Laura suggested we drive over to Houston and look for Red-vented Bulbuls. That sounded good to me. This species, from the Indian subcontinent, had recent been accepted by the American Birding Association as an established introduced species in the Houston area. It would be an ABA lifer for both of us. Not exactly a mega rarity like a Yellow-faced Grassquit but it would be a lifer.
We did some research and came up with a spot to find the birds. It was a retention basin from an old water works (Houston Heights Reservoir) in downtown Houston. A bit of habitat in a developed area. The ride over was about 3 hours and we enjoyed spotting roadside birds and adding to our Texas county lists.

We got the park and started our quest. We knew what the species looked like and we had studied the vocalization. We worked the one part of the park and had no luck. But we saw two birders in the distance and worked out way over to them. They we working our direction and our paths soon crossed. Then it was like a bad movie. I asked if they had seen any bulbuls. Two things happened. The reply from the birder was “about 15 of them so far” and at the exact same time Laura said “look up, there is one on a wire over our heads”.
So we saw and heard our target bird. We did some more birding in the park and ended up seeing about 15 of them. We also saw some Scaly-breasted Munias which are countable in that area.

Then we decided to head about 30 minutes north where there is pine woodlands that hold Brown-capped Nuthatches. These only occur in the southeastern part of Texas and Laura wanted to add them to her Texas list. I also had never seen them in Texas but not being a Texas resident I was not as focused as she was. We found a nature preserve (Mitchell Nature Preserve--Creekside West Trailhead) where this species is resident. We parked at a trailhead and started our quest. We found out that the place was huge. Everything in Texas is big! We walked and birded. We found the expected resident species but no Brown-headed Nuthatches. We worked only a limited amount of the preserve for just short of 2 hours, covering 2 miles. Nothing.
We did some research on the fly and decided to try another park that was smaller and had the nuthatches reported in the past month. We walked back to the parking area and then it happened. Just like in a bad movie, again. There were five Brown-headed Nuthatches flying around and calling about 30 yards from where our vehicle was parked. Honestly. They were not there when we parked there 2 hours before.
We enjoyed them and photographed them before we started back to San Antonio. We stopped for a take out dinner and we were back at Laura and Dave’s at about 6 pm.

Saturday was a travel day since I am writing this as I sit on an airplane home, it can be said that today is a travel day. I spent the morning watching the bird activity in Keene’s yard. They have made it a real sanctuary and as a result have several first county records in the past four years. It was a real treat to enjoy the company of Laura and Dave and watch the feeders.
Around noon they were kind enough to take me to the airport. I flew to Dallas and I am now heading home to Philadelphia. Always some stories when you travel and let’s just say I did a mad dash though the Dallas airport to make my connection.

I took about 2800 pictures and it will take me a day or two to sort, process, and arrange them. I will send out a link when I have them ready for viewing.

Overall, on one level, it was an unsuccessful chase for a Yellow-faced Grassquit but on other level I was unexpectedly able to get to Houston to see the Bulbul.
And it is always great to bird south Texas, one of the best birding spots in North America. It was a true pleasure to do it with such an accomplished birder, an outstanding photographer, and a great traveling companion like Laura.

I am ready for the next chase!

Here are a few pictures from this adventure