HOT NEWS: A WESTERN REEF HERON was found at a tidal marsh in Brooklyn yesterday. This is a “Mega Rarity” which I should be taking off to see yesterday. Well not yesterday, today, tomorrow, or Wednesday either. I’m hoping it stays around at least until Thursday, which, because of commitments, will be the first chance I’ll have to make it down there.
Impy Empids
The Empidonax group of flycatchers are a tricky bunch. They all look alike. Well, not really, but some of the genus are so much alike in appearance, that the only way to tell them apart is by song. In fact, until a few years ago, several species were considered all to be one or two species. Then the great gurus of nomenclature and taxonomy decided that there were several distinct species in the lot. And where the ranges overlap, they can distinguished only by song. That’s where my problems come from. In my quest for a “Big Year” in New York State, I’ve seen - and heard - lots of Willow Flycatchers, but no Alder Flycatchers. These were once considered to be one species with distinctive “regional” songs, but, alas, they look virtually identical. So my task was to find an “empid” singing the Alder song. Oh, and one other problem - as a rule, they stop singing as soon as they are done nesting. They’re now done nesting. Time is running out. If I don’t find an especially vigorous male, I won’t be able to identify an Alder with any degree of confidence and will end up with a big miss for this year. Going for a Big Year, I can’t afford to miss this species. It is one of those I had been expecting to get.
All that in mind, I started to call and write birding contacts asking if they have any “staked out” Alder Flycatchers I might find. I did get a few good reports. But for each visit to promising site - produced no singing Empids. No Alder.
One guy up in the Saratoga way posted a report of a singing Alder from about a week ago. So I contacted him to get specific directions. It worked! I went up early yesterday morning hoping I might hear a stay up late Alder. My first trick was to find appropriate habitat - that would be an alder thicket. Then I played a song from my I pod. Even if the bird didn’t sing, a positive reaction could identify the species. Being as the nesting season is over, playing a bird song should have no effect on the bird’s territorial defenses. Well, one bird did fly in from across an open area, perching for a while, then flying across the road to a maple right over my head. Eventually, he did sing a weak song from a distance. Done. One more tick on my trip to 300!
Now, I hope that all that long story telling gives a sense of how difficult picking up a missed species can get. And each one is essential to make it to the goal.
I went to Saratoga County Airport where they put up a wonderful viewing area for visitors to watch grassland bird species from the parking area. There’s even a very informative kiosk with good information about the birds and the habitat.
My target was a Vesper Sparrow, a rather nondescript sparrow species with a beautiful song. And as the name implies, they sing best in the evening. But they also sing through the day -which was what I was hoping for. Sure enough, after a while watching planes come and go, I heard one singing from out in the field. There he was, singing from one of the many directional signs.
Those two species yesterday brought my year total to: 273 species; 27 species to go.
