The Wild West come to the NH Coast, Rare Birds!

Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

 Yellow-headed Blackbird, male

Yellow-headed Blackbird, male

The Yellow-headed Blackbird is in the very middle of the Starling and Brown-headed Cowbird flock, can you find it!

Western Grebe, (excuse the small photo but it was very, very far away off the NH coast)

We just saw these cool western birds on the NH coast! They're not rare if you are quite west of here, where their breeding range mostly is, but they're rare if you are on the NH coast! Sometimes birds, especially during migration times, fly out of their normal migration routes and wind up in unusual places. These birds were stopped by the coastline. These species have been seen in NH before. Lark Sparrow and Yellow-headed Blackbird (which is barely annual) are considered rare here. Western Grebe is the most rare, with only a handful of sightings before. 

You may not find your target bird but instead find...Snow Buntings!

We recently went birding to try and find an Iceland Gull that had been seen on Lake Massabesic in NH. We dipped on it (birder talk for missed it) so, on this overcast gray day, we went to other birding spots in NH. We saw many Ring-biled Gulls, such as this Ring-billed Gull, 1st winter at the

Exeter Wastewater Treatment Plant, NH. It looked pretty barren there

but like home to Snow Buntings, birds of the far northern tundra who come down as a winter visitor to lower Canada and the northern half of the US. We found a flock of 38.

They just seemed to disappear into the rocky shore.

Their plumage colors make them camouflaged against the background of rocks and weeds, whose seeds they were eating. How many can you find in this photo?

Next we went to the Concord, NH, Community Gardens on Birch St. The dried weed and flower stalks had ample seeds for visiting sparrows, such as Savannah, Song, Chipping and Tree Sparrows and

this American Goldfinch perched on a sunflower heart!

The two most unusual birds we found there were this late migrating Bobolink

and a Nashville Warbler. (Last two photos are of birds taken in other places, but used to show you what they look like.)

When you go birding you may not always find your target bird, but instead see other cool birds! And that is the fun!
Lillian Stokes

How to ID a Cackling Goose, it looks like a small Canada Goose!

Cackling Goose, hutchinsii subspecies

All above photos, Cackling Goose, hutchinsii subspecies

Cackling Geese create excitement for birders when they show up in the East, and there is one being seen in Maine now. Look carefully when you see a flock of Canada Geese, and maybe you can find a Cackling Goose! See my other blog post here. These geese, who mainly nest in the arctic, look like very small Canada Geese, but are a different species. There are 4 subspecies of Cackling Goose. It is thought that the subspecies who usually shows up in the East is the nominate subspecies, Branta hutchinsii hutchiinsii, (also sometimes called "Richardson's Goose", "Richardson's Cackling Goose" or "Hutchins's Goose"). The above are photos I took in western Massachusetts on 11/8/09 is of the hutchinsii subspecies (confirmed by experts). ID of Cackling subspecies emphasizes head and bill shape, with hutchinsii having a ratio of bill length to depth of about 3:2. This bird in my photo has a short bill, a short, steeply rising forehead, a rather flattened crown rising to a bit of a peak at the back of the head, all characteristics of the hutchinsii subspecies. Most hutchinsii also have a narrowing of the white of the cheek patch at the level of the eye, also visible on this bird. This bird also has a very pale breast, as have the majority of hutchinsii. The back and sides are also pale, the back does not appear darker than the sides. There's noticeable pale edges to the wing covert feathers, creating pale diagonal lines.

Cackling Goose, unknown subspecies

Cackling Geese cannot always be identified as to subspecies, as with the above and following photos of an individual I photographed in Ohio (east of Toledo) in May 2005. Several experts concur that this might be a hutchinsii subspecies or possibly an intergrade between the taverneri and hutchinsii subspecies, but it cannot be definitively identified. To quote the excellent article on Distribution and Identification of Cackling Goose Subspecies by Mlodinow et al. "though birds breeding on the continental Arctic slope from the Mackenzie River west are thought to be taverneri, the precise border between taverneri and nominate hutchinsii has not been defined, nor has the degree of potential or actual intergradation between the two (J. Leafloor, J. Pearce, D. Derksen, pers. comm.)."

This bird shows a more rounded head than the hutchinsii bird in my top photo, with a more gradual slope from the bill to the head, more characteristic of taverneri. Taverneri subspecies have "stout and somewhat triangular bills". The breast of this bird is pale. Taverneri are "typically medium-gray-breasted, becoming darker on belly/flanks" according to the article. However, sometimes they can have pale breasts.

Here's the neck fully upright in an alert posture of the goose. The head looks faintly flattened and there's white flecking at base of the black neck, suggesting a very thin white neck collar. The article estimated that only 2-5% of taverneri adults have a neck collar and that about 10-20% of hutchinsii can have a neck collar.

Here's another posture with the head looking somewhat flattened. Note that under the chin you can see a thin black line running from bill to the black neck, called a gular stripe. This is sometimes seen in a small percentage of hutchinsii, whereas 40-75% of taverneri have a gular stripe according to the article.

Here's another posture where the neck looks short.

Cackling Geese of the hutchinsii subspecies mainly winter along the Gulf Coast from southeastern Louisiana down into Mexico and also from eastern Colorado to eastern New Mexico through western Texas and into Mexico. Of the Cackling Geese that show up outside of their normal wintering range and stray to the East in small numbers, almost all reports have been of the hutchinsii subspecies. They have been reported from Indiana, Ontario, western New York, southern Quebec and Nova Scotia down to Virginia with a few reports to North Carolina, South Carolina and a few from Florida.
Taverneri subspecies winters in mainly Washington and Oregon, although some may winter in the continent's center. There are few reports of taverneri in eastern North America. There's a record from Onondaga county, New York, Sept. 2004, Janesville, Wisconsin, Oct. 2004, Amherst, Mass. Oct. 2007 and maybe the same bird in Middlefield Conn. Nov. to Dec. 2007 for photos of this bird see here.
The other two subspecies of Cackling Geese are leucoparia and minima. Minima (called Ridgway's Goose) is the smallest and darkest of the subspecies and winters mainly in western Oregon and Washington and central California. Only a handful or so of reports for minima exist for east of the Mississippi and are for North Carolina, Illinois, Connecticut, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee. Leucoparia (called Aleutian Goose) a medium-sized Cackling, has a broad, white, complete neck collar on all adults. It winters mainly California and a little in Oregon and there are no winter records for east of the Mississippi River that we know of.
So keep looking at Cackling Geese in the East, there may be other subspecies showing up besides hutchinsii. If you find them, let us know.

For more complete information and photos of all 4 subspecies, see our The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, page 12.

Also consult Distribution and Identification of Cackling Goose Subspecies, by Mlodinow et al. North American Birds, vol. 62, no. 3, 2008, pages: 344-360.

Binocular Raffle Winner!

Eleanor helps draw the name of the raffle winner

and the winner of a new pair of binoculars is...Diane!

We just had a very nice book signing and talk at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH. We talked about our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America, a national guide with large beautiful photos that covers 250 species of North American Birds. At the talk we raffled off a free pair of 8x42 Eagle Optics binoculars to anyone who bought the new book. The lucky winner was Diane, who is just getting into birds and what a nice combo to help her, the new book and binos! It was great to see several kids from the NH Young Birders Club there and one of them, Eleanor, helped pick the raffle winner! Hope they keep up their enthusiasm and learning about birds and hope our new book will help them.

Great Horned Owl

"Hoohoohoo hoohoo hoo"

Great Horned Owl. Owl courtship can begin in late fall, so start listening for who is hooting!
Joke - What does and educated owl say?
Answer - "Whom"

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Now it's time for our "Halloween Candy!" (ed. note, dog cookies)

Stokes Book Signing Sat. Nov. 1st, 11:00 am Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH

There will be a talk and book signing for our new, The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America this Sat. Nov. 1st, 11:00 at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH.

There will also be a raffle at the book signing of a FREE 8x42 Binocular to anyone who buys the Stokes new book at the book signing! 

Note, if you cannot attend the talk and book signing you can still enter the raffle if you buy The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America at the Toadstool any time this week and fill out a raffle ticket and place it in the raffle jar on the counter at the Toadstool Bookstore, Peterborough, NH.

Hope to see you there!

Lillian and Don Stokes

Northern Harriers Are Migrating Now, Be On the Lookout!

Northern Harrier, photographed from our deck, here in NH

Just had a Northern Harrier fly over our fields here in NH, plus a Sharp-shinned Hawk, despite the rain. Hawk migration is still going on. Broad-winged Hawks have mainly cleared out of New England, but Sharp-shinned, Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawks as well as American Kestrels, Merlins, and more are still coming. Harriers course low over fields, looking for rodents, so they stop by our property, which has large fields, viewable from our deck. Northern Harriers breed across the upper two-thirds of North America and winter across approximately the southern two-thirds.
Have a great weekend and see some birds!

Yellow-rumped Warblers Are On The Move!

This is a Yellow-rumped Warbler in winter plumage with the tell-tale yellow rump. They're migrating  now so watch for them in your garden. Get to know this bird since it is one of the most common fall migrating warblers. Photo is from our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to Birds of North America, which was just published!

Migration Watch: Palm Warblers Are Migrating Now!

"Yellow" subspecies of Palm Warbler photographed in NH in fall

"Western" subspecies of Palm Warbler photographed in winter on Sanibel Island, on the west coast of southern FL

Palm Warblers, are now migrating and we are seeing them here in NH. These late migrating, beautiful warblers have yellow breasts and deep yellow undertail coverts. They constantly wag their tail up and down, a nice giveaway to their identification. These bright "yellow" Palms are the eastern subspecies of Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) and breed from central Quebec east. They winter along the Gulf Coast, from LA to northern FL.

The "western" subspecies of Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum palmarum) breeds from Ontatio west, across to parts of the Yukon and ne. British Columbia and winters in the Southeast, down through south FL. Some may also winter on the West Coast. This subspecies has very little yellow on the breast but still has the bright yellow undertail coverts. There is a breeding zone south of James Bay where they intergrade. So this gives you some idea of why Palm Warblers may look different, depending on which area of the country you are in.

We enjoy watching the Palm Warblers on our property forage near the ground in the goldenrods along our "warbler edge", the edge of our field that faces south, and is the place where we see the most warblers in spring and fall migration.

For more on the subspecies of Palm Warbler as well as how to identify fall warbers, see our The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the best-selling photographic field guide available.

Also check out our new pocket-sized bird guide, The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America, just published Buy It Here.

How to ID Sparrows at Your Bird Feeders, Sparrows are Migrating Now!

White-throated Sparrows, Zonotrichia albicollis, come in two morphs. One morph has brown head stripes, as here;

the other morph has black-and-white head stripes, as here. There is much individual variation. They all have white throats and are very common at many feeders in winter.

White-crowned Sparrows, Zonotrichia leucophrys, in their first winter have rufous brown head stripes

and no white throat. We just saw one of these in our NH yard.

The dramatic adult White-crowned Sparrow has beautiful black head stripes and a white central crown stripe.

Sparrows are migrating big time. White-throated Sparrows are coming to bird feeders across much of the country now. Somewhat less common here in New England, White-crowned Sparrows are also migrating and coming to feeders. Both these species winter across much of the country and you may have them at your bird feeders all winter. We recently had first-winter White-crowned Sparrows at our feeder amongst the many, many White-throated Sparrows.

These sparrows love to feed on the ground on millet or seed mixes containing millet. We make a special sparrow feeder by building a big brush pile and sprinkling the seed in front and under the pile. It's a sparrow magnet and provides perching spots and cover from predators. The big bonus for us is that we get to see lots of fall sparrows.

If you live in the far western part of the country, you will get lovely Golden-crowned Sparrows visiting your bird feeders. They have a golden forecrown, surrounded on the front and sides by black or brown.

All these sparrow species are in the genus Zonotrichia. We discussed the characteristics of the sparrows in the Melospiza genus as stated in our The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the most complete photographic guide available. In our guide, p. 656, we discuss the Zonotrichia genus and say these are "large deep-bellied, broad-necked sparrows with a fairly small conical bill, rounded crown, and fairly long, slightly notched tail." In addition to White-throated, Golden, and White-crowned Sparrows, the Zonotrichia genus includes Harris's Sparrows.

Tip: Look at these sparrows through your binoculars at your bird feeder and learn the characteristics of the shape of each genus. You will get better at ID-ing them and it will set you up to learn the sparrows in other genera.

Sparrow ID, Melospiza Sparrows

Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii. Saw one in our  yard.

Song Sparrow, Melospiza melody. Lots are at our bird feeders and bird bath now.

Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana. Hang out in swampy areas not usually at feeders.

Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana

Sparrow ID can be challenging, to say the least. We often see Swamp Sparrows, hanging out appropriately, in swampy areas at the edge of the water. Birds are often habitat dependent and thus the Swamp Sparrow's name.

This is a subtly beautiful sparrow with a strongly marked face, russet wash along flanks, and reddish-brown on crown, wings and tail.

Swamp Sparrows are in the genus Melospiza, along with Song and Lincoln's Sparrows. In our The Stokes Field Guide to Birds of North America, in addition to thorough individual species accounts with multiple photos per species, we have colored boxes where we give helpful Identification Tips and an overview of many of the bird families. Look for these in our field guide.

For Sparrows, in the  Stokes guide p. 656, we say,

"Sparrows are small birds with short conical bills and varied-length tails. They are birds of primarily grasslands, fields, and open edges, where they feed mostly on seeds and some insects. Most are brownish with streaked backs, and they can look quite similar. Fortunately, there are several large genera that have subtle but distinctive shapes. Becoming familiar with these shapes can help you place an individual sparrow into one of these groups, or genera; then you can look for plumage clues to complete your identification.

Species ID: There are 12 genera of sparrows in North America. Only 5 have 3 or more species, and these are the ones that are most useful to know to use in this generic approach.

* Melospiza: Medium-sized to large sparrows with rather average proportions: they are slightly deep-bellied and have a medium-sized bill, rounded crown, and fairly long rounded tail. These sparrows are easily seen in brushy areas and marshes; when flushed or curious they tend to fly up to higher perches for long periods and give short alarm calls. Some (Song Sparrow) come regularly to bird feeders. Includes Song, Lincoln's, and Swamp.

Chipping Sparrow, Spizella  passerina, adult summer. Chipping Sparrows come to feeders.

In winter Chipping Sparrows change and look like this. Chipping Sparrows are in the Spizella genus.

* Spizella: Small to medium-sized sparrows with high rounded crown, short conical bill and fairly long notched tails. These are fairly conspicuous sparrows that often feed in flocks on the ground. When disturbed they tend to fly up to higher vegetation and look around. They include Chipping, American Tree, Clay-colored, Brewer's, Field, and Black-chinned Sparrows.

In addition to the above, look for this different sparrow at your feeders,

Fox Sparrow, Passerella iliaca. These are large beautiful sparrows that can be seen in fall and winter at feeders.

Our big book, The Stokes Field Guide to The Birds Of North America is now available for your convenience in two regional guides that are lighter and more portable. The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern and Western Regions recently came out and can be bought at barnesandnoble.com and your local bookseller. Get them for they contain multiple photos of each species of sparrow and will help you with identifying and enjoying your sparrows more.
Our newest guide is The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America, contains over 580 stunning photos, covers 250 species, and can fit in your pocket!

The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America is Just Published!!

Yeah!!! Our new book, The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America is published today!! Get it from your favorite bookseller or buy online click here!

Beautiful Roseate Spoonbill countdown photo!

Roseate Spoonbill

And here's another image from our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America, coming out tomorrow, Oct. 14th!

Belted Kingfisher Countdown Photo!

Here's a Belted Kingfisher, another of my favorite photos,  from our new bird guide which gets published in 2 days. On Tues. Oct. 14th our  brand new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America will be published. Most photos are by me. All the text and essentially all the photos are new!
Lillian Stokes

Only 3 more days until Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to Birds is out! The countdown photo today is.....

Osprey

Here's another of my favorite photos from our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America which is coming out Oct. 14th! You can PRE-ORDER IT HERE.

Favorite Countdown Photos from the new Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to Birds, Coming Oct. 14th.

Our new book, The Stokes Essential Field Guide to the Birds of North America is coming in 4 days, on Oct. 14th!! Here in one of my any favorite countdown photos, of an American Oystercatcher, from the guide. Each day until it comes out I will put one of my favorite photos from the book on this blog.

Guess what? You can PRE-ORDER Now!

Countdown to Publication of Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to Birds, Oct. 14th!

Coming Oct. 14th! 

Pre-order Here!

Did you know most of the photos were taken by me, Lillian! Can't wait until you see them.

Counting down the minutes until the publication of our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America! Available Oct. 14th!