Is Kansas the Tropics?

Three year birds in one hour.  The best of the bunch was a bird I got last year (to my surprise), but perhaps is not that rare in the county now-a-days.  I drove up to the Rooks State Fishing Lake and was presented with this picture:

A small cormorant--could it be?

I immediately was surprised by the sight of a small cormorant, or at least it appeared to be a small cormorant.  It's amazing how often the size of birds can be tricky to truly ascertain.  No matter how I looked at the bird, it just looked smaller than the nearby Double-cresteds.  I looked at it through the scope; the lores were dark grey/black.  One point for what I suspected.  There was a very thin "v" at the gape.  The bird was in basic plumage.  I could not count this as a point towards my hypothesis.  Perhaps due to my presence, the birds took off and amazingly flew right by me.  Here is a picture of what I saw:

A small cormorant--it sure looks to be!

As you can tell from the photo, the bird is noticeably smaller, with a thinner neck (another point), smaller bill (another point), and shorter wings (just one more point).  What you can't tell is that the tail was long and skinnier than the Double-cresteds (yep, another point).  The tail is lost somewhere in this photo.  Where it went, I'll never know.  

The birds landed not too far away, so I pulled the car around and got some great looks at the bird.  The characteristic white "v" at the gape of an alternative-plumaged bird was not there yet, but I could see a thin "v."  The bird's bill was shorter and thinner than a Double-crested's would be.  

A small cormorant--it's got to be.

The birds finally took off and circled the lake a few times.  I got some photos of the bird and by this time was 100% convinced that I had found my second Rooks County Neotropic Cormorant (#119).

 Neotropic Cormorant--look at that tail.

 Neotropic Cormorant--notice the size difference.

Neotropic Cormorant--see the difference in build and tail structure.

Obviously I was excited, and that excitement was soon compounded when two Greater Yellowlegs     (#120) flew in "tu-tu-tuu"ing all the way.  And not to be outdone, a small raft of  eight Eared Grebes (#121) made their presence known to me.  The interesting thing about the grebes is that the birds represented a nice spectrum of the plumages: a few birds were essentially in basic plumage, one was essentially in alternate plumage, and the rest were somewhere in between.  

2012 Update

I found a Field Sparrow (#115) the other day (actually two of them).  I went driving the country roads yesterday, looking for longspurs; I didn't find any.  I'm getting restless for April and May, for the shorebird and passerine migration to hit full swing.  It's killing me!
I took a second to calculate where I'm at in my goal to reach 245 for Kansas this year.  I'm right on pace to get 249.  I think April and May will go a long way to deciding if I get to it or not.  I only have 63 more Code 1 birds to get.  We'll see.

The Day of Arrivals

March 18th was the day when the first spring birds seemed to appear en masse.  I saw five new year birds yesterday and two of them happened to be county birds.
The first year bird that was brave enough to show its head was an energetic Eastern Phoebe (#110) at Rooks Fishing Lake.  The next bird that fell was a county bird (one that I was expecting any day now): Tree Swallow (#111).  The third one to bite the dust was the best of the day and also a county bird (although one which I wasn't expecting to get necessarily): Great Scaup (#112).  I have been studying all the scaup lately, hoping for a Greater, but no matter how hard my brain wants to turn a Lesser into one, it hasn't happened until today.  I almost just passed this one over, having been disappointed too many times.  This one had all the characteristic signs of a Greater, though: rounded head, more prominent bill, larger protuberance at the distal end of the bill, and brighter white flanks with no black flecking visible in the white.  The only field mark I didn't really get to check out was the more prominent white in the wings when it flies.  I watched the bird on the water for half-an-hour, but it never flew.  Anyways, it was a great bird to get for the county.  The final two birds were not as exciting, but it always nice to see birds for the first time in a year: Blue-winged Teal (#113) and Turkey Vulture (#114).  I tried to find a Cinnamon Teal in with the small flock of Blue-wingeds, but it was not to be.  I will find one soon, though!

A long expected update

Things were pretty slow for awhile.  I like being in a section of the state that is lightly birded and geographically distinct from what most Kansans bird.  However, it has been torture seeing all the reports of Spring migrants from the East and having to wait until they show up here.
Well, long story short, they have started to show up.  My wife told me to bird yesterday (Yes, she told me to bird!  You have to love a wife like that!) and got a few first of the Springs.  I saw my first flock of migratory sparrows.  There wasn't anything new for the year, but it was nice to see Savannah, Song, American Tree, White-crowned, and White-throated together.  I also got my first Loggerhead (#109) of the year.  I didn't see any Loggerheads in the county during the winter.  I saw one in December in Phillips County but not a one in Rooks.
Common Grackles also showed up in force yesterday, adding their dulcet tones to the Spring symphony.  They were my first for the county for the year, but I saw a small flock down in Pawnee County this past weekend (#106).  I also got my first Eastern Meadowlark (#105) for the year at Ft. Larned.
Speaking of meadowlarks, they are starting to frustrate me.  I had a potential Eastern in Rooks yesterday that had a perfect malar pattern for Eastern.  The bird never sang (as far as I could tell), but was calling and rattling.  I know the meadowlark songs, but I need to get more knowledgable about the other sounds they emit.  The bird was probably an Eastern, but seeing that it would be a county bird, I'm not willing to call it.
Anyways, I also got Northern Shoveler (#107) and Wilson's Snipe (#108) in the past week.  So yeah, it's been a good week for year-birds.
By the way, I am dying to see Chestnut-collared Longspur and McCown's Longspur.  The Chestnut-collared surely pass through Rooks every year, and I wouldn't be surprised if McCown's does close to every year.  I just haven't seen any longspur-like birds.  I'm used to seeing huge groups of Laplands lift off the ground, do their little party in the air, land again, and take off again.  I will most likely not see these other longspurs in those numbers, but I've been on the lookout.  I also get frustrated by reading others' reports of flyovers.  Everyone is identifying these birds in the air.  Part of my job is to have a good ear, and to me, the longspur calls are very similar, easy to mix up if someone just hears them out in the field a time or two.  I'm sure some of the id's are legit, but I'm skeptical as to whether most of them are.

Some photos for your enjoyment

 Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow.  This identification is made by the fact that the bird has a pale lore.  A bird with a black lore would be from the eastern subspecies.

One of the field marks distinguishing this as a Northern Shrike is that the black stripe only contains about half of the eye.  If this was a Loggerhead, almost the entire eye would be contained.

Two more field marks identifying this as a Northern and not Loggerhead Shrike: The bill is long and sharply hooked, the Loggerhead's would be shorter and not as sharply hooked; and the breast is faintly barred.  An adult Loggerhead would not have bars on the breast.

 Great-tailed Grackle (male)

 Great-tailed Grackles (male on left, female on right)

The Calm before the Storm

Spring migration is beginning!  Sure it starts slowly: ducks start to pass through, geese wing their way north, and early migrants start to appear seemingly out of nowhere.  But it is all just a harbinger of what is to come.  Longspurs will be flocking through, starting any day now; Pipits will join them, first the American variety, then the more anticipated and highly frustrating Sprague's; and the advanced scouts of the shorebird infantry will appear, clearing the area for their brethren.

But before all of this starts, it is slow.  I have not picked up a new year bird since last weekend at Bird Runner.  That isn't to say that nothing has been happening.  I got my first Ross's Geese at Rooks State Fishing Lake.  Ducks are starting to overwhelm the farm ponds.  And birds are starting to sing with more regularity.

One of my favorite ducks: the Canvasback.  

I spent some time yesterday cruising the county roads, looking for waterfowl (c'mon Cinnamon Teal), longspurs, and trying to pick out the tune of an Eastern Meadowlark.  The meadowlarks should be showing up any day now, and I still need it for Rooks.  However, the only tune I could pick up with my less-than-expert ears was the highly repeated simple song of the Western Meadowlark.  I tried scoping a few birds to study details of the meadowlarks to help with identifying them when the Eastern's show up. All the field guides point to three characteristics to separate the meadowlarks: the color of the malar, the streaking/spotting on the flanks, and the amount of white on the lateral portions of the tail.

The color of the malar seemed a little bit subjective to me yesterday as I scoped a few birds that had very intermediate amounts of white and yellow.  According to the experts, a mostly white malar is an Eastern, and a mostly yellow malar is a Western.  One bird in particular that I studied sang the Western song, had all the other characteristics of a Western, but had a mostly white malar.  I guess these rules are not hard and fast.  

A Western Meadowlark with a typical mostly yellow malar, but with a bit of white still present.

Another field mark the experts point to is whether the flanks are spotted or streaked.  If the bird displays spots, it should be a Western.  If it displays streaks, it should be an Eastern.  Again, this seems rather subjective to me as streaks or spots look very similar.

Streaks?  Spots?  It looks like both to me?

The bird above was definitely a Western, but I can't really tell if it displays streaks or spots or both on its flanks.  I'll have to compare the flanks when some Easterns show up.

The final field mark is the amount of white on the lateral parts of the tail.  I didn't get any flight shots, so I'll have to wait for some images.  This again seems like a pretty subjective mark, though.

Of course the best way to distinguish the meadowlarks is by sound.  Learn the songs, and you will be able to identify the birds.  

One final identification problem I've had is what subspecies of Fox Sparrow I've been seeing.  I saw two birds that were definitely Red Fox Sparrows, but most of the others appear to be of the Canadian Rocky Mountain birds depicted in the large Sibley guide.  I haven't gotten any looks that are conclusive, but there just seems to be too much gray in some of the birds I've seen, and the red seems to have a browner tone that I'm used to for Reds.

Fox Sparrow-Red or intermediate between Red and Slate-colored?