First Few Days in NEW HAMPSHIRE!

Here is a rundown of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday ((following post - scroll down - contains the internet worthy photos of the three days)):



I arrived midnight Saturday/Sunday, and got up early Sunday to look around. The first "eastern" bird I saw was a few Eastern Bluebirds! That was cool! Then a few Northern Cardinals. That was it until we got to the beach. Great Black-backed Gulls are definitely different from the Herring Gulls, and Ring-billeds I am used to back home.

I got my lifer Common Eider on the first day!!! The Eiders are soo cool!!!
We then went off to Newport, Rhode Island for some family stuff, and picked up the birding again the next day.

Monday morning I got some tips on where to go, and got my lifer Saltmarsh Sparrow behind "Little Jack's" restaurant in Hampton! That was amazing! One bird actually perched semi-concealed, and I got to look at it through my scope.

Then, at Hampton Harbor I ran into a birder, and she helped me generously in finding my lifer Roseate Tern and Least Tern, even though it was crummy looks, it still was looks. Also she found me my lifer Short-billed Dowitcher. Also we got my first-of-the-year Ruddy Turnstone.
Actually I had a lot of yearbrds. At the same place there was a Fish Crow hanging around, and flying over the cities were Chimney Swifts. On the flats there were many Semipalmated Sandpipers, and a few Semipalmated Plovers. Back in North Hampton, I had an adult Broad-winged Hawk give me a great close, slow flyby, my best looks at a BWHA ever! Also saw a few Northern Mockingbirds.

Now, up near Portsmouth, we came across a couple of Mute Swans, which I found out was countable, so that makes another lifer for the trip!

Tuesday: Got up early and headed off for Rye Harbor, the site of my absolute favorite thing in New Hampshire, the Granite State Whalewatching tour! We departed at roughly 8:30 eastern standard time, and that is when it all began....
My first lifer was also the most common pelagic bird, and also one of my most favorite pelagic birds, a WILSON'S STORM-PETREL!!! They were everywhere, and also tagged along behind the boat in some numbers. This gave me a great oppertunity to study there shape, and behavior, as the next time I see one maybe 10 years from now. Shortly after my first Willie-storm (for short) I saw an oddly shaped bird flying in the distance. Its course was going to intersecct ours and we would be much closerto it then. I raised my binoculars, and SUPRISE! A NORTHERN GANNET!! Turns out, there were many many gannets to be found. One of the suprising things was I had no idea the size of the bird. I guess I never really looked in the book, and my preconceved notion was a small bird. Gannets are massive!! After we have travelled a ways from the Isles of Shoals (about 6 miles of the coast), so about 10 to 14 miles out, I spotted a bird zipping across the water with quick wingbeats. A SOOTY SHEARWATER!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO! My first Shearwater!!
From then one, the birds never let up action untill we departed the whale feeding grounds for harbor. My first GREATER SHEARWATER was shortly after the Sooty, and WOW!! Way more beautiful then the books portay! Once to the feeding grounds, we saw Minke, Humpack, and Fin whales, and while everyone was watching whales, I was looking for lifers. I spotted a Jaeger!!! My first Jaeger!! With my first Jaeger came my first time dealing with ID'ing a Jaeger. Luckaly, this bird cam in fairlyclose enough to give away its ID as a PARASITIC JAEGER, and I managed to nab a record shot. WOO HOO! My first Jaeger!! Then came the span of no new birds untill we left, then we ran across a new Shearwater only 4 or 5 times. A yellow-billed, white-bellied, tan brown-backed CORY'S SHEARWATER!!!!! I was beginning to doubt we would find one untill we eventually did. Totally amazing!!! Now, I thought to myself, the boat trip was complete, but I was slightly wrong. As we pulled into Rye Harbor, my aunt Penny spotted a duck. I thought oh another Common eider, but something had me raise my binoculars, and BAM! It was a full breeding plumaged male WHITE-WINGED SCOTER!!! Right in close!!!!! That was totally unexpected!! What a way to end the birding day!! 7 lifers, bringing me to 335 for the ABA area.

A few good pictures!!

Green Heron!! WOO HOO!! We don't get many of these in Montana, actually I don't know of any records. This was a really dark day hence the crummy photo.

Northern Cardinal!!

This Herring Gull was very cooperative at North Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

Ring-billed Gull

COMMON EIDER! My first lifer of the trip! number 323 for the ABA area.

I didn't grab any photos of any other of my lifers untill the boat trip. No photos of the Terns, or the Saltmarsh Sparrow.

GREATER SHEARWATER!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!

I love Storm-Petrels!! There was hundreds of these Willie Storms (Wilson's Storm-Petrels) all over! It was so cool! I am glad that a Storm-Petrel was my first pelagic bird EVER!

Foot-pattering!

SOOTY SHEARWATER!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!

When everyone was freaking out about the Humpback Whales, I saw two Jaegers, and got a positive ID on one, a Parasitic Jaeger!!! My first Jaeger of the three!

Humpbacks feeding!

Northern Gannets were common but scattered throughout the boat tour. That was one of the 7 lifers I got today.

CORY'S SHEARWATER!!!!!!! Appearantly they are very uncommon in New Hampshire waters, but this year they have had several every signal outing! I saw 4 to 5 today!!

Another shot of the Cory's Shearwater!

Pins indicate where costumers are from in a lobster shop in Rye, New Hampshire. Looks like a few NW Montanans!

Hermit Crab!!! WOO HOO!! We don't get many of these in Montana, just one or two a year, mostly around water treatment plants during fall migration.

Great Falls MT Birding Festival, and Saturdays fieldtrip

The Montana Bird Festival is an annual conference, with many field trips, banquets and speakers. This years festival was in Great Falls, and the keynote speaker was David Allen Sibley. Most of the field trips where grassland, and marsh oriented, and that was a plus for me because I was after the prairie birds.

Friday, after a very funny speaker, and dinner, I met up with Andrew Guttenberg, and we went to where we were staying and crash for the night, ready for the awesome birding that awaits.

Saturdays field trip was suppossed to be a great trip lead by John Carlson, but it ended up being lead through inches of SNOW!! We still saw a few birds, and it was great birding with John again, but we could have definitely done without the snow.



We saw a few McCown's Longspurs and quite a few Long-billed Curlew. We got Yellow Warbler, and Gray Catbird too, in the snow.

Long-billed Curlew

Andrew Guttenberg

We came to a lake, and found that alot of swallows were feeding on bugs just above the water, and getting quick drinks. I took many shots, but only one or two came out, but just barely.

All field trips got back to the hotel in time for David Sibley's talk on making a guide, and his life; and his book signing. Andrew and I were lucky enough to be David Sibley's assistants for the night. We had reserved seats by him at the lunch before he spoke.

That was really great to meet him, and get my book signed.

After the lunch and speech, Andrew, his mom, two of there friends, and I went down to Giant Springs State Park, home to the shortest river on record in the world. It is just about 50 yards long. It is the Roe River.

Right near the park, a Swainson's Hawk was hanging still in the wind 17 feet above us. I did however turn the photo, because it was actually facing down and it didn't quite look natural.

A small creek at Giant Springs.

Just like at the lake, there was a bunch of swallows flying around just above the water, and only a few shots came out......

Look for Sunday's Field Trip report next!!

Sunday fieldtrip - Grassland expedition

The weather on Sunday started out to be 10 times better than Saturday, but rapid grew to 100 times better.



Our first stop was this overlook of the Missouri River. We have seen the usually birds on the way up. Here, we could see pelicans, and cormorants in the river. While looking for birds, I heard an odd trill-song. Not a sparrow......then what? It hit me like a rock. A ROCK WREN!!!! This was the best bird for me of the day! After locating it by sound, it popped up 50 yards from where we were standing, and I ran for the scope in the car. That was THE best look I have had at a ROWR (Rock Wren).

This is us looking at the ROWR. Typical that the beginners where wondering what the big white birds in the river were, and not interesting in a "little brown job". Half of us were very excited about the wren.

After the ROWR spot, we headed for a little spot along a different river, 30 minutes farther down the road. Along the road Andrew and I spotted several Lark Sparrows along the fences, but didn't get to stop and get some good looks at them. I got my year Lark Sparrow just 2 days earlier, in the same way, on the fence along a highway. I was itching for looks, and when we stopped at the river, Andrew and I walked up the road to a nice little field with many Lark Sparrows, and I got AMAZING looks at these amazing sparrows. I even got a semi-decent shot of one.

After looking at the Lark Sparrows, we headed off to a very cool grassland area. Just getting out of the car, we had McCown's, and Chestnut-collared Longspurs, Horned Larks, Baird's and Grasshopper Sparrows, and Sprague's Pipit. We got looks at the Grasshopper but not the Baird's. We got good looks at Chestnut-collared, but not McCown's (that will come later) and never got better looks at Sprague's Pipit then a small bird in the sky singing. I managed to nab a photo of Western, and Eastern Kingbirds sitting right next to each other.

After all the amazing looks at AMAZING birds we started heading back. Got looks at Loggerhead Shrike, and we ran into this little patch of cover, we found several non-vocal Empidonax Flycatchers, and one had several color-lacking feathers on its head, and rump. It actually made it look really cool. We hesitantly IDed this bird as an Alder Flycatcher, and at least one more Willow, and Least Flycatcher.

One the way out of this area in the middle of nowhere, and to Big Sandy, we drove by a neat little wetland. American Avocets and Wilson's Phalaropes where the only semi-shy birds, the rest were totally shy. I did manage to get the best looks at Wilson's Phalaropes that I have ever had. There was one female that let me get really close, and then a male that made a brief appearance. I have very happy with these shots, and I hope you enjoy them.

We ended the day with 93 species, and I ended the trip with 118 species. I got to 202 on my yearlist for MT with this weekend.

My yearbirds for today were: Loggerhead Shrike, Rock Wren, Grasshopper Sparrow, Ferruginous Hawk, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Baird's Sparrow, Sprague's Pipit, Burrowing Owl, Upland Sandpiper, Brewer's Sparrow, and Eared Grebe.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

I say Yellow-headed "Blackbird", and not bird"S" because this was one of the hundreds in the valley and on of the 20 or so on Splitpond. This male put on show for me and my camera. These birds are certainly my favorite blackbirds. I love their "song" and they way the look. Just gorgeous....