Brooks Mathewson – RI Future

February 1, 2014December 5, 2014

Rhode Island’s Arctic visitors: winter birds

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Every year Rhode Island provides the wintering home for a great diversity of birds who spend the summer months in the Arctic.

This year, though, one visitor from the north in particular has been present in abnormally high numbers – the majestic Snowy Owl.

snow-0450-c — North America’s largest Owl – the Snowy Owl.

While it is common for large numbers of juvenile Snowy Owls to wander south of the Canadian border in search of food, giving us a glimpse into the wonders of the Arctic, this year has been record-setting with the most sightings along the East Coast in decades. These beautiful white owls with their bright, piercing, lemon yellow eyes seem to be everywhere; from Napatree Point in Westerly to Beavertail State Park in Jamestown, from Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown to downtown Providence.

Red-throatedLoon-5351-c — Red-throated Loon in non-breeding plumage on a blustery February day at Moonstone Beach.

Although Snowy Owls are undoubtedly the stars of the avifaunal show this winter, numerous other interesting birds who breed as far north as the Arctic tundra are worthy of notice. To these birds Rhode Island is their Boca Raton.

A great diversity of sea ducks can be found in Rhode Island in the winter; Common Eiders and Scoters (Surf, Black, and White-winged) dive below the surface to pry shellfish off the rocks with their wedge-shaped bills; ornate Harlequin Ducks forage in the turbulent surf perhaps to remind themselves of the fast flowing rivers of Labrador where they will breed; further out, in rolling waves, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, and Horned Grebe hunt for fish.

CommonEider-6026-c — Male Common Eider molting into breeding plumage.

Several species of shorebirds who breed in the Arctic also spend the winter in Rhode Island. The bird which travels the furthest, from hundreds of miles past the Arctic Circle, is the Purple Sandpiper; a stout shorebird with only the subtlest hints of purple in its plumage. Another sandpiper of similar size and shape distinguished by a more drab appearance and a slightly larger, more drooping bill is the Dunlin. Both of these birds are commonly observed probing for invertebrates among the exposed seaweed at low tide on Rhode Island’s rocky shores, jetties, and breachways. Sanderlings, the most familiar of our winter shorebirds, are also found along rocky shores as well as on sandy beaches, scurrying in the advancing and retreating surf.

PurpleSandpipers-9178-c — Purple Sandpipers in flight at Beavertail State Park.

Rhode Island also provides the winter home for several species of songbirds that will be singing and breeding in the tundra and boreal forests of Canada in the spring. Open snow covered fields are the winter retreat of Tree Sparrows and flocks of Snow Buntings, while the dense foliage of conifer trees harbor Red and White-winged Crossbills and Common Redpolls.

SAND-7297-c — A Sanderling foraging for tasty morsels of invertebrate prey amongst the baby mussels at Charlestown Breachway.

So the next time you are out enjoying the single digit fresh air of the most recent Polar Vortex in pursuit of the charismatic Snowy Owl, remember to keep a safe distance to avoid stressing the birds, and don’t forget to keep an eye out for some of Rhode Island’s other winter visitors.

trsp-7809-c — A Tree Sparrow at Sachuest Point dreams of long summer days on the Arctic tundra.

October 26, 2013October 27, 2013

Dazed and Confused – The Fall Warblers

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BlackpollWarbler — Blackpoll Warbler fueling up for a 3,000 mile non-stop flight to Brazil.

Every autumn our coastal woodlands become flooded with small songbirds migrating south from their breeding habitat throughout New England and Canada. A large percentage of these birds are warblers from the Family Parulidae. Most of them look much different in their non-breeding plumages of the fall than they do in their breeding plumage. This identification challenge prompted the famous ornithologist Roger Tory Petersen to name the section devoted to these birds in his seminal A Field Guide to the Birds – “The Confusing Fall Warblers.”

Yellow-rumped Warbler In Non-breeding Plumage — Yellow-rumped Warbler in non-breeding plumage eating dried bay berries.

Yellow-rumpedWarbler — Yellow-rumped Warbler eating a May Fly in the spring.

This may be why it is not uncommon to see birders wandering around in a haze this time of year as if they just hitched a ride with a Bob Marley cover band on their way to the Ocean Mist. However, with a just little bit of insight the fog can be lifted. One of the keys is to focus on body shape and bill shape, which although subtle are different between genera. While plumages change from season to season, these characteristics do not.

Is this how you feel when trying to identify fall warblers?

Another trick is that 75% of these birds are Yellow-rumped Warblers. Overall these birds are somewhat drab in non-breeding plumage with splashes of yellow on their sides as well as on their rumps. Uniquely adapted to survive on dry wax myrtle and bay berries, Yellow-rumps stay in RI throughout the fall and winter while most other warblers need to migrate to central and South America in search of food as insects disappear from the north. I have seen Yellow-rumped Warblers along the dunes at Moonstone Beach in the middle of February.

Black-throatedBlueWarbler — Black-throated Blue Warblers eat the human equivalent of twenty cheeseburgers a day in preparation for migration.

amre-8596-c — American Redstart in the brambles at Trustom Pond.

If you’ve eliminated Yellow-rumped Warbler the next most likely bird flitting about the falling leaves is the Blackpoll Warbler . These birds stage in large numbers along the coast storing up energy in the form of fat reserves with a goal of doubling their body weight. One study of a Black-throated Blue Warbler preparing for spring migration found these birds eat the human equivalent of 20 cheeseburgers a day for a month. A similar massive eating effort enables Blackpoll Warblers to fly back to the rain forests of South America in one non-stop journey that can take up to 90 hours and reach flying altitudes of up to 20,000 feet. Remember this is a bird that weighs 13 grams or a half an ounce. This would be like a 165 pound man flying 18,480,000 miles or back and forth to the moon 36 times. There is no way I could do that, even if I ate 20 cheeseburgers a day for a month. Maybe you could, but not me.

The real fun begins when we see birds that are not one of these two common species. One of the tricks to finding these less common species is to keep an eye on the weather. Migratory birds generally will time their flights so that they are aided by the prevailing winds. So larger number of fall migrants can often be found on days when a high pressure cold front with winds from the north passes through. This is when we are more likely to see birds such as the Palm Warbler, Northern Parula, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler or Black-throated Green Warbler.

MagnoliaWarbler — Magnolia Warbler in Non-breeding plumage in the understory of a coastal RI woodland.

October 25, 2013October 25, 2013

The great journey south – RI’s migratory shorebirds

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A Semipalmated Sandpiper hunkers down on a late fall day near the Charlestown Breachway.

The kaleidoscope of colors found in the fall foliage as trees stop making chlorophyll and reveal a spectacular assortment of red, yellow, purple, and orange pigment is one of the great consolation prizes accompanying the loss of summer. However, there is another miracle of the natural world occurring in autumn, albeit a slightly less obvious one, fall bird migration.

Each fall millions of shorebirds, songbirds, raptors, and waterfowl stop in Rhode Island on their migratory journeys south. These birds are engaged in majestic pilgrimages of thousands of miles from breeding territories as far north as the Arctic to their wintering grounds in locales as distant as South America.

A patient observer on a fall walk along one of Rhode Island’s beaches may be treated to glimpses of more than a dozen species of plovers and sandpipers. These two major groups of shorebirds are most easily distinguished from each other by the shapes of their bills. Sandpipers have long thin bills, while plovers have short, thick bills. In addition, their behavior is another reliable tool of identification. If the bird is foraging quickly in a large group it is most likely a sandpiper. On the other hand if it is more methodical and solitary in its foraging technique it is likely a plover.

A Black-bellied Plover at risk of existential crisis as the blackness of his belly recedes in the fall

The most common sandpiper found along Rhode Island’s shores is the Sanderling. This is the bird most likely to be observed in large groups foraging at the ocean’s edge, following the surf as it advances and retreats. Sanderlings forage on small invertebrates both within the surf and in the exposed sand. While many of these birds will stay in Rhode Island throughout the fall and winter, others are merely pausing to rest and refuel before embarking on the next leg of their journey.

The other two sandpipers which are commonly observed along the ocean’s edge during the fall are the smaller Least and Semipalmated. These two species are similar in size and appearance, both being smaller and darker than the Sanderling. The easiest way to distinguish between these two species is by looking at their legs – the Semipalmated has black legs and the Least has yellowish legs.

A Least and Semipalmated Sandpiper find a way to get along in the same tidal pool despite their differences in leg color.

Our most common plover is the Semipalmated Plover, although it lives in relative obscurity due to the notoriety of its cousin in the genus Charadrius – the Piping Plover. Another very common visitor this time of year is the Black-bellied Plover. A larger Plover in the genus Pluvialis.

A Semipalmated Plover forages on the mudflats in early fall.

Once the common birds become familiar it becomes easier to pick out the less common migrants like the Baird’s Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, or Red Knot. In addition, many more shorebirds can be found in the salt marshes behind the barrier beaches.

But let’s save that for another day, I can see your eyes glazing over in the back. Just get out there and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and the salt air, and maybe stop for a minute and take a closer look at these small migratory birds passing through our state on their way to distant lands.