On The Road – Albatrossity – Spring in Flyover Country

Amazing is barely adequate for this bird, not for its look, but for its rarity. It’s a Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla), a Eurasian Finch that sporadically wanders to North America. Those vagrations usually end up on the coasts, particularly the Pacific Northwest. Even there, the appearance of this bird attracts hordes of birders; it is a mega-rarity, in the lingo of the birding community. There is ONE previous record, from 2002,  in the arbitrary geopolitical unit known as Kansas. This bird, a male transitioning from winter plumage to breeding plumage, showed up in a yard in Abilene in mid-March, and the homeowners posted a couple of pretty good pictures of the bird on a Facebook page devoted to Kansas birding. I rubbed my eyes, gasped, and immediately identified it from those pics. Then I notified the folks who were hosting this bird that they might expect to have a lot of visitors if the bird stuck around for a while. I was invited to come see it, and a couple of days later I got some decent pictures of it. It has been a very long time since I picked up a lifer in my home state! Click here for larger image.

Spring break came a week earlier than usual for KSU this year, for some reason, and since Elizabeth is still toiling in the trenches there, we made plans to get out of town for part of that week. With some friends, we rented a cabin above the Buffalo River in Arkansas for a few days, and got an early taste of the spring that would hit our part of Flyover Country in a few weeks. Here’s a nice vernal pool behind the cabin; I checked it for salamanders but only found some frogs. Click here for larger image.

Some early spring flowers in Arkansas included Wild Plums (Prunus americana), which were just starting to come into bloom. Click here for larger image.

Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) were barely starting their spring show, and this one was enhanced by the appearance of a spiffy Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). Click here for larger image.

Sadly, I could not coax this Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) to pose in a flowering tree. Actually, it did perch in a redbud briefly, but if you are familiar with these birds, you know that they hardly ever sit still for more than a few microseconds. This one followed that rule book, but at least it showed me that flashy golden crown! Click here for larger image.

Meanwhile, back in Kansas, Merlins (Falco columbarius) were persisting, harassing flocks of juncos and other sparrows before those birds headed back north too. This is an adult female of the pale prairie subspecies (F. c. richardsonii), aka cute death parrot. Click here for larger image.

Marked safe from the Merlin, these American Tree Sparrows (Spizelloides arborea) were looking good and thinking about their summers in Alaska. Click here for larger image.

Another migrant that is often reported here, but which rarely finds its way in front of my camera, this Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) was unusual in at least one other way. Typically in their winter range they come in large flocks, moving through wet prairies or streamsides as a group. This guy was, as far as I can tell, unflocked. He was in a marshy area above a small lake, and singing as if he was in the boreal forest of Canada. Sadly, this is a species in serious decline, and currently there are no good hypotheses to help us understand and perhaps reverse that. Click here for larger image.

Common Loons (Gavia immer) may be common elsewhere, but are always a fun find here in Flyover Country. This one was in full breeding plumage, and I was thrilled to see it stay on the surface and swim, not away from me (which would be typical behavior), but toward me as I was standing on the shore of a small lake. It stuck around for a few days, and I was even able to get some decent video on another day. Click here for larger image.

One of the earliest insectivores to get back to Flyover Country (and points north), Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) are small, fast, and gorgeous. The genus name, in fact, is derived from the Greek word for “moves quickly”! For some reason this frontal view reminds me of another fast predator, the Orca. Click here for larger image.