Fall 2018 Vol. 37 No. 3

New Hampshire Bird Records FALL 2018 Vol. 37, No. 3 IN MEMORY OF Chandler S. Robbins he 2018 issues of New Hampshire Bird NH AUDUBON TRecords are sponsored by George C. Protecting our environment since 1914 Robbins in memory and honor of his father, Chan Robbins. Each issue has an article by NEW HAMPSHIRE BIRD RECORDS George about his father, highlighting his VOLUME 37 NUMBER 3 father’s phenomenal accomplishments in FALL 2018 the field of ornithology and connections to MANAGING EDITOR New Hampshire. Rebecca Suomala 603-224-9909 X309, In This Issue [email protected] TEXT EDITOR Photo Quiz ......................................................................see the color photo on the Back Cover Dan Hubbard Chandler S. Robbins: His Third 25 Years – 1968-1993 by George C. Robbins ............................1 SEASON EDITORS Photo Gallery – New Hampshire’s First Wood Stork .................................................................3 Eric Masterson, Spring Chad Witko, Summer Fall Season: August 1 through November 30, 2018 by Ben Griffith ............................................4 Ben Griffith, Fall Jim Sparrell/Katherine Towler, Winter Fall 2018 New Hampshire Raptor Migration Report by Iain MacLeod ....................................29 Fall 2018 Field Notes compiled by Diana Stephens ....................................................................32 LAYOUT Dyanna Smith Purple Finch Lost (and Found!) at Sea by Steve Mirick ......................................................32 P UBLICATION ASSISTANT Banded Birds ....................................................................................................................33 Kathryn Frieden Sleeping Downy Woodpecker ..........................................................................................33 ASSISTANTS Red Bat vs. Merlin ...........................................................................................................34 Jeannine Ayer, Zeke Cornell, David Deifik, Elizabeth Levy, Fun Watching Chimney Swifts by Rebecca Suomala ..........................................................34 Susan MacLeod, Marie Nickerson Screech-Owl Flies Into Car ..............................................................................................34 FIELD NOTES Diana Stephens Cold Plunge for a Seaside Sparrow by Steve Bennett .................................................................35 Field Trip Report .....................................................................................................................35 PHOTO QUIZ David Donsker SKUA!! NH Audubon’s Fall 2018 Pelagic Birding Trip Report by Jon Woolf ......................35 PHOTO EDITOR Two Red Heads in One Day by Katherine Towler ..............................................................36 Wendy Chatel It’s Squirrel-maggedon! by Diana Stephens................................................................................37 WEB MASTER A Barnacle Goose Story ...........................................................................................................39 Kathy Barnes Duck, Duck, Goose by Jim Sparrell ..................................................................................39 WHERE TO BIRD Scott Heron, Phil Brown Amazing Circumstances – Fun with Birds (and Birders)! by Bob Quinn ............................40 EDITORIAL TEAM Common Nighthawk Migration in Concord, Fall 2018 by Zeke Cornell ..................................40 Phil Brown, Wendy Chatel, Hank Chary, Birding NH Audubon’s Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary by Charlie Nims and Phil Brown ...................42 David Deifik, David Donsker, Ben Griffith, Dan Hubbard, Pam Hunt, Falling in Love with Fall Warblers by Diana Stephens ...............................................................45 Iain MacLeod, Eric Masterson, Robert A. Quinn, Rebecca Suomala, Backyard Birder – Evening Grosbeaks! by Rebecca Suomala ......................................................46 Jon Woolf Answer to the Photo Quiz by David B. Donsker .......................................................................47 www.nhbirdrecords.org Cover Photos: Three first state records. Wood Stork by Debra Powers, 8-10-18, Pickering Ponds, Rochester, NH. South Polar Skua by Leo McKillop, 9-4-18, offshore waters, NH. Neotropic Cormorant by Jason Lambert, 8-9-18, Androscoggin River, Gorham, NH. New Hampshire Bird Records is published quarterly by NH Audubon’s Conservation Department. Thank you to the many observers who submit their sightings to NH eBird (www.ebird.org/nh), the source of data for this publication. The published sightings typically represent the highlights of the season. Not all species reported will appear in the issue. All records are subject to review by the NH Rare Birds Committee and publication here does not imply future acceptance by the RBC. New Hampshire Bird Records © NH Audubon October, 2019 Published by NH Audubon’s Conservation Department Printed on Recycled Paper Chandler S. Robbins: His third 25 years – 1968-1993 by George C. Robbins he last segment was a little lengthy, so here I’ll touch on Scotland and Wales in 1966, Alaska in 1968, the Netherlands Ta few things that started during the previous 25 years, and Europe in 1970 and 1972, Australia and Tahiti in 1974, but were still ongoing in this third 25 years of my Dad’s life. and Kenya, the Seychelles, and Mauritius in 1976. These One endeavor was known as the Operation Recovery trips were all affiliated with the American Ornithologists Program. Initiated by Dad and a few others, this was a coastal Union, International Ornithological Congress, and other bird banding initiative. Many sites along the Atlantic coast official meetings. By the time we (kids) were in our early 20s, were chosen, set up and operated primarily by volunteer we had been all over the world. bird banders. The requirements to participate in the study One of the topics of discussion at these meetings was the were not only to capture, band, and release fall migrants but new concept of Breeding Bird Atlases that were ongoing in to also record the weight, wing chord, age and sex of each Europe. At least partly as a consequence of that information, bird when possible, as well as net-hours each day. The hope Dad initiated the first Breeding Bird Atlas program in North was to re-capture birds farther south in their migration and America in 1971. Starting in 1972 through 2013, Dad not determine how far they had travelled only participated in field work, but was in a single night. Although not enough involved in coordinating, editing, consulting birds were re-captured to determine that, and writing species accounts for Breeding there were many firsts for the Atlantic Bird Atlas projects in Maryland-DC, New coast, including Western Wood-Pewees Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West and a Hammond’s Flycatcher caught Virginia and consulting in many other states. at Ocean City, MD. There were other For the New Hampshire atlas, Dad spent firsts for Maryland, including a Rufous weeks here in the state doing field work Hummingbird and a Western Tanager. (1984-1986). He wrote 10 species accounts, Also captured at Ocean City was the first including Eastern Whip-poor-will, Purple hybrid between a Northern Waterthrush Martin, and Yellow-throated Vireo, as well as and a Blackpoll Warbler. One interesting writing the Foreword of the Atlas of Breeding result of re-captures showed that many Birds in New Hampshire. migrants routinely wandered northward At some event where Roger Tory Peterson for some distance before beginning was speaking, Peterson was asked by a young their southward migration. Operation teen (no, it wasn’t I), who is the better birder Recovery was ongoing between 1955 – you or Chan Robbins? Peterson politely and 1970, when it was brought to an Chandler S. Robbins declined to answer, but did say that there was abrupt halt. When an impatient bander complained to the no one who had better or more well-trained hearing than Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Chan. Dad had been interested in bird songs since he was that Dad was late in publishing a summary of the results, very young. As a teenager, a neighbor gave him a tuning fork Dad received an immediate cease and desist letter from the and suggested he record the exact pitch of birds singing. So, Director, saying they should not be studying fall migrant he started very early learning songs and calls. Shortly after he songbirds. Consequently, to this day, reams of information started working at Patuxent, he began writing down cadence on fall migrating songbirds lie unpublished at Patuxent. Dad (songs per minute), because he had not seen this information still considered Operation Recovery a successful program published previously. The first time I saw those notes in because some of these coastal banding stations became his field notebooks, I didn’t even know what they meant: permanent bird observatories and also because of the training “Pewee 06 11 18 28 33, etc., Acadian 33 52 11 33 58, etc., of hundreds of banders who learned to record valuable Blkpoll 46 54 04 13 etc., Red-eye 22/half min, Y-th Vireo information about each bird banded. This was the first 15/half min, etc.” The numbers are measured seconds, which, wide-scale program to record the additional information and for example, translated into Eastern Wood-Pewee singing was yet another example of the citizen science in which Dad 6-11 times per minute. He also recorded the date, time, believed so strongly. temperature, and location for many song intervals of

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