THE KNOT NOTTINGHAM RSPB GROUP NEWSLETTER Volume 10 Number 2 January 2016 1 Editor’s Notes One of the problems in putting together a newsletter like this is obtaining material. There are obviously items which have to appear in every issue such as details of outings and meetings but the rest of the content depends on you. I don’t want to have to write all the narrative articles myself and, over the years have been pleased to publish many interesting pieces by our members. Recently the supply has thinned out so I am asking for more contributions, accounts of trips you have made or just small observations you would like to share. I have quite a large supply of photos to accompany such articles but would like more, especially birds seen on our outings and unusual species seen on your travels. Remember to always identify the pictures, particularly foreign species. They may not be used straight away but will come in handy in later editions. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is a registered charity: England and Wales no 207076, Scotland no SC037654. Articles, photos and adverts should be e- mailed to me at [email protected] or posted to my address: 39, Forester Street, Netherfield, NG4 2LJ. The deadline for the April edition is 1st March 2016 2 3 “All gone to look for America” Following a successful period in Ohio it was time to make the 281 mile trip to Oscoda, Michigan on the search for the endangered Kirtland’s warbler and other new species. Largely along highway 75 we passed Toledo, Flint and Frankenmuth (this last a surprise as they were holding a beer festival!) Suddenly Neil and I found that we were both humming the same song. We were close to Saginaw, the town mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel song, a few of those words form the title of this report. In Saginaw County we stopped at the mouth of the Rifle River, seeing Great Northern divers and red breasted mergansers on Lake Huron. A medium sized wader flew past and settled on the water’s edge. It was a willet, another species new to me. After that we were usually close to the lake shore, stopping to see more killdeer plovers until we arrived at Oscoda, where our hotel roof was home to a number of ring billed gulls. That evening we adjourned to Wiltses, a nearby brew pub with an extensive menu. As our table was not quite ready we sat on high stools round the bar like the cast of ‘Cheers’ and watched the baseball on the television. The following morning we made our way to Tawas Point which was to be our birding centre for the next couple of days. On the way we stopped by the beach at Tawas City where there were a few Bonaparte’s gulls and a 4 couple of semi-palmated plovers pattering along a lawn by the car park. Once at Tawas we had the morning to ourselves before we were to meet up with our local guide. Tawas Point boasts a lighthouse, a small gift shop and a beautifully decorated little ‘house’ with a very tall chimney which proved to be the world’s most picturesque public toilet! We started by looking at the feeders which were occupied by blue jays and rose breasted grosbeaks while the fallen seed was being devoured by chipmunks, much smaller than I had imagined. We began to walk towards the point. Tawas Point is a bit like a well wooded and broader Spurn and attracts large numbers of migrant birds. There were examples of some of the warblers that we had encountered in Ohio as well as some new birds like the yellow bellied sapsucker, a type of woodpecker, another vireo, this time the blue headed and another of the American birds whose call somewhat fancifully suggests its name, the bobolink. Tawas Point’s speciality is an endangered species, the piping plover. When we reached the point there they were, small pale looking birds with orange bills and a narrow black breast band. I was roundly abused for ignoring them in favour of a single Iceland gull but my choice was vindicated by the reaction of American birders, for whom the gull was the local rarity. Along with the plovers there were several spotted sandpipers. 5 I had seen these in the Scillies but in breeding plumage the spots which give them their name were visible. Back at the car park we met Matt, our local guide. Matt was thirty-seven, a bearded giant with a liking for the music of Black Sabbath. His first question was “Would we like to see a snowy owl?” There was no contest and we headed off, following Matt in his pick-up truck to an area of grassland near a local airfield. Before we saw the owl we spotted the slim elegance of an upland sandpiper. It was a hot day with quite a heat haze and the owl was resting on the ground. Through the scopes we saw that it was almost pure white with only two small black dots at the ‘shoulders’. Later in the day Matt took us to one of his favourite spots by the Pine River where a small pond contained a pair of trumpeter swans and we saw the viceroy, a poor relation of the monarch butterfly. Even then the day was not over for after dinner we went out on the American equivalent of a ‘nightjar watch.’ Our first object was the ruffed grouse, a secretive bird slightly larger than our red grouse. Just after we left the vehicles one was spotted to the left of the track. It took off in a whirlwind of black, grey and white feathers and disappeared from view, never to be seen again. When we stopped again we could see the silhouette of an American woodcock a short way away. This is a peculiar bird which announces its intention to fly by a 6 series of nasal ‘grunts.’ It then takes off, almost vertically before spiralling down, calling as it does so, to land in the exact same spot from which it set off. This action is then repeated. All the while nighthawks were flying round catching moths, their white wing flashes just like our nightjars while in the distance we heard whip-poor-wills calling though we never saw one. The following day we went back to Tawas Point and in a small triangle of woodland bounded by paths heard a ruffed grouse calling. Despite a prolonged search the bird could not be located. On our way to the point a small flock of birds flew past which awakened for me memories of a famous Nottingham ‘twitch.’ They were cedar waxwings, a slightly smaller version of the Bohemian waxwing with which we are familiar. The walk to the point added willow flycatcher to the list and on our return Matt led us to Tuttle Marsh to look for rails. There was quite a large lake at this marsh on which resided a pair of hooded mergansers while a swamp sparrow sang from the hedgerow. We had a fleeting success with a very elusive sora rail but a Virginia rail was much more obliging, walking up and down the banks of the marsh for our benefit. Birds were not the only items of natural interest. A passing butterfly was identified as a Camberwell beauty, known by its American name of the ‘mourning cloak.’ Later, on one of the dirt roads we saw a blue butterfly, the spring azure. 7 Our last full day started at Matt’s house, a log cabin surrounded by his two and a half acre woodland. There was nothing on the feeders when we arrived and inside were reminders of times past in the shape of the head of a white tailed deer and a magnificent pelt of a black bear, both shot by his grandfather sixty years earlier. Matt, though, was fully committed to conservation and we set off for the Huron-Manistee Forest, a stronghold of Kirtland’s warbler. On the way the very attractive hermit thrush and a hairy woodpecker were seen and at the Kirtland’s site was a large cage containing several cowbirds. These birds are cuckoo-like in their habits and threaten the survival of the warblers so they are enticed into a cage and despatched humanely. The jack pines where the Kirtland’s breed have to be a certain height to be suitable so the birds move to another site when the trees grow too high. As they winter in the Bahamas habitat loss there must be prevented or all the work in Michigan will be in vain. As we looked over the stands of pine a blob in a distant tree caught our attention. Through the scope this proved to be a porcupine perched forty foot up the tree on what appeared a very thin branch. Our attention was diverted by the object of our visit, a male Kirtland’s warbler, its breast showing up bright yellow. We moved on to a small campground and in the surrounding trees saw red breasted nuthatch and a tiny golden crowned kinglet as well as a couple of woodpecker species. We returned to Matt’s to find the 8 feeders occupied by purple finches and scarlet tanagers. The day ended at Oscoda beach where Caspian terns and a merlin completed another memorable day. That evening we were given presents by a lady from the Michigan Audubon Society, a generous gesture typical of the welcome we received.