Lillian Q. Stokes's Blog

Wilson's Phalarope and Migrating Shorebirds, Parker River NWR!

Wilson's Phalarope Tree Swallows Greater Yellowlegs Osprey Semipalmated Sandpipers Beautiful day yesterday at Parker River NWR MA and the highlight was a Wilson's Phalarope plus clouds and clouds of many thousands of migrating Tree Swallows. The Wilson's would disappear in the reeds then dart out and race around like a Border Collie, thrilling the many birders including a group from MA Audubon and a couple of birders from Germany. There were many Semipalmated Sandpipers, Greater and a few Lesser Yellowlegs and much more.

Common Nighthawks Are Migrating!!

               

Common Nighthawk, male. Males have a white throat, white subterminal primary bar on wings and a white band on the tail. 
Common Nighthawk, female. Females have a buffy throat, smaller white primary bar and no tail band.
Common Nighthawk, male
Common Nighthawk, female
Common Nighthawk, male
Common Nighthawk, male
Common Nighthawk migration is in full swing here in New England. Last night in NH we saw 301 from our deck. We have gotten good flights before, our previous high count has been 2,202 in one night. We live on a dammed-up section of a river, where the river flows north and nighthawks often follow river valleys on migration. We count from our deck and are often joined by our friends.

Common Nighthawk numbers have been declining in the Northeast so it was very exciting so see so many of them that night.

This is peak Common Nighthawk migration time, so get out and look. The best time to see them is at the end of the day from about 5 pm to dark.

Here are some tips for seeing migrating Common Nighthawks:

1. Look during the later afternoon to early evening hours, from about 4 pm to 7:30 pm.
2. Look north, as they generally move from north to south.
3. Get comfortable, use a chair if you can, you will be looking for quite a while. Tuck your elbows in, it is less tiring and steadier to hold binos that way.
4. Nighthawks often move along river corridors
5. Note if there is an ant hatch. Nighthawks are attracted to, and eat, dispersing ants who rise up in clouds.
6. Study the photos above, to learn nighthawk shape. Often you will only see distant birds with long pointed wings, flapping rather slowly. When feeding, nighthawks fly erratically. When migrating, they move more directly and may even rise up on a thermal sometimes.

Birds Drink Out of Humingbird Feeder Ant Moat!!

 Do your yard birds do this? This American Goldfinch drinking out of the ant moat (little well of water the ants won’t cross) on the hummingbird feeder. Chickadees titmice, and House Sparrows also do this even though there are birdbaths nearby. Anyone else have birds doing this with your hummer feeders?

RARE HUMMINGBIRDS AT FEEDERS!

RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

This is a great time of year, from now into fall, to look for unusual hummingbirds at your feeders in addition to the usual Rub-throated Hummingbirds whose populations swell because of the young birds. There is an increasing trend for western hummingbird species such as Rufous and Allen's hummingbirds and other's showing up outside of their normal range in fall in eastern states. Here are some photos of them from when I lived in NH. The Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorous rufous) was visiting a feeder in Hollis, NH in Oct. 2009. This was a very unusual hummingbird for there. One was last reported in NH in 2007. The Rufous Hummingbird is a western species whose breeding range goes as far up as Alaska. Increasingly, Rufous Hummingbirds are showing up in fall in the eastern half of the country. This hummingbird was banded over the weekend and the bander reported it as a hatching year Rufous Hummingbird, sex could not be determined. Identification of female and immature hummingbirds can be tricky, especially telling Rufous from Allen's Hummingbirds. Sometimes only banders, holding them in hand, can tell them apart by subtle differences in the shape of the tail feathers and even then sometimes it is not possible to definitively tell their sex. The above photos shows the extensive rufous on the sides and rufous on the tail feathers.This little hummer is a Calliope Hummingbird, male, a bird from the Northwest who strayed far from his usual range and migration route in Nov. 2013. He came to a feeder in Manchester, NH at the home of some very gracious birders who allowed many birders to view this hummingbird, a lifer for many! This was not the first time a Calliope Hummingbird had shown up in New England and there are records from other eastern states also. Calliopes also have been reported from MA and NJ. More and more out-of-range hummingbirds are showing up in the East in fall at feeders. No one knows exactly why this occurs. Some birds' internal compasses may just direct them east instead of south. Over time that species may have a range expansion if those individuals survive and have offspring. Other people think that having more hummingbird feeders available and hardy plants in a human altered landscape may make it possible for some of these hummingbirds to be in the East in fall and winter. So keep watching your feeders!

Biggest Week in Birding May 2025

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Yellow Warbler

BIG!! Just got back from being keynote speaker with coauthor Matt Young at the Biggest Week in American Birding where we did a book-signing and led a Mother's Day bird walk. Big beautiful warblers, Big numbers of migrant birds, Big crowds, Big Fun, Big excitement, Big wonderful talks, Big birding talent, Big socializing! This will be a multi-day post. Our talk, based on our book, The Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada, was introduced by the wonderful Kenn Kaufman and was well received by a packed audience. Then we signed many books and I was so pleased to see some had brought their other Stokes Guides to be signed and say that my books were instrumental for getting them into birding! That is one of my biggest rewards.
 

Swainson's Warbler, Yes!

Fondly remembering Swainson's Warbler, a hard-to-see grail warbler, that I saw a number of times during fallout on Sanibel Island. This skulking, understory warbler breeds in southern swamps and wooded ravines. Given it lurks in the understory I was on my stomach for one of these photos! Hope a lot of you see it during migration.

The Red-tailed Hawk Project unraveling mysteries of the Red-tailed Hawk

Next time you see a Red-tailed Hawk look twice! Ponder that there are still mysteries about this common species that when solved will lead us to a greater understanding of its many plumage colors (there are 16 subspecies and some are polymorphic), genetic and ecological associations and even to a better understanding of the dynamics of avian evolution. See this great article by Scott Weidensaul on The Red-tailed Hawk Project a large research collaboration that is working to unravel the mysteries of this abundant raptor. My photos in winter show two different eastern subspecies. Top photo is the Buteo jamaicencis borealis subspecies with a white throat, chest and moderate belly band. The next two birds are the abieticola subspecies with a dark throat, colorful rusty chest and belly band with heavy dark blobs. The Red-tailed Hawk Project is cautiously examining and classifying what are the subspecies. It will be exciting to see what their research comes up with. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/.../red-tailed-hawk.../

WOODCOCKS ARE DISPLAYING NOW!

 

"Peent" last night heard (they are hard to see in the dark) an American Woodcock displaying to attract a mate. Woodcock males walk around open areas in the eastern part of the country at dusk "peenting" then launch into an amazing aerial display in which they can spiral up 300 feet, wings creating a chirping sound, then land and continue "peenting." Females come to the display grounds, choose a mate then go into the woods, nest on the ground, and raise the young themselves. Go listen at dusk near open field areas near woods. Woodcocks use that long bill to probe for earthworms in the mud eyes perched atop their head provide surround sight to look for predators. Woodcocks are truly one of the avian wonders this time of year.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY GREEN BIRDS

Monk Parakeet Green-winged Teal Painted Bunting Green Heron
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY green birds. Go through your bird field guide and look for the green birds, then look for where the green occurs and ponder why and why there are not more green birds. Then go have some Irish Coffee.

Red-tailed Hawk, subspecies abieticola

Red-tailed Hawk subspecies abieticola Red-tailed Hawk subspecies borealis Map from The Red-tailed Hawk Project
I did the Hawk Migration Association's Winter Raptor Survey yesterday in MA in cold, completely cloudy skies with about 7 In. snow cover. The Red-tailed Hawks were not soaring, but hunted by perching. Look at the fascinating difference in these two Red-tailed Hawks I saw. The colorful one on the left, with a dark throat, buffy wash aross the chest, and much heavier, blobby belly band might possibly be a candidate for the abieticola subspecies (Buteo jamaicensis abieticola). There has been confusion and disagreement about this subspecies with much to learn. W.E. Clyde Todd was the first to describe it in 1950, naming it abieticola "dweller of the firs" since Abies is the genus of true firs and he thought its breeding range was in the Balsam Fir range. Its breeding range is in the boreal zone from Alaska to Atlantic Canada. How cool is that to think this northern visitor has come to spend the winter here. The paler bird on the right looks like our local borealis subspecies who breeds from sw. Alberta east to Maritime Provinces on the southern periphery of the Boreal Forest, and south from cen. Texas east to n. Florida, winters from n. Great Plains, the Great Lakes region and s. New England south to e. Mexico. Red-tailed Hawk subspecies are complicated there are 16 subspecies (according to Birds of the World) in two groups with much regional variation.

The wintering range of abieticola is in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains and there is much to learn about the wintering and migration habits of this subspecies. You can help by paying more attention to the redtails you see and uploading your photos to eBird. To learn more about this subspecies see this excellent paper by Jerry Liguori and Brian Sullivan. There is also ongoing research on this and other subspecies of redtails by The Red-tailed Hawk Project who consider abieticola to be polymorphic. See here,https://northernredtails.wordpress.com/.../rth...
https://redtailedhawkproject.org/subspecies-guide/