The last ten days of birding have been fairly remarkable. Many of the sightings have been distant and fleeting. The resulting photos are unremarkable at best. The remarkable part is that I have photos of these birds at all, because none of them should be anywhere near Kentucky. As you read this list, think about what you would consider a long journey. Five hundred miles? A thousand? Then consider that you are a relatively large mammal with access to various modes of transportation. And finally, consider that the birds in the photos below average less than two pounds (some much less) and that they travel only via their own power. It is an incredible thing they do! Let’s begin…
November 27, 2020
On November 27, a varied thrush was found in a park near the Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. Happily snacking on poison ivy berries alongside its cousins the robins, this thrush is at least fifteen hundred miles outside its normal west coast territory (purple = year round; orange = breeding; blue = non-breeding; yellow = migration, if migratory). And yet a couple find their way here every year or two.
Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) | Evansville, Indiana
November 28, 2020
The next day, a white-winged scoter was spotted on the Ohio River just a mile or two from my home. We see scoters periodically, but as an ocean-going “sea duck,” this is still far from their home range.
White-Winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi) | Jefferson County, Kentucky
December 1, 2020
On the first of December, the first western grebe in Jefferson County, Kentucky since 2013 was found in the Ohio River just a few miles upstream of downtown Louisville. I raced against the setting sun to grab a photo and managed to capture it at the day’s last light. (In this map, red-orange = year round; peach = breeding; light blue = non-breeding; the purple-ish color = “shouldn’t be there!”)
Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) | Jefferson County, Kentucky
December 2, 2020
One day after finding the unexpected western grebe, we drove a little over two hours southwest to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. After a four-hour search, we found our target: a northern shrike in the Peabody Wildlife Management Area - a bird that has been seen in Kentucky just two or three times in the last two decades.
Northern Shrike (Lanius borealis) | Muhlenberg County, Kentucky
December 7, 2020 - Morning
On the morning of the seventy-ninth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor we were able to locate an uncommon Harris’s sparrow, the largest of our sparrows, incognito among the much more numerous white-crowned sparrows in a brush pile thirty minutes from Louisville. Of all the species listed, this one is closest to home, but it is still a rare find east of the Mississippi. Note the distance from its breeding range in northern Canada to it winter home in the southern plains. A quick jaunt to Kentucky is not a big deal!
Harris’s Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) | Shelbyville, Kentucky
December 7, 2020 - Afternoon
After recording a life bird with the Harris’s sparrow, I was more than satisfied for the day. One rare and elusive species would have been a good result for the whole month. Little did I know what was coming: around 1:30 I got a report of a very unusual visitor from the north, a snowy owl at the Owensboro Airport. I was in the car five minutes later, and after a two-hour drive we found this amazing creature hanging out in the corn stubble just off the runway. Obviously this bird is thousands of miles away from his home territory, but while they do not often make it this far south, this is actually not that unusual for snowy owls. Although the availability of food and territory can be a factor in a snowy owl’s southerly wanderings, it is thought that in many ways this is just what snowy owls do; they wander because they can. Their explorations cover thousands of miles. They are nomadic by nature and they know no boundaries. They do, however, seem to like airports. Trees are a foreign concept to a snowy owl, and the wide-open space of the tarmac looks a lot more like their native tundra.
Snowy Owl (Bubo Scandiacus) | Owensboro, Kentucky
So, it has been quite the couple weeks - six life birds in ten days! Suffice to say I was more than a little excited to find a surprise snowy owl so close to home on a dreary winter day. A few weeks ago as we moved toward the short gray days of winter, I lamented the possibility that there would be nothing interesting to see. I was more than a little wrong. As always, I ask myself what the lesson here might be. A couple come to mind…
First, you might be wondering how I find all these rare birds, and the answer is that I don’t - not often, anyway. Nobody finds rare birds often because, they are, well… rare. But someone finds a rare bird every day, and we birders communicate through a highly sophisticated top-secret underground network (just kidding - we use email, texts, and Facebook). Can I go out and find an extremely uncommon and secretive two-ounce bird like a Harris’s sparrow in Kentucky’s forty-thousand square miles by simply searching for it? Almost certainly not. But get a large number of passionate people working toward the same goal and success becomes nearly inevitable. When people collaborate effectively, we can accomplish virtually anything.
And second, just because something is not supposed to happen does not mean it won’t or can’t. There are not supposed to be snowy owls in Kentucky. But yesterday there was. Is it possible to find a white-winged scoter, a western grebe, or a northern shrike in my home state? Not likely, perhaps, but as they say, birds have wings.
Greg