Ken Brown and I went on a pelagic birding trip from Sept 5-9, 2022 on the Searcher, a +/-96 foot wooden boat out of San Diego. This is an annual trip, recently leaving on Labor Day each fall, and returning on the following Friday mo rning, after a partial day of birding Monday afternoon and early evening, three full days at sea, and returning early Friday morning.

And the birding was spectacular. Ken had only been at sea off San Diego once on a day trip, and had 9 reasonably likely target lifer species, and he saw ALL NINE! I had done the trip once prior, so hoped for 2 lifers, and got BOTH!. Before I give a day-by-day summary, I want to set the stage.

I had been on this trip once previously in 2016, and have been talking about the trip with Ken ever since, urging him to go with me again. The trip differs from a typical one-day pelagic trip in lots of ways.

IMO the biggest differences are that it is comparatively leisurely, it gets far offshore to many areas not possible on a one-day trip, and in that the boat if fairly large and relatively stable. In addition there are only 20 birders with 4 trip-leaders, along with the boat’s crew.
The boat is quite nice, with a kitchen, seating at 6 tables that comfortably seat 4, so meals had a first seating, with a smaller second seating. The meals were very good, and as a vegan the cook took good care of me with nice vegan alternatives to the more typical meals for the rest of the staff.
I did arrange this ahead of time with Celia, the owner and captain’s wife ahead of time
Sleeping quarters were in most cases, ours included, bunk beds that were reasonably comfortable, and there was adequate space for one person at a time to stand up, use the small sink, dress, etc. Basic sleeping quarters, but perfectly adequate.

This may sound like basic accommodations, and in some ways it was, but the overall experience on the boat was really great. The staff, from captain Art to the cooks and deck hands, were all extraordinary in every way. They kept everything moving, gave personal attention to everyone, and made the whole experience fun.

Enough of the basics. It was a birding trip, and that experience was unparalleled IMO.

Todd McGrath is the leader of a group of four extraordinary pelagic birders. Dave Pereksta and Dave Povey are the regulars, having both done the trip for more-or-less the past decade, and the invited guide this year was Jon Feenstra, an extraordinarily talented pelagic birder who also manned the ship’s loudspeaker to call out birds to us all in a remarkable bass voice that could double as a play-by-play announcer for a professional team. In a way, it was a play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird professional operation.

Todd McGrath has been leading California pelagic trips among other pelagic trips for several decades, and his attention to detail along with spotting expertise was amazing to watch. He generally manned the front of the bow, while Dave Pereksta, at maybe 6-6” (big-Dave) stood behind him looking over all of our heads. Both are fun to be around, and excelled at conversation, storytelling, and making us all feel included while constantly spotting and calling out birds as they appeared.
Dave Posey generally manned the stern, was in charge of the chum, and passengers who preferred birding from the back of the boat where you could bird and sit in lawn chairs or benches. Essentially all of us took breaks to rest and sit with Dave, and enjoyed his company and expertise.

Jon Feenstra generally manned the upper deck, helped Dave Perecki keep eBird lists, called out bird he and others saw that they called to him on walkie-talkies, and gave nice commentary on where we were, and what was happening.

After flying to San Diego Sunday afternoon, checking into a somewhat overpriced and not terribly nice Ramada by Windham hotel whose most redeeming characteristic was that it is the cheapest hotel within easy walking distance of the departure deck, we walked around the docks for a while, attended a talk by Todd to orient us to the birds and route of the trip, and had dinner.
Monday morning we met at the dock and were off by about 11AM.

The bait barge had nothing unexpected, with Heermann’s Gulls, the ever-present Western Gulls, lots of Brandt’s Cormorants and a couple Double-crested Cormorants, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, and a few other birds, we left the harbor for the trip.
The beginning of the trip went about as expected, with the first tubnoses being Black-vented Shearwaters, but we lucked out with a fly-by Manx Shearwater that most if not all of us got looks at flying past and away with it’s crisp black-and white plumage, and the more extensive white flank areas. This is species is really uncommon off SoCal, and is a species I saw as my “lifer” on a one-day trip in this area years ago.

As we headed first to 9-mile bank and then 30-mile bank (I think 9-mile bank is 9-miles long but not 9-miles from the harbor, and 30-mile bank is 30 miles out of San Diego harbor, but not 30 miles long).

These are the typical areas one-day trips our of San Diego visit, and the highlights of these places were good numbers of Least Storm-Petrels, a species often seen in very low numbers or possibly not seen on this whole trip, lots of Black Storm-Petrels, along with the recently split from Fork-tailed Storm-Petral Townsend’s Storm-Petral. All three of these species were lifers for Ken, so we were off to a great start.

As we headed into the sunset at the very end of the day, a lifer for both of us Nazca Booby flew in very close to the stern for everyone to see. My first lifer of the trip, and Ken’s fourth. This day and for most of the trip Long-tailed Jaegers were plentiful, but the other two species, Parasitic and Pomerine were scarce, and we missed South Polar Skua, an unusual miss for the trip per the leaders, but of little concern to Ken and me because we see both regularly in WA on the Westport Seabirds trips.

We cruised for a while at night, and anchored near Sutil Island off Santa Barbara, which is the best place in the ABA area to see boobies. Boobies are a cool family of birds, Sulids, that are sort of goofy looking, that I think of a “pointy” in all directions; long pointy wings, a very large pointy bill, and long pointy tails.

After our usual breakfast before dawn, we approached the island, and boobies were everywhere. Brown boobies started to be seen as we approached, and were constantly seen in remarkable numbers, at times in huge flocks while at other times perching on the island in big numbers.

The leaders quickly spotted a Blue-footed Booby in a favorite roosting spot, and we all got on the bird well. We spent over an hour studying and admiring the boobies, finding the hybrid Blue-foot x Brown Booby 2-year old bird, seeing the males of this subspecies (brewsterii) with it’s frosty white head feathering, and looking for but not finding a Red-footed Booby that have sometimes been seen at the island. This is the only known nesting area of Blue-footed Boobies in the ABA area, and it is thought that there are two nesting pair on the island. I think we saw 4 BFBO plus the hybrid.
I was a little anxious that I might miss my second hoped for lifer on the trip, but Todd seemed confident we’d see one somewhere on the trip.

For the rest of the day we continued to have good birds, including Sabine’s Gulls and both Common Terns. Craveri’s Murrelets were seen at close range on the water and in flight several times.

We woke on day 3 to head out to deep waters, exploring the San Juan Seamount and other areas. It was a day of overall great birds, including Red-billed Tropicbird on the water and flying, more Nazca Boobies, and a spectacular appearance of a Red-footed Booby.

The highlight of the day for many was a Hawaiian Petrel, which probably approached the boat from the right stern area. Dave Povey called out a bird from the stern, possibly a Buller’s Shearwater. We all moved back to look for it, and after a few minutes started back to the front of the boat. Ken, Todd, Dave P. and a couple of other birders went back sooner, and spotted the Hawaiian Petrel appear from the right, arc right in front of them and head down the left side of the boat. Great excitement entailed, and as I looked from the stern was unable to find the bird as it moved away quickly. The good news is Ken got a great look, and I’d seen the bird on our repositioning cruise a few years ago and didn’t miss a lifer.
For me the Red-footed Booby appearance was one of the best of the trip. Dave and Todd called out a possible dark booby flying straight at the boat a distance at 1 o’clock, and every one got on it easily, in perfect light which was from the left side of the boat. The bird was flying really fast, and as it got closer the ID as a Red-footed Booby was clear. I looked through binos, then as I put the binos down for a photo the bird was on us really fast, giving great bare-eyed looks from maybe 15 feet! I have a blurry photo of the right axilla of the bird, and a couple very backlit photos as it passed into the sun to our left. The bird was so close, and so awesome everyone was stunned.

The rest of the day and the next day gave great looks at all three murrelets, Craveri’s continued to be seen, but more Guadalupe’s were seen as we got deeper. This is the darker faced of the Xantou’s Murrelet split. On the next day we would see several Scripp’s Murrelet, the other half of the split with the more white on the face and above the eye. It was a great trip for comparing and seeing all of these three species. The other highlight of this day was a good number of Cook’s Petrels, a small buoyant petrel that visits the area in spring and summer, and this year a good number hung around for us to see.

On Day 4 we changed the route a bit because Hurricane Kay, aptly named, was moving up from the Baja area, and we needed to be in port by about midnight rather than 8 AM on day 5. Everyone was happy to avoid a really rough night at sea, and the route proved perfect.

This day we had another great Red-footed Booby experience,

with a bird with very worn tail feathers was perched on a weather bouy giving prolonged and really close looks. I hope this bird survives and was just resting and molting.
At the very end of the 4th day we came onto a cool pod of Orca Whales (Killer Whales) of the Tropical Eastern Pacific subspecies. These were enjoyed by all, and later a Blue Whale gave a great show including an apparently rare “fluke” with its huge tail as it dove. We hung there for a few minutes as the sun set, and a nice flock of storm petrels scavenged the whale debris.

A white-rumped petrel (generic description, not the species) was seen and photographed by Dave Perecki which on examining the photos was agreed to be a Band-rumped Storm Petrel, a very rare ABA visitor, (an ABA lifer for Todd McGrath shows how rare) and we spent the remaining bit of daylight looking for it. A white-rumped small bird appeared and was followed by both Ken and me that may have been the BRSP but no decent photos were obtained, and we both decided to leave the bird off our list.

I had seen a white-rumped bird earlier in the flock, which again may have been THE BIRD, but I had no idea it was not one more Townsend’s Storm Petrel at the time. It was a pretty distant range and I could not be confident it was the BRSP. Still it was a very exciting end to a wonderful trip.

We ate well again for dinner, got a shower, a bit of sleep, and woke early, about 4:50 AM for breakfast and to pack and disembark.
Ken and I both agree that if this was not the best trip we have taken together it was certainly in the top group. Ken had 9 lifers on the boat plus the Cook’s and Hawaiian Petrel. I had two.
Ken’s lifers:
Black Storm Petrel

Least Storm Petrel

Townsend’s Storm Petrel

Nazca Booby

Blue-footed Booby

Red-footed Booby

Red-billed Tropicbird

Craveri’s Murrelet
e
Guadalupe Murrelet

The Red-footed and Nazca Boobies were ABA lifers for me, with Nazca a first anywhere bird.

We spent the morning of Friday around Crown Point Park on Mission Bay enjoying Ken’s lifer Allen’s Hummingbird, Black Skimmers, shorebirds, terns and trying to stay out of the pretty steady rain.

By early afternoon the weather got worse, with no break in sight, and we gave up and went to the airport for our evening flight home. Marian picked us up at Seatac, and we got to Tacoma about midnight, happy, tired, and ready for our own beds.
A few pictures I like that didn’t fit really above.

Good birding!

This is really the script from Part 2 of the Podcast on the Great River Road Trip. Some photos added and some parts deleted.

We left Memphis across the Mississippi into Arkansas, and headed for the Wapanocca NWR. Of all the places we birded on this trip, and all of the places we visited, I have to say the national wildlife refuges in general have been highlights. The Wapanocca NWR was a great example of these places. The refuge web site states, “The Refuge was established in January, 1961 as a sanctuary for migratory waterfowl. The refuge is literally an island of forest in a sea of agriculture.” The U.S. NWR system is extraordinary overall. There are >560 refuges, and combined with 38 wetland management districts encompass 150 million acres. Teddy Roosevelt Florida’s Pelican Island NWR as the first NWR in 1903, and since then it has grown to its current extent.

Wapannocca NWR was one of my favorite spots of the whole trip, in part maybe because we had lots of time to bird it, and in large part because of the birds. It also was nice to just be in a vast area with essentially no other prople, with varied habitats, and to just wander the many roads. Dickcissel was abundant in the big weedy fields, as were Field Sparrows, both singing constantly. I have no idea how many Prothonatary Warblers we saw and heard. There seemed to be several birds singing almost the whole visit. The same wet woodlands seem to be prime Northern Parula habitat too, and they were singing everywhere too. We heard our first for-sure Yellow-billed Cuckoos here, and listed 53 species in a 4 ½ hour visit. We drove and wandered over much of the refuge roads.

Shortly after leaving Wapanocca Marian spotted a Greater Yellowlegs in a roadside flooded field, and on stopping it was packed with Pectoral Sandpipers. I listed 75, and think there were likely lots more than that.

From here we drove north past most of Reelfoot NWR just into Kentucky to bird the Long Point Unit in the southwestern corner of Kentucky. Another state I’d not set foot in or birded, and Reelfoot Lake is different from most of the lakes we visited on the trip, in that it is a natural shallow lake, not a reservoir behind a dam. The refuge encompasses about the northern third of the lake and surrounding areas, and is partly in Tennessee and partly in Kentucky. My hope was to use the northern part, the Long Point Unit as our first Kentucky birding stop. One thing we tried to do on this trip, maybe I should say I tried to do, was have good birding experiences in each state along our route. Of the states we visited, Kentucky has only a pretty short segement on the Mississippi River, and so Reelfoot and the surrounding area was about our only KY birding options.

After talking about how great the birding was at the NWRs we visited, this unit at Reelfoot would be the next stop. It was pretty limited in access to see birds, really a road into the wetland with two branches of a fork, and not too much to see. Still, it was beautiful, the day was sunny and fairly warm and I was excited to see some Kentucky birds. At the Long Point Unit maybe the coolest thing was actually a large mammal I’m pretty sure was a badger, although it was hard to see in the deep grass, and looked different from the Badgers we see in WA. Also a massive flock of Black Vultures on the road likely by a carcass. There were lots of shorebirds, but views were distant and if it had not been our first hotspot of birding in Kentucky it would have been pretty dull.

We couldn’t find a place to stay in Kentucky in that area, so backtracked to Union City where the hotel we found as borderline, the meal at Applebys was disgusting, and the neighbors smoked and played music until 4 AM. I slept through it all, but Marian, not so well.
We headed back north right along the Mississippi River and birded our way along, stopping at 5 different places for eBird lists before making it to the first planned stop, Lake #9. It was early morning, and easy decision to leave our not-so-great room early, and I liked the name of Lake #9, and liked the eBird lists from there, but it seemed like every time we started to drive along another spot looked really birdy, and so we just took our time. It was really a fun morning. Kentucky Warblers were singing in Kentucky, and I got nice looks at the Brownsville Cemetery. We finally both got great looks at Blue Grosbeak at Lake #9. Other stops with cool names were “Fish Pond- Roadside Viewing Only” and one of our favorite places was the Upper Bottom Road.
Maybe the most interesting thing about the part of Kentucky we visited, pretty near the Mississippi River, were the deep ravines, or what I think they call Bayous, that seem to be everywhere. I’ll put a link to an article about these in the blog post associated with this episode on Birdbanter.com https://www.backyardnature.net/loess/bayous.htm
As best I can tell these were formed over history in the alluvial plain where the Mississippi River constantly changed its course to cut these deep ravines into the landscape, and have left the place looking incredibly weird and cool. The roads seem to wander along the flat tops of these ravines.

We left Kentucky with a life list of 67 species, and we crossed the river again to stay in a nice place, the Holiday Inn Espress at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. On our first day in Missouri birding we started our day at the Cape Girardeau Nature Conservation Center, where it was cold! This is a cool suburban park, and despite the chilly morning, about 48 degrees, I had fun exploring the park/ IN terms of birds, the remarkable thing was an apparent migration of Swainson’s Thrushes. I saw about a dozen moving around the grounds, and we also had a pair of Northern Waterthrushes, Eastern Bluebirds at nest boxes, and enjoyed the walk.

From there we drove north, crossed the river back into Illinois and headed for a hotspot called Kidd Lake Marsh State Natural Area, which looked great on eBird, but seemed limited birding to me, just a couple of roads into a farmland beside a marsh. We managed 37 species, but not much special at all. We are getting more spoiled now though, with many of the eastern birds already seen well.

A cool happening along the way though was a stop at what we called “Sharon’s Martin Hotel.” As we drove along Root’s Road in Randolph County I spotted what looked like a huge Purple Martin nest box array a ways off the road. We detoured off the road up a long driveway to the end, where a woman was painting her shed, and greeted us skeptically at first, but when we asked permission to check out her martin boxes, she beamed. She has over 100 pair of Purple Martins using a big set of boxes and plastic gords, and we had a nice chat and enjoyed the birds. Her home is partly underground to keep cool in summer and warm in winter, and she said she uses just one large propane tank a year, $500., to head the place for the whole year. The windows are just above ground level, so it looks like a half-house. Pretty cool.

I eBirded 120 PUMA, but there were likely more. Definite eBird filter smasher. From here we headed north to stay at the Pear Tree Hotel in St. Louis, and had a great dinner at a local brewery, best beet salad ever, and listened to the Mariners put up 7 runs in the 4th inning! I’m recording this the day after the end of their road trip that followed this exciting stretch of games, and the M’s scoring runs seems like a distant memory. They just finished a 3 game series in Houston where they were shut out for the first 23 innings of the series and got swept. I thought about this at this point because the next day we went to a baseball game at Busch Stadium, St. Louis.
On the first morning in St. Louis Marian slept in and I headed for the big city park, “Forest Park.” It really is a big, fabulous city park, with the St. Louis Art Museum across a pond with a big Statue in front, and lots of mature trees, a meandering body of water, and even a small wetlands area. I birded the area on foot for about 2 1/2 hours and found 56 species including Solitary Sandpiper, Eastern Bluebird, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Northern Waterthrush plus a total of 9 species of warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting. Overall a really nice morning of birding before the Cardinal’s game which started at 12:15 for businessman’s special game. The Cards won 10-5, Albert Puhol struck out as a pinch hitter, and the bench cleared after a fastball at the head of Nolan Arenado on the first pitch of the half inning after a Met’s player was hit by a pitch in the ankle and had to leave the game.
After that we stayed the night in St. Louis and headed across the river to Illinois for the drive north to Marian’s home town of Davenport, Iowa. Stops on the way included Horseshoe Lake State Park, where we found a single White-faced Ibis, to put on the hotline, along with 42 species, including great looks at several Yellow Warblers. We made a lunch stop at the Meredosia NWR, maybe the NWR that was the least enjoyable NWR stop of the trip so far, with little access to birding, and not a lot of birds, though 6 Orchard Orioles was cool.
Most of our 4 day stop in Davenport, Iowa centered around visiting with Marian’s family, but of course we managed some birding.
As an aside. The first locks and dam on the Mississippi River is at St. Louis, and the dam at Davenport is Lock and Dam #15 (of 27 total) and the feel of travelling along the river upstream of where the dams begin is really different from farther downstream. Downstream much of the river is bordered by high earthen dikes that have been built to try to keep the river from flooding surrounding lands. Once you get farther upstream the water levels are controlled in large part by the dams, and many areas have fairly easy river viewing. We were surprised that for most of our trip the GRR afforded really no river views. In many places the roads were several miles from the river.

By far the biggest day of birding in the Davenport area was at Scott County Park, a big and pretty fabulous county park that Marian’s Dad was instrumental in pushing through the process of being formed and developed. We spent our whole first morning there, and found 50 species including several first of the trip birds, Trumpeter Swan, Ring-necked Pheasant, Black-capped Chickadee, Marsh Wren, Black-and-white Warbler, first seen Black-throated Green Warbler and best looks at Rose-breasted Grosbeak, along with just nice birding overall. It seemed to have the most warbler numbers of any stop so far on the trip.
Other stops in Davenport included Credit Island Park, the top eBird spot in the county, and really unimpressive on the day we stopped, and the Nahant Marsh, which was really a cool little activist led preservation story and cool place to bird.
On our last day in Iowa we visited the camp Marian used to visit as a kid, and I managed to walk around, again seeing big numbers of Eurasian Tree Swallows. This area must be the epicenter of their U.S. population as they are easily seen almost everywhere there are trees and open areas. On the night of our last day in Davenport we returned there hoping to see a nice American Woodcock display, but settled for hearing a couple of birds calling, but no flight seen.
On Monday May 2nd we make our last real drive of the trip, from Davenport to Omaha, Nebraska, about a 5 hour drive to where Marian’s brother Jim lives for a visit and a little Nebraska birding.
The Drive from Davenport, Iowa to the Omaha area was pretty uneventful. Maybe the coolest thing was a stop at the Amanda Colony, an Amish colony with a historical downtown that reminded me of an Amish Leavenworth. In Washington there is a small town on Hwy 2 going down the east side of the Cascaddes, just before the mountains level out onto the desert area around Wenatchee. Leavenworth has a German theme, has for many years hosted a big Octoberfest, though that outgrew the community and I understand is not happening this fall- rather being moved into Wenatchee proper, but has everything in a tourist friendly German theme. Amanda is lower key, but similar in that it is an Amish theme, and is very much set up as a tourist destination, with a Christmas store, a bakery, and lots of other small tourist friendly stops. Marian used to go there with her big family to a style restaurant, and so she enjoyed snooping around while I took a walk and birded. It is overwhelmed by House Sparrows and a few Eurasian Tree Sparrows mixed in, but I did manage a Spotted Sandpiper and a Wood Duck in the creek in the edge of town.
From there we drove to the Saylorville Reservoir for lunch and some birding. It was a stop at the overflow end of a huge reservoir, and American White Pelicans, Foresters and Caspian Terns, and Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers ruled the roost there, though we did list 40 species for the stop. It was late when we got to the Omaha area, and we stayed well west of town near Elkhorn, and close to the assisted living place Marian’s brother has just moved to.
On our first morning in Nebraska, maybe 15-20 miles west of Omaha, we visited the 234th Street wetlands and surrounding areas on a very cold, somewhat rainy and very windy day. Birding was tough, but I managed a few Nebraska birds for the trip before a visit with Jim and Ann. Marian spent the afternoon visiting and I headed to the Two Rivers State Recreation Area. It is one of the top nearby hotspots, but is really set up for fishing, hunting and camping so birding is an afterthought there. It was still cold and windy so passerines were difficult. I really did better ourside the preserve where I managed to hear Northern Bobwhite calling and find Lark Sparrows for good looks. Another cool walk was at the T.L. David Prairie trail, a ridge near the river where a swath of oak and grasslands has been saved, and though not that birdy a cool spot with vistas of the Elkhorn River and just a pretty place.
For me though the highlight of the day was the last bit of birding. I went to see Marian and Jim, but they were out driving around, so I found a small trail I called the Bluewater Trail, a walking trail beside an artificial lake system and new housing development that is being built. I found the spot by looking for places Warbling Vireo had been found in the county on eBird, thinking that might get me a place to look for migrants. It is only a mile or so away from the place Jim is living, and as soon as I parked I noted some sparrows on the lawn. The first bird I got bins on was a Harris’s Sparrow. I was stoked, and the place turned out to be the best sparrow spot of the whole trip so far. In addition to the Harris’s Sparrow I got great looks at singing Clay-colored Sparrows, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows for zonotrichias, Song, Swamp and Lincoln’s for melospiza sparrows, and Chipping as as second Spizella sparrow. No warbling vireo that stop, but really an exciting few minutes for me at the end of a cold windy day.
Wednesday Marian and I birded the Glenn Cunningham Lake area. It is a big shallow reservoir, and the access area shown on eBird is closed. We went there first, tried to walk in but signs warned us away so we stared walking back to the car. As we got closer Marian noted another vehicle parked beside our car, with what looked like police lights on the roof. Marian was a bit leery, but a very helpful local police officer showed up to check us out. He directed us around to the other side of the lake for access. Interestingly on a pretty long walk from the other side, across a bridge and along a trail we got to what appeared to be almost the exact same place we tried to access initially. Our thought is that the wealthy farmer on that side of the lake convinced the town to close that access to keep visitors from driving in there.
We made the eBird alert there with at least 25 GWFG, apparently out of season there, and had 57 species, a nice collection of ducks, including our first of the trip Ruddy, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked and Buffleheads. When we arrived there where we estimated 2000 or more swallows over the lake, mostly Barn and Tree with good numbers of NRWS mixed in too. It was a nice walk, and this afternoon I went back to the Bluewater area for a nice thorough visit. I found at least 6 Harris’s Sparrow, at least 2 Clay-colored, along with all the same as yesterday except no Swamp Sparrow, along with Warbling Vireo, White-breasted Nuthatch and Osprey.
The weather report for today was dismal, and I had resigned myself to not birding much if at all. When we got up I looked outside, it looked decent, and so I squeezed in a morning at another recreation area, Chalco Hills Recreation Area. It is a top Douglas County, Nebraska hotspot, and so I was hopeful of seeing a few new Nebraska birds. The stop exceeded expectations completely I think I mentioned in the last episode that I was hoping to find Sedge Wren on this trip. Well, as I walked on a path beside the lake, after seeing the first Redhead for the trip (a diving duck for listeners who may not be avid birders, not a hair color) and incredibly the first Belted Kingfisher of the trip. It seemed impossible to spend almost 3 weeks birding mostly in areas near the Mississippi River or various other lakes to not see a single one of the big noisy birds, but it’s true. Anyway, as I passed a wet grassy and weedy field I heard a rattle that was different from the Eastern Meadowlark rattle I’d been getting used to that I didn’t recognize. The Merlin Sound ID app immediately identified Sedge Wren, and I was stoked. I spent just a minute looking and then saw the small very vocal Sedge Wren singing like crazy from the low branches of a small bush in the field. My only prior Sedge Wren sighting was in TX maybe 30 years ago, and was very brief. These birds were really cooperative, flitting around in the grass and bushes singing and calling, for recordings and photos. I was a happy birder.
Overall it was a great last birding stop. I went to try to help Marian’s brother Jim hand an old family Cuckoo Clock in their new apartment. Hanging it was easy. Trying to figure out the chains that use weights to run the clock, not so easy. It’s hung, but not running. A task for someone more mechanically minded than me.
We fly home tomorrow, and it will be good to be home. The breeding neotropic migrants are showing up, and hopefully a few of the passage migrants will still be available for me to catch up on then. That along with good home cooking, my usual pillow, and a lot less driving will be appreciated.
So, what are my takeaways from this trip?
• First is that the Great River Road is rarely very near the river in the lower Mississippi area.
• Second is a huge sense of gratitude that we have such a great NWR system, and that many of them allow some degree of access for birding.
• Third is that if you want to see a lot of our neotropic migrant birds, doing it the typical way of visiting a migration hotspot like South Padre Island, Dauphin Island, Magee Marsh, Point Pelee or any of many others is going to yield a lot more birds a lot more easily than the trip along the Mississippi River we took.
• That said, the trip was great, and I saw a lot of places and things I’m really happy to have experienced.

I have several good guests schedule for the near term, so it will be back to the more usual episode soon. Thanks for listening

Good birding. Good day!

Leaving Memphis we headed north from Yazoo, and spent the night at a pretty basic hotel in Greenville, Mississippi. From there we looped back south a few miles to cross the Mississippi into Arkansas to head north. Our we planned two primary birding stops along the way in Arkansas. The first was at Lake Chicot State Park. Maybe more memorable than the park was driving for maybe 15 miles right along the west side of the with egrets, both Great and Snowy. In addition American White Pelicans were seen at most times, and it was a pretty
cool drive. eBird list was 35 species there in 1 ¾ hours.

We drove on to our second planned stop, Arkansas Post National Memorial, a nice historical site, with a good visitor’s center, history video, and a large grounds. It was afternoon birding, but with the high canopy trees it remained pretty active, with Yellow-throated and Prothonatary Warblers, our first of soon to be many Indigo Buntings, and really big alligators highlights.

From here we drove to Memphis, Tennessee. We had a nice room at the Staybridge Suites in East Memphis, quite a ways from Beale Street and downtown, but easy highway access and quiet. We liked Memphis overall, and found outdoor venues for music on both our second and third nights in the city. The first place was an outdoor venue with country music called The Grove at the Germantown PAC, where we had a picnic, beer, shade and good music. The next afternoon we went to a “Music on the Porch” event with lots of bands playing on neighborhood porches, and we walked around and listened, before heading downtown to Beale Street, to hear some music at a bar and have dinner at a Chess Club. We were impressed with the huge mansions in many neighborhoods, and the mature trees on many streets.

Birding around Memphis was excellent. On the first day we went to the T.O. Fuller State Park early and then on to Enslee Bottoms, keeping it to a half day of birding so we could check out the city music scene. The state park was fair, with nice forest, and moderately active birding. Prothonatary Warblers were all over the place, our first Eastern Phoebes of the trip showed, but I kept is to a little over an hour to leave lots of time for Enslee. I’m glad I did, as Enslee Bottoms is a special shorebird spot. I estimated 600 conservatively Lesser Yellowlegs, a few Greater Yellowlegs, and decent looks at Pectoral, Least, Solitary and Baird’s Sandpipers along with Black-necked Stilt and Killdeer. The tree line beside the open muddy spots had a few passerines, and I left quite a few sparrows unidentified.

The second day we birded the River Road access to Meeman Shelby State Park, a nice remaining hardwood bottomland spot recommended by prior guest Michael Todd. It was great. I listed 46 species, and know I left lots of unidentified warbler songs. Again, it is so odd having not been to the southeast much before, to see how extensive the wooded wetlands are overall. Standing water in vast forested areas is all over the place, but this area had more mature trees and was a bit drier. Still Prothonatary warblers were numerous, along with Northern Parula, Swainson’s, Tennessee, Hooded, Yellow-rumped, Yellow-throated, Kentucky, Blackpoll, and Palm Warblers and Common Yellowthroat. Indigo Buntings were everywhere, I saw my first Blue Grosbeak of the trip, and overall it was just top notch birding. ‘
We left Memphis across the Mississippi into Arkansas, and headed for the Wapanocca NWR. This was one of my favorite spots so far, in part maybe because we had lots of time to bird it, and in large part because of the birds. Dickcissel was abundant in the big weedy fields, as were Field Sparrows, both singing constantly. I have no idea how many Prothonatary Warblers we saw and heard. There seemed to be several birds singing almost the whole visit. The same wet woodlands seem to be prime Northern Parula habitat too, and they were singing everywhere too. We heard our first for-sure Yellow-billed Cuckoos here, and listed 53 species in a 4 ½ hour visit. We drove and wandered over much of the refuge roads.

Shortly after leaving Wapanocca Marian spotted a Greater Yellowlegs in a roadside flooded field, and on stopping it was packed with Pectoral Sandpipers. I listed 75, and think there were likely lots more than that. From here we drove north past most of Reelfoot NWR just into Kentucky to bird the Long Point Unit in the southwestern corner of Kentucky. Another state I’d not set foot in or birded, and Reelfoot is a massive NWR.
At the Long Point Unit maybe the coolest thing was a large mammal I’m pretty sure was a badger, and a massive flock of Black Vultures on the road likely by a carcass. There were lots of shorebirds, but views were distant and if it had not been our first hotspot of birding in Kentucky it would have been pretty dull.

We couldn’t find a place to stay in Kentucky in that area, so backtracked to Union City where the hotel we found as borderline, the meal at Applebys was disgusting, and the neighbors smoked and played music until 4 AM. I slept through it all, but Marian, not so well.
We headed back north right along the Mississippi River and birded our way along, stopping at 5 different places for eBird lists before making it to the first planned stop, Lake #9. Cool name I thought, but just a fun morning. Kentucky Warblers were singing in Kentucky, and I got nice looks at the Brownsville Cemetery. We finally both got great looks at Blue Grosbeak at Lake #9. Other stops with cool names were “Fish Pond- Roadside Viewing Only” and one of our favorite places was the Upper Bottom Road. We left Kentucky with a life list of 67 species, and generally a feel for this small corner of the state. Look at a map, and really only a tiny part of the state is along the Mississippi River. In some areas the terrain is really wild, with really deeply eroded ravines seemingly everywhere.

Last night we crossed the river again to stay in a nice place, the Holiday Inn Espress at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Today we started birding at the Cape Girardeau Nature Conservation Center, where it was cold! Our first chilly morning, about 48 degrees early, and the remarkable thing was an apparent migration of Swainson’s Thrushes. I saw about a dozen moving around the grounds, and we also had a pair of Northern Waterthrushes, Eastern Bluebirds at nest boxes, and enjoyed the walk.
From there we drove north, crossed the river back into Illinois and headed for a hotspot called Kidd Lake Marsh State Natural Area, which looked great on eBird, but seemed limited birding to me, just a couple of roads into a farmland beside a marsh. We managed 37 species, but not much special at all. We are getting more spoiled now though, with many of the eastern birds already seen well. A cool happening along the way though was a stop at what we called “Sharon’s Martin Hotel.” As we drove along Root’s Road in Randolph County I spotted what looked like a huge Purple Martin nest box array a ways off the road. We detoured off the road up a long driveway to the end, where a woman was painting her shed, and greeted us skeptically at first, but when we asked permission to check out her martin boxes, she beamed. She has over 100 pair of Purple Martins using a big set of boxes and plastic gords, and we had a nice chat and enjoyed the birds. Her home is partly underground to keep cool in summer and warm in winter, and she said she uses just one large propane tank a year, $500., to head the place for the whole year. The windows are just above ground level, so it looks like a half-house. Pretty cool. I eBirded 120 PUMA, but there were likely more. Definite filter smasher. We are at the Pear Tree Hotel in St. Louis now, and had a great dinner at a local brewery, best beet salad ever, and listened to the Mariners put up 7 runs in the 4th inning!
Tomorrow: I St. Louis Cardinals day game and some city park birding.

Ed, back again after four more really fun days of birding in Louisiana and this afternoon my first time in MS. Monday Marian and I got up early, and headed for Grand Isle, Louisiana. Prior to coming down here I had thought that Grand Isle was so destroyed by the hurricane last year that it was not accessible to birding. Communication with a local birder, Rebecca Grieser, via facebook messenger, gave me confidence that it was possible to access good birding areas, though the State Park is closed.

We enjoyed the drive down, the full moon giving way to a beautiful morning, and got to the Lafitte Woods Perserve, a nice swath of trees in the midst of a heavily built community that is a part of the Nature Conservancy programs. We found the parking area easily, and I was excited to see what might be there. In short the answer was not much. BirdCast had projected a very heavy migration on Sunday night, and I know that these birds if they stopped on the coast may not arrive until later in the day, but still I was hopeful. Birders over the weekend had been getting some warblers. I walked the whole area over a couple of hours, and saw exactly zero warblers. We did manage what seemed to be a family of Green Herons, both Baltimore and Orchard Orioles Gray Catbird, and a heard Scarlet Tanager, but I was wondering if I was just missing a lot, but another experienced birder confirmed, nada when we met after I’d been there an hour or so.

The biggest impression of Grand Isle though was just the incredible devastation from Hurricaine Ida. The other impression though was the number of new construction projects in rebuilding. The overall impression was of huge piles of demolished buildings side by side with newly completed construction and construction underway. The trails at the wooded area had been nicely cleared and were no problem at all. After talking with the other birder there we visited another patch of woods just past the supermarket on a road there, and managed to add Royal Tern, but no passerines of note. The Exxon Fields were better, with lots of Clapper Rails calling, and one that finally pranced across the edge of a pond a bit farther out toward the point. Blue-winged Teal were nice to see, and we finally came onto our first real shorebirds of the trip, with 9 species at a shallow marshy area, including 54 American Avocets, both dowichers, and fun sorting through all the shorebirds checking for anything different.

We tried again for migrants at the Lafitt woods before leaving in the afternoon, with no more luck than in the morning, and headed back north.

I planned to make one stop on the way to Baton Rouge, the planned stop for the night, at the Bonnet Carre Spillway. I wanted to stop there specifically because after just finishing a book on the history of the Mississippi River I had learned that it is a key flood control measure for New Orleans where some water of the river can be diverted into Lake Pontchartrain at times of extremely high water. It has been used only a relatively few times since it was built between 1929 ANDM 1931 after the great floods of 1927. It has 350 bays made up of huge 8×12” wooden “needles” that allow some minor seepage anytime the water levels reach the level of the structure. To the naked eye it looks like there are pretty significant gaps, so I suspect this “seepage” is not insignificant. Some or all of the bays can be raised by cranes on the top of the structure to allow water to divert into the lake. Behind the structure is a long lowlands where water can flow from the river into Lake Pontchartrain and then on into the gulf.

Anyway, we first birded the mudflats in front of the spillway finding several new shorebirds for the trip including a small flock of Stilt Sandpipers, at least 2 Greater Yellowlegs mixed with the more numerous Lesser Yellowlegs, a Solitary and a Spotted Sandpiper, several Pectoral Sandpipers, a Semipalmated Plover and lots of Least Sandpipers, Willits and Black-necked Stilts. In addition Bald Eagles, Least Terns, a Gull Billed Tern, and Herring and Ring-billed Gulls were all new for the trip. Then the area behind the spillway gates had large flocks of shorebirds, adding Western and Semi-palmated Sandpipers and Killdeer to the shorebird bonanza. I thought I had Upland Sandpiper hiding in the grass, but they turned out to be Lesser Yellowlegs standing oddly with their heads held really high, then after further thought still think it is an Upland. What do you think of this terrible photo.

The next morning we crossed the river and drove right alongside the river headed north on side roads with the only “hot birds” for me being several Mississippi Kites flying appropriately across the Mississippi River. We looked for a place for lunch, and lucked into the Audubon State Historical Site. I thought what more appropriate a place to have lunch and wander around hoping to finally find some warblers. It was a jackpot, with spectacular grounds on the Oakley Plantation where JJA spent a summer living and studying the birds. There are huge old trees, really nice grounds and trails through the forest. Finally we were able to actually see a warbler. Amazingly earlier on the trip I had heard just a few warblers, but literally had not laid eyes on a single one! Here things warmed up with many Northern Parula seemingluy singing from every huge tree. We never did get eyes on one here, but really fun looking. We did get great looks though at the boisterously singing Kentucky Warblers, Hooded Warblers and Wood Thrush that seemed everywhere. Prairie and Pine Warblers were also singing, and overall it was a really nice long lunch stop with great birds. We got to really study an Acadian Flycatcher that was calling and sitting on a prominent branch for a nice long study.

From here we headed to Natchez, leaving Louisiana and setting foot in Mississippi for the first time. We toured the oldest antebellum mansion in the south, the Auburn estate. It was old, and had some cool history, but really underwhelming. The organization maintaining it clearly was struggling to manage, and though it was somewhat interesting neither Marian nor I felt we needed to look at more mansions like this one.

We drove on to Vicksberg and spent the night there. In Vicksberg we started the day at the Vicksberg National Military Park, where we drove around the grounds checking out monunemts and birding. Highlights of the birding for sure was a singing and very cooperative Swainson’s Warbler. For me this was only the second time seeing this species. I missed my first chance in Texas on my first trip there with Ken when I was too slow getting our of the drivers seat and around the van to get a look, and then managed after a long time searching on my trip to the Dry Tortugas with Kay, when she missed the bird while taking a break from cold and miserable weather with most of the other birders on the tour. This was better by far.

In the afternoon after driving north a ways we spent several hours at the Yazoo NWR. It is a large refuge a bit east of the river, maybe 30 miles north of Vicksberg. It is a really cool place, with large areas of wooded wetlands, Prothonatary Warblers seemingly singing everywhere, along with nice looks at Northern Waterthrush, Painted Bunting and a total of 43 species for the afternoon.

Well, our long awaited trip to the Mississippi Flyway, starting in New Orleans has begun. Marian and I caught a Delta flight from Seatac, with a brief stop in Atlanta, a minor delay at Atlanta, so not getting to bed until about 1 PM Saturday morning. I tried to fill in a gray state on my eBird profile from the gate window in Atlanta, but nary a feathered creature to list.

After a short but good sleep at th Intercontinental Hotel in downtown New Orleans, we got a not as early as planned start Saturday, heading to Bayou Savage NWR, and beginning on the Ridge Trail boardwalk. Beginning at 8:52 AM the boardwalk was disappointingly slow, and we managed only 22 species in 80 minutes with essentially no migrants and few passerines to be found. It was a beautiful walk though, and a good look at a Swamp Sparrow, hearing a Fish Crow, and hearing several Clapper Rails was cool.

Marian took a break, as it was getting hot and I went across routh 90 to the Recovery One Road area. Here was more active, though I missed Barn Owls when the young woman coming out told me she had flushed three from the abandoned structure there. It was cool to spot a Sora as I chatted with her and get her on it with a scope, and hearing my first White-eyed Vireos was nice.

We drove around to the north of Lake Pontchartrain on Hwy 11, with a stop along the road to see a few waders and swallows, and then went to the pine forest area north of the lake.
At Big Branch Marsh NWR- Boy Scout Road boardwalk Red-headed Woodpeckers seemed all over the place. It took me a while to see one, but after finding the first one we saw a few more. We also got good looks at Brown-headed Nuthatch, and heard several Pine Warblers, but no Red-cockaded Woodpecker to be found by us in the afternoon. Another pretty place, and calling King and Clapper Rails was cool.
After a shower, we spent the late afternoon and early evening in the French Quarter, and Bourbon Street is pretty wild. The wardrobe of the day for most it seemed was a balloon wrapped to look like a penis that most of the young and many of the not-so-young women wore as a head ornament. The bands were good in a couple places we went, and we had a really nice dinner with curbside seating and excellent Mexican food.
Sleep felt good last night and we got up early this morning and headed for City Park Couturie Forest area. It is a specacular city park, with many trials, a nice wooded area, and seemed like it should have held any passing through migrants, but it was overall pretty quiet except for the Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Brown Thrashers, Blue Jays, Great-crested Flycatchers and both grackles who kept me guessing most of the stop. Highlights were great looks at Brown Thrasher, Carolina Wren, both night herons flying by, hearing lots of Fish Crows, and just the beautiful area. Again, migrants have been tough to come by so far this trip.
After this we took a break from birding to visit a couple of cemeteries. New Orleans if famous for its above ground cemeteries, due to the high water table in the partly below sea level city. They were cool, and Eastern Bluebird and House Finch were added to our Louisiana life list there.
After this break, we decided not to visit the Confederate Civil War Museum, and headed back to Bayou Savage, this time to South Point. I didn’t realize it was a 2+ mile hike one way, and we were pretty hot and weary after the hike, but the birding was IMO the best yet on the trip. Both black ibis species were seen, along with great looks at Great-crested Flycatcher, Orhard Oriole, Eastern Kingbird, and a really cool long look at a pair of Purple Gallinules. Brown Pelicans, and a variety of common but first of the trip species were added too.
We have decided to head south tomorrow on our get-out-of-town day, leaving early to go to Grand Isle in hopes of a good migrant showing. The forecast is for a big flight tonight, and there are some areas open, so I’m hoping the 2 hours in the wrong direction on our Great River Road adventure pays off.

Marian and I broke away from Washington on a 3-week, 3-stop trip getting home just a few days ago. The first stop was really not much about birding, stopping for 3 nights in Nashville, TN to explore a new city and state, see some music, and just have fun. The good thing was that the city is pretty cool. The bad thing was the weather was really cold, meaning 19 degrees F on the middle day.
We got in fairly late and got to our hotel. We discovered a really good vegan place in walking distance from the hotel that we enjoyed. It was a black family owned soul food place.
The next day we got up and headed for an eBird Hotspot, Shelby Park and Bottoms, where we enjoyed a nice warm beautiful morning of birding. We didn’t get a car in Nashville, so got around by Uber/Lyft and it worked well overall. The park is nice, right on the Cumberland River which is a large river. Birding highlights were a nice flock of Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina and Winter Wrens, Red-bellied Woodpecker and just a nice warm morning.

That evening we went to the Grand Old Opry where a “Dancing with the Stars” show was playing and saw lots of crazy dancing in the famous venue.
The next day on waking it was really cold, 19F, and I walked up to Centenial Park, right near the hotel to see what I could find. A Ross’s Goose has been there all winter, and it was the closest I’ve seen this species. Bluejays, N. Mockingbirds, Tufted Titmouse, and a few other species were also seen.
I took Lyft to one other place, near Tennessee State University to a marsh hoping for a lot of waterfowl and managed a moderate list, but was not dressed for the weather, and had trouble getting a Lyft back, so was out way too long.
We stayed in The Villages with Bill and Carol for 6 days. The Villages are amazing, a 200,000+ person >55 community with golf-cart accessible everything. We had a nice visit, outdoor live music, good food, etc. but Marian caught a cold/asthmatic bronchitis which kept her down for most of the trip. She managed and it was great to see Bill and Carol.

I managed a little birding, 52 species for Florida for the stop, really all in The Villages. Best birds were Limpkin and other waders.

From Orlando, where Bill and Carol took us back to a hotel by the airport on Saturday night we flew the next morning direct to San Jose, Costa Rica. Reminder to self, never fly Spirit Airlines again. Old planes, extra charges for everything including pop, snacks, a carry on bag, etc. that are far more expensive than on other airlines. Just a poor overall experience. Direct flight though.
At the Hampton Inn and Suites by the airport we had a huge flock of Crimson-fronted Parakeets by the pool as the sun set. Jean and Alan picked us up the next morning and we were off to La Fortuna and Lake Arenal where we stayed at a fancy resort, Hotel Los Lagos. It had natural hot water pools, well maintained rooms and grounds, and we relaxed mostly. The first morning we got up to go birding with a guide for about 2+ hours at a nearby birding spot, Muelle. It was reasonably birdy, and the guide was just OK. Still we has 43 species, including Olive-crowned Yellowthroat, Cinnamon Woodpecker, and Black-cowled Oriole, all lifers. I suspect with a really top guide we could have had another 20+ species.

The next morning we went before first light to a natural thermal hot river and waterfall. I slipped, had what was a frightening but non-injury fall, but it was really cool. The rest of the trip was mostly hanging by the pools, eating at good vegan places, and visiting a lot. Overall a nice way to ease into Pura Vida life.
After 3 nights there we headed to what all of us felt was the coolest stop of the trip, Finca Luna Nueva. It is an agroforestry farm, with a good restaurant, wonderful grounds, and great staff. Tom ___, the owner had 3 meals with us, and we visited his home on adjacent property one night for wine and to see the Scarlet Macaws come in to roost. Wow on both the house and the Macaws.
Our last stop was a 3+ hour drive to Monteverde, in the cloud forest around the other side of Lake Arenal. It is not really far as the bird flies, but a long windy, uphill drive. We stayed at Hotel Montaña Monteverde, where the place was a bit run down, and the grounds not terribly birdy, a bit disappointing. They did arrange for a guide though, Jorge Marin, who goes by George of the Cloud Forest. He was very enjoyable and a competent guide. On our full day we visited Stella’s Bakery, the Monteverde preserve, and the San Luis area where his abuelos live and have a farm and preserve. Overall good birding, a nice time, and a really cool area. Birding was generally hard, with many birds high in the canopy, and wind was a constant struggle. Top species for me were Three-wattled Bellbird, Resplendent Quetzal, Costa Rica Warbler, and all the hummingbirds at the Hummingbird Gallery just outside the preserve.
The next day we visited Sky Adventures, where several very high and long hanging bridges were the highlight, and we saw more Quetzals and a few other birds.
On the last day, in the morning before heading for San Jose, Jorge took us to Curi-Cancha Refugio de Vida Silvestre where we got better looks at the bellbird, and a few other species while Jean and Marian rode a golf cart to get around steep trails. A fun time and I drove us in their car to San Jose for a late lunch and to the hotel.
The trip home was long but uneventful except for getting around LAX which was a battle. Still home on time and rested up finally now.

Jason Miller and Ken Brown are hoping to do Mason County Big Days in each month of 2022. John Riegsecker and I joined them on the Jan day, and we all had a great day. Starting at Jason’s family Skokomish Valley Farms at 7:30 and making many stops in their side of the county, we managed 85 species, with 81 seen or heard by all. Highlights were the Glaucous Gull that remained at Eell’s Trout Hatchery, two separate Ruffed Grouse, a county lifer for John, and good fellowship and pretty good weather for the whole day. Here is the eBird Trip report link.

I know I’ll miss the Feb day as I’ll be travelling, but hope to join up for many of the remaining Big Days in 2022.

Ed