Birding the St. Joseph River

Lindsay and I joined Brian Miller and other South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society members on a "river run" along the St. Jospeh River on Saturday, January 28, 2012.  As we've heard from those who've been in our chapter for many years more than we have, this used to be a very productive field trip, with large rafts of waterfowl observed at various locations along the river.  These days, unfortunately, there is little waterfowl diversity on the river, but it still makes for a fun morning (despite the biting wind).

Lindsay and other SBEAS members looking at distant Buffleheads on the St. Joseph River

The battle for most abundant species on the river in the past several years always seems to be between Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and Canada Goose (Branta canadensis).  During this trip, we saw more Mallards. Because Mallards are so common, I rarely take the time to look at them in detail.  If we didn't have Mallards around here and I saw one in an exotic place on a birding trip, I would probably think that the males, with their iridescent green heads, yellow beaks, and chocolate brown chests were superbly attractive birds.
 

Mallards (male and female)

Although Canada Geese aren't as colorful, there is still good reason to search through gaggles of geese, as there are some more uncommon species that can sometimes be found amongst them.  Although we didn't see any similar species on Saturday, I was watching for Cackling Geese (the smaller version of the Canada Goose), Greater White-fronted Geese, and even for Brants.

Canada Geese

Along the river at Eberhart Golf Course we saw the highlight of the morning.  Lindsay and I were in the last car in a line of members entering the property.  We were following the group and watching the river when a duck that was clearly not a Mallard flew in front of us.  Lindsay quickly identified the bird in flight as a Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula).  I hit the brakes and fumbled for the camera; meanwhile, the bird landed and swam farther and farther away from us.  By the time I was able to get photos, he was contently as far away from us as possible on the opposite bank of the river.  Common Goldeneye is one of the duck species that used to be much more common on the St. Joseph River in winter.  They are said to spend winters as far north as possible, so long as there is open water.  I wonder if the large rafts that we once had here now winter further north as a result of a warming climate.

A distant Common Goldeneye (male) 

Another surprise of our outing was seeing several Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) in a wet spot along the road at the Mishawaka Riverwalk.  The two common inland gulls around here are Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) and Herring Gull, with the former being much more common than the latter.  The typical parking lot gull is the Ring-billed Gull, and that's what I expected to see as we got closer and saw a flock of gulls along the road, but a good proportion of the gulls we saw at this location were Herring Gulls.

Herring Gull

For comparison, below is a shot of Ring-billed Gulls from the same location.  Herring Gulls are larger and have thicker bills.  They also have pink legs (as compared to the yellow-green legs of Ring-billed Gulls).

Ring-billed Gulls

Thanks to Brian Miller for leading another successful field trip.

Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey

On 9 January 2010, Brian Miller, Jason Hughey, Lindsay, and I participated in the Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey. Armed with binoculars, a spotting scope, and a clipboard with data sheets, we covered three sites along the St. Joseph River that had been surveyed in the past (Bercado Shores, Merrifield Park, and Veteran's Park); we also added two new sites (Mishawaka Riverwalk and St. Joseph's Lake at Notre Dame). As expected, the most abundant and frequent species that we encountered during our surveys was Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos, below).


We also saw Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) at four of the five sites, including nearly 600 at Merrifield Park. Our next most common observations were American Coot (Fulica americana), at two of the sites, and Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), at three of the sites. A handsome male "hoodie" in breeding plumage on St. Joseph's Lake is shown below.


Species that we saw less frequently included Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis, at Veteran's Park), Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola, at Merrifield Park), Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula, at Merrifield Park), and Common Merganser (Mergus merganser, at St. Joseph's Lake). Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) and Domestic Duck were also observed at several locations but were not on our data sheets. We also encountered at least two mature Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), one at Merrifield Park (we also saw one at Mishawaka Riverwalk that we think was the same bird), and one at St. Joseph's Lake. While at St. Joseph's Lake, I had stopped to scope ducks and noticed that all of the Ring-billed and Herring Gulls (Larus delawarensis and Larus argentatus) that had previously been on the lake were instead in the air and appeared agitated. I mentioned this to Lindsay and asked rhetorically if there was an eagle nearby. Without missing a beat, she replied, "Yep, right there!" I looked in the direction of "there" to see a mature Bald Eagle, which proceeded to circle low over the lake and make several fruitless diving attempts at fish before flying out of view.

An added incentive to being outside and doing surveys such as this is the "bonus" species that you encounter that are not targets for your survey. While at St. Joseph's Lake, we heard a very distant rattle that we thought sounded like a Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). After several minutes, the rattle got closer and sounded more distinctly like a kingfisher. Shortly after, I found the male Belted Kingfisher shown below. In most bird species that exhibit sexual dimorphism, the male is the more colorful of the two sexes; this is not the case in Belted Kingfishers. The male is almost entirely blue and white, whereas the female has a rufous band across the chest (below the blue band) that extends down the flanks.


Although waterfowl were our target for the day, the most bizarre thing that we saw was a spider hanging out in the snow. We were amazed that this 3/4 inch long arachnid, shown in the photograph below, was out in 20 degree Farenheit weather, and without a hat and gloves nonetheless! According to Tom Murray on http://www.bugguide.net/, spiders tolerate the cold and can even be found on the snow. I think this is one of the longjawed orbweavers in the genus Tetragnatha, but if anyone can positively identify it, please do so.


Many people think that with the snow and cold weather comes an absence of wildlife, but this is not at all the case. Don't be scared off by sub-freezing temperatures; get out there and see what you can find!