Locals have reported that the two egrets have been present since at least May 12, not always together and occasionally moving up a small river and out of sign for longer periods of time. This would be the 9th record of the species for Newfoundland.

photo by Jared Clarke, used with permission

Fair Haven is about an hour and a half west of St. John's, Newfoundland. From the Trans-Canada Highway turn west onto NL-203 S all the way to the bay.

Although Little Egret is an ABA Code-4 bird, the European range of this species is expanding and some ornithologists predict that Little Egret in North America may begin to expand in a manner similar to what has been occurring in Europe.

photo by Chris West, used with permission

Cave Creek Canyon is about 3 hours southeast of Tucson, Arizona. From I-10, exit at Road Forks, New Mexico. Take Hwy 80 south approximately 30 miles to route 533.  Turn right (west) on route 533 and go approximately 7 miles to Portal, Arizona.  You’ll know you’re in Portal when you see Portal Peak Lodge on your left.  Continue up the mountain, staying on pavement, another five miles.

As the Southwestern Research Station is an education and research facility, special rules apply to the viewing of this bird. It is very strongly recommended that birders seeking this redstart take these rules seriously. Please refer to a post on AZ-NM listserv by Richard Webster, the important points of which are copied below:

The bird can be seen from the main (public) road up Cave Creek Canyon. The bird also spends time where it can't be seen from the road, but in order to bird on the SWRS property, SWRS is now requesting that folks sign a release form in the office. The office is open from 8 to 5, roughly, subject to lunch. Birders can look for the redstart from the road at any point, and on the SWRS property once you have checked in with the office and signed.

The Redstart was first seen and was re-found a couple of times along North Fork, which is the creek closest to the main road and the one that goes by the hummingbird feeders (this is below the swimming pool that you see from the main road); it was primarily seen below the hummingbird feeders, where the creek passes between the maintenance area and main road. It was also seen several times along the Main/Middle Fork of Cave Creek down canyon from the maintenance area.

There's one item, though, that we'd like to get in your hands immediately, and that's Amy Davis's "Sightings" column, with details on recent ABA Area records of a Fieldfare in Massachusetts, a Spotted Redshank in Indiana, and more. The complete article is available right now to all current ABA members.

Left: Photo by Tom Johnson. Right: Photo by Ryan J. Sanderson.

 There's more! Within a week, we'll be posting the next installment of "Sightings," with such incredible rarities as a Bahama Woodstar in Pennsylvania and a Eurasian Whimbrel in Texas. We'll let you know just as soon as that content is available online.

Left: Photo by Michael Burkholder. Right: Photo by Cameron Cox. 

Another great online feature in the May/June 2013 issue is a compendium of original research articles, compiled by ABA Checklist Committee Chairman Bill Pranty, to accompany a feature article on the fascinating story of the Purple Swamphen in the ABA Area. We expect to have that up soon, too, and we'll let you know as soon as the content is available.

photo by Doug Gochfeld

St Paul Island is accessible by air via several Alaskan airports, most notably Anchorage, on Penair Airlines. The ABA is holding an event there this fall.

Green Sandpiper is a very infrequent vagrant to the Bering Sea region. This record is about the 12th for the ABA Area, but only the third away from the western Aleutians.

Tundra Bean-Goose is a casual vagrant to western Alaska, with most records in the spring. Many Alaska sightings can only be assigned to bean-goose species because the former Bean Goose sightings were not identified to subspecies at the time. The AOU split Bean Goose into two species, Taiga and Tundra Bean-Goose in 2007 in their annual supplement.  

More, undoubtedly, to come from western Alaska as the spring goes on.

Rick Simpson of Newport Pagnell, UK, is a bird guide, illustrator, author of Confessions of a Bird Guide, and a Birdlife Species Champion. 

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As if life wasn’t complicated enough when it comes to waders and shorebirds it is not just their identification that is confusing, their very definition gets the grey matter working if you start talking to someone who lives on the opposite side of the Atlantic to you. It gets a bit like explaining the rules of Cricket. In North America all shorebirds are waders, but in the UK they are not, however all waders are shorebirds which of course is not true in the US and Canada, see what I mean?

For the purposes of this article, as this is a North American website we will use shorebird, but we mean wader…. follow?

So what is Wader Quest? In its simplest form it is a quest to see as many of the world’s shorebirds as possible, on a limited budget in a 12 month period. However, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Wader Quest has two main aims:

1) To raise awareness about the dreadful plight of shorebirds throughout the world, especially those that rely on the inter-tidal zones during their life.

The inter-tidal zones of the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate; it is easy to understand the value of rainforests and thus engender support for saving them, but not so large expanses of mud. We urgently need to raise the profile of beaches, mud flats and other wetland areas around the world among birders and non-birders alike and show that rather than being desolate wastes they are exciting, vibrant and productive ecosystems upon which millions upon millions of creatures depend, birds among them. In the USA you know about this only too well with the problems you are having with the beach plovers, Piping, Snowy and Wilsons and this is due to recreational use for the most part. Imagine then the problems faced where governments are set on turning these places into factories or fields for the plough and local people hunt the birds for food.

Pied Avocet

2) To raise money to support the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) Spoon-billed Sandpiper captive breeding programme.

There are probably less than 100 breeding pairs of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper left in the wild today. Their survival is in the balance and they are hurtling towards extinction. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the UK is part of an international team set up to prevent the extinction of this amazing little bird. The captive breeding programme they are carrying out is designed to provide a safety net for the species should the attempts to prevent its extinction in the wild fail. We would like to raise as much money as we can to assist them in this noble task.

Thus Wader Quest was born; the idea being to travel the world, visiting the six major continents on which shorebirds can be found with a view to seeing as many of them as we possibly can, whilst engaging with local communities through talks, visits and the media. Obviously our funds are limited as we are not sponsored in any way, so it was not designed as a serious attempt to set or break any records, it was merely an extravaganza that we hoped would capture people’s imagination and get them to follow our travels and adventures and who knows? Maybe feel the urge to donate to the cause.

Naturally our quest started in the UK on November 1^st 2012. We wondered what would be our first species and assumed that it would be Northern Lapwing, the UK’s most common shorebird. But we travelled for two hours across the UK to Norfolk, through some prime lapwing habitat and didn’t see a single one.

Black-tailed Godwit

This rather underlined the whole point of Wader Quest for us. Shorebird species are in decline the world over. It is not just these enigmatic species in far flung corners of the world that are in trouble. In the last thirty years or so, the Northern Lapwing population in the UK has halved. A lot is spoken of the decline in songbirds, but it seems to us that shorebirds are the forgotten cousins in the bird world, and they shouldn’t be.

So what then was our first bird? Well when we arrived at the Titchwell RSPB reserve in Norfolk we were further thwarted by the water levels on the reserve being too high for shorebirds, especially the smaller Calidris types, we wondered if this was an omen, first no lapwings and now this! As we trudged up the path towards the beach eventually we came across a Common Snipe, at last the list was opened. That was quickly followed by Common Redshank, the absent Northern Lapwing and a Black-tailed Godwit, but where were all the birds?

At the end of the track one passes through a dune area and out onto the beach. As we passed between the last of the dunes it was like opening the door to a surprise party, there were shorebirds everywhere, the beach was rippling with life; we were in heaven. Red Knot, Black-bellied Plover, Eurasian Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Ruddy Turnstone and Dunlin were all scurrying up and down the beach going about their business.

Ruff

We spent a long time enjoying this spectacle and then decided that a reviving cup of tea was required. Whilst imbibing this refreshing infusion we learned that there was a rarity in town; White-rumped Sandpiper. We couldn’t resist it and off we set in hot pursuit.

A short drive along the coast to the ley NNT reserve and some local directions and we were in the hide watching and waiting. As we did so we clocked up some more birds for the list, Pied Avocet, European Golden Plover and Ruff but where was the sandpiper? Eventually we found it, having a preen in the middle of a group of Dunlin, we ended the day on 16 species, not bad for England in November.

The next morning and another dash for a rarity, this time Long-billed Dowitcher. It was at the home of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper captive breeding programme at Slimbridge WWT in Gloucestershire. We saw it and also a Eurasian Whimbrel, taking our tally up to 18 for the first part of our quest in the UK.

Two days later we flew to Thailand in search of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and much else besides. Were we successful? We’ll let you know next time.

We have another state first, finally making it full year since we've gone more than one week without a first state or provincial record somewhere in the ABA-Area, which is still ridiculously impressive and a testement to all the really focused bird-finding going on out there. 

That first record came from Alberta, where the province's first Purple Sandpiper was well-photographed near Calgary. the bird sadly didn't stick around more than a day and a half. 

Nearby in Idaho, an Orchard Oriole in Jefferson is that state's 2nd record. 

A White-faced Ibis was photographed near Cranbrook, British Columbia. 

Just in time for the Kachemek Bay Festival, a Eurasian Hobby (ABA Code 4) turned up near Homer. 

A couple Chimney Swifts were seen among Vaux's at a roost site in Douglas, Oregon. 

Good birds in California were offshore, 3 Brown Boobies (3) in San Diego and a Hawaiian Petrel (4) from a cruise ship in Humboldt waters. 

One of few records recently, a Yellow Grosbeak (4) briefly visited a feeder in Pima, Arizona. In the same county, a Baltimore Oriole, one of fewer than 20 records, was seen. 

In New Mexico, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak was in Albuquerque. 

A Green Violetear (3) was a very brief visitor to a feeder in Cameron, Texas, this week. 

Shocking enough for the locale, but even moreso in mid-May, was a Common Redpoll in Baldwin, Alabama. 

A pair of American Flamingos flew by Miami-Dade, Florida, and an absolutely gorgeous Western Spindalis (4) was photographed in Monroe. 

Semi-annual north of Florida, a Gray Kingbird wasd reported from near McClellonsville, South Carolina. 

A Swallow-tailed Kite had to be an exciting find in Cape May, New Jersey, and a Painted Bunting turned up in Monmouth. 

The first of many Ruff (3) this week was one in Cayuga, New York. Also in New York, a White-faced Ibis in Chautauqua and a Swallow-tailed Kite flew over Queens. 

In Rhode Island, a lingering King Eider was seen in Napatree and an overshooting Boat-tailed Grackle in Charlestown.

Massachusetts had a Ruff (3) in Essex. 

In New Brunswick, a Common Gallinule was in a marsh near St. George. 

Notable birds in Newfoundland include a Northern Wheatear and a "Eurasian" Whimbrel, both at Cape Spear. 

In Quebec, a Black-tailed Godwit (3) was at Marais salés de Longue-Rive, and a White-winged Dove at Sept-Îles. 

For Ontario, a Lark Bunting at Frontenac and a Swainson's Warbler at Point Pelee are both very good this week. 

A staggering 3 Kirtland's Warbler were seen this week in Ottawa, Ohio, and a Red Phalarope in Franklin. 

Indiana's 2nd ever Rock Wren was near Howe. 

A bit more northernly than expected, an Anhinga was seen in Muhlenberg, Kentucky. 

Missouri had a Black-headed Grosbeak in Webster, a pair of Ruff (3) in Platt, and a third at Squaw Creek NWR.

Arkansas had a Ruff (3) in Maryville. 

The cup bloweth up in Iowa, where a Rock Wren was seen in Boone, a Lewis's Woodpecker visted a feeder in Lime Springs, a Lazuli Bunting turned up in Cedar Rapids, a Western Tanager in Mason City, a Bullock's Oriole in Story, and a Painted Bunting near Shenandoah. Pshew!

Increasingly common in the north, a Great-tailed Grackle was reported from McLeod City, Minnesota. 

A couple good birds in North Dakota include a Barrow's Goldeneye near Gackle and a Hooded Warbler near Grand Forks. 

Great for Saskatchewan was a nice male Black-throated Blue Warbler photographed in Saskatoon. 

A bizarre records for Wyoming is an apparent Red-bellied Woodpecker visiting a feeder in Laramie. 

Both a Summer Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak were seen in the same location in Logan, Utah. 

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This post is meant to be an account of the most recently reported birds. Continuing birds not mentioned are likely included in previous editions listed here. Place names written in italics refer to counties/parishes

Readers should note that none of these reports has yet been vetted by a records committee. All birders are urged to submit documentation of rare sightings to the appropriate state or provincial committees. For full analysis of these and other bird observations, subscribe to North American Birds <aba.org/nab>, the richly illustrated journal of ornithological record published by the ABA

Now I can happily say NEXT YEAR, in 2014! The convention will be held April 22-26, in Corpus Christi, Texas! It’ll be the peak of spring migration and we have a fantastic array of speakers and leaders lined up.

The birds in Texas, like this Great Kiskadee, are always phenomenal

Our last ABA Convention was held 5 years and for those who attended ABA Conventions regularly (a few diehard members hardly missed a single one), this seems an eternity. ABA Conventions were pioneering events, and one of the key influences on today's myriad birding festivals and events. This was a model we developed quite successfully and now there are many great birding festivals all over the U.S. and Canada, and the ABA takes an active part in many of them. Now we are excited to announce this Convention in Corpus Christi; the first of what we hope represents a new generation of ABA Conventions. As we continue to evolve as an organization this event represents another landmark for the organization, as we both honor our past and look to the future of the ABA; the new ABA, if you will, now in our 46^th year. In addition to celebrating our traditions while creating new ones, we will raise money for hawk research in cooperation with HMANA (Hawk Migration Association of North America) who are celebrating their 40th anniversary. Congratulations to HMANA!

Convention Speakers:

Gerrit Vyn is a multimedia producer and staff photographer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Recent work has found him documenting the last remaining Spoon-billed Sandpipers in the Russian Far-east, as well as wildlife poaching in China, and the breeding behavior of birds on Alaska’s Yukon Delta. Gerrit’s images appear regularly in books, magazines, websites and multimedia productions.  He was the primary image provider for the 2009 and 2011 State of the Birds reports that were delivered to the Obama administration and congress by a coalition of leading environmental organizations. He has produced two CD compilations, Voices of North American Owls and Bird Songs of the Pacific Northwest, and is an affiliate of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Gerrit will present a talk on his expedition to capture the first ever high quality media of the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Chukotka, Russia.

Brian Sullivan is project leader for eBird, and photographic editor for the Birds of North America Online at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. An expert lecturer on hawks, he is a co-author of The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors, and the forthcoming Princeton Guide to North American Birds. Brian is also co-authoring a book with George Armistead to be published by Princeton titled Essential Birding. He served as photographic editor for the ABA’s journal North American Birds from 2005-2013.

Jeffrey Kimball has made a career in film as a music supervisor/executive on films including A Bronx Tale and Good Will Hunting. But in 2012 he debuted his documentary Birder’s: The Central Park Effect. Jeff will air this film and discuss how and why he made this insightful movie about birders.

ABA Convention Staff: Jeff Gordon (ABA president), Tom Johnson (Birding photo quiz editor), Jen Brumfield (Tropical Birding Tours and Leica Birding), Jennie Duberstein (Editor of The Eyrie), and George Armistead (Events ABA Coordinator), among others.

Join your ABA event staff and fellow ABA members for a fun and educational birding extravaganza on the Gulf Coast of Texas. See what the new ABA is all about. It’ll be the peak of migration with Mississippi Kites and warblers pouring through, and of course the many South Texas specialties will be in place. If you are interested in hearing more about this convention contact Nancy Hawley at nhawley AT aba.org to register your interest. Let’s go bird Corpus, together. Registration opens July 10^th!

Ughh... Beauty and a Beast!

Ace!

Who taught you about birds, and then about birding? Perhaps it was a family member or close friend who so enjoyed birds and birding that they simply had to share the fun and excitement with someone like you. And chances are, they are also an enthusiastic member of the American Birding Association!

That’s why we invite you to join the American Birding Association today!

As a valued ABA member, you'll be immediately welcomed into a network of helpful, fun, passionate birders, as well as supporting our education and conservation programs and initiatives. You’ll have access to a network of friendly, bird enthusiasts all around the continent. You can count on us to help you solve identification puzzles, or give you directions to species you've long hoped to see. And you'll discover cool new ways to share your own birding experience and perspectives. We are here because of you and for you!

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Membership in the ABA will take you further along your own personal birding journey. Our publications, web resources, and events have much to offer anyone with an active interest in birding, whether you like to stay close to home, or to wander the globe, or a bit of both.

Our Members Only online content options offer an exciting additional members bonus now available such as web exclusives for Birding, the ABA Members Directory, and ABA Listing Central. Join now to make sure you receive the premier issue of our new, quarterly Birder’s Guide magazine that debuts in late spring.

Look forward to receiving these exciting and informative issues throughout the year: A Birder’s Guide to Travel, A Birder’s Guide to Listing and Taxonomy, and A Birder’s Guide to Gear. The ABA is THE birding community that shares new discoveries and finds new ways to advance the cause of birding and of birds. But all of that means little without our members support.

Birder Supported, the ABA WANTS YOU! Join today by clicking this link or call 800-850-2473 to start your new membership. It’s that easy!

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photo by David Pugh/A Calgary Birder

The bird was apparently a two-day wonder, not being seen after Saturday morning, May 11.

Purple Sandpiper is a common "rock-piper" of both sides of the Atlantic, wintering to North Carolina with some regularity and semi-regularly south to Florida. It's annual in the eastern Great Lakes west to Lake Michigan, but is very rare farther west. Only a handful of records exist for this species in the western half of the continent, but it has been recorded in Oklahoma (2013), Utah (2010), and Alaska (1990).